In honor of the kickoff of March Madness today, I donned my appropriate swag. The Rector dudes are participating in the bracket wars on the NYTimes site in the “HilltopGang” Group — email me if you want to join (this year you have to be “invited” from the program to join). Of course, I picked Duke to go all the way, although I’m aware that they’re “not big enough down low” and depend too much on three-point shots to win it all, but Coach K just won the Olympic gold medal with a smallish team, so I figure he knows what he’s doing. And the Big East teams have been beating each other up, North Carolina’s point guard is injured, Memphis has gotten fat on marchmallows in their conference, so it’s not like the four headed monster of top seeds that stormed the Final Four last year. Enjoy the show and play-along if you can.
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Well, it looks like I won’t be last, at least…
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It’s Sunday morning and two of the final 4 are decided — UConn & ‘Nova. I had neither but somehow I’ve jumped from 4th to 2nd place in our group since Wednesday. Damn that Chalk bastard! He’s too good!
Seeking inspiration, I checked out the “Top Scorers” in the NYT pool and a few things struck me:
1) The top 5 scorers pretty much haven’t missed a call since the first round (OK, that’s to be expected or they wouldn’t be at the top);
2) Although none of them has more than 5 or 6 incorrect picks in the whole tournament, virtually all of the top scorers bungled the Miami Regional bracket, which was where Arizona & Cleveland State were upset winners — analysis: the top scorers all picked a lot of chalk;
3) The top 5 scorers picked four different combinations for the final game and none picked the same final match-up and champion. So the thing is far from decided. I’m rooting for busykid76 because, well, I picked the same final game & victor as he did.
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I’m looking in on Sunday morning of the Elite Eight as well, and am disappointed (but not surprised) to find myself in last place, although the early leader — Dub — is right beside me…
…however, I notice that of the Staff Picks only THREE out of the 26 sports section pickers (who *ought* to know more than most folks) are leading Chalk, and I’ve even got more points than one of them — he must be an OSU alum who picked them to go deep…(ouch!)
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OMG — I’m the only only one left alive after the Elite Eight! If UConn beats the hometown team next Saturday, I believe I’ll pull ahead (of the humans, that is — Chalk looks like a lock for first…)
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