March Madness 2016 [congrats to Nova & Ng!]

[Ngamer]

The bracket's been set and the pool is ready for our 16th year of picking the NCAA men's basketball tourney results!  The competition will be hosted on ESPN as always; here's the link

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2016/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/2016/en/group?groupID=42871

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

March Madness Team Draft

On Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday) 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
QB
Gabby
Third
Jimbo

Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cuA8ki80EMtnJNHXF_wLdU9bBN_G-3AmD-6hCxnO2rc/edit?usp=sharing
---

Our Proud, Proud History
2015 - http://forums.the-elite.net/index.php?topic=20218
 Champ: Duke, Elite Champ: Ngamer
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 by Yuku wizards
  Champ: North Carolina, Elite Champ: ???
2004 - Eaten by Yuku wizards
  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

[wheatrich]

Enjoyed the committee trolling texas vs texas A&M in front of a ton of oklahoma fans and rigging Indiana/Kentucky/North Carolina for the old people network.  Smart of them to throw tulsa in so people wouldn't be super mad about syracuse getting there (they went 0-3 against another 10 seed).  Did a great job of using top 50 wins as a metric for getting in when all the mid majors who got left out don't get to play that many games against the top 50.  Actually thought valpo was getting in when the state of Oregon got overseeded because valpo played both tough on the road (and won one of them) but the bracket got leaked and I'm sure the ncaa will crack down on that guy instead of say all the corruption.  Sending a playin winner to spokane was terrible and villanova's actually supposed to be in the east, not the south--but hey who's checking.

anyway overall bracket strength  south > midwest > east >>>>> west

Should be a fun year when the 12 seeds have less losses than the 1 seeds anyway.

[Jimbo]

You heard it here folks, UW Green Bay will upset #3 seed Texas A&M!

[wheatrich]

You heard it here folks, UW Green Bay will upset #3 seed Texas A&M!

I'm just hoping the OU fans will have the place rocking rooting against the texas teams.  Might depend when all the games tip off compared to the OU one.

[Rigger in Chief]

Good god of course the committee pits us against either Texas or A&M....fucking kill me

[TheFlash]

Wow, thanks Ng for getting this going. I would love to host the Madness Auction 2016!

I can't run the auction draft on Tuesday night, how do people feel about Wednesday?

Everyone who is interested should post their available time windows for Wednesday evening.  I can probably run it anywhere from 6 E to well beyond midnight E, but would probably prefer a start time somewhere in the 9-10ish range.  I know we can do it in less than 2 hours, probably 90 minutes would be a fair target.

[Cyberwrath87]

NCAA of course loves to troll IU by giving us a 5 and making us play Kentucky in the second round. Then if we escape our reward is getting to play the overall #1 to get into the E8. Thanks, committee. Wonder  if it would have even changed if we didn't lose in the first round of the B10 tourney, but they probably had it out for us.

Still can't wait though!

[deletedprofile.u]

Sports are confusing.

 

[Rigger in Chief]

Sports are confusing.

 

Waow what are you Sports illiterate or something 

[TheFlash]

I will host the auction draft with a

start time between 9:45 and 10 Eastern

WEDNESDAY

 In the past it has been hard to start because we are always waiting on one more guy who may or may not come. So the very latest it would start is 10E but if you are not there by 9:45E then you might miss out. I encourage everyone to show up by 9:30 or so, to get a grasp on the rules and procedures. Then when it seems like everyone is ready, we will begin.

Traditionally the draft is held in AIM, but we did Mumble last year. How would people feel about using either Discord or Mumble this year? I think Discord might be the most accessible for everyone. I will update the thread by tomorrow evening with exact location details.

[TheFlash]

Ready to start the auction draft in 20-30 minutes. So far we have several people checking in on AIM but if you don't use AIM post here and we can consider switching to Discord.

[Ngamer]

Team auction draft COMPLETE, our managers this year were Ngamer Thingy QB Gabby Third Jimbo, complete results on the sheet below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cuA8ki80EMtnJNHXF_wLdU9bBN_G-3AmD-6hCxnO2rc/edit?usp=sharing

wheat, who got the best value with their 100 bitcoins this year?

[TheFlash]

Sorry but they weren't bitcoins this year, just Coins.

[RWG]

IN to become the first three time champ in elite history!

[wheatrich]

guess it has to be gabby, wichita state should've gone for the highest # by far in your format.  jimbo the worst at a glance, bought a bunch of teams that are higher seeded then their team's play though MSU certainly can win it all.

Little Rock for as many points as they have losses was good too.

[wheatrich]

Only thing bad about today was all the time stuck watching the Pitt Wis abomination.  Worst tournament game I can remember in many years.

[Rigger in Chief]

MSU certainly can win it all.

RIP

[wheatrich]

next round is fun a 14 is gonna be favored over a 6 and 2 11's are going to be favored over 3's  (one might be a flip, but it's gonna be very close in the betting line)

[Ngamer]

Nice try Pitt, but it'll take more than the most pathetic first half in the 3000 year history of amateur athletics to hold down my Final Four-bound Badgers!

Now for some fun stats:
- not a single perfect bracket survived Round One (out of the nearly 12 million entered on ESPN that is, and actually only 11 even made it to 31/32)
- despite missing the #1 line Michigan St. was trusted to win it all by fully 22% of users nationwide- barely back of favorite Kansas (25%) and well ahead of next closest North Carolina (15%)
- Mid Tenn > Mich St was considered the second least-likely of all possible results this bracket, getting picked only 2.2% of the time (only Austin Peay upsetting Kansas could have topped it)
- this was the 4th biggest upset in tourney history based on Vegas odds, as Mich St was favored by 16.5 points and them losing straight up was considered a 90 to 1 possibility

[Rigger in Chief]

[Ngamer]

Oh my gooooooooooooooooood Badgers, you can't keep doing final minutes like that to us, I already explained how close this state has come to a half dozen heart attacks in the last 14 months from the Packers alone!

Youse is giving me the business atm for claiming to be a super fan yet picking Xavier, I've been trying to explain that my choice wasn't due to a lack of faith but rather from having too much information.  In other words I'm fully aware that our best player/offensive star Nigel Hayes somehow forgot how to shoot a basketball one month ago.  You'd think I'm joking but not really; over the last three games (BIG tourney + NCAAs) he's literally made 3 out of 37 shot attempts that weren't layups, including going zero for 17 from three point range.  ...and yet we've pulled out two close wins during that stretch.  It shouldn't be remotely possible!

Obviously everyone's talking about Bronson Koenig's heroics in the final minute, and with good reason because I mean, WHAT?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSbik3wOcM#t=111

But that was such a frustrating game to watch.  It was a classic rough and tumble Big Ten-style game in the first half with the referees letting everything go, then out of nowhere they started clamping down and calling everything in the second half.  If they'd been consistent it would have been fine but there were so many weird calls as well, like a Xavier guard tripping over his own feet at midcourt and our defender drawing the foul for "tripping" despite never touching him, or our center Ethan Happ getting shoved out of bounds on the baseline but having it ruled a "slip" so no foul was called.

Fortunately though we got a make up call on that borderline offensive foul to give the ball back to Koenig with 2 seconds left, so in the end I can't complain!


Looking at the bigger picture, Austin comes out of the weekend with the lead in our pool with an impressive 47 points (good for the 97th percentile overall).  Unfortunately he's one of the 6 out of our current top 9 players that's already been eliminated by picking Michigan State to go all the way!  In all there were 10 MSU brackets in our group but everyone else is still alive, except for one Wisconsin resident who has been banned from the state for picking Xavier to cut down the nets this year.  Everyone else is very much in contention.

[wheatrich]

you picked duke over wisconsin last year and it worked out rather well for you despite me giving you the business.  Wisco's been in the 2 worst non blowout games of the tourn, hope they go out soon just for my eyeballs sake but they play Notre Dame instead of a good team so they might get to E8.  Who'd have thought that after the Western Illinois opener home loss?  (and western ended up worse than you think they are)

Northern Iowa's collapse the most ridiculous and unfortunate I've ever seen.  Up 12 with 35ish seconds left, scored a bucket, and still blew it.   Definitely takes over Maryland's massive choke some years ago as the worst in the tourn.  (can't wait for A&M to beat OU and all OU fans have an irrational hatred of NIU (despite the fact that Northern Iowa is actually UNI).

edit--also gotta give points to CBS for pointing out how wichita state got boned on the schedule having to play Tue late, Thu late, then Sat early even though the TV schedule is set by CBS.  (obv, they didn't mention that last part)

[Ngamer]

Oh and I forgot to mention, props to the Big Ten- it looked like they were heading for disaster after that embarrassing performance out of Michigan St, but they've actually salvaged the situation very well to manage an 8-4 record (counting Michigan's first four win).

But, holy crap ACC!  They're now an astonishing 12-1, becoming the first conference to advance a full 6 teams to the Sweet 16.  Which is really crazy considering

- none of the teams play each other so an Elite Eight featuring only two schools (likely Kansas & Oklahoma) who weren't in the ACC Tournament Elite 8 is a possibility
- their only loss was by Pitt in a game where they went shot for shot with a team that just knocked out a highly respected 2 seed
- they weren't even at full strength for this bracket; don't forget that Louisville went 26-8 in the regular season including wins over Syracuse, Pitt, Duke, UNC... and only wasn't in the tournament as something like a 5 or 6 seed because they were banned from the postseason after hiring strippers to party with recruits

[MostFrantic]

Congrats to Ngamer for having the top bracket for the second year in a row. As always, the bracket kept my interest in the tourney and many great games were seen. Thanks for putting this together once again and I'll look forward to next year.

[RWG]

Wow, I ended up in 2nd place again.  Crazy to think I was *that* close to becoming the elite's first three time champ!  Congrats Ngamer for making the 2 time winner's board a little more crowded!