Loyalties and Logos

Honestly, how many of you had this picked as the final four?

If I had combined two of my brackets, I would have had 3 of the 4. But of course I did not and am only sitting at 50% remaining.

So, who do you want to win?

Me, I am really torn between the Mountaineers, Bulldogs, and Spartans.

Oh and…..

But you probably already guessed that last one…

So,
I’ve liked the mountaineers all along.
Don’t really care for Butler but they do have a cool ‘dog’ logo.
And I’ve also liked the Spartans but never thought they would go this far without their star player. I think that they are the definite underdogs of the four.

Hmmm, that’s the second time I’ve mentioned ‘dog’ in my highly technical analysis.

I will go out on a limb and pick Butler as the NCAA Championship. Based on my highly technical analysis.

But I will be routing for the Mountaineers and the Spartans.

Conflicted?

Not when it comes to Duke.

Bracket Busters

Officially I am in two bracket leagues.
Technically, I am in three. The third I did on my own not going against anybody in particular and based it entirely on who had the best last 10 game winning streak.

After round 1, I have 24 games out of 32 correctly picked in one and 19 in the other.

As it turns out, the third bracket I did also stands at 19.

All my brackets still have the final four in tact. Which was and continues to be my goal. I picked three different winners for each bracket. Syracuse, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

As I look at the different sites(ESPN, CBS, and FOX)NOBODY seems to have picked perfectly, but quite a few have 30 out of 32. That’s amazing!

I wonder how many, like me, created more than one bracket?

This got me into wondering what the average number of brackets each person plays in.

I could not find an answer to that but I did find other interesting stats and trivia.

1) Odds of picking a perfect bracket? 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1. That’s nine quintillion to one!

Think of it this way: if every man, woman, and child on the planet randomly filled out one million brackets each, the odds would be greater than 1000 to 1 that even one would have a perfect bracket

2) According to the NCAA, more than 10 percent of Americans participate in March Madness “office pools.”

3) The FBI estimates that more than $2.5 billion is illegally wagered annually on March Madness each year. Less than 4% of that amount is wagered legally in Nevada.

4) The phrase “March Madness” was coined by Henry V. Porter in 1939 to describe an Illinois high school basketball tourney. Brent Musburger first used it during NCAA coverage in 1982 causing a legal battle almost as insane as the playoffs.

Good luck to everyone and their brackets, except those going against me… 😉 and don’t forget to get out this weekend and enjoy the weather! It is going to be close to 70 degrees here and sunny!

And to think, this time last month we had almost 3 feet of snow on the ground.

Bracket Racket

I never do well with March Madness Brackets.
Probably because I do not watch or follow basketball all that much.
Probably because it is so wonderfully unpredictable.

Quite frankly, college basketball is the only basketball I feel is worth watching and then, only during March Madness.

But of course not watching or following basketball on a regular basis does not mean I do not sign up for my fair share of pickem contests.

I do.

Who knows, I just might win.

After all, I read somewhere that a lady in an office pool won the last two years running. She does not know the teams, follow basketball, or even pretend to know any of the players or stats.

What’s her secret?

She likes the name. She readily admits it is kind of like picking baby names and goes with the best sounding, or unique or personal favorite.

If she can do it, then so can I.

So here we go.

Final Four

West Virginia vs Purdue
Michagan State vs Syracuse

Championship

Syracuse over West Virginia

I kind of like my final four but maybe I will create one or two other brackets that pick different winners.

Oh, and just in case you have not noticed; I too have a contest currently in progress but only have one entry so far. 😦

Come on folks, now is the perfect time to dress up your dogs and submit a photo.

If Sam and Grace (the dog), the current lone entry, do win, lets at least give them some competition…

4 for 3D

CBS Sports will show the semifinals and championship game of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 3D.

Wow, don’t these guys look excited!

Can you imagine having to go to the a movie theater to watch a final four game?
Or any other sporting event for that matter?

Not only do I not get excited about 3D, I can’t see myself getting excited about going to see a game in a theater, wearing those stupid glasses, and watching the whole thing in a dark movie theater.

There is no interaction with fans, friends, and it kinda gets in the way of enjoying the whole experience. It just does not seem “special” to me.

God forbid you or someone else has to go to the bathroom or something, “ummm pardon me… oh excuse me, oh sorry, can I get by… thanks…” and miss a great shot or score! There certainly is no Tivo there either.

I just don’t get it and probably never will.