Author Archives: Scott

Deemed to Win

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Okay, I gave my son a cookie (it has fruit in it :-)) to give me a little time here to submit my second entry, Deemed to Win, courtesy of Pelosi & Reid.  So even if my bracket doesn’t actually win, since I deemed it so, it’s like it did win.  Right?  This one is more loopy with Duke winning it all as the cookie didn’t last as long as I thought and was distracted while entering towards the end.

With about 10 minutes left til the deadline, it looks like we’ve hit the magical 115th entry.  I’ll be taking my son to school soon so I may not be able to update the right side of this blog til later this morning.

Good Morning!

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Just got up.  Okay, my son woke me up.  Well, about 40 minutes left til 9 am and a  quick check shows 109 entries!  Thanks for pushing us over 100.  There seems to be at least another four in process so there is a chance we could meet or top last year’s record 114.

I guess the first game is BYU-Florida so we are starting off with a possible split vote now.  Usually, it seems the first game is a 13, 14, or 15 seed and not very interesting.

Eight Hours Left

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Eight hours remain til the 9 am PDT deadline.  Note:  We will accept brackets til tipoff, which is 9:20 am, but the entry form will be disabled just past 9 am, so if you get to the java bracket, you can still enter your picks but make sure you submit it before 9:20 (we have a timestamp on the file you submit).  If you think you may not make it, scan and email your pencil-written bracket or fax it to me.

Currently, we have 89 entries including 53 that came in Wednesday.  That is short of our record 62 we got last year so topping 114 doesn’t look good, but there is still time.  Best of luck to everyone!

Esteemed Founder’s Picks

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David F. (The Mighty Mobelfakta) has submitted his bracket.  We will post both his and my bracket (when I get a chance to fill it out) before 9 am tomorrow so you can laugh at us (and also for verification purposes).  You can view his bracket here.  (Hint: Once viewing David’s, you can then view your bracket in case you lost your printout).

Mid-day Update

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As of 4 pm, we are at 53 entries which 7 more than we had at this time last year.  But last year’s pace went at a torrid rate as the evening rolled on and into the morning, so although we are likely to top 100 entries (and therefore, a 5th place prize), it’ll be hard to top the 114 entries we had last year.  A lot of regulars are now starting to enter with 10 of the past 17 entries having been with us for at least EIGHT years.

PayPal is Deemed Evil (So I’m not calling them that, just deeming them to be so)

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PayPal apparently now charges fees for receiving money of any type if you click their button.  They even take fees for donations!  Apparently the charitable giving is to PayPal, not the recipient.  Don’t know how long this has been going (I checked last year’s payments and they didn’t do this then) but I found out by accident because PayPal doesn’t SHOW you they took fees, just what the “gross” amount is.  So when I’m seeing $10 across the board, everything looks fine.  Click on details, and presto, halfway down the page, -59 cents for fees.  I’ve contacted those who aleady paid and asked them to volunatarily make up the difference (purely optional on their part, their entries still count and I’ll absorb the fees).

The website should be updated, but if you just want to send just $10.00 (no credit card payments), you have to do it the old fashioned way and log in to PayPal, click Send Money to “[email protected]“, choose a PERSONAL reason (not a PURCHASE reason) such as Gift, and send.

If you don’t mind paying $10.61 (regardless if it’s PayPal funds, eCheck, Credit Card or personal bank account), click the PayPal button on your web bracket confirmation page.

Despite all this, PayPal is still the easiest and most convenient solution out there and it allows us to accept credit card payments.  Just wish they weren’t all Pelosi-Reid about this.

Record Tuesday!

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First off, congrats to Arkansas-Pine Bluff for making the REAL part of the bracket.  Have fun losing to Duke.

We got a record 23 entries for a  Tuesday (topping 2006’s 21 entries) for a total of 32 thus far (in 2008 we had 39 at this point).  Our mainstays are slowly coming in.  We have nine new entries (from six people).  Three have entered twice and one trying their luck with the max 3.  Though history shows us that since 2005, you have higher percentage of winning one of the top prizes with one entry than with 2 or 3 (5.1% vs. 2.8%).  However, one person has won something the past 3 years so maybe you feel lucky?  Also, of the 91 times people have submitted multiple entries, just 3 of the 11 who have won something did so on their 2nd or 3rd bracket (meaning if the other 8 just entered one bracket, they would have won anyway).  But it does pump up our entry count, so thank you!

Opening Round Game…. in Audio

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I can’t believe the NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) only has audio for this game. Yet another reason that this game is not really part of the NCAA tournament and why expanding past 65 teams will just make those teams also not part of it.

I’m interested because it would be cool if Ark-Pine Bluff makes it.  Winthrop played in the first-ever Opening Round (i.e., Play-In) game in 2001 and lost but has been to the real part of the tournament seven other times.

Tricklin’ in…

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Our first entry was from Brian S. (Flying Elvi) who was going to be on vacation during this time in the Far East so he chose all the favorites for the first few rounds and then ordered his top eight teams (looking at only last week’s rankings).  Luckily, he had Purdue a very low #7 or else he may have regretted it when he came back (Duke was his 5th choice, so they will take out Purdue in the Sweet 16).  Although I picked my teams before Selection Sunday as well last year, we didn’t get the bracket up and running til Monday morning, so the Flying Elvi is the first entry submitted on Sunday since 2005.

Eight more came in on Monday which seems low but this seems to be a harder bracket to crack.  Of course last year, we had just 11 by Tuesday and ended up with a record 114.  Currently, we have 17 which is the same as last year at this time.  Interestingly, 8 of the 17 are online entries (people who somehow trust us with their money and found us through the magic of bing (okay, google).  Last year we had 13 online entries and in 2008 we had a record 15.  Of course, the best part of the online entries is that they always pay up immediately 🙂  The fact 15 of the 17 have paid up is nice (and I have beats on the other two).

For those who have played in the pool for ages, the “Referred by:” box is typically ignored but it does allow people to express their wittiness (if not in their chosen nickname).  Some gems:  “Mom“, “Gosh, I don’t know…been doing it for years...”, “walrus+sledgehammer=orgy“, “History/Picked by 4yr daughter“, “Mrs. Wonderful“, “The voices in my head“, “Ghosts“, “A little bird told me“, and “GOD“.  I bring this up because no one sees this but David F. and myself .  So, the Los Angeles Galaxy (now without Becks but the Galaxy should be used to that) have a mascot, okay, he’s sometimes a starting forward named Alan Gordon.  When the Galaxy missed the playoffs for three straight years, he was a source of entertainment (infamously known for tying his shoelaces while on a break, and thus, the nice cross into the box went to where he would’ve been had he not been tying his shoe).  So last year, Sam N. put down in the referred box “Alan Gordon” – I laughed out loud.  This year, David A. also put down “Alan Gordon” which I thought was classic until I remembered Sammy did it last year.  So if someone calls you an “Alan Gordon”, it’s not a compliment.

Brackets in an hour!

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Now when we’ll be able to get them up on our site, that’s another issue. Not sure if we’re doing any tweaks to the bracket form or not.  Hopefully, we will have the web entry ready by late tonight  though the past few years we’ve had external issues.

2006: Our local web host crashed and brackets weren’t up til 1 pm Monday.

2007: I was on travel to Merced and David was on travel in Houston, resulting in brackets being delayed until around 1 am Monday.

2008: We switched to a commercial server and had to re-upload all the files.  Even through all that admin stuff, we still managed to get the brackets up just before midnight.

2009: David updated the web look and had to work through WordPress quirks.  After several trials, we managed to get the brackets up 12:15 am Monday.

We have a SoCal team now…

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For us Southern California folk, the San Diego St. Aztecs and UC Santa Barbara Gauchos clinched spots in the tourney so we have at least a couple of local teams to root for.  Also, Houston makes its return for the first time since 1992.

Looks like Arkansas-Pine Bluff (who started the season 0-11!) just qualified for either the 64th or 65th seeded team.  Poor SWAC.

I also watched my first college basketball this season (yesterday), well for about 20 minutes or so, watching New Mexico get upset so now we won’t have to worry about them getting too high a seed.  In between, watching Cal streak past UCLA.  Also realized that I don’t get enough sports channels, as I was flipping around CBS College Sports and ESPNU, at least two channels I don’t have.

Can Lehigh Make Top 63?

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Congrats to Lehigh for winning the Patriot League.  Now would the NCAA Selection Committee be cruel and put the Mountain Hawks into the Opening Round game again?  They lost in 2004 and have not made the proper 64 bracket since 1988.  I also hope Wofford can be one of the top 63 teams since it’s their first time at the dance and they should experience it at a Region site, not Dayton, Ohio.  The poor Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) have combined to lose 7 of the past 8 Opening Round games… the one they didn’t lose, yup, Lehigh of the Patriot League (Florida A&M of the MEAC beat them).

This is why I don’t like the Opening Round game.  The loser is forgotten… it’s like an extra conference tourney game.  In fact, I don’t even count the loser as part of the teams that made our “pool” that year.  It’s just awkward.  Tuesday in Dayton?  Definitely not as good as Tuesdays with Morrie.