Letters to the Editor
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Hansbrough
Is the man. Louisville came at them and he said no sir.
So the Louisville season concludes tonight with the call in shows and all the wannabes saying that Pitino should have done this or that. If only we had the blubber on the couch coaching.
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KK, editing note
You mentioned that Obama and McCain both picked the Tar Heels to win it all. In your table, you have the champ pick for Obama as UCLA. You might want to proofread your table again.
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Brackets
The commercials won. We were treated to about 30 seconds of basketball and 5 minutes of the sponsors.
Nutz!
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Regionals
In addition to having all four #1's go to the final four, the selection committee can hang their hat on the elite eight only having one team out perform its seeding by more than one spot.
That being said it was a boring weekend of basketball, after a thrilling Xavier v. WVU overtime game only one other game was settled by less than double digits.
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Doing better than usual
It seems to me that this year more fans have had "better" brackets relative to the experts. Maybe it is because the selection committee did a good job seeding teams, maybe it is just luck. Certainly a big factor for each of us.
Most years I get 48-51 games right; a year with a lot of upsets, might be lucky to get over 40 right out of the 63. In a year with a lot of "upsets" it seems the local pool is won by someone who lucked into their selections because they "didn't know any better". Probably what happens when the coin flipper does well, too.
I use a conservative scheme; I go with the seedings unless I have a really good reason or a strong "hunch". I correctly picked Davidson winning until Kansas based on their early-season play against UNC and others, guessed a couple right (Ark/Ind, Lvl/TN) and wrong (BYU/TAM, Pitt/MichSt), and joined most everyone by expecting more of UConn, Clemson, and Duke.
Currently have 49 correct and my FF intact (1100 points in your system), mostly thanks to Curry's great play. Could easily have been much different. Hope my luck continues: I have UNC over UCLA in the championship game. Go Heels!
BTW I think sports writers are likely to get caught up in the "I need to pick a couple of upsets to beat the odds" mentality that is the ruin of many gamblers. Don't bet on the longshot, the upset just because it is a longshot; remember it is considered a longshot for a reason.
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You Have To Be Impressed
The Final-4 teams are 143-9 combined.......28-0 in their conference tourneys and NCAA games, by an average margin of 78-63 in those 28 games.......UNC up 608-487, Memphis 562-438, Kansas 516-430, and UCLA 497-397.
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Maybe only seed the top 32
And otherwise, do it like tennis. Randomize the rest. Stop trying to differentiate 9 from 13. And stop giving the one seeds the sure first round matchup. If they can't beat the 33rd best team in the country, they were overseeded anyway.
It'd be way more exciting.
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Obama's winner
Yeah, it's UNC. The text was correct, table wrong. I fixed the table.
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Davidson's last shot
I don't want to bash Davidson or their amazing guard Stephen Curry, but what was up with that last play? Davidson has sixteen seconds left on the clock, is only down by two, and they settle for Curry dribbling around behind the arc before passing to Richards for a desperation three? You think McKillop could have drawn up something more effective than that...
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This has all the makings
of the best final four ever.
Of the four, UCLA and Memphis looked best, UNC would not be denied, but still had problems with Louisville, and Kansas got lucky when Curry passed up the final shot. I have no doubt he would have nailed it...
Right now on Sportsbook.com UNC is 8-5, all the rest are 3-1. I think the public is wrong on this one, I make all 4 at 5-2.
By the way, unc70, in my experience, the only way to lose money faster than taking longshots is to take favorites.
I think Kevin Love and Ben Howland will prove to be the difference, but I would not be surprised at all to see any one of these teams go all the way.
I can't wait until Saturday...
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final four
I like Floida over UMass and the Buckeyes over Mississippi. Buckeye title on Thursday.
2 Griffey bombs today. Pouring the foundation for the sixth Reds World Series championship.
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CBS sportsline users
I assume that the CBS sportsline users is an average of multiple users' picks. If so, then it is no surprise that the #1's got to the final four in that bracket. Any individual user may pick several big upsets. But they don't pick the same upsets as the next guy so in an averaged bracket the higher seed would virtually always come out on top. Guts has nothing to do with it.
Andy
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Did anyone else think that Curry lost it for Davidson?
I know it's harsh to blame Curry - without whom obviously wouldn't have been anywhere near that game -- but man, he got shut down and refused to play team ball. He consistently forced shots that he did not have rather than pass and in the end it cost them.
Was that bad coaching or selfish play or necessary?
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@rusty: Fav. vs upset depends on the betting odds
In straight-up bets like doing the brackets, _mostly_ betting the favorites is a good strategy. Betting against any of this year's Final Four teams would have lost you a lot throughout this year. With a correction of "points" or some other gives, it is harder to say. After watching thousands of college hoops, over 500 in person, I can now see the lunacy of depending on the actions of a bunch of teenagers on any given night.
My two biggest disappointments this year were Duke and Clemson; I chose each to win two more than they did; while I was not super confident about them, I was surprised by how early they lost. Duke nearly lost their first game. In the long run, picking Belmont would not be a winning play.
All this reminds me of shooting craps in LV. Most of the "obvious" bets are losers -- "boxcars" on the next roll might pay 30-1, but the odds of double sixes has odds of 35-1, making for a quick study in "gambler's ruin". The best bets in the house aren't even printed on the table. So it is with March Madness.