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.
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.
2010 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. The kickoff issue! (Forgot I had to post this…)
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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.
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.
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.
Where are all the west coast teams, especially the southwest? Maybe San Diego St. Maybe Arizona St. Maybe Santa Barbara. Maybe UNLV. St. Mary’s, Oakland, and Cal are in but they’re in northern California. For the first time since 2004, no USC or UCLA. How will that affect the number entries in our pool with no local team in it?
Edit: This Oakland’s in Michigan…
Congrats to Oakland for making their 2nd tourney appearance after winning the The Summit League’s tournament. But this time, they were the #1 seed and have a 26-8 record. The last time, they were 12-18 after somehow winning the then Mid-Continent Conference tourney and actually won the play-in game. So 14 teams are in, 51 to go.
Well, next Thursday at 9 am PDT will be the deadline for entries in possibly, the last 65-team bracket. Selection Sunday is four days away. If Arizona doesn’t win the Pac-10 tournament, that will leave only Kansas as the lone team to be in every one of our brackets since we started in 1995. We also may have as few as one newcomer to our bracket (Wofford) which would be the fewest since just four new (since 1995) teams made it in 2007. Let’s go Quinnipiac and Lehigh (which lost a play-in game in 2004 and thus didn’t make our bracket — see we treat the play-in game as not the REAL tournament)!
EDIT: Damn, Quinnipiac. Go Lehigh! Actually, if Wofford plays in the play-in game and loses, we could have no new teams!
Cornell becomes the first to make the field of 65. Northern Iowa, Winthrop, ETSU, and Murray St. soon followed (all relatively recent participants). Stony Brook missed out (I presented a tutorial there a couple years ago). Things are shaping up… Brackets come out Sunday night!