Second Weekend Of Games Is Here

We are back in action Thursday night. Rounds three and four of our bracket contest, with sixteen teams remaining. I enjoyed the first weekend of games as usual. Thursday was quite crazy and hurt a lot of brackets, while Friday was almost to script with only one lower seed team winning. Were there any surprises, perhaps UCLA was to me, yet I know a few pick sheets selected them. I listened to the experts that said they shouldn't have been included, so naturally I have them losing in the first round. But think about it, you just gave a team inspiration by telling them they shouldn't be there. Hindsight, it makes sense that they were victorious.

With the pending two rounds of games, increases the points scored per game, five and eight points respectfully. If you are behind, this is where you can catch up. I've been doing this for nineteen years now, almost every year someone in the middle of the pack will win if they can keep their final four teams intact. And if you still have a shot at first place (or the top five for that matter), you obviously are still in the hunt. If you check the Player Scenarios link, you can see what your best place finish, your worst place finish and who you need to root for. It's a very valuable link to see how you fair against the other brackets.

If we look at the Current Standings, tops in points with 87, are two pick sheets, Drew Wittchow 1 and Mitch Hahn. Yet, one has Kentucky and one has Duke.

All of the office pool contest links can be found in the right column under the Office Pool Menu.

I might be off by one bracket and I'm waiting on a couple checks to arrive in the US Mail yet, but once I have everyone's entry fee, I believe there will be 77 paying pick sheets. We are paying out first five pick sheets with the following breakdown:

1st - 50%
2nd - 20%
3rd - 15%
4th - 10%
5th - 5%

I have the Payouts link updated, but I my official bracket count isn't 100% yet. So this may change by just a few bucks or so.

Enjoy the games....

Down To Eight Teams

Florida Gulf Coast could not repeat the magic from last weekends rounds of games. They started out hot, were ahead 24-14, and all was looking great for them. Then the tied turned and Florida Gators dominated for the remainder of the game, sending the virtually unknown school home.

We lost another #1 seed with Michigan, who appeared to be on their way to a loss. They found a way to string some points together and mount a comeback to tie the game with under 10 seconds and knock Kansas out of the tournament. Which, oddly enough, was the first overtime game of the tournament.

Stats From Our Bracket Contest

Top Three picks sheets: Chris Belcher, Melissa Cuddihy, Stevo M. #4.

Out of 84 pick sheets....
7 pick sheets correctly picked 5 of 8 teams correct.
77 picked Louisville to win
47 picked Duke
0 picked Wichita St
54 picked Ohio St
13 picked Michigan
44 picked Florida
8 picked Syracuse
11 picked Marquette

Upcoming Tournament Games

Saturday
3:30 - #3 Marquette vs #4 Syracuse
6:05 - #2 Ohio St vs #9 Wichita St

Sunday
1:20 - #3 Florida vs #4 Michigan
4:05 - #1 Louisville vs #2 Duke

Current Standings
Projected Standings
Player Scenarios