Who picked whom? (Thursday edition)

All and sundry,

I know you're all waiting breathlessly to find out where you'll stand after tonight's games. Below is a table of picks for those of you following along at home. Like my home, I mean. Acy, Maggi and I have made the following bet: 3rd place among the three of us is the evening snack, treat and drink fetcher for the other two for two solid weeks. Your home life may be different, but this is kind of a big deal where we live. 2nd place does, if I remember correctly, dishes, trash and coffee prep for a week. Another big deal Chez Jackson Knott. Have you any side bets going? Let's hear 'em.

See below for the NCAA Pool Home Game Edition.

Have a safe Round Three (despite stupid CBS calling it stupid Round Four because of the stupid play-in stupid games stupid. This is Round Three - so there) out there.

C


4. Wisc - Kate, Bill, Jonathan, both Sarahs, Liz
1. Syracuse - Everyone else
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5. Vandy - Knott, Calvino, Scott, Matt, Ellie, Sophie
8. Kansas State - Harry, Steve, Tim


6. Cincy - Acy (could be the genius pick of Round Three)
2. Ohio State - Everyone else
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11. Texas - Alexander (he'll learn, don't worry)
3. FL St - Henry, Harry, Kate, Matt, Gena, Cal, Sophie, Sarah P, John
10. West VA - Bill


1. Michigan St - Everyone else
4. LVille - Knott, Dykes, Dana, Sophie, John
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8. Memphis - Acy, Sarah B
5. New Mexico - Gena, Liz (don't ever bet on Steve Alford, friends.)


7. Florida - Matt (another genius?)
3. Marquette - Knott, Acy, Willow, Gena, Dana, Cal, Liz, Ellie, Rosalie
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2. Missouri - Everyone else
6. Murray State - Alexander, Bill, Sarah P
10. UVA - Sophie

Getting ready for tonight

Dear Friends,

OK, so it's been a couple of days since I've posted, and I'm woefully late giving you the Sunday results and the current standings. Can I blame it on work? Family obligations? Unseasonably beautiful weather in Maine? Sloth? Take your pick.

Sunday was a rough tournament day for most of us, but it made for some fun watching, at least. Tonight's four games should be good ones, and I'll post everyone's picks shortly.

In the meantime, Dana continues her domination, followed closely by the President. I see a bumper sticker here: Dana Duffy - Smarter than Obama. Like it?

Here's where we all stand:

A new leader to lead them...

Poolies,

Holy guacamole!!! We have a new leader. I won't spoil the suspense, you'll have to wait until the end of this post.

Saturday's games were, in one sense, Dullsville. Despite some good, close games, there were no upsets. Every one of the higher seeds won, which is offensive to my left wing political views. (My left wing political views are such that I believe that the little guy ought to win every now and then, or at least have a chance to. They do not extend to the belief that everybody should get a trophy or that we're all really winners or that it's mean to keep score. I thought you might be curious.)

Where was I? Oh yes, Dullsville. Today should be more interesting. As I type this, NC State is ahead of Georgetown, which is a pretty popular state of affairs in my house, I can tell you.

Willow, it's worth pointing out, got all eight games right yesterday. Congrats to you, my friend. I'd like to bring to your attention how well the President is doing in our pool. Evidently, basketball teams from important swing states are doing well so far.

AND NOW, OUR NEW STANDINGS AND OUR NEW LEADER!!! Congrats to our mutual genioso. Check out the standings below to see who's currently humiliating the rest of us:

Round One

Whew, was Day Two a monster! Eight upsets, including two 15 seeds beating 2 seeds. My understanding is that prior to yesterday, 15 seeds had only won 4 games since 1985. It's like in baseball, where of the 15 unassisted triple plays in history, 2 of them took place on consecutive days in 1927. Weird.

Anyhoo, we have geniuses to praise. Only The Wrinkler picked USF to beat Temple, only Dana got Lehigh over Duke, and as I said below, only Gena, Ellie and Sophie got Norfolk State over Missouri. Five of us (me, Acy, Dayle, Ellie, Sophie) picked Ohio to beat Michigan. If you've forgotten, correctly picking a 1-10 seed to win gets you 1 point, 11-12 seeds get you 2 points, 13-14 seeds get you 3 points, and 15-16 seeds get you 4 points. If my math is correct, that means there were 27 points possible yesterday (as opposed to 18 on Thursday). The day's big winner was...wait for it...SOPHIE MAC, with an amazing 16 points. Her sister, Ellie, was right behind with 15. Something in the Pittsburgh water, evidently. Their mother, Liz, is clearly not drinking that water. What are you drinking, Liz? [I'm going for the world record for the most ideas in one paragraph - what the hell am I writing about here?]

So, today begins Round 2, where all games are worth 2 points each. All these upsets are going to make the later rounds weird, poolwise, but let's see how it all shakes out.

Below are the standings after Round One. I hope you're all planning to watch at 12 hours of televised hoop today. I'd be disappointed to find that you've been, oh, playing outside, exercising, reading a book, or any other goofy non-basketball-related activity. Get on the couch, people, it's the tournament.

Stationarily yours,

Meister

Voie à suivre Lehigh

Duke est un seau d'immondices trempent riche ivre digne de sa perte.

Love that Google Translate. I have been ridiculed soundly for my correct pronunciation of L'High, while sipping a nice glass of Burgundy. Viva la pool!

What do Gena, Ellie and Sophie have in common?

I'll tell you what they all have in common - they all picked Norfolk State to beat Missouri. Now that's genius. Plus, since it's a 15 seed beating a 2 seed, they'll each get 4 points for getting it right. Congrats geniuses.

You now join these folks in the pantheon of big-brained thinkerators.

Congrats.

Day One, or why won't Rosalie let the rest of us play?

Friends,

OK, work week drawing to a close, time to talk hoop. First, some pool business. You may notice that we have a new pool entrant, President Obama. For those of you who don't know him, he's an Indonesian Muslim communist (or so I've heard on AM radio) who likes basketball. He seemed lonely, so I got his picks off the web and entered him. I'm assuming the Secret Service will be at my door shortly. Also, I'm going to quit filling your email inboxes shortly, so point your browser (and I'm old enough to remember when a gentleman wouldn't say "point your browser" in polite company) to the blog, newly and beautifully redesigned for 2012 by our own Mike Winkler, a/k/a The Wrinkler. Thank you Wrinkler. Find the blog here: hoopkids.blogspot.com.

There, then, down to business. Day One was a bit of a snoozefest, upset-wise, although there were some darn good games. Of the sixteen games yesterday, there were only two upsets: 12. VCU over Wichita St., and 11. Colorado over UNLV. If you recall, 11 and 12 seed wins get the picker 2 points each instead of 1. That means there were a total of 18 points available. Day One's genius is, once again, Rosalie, who got 17 of the 18 points. Miraculous. I'm taking her to the track at Saratoga soon, and I'm going to let her place bets for me. The rest of did, well, not nearly so good a job.

The standings after Day One are as follows:





I'm wrapping up at the office, and I'm off home to start drinking (I mean, watching). See you all on the interwebs tonight. Have a safe Day Two out there.

Bleh

Ok, it looks like my last chance for an upset pick is Ohio over Michigan. Knowing my luck, this is the Big Ten's year to win win win. Oh, and Minnesota didn't deserve a berth -- they choked bigger than Dr. Heimlich's first patient.

Let's get serious

So yesterday was a fine day of b-ball, a nice little warm up. But today is the time for the Old North State to turn on the gas. NC State, Carolina and Duke! I mean, come on! Oh, and I have Hint o' Crack in the house. Life is good.

How are you staying up to date on the scores?

Watching SI at work...on my laptop...during meetings...

Aight

Are we here or is there a pintwitter or Youface account for the pool this year?

Rosalie and A-Rod

All,

OK, so I just read that A-Rod is going to make $32M this year, and the Kansas City Royals will make $36M. That's a little like Rosalie and the rest of us. Rosalie got the only points last Sunday (for her correct Kentucky pick). Besides the fact that Rosalie is running away with the pool, she's also done something I've never seen in all the years we've been doing this. She's picked 2 of the Final Four correctly (UConn and Kentucky), and the rest of us together got none. None. Think that over for a minute. Nil. Bupkus. Nada. Rien a declarer. In short, we suck and she doesn't.

CONGRATS TO YOU, ROSALIE!!! How big do you want your trophy to be?

So, in the Final Four, only you-know-who has the chance to score any more points (and that only if Kentucky wins tonight), so essentially she's given all of us our Saturday and Monday nights back, since there's really no point in watching games now, right?

What a bruiser of a tournament, eh? Here are the standings, if you can bear to look. Remember that if KY wins tonight, Rosalie will have 5 more points, but the rest of us are stuck right where we are.

Sheesh. We'll get 'em next year, eh?

Poolmeister

Wait, VCU? What the what?

People,

Well, now I've seen everything. If my picks weren't already lousy, this certainly wouldn't have helped. Condolences to all you Jayhawks out there.

Sheesh,

C

Sunday picks

Guys and Dolls,

Last two regional finals tomorrow, 4 points each. Not that it'd help me much, standings-wise, but others among you must be hoping against hope. In order to add that tiny soupcon of stress and pressure to your hoop-watching sabbath, here's a list of who's picked whom. Enjoy.

4. KY - Rosalie (what does this girl know?)
2. UNC - Knott, Maggi, Acy, Alexander, Bill, John, Sophie
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1. Ohio State - Everybody else (you forgot to bet against the Big 10)
3. Syracuse - Dana
9. Nova - Liz


1. Kansas - Everybody else
11. VCU - Nobody at all, not even Rosalie
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6. Georgetown - Acy
4. Louisville - Alexander, Steve, Jonathan
2. Notre Dame - Calvino, Tim, Kate
3. Purdue - Matt

And that's that. Have lovely Sundays wherever you are, and I'll see you at the Final Four.

C

Rosalie! Rosalie! Rosalie!

Friends,

Geez Louise, Rosalie has sprung into the lead! John, Sarah, aside from being proud parents, what advice can you give the rest of us about raising hoop-picking offspring? No? Nothing? Oh well.

So, only 5 games left, but plenty of pool action yet to go. I'm particularly interested in the intra-family struggles. Maggi is pummeling me, as is Acy, but I'm starting to pull away from Alexander. (I know he's only 5, but I'll take whatever I can get.) Dana is beating Steve, Kate and Scott are tied. Sarah B is whupping Tim. Big Cal leads all Dewitts. Sophie, who already has one championship under her belt, is pounding on the rest of the Rambeau-Petersons. Finally, and really, sweetest of all, I'm slightly ahead of my similarly pick-challenged brother. I'm confident in my ability to screw that one up, too, but for the moment it satisfies.

I've included the standings through today's (that's Saturday's) games. The math today was easy, as Rosalie got the 4 point UConn win right, and nobody else got either game right. That might be a first in the history of the pool. Congrats Rosie, but what the hell's wrong with the rest of us. Picking UConn seems obvious now, like the murderer at the end of a mystery novel, but it didn't occur to me earlier. Nor did it seem to occur to any of you, either, except Good Old Rosalie, that is. And Butler? Forget it. [insert Butler/mystery novel/murderer joke here. I'm too tired to do it.]

Here, then, are the standings through today's games. Tomorrow's picks in a moment.

Chriskin

If I have to look at Leslie Visser one more time

I will throw up.

Seriously, does it make any sense that women in sports broadcasting are supposed to starve themselves or do whatever Leslie Visser has done to herself while Vern Lundquist is allowed to take up 3/4 of the television screen? He looks like he could eat Raftery at any moment.

More bad news

Poolies,

OK, maybe it's the same bad news, only more so. Maggi's still winning, which makes life a little rough on me. Dig it? Good Old Rosalie seems to be my best hope for not have my wife singing, "I am the Champion, no time for LOSERS" and pointing at me all damn year. C'mon, Good Old Rosalie.

All right, I don't mean to be churlish. I'd be happy for Maggi if she hung on to win here. Not real happy, mind you, just happy.

With Kansas pounding Richmond and UNC thumping Marquette (sorry Kate and Scott, hometown fans, no doubt) there isn't much excitement so far.

Below are the standings after last night's games.

Hope you're all watching tonight.

C

Where we are now

All,

I realized with some horror that I haven't sent out a standings listing after Round Two. My apologies. Maybe I was just avoiding the awful reality, which will become clear to you once you note who is on top of the pool, and who is scraping his bottom along the bottom. Sigh.

This is the last email I'll send out. I'm going to start posting at the blog, which you can find here:

http://hoopkids.blogspot.com/

If you need a login or an invitation or what have you, write to blogmaster Mike Winkler at winkler4@gmail.com. He'll hook you up.

Without further ado, then, here are the gory results after Round Two:



Good luck out there in Round Three, which begins tonight.

Love and kisses,

Your (co-)Poolmeister

paging valerie solanas...

Pittsburgh is out? What the heck!! I want a do-over.

S.

Bad Omen

If I'm the one who has to start this thing off....well, it's got to be some kind of a bad sign for someone.