2016 March Madness (and conference tournaments)

[US 41]

I decided to start this poll. I have set the poll so that you can change your votes if you change your mind.

Right now I am paying close attention to the conference tournaments. In fact I have made brackets for all the tournaments announced so far and I will continue to do so as more tournaments are announced. A big surprise is that the 7 seeded Stetson Hatters are going to be playing in the Atlantic Sun Championship game against the 4th seeded Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (aka Dunk City). #9 Holy Cross beat #1 Bucknell in 2OT in the Patriot League tournament. Right now I am watching the Big South Tournament on ESPN3.

As far as the NCAA Tournament goes my general rules are never pick Villanova and/or Virginia to go farther than (or even as far as) the Sweet 16. They always seem to lose. If Georgetown plays a 2 digit seed you can almost count on them losing although I don't even think they will make the tournament this year. Gonzaga won't go to the Final 4. Never count out Michigan State or Duke. You never know about Kansas. North Carolina might get to the Elite 8, but no farther. Kentucky could always make a run. SMU is ineligible .

Right now my pick to win it all is probably Michigan State, but I'll have to wait until the bracket comes out before I can make a final prediction.

[slorydn1]

I voted UNC just because.......

I haven't followed college basketball this year I don't even know if they are any good-usually they are, though.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Xavier? How could a new house* win the NCAA tournament? Also, I didn't knew a village of my province could get it too . Regardless of that, I'm not betting. The best team will win.

* Xavier (Javier in Spanish) comes from Basque 'etxe berri' which means new house. Originally the name of a village in Navarre (Spain), its usage as a male name comes from St. Francis Xavier.

[Alps]

Lets go Arkanas!1

[kurumi]

Seems a little bit wide open this year. Kentucky with a lower seed than expected; UConn also sneaks in with a low seed. I've seen this movie before, and enjoyed the ending.

[ET21]

This year is incredibly wide open. Any team in the top 20 could win it all

[jp the roadgeek]

Seems a little bit wide open this year. Kentucky with a lower seed than expected; UConn also sneaks in with a low seed. I've seen this movie before, and enjoyed the ending.

UConn is falling off the cliff.  I think we only get in by winning the AAC tourney.

[US 41]

Austin Peay (Ohio Valley) and Yale (Ivy League) are both in now. The MVC and a few other conferences play their championship games today. The MVC will probably be a two bid league now thanks to Northern Iowa beating Wichita State. Northern Iowa plays Evansville at 2pm today on CBS for those that are interested.

[pianocello]

That UNI finish was wonderful. I love college basketball!

I'm pulling for Michigan State to win it all this year, they seem to always make it into the Final Four and this year's team is one of their strongest I've seen.

I'm afraid Valpo has too many losses to receive an at-large bid into the tournament. That said, I can see us doing some damage when if we make it past the Horizon League tournament.

[US 41]

Automatic Bids so far.

FL Gulf Coast, UNC Asheville, UNC Wilmington, UW Green Bay, Yale, Iona, Northern Iowa, Farleigh Dickinson, Austin Peay, Holy Cross (they're 14-19  ), Chattanooga, South Dakota State, and Gonzaga.

The Cincinnati / UCONN game was just plain nuts. Check it out if you get a chance. It went to 4OT and UCONN hot a 3/4 court shot to send it to 4OT.

[jp the roadgeek]

The Cincinnati / UCONN game was just plain nuts. Check it out if you get a chance. It went to 4OT and UCONN hot a 3/4 court shot to send it to 4OT.

My heart is still in my throat.  Just when I thought we were in the grave Jalen Adams throws up a Hail Mary and saves us, and placed himself among Tate George, Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, and Kemba Walker with clutch shots.  If we lost, it would've been certain NIT.  I think both teams deserve bids after this one.

[Alps]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/03/13/the-ncaa-tournament-bracket-was-leaked-mid-show-and-america-rejoiced/?tid=a_inl

Was that route56?

[Henry]

Let the madness begin!

[US 41]

I finished making my bracket. My bracket honestly could be busted by tomorrow night.

My final 4 picks were Wichita State, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Michigan State. I have Michigan State winning it all over Oklahoma.

I picked 4 Cinderella runs (not counting Wichita). I have Hawaii, Gonzaga, and Temple making it to the Sweet 16, Arkansas Little Rock making it to the Elite 8. Maybe I'll be right on a couple of them.

My two biggest upsets I picked in my bracket include #14 Fresno State beating #3 Utah, and #15 UNC Asheville beating #2 Villanova. If Villanova gets past UNCA, I still think Temple will beat them. Villanova always seems to struggle come tournament time. Heck I remember when they almost (*and should have) lost to #15 Robert Morris. UNCA on the other hand plays a great trap defense and they can hit shots. I watched them play in their conference tournament and I came away very impressed with UNCA.

[Alps]

As usual, the annual Yahoo! bracket is up and running. Come join Older than Noel. Password is, all caps:
ROADS

[US 41]

As usual, the annual Yahoo! bracket is up and running. Come join Older than Noel. Password is, all caps:
ROADS

Just a side note the group id# is 134544 (found out when I saw the link for this when I quoted the above). I successfully joined.

My bracket should now be uploaded onto the pool. I named the bracket "US 41" which is my real and serious bracket. The "US 41 un-serious" bracket is the bracket of what I want to happen. It will do terrible (and it will finish dead last by far I promise), but hey everyone always roots for their brackets so I might as well have one to root for too.

[kurumi]

I'm in! You have to back out to https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/, then click "Find a Pool", then "Join a private pool", then the ID and password above.

I have a "wishful thinking" bracket, and another one called Make March Madness Great Again. It's a very high-quality, classy bracket. Huge.

[hm insulators]

After a computer freeze-up kept me from posting my bracket the first time, I got it to work the second time. A few comments:

This is actually a subsidiary bracket; I have my "main" one on another webpage (astronomy).

A lot of people aren't picking Duke to be in the Final Four, but I am, simply because they're Duke. (They're the defending champs, if I recall.)

Call me pupule (Hawaiian for "crazy") for having Hawaii in the Sweet Sixteen, but I did that because I once lived there. Good enough reason!

I'm sure glad those silly "play in" games are no longer called the "first round."

Let the games begin!

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I decided not to join this year. Instead I'll be making a mock-up bracket where all teams but Villanova get replaced by Spanish towns and villages (Villanova isn't getting replaced since it's also a village in my province).

[US 41]

Call me pupule (Hawaiian for "crazy") for having Hawaii in the Sweet Sixteen, but I did that because I once lived there. Good enough reason!

I have them in my Sweet 16 too. They're pretty good.

[US 41]

Wichita State and Florida Gulf Coast both won big tonight. 2/2 so far on my (paper) bracket.

[ET21]

On Xavier

[CNGL-Leudimin]

With the first four teams gone, now it's when the tournament really starts, as the bulk of the roster joins.

Seeing Hawaii is there, it makes me wonder if any team from Alaska has ever made it to the NCAA tournament.

[1995hoo]

I didn't have time to enter my office's pool this year–working longer hours the first three days this week and I just didn't get around to looking at the bracket until today. I'm pleased with the Virginia and Duke results today, though! I did get to see the UVA game. The guys replacing our roof finished the job, and re-installed the satellite dish, by 2:40 PM. Only thing was....they put the LNB thing upside down.    Easy fix in time for basketball.

[Alps]

With the first four teams gone, now it's when the tournament really starts, as the bulk of the roster joins.

Seeing Hawaii is there, it makes me wonder if any team from Alaska has ever made it to the NCAA tournament.

I don't think any team in Alaska has ever been Division I.