H/T to Guyism’s Isaac for finding this highly mathematical quiz that asks you to name the 66 most successful teams in NCAA tournament history in 12:00 mins.

I was going to post my best gets, worst misses, and a photo of my board. Then I realized that would be giving everyone who sees that information a decisive advantage. Just know that I got 43/66.

Go take the quiz at Sporcle.com. Here’s one free hint:

Regardless of how demented the NCAA tournament gets played out, one prediction holds true, year in and year out – bad predictions. Thankfully, most of them were spoken in hushed tones – I can’t even seem to track down who Dick Vitale picked.

However, with the Final Four set to tip in two days, the time to come clean is now.

I implore you, let’s hear the worst prediction you made this NCAA tournament. Here’s mine taken from my post: NCAA Tournament: The Regions in 100 Words or Less:

Cornell is not all they’re cracked up to be, and everyone should be considering Temple for the Sweet-16 rather than picking Cornell to upset, because Evan Rodriguez is the real deal and Ryan Wittman is just a garden-variety nerd.

Cornell of course were exactly what they were cracked up to be – many a non-genius picked them to go to the Sweet-16. And that nerd Wittman’s NCAA tourney showing included a 20 point showing in their win over Temple, and 24 in their win over Wisconsin. As for Evan Rodriguez, if you do a search, your more likely to find Chi Chi Rodriguez highlights during tournament week. I’d be lying if I said that prediction was based on more on basketball knowledge, and less on just trying to to be a contrarian.

For all others willing to swallow your pride, and cop to poor NCAA tourney conjectures, leave it in the comments below.

His bracket was perfect through to the Sweet-16. He was 0-4 with his Final Four picks. Still, I can’t really give Alex Herrmann – the 17-year old autistic kid from Chicago – a hard time, I only got one Final Four pick – and it was Duke coming out of the Cupcake Region.

It’s sad to see it end for Alex, but I think I speak for everyone who went roughly 4 for 16 on the first day when I say you had a good run.

And where’s the other bracket boy’s bracket? The Lunardologist has been awful quiet this tourney season.

Here’s the photo of what was once an amazing bracket.

And now for something completely infuriating…

Photos via NBCChicago.com and ESPN.com

I’m in the Uproxx Pool of Awesome. The Intentional Foul pool. A pool at work. Another pool that a buddy just invited me too. Plus, I refrained from entering two others. Here’s the hitch: one bracket though – only smart way to do it, right?

At 12:20 today – with the tip of BYU vs. Florida – you’re officially out of time. I want to hear how invested everyone got this year. Let me know how many pools you’re in (leave a comment or shoot me an @ reply).

Anyone who entered more than ten pools gets a signed B/W 8 X 10 photo of me eating the bacon explosion – after I win it in the IF pool.

Pictured above, that’s my 2010 NCAA Champ pick.

UPDATE: This might be the worst bracket I have ever filled out. And not going to lie there have been some real dogs in the past. (Friday, Mar. 19 2:41 pm ET)

Photo via

The NCAA tournament is roughly 50 hours away – viva la rampant speculation!

I personally did 10 minutes for my peers on how Cornell is not all they’re cracked up to be, and everyone should be considering Temple for the Sweet-16 rather than picking Cornell to upset, because Evan Rodriguez is the real deal and Ryan Wittman is just a garden-variety nerd, thus…

It goes on. Nobody had a good time.

Fact is your friends and office mates want to condone your pontificating as much as they want to blow the whistle on the rampant gambling and implicate themselves.

But we can’t go completely silent, can we?

Therefore, I enlisted a few members of the sports blog intelligentsia to breakdown each region, only stipulation: brevity: get to a Final Four pick – and slip in a few madball Sweet-16ers (Notre Dame) – in 100 words or less.

That said…

East (Jameson LaMarca, Steady Burn):

With guys like John Wall & Demarcus Cousins playing out of their minds, I pick Kentucky going to the Elite 8 after knocking off Texas and Wisconsin. Across from them is Big East Champs West Virginia, who will mow through Morgan State, Clemson, and a tough Marquette.

Who’s in the Final Four? Here’s a big hint: it’s not a #1 seed. While Calipari’s boys have had a phenomenal season, I don’t see them playing on April 3rd. Da’Sean Butler is a beast inside and I think will be too much for the Ashley Judd cheering section.

Midwest (A. Isaac, Guyism):

Consider the Midwest one of the hardest brackets in recent NCAA tourney history.   In Kansas you have the overall #1 seed in the tournament and the best team in the country this year.  In Ohio State, Georgetown, and MSU you have 3 teams who have been ranked in the top 10 several times this season.  In Maryland, you have arguably one of the best players in the country in Greivis Vasquez.  Look for Kansas to get to the Final Four, although, a tough rematch of last year’s Sweet 16 looms with MSU and coach Tom Izzo.

West (Steve Melfi, NY Hoosier):

There are three teams with a shot: Syracuse, Pitt, Kansas St.

Kansas St. is just the wrong Kansas.

As for the other two, Syracuse won’t go 1 for 13 from three-point again against Pitt nor commit 19 second-half fouls.

Onuaku’s knee be damned; Syracuse is too good. Syracuse over Pitt.

Side note: Is it just me or have the past two years been really dull for making picks?  I just don’t see any upsets.  The NCAA is making it too easy for people who don’t follow college basketball to have a shot at winning their office pools.

South (Mike Hayes, Steady Burn):

My pick: Duke, sickening, because I’ll watch three Big East teams fall – penance for screaming “You’re a Klingon!” at Singler, heard mostly by a 10-year-old boy – at Madison Square Garden earlier this year.

Duke beats [insert play-in winner], walkover Louisville, then foil Texas A&M, not there yet under Mark Turgeon.

A melee in the Sweet-16 between Villanova and Notre Dame. A beating, but the opposite type Duke handed, for argument’s sake, Winthrop. Victor, throttled.

Prediction: Duke over worn-down Villanova, advances to Indianapolis. Big East fans who loath Huggins wrestle with rooting on West Virginia.

It’s a different game – a 16-1 match-up – this time around, but here’s what happened the last time UVM faced ‘Cuse in the first round of the tournament.



H/T @maxflipper for posting on Twitter.

Happy Selection Show, everyone! Enjoy staring at a .PDF from ESPN, CBS and/or Facebook for the rest of the night.

I checked out of last night’s NCAA Championship game about ten minutes in (North Carolina already up by double digits, on pace to score 60 in the first half) and flipped on what would prove to be a lukewarm episode of 24 (only reason we endured that much of the game was so we could rifle through the commercials).

Then, I felt like a timing genius when we tuned back in just in time to see this nonsense in the stands…

I thought seeing HaShades Thabeet making time with his best girl would be the highlight of the show. But, wrong. Should have waited to see this.

Did the In Loving Memory Of guy at the end write this jam? Because I’m gonna feel like a big d if he did after saying this: that song was absurd and preposterous. Preposterousness at it’s finest though. Because I’m sure that made the Hansbrough family weep, and the rest of us cut-up, just like during one of Hansbrough’s E-trade commercials…

Hat’s off to Hansbrough for his tourney performance – you’re a tough mofo who plays an ugly version of basketball that we don’t see too often anymore. But your pro career is going to fledgling, and I’ll never stop making fun of people who have or will inevitably be getting a ton of money they do not deserve.

H/T to Brahsome for first posting this year’s opus One Shining Moment.

I’ve been playing around a little bit with buildtheperfectsandwich.com, a website that Hellman’s launched recently. Smug enthusiast Bobby Flay is involved too, and there’s an opportunity to win $10 Gs. (Flay can eat Guy Fieri’s lunch by the way).

I checked out the sandwich recommender app they’ve got on there. Thought it was going to be the fat man’s special of personality tests. So far, I’ve been recommended a zucchini and roasted red pepper melt and a portobello mushroom pita. Those results hurt my feeling, but for a shot at 10 large, hell, I’ll let Hellman’s feed me some ruffage.

And this sandwich recommender did give me an idea, in honor of Final Four weekend…

What’s Your Team’s Big Man’s Victory Sandwich?

I hope BTPS is cool with it, I opted to pull my recommendation instead from ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com…

(more…)

Yesterday, I gave a quick rundown of some of the more unorthodox NCAA Tournament bracket pools that are going on this year. And if you care at all about the maintenance of my pork consumption, you’ll be rooting for this whole every five years UCONN gets the No. 1 seed in the West Region and takes home the trophy scenario to pan out as it has been written.

Something else cool that we’re doing this year is the newly launched March Madness Blogger Fantasy League, which I’m lucky enough to be participating in with some of the most elite sports bloggers on the interwebs.





Basically, each of us gets to pick five players whose stats we’ll tally throughout the whole tourney. After the Final Four, the blogger with the highest sum total of points, rebounds, and assists from their five players is crowned champion.

Today I woke up to learn that this thing is probably over for me before it even starts. One of my guys, North Carolina PG Ty Lawson, is out today against Radford (exact wording actually was, “huge probability” he won’t play; yeah, he’s not going play). They better win today, and Toe Stiffness Lawson better respond in game two in a big way. I’m now hedging my bets that UCONN does make that run, and A.J. Price goes buck.

Here’s A.J., Lawson, and the rest of my horses along with their stats from the regular season…

Dante Cunningham, Villanova (16.0 ppg, 7.2 reb, 1.2 ast)

Ty Lawson, North Carolina (15.9 ppg, 2.8 red, 6.5 ast)

Johnny Flynn, Syracuse (17.5 ppg, 2.8 reb. 6.7 ast)

Tyler Hanbrough, North Carolina (21.4 ppg, 8.2 reb , .9 ast)

A.J. Price, UCONN (14.0 ppg, 3.3 reb, 4.7 ast)

In my infinite wisdom, or possibly against my better judgment, that’s who I got. Wish me luck.

Happy actual St. Patrick’s Day.

Celebrate responsibly, and let me remind certain ladies out there that the Afro-Irish combo is wildly intriguing the world over.

Patty’s month 08, another partying odyssey; and with March Magnaminous starting on Thursday, it is once again evident to me that four days of sobriety is just too much to try and ask for.

There was a time when I thought that at this point in my life my friends would come to me for sports knowledge that only the most informed sporting geek would know. Like maybe, how could the six- 11 match-up between USC/K-State/Mayo/Beasley impact the NBA draft board?

Instead, it basically tops out with this guy…

Is Pitts-whaddayacallit still on West Virginia?

(sigh)

Set the record straight, Pittsnoggle is no longer on West Virginia. But we cannot confirm nor deny that the team has become any less yokel-ly.

Last we heard from Pittsnoggle he was CBA All-Star Weekend bound, representing the Pittsburgh Xplosion. Pittsburgh went 10-38 in Pittsnogle’s rookie season, and resisted an unconfirmed urge to just screw the pooch and become a Major League Lacrosse franchise. They bounced back to finish the 2007-08 season with a record of 29-19 and are currently playoff entrenched. Pittsnogle is keeping a low profile on the Xplosion inactive roster.

His latest known whereabouts…

Contenders to be this year’s Pittsnogle…its really a two horse race between:

Kevin Love, maybe a little too high end to begin with?

The overwhelming favorite: Steven Hill, Arkansas, 6-11, Forward? Center? Doofus?

He exuded good old fashion white basketball ineptitude (13 minutes, 0 points, a single board) in Arkansas’ loss to Georgia (a team with a 4-14 in-conference record this year) in the SEC final yesterday.

Working to develop a completely arbitrary pick for this year’s Cinderella team.