nothing edifying

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.

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?

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. :)

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!

Thanks to the six of you who already submitted brackets. The rest of you, get moving!

And in case you need some help:
How cute is that?!

If this has clarified your thinking, you can submit (and I suppose resubmit) your bracket until 9:15am PST or 12:15 noon EST when the first game starts. I kept telling people the wrong thing this year — I got the time zones all confused. Ooooops, sorry everyone!

Also, check out the President’s bracket — he picked UNC last year, and they won. This year, it’s KU all the way.

So the Know-Nothing No Downside Not-Too-Much Upside March Madness Thingie is BACK, starting as of yesterday. In fact, it’s the Fifth Anniversary! Hopefully, you’ve all received your blank brackets, but if you haven’t, it’s cos I am disorganized, not cos I don’t want you to play! So mail me (mim at this domain) and I will send a blank bracket to you. Or you can just send me your picks, any way you choose; I don’t mind.

The scoring is: 1 pt for each first round game, 2 pts for each second round game, then 3, 4, 6, and finally 8 pts for the championship game. (Thanks to Todd cos the rules and the spreadsheet are his.)

The defending champion is YB who got a congratulatory text last year. Actually, that’s a pretty lame prize even considering the Not-Too-Much Upside part of the title. Maybe I’ll have to scrounge up a sticker and mail it to you. :p

Previous winners:
2008: ME! (Trip to Chicago, oh yes!)
2007: Yut (He got a kiss, a hearty handshake, *and* “Congratulations” from me.)
2006: Yut (A kiss and a hearty handshake)
2005: misa (Two bunny candles from the local farmer’s market)

You know you want a chance at the fabulous prizes!

DOOOOOOD, it was Selection Sunday. As in the day that the tournament teams are picked! So you know what that means — it’s time to randomly pick winners, lots and lots of winners! Enough winners to beat the defending champion, YB!

So yeah, I’m sending out the brackets to everyone who has ever entered and their momma, so turn it in by Thursday morning like 8am EST, or 11am EST. Those are approximate times because I didn’t have a chance to check when the exact first game starts. I have been busy, so busy that I almost didn’t realize about today (and I don’t mean about Pi Day). But not too busy for the best yearly sports event that I can think of right now! :)