So the UofA Wildcats have a whole lot of ugly going on, from an ugly blowout 1st round loss to the 14 seed Buffalo Bulls to an FBI investigation of their basketball program.  But it’s hard to argue that the ugliest part of their season isn’t their uniforms.  Yikes.  Hearkening back to the origins of the Brandy award (the eponymous entry was based on the uniform colors) we feel comfortable in assuming that THAT Brandy would have picked the Wildcats to bow out early.  Which they did.

In pool news the Buffalo victory did knock all entries out of the land of perfection.  As of right now there are 16 entries with 12 of 14 outcomes picked correctly.  Perennial top-dwellers DWG2 and Eyebrian3 are tied with possible scores of 243.  Speaking of Brandy, Gerald 2 is solidly in last place at the moment, though with a record that would be good if it were a batting average (.500).

Enjoy the games.  And be happy that you will no longer be visually assaulted  by basketball fashion gone horribly awry.  Or at least the UofA version of said malady.

Reports are now up and will be updated on a more regular schedule. Not high fiber diet regular… but we’ll try. (Quick Reports in the Navigation Bar.)

After the first half of the first day we have one mild upset, the 11 seed Loyola of Chicago taking down sixth seeded Miami, while also creating a new star, Sister Jean, the hippest 98 year old in the tournament. At this point we still have 11 entries with a perfect record, a full 27% of them entries belonging to your Hoops Madness Administrators. Hmmm.

We’ll have the shortcuts to the reports up soon, but in the meantime you can browse all of the reports generated by our magical Hoopness engine by clicking on the “Review / Print Entry” link under Quick Reports, which will provide you with a list of links. Choose “View Reports” to see any number of site generated reports. You can also click on “Find an Entry” to see how your entry, or that of any other person for that matter, is doing. The site automatically ID’s correct (blue) choices and incorrect (red) choices.  How cool is that?

Stay tuned for more updates later today/tonight!

It’s a good showing for the 2018 Hoops Madness Tournament, 106 total entries.  Indeed the economy has improved.  We’re trying to stay on top of the financial end of things so we remind you of our preferred method to settle your debts.  And sorry, but your response of “just take it out of my winnings” is not all that original.

You can go directly to our PayPal Collection point by clicking here.  It will appear that you are “purchasing” custom hoop rings, which is our slick method of sliding around the nasty paypal people who have tried to disrupt our tournament in the past.

If you have not paid up by the end of this Sunday’s games we will put you on the tardy list, issue you a strongly worded letter, and let Vlad Putin deal with you.  Don’t be late!

They don’t call them “play-in” games anymore, but that’s exactly what they are.  The loss by UCLA to St Bonaventure may have stunned some…..well, one maybe.  Will it alter your choice of a champion?  Probably not, but the more important news that might have you rethinking things is the University of Virginia’s loss of De’Andre Hunter, the highly regarded ACC Sixth Man of the Year.  Reports from talking heads (most of which are failed coaches turned “experts”) have Virginia falling from the ranks of most favored to no-longer-most-favored.

If you are suffering from “early picker’s remorse” and feel the need to make a change, we have just the solution for you – go back in and change your entry!  You can do this by clicking on “Create, Review, or Print Entry” on the banner above.  You’ll find the main menu there with several links.  Click on the “Update an Entry” link and you’ll be prompted to enter your entry name and password.  Remember to use your personal password, and not the DickieV password that you used to gain entry into the pick ’em site.  If you need a reminder as to what your entry name is, click on the Main Menu link, then “Find an Entry” and you’ll find a list of all entries.

Good luck and don’t forget to submit your payment via our convenient PayPal link.  If you haven’t done so already, you can pay here.