nothing edifying » sports

One Month Late, More or Less

mim — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:46:59 +0000

Okay, okay, I know, I am really late! And it’s not cos I’m playing Flash games, cos I’m kind of sick of Flash. It’s not like I own lots of Apple junx or anything, but I am so sick of updating Adobe Flashplayer (and Acrobat) and I’m so sick of security warnings about ‘em and I hate stupid webpages that are Flash based for no good reason (like practically every restaurant site for example) and so… if Apple wants to stop supporting Flash in some of their products, and it causes more websites to require less Flash, then I am happy, and I don’t care about the whys and wherefores!

But also, as y’all know, we moved this year, right around the time of the tournament (I know, what were we thinking?!) and it was so busy. I am sure there are people out there who are organized and label their boxes and then unpack them and clean and blah blah, and even they don’t like moving. Well… I am NOT organized and there was no labeling, and at the end, we were throwing stuff in paper bags and moving those over and then the cleaning! There are floors that need mopping, and trees dropping branches and leaves, and laundry, and etcetc. It’s calmed down a lot since the beginning, but still. (Hrmmm, actually quite a number of you have had to deal with my litany of complaints every time you say “hey” so let this be a preview and warning to you. Although CT gets it the worst, I have been sending her whining unsolicited emails inviting her to visit me so I can show her the new place but we both know I just want someone to unpack stuff and put it away and organize and clean and get me a drink!)

But ANYWAY, enough of that, FOR NOW (more coming, that’s a threat, not a promise)! For doing so well (note how I am being gracious, although less so now that I am pointing out my graciousness), I thought K deserved an acknowledgment, late or not.

This year’s Know-Nothing Official Final Standings although we all knew how it was going to pan out a long time ago:
Special K (nice job, only one to break 60 points): 63
mim, Pol (beginner’s luck!): 59
Yut: 56
President of the US: 55
Lew, Chalk: 54
CT, misa, Seth (way outta the cellar): 48
shio: 46
YuHK (alone at the bottom!): 45

I have put CT in charge of your prize! Collect it when you see her. Congrats, aren’t you glad Air Force wasn’t in it this year:)

Foregone Conclusion

mim — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:37:25 +0000

Sorry for the late post, but we just finished moving, and omg, I realized, moving is hard! Also, there wasn’t any good news. It’s true, SpeK has sewn this up. She’s the 2010 winner! We’ll let it play out to get the final scores, but yeah. So, since you won so early, I’ll take a prize request under consideration. But there’s no guarantees you won’t get junk that we just started packing into bags to hurry things up! :p For the rest of us, we got beat by SpeK, what happened, people?!

Rankings:
SpeK: 63 (and she has 14 available points still, if W. Va wins it all)
mim: 59 (6 more possible points)
Yut: 56
Pres: 55
Lew, Chalk: 54
Pol: 53 (6 more possible points)
CT, misa, Seth: 48
shio: 46
YuHK: 45

Everyone else has no more possible points. If Duke wins, Pol will get 6 points, but that won’t beat K’s 63. He could tie with me though, thanks to n00b luck. My 6 possible points are because of West Virginia, so no matter what, K will get those points too. Durn it. On the other end of the spectrum, YuHK LOSES! Soooo badly! Yes, you needed me to point that out, eh? :)

Not Too Sweet

mim — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 06:18:25 +0000

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but my computer was down — we were trying to, and failing at, putting a desk together, so there were pieces all over the floor and my computer wasn’t hooked up. No worries, two hours yesterday, and then five more hours today, and now we have desks! Well part of the time was when we went to the local tool lending library (at one of the branches of the public library) to borrow a drill. The tool lending library is pretty great — more public libaries should have them. ANYway, never mind about my personal failures, let’s talk about our common problem: the inability to pick the correct team to win. Half of the Elite Eight is over, and the scores don’t reflect that; I’ll put those up tomorrow.

Rankings after the Sweet Sixteen:
mim, SpeK, POTUS: 55
Yut: 52
Lew, Chalk: 50
Pol: 49
CT, misa: 48
shio: 46
YuHK: 45
Seth: 44

So I’m still in the lead! Who knew that picking based on what I hoped would happen would be such a good strategy! Although I’m still lamenting MD’s loss. And the fact that Cal didn’t beat Duke! Okay okay, I’m not in the lead by myself — I’m tied with SpeK. I’m afraid that this year may be the year that I have to stop making fun of her for picking Air Force like four years ago. Well, there’s still time left: I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M TIED WITH THE GIRL WHO PICKED #13 AIR FORCE IN 2006!!! Ahem. Lew actually did the best in the Sweet Sixteen, he picked more correct teams than anyone else. The last few games are worth more points than ever, but we’re all quickly running out of teams still in the tournament. We’ll just have to see what happens. Today, Butler (no one called this) and West Virginia (me, Seth, and K) made it into the Final Four; I’ll update tomorrow after the Michigan State/Tennessee and Duke/Baylor games.

No Words

mim — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:25:26 +0000

So… Syracuse is out. Kansas State is still in, by the hair of their chinny chin chin — they won in double overtime. No one has all of their Final Four teams still in contention. Some of us (namely YuHK and CT) have only one team left!!! And it’s only the Sweet Sixteen!

Standings:
mim, SpeK, POTUS: 52
Yut: 49
Chalk: 47
Pol: 46
CT, misa, YuHK: 45
Lew: 44
shio: 43
Seth: 41

The President, K, and I are steady in first. I don’t mind being tied for first with Obama, but K?! Sheeeeesh! Well regardless, I’m enjoying this as long as it lasts. Duke was supposed to lose to Cal, according to me, so if they keep winning, this’ll be bad.

ARGH

mim — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:42:07 +0000

Maryland lost. Some Michigan State dude chucked in a three-pointer at the last tenths of a second to give Mich. St. a two point victory. It was a little bit of a heartbreak. And then Cal lost to Duke. Well the first lost lots of us points, but the second didn’t lose too many people any points because most people picked Duke.

Well, see for yourselves:

Standings:
mim, Pol, SpeK, Yut, President Obama: 43
YuHK: 42
shio: 40
CT: 39
Chalk: 38
misa: 36
Lew, Seth: 35

There are a lot of us tied at the top now. SpeK and Yut have been vying for the lead throughout, but Polaris came outta nowhere, only missed calling two games today! Well ok, nowhere as in third place, but tied with CT. YuHK has come up too — he was in last after the first day, but now he’s in second.

The bottom of the ranking has been much more stable: Lew’s still down there, now joined by Seth. Still, I don’t think these standings are going to remain the same: lots of Points Already Lost (since the team you picked to win is already out of the tournament). It’s going to be exciting stuff, especially if the upsets continue!

Just for fun, the number of correctly chosen Sweet Sixteen teams:
Pol, YuHK: 10 (62.5%)
Yut, POTUS: 9 (56.25%)
CT, mim, SpeK, Chalk: 8 (50%)
Lew, Shio: 7 (43.75%)
misa, Seth: 6 (37.5%)

The Madness Continues

mim — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:59:29 +0000

The afternoon’s basketball was pretty wow. I think there are a lot of Points Already Lost around here. A lot. This year, unlike in previous (boring) years, if you picked straight chalk (which I think means picking the higher seeded team always), you would be doing horribly!

Standings:
mim: 35
SpeK, Yut, POTUS: 33
CT, Pol: 31
misa, shio, YuHK: 30
Seth: 29
Lew: 27

Yes, it’s true: I am atop the rankings, all by myself. Prognosticating proficiency, I gots it! Seriously though, I picked St. Mary’s (CA) in the first round, for example, cos they were from the Bay Area, and I had no idea they were so good. Luckily, no one else realized either!

We’ll see how tomorrow (actually, today, since it’s past midnight) goes, but if it’s anything like the first round, the second day of competition won’t be half as fun. The upsets are so excellent, I wouldn’t mind if my bracket was all messed up as long as they continued.

OMGWTFBBQ!

mim — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:14:54 +0000

I. Cannot. Believe. This. My goodness, when Georgetown lost, I thought that was bracket-busting craziness. But today, well! First Villanova fell, then Kansas fell — Kansas, the overall number one ranked team in the country. Sheesh.

A Good Round Overall

mim — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:06:44 +0000

I think that the first round of March Madness is some of the best basketball every year. Ok I admit I know nothing about basketball — hence this pool, so the bar is not high, but WHATEVS!

Check out the scores — I’ve added the President into our pool, by request, alas not by Obama:

Rankings:
mim, SpeK: 27
shio: 26
Yut, POTUS: 25
misa: 24
CT, Pol, Seth: 23
YuHK: 22
Lew: 21

That’s right, despite doubts (ahem, CT!) today was a perfectly lovely day! SpeK and I called every game but one today, so we are in the lead. I don’t know how I feel about this. SpeK is getting savvy or something! Gone are the days when she’d pick #13 Air Force or some such all the way!

Shio is in 2nd place, doing quite well right now. But we’re going to have to see what happens, because if you look at his bracket, he decided he hated #1 seeds. Underdogs all the way!

On the other end of the rankings, we have Lew. Doooooood, If I remember correctly, he generally does v. well in the first round. Oh well, it’s a NEW EXPERIENCE! Exciting, right?

Best Day Ever (for basketball)

mim — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:52:53 +0000

Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I love how many upsets there were. Sixteen games were played, five double digit ranked teams are still left. (Complete non sequitur but that doesn’t sound right… double digitally ranked teams? Or switch it all around and just say five teams ranked in the double digits are still left?) And if you count nines beating eights as upsets (which they aren’t, really — it’s pretty much 50/50 at that point), then it’s seven upsets total! Holy cow!!!

I don’t even mind if it messes up my bracket, the upsets are too much fun. And I’m sorry I didn’t get to watch any of the work day games — when I saw the OT next to Villanova, wow. So yes, it was good. Annnnnd it gets better:

The Standings:
mim, SpeK, Yut: 12
CT, misa, Pol, shio: 11
Seth: 10
Lew, YuHK: 9

Hehehehehe, I am tied for first! Alas with Yut and SpeK, but whatevs, first is first! (Classy, ain’t I?)
It looks like we all chalked the 1, 2, and 3 teams, so GTown messed us all up, and the other ones we all got right. Seth is the only one who called Murray St. — dude, how?! He’s the best upset picker — I think a few years ago, he was the only one to pick Bucknell over Kansas! Hopefully, tomorrow will be another awesome day of upsets, except for Maryland and Cal. :)

The Entries

mim — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:00:34 +0000

Here they are, the brackets:

Firstly, mine:

Maryland all the way! I didn’t pick ‘em in 2002 and I regretted it! Not this time!

CT: Kentucky — she didn’t discuss her strategy with me again this year, but she did specify that she’s going to win and she wants earrings.

Lew: also Kentucky! And he also claims to be the winner, although he didn’t specify a prize. I don’t know if this means something about Kentucky or what.

Polaris, who is entering for the first time ever and returned his bracket first, which just goes to show the amount of thought he put into it — fitting right in already. He picked Kansas. Edited to add, Pol was in such a hurry he didn’t even fill out everything. But no worries, I emailed him and got the infos.

Seth is back! And he picked Kansas vs. Baylor, more information coming. Edited to add: Seth says Kansas.

Shio is also back! He picked Ohio St.

Special K: West Virginia

Yut: also Kansas. The Ks are popular this year.

I will add more if I get any, I think there are 15 minutes left. Good luck everyone! Fear the turtle!

Edited: two more entries came in this morning, after I scheduled this post last night.

misa pondered all night and picked Kansas.

Yuhk picked Kentucky.

Kansas and Kentucky are popular this year!