nothing edifying

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.

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.

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 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!