NCAA Championship - and Results of A Thinking Man's Tourney Time

OOOOOOOOppppsss!! Sorry!

I just discovered that I accidently put this post up at the church blog (The Pastor's Pen) rather than here at my personal blog (A Thinking Man's Thoughts). This was posted on the Monday of the Championship game (and I am going to publish it as though it was here on that date so that I can find it easier next year if I need to do so).

Tonight is the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game between the University of Connecticut Huskies and the Butler Bulldogs.

The fact that these two teams are in the Finals is extraordinary in a lot of ways. I have not had a lot of opportunities to watch many of the games this year, but I have greatly enjoyed most of the ones I did see. There are some incredible athletes at this level - and as a fan of the underdog, this game has provided a bunch of upsets as the little guys took down the top seeds over and over again.

Last year when Butler made the Final against Duke there were a lot of comments and comparisons between Butler and the movie Hoosiers with the small school underdog Hickory winning the Indiana High School basketball championship. Since Butler made it this far last year, their return trip has not generated quite as much as surprise, but in some ways this trip is actually more similar to the REAL story underlying upon which the movie Hoosiers is (loosely) based.

For instance, while the coach in the movie is an old grizzled coach and the team makes an incredible one-year run, in real-life the Milan team was coached by a very young coach (who was a graduate of Butler University) and the championship in 1954 was actually the culmination of an incredible 2-year run like Butler is currently experiencing. (The Milan 1952-1953 team had surprised everyone by reaching the Indiana High School Final Four in 1953 and then came back the next year to win it all.)

I commented on some of the other similarities last year - here.

Included were these comments (original includes a couple of links - and please excuse the self-quote):

For instance, the movie's final scene where tiny Hickory High won the championship was filmed at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse, the real person upon whom the movie's basketball star "Jimmy Chitwood" is based upon was a young man named Bobby Plump, who followed his career at Milan by playing at ... you guessed it - Butler University. The coach of the 1954 Milan team was a graduate of ... Butler University.

I am rooting for Butler, but Connecticut has had an incredible run in their own right with an incredible run throughout the Big East Tournament preceding this tournament.

A Thinking Man's Tourney Time Results

Since no one in A Thinking Man's Tourney Time has either one of these teams reaching the finals, we can declare the final results of this year's tourney.

This year A Thinking Man's Tourney Time was the year of the Andys. Winning it all this year is Andy Rupert. Andy followed up his runner-up finish last year to win it all this year with an impressive bracket in a year of bracket-busting games and bracket-busting teams. For instance, Andy had 11 of the Sweet 16.

Congratulations to Andy!

Not only did we have an Andy win it all, we also had an Andy come in second place. Andy Efting rebounded nicely this year as he almost went from worst to first, falling about one early game loss away from winning it all in an impressive display of bracket redemption.

# Player Points Wins Championship Pick
1 Andy Rupert 185 38 Ohio St. (145)
2 Andy Efting 180 35 Ohio St. (133)
3 Jon Knisely 166 35 Kansas (141)
4 Matt Jury 163 35 Ohio St. (198)
5 Ron Bean 162 34 Kansas (155)
6 Frank Sansone 159 34 Duke (179)
7 Sarah Nething 151 29 Kansas (157)
8 Don Johnson 144 31 Ohio St. (147)

Thanks again to all who played.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Tourney Update

Well, with the Sweet Sixteen half-over, I thought I would give a quick update on The Thinking Man's Tourney Time.

We have a pretty close tourney this year, although Andy Rupert has a pretty significant lead overall and I am not sure he can be caught. Andy Efting has got a pretty solid 2 position, but the next three players are only separated by a total of four points.

In the wild world that is the tourney, last year's winner is bringing up the end, but everyone's eventual champion is still alive except for mine (Duke).

I am enjoying Bible Conference at BJU, so I have not had much time to post or to watch games.

Here are the standings so far.

1 Andy Rupert 176 points 36 correct
2 Andy Efting 164 points 32 correct
3 Ron Bean 158 points 33 correct
4 Jon Knisely 157 points 33 correct
6 Matt Jury 154 points 33 correct
7 Frank Sansone 150 points 32 correct
8 Don Johnson 140 points 30 correct
8 Sarah Nething 140 points 27 correct
\

A Thinking Man's Tourney Time

March Madness is my favorite sporting event of the year. I love the event for the excitement of the actual games and for the great story lines that usually come out each year. It is neat to see the little guys make a run at the big guys and send them home. It is exciting to see players come out of nowhere and have the tournament of their lives. It is cool to have so many games going on at once (at least in the early rounds) - this also allows you to skip out on the ones that are blowouts and watch the more interesting games.

Each year for a number of years, I have completed a bracket and I have run bracket competitions. I am not sure when I started this, but I know I have run bracket competitions but I remember students at HCA and GCCS being involved in bracket competitions and doing the scoring manually before the days of all these nice internet sites that figure out the scoring for you. For the last few years I have hosted a bracket challenge here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts and this year is no exception.

I have not had the opportunity to watch much of the tournament yet, but I have enjoyed the parts that I have had the opportunity to watch. (I have had the opportunity to listen to some and have found Westwood One to be doing a great job with the radio broadcasts of the game.) I happened to be home briefly (I was bringing home a couple of bookcases) on Thursday and was able to see the last minute or so of the Temple v. Penn State game. Even though I was only able to watch about a minute of the game, I saw two incredible plays in just that little time.

With about 17 seconds left, Penn State's Battle put up a three-point shot from well beyond the arc to tie the ball game. It was an incredible shot and I yelled "Wow" to my son. He came in and watched the last seconds of the game with me. If you watched the game, you know that this was not the end of the story. Temple came back with ball and Fernandez had the ball in his hands with the time running out. He pivoted over and over looking for a shot, but was pretty well defended. With one second left, he leaned over to his left and put up an incredible leaning shot that went in to win the game for Temple. Wow! What a play. THAT is why I love March Madness.

Anyway, after the first round of this year's NCAA Tournament, out standings at The Thinking Man's Tourney Time show a couple of Andy's up in the lead. Long-time sufferer Andy Efting has taken the early lead with 127 points, followed closely by Andy Rupert with 121 points.

Ron Bean has a perfect West Region Bracket so far and Jon Knisely has a perfect East Region Bracket. Everyone other than Matt Jury and I have at least all of their Elite 8 teams remaining. Matt was perhaps doing a little more "rooting" than picking since he had Penn State in the Elite 8. I was a little too convinced in the chances for St. John's since they had knocked off some pretty good teams this year.

So, here are a standings and totals after the Round of 64.

1. Andy Efting 127 points
2. Andy Rupert 121 points
3. Frank Sansone 112 points
4. Matt Jury 110 points
5. Jon Knisely 109 points
6. Ron Bean 108 points
7. Don Johnson 107 points
8. Sarah Nething 102 points

The Final Four - but no final scores

This year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament continued its weird ways over the last few days as little Butler has made it to the Final Four and Michigan State defeated Tennessee in an exciting game.

Duke ends up being the only 1 seed remaining and the championship game is guaranteed to feature a 5 seed (as 5 seed Butler plays 5 seed Michigan State for the right to make the championship game). (The last time a 5 seed made the final was in 2000 when Indiana made the Final game.)

If Michigan State or Butler wins it all, they will be the lowest seed to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship since 1988 when Kansas (6th seed) beat Oklahoma.

As far as The Thinking Man's Tourney goes, we have a winner who is guaranteed, but some of the other spots are still up in the air.

Sarah Nething will be a winner.

Don Johnson currently sits in 2nd place, but Andy Rupert could move into second place with a Duke win over WV.

So, here are our current standings.

1. Sarah Nething 190 points - 36 correct
2. Don Johnson 179 points - 36 correct
3. Ron Bean 178 points - 37 correct
4. Andy Rupert 174 points - 36 correct
5. Jon Knisely 169 points - 35 correct
6. Matt Jury 160 points - 35 correct
7. Frank Sansone 139 points - 31 correct
8. Andy Efting 119 points - 25 correct

Just my thoughts,

Frank

We are down to the Elite Eight

This has been one of the craziest NCAA Basketball Tournaments that I can ever recall, although some things seem to have returned to normal after this latest round. Depending on how the next round of games turn out, we could have a fairly normal looking Final Four (Kentucky, Duke, Kansas Sate, Michigan State) after a tournament that has been anything but normal.

The game last night between Xavier and Kansas State was incredible. I did not start watching the game until the final quarter of regulation, but it was an incredible ending of regulation and the first overtime. I was rooting for Xavier, but it was a great game anyway. I wonder if Xavier's coach would have been better off not calling the timeout that allowed Kelley to get back on the floor, but it was an exciting game.

I would have loved to see more of the Northern Iowa game, but the local channel only showed the last minute or so of it - by the time it was basically over.

Our Thinking Man's Tournament is nearing the end. Sarah Nething has a pretty decent lead after the first three rounds, although she can mathematically still be caught. If I am accurate in my understanding, Mr. Bean needs Kentucky to win it all and Duke and Kansas State to make it to the Final Four in order to win it all. (Doing so would give him at total of 202 points and Sarah a total of 201, wow!) Other than that scenario, Sarah will win it all.

Here is our standings after the Sweet Sixteen.

1. Sarah Nething (190 points, 36 correct games)
2. Don Johnson (174 points, 35 correct games)
3. Ron Bean (173 points, 36 correct games)
4. Jon Knisely (169 points, 35 correct games)
5. Andy Rupert (163 points, 34 correct games)
6. Matt Jury (155 points, 34 correct games)
7. Frank Sansone (134 points, 30 correct games)
8. Andy Efting (119 points, 25 correct games)

Many of the players have four of the final eight teams - mostly the same four (Kentucky, West Virginia, Duke & Kansas State). Don Johnson (the Canadian non-basketball fan) has five of the final eight including two of the lower seeds still alive (Michigan State, Baylor, Kansas State, Duke, and Kentucky)

Poor Andy E. If you looked at his Elite Eight before the tournament started, you would have expected more of them to have survived (Kansas, Ohio State, Syracuse, Pitt, Villanova, New Mexico, Kentucky). His bracket only includes one long-shot in the elite eight (Texas A&M - a 5 seed), yet he only has 1 of his Elite Eight teams remaining.

Anyway, we'll see tomorrow if we have a final winner or not.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Wow! What a Tournament!

This has been a crazy NCAA Tournament. The number one overall seed, Kansas, went down in the second round to Norther Iowa (who?). Mighty Georgetown falls to Ohio University (not Ohio State - Ohio University is located in little Athens, Ohio - the closest town with a Wal-Mart to where my in-laws live in Ohio). An Ivy League team - Cornell - makes it to the Sweet 16.

I have not been able to watch very much of any game, so far. I was able to listen to the last half of Northern Iowa's shocker over Kansas, however - what a game.

I think my bracket is the worst bracket of my life of picking brackets. I would say it was obvious that I have not seen much college basketball this year, but with the unusual nature of some of these games, I am not sure watching the games would have helped much.

After the first two rounds of The Thinking Man's Tourney Time, we have a new leader and a new person on the bottom - sorry, Andy.

Taking over the lead of The Thinking Man's Tourney is Sarah Nething. Way to go, Sarah. Sarah has Kansas as the winner and has lost another Final Four team, so this is not over yet and Ron Bean (last year's champion) is right behind her. Sarah nailed every one of the 7-10 games in the first round, which is pretty impressive - especially since 3 of them were won by the lower seed. She also nailed Cornell's first round upset of Temple. I figure at least someone else involved knows you, but if you would give us a brief intro in the comments, it would be great to meet you.

Ron Bean is in second place. His most impressive bracket was the West - where he nailed 10 of the 12 games played there over the last four days. He also picked the Cornell upset of Temple.

So, after the first two rounds, here is the standings.

1. Sarah Nething - 170 points, 32 correct
2. Ron Bean - 155 points, 32 correct
3. Jon Knisely - 151 points, 31 correct
4. Don Johnson - 147 points, 30 correct
5. Andy Rupert - 145 points, 30 correct
6. Matt Jury - 137 points, 30 correct
7. Frank Sansone - 121 points, 27 correct
8. Andy Efting - 115 points, 24 correct

I will note that Sarah & Jon (Kansas), Don (Clemson) and myself (Maryland) have all already lost our predicted champions. Randy, Matt, and Andy E. all have Kentucky - who seems to be doing well and Andy Rupert has Ohio State, so there is a chance that someone will still have picked the eventual champion.

Anyway, just an update.

Frank

Standings after the first night of the NCAA Tournament

Well, that was a rough first day of NCAA Basketball action for my bracket. I am currently in LAST PLACE - UGH!

It was kind of funny as I checked the standing three times during the day. When I checked it the first time, I was in last. When I checked it the second time I had moved up into like third and then when I checked it this morning, I was back in last.

A couple of our returning players have the top two spots - Andy Rupert and Jon Knisely, with Andy having a one-point lead. The next two players are new players this year, Don Johnson and Sarah Nething. Welcome to the tournament! Don is from the land where basketball is just a game for kids who can't skate or handle a hockey stick, but he is doing pretty well, so far. He needs Clemson to make a DEEP Run (he has picked them for the champion) to continue to do well, but he is off to a good start so far - picking a couple of nice upsets with ODU over ND and Washington over Marquette. I don't believe I have met Sarah before, but she has started off well and the only team she has lost going into the next round is Marquette.

The top five after the first day of the tournament:

1. Andy Rupert - 60 points / 11 correct
2. Jon Knisely - 59 points / 11 correct
3. Don Johnson - 55 points / 10 correct
4. Sarah Nething - 50 points / 10 correct
5. Andy Efting - 48 points / 9 correct

Matt Jury and Ron Bean (last year's champion) are just one point ahead of me near the bottom!

Biggest upset correctly picked: I correctly picked 13 seed Murray State over 4 seed Vanderbilt. (None of us picked the University of Ohio over Georgetown - in fact, a number of folks have Georgetown moving on beyond this round.)

Anyway, just a quick update.

Frank

It's Tourney Time

* Updated - fixed link and added some instructions!

If anyone reading this is interested in being part of our annual March Madness Bracket Challenge - for fun only, please join us.

You can join us by following this link: http://athinkingmansthoughts.mayhem.cbssports.com/e
The pool password is "tourney"

To those who participated last year, in my attempt to send you all an invitation to join this year, I accidently selected "Remove Selected Players" thinking that the button was for "Invite Selected Players", so most of you have accidently been removed. I am very sorry. To participate again, you will have to go through the above way - unless you are still able to get in via the email link that Andy R. sent out yesterday.

If you have participated before and already have a CBS Sports ID, all you need to do is
1. Follow the link above
2. Login
3. Enter the Pool Password: tourney
4. Make your picks

If you have never participated before and would like to do so, follow these steps:

1. Follow the link above
2. Register for a CBS Sports ID (it's free)
3. After registering, it should ask you for the pool password - enter "tourney"
4. Make your picks

(Note: If you end up somewhere else after registering, just return to this page and follow the link and the instructions above :) ).

If you did not participate last year, we would love for you to join us this year.

A NOTE ABOUT THE RULES:

1. You are allowed to make up two brackets - one for your head and one for your "gut" if you wish.
2. Scoring is a Weight + Seed method of scoring

*In other words, points are awarded based on what round the game is in, plus the seed of the team. If you pick Morgan State to defeat W.V.U. in the first round and get it correct, you will get 16 points for that pick - 1 point for getting it correct in the first round PLUS 15 points for correctly picking that 15th seed to win. So, correctly picking an upset can help you out a lot, but it also means that if the team you pick to lose that game goes deep (and you picked them to go deep), you could be leaving a lot of points on the table. For example, in the previous example, if you chose WVU to beat Morgan State and to make the Final Four - and you are correct - the choice of WVU in that scenariou would actually be worth more than the upset pcik because WVU would earn you ultimately 18 points during the tournament (1st round - 3 [1+2], 2nd round - 4 [2+2], 3rd round - 5 [3+2], and 4th round - 6 [4+2]) (CONFUSED, YET?)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Congratulations, Ron Bean - as we come to our Final Game

We are almost done with the 2009 edition of A Thinking Man's Tourney Time - and once again, I did not win.

With one game left, I can safely predict that the winner of this year's tournament is Ron Bean and I can pretty much give the entire standings (since no one other than Andy E. has picked either UNC or Michigan State - and Andy is far enough behind that he will not be passing anyone else :) ).

So, here is the (almost) Final results.

1. Ron Bean 245 points and 48 correctly picked games - good job, Mr. Bean. For those who cannot see the brackets, Mr. Bean picked a completely perfect South bracket - getting every single game of every single round correct in that bracket. He also only missed two games in the West and three games in the East brackets. Very impressive.

2. Frank Sansone 241 points and 43 correctly picked games. Not bad. While I did not have a perfect region like Mr. Bean, I only missed three games in the Midwest and the West brackets - and considering the number of upsets in the Midwest region, I would think that my performance in that region was pretty impressive.

3. Jon Knisely 231 points and 46 correctly picked games. Pretty impressive for the newcomer. Not only did he beat his brother (you know that has to count for some type of bragging rights), he also had a very well-balanced bracket. Only missing 2 games in the East, 3 in the South, and 3 in the West.

4. Josiah Sansone 220 points and 35 correctly picked games. Hey, the kid did a good job, I think I'll keep him! He let his allegiance to Ohio State get the better of him, but a pretty nice showing overall. (At least he didn't beat his old man, though, whew!)

5. Sam Knisely 199 points and 41 correctly picked games. And so ends the run of our two-time champion. Not a bad tourney, but a little out of the running this year. Probably his only relief is that while Jon beat him, Jon did not win it all as Sam has done the previous two years.

6. Andy Rupert 198 points and 42 correctly picked games. Wow, so close to breaking into the top five. A very impressive showing in the West bracket, where the only game Andy missed was in picking BYU over Texas A & M in the first round. The best West bracket in the tourney.

7. Andy Efting 184 points and 39 correctly picked games. (With a potential for 191 points and 40 correct games if North Carolina wins tonight) I will say that even Andy's bracket doesn't look that bad. We had some pretty good picking this year. And, as Andy pointed out in a comment on the last post, he is the only one of the regular players who still has a chance of picking the actual winner of the tournament heading into tonight's game - as he has selected UNC to win it all.

For those of you who are wondering, here is how some of the hypothetical and mythical pickers did.

President Obama would have lost our Tourney Challenge. Even if UNC wins tonight (his pick), his best possible score is 183. He currently sits at 177 and 40 correct picks.

Picking the highest seed in each game (at the start of the tourney) would have placed you just between Josiah Sansone and Sam Knisely (theoreically in 5th place and moving Sam down to 6th place).

The coin flip picks ended up with 150 points and 22 correct games.

Picking the lower seed in each game (at the start of the tourney) would have netted 118 points and 10 correct games.

So, Congratulations, Ron Bean - our 2009 A Thinking Man's Tourney Time champion.

(On a side note, for those who actually still come here to read things on interest, I will be making a few "real" posts coming shortly, including a "Who said it" and a book review.)

Just my thoughts,

Frank