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So, not sure if there is a better forum for this, but how is your bracket lookin? As long as I can survive tomorrow (East and West regions), I am still "in it to win it." with one of my remaining brackets. :-)
The Good:
I picked Syracuse, Oregon St, and Rutgers to upset. Wisconsin over UNC wasn't a stretch so its only marginally against chalk.
The bad:
I didn't pick the Purdue to go down, so that hurt a little, but I had them falling to Villanova in round 2 anyway so I'm still alive there.
The ugly:
No one in their right mind was taking Ohio St to get upset in the opening game after the way they played in the Big10 tournament and to Oral Roberts?!? I mean, its Oral Roberts. Isn't that like a seminary school? Guess having god on your side really does help. :-) This is gonna kill a lot of brackets.
Fortunately, I didn't follow the "trap" and have them in the elite eight or final four on all of my brackets, like most. Though I do admit I played more than one bracket, but only one is likely to still be competitive if that tells you anything about how I felt about Ohio St going into the tourney. I'm not saying I had them in the final four on at least one of my brackets, just sayin' ;-)
The Big10 was supposed to be the class of the tournament this year, but with two major upsets and the debacle that is Michigan St, its looking like a typical result. The conference always under-performs in the tourney, even when they send a team to the final four, or even a championship. We've (yes, I am in Big10 country, go Indiana!) only had one champion in the last 32 years and that was Michigan St 21 years ago. I don't count Maryland's win in '02 since they weren't in the Big10 at the time.
I'm not expecting much from Maryland this year and Michigan has a major injury that makes their chances of a deep run unlikely. I guess a fan has to hang their head on Illinois and Iowa trying to carry the conference. Wisconsin is a dark horse, but a 9 seed is about the worst position you can be in for success.
Is this finally the year Gonzaga comes though? I've been a fan since Stockton was there, but they rarely played anyone. This year they beat Iowa, Virginia, West Virginia, and BYU three times. I wish they would have rescheduled the Baylor because that could have interrupted their undefeated season or knocked Baylor from the #1 seed.
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Day two was amazing. Some really exciting games!
Sooo close to a perfect day. Only that damn Texas team let me down, but I love Cinderellas so I'm okay with it. Even with that, I'm tied for 2nd in the pool. We all have some different picks in round two so we may clear much of the competition by the end of the day on Monday and have someone in a comfortable lead.
I'm especially proud of taking UCLA over BYU. The latter was considered a dark-horse at least for the elite8 and maybe the final4 if Michigan falters, but I just didn't buy it. They were incredibly lucky not to be seeded in the West since they've lost to Gonzaga three times already this year. Just had a feeling that UCLA was better than they had played over their last few games.
Ohio upsetting Virginia was the #1 most common upset pick nationally so it wasn't a surprise. In fact all ten of the top sheets in our pool had that pick.
I feel bad for the VCU kids having to forfeit their game. Someone's got some 'splaining to do.
The next two days will be exciting!
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WOW what a third day!
Nobody had Illinois out in round two. The big question will be how deep you had the Illini going. Many people had them winning it all. I know I did on a number of sheets, but those are already mostly busted. While I had them getting to the Sweet16, had them losing there so it did't hurt too badly.
OTOH, Oklahoma St going down hurt me pretty bad (since they were supposed to beat Illinois next weekend), but most of the others in the pool have Illinois so almost everyone's Midwest region is a mess.
Syracuse was my pick of the day. None of the other top sheets had that pick. As long as there aren't any major hiccups tomorrow I should be in the top five sheets going into the Sweet16 next weekend.
Oral F#$%king Roberts! A #15 in the Sweet16!?! I guess we all need to jump in on the Cinderella bandwagon. Bracket be damned, GO GOLDEN EAGLES!!!
This is a weird year because of Covid. The seedings are not as accurate as they usually are so we expected to see more upsets and that is happening. You had to either guess really well or not pay attention to the seedings or "experts" and use a combination of the eye-test and gut-instinct. I'm glad I did the latter on a couple of sheets because it is the one that is doing the best.
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That was one hell of a day. I knew the Pac10 was pretty good, but wow, I did not expect USC to be THAT good. I was 7 out of 8 today with Iowa letting me down. And that hurts because I had them in the Elite8. The Big10 just did absolute crap this year after all the hype. I hate that, but at least I knew better than to trust them on all my brackets. They let me down almost every year. They are solely responsible for destroying my other brackets.
Fortunately, after all the chaos, I have 12 of the 16 teams left and all of my final four (Alabama, Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston) is still alive. Puts me in 2nd place in our pool. But, the lead is very slim and he has a few very questionable picks for next weekend. If we are past most of the upsets and on to the point where the best teams will win (ie chalk) I will run away with this the rest of the way.
That being said, I will be rooting for Oral Roberts, Syracuse, and UCLA to keep upsetting their way to the final four. I'm torn on the West regional. USC looked amazing and they are the lowest seed, so I can pull for them, but Creighton is not a power team and I've love to see them finally do well. They have always been good, but not good enough. This is the furthest they've even gone in the tournament so would be nice if they could get further and upset Gonzaga.
Dunno if anyone cares, but I'll keep going come the weekend. See ya in a few days.
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Awesome weekend! Aside from the bracket, I was rooting for Oral Roberts but they were just out-classed by a superior program. Syracuse looked good most of the game, but couldn't hold off the Courgars. Those would have been amazing upsets, but we still have hope for Cinderellas Oregon St and UCLA. I couldn't believe that UCLA let 'bama inbound for free and take a virtually uncontested three to send it to OT. They are lucky that 'bama couldn't hit a free throw. Even a 1st-year player knows you put a big man with long arms on the inbound player to make it as hard as possible for the pass. If a player comes into the backcourt to help the inbound pass, the baseline defender immediately fouls the player who receives the pass and send him to the foul line. The other four players set up just outside the three-point arc to contest any shot if the ball gets that far.
As far as the bracket, picked six out of the Elite8 with only Oregon and Oregon State a surprise. My bracket is really strong and I'm in the lead at this point. There are only three other players still in the hunt and we have a number of different teams for the Final Four so the games on Monday/Tuesday might settle things regardless of who goes on to the Championship.
I'll be rooting for Oregon State and UCLA just because they are the Cindarellas, but they will probably lose. If they win, I get to enjoy exciting, unexpected basketball. If they lose, my bracket is favored to win our pool. Either way, I win. :-)
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Damn it! I knew when I filed out my bracket I should have ridden UCLA all the way to the final four, but I just thought that Michigan was good enough to get there despite the injury. I thought UCLA was the best of the Pac10 all year and just had an unexpected brain-fart as the end of the season. Figured that the loss in the conference tourney and insulting them with that seeding would fire them up to make a run. I'm glad to see a #11 (and a play-in team no less) in the Final4 and my bracket is still in the lead (though the margin is smaller).
The other three games went about as expected though Gonzaga really showed up. Of all the Elite8 matchups I figured USC had the best chance to upset given how well they had been playing. I don't think there is any way to dispute the 'zags as the favorite by a wide margin at this point. USC is better than UCLA so there is little chance they can pull an upset over the 'zags, so the question is, is Baylor really as good as they look or are the Cougars better than most think they are? To be honest, I hate that Houston got this far given Sampson's history. I don't like "cheaters" getting off essentially scott-free.
The only chance I have of losing the pool now is if both UCLA and Houston win, and Houston goes on to win the championship. Any other combination and I win. *crosses fingers*
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That was amazing! UCLA was soooo close to pulling it out. Easily the game of the tournament. If you would have said that UCLA would score 90 points, shoot 58% from the floor and 47% from three, I would have said they won by double digit. Both teams played fantastic.
The Baylor game went about as expected. They dominated from start to finish.
I hope Monday's game is this exciting. Its all for fun now. I have the pool locked in. Yeayyyy Me!