20070315

Jack would agree: Longhorn's #1

Oh, sure!
NOW
he tells us!

The Commish

whoever comes the closest to guessing the total points scored in the championship game. If you failed to enter a number in that field, you will be considered to have entered "0," which as I said in the invite, is a somewhat unlikely event.

The tiebreaker for "Best First Round" is whoever called the biggest upset. Longtime pool participants will recall that "first daughter" Lauren Dennehy is not particularly fond of that rule. Click here for details.

PAYOUTS

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

Well, we're back again for another fun-filled, action-packed NCAA basketball pool. Probably not as fun-filled or action-packed as the ancient Battle of Thermopylae mind you, but then again there was no shot clock or 3 point line available to the boys from Sparta 'back in the day." Or at least that's what Corinne Watterworth remembers. (I'm sure there's some really snappy Michigan State Spartan comment to make here too, but it's just not coming to me). And in reference to the "64" image on the home page, yeah, yeah, I know ... technically there's 65 teams, not 64. As Julie "Dancing Queen" Sheedy would say, "Whatever!"

1st place
$621
(60%)

2nd place
$310.50
(30%)

3rd place
$103.50
(10%)

Best 1st Rd
$25

Last place
$5 refund

In terms of the Commish and his immediate family, as we went to press they've opted for the following selections:

Kansas over Texas A&M

Kansas over Florida
Texas A&M over Texas

#13 Davidson over MD
#12 Illinois over Va. Tech
#11 VCU over Duke
#10 Texas Tech over BC
#10 Creighton over Nevada

In any event, welcome back to all of our pool returnees and welcome aboard to all of our newcomers. This year marks our 15th annual Great American March Madness pool, or as the mainstream media is calling it: GAMM XV. Already it's living up to the hype as we shattered the all-time record of 171 entrants set in 1999 with a whopping enrollment in our Bracketology 101 course of 213 entrants this year. Using my advanced mathematical skills (ie: a calculator), at $5 per entry the total pool jackpot this year is $1,065. A breakdown of the payouts can be found on the right hand sidebar. The tiebreaker for first, second, and third place is

Pssst ... see
the sidebar

Champion

Final Four

1st Rd
Upsets

Champion

Final Four

1st Rd
Upsets

Mrs Commish

Kansas over Georgetown

Kansas over Wisconsin
Georgetown over Tx A&M

#12 Illinois over Va. Tech
#12 Arkansas over USC
All 4 #10 seeds

Lauren

UCLA over Ohio St

UCLA over Florida
Ohio St over Texas

#12 Arkansas over USC
#10 Ga Tech over UNLV
#10 Gonzaga over Indiana
(BC over Georgetown
in second round!)

Jack

Texas over Wisconsin

Kansas over Wisconsin
Texas over Texas A&M

#12 Arkansas over USC
#11 GW over Vandy
All 4 #10 seeds

And yes, I know. I'm violating one of my own cardinal rules of bracketology: Kansas always goes out early. But as those who know me will attest, I'm not the brightest lamp in the living room. So in any event, for my money, the Big 12 was the best conference in the country this year. Between Kansas, Texas A&M, The General, Kevin Durant, Bob Huggins, etc, all banging it out against each other night after night over the last month or two in some tough, heart-stopping interconference

games, well, these are some very battle hardened teams heading into the tourney. That's why I've got 3 of them in my final four. And Kansas in particular looked great battling back against Texas in their conference final, and heads into the NCAAs on a nice little roll for themselves. The win over the Longhorns was just the kind of gut check game a team needs to get under their belt in order to win this thing. And before you say it, yes, I know, "those who forget the past ... " yada, yada, yada. I, of all people, don't need to be reminded of the Jayhawks' recent track record. Heck, as you'll recall, I'm actually a victim of Kansas' annual tournament swoon, as witnessed by the 2003 NCAA Finals.

As for my other finalist, now I will admit that Texas A&M gave me a scare when they lost a heartbreaker in their first game of the Big 12 tourney against Oklahoma State. But this is a proven tournament team however, top heavy with upperclassmen, including one of the country's most clutch players in Senior guard Acie Law, and teams with veteran guards are a must have. I am concerned about their potential 2nd round match up against Louisville as the game would be in Lexington, but if they get past them they'd conceivably draw Memphis and Ohio State in nearby San Antonio, and that proved to be too attractive for me to pass on. As for my other two Final Four selections, it killed me to pick Florida because I hate that Joe-Kim Noah dude, but you've got to respect a national champ who brings all their boys back for another run. Nobody has won back to back championships though since the Laettner/Hurley glory days of the Evil Empire, so I'm betting on the side of history on that one. And yes, I realize that directly contradicts my willingness one paragraph earlier to forget history in Kansas' case, but I really, really can't stand that Joe-Kim guy.

A #13 seed has advanced in 7 of the last 9 years.

Since going to a 64 team field in 1985, the Final Four has NEVER consisted of all four #1 seeds.

In the 21 years since then, there have been 38 instances of teams seeded #13 or lower knocking off their 1st round opponent.

Only once in the last 33 years has a team repeated as champ.

A #3 seed or lower has made it to the Final Four the last 13 straight years.

A #1 seed has made the Final Four 25 of the last 27 years

Steak > Cheese

My wife and I picking the same champ??
No good can possibly come of this

Dave Dawson picked this as well surprisingly enough. Or not.

And as for Texas, hey, you already heard my spiel on the Big 12, but that having been said, Kevin Durant is simply amazing. He is arguably the greatest freshman of all time. (hey, I said ARGUABLY!). Granted, #2 on that list may be that big guy on Ohio State, can't think of his name offhand, but you know who I mean ... really cool first name, looks like he could pass for Morgan Freeman's older brother? Back to Kevin Durant though, is it just me or does his last name remind you of the Pink Panther theme song? You know, "Durant, Durant, ... Durant, Durant, Durant .... Durrrrrant!"
Okay, so it's probably just me on that one.

I'm sure everyone's out there going "Geez, is he ever gonna shut up? I've got basketball games to watch!" Okay, okay, I'm done. Check back tomorrow for another update and please also be sure to check out our brand new "pool history" page, chock full of exciting pool statistics!

Any questions, email me at [email protected]

Later.

The Commish