The Syndicate

MovingPictures07 wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Crap, I didn't realize the tournament started tonight.

Only the start of the play-in games that no one really cares about. The "real tournament" / Round 1 games don't start until Thursday, so you (and others) have until then to complete brackets and such. I would guess Thursday at noon Eastern is the standard cutoff.

Yeah, just confirmed, first Round 1 game between Notre Dame and Princeton starts at 12:15 Eastern on Thursday, March 16th.

I'll shoot you all a PM reminder to fill out the brackets tomorrow night in case anyone still needs to complete it.

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Sloonei wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I know jack shit about college basketball, but it'd be easy enough to fill out a bracket.

I am in this camp as well. I think I'll swing for the fences and pick an all 16 seed Final Four. It's bound to happen one of these years.

Do it, I dare you.

Go Texas Southern.

8 brackets have been submitted! You still have another 3.5 hours or so to submit one if you are not one of those folks. And if you want the information for the bracket pool, PM me. I'll be here off and on until the first game starts at 12:15 Eastern.

Then I'll be starting the smack talk and game talk.

I spent way too long on mine on Tuesday, that's for sure.

It'll be worth it when my bracket crushes all of yours though.

So it begins! I'll be adding a poll shortly.

Here's the group on Yahoo! where participants and spectators can check out everyone's brackets and current standings.

Also, new poll added.

Because Sloonei decided to actually have all #16 seeds advance not only beyond the first round but to the Final Four , note that the poll asks which one will be the SECOND to go.

If you all have any suggestions for future polls, by all means.

I voted Gonzaga even though my bracket predicts Baylor will fall in the second round to SMU, because it's Gonzaga and I think they'll be taken out fairly early.

In other news, with #5 Notre Dame v. #12 Princeton, I may have my first miss already since I went for the upset here.

Oral Roberts University didn't make the tournament this year but thank God Wichita State did. If Oral isn't an option, I'll settle for the Shockers.

G-Man wrote:Oral Roberts University didn't make the tournament this year but thank God Wichita State did. If Oral isn't an option, I'll settle for the Shockers.

I could see the Shockers doing some real damage, as for some reason yet again they're dangerously underseeded. We shall see.

And my alma mater (NKU) is in the tournament for the first time this year since securing Division I status in 2012!

But there was no way I was going to pick them over UK.

Has anyone told Sloonei how the seeding works?

COME ON, PRINCETON! Get your shit together and nab me a really good starting upset prediction here.

Marmot wrote:Has anyone told Sloonei how the seeding works?

Final score: Princeton 58 - Notre Dame 60. First game and my bracket is already tainted.

And better yet, Sloonei actually picked the higher rank out of that one (#5 v. #12), so for just this brief moment in time, I'm behind him and in last place with Jay.

Just scrolled through my bracket. I only picked one upset that was higher than a 10-seed in the first round. 11 Rhode Island over 6 Creighton.

Marmot wrote:Just scrolled through my bracket. I only picked one upset that was higher than a 10-seed in the first round. 11 Rhode Island over 6 Creighton.

Not even MTSU over Minnesota?

Though I do have Rhode Island in that matchup as well. I would argue they're underseeded for sure.

One of my Final Four teams is already out. Shoot. Some day we'll see the triumph of the 16s, but alas 2017 is not that day. Er, year.

I picked all the New England teams to pull off upsets. I'm gunning hard for last place, or I'll have the most shockingly accurate bracket ever. Who knows?

GO MTSU, GO!!!

Sloonei wrote:I picked all the New England teams to pull off upsets.

Yeah, because five Super Bowl championships, three World Series titles, an NBA championship, and claiming the Stanley Cup once all within the last 17 years isn't enough for you, huh? Sheesh. Who is this guy?

Vermont needs some love too.

Mount St. Mary's (currently playing against Villanova) is about a 45-minute drive from my house. I applied and was accepted there for college back when I was in high school. I went to one of their open house events and loved the place (minus being required to take classes that shove Catholicism down your throat). I went back on a non-open house weekend and the place was on the dirty side. I crossed it off my list at that point, which didn't bother my parents much because they wanted me to go to a Pennsylvania school so they wouldn't have to pay the out-of-state tuition price.

My one true upset pick was correct; Xavier always seems to go deep into this tournament one way or another.

Sloonei wrote:My one true upset pick was correct; Xavier always seems to go deep into this tournament one way or another.

I had a feeling Xavier was going to pull it off as well.

My big upsets today so far are 1-1; I lost Princeton but I won MTSU. My third is FGCU over FSU, which seemed possible even if unlikely for a bit there, but now not so much.

My national champions are down 33 with 12 minutes to go. Here comes the comeback.

Sloonei wrote:My national champions are down 33 with 12 minutes to go. Here comes the comeback.

In other news: I got wrecked by SMU losing at the last second.

Sloonei, 538 is giving the game where your national champions are getting whooped the lowest possible excitement score: 0.1.

MovingPictures07 wrote:Sloonei, 538 is giving the game where your national champions are getting whooped the lowest possible excitement score: 0.1.

Shows what they know.
... and they lost by 39. Get 'em next year, Texas Southern.

Go Dayton. Go Cincinnati. Otherwise don't care!

I see Xavier won again. I should have just picked them as my national champions.

I'm pretty sure my bracket is murdered, but I haven't looked.

Sloonei wrote:I see Xavier won again. I should have just picked them as my national champions.

Yeah, and by a lot. FSU tanked.

Yesterday was definitely more like normal March Madness. Round 1 was surprisingly not super crazy.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I'm pretty sure my bracket is murdered, but I haven't looked.

And how about that Villanova loss? Didn't someone here put them as their National Champion?

Oh shit I forgot I did that.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Oh shit I forgot I did that.

Well, it wasn't a bad choice necessarily; they were the favorite to win the whole thing, even if not heavily so. They did have a pretty treacherous path to get to the end though, but I don't think anyone expected them to bow out in Round 2.

You're actually in 4th place right now too. If UK gets to the finals, Michigan upsets Louisville (score is 28-26 right now), and everyone else loses their National Champions, you could still theoretically win.

MovingPictures07 wrote:You're actually in 4th place right now too. If UK gets to the finals, Michigan upsets Louisville (score is 28-26 right now), and everyone else loses their National Champions, you could still theoretically win.

...and Michigan just upset Louisville (73-69). That's going to further wreck some brackets.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I'm pretty sure my bracket is murdered, but I haven't looked.

You and me both.



This is exciting though. Two 1&2 seeds have been eliminated already, and we're only halfway through the round of 32.

Marmot wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I'm pretty sure my bracket is murdered, but I haven't looked.

You and me both.



This is exciting though. Two 1&2 seeds have been eliminated already, and we're only halfway through the round of 32.

Indeed, I'm loving Round 2. Round 1 was a bit boring.

oh look, xavier won again.

It figures. Just about every year Xavier is in it, I pick them to go too far. This is only the second time I've used restraint with Xavier and they go further in the tournament than I picked them too.

Man, these games have been getting intense. Except for Kansas v. Purdue. Go Kansas!

My school made it into the Final Four.

Neato!

I was going to say! How about Oregon? Crazy!

I'm officially knocked out completely now too. And I'm solidly in 9th place. Hi, Sloonei! At least I beat you.

Poor Xavier.

Wow, how about South Carolina in the Final Four? Crazy.

It's also Gonzaga's first Final Four appearance ever (I believe), and they are definitely the favorite to win it out of the four teams left, but they're still a solid group of teams left.

Pretty cool stuff.

MovingPictures07 wrote:Wow, how about South Carolina in the Final Four? Crazy.

It's also Gonzaga's first Final Four appearance ever (I believe), and they are definitely the favorite to win it out of the four teams left, but they're still a solid group of teams left.

Pretty cool stuff.

I was thinking North Carolina would be the favorite at this point, but we'll see I guess.

I'm surprised I somehow managed second place right now. My bracket is a bloodbath.

Marmot wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:Wow, how about South Carolina in the Final Four? Crazy.

It's also Gonzaga's first Final Four appearance ever (I believe), and they are definitely the favorite to win it out of the four teams left, but they're still a solid group of teams left.

Pretty cool stuff.

I was thinking North Carolina would be the favorite at this point, but we'll see I guess.

I'm surprised I somehow managed second place right now. My bracket is a bloodbath.

I would have thought that too, but 538 which aggregates various statistics thinks otherwise. They actually give the UNC-Oregon match a 52%/48% probability, which is nearly an exactly even match. Crazy.

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Marmot wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:Wow, how about South Carolina in the Final Four? Crazy.

It's also Gonzaga's first Final Four appearance ever (I believe), and they are definitely the favorite to win it out of the four teams left, but they're still a solid group of teams left.

Pretty cool stuff.

I was thinking North Carolina would be the favorite at this point, but we'll see I guess.

I'm surprised I somehow managed second place right now. My bracket is a bloodbath.

I would have thought that too, but 538 which aggregates various statistics thinks otherwise. They actually give the UNC-Oregon match a 52%/48% probability, which is nearly an exactly even match. Crazy.

In a North Carolina/Gonzaga matchup, I'd give UNC the edge.

But yes, I agree that Gonzaga has an easier path to the Championship game than UNC, and therefore a higher chance of winning it all.

Huh. Who won the Syndicate bracket pool?



Go Heels Go America

nijuukyugou wrote:Huh. Who won the Syndicate bracket pool?



Go Heels Go America

Congrats!!