GWJ NCAA Bracket Challenge

Two games, and my finals teams are both out of the tournament

I finally lost a Final Four team, I think my time at the number one slot may soon be up.

Also, while the Cardinals hurt my bracket, I'm always happy to see a Big East team advance.

Minarchist wrote:

When I first checked the score on that, I figured "oh wow, the cards are up by double-digits with only 15 minutes left to play." Then I double-checked. 44 points for the #4 team in the nation? Wow.

A whole bunch of tournament and team records last night.

*The 14 FG for the Spartans are 2 fewer than their previous low in an NCAA Tournament game. (16 vs Wisconsin in 2000 Final Four).

*Michigan State's 44 points against Louisville are the fewest for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in the shot clock era.

Year No. 1 seed Pts Opponent
2012 Michigan St. 44 Louisville
2006 Memphis 45 UCLA
2003 Oklahoma 47 Syracuse
1989 Georgetown* 50 Princeton
1998 Arizona 51 Utah

*The 44 points by Michigan State are the fewest for a Spartans team in a Men's Basketball Championship game. Previous low was 49 vs Kentucky in 1978. The 28.6 FG pct is also the lowest FG pct for a Spartans team in a Men's Basketball Championship game.

*Gorgui Dieng blocked seven shots against Michigan State. That ties his career high as well as the Louisville record for blocks in a Men's Basketball Championship game. Pervis Ellison blocked seven shots against Illinois in 1989.

So proud of my Cardinals. And looking forward to Florida. Our Associate Coach, Richard Pitino, was an assistant for Florida the last 2 years. And of course Billy D is one of Pitino's former players and assistants. Assuming we keep up our solid 3-pt defense against a good-shooting Florida team, the Final Four is very reachable!

well if my national champions are gonna be out of the tourney; I'm glad they could set a few records before going out.

Whew. UNC survives...

11 points with 2:16 to go. I think it's safe to say at this point that sweet revenge is sweet...

Also, UNC needing OT to beat Ohio? Not expected.

I love that not only are my regular brackets destroyed, but my second chance bracket is also destroyed.

AnimeJ wrote:

I love that not only are my regular brackets destroyed, but my second chance bracket is also destroyed. :D

It is funny that after seeing 48 previous games, we can't get 8 more with those same teams right... 7/8 is the best anyone did in the 2nd group, and the best I did on 5 different brackets.

But I do still have my final four alive in two Yahoo brackets from before. One in the GWJ group, and one in a group with a bunch of friends and family. I went all-in with the Cardinals in those groups so I can cheer for my heart and my winnings.

And I'm quite pleased that my very first bracket at ESPN, the Bracket of Truthiness, which I entered in Mike & Mike Bracket of Integrity group... is my best % still, and has all 4 final four teams alive. It would be nice to finally have one of those years where you get the final 4 right.

Go Cards!

C-A-R-D-S, CARDS!

Final Four!

Defense! Florida with 0 FG in the last 7+ minutes!

What a ride! Whew!

Oh boy it's happening. Dream Game. UL-UK Final Four.

Forgive the press this week if they ignore the other side of the bracket.

Glad it looked easy. Left the Maalox on the shelf.

Now if Kansas can hang on to its tenuous and tiny lead, the favored teams of three of the most prolific posters in this thread will be in the Final Four.

WOOOOO!! ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!

Yeah KU closed it out. Wow.

That may hurt my GWJ brackets. But the bracket I mentioned above is now in the 99.8th percentile, with the final four correct. Still 15,000th place though, so I don't think $10k is likely to be mine. Oh well.

My bracket is trashed, but the Jayhawks are in the Final Four again! So it is all good.

I love that they are playing Ohio State. They beat them earlier this year, but it was at Allen Fieldhouse and OSU did not have Sullinger. This is going to be a fair rematch for OSU. No one betting with real money is going to take Kansas. But I will never bett against Bill Self. It may get ugly, but the guy finds a way to will the team to win so often.

It's fun that both games are rematches. And if Kansas and Kentucky win their games, the final will be another rematch.

Hot damn, I'm doing pretty good in the GWJ bracket!

KrazyTacoFO wrote:

Hot damn, I'm doing pretty good in the GWJ bracket!

Hey you trusted in the Big East Tournament Champion... 3 years in a row to the Final Four.

Jayhawker wrote:

Breathing now.

Rock Chalk Jayhawks! KU!

I think God was on our side tonight, after all.

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I've got Kansas winning the championship in my bracket and I'm currently ranked #1.

Hope they can keep it up!

Pat Forde article on UL-UK.

There's a lot more than basketball caught up in the history of this thing:

C. Ray Hall remembers “really bad” racism from Kentucky fans in the 1960s and early ’70s. He was a Wildcats fan until 1971, when a mostly black Western Kentucky team demolished a mostly white Kentucky team in the regional final. The backlash from that had him swearing off allegiance to Big Blue for life.

“The bitterness, arrogance and hate of UK fans – the racism – was such that I didn’t want to have anything to do with those people anymore,” Hall said.

I've heard similar things from lots of UofL fans over the years, of any race. Even as a child in the 80s, the racism was still there. I remember UK fans bragging that their teams at least had white players in the starting 5.

Even in the last decade I don't think a lot of UK fans ever accepted Tubby Smith as their head coach.

Anyway, lots of other good stuff in there about '83, and beyond. Tons of these articles popping up everywhere the last couple of days.

Also, fight broke out and the cops were called in Georgetown, KY today. And it's only Tues...

I think those of us from Missouri and Kansas find your heated rivalry quaint.

IMAGE(http://www.collegefootballresource.com/storage/mizzoushirt07.jpg)
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Stele wrote:

Also, fight broke out and the cops were called in Georgetown, KY today. And it's only Tues... :lol:

Hey, my hometown! Turns out my brother works with the UK fan who was on the dialysis machine when he got into a tussle with the UL fan. He says he's declined to press charges.

Don't want to get into "which basketball rivalry is the best?" with you Jayhawker... because every person in NC believes it's Duke-UNC, and every person in Ks-Mo believes that, or OSU-Mich, or Pitt-WVU backyard brawl... and so on.

But the one very special thing about UL-UK is not being in the same conference. We don't get a home-and-home. We don't get a 2nd (or 3rd) shot to win in the conference tournament. It's once a year. 360-370 days of the other guys hanging it over your head until the next chance to play. And it's been like that since 83. One shot every year.

Until now.

Even going back to 1986 when UofL won it all... UK beat us that Dec. Despite being national champs there's that little pest taunting you. And the same thing happened to UK in 1998. UL won the regular season matchup, and those Cats fans were wondering if they should have even hired Tubby if he couldn't beat Louisville. And despite winning it all, they were still pissed the whole year, and then we beat them again.

Now that my brackets are busted, I know who I'm rooting for:

IMAGE(http://victoryfirelight.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Louisville300x300.gif)

Welcome aboard kush!

I imagine we'll have the support of OSU/KU fans on Saturday too. We're the closest thing to a Cinderella this year since nobody but us seems to think we belong.

Sports Illustrated came out today with regional Final Four covers... but instead of perhaps having a split UL/UK cover for the Bluegrass area, they decided to just do a UK-only cover and not have a UL one. Yeah, that's right... it's apparently the final 3 this year.

Pretty sure my dad is canceling his SI sub now.

At this point I think we have way more than enough bulletin board material though. Not sure how we could be any more motivated. Something else will probably surprise me in the next 3 days though.

Jeez I don't know if I've ever lost more sleep before a game. Watched practice yesterday. Watched all the player and coach interviews the last two days. Read every scrap on ESPN, Yahoo, CBS... probably other places too.

And still 6 hours to go.

Just wish it was here already. Go Cards!

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According to friends and family, there are a lot of fireworks being set off in the Lexington area right now (and probably all over the state).

EDIT: Looks like Kansas has finally decided to make a game out of it.

EDIT 2: Wow, hell of a game. Gotta be honest, I'm not really looking forward to facing Kansas again for the title. Still, this tourney has been one of rematches for UK; why should the title game be any different?

Glad Kansas won, but not happy Ky did. Hope the jayhawks kick ass in the championship.

Go Jayhawks. Save college basketball from the NBA-Factory monster. :p

Gumbie wrote:

Glad Kansas won, but not happy Ky did. Hope the jayhawks kick ass in the championship.

Stele wrote:

Go Jayhawks. Save college basketball from the NBA-Factory monster. :p

Everyone's a hater.

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You know it'll be less painful if you have to vacate a runner-up banner than a championship one when Cal gets caught again.

Stele wrote:

You know it'll be less painful if you have to vacate a runner-up banner than a championship one when Cal gets caught again. ;)

+1!