The Elite Forum

The Big Three Plus One => General Chat => Topic started by: Ngamer on March 16, 2015, 05:17:42 am

Title: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Congrats to Duke and Ng!]
Post by: Ngamer on March 16, 2015, 05:17:42 am: The bracket's been set and the pool is ready for our 15th (gosh) year of picking the NCAA men's basketball tourney results! The pool will be hosted on ESPN as always; here's the link

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2015/en/bracket

After you sign in there should be a link to "rejoin groups" if you played with us last year, but if not no worries. Just do a search for

The Final Four Elite

It's a private group, password is elite. Alternatively you might be able to click directly into the group's page here and just click the Join Group button.

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2015/en/group?groupID=42871

That's a fun competition for everyone even if you're only a more casual fan. For the "hardcore," we'll also be hosting a

March Madness Team Draft

On Tuesday night, that's where you get $100 and try to win as many good teams as possible in an auction. If you'd be interested in joining this year, post something here or drop by Chat.

IN
Ngamer
Thingy
Gabby
Alec
YOU?
---

Our Proud, Proud History
2014 - http://forums.the-elite.net/index.php?topic=19449
Champ: UConn, Elite Champ: Lockwood
2013 - http://forums.the-elite.net/forum/index.php?topic=18817
Champ: Louisville, Elite Champ: Max Jansen
2012 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=16956
Champ: Kentucky, Elite Champ: Goose
2011 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=15723
Champ: UConn, Elite Champ: Cyber
2010 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=15214
Champ: Duke, Elite Champ: sdkess
2009 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=14454
Champ: UNC, Elite Champ: wheat
2008 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=13536
Champ: Kansas, Elite Champ: Goose
2007 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=1524
Champ: Florida, Elite Champ: mostfrantic
2006 - http://forums.the-elite.net/forum/index.php?topic=1777
Champ: Florida, Elite Champ: Woll
2005 - Eaten maybe
Champ: North Carolina, Elite Champ: ???
2004 - Eaten maybe
Champ: UConn, Elite Champ: ???
2003 - http://forums.the-elite.net/forum/index.php?topic=10917
Champ: Syracuse, Elite Champ: Tisko
2002 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=10816
Champ: Maryland, Elite Champ: mikers
2001 - http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=9174
Champ: Champ: Duke, Elite Champ: Max Jansen
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 16, 2015, 01:43:11 pm: I'm pretty excited for the Green Bay @ Illinois State game. wait, what's that you say? Nobody gives a **** about the NIT? well of course but here's quick wheat notes

best game on paper
7 VCU vs 10 Ohio State. Ohio State's resume is a 9 seed but advanced metrics would've put that team as a 7. VCU would've been a bit higher but their best player went down with a career ending injury a bit ago but they still won the A10 tourn. Arizona has very arguably a tougher game to get in the S16 than to the E8. VCU also has a style you really don't want to play with one day to prepare.

best true seed # for me

12 Stephen F Austin vs 5 Utah In reality this is a 9 seed vs a 3. I can only presume Georgetown is seeded ahead of Utah because they didn't know what a basketball was until they got to college and even that's only because they accidentally overheard some people talking about it while walking across campus.

upset that really needs to happen
13 Eastern Washington vs 4 Georgetown Game is in Portland so EWU should have more fans there. EWU is good at dropping the 3's, Georgetown traditionally likes to not keep up with that. EWU is a 14 imo though; but Gtown is basically a 6, was the most surprising seed by far of the top 4 seeds.

Highest team I like better than their seed not mentioned elsewhere
Wyoming, their only bad stuff on the resume their best player was sick for, ofc they're facing a slightly underseeded Northern Iowa team instead of say another 5 seed they'd have clowned but that's the tournament.

Everyone sets up who's in and out based on teams actual performance but forget that $ wins, $ always wins in the NCAA. lol Indiana/UCLA on the bubble or shouldn't be in at all talk over say Dayton or Colorado State or Temple. YOU DON'T KNOW THEM VERY WELL DO YOU?

Committee actually did a great job of picking teams, only Indiana was a stretch. (UCLA certainly should've been in the playin tho with Indiana) Seeding was horrendous and their obvious conflict of interest showed up there. Too many strong mids got underseeded non power teams as usual. only buffalo from the wyoming/SFA/buffalo power mids got a power 5 opponent in west virginia. (utah doesn't count in their minds you know)

Wildest upset possibility
while North Florida is a 14 or 15 that inexplicably are in a playin, they aren't beating duke so let's go with Belmont's all offense, no defense team vs Virginia's all defense no offense team. Kansas essential home game will probably be enough for them in round 1 (they used to try a fair tournament instead of giving teams basically home games to try to advance the better name teams)

Anyone could advance region
The baylor/xavier/byu/georgia state region every one of those teams has a good chance, byu/georgia state underseeded by a bit, baylor/xavier overseeded by a bit.

Roy Williams is gonna do a heck of a job trying to blow that pod, pathetic for a 4 seed. He's so bad in game that's he's a very overrated coach among the casuals.

The 9's are terrible as a group, all of them should've been seeded lower.

They really need to get rid of 2 TO's because the end of the games are rough but things they'll never do is give up $. Why pay the athletes when we're making a billion dollars. (seriously ad revenue is a billion for this tournament, and it all mostly goes to old white men exploiting mostly african american... oh fuck this shit is still happening in 2015)

for the play in games Boise vs Dayton should be a good one even at dayton. BYU should handle Miss. North Florida should handle Morris, and Hampton is the worst team in the field by far, well one good playin/four ain't so bad.

ah the time of year where texas is beloved by metrics but how many times are you going to lose to a team you're better than before you realize how bad the coach is?

Weekend highlights

5th seeded wichita state playing 3rd seeded Kansas in omaha is the headliner of the second game if they both win. (shockers are essentially in a 5/12, Kansas in a 3/14) Kansas has been ducking them because they think they'll lose and don't want to get exposed. (spoiler alert, they're right) Then again they've got a 13 seed in the opening round too (btw, between CSU getting "snubbed" and the very possible take down of Kansas and Notre Dame, the glass of wiff's tears will be glorious!)

the vcu/osu winner arizona another good one

only 4/5 that might actually happen that's good is Lville UNI. 3/6's are mostly rough for me and the 8's/9's are mainly worse than 10's and 11's.

most likely chalk, wisconsin/arizona/north carolina region overall. Kentucky should steamroll, committee avoided putting anyone that good over there intentionally for ratings till at least the E8. (tho Buffalo did lead Kentucky for a half)

most chaos chances; I think it's the east. Nova/Virginia/Oklahoma=none of these teams I have confidence in getting to where you'd initially expect for various reasons (nova self implosion, UVA's lack of offense, OU's baffling losses to poor competition). Lville/UNI are much better coached I think than all of those.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wishiwasfamous on March 18, 2015, 11:36:52 am: Quote from: wheatrich on March 16, 2015, 01:43:11 pm

5th seeded wichita state playing 3rd seeded Kansas in omaha is the headliner of the second game if they both win. (shockers are essentially in a 5/12, Kansas in a 3/14) Kansas has been ducking them because they think they'll lose and don't want to get exposed. (spoiler alert, they're right) Then again they've got a 13 seed in the opening round too (btw, between CSU getting "snubbed" and the very possible take down of Kansas and Notre Dame, the glass of wiff's tears will be glorious!)

Hey! Ya jerk... :P
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: Ngamer on March 18, 2015, 11:55:28 pm: 25 brackets in so far, good turnout this year! If you haven't submitted yet this is your LAST CHANCE, entries lock at the start of the first game tomorrow morning (11:15 Central).
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 12:37:32 am: Looks like 3/4 good playins with the worse team winning 3 of them (tho ffs byu 62 in a damn half? you had that...). Hopefully things keep going.

alright I'll submit one I'll take about 15 seconds on #YOLO
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 12:47:39 am: lockwood hasn't picked a champ yet, but he'll crush us again obv
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: T+ on March 19, 2015, 01:19:19 am: Anyone NOT picking UK?
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 02:01:39 am: if ng didn't pick wisconsin he might as well give up ever rooting for them again and move out of the state as a disgrace.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: RWG on March 19, 2015, 07:25:30 am: submitted my picks

looking to become the first THREE time Elite March Madness bracket champion

only did about 20 min of research this year
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: T+ on March 19, 2015, 02:52:43 pm: Iowa State loses in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory

I'll see you all next year
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: RWG on March 19, 2015, 03:39:03 pm: rofl oops

figured Duke was a weak 1 seed so had ISU to the Final 4. Should have figured. ISU has never done anything good in this tournament before. 20 minutes of research cause me to overlook this.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 03:52:06 pm: 14 seeds doing major work in this tournament. Though Georgia State over Baylor isn't near the surprise UAB over Iowa State was.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 03:55:29 pm: Quote from: m8aRiNo on March 19, 2015, 03:39:03 pm
rofl oops

figured Duke was a weak 1 seed so had ISU to the Final 4. Should have figured. ISU has never done anything good in this tournament before. 20 minutes of research cause me to overlook this.

They are, it's just the 3 seeds as a group are also the weakest I can recall for like 20 years.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: T+ on March 19, 2015, 03:59:04 pm: Georgia State's coach reaction to beating 3 seed Baylor

(https://i.imgur.com/MakLhtC.gif)
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 04:04:48 pm: btw, for "biggest in recent memory" it might not even be top 5. We've had Duke losing as a 2 and a 3 seed in the last few years to lehigh and mercer, multiple 15's beating 2's (norfolk state over missouri the biggest upset we may ever see, that was 16 beating a 1 equivalent, norfolk ran like god that game obviously) including one into the S16 (Florida Gulf Coast), and basically a 14 or worse winning a game every year and VCU going from the playin to making the final four all within the last 5 years.

Craziness is this tournament and why people enjoy it.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: T+ on March 19, 2015, 04:15:29 pm: Apparently the 3rd biggest upset since 2011

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-uabs-upset-of-iowa-state-changed-our-march-madness-predictions/

Edit: This is what I had based my statement off of

(https://imgur.com/gCGsE6l.jpg)

(https://imgur.com/MfiIHcb.jpg)
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: Lark on March 19, 2015, 05:24:16 pm: What a foolish play by the SMU player. That loss is gonna sting for a while.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: T+ on March 19, 2015, 05:27:01 pm: Brutal loss, a questionable call too
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 05:32:03 pm: Those %'s you have to take with a grain of salt, they aren't doing it right yet but when 99.99% don't know or care about the difference that's what you get.

Apparently underdogs are 10-0 atm against the spread.

btw, that was the correct and only call they could make; it wasn't likely to go in but you can't go up and touch a ball that has a chance on the way down. Clear goaltend.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: wheatrich on March 19, 2015, 09:32:58 pm: Damn good day though so far despite harvard. if Unc got one of the other 13's I'd have bet them to lose outright but oh well.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: Wody on March 21, 2015, 10:34:53 pm: super Salty about villanova and all my 1 point game losses
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Fill out your bracket!]
Post by: T+ on March 22, 2015, 12:30:01 am: Notre Dame v Butler DAMN what a game

Every year Butler puts together a team of fighters you can never count them out, something to keep in mind for future years
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 22, 2015, 02:16:12 pm: major virginia salt posting upcoming.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 22, 2015, 02:31:53 pm: Lville UNI felt like a winner = final four game a week ago. Correct picker of that game who had them going a bit further has a leg up in the pool (champ is 320 points again, so it's probably irrelevant in the end unless you're a kentucky picker)

Just kinda nuts 3 best teams heading into the tournament got all placed on the same side (kentucky, wisconsin, arizona in your favorite order) then the next 3 got placed into the same quadrant (gonzaga/utah/duke). [virginia's only real scoring threat broke his finger and never regained the touch and those teams really struggle in the tourn but still took an ice cold shooting day to lose though]

Is it just me or does goose's bracket either win or flame out before everyone else's every year?
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: T+ on March 22, 2015, 03:02:23 pm: Virginia salt post can't say I'm surprised considering who they were playing though

I thought Bennett would be able to muster something out of a former #2 team in the country
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: RWG on March 22, 2015, 03:56:44 pm: Virginia mate

welp guess I'll have to try again next year. I should have foolishly just trolled with Duke and Kentucky in the finals and probably would have come out OK.

yeah Wheat like, I knew I could have picked Kentucky to win bla bla but in order to win outright you need to take risks. I actually had UNI in the FF from the East but changed it when I thought 2 Iowa teams meeting in the FF was too ridic. I considered Utah in the FF from the West and was inches away from going Utah vs UNI, which would have been that different kind of bracket and possibly everything A-OK setting me up with a chance to win still.

Oh well, such is lifearino.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: Jimbo on March 22, 2015, 05:10:43 pm: I am ready to accept my inevitable letdown loss by Wisconsin before they even get a shot to play Kentucky in the final four.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 22, 2015, 06:23:08 pm: arizona wisconsin would be the best E8 matchup the tourn will have seen in some time. Wisco would have no shame losing that game. North Carolina on the other hand...
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 22, 2015, 07:49:36 pm: and that's why kansas doesn't schedule wichita state

for wiff's eyes only in spoiler

Spoiler
It's for the best, if KU won, ND would've hit a buzzer 3 on them to win and you instinctively go YESSSSSSS WOOOOOOOO and would've ended up without a gf
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 27, 2015, 11:24:24 pm: ugh these football stadium games are terrible, huge advantage for the team with the better inside presence because nobody can make a bucket elsewhere. Hopefully they never do that again. Didn't realize that's where those games were... welp.

what's that you say? That's where next year's final four is? well ****.

edit--they brought back the utah players so duke could shoot free throws and ofc that ended up covering the spread. The two most exciting things in this tourn so far this year and they're both only gambling moments.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: T+ on March 28, 2015, 03:33:13 am: Maryland Terps signed one of the top front court recruits in the country

We'll see you in the Final Four next year boys
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 28, 2015, 08:35:22 pm: if wisconsin shoots like that for another 2 games they will win the title.

Arizona very dumb team and dumb coach tho, so many ridiculous mistakes. Refs blew the whistle wayyyyyy too darn much, was hopeful it wouldn't impact the outcome but with wisco's shooting night it ended up not mattering.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: Jimbo on March 28, 2015, 09:05:24 pm: Yeah that was a ridiculous 2nd half with the FG shooting. Holy crap.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 28, 2015, 10:18:50 pm: every year we get the would this great college team beat a pro team?

the answer is always NO. GOD NO YOU HAVE TO BE A MORON TO EVEN CONSIDER THIS FOR A SECOND NO.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Good luck]
Post by: wheatrich on March 28, 2015, 11:01:34 pm: 1:10 with ball and don't even get a 2 for 1. Just handing kentucky the ball earlier would've been a better possession. hell of an effort--Kentucky wasn't the better team in that game. edit--I have NO idea why they decided to milk clock + iso the last minute and a half when the ENTIRE game normal offense was doing just fine.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Down to Kentucky, WI, Mich St, Duke!]
Post by: sdkess on March 30, 2015, 05:17:17 pm: I can't believe my bracket is still in pretty good shape. Oklahoma and Arizona losing messed up my Final Four, but I still have 2 teams in. My ACC bias paid off this time. ND and NC State messed up a lot of people.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Down to Kentucky, WI, Mich St, Duke!]
Post by: Jimbo on April 05, 2015, 12:42:21 am: Rematch of week 4! Wisconsin vs Duke baby! (Duke won @ Wisconsin 80-70). I thought it was over after that non-call of the flagrant foul, what the hell man. Unreal defensive play this time around though by Wisconsin. This makes up (almost) for the NFC Championship choke...
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Duke v Wisconsin, Ng v NgDad]
Post by: Ngamer on April 06, 2015, 04:57:29 am: With 5 minutes left, that was the most upset about officiating I've ever been (yes, topping even the Golden Tate incident). The charge call on Gasser that wiped out the 3 pointer was awful (the defender was already falling backwards before Gasser came down from his jump/pass) but okay, those things happen. Getting a non-flagrant/0 foul shots from Gasser then getting punched in the face on the other end was infuriating, especially since all 3 refs reviewed the play on video afterward. But then to come back down the other way and get nailed with ANOTHER ticky-tack charge call really put me over the edge. "Haven't you ever heard of a make up call!"

I mean we were playing our hearts out against a very evenly-matched opponent for the second time, sure it hurt to lose to a perfect clutch shot last year but at least the result was settled on the court. This time it felt like we'd just slightly outplayed Kentucky only to have the game taken away from us in the final ten minutes.

...luckily at that point the crew did finally remember what a make up call is and the next three borderline decisions swung our way to even it back up, and that's all we needed to close things out! Well that plus another fantastic shot from Dekker and solid foul shooting.

What a dream run, got to prove the 2014 team was no fluke against Oregon (despite how they were killing us by 12 pts at halftime) and Arizona (despite forcing OT last year), redeemed ourselves against Kentucky and now have a chance to do the same against the only opponent to make a fool of us on our home court in Duke. Honestly after last night I couldn't be upset no matter what happens in the title game though.

Now that MIGHT have something to do with how a Duke win would earn me first place in the Elite plus #1 in my GameFAQs pool and the #2 spot in my big 225 person pool also! If the Badgers take home the title this year's Elite Champ would instead be my Dad, which would also be pretty cool (he's played with us every year and never come out on top).
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Congrats to Duke and Ng!]
Post by: wheatrich on April 07, 2015, 02:17:46 am: I can only hope you were at some gathering or bar with wisco fans and said out loud some variant of YES MY BRACKET WON!!!! right when the game ended. darn ng, only 99.9 thought you would've ended up at the 100.0 mark. Should've expected the entire state of Iowa to let you down. Btw, you're in the drawing for the grand prize but obv odds are ridiculous.

Refs were awful all tournament.
Title: Re: March Madness 2015 with The Elite [Congrats to Duke and Ng!]
Post by: MostFrantic on April 07, 2015, 09:38:46 am: Congrats to Ngamer for pulling off a remarkable bracket! And thanks for setting up the bracket once again. It's something I always look forward to.