GWJ NCAA Bracket Challenge

I just make my picks for my work pool based on all the comments in this thread. Go go GWJ hive mind!

Ack. Only 3 entries in the ESPN group. You still have 90 minutes!

Alas, poor Iona.

Looks like we have 38. 12 minutes to get those picks done!

At least there is some variety in winners picked in this group.

In my small bracket group with some friends and family, there are only 3 different winners picked... UL, UK, and UNC.

well, it didn't take long for me to drop into the cellar.

edit: And Syracuse better wake up.

Survive and advance baby. Whew.

Worst.
Officials.
Ever.

But we still won. Go Cards!

Stele wrote:

Worst.
Officials.
Ever.

Ed Hightower?

Syracuse down by 4 at the half! Will we finally see a 16 beat a 1? I really doubt it. That'd be pretty awesome, though.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Stele wrote:

Worst.
Officials.
Ever.

Ed Hightower?

Still not sure... couldn't seem to find the officials listed anywhere. There's even a spot for it at the bottom of ESPN box score, like I thought when I looked earlier, but it's still blank.

But I saw one call I've not seen all season, another call I haven't seen in a month or more, and the worst block-called-a-foul of the year, which ended up putting our big man on the bench for 15+ minutes of the first half. Granted, he'll be nice and rested for Saturday now. But damn, it was still a horrible blown call.

Well VCU hurt in my competitive bracket entries.

But I have two ESPN brackets where I am 11/11 and about to go 12/12 if Baylor holds on.

Too bad I didn't copy those to Yahoo for a chance at perfection. :p

Of course one of them has UConn winning and one has Iowa St. winning. So one of them won't be perfect soon.

Me too. I had Wichita St. going to the Elite 8.

Day one down and I didn't lose a single sweet 16 team. It's a new record! I expect to lose at least 4 today.

Wichita St. let me down, though I guess at this point you really shouldn't vote against VCU. Hopefully after today my bracket will be a little bit more competitive. Not looking so hot so far this morning.

drewskisama wrote:

Wichita St. let me down, though I guess at this point you really shouldn't vote against VCU. Hopefully after today my bracket will be a little bit more competitive. Not looking so hot so far this morning.

So many analysts were hot on Wichita. And most of them picked Long Beach St as their 12 instead. Somehow that seeped into several of my picks.

The tournament is really about matchups. The regular season doesn't matter anymore. LBS played a whole lot of tough teams, which helped them win their conference. But New Mexico just matched up well against them yesterday.

And to be fair, VCU only won by 3. If that last 3 for Witchita goes in, who knows what happens in overtime?

Stele wrote:

And to be fair, VCU only won by 3. If that last 3 for Witchita goes in, who knows what happens in overtime?

Welcome to March Madness. GO BLUE!

drewskisama wrote:

Wichita St. let me down, though I guess at this point you really shouldn't vote against VCU. Hopefully after today my bracket will be a little bit more competitive. Not looking so hot so far this morning.

I'll be voting, rooting, and cheering against VCU.

Stele wrote:

So many analysts were hot on Wichita. And most of them picked Long Beach St as their 12 instead. Somehow that seeped into several of my picks.

The tournament is really about matchups. The regular season doesn't matter anymore. LBS played a whole lot of tough teams, which helped them win their conference. But New Mexico just matched up well against them yesterday.

I really should have known not to trust Dan Monson but I still picked Long Beach State in two of my three brackets. I also bought into the hype on Wichita State. By big upset pick was South Dakota State but they really let me down. Having seen them play a couple of times, I really thought they could have done well.

Why is everybody in the media acting like Iowa State (an 8 seed) beating UConn (a 9 seed) was some huge upset? I know they won last year but they weren't very good this year.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

Why is everybody in the media acting like Iowa State (an 8 seed) beating UConn (a 9 seed) was some huge upset? I know they won last year but they weren't very good this year.

Maybe not so much the upset but the ass-whooping? ISU was up 20 in the first half, and despite it getting down to 6 at one point, still won by double digits.

Go Belmont Bruins! You can win this year!

Spoiler:

Why is it that every school I root for winds up losing to Duke by 1 point on a last-second shot?

Stele wrote:

So many analysts were hot on Wichita. And most of them picked Long Beach St as their 12 instead. Somehow that seeped into several of my picks.

The tournament is really about matchups. The regular season doesn't matter anymore. LBS played a whole lot of tough teams, which helped them win their conference. But New Mexico just matched up well against them yesterday.

And to be fair, VCU only won by 3. If that last 3 for Witchita goes in, who knows what happens in overtime? :?

Living in Omaha, I caught a lot of Witchita St., and was fairly impressed with LBS when they came here for the bracket buster game, so of course I had them both winning. Oh well. I just hope Creighton can come back in the 2nd half.

As for the whole ISU thing, I agree, it was a surprise to see the beatdown they put on UConn for most of that game.

Good thing I didn't pick Missouri to the Final Four.

The first big bracket buster in a decade. 2 seed goes down.

Only the 5th time in the history of the tournament a #15 beat a #2.

Stele wrote:

Good thing I didn't pick Missouri to the Final Four.

The first big bracket buster in a decade. 2 seed goes down. :shock:

Yeah.. they were my champs. See how the rest of the tourney plays out.

My dad called the moment the Mizzou game ended. He said they were shooting off fireworks in the neighborhood already.

As a Kansas fan, I guess it paid off to have Mizzou going out early, although even I did not have them losing in the first round. I had Florida winning on Sunday. We'll see if Florida can get these guys out, as Norfolk looked pretty tough and well-coached.

Now I have to sweat Detroit and Kansas tonight.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn.

Talk about lights-out shooting. Over 50% from beyond the arc? Yeah, you can even beat a 2 seed when you do that.

Mizzou was my most likely team to either win it all or lose in the 2nd game. Didn't expect it to be their first game, but not terribly shocked. A team so streaky can either streak all the way to a Big 12 title... or flame out against a 15 seed. It happens.

Duke is also that way, relying so much on the 3 point shot. They are down right now by 5 with 12 minutes left. They went 0-9 from 3 in the first half.

They might get hot and dig it out, and in a week shoot hot enough to beat UK. Or they might lose tonight... or Sunday.

Duke might be the 6th #2 seed to lose to a #15, down by 4 with 1:12 to play

Duke losing in the 1st round is almost as good as UK winning the tourney. I sure hope that happens. Now 5 points with 36 seconds to go.

EDIT: WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

In your face, Duke!

Also, a 15 had beaten a 2 four times in history prior to today. Now it's happened twice in one day? Madness.

Minarchist wrote:

Duke losing in the 1st round is almost as good as UK winning the tourney. I sure hope that happens. Now 5 points with 36 seconds to go.

EDIT: WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

In your face, Duke!

See what have to live with growing up in Kentucky? Such classy fans.