Selection Sunday Final Standings!

All conference tournaments are now over and we wait for the Selection Show.  Below is a recap of today's action.

• Duke won the ACC
• St. Joe's won the Atlantic 
• UL Lafayette won the Sun Belt
• Florida won the ACC
• Michigan State won the B1G

For any interested in a bracket pool, here is the information.

Get in the action now:

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=322435&groupp=dmVnYXM%3D&invitesource=email&inviteuser=NjQ2MDA3NzU%3D&ex_cid=invite-email-tcmen

Group: Mark Few Does Coke
Password: vegas
Here's what else they had to say:  $20 to play 1st Place 65% 2nd Place 25% 3rd Place 10% Paypal to rwdpeanut@gmail.com

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  But the excel spreadsheet attached reflects the final standings.

• Congrats to Joel for dominating the 2014 pool!
• B.I. has won the Bonus Points category with (4) wins with teams that were 3 seeds or lower.
• Curt is playing for free next year.

Below is a reminder of the tie breaker process that determines our final standings:

• Overall Points
• Most Wins
• Least Amount of Losses
• Accuracy %
• Closest to Big 10 Championship Combined Score

Thanks for playing everyone!

Selection Sunday Eve - 13 More Teams Punch NCAA Tournament Tickets Today

We saw 13 conference championships played that impacted us today, this really shaped up the standings going into our last day tomorrow.  Below is a summary of the action today, along with a preview of what to watch for tomorrow on Selection Sunday!

American East

• In an upset, Albany knocked off Stoney Brook which resulted in bonus points for both B.I. and Doug

Conference USA

• Not an upset, but Tulsa knocked off LA Tech, which ended up only awarding points to Curt

Pac 12

• UCLA stunned Arizona to win the PAC 12 conference tournament championship

American Conference

• Louisville clobbered UConn in the inaugural American Conference tournament championship

MEAC

• North Carolina Central easily handled the Morgan State Bears

MAC

• Western Michigan destroyed Toledo to become the MAC tournament championship

Big Sky

• Weber State destroyed North Dakota for the Big Sky championship

Southland

• The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks defeated Sam Houston State

Big East

• In a pretty big upset, the Providence Friars beat Creighton to take the Big East Conference Championship title

Big 12

• Iowa State came from behind and beat Baylor, this helped B.I. clinch the Bonus Point category outright

WAC

• As expected, New Mexico State won the WAC with a easy win over Idaho

Big West

• We don't care since none of us have Cal Poly or CS Northridge

                       

                          

                    

                 

                      

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with all of tonight's action, and below is the current top 11 snapshot.  We have 11 people in the running for a Top 4 spot tomorrow.

Tomorrow, in our final day, we will have 5 conference championship games to watch until the Selection show later in the evening.

• Atlantic 10
• Chris, Rick, and Tim all have VCU, so a VCU win will propel them into a very tight race with Joel, Sohler, Rachel, and Young
• SEC
• Most of us have Florida, this game won't do much in determining the final standings
• Sun Belt
• Georgia State winning will make a very tight race between Tim, Chris, Rachel, and Young;  Georgia State + VCU winning will allow Chris and Tim to really challenge for a money spot
• ACC
• A Duke win really hurts Sohler, Chris, and BI;  A Duke + Florida win may take Sohler out of the running for a money spot; especially if VCU wins
• Big 10
• Rick and Joel are really invested in Michigan State;  A Michigan State + Duke win may clinch the number 1 spot for Joel and put Rick in a money spot;  These 2 wins would be a total of 4 points due to the bonus each team is worth

As you can see we have so many possible combinations tomorrow with 11 people in the running for a money spot or free 2015 spot.  Anyone who has been eliminated is shown as eliminated on the spreadsheet.

B.I. only has 1 team tomorrow, Florida.  So even though he is currently in X place, he can only gain 1 more point tomorrow.  However, it looks as though B.I. is going to win the Bonus Point pool outright.

As the standings begin to shape up, and since we only have 1 days left, below is a reminder of the tie breaker process that determines our final standings:

• Overall Points
• Most Wins
• Least Amount of Losses
• Accuracy %
• Closest to Big 10 Championship Combined Score

One last note, if you are marked as not paid please send your money in as soon as possible so I can quickly pay out the winners promptly.

Another Bloodbath of Losses, but we have 18 Championships in the Next 2 Days!

If you are marked as unpaid on the spreadsheet, please send in money so I can pay out the winners on Sunday.

Again, no conference championship games were played today, so today was another day of everyone racking up losses.

We had some pretty big upsets and popular pool teams lose today that contributed to losses:

• St. Louis
• Middle Tennessee
• North Carolina
• Norfolk State
• Kansas
• Syracuse
• Southern Miss
• UC Irvine
• Texas
• Northern Colorado
• Cincinnati

Tomorrow will bring us 13 Conference Championship games played over a span of 12 hours, I will attempt to update the standings throughout the day.

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with most of tonight's action, and below is the current top 10 snapshot.

As the standings begin to shape up, and since we only have 2 days left, below is a reminder of the tie breaker process that determines our final standings:

• Overall Points
• Most Wins
• Least Amount of Losses
• Accuracy %
• Closest to Big 10 Championship Combined Score

The Losses Were Racked up Today

No conference championship games were played today, so today was a day of everyone racking up losses.  Surviving today and tomorrow in this pool is what separates the top of the pack -- No conference championship games will be played tomorrow either.

Craig Neal, New Mexico Head Coach, hands down wins "Creepiest NCAA Basketball Coach."

We had some pretty big upsets today that contributed to losses:

• Villanova
• Oklahoma
• UC Santa Barbara
• Iowa

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with most of tonight's action, and below is the current top 10 snapshot.

As the standings begin to shape up, and since we only have 3 days left, below is a reminder of the tie breaker process that determines our final standings:

• Overall Points
• Most Wins
• Least Amount of Losses
• Accuracy %
• Closest to Big 10 Championship Combined Score

7 More Conferences Tipped Off Today, But Only 1 Championship Game

75% of the conference tournaments are in progress or complete, and by tomorrow 100% of the conference tournaments will be in progress or complete.  The next 3 days are typically the busiest days in terms of racking up losses in this pool and we'll have a clearer picture of the standings by Saturday morning.

Games started at noon today with Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest, and will not end until around midnight tonight with Washington State vs. Stanford.  Every game being played today, and over the next 4 days, will be conference tournament games.

The only Championship game today was in the Patriot League, which resulted in a Boston University loss against American University.  No bonus points awarded for this one, however it did have impacts to the standings.

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with most of tonight's action and below is a Top 10 snapshot.

As the standings begin to shape up, and since we only have 4 days left, below is a reminder of the tie breaker process that determines our final standings:

• Overall Points
• Most Wins
• Least Amount of Losses
• Accuracy %
• Closest to Big 10 Championship Combined Score

NEC, Horizon, Summit, and West Coast Teams Punch Tickets

Despite only having a handful of games played today, 4 new conference champions punched tickets to the NCAA tournament tonight.  In the Horizon League the winner was a 5 seed, which would have resulted in bonus points, if anyone would have actually picked Milwaukee.  But in the NEC, 4 seed Mount St. Mary's upset Robert Morris - Nice job B.I. and Chris!

                        

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with all of tonight's action and below is a Top 10 snapshot.

Joel is off to one of the hottest starts anyone has ever had with 8 total points, but 6 other people are hanging with him in terms of points and accuracy.  If your accuracy is under 20% a third of the way through, it's going to be very tough to come back, although at this point no one is even close to being eliminated.  For those with poor accuracy, this is for you...

As the standings begin to shape up, and since we only have 5 days left, below is a reminder of the tie breaker process that determines our final standings:

• Overall Points
• Most Wins
• Least Amount of Losses
• Accuracy %
• Closest to Big 10 Championship Combined Score

We're also starting to see some separation in Bonus Point wins, which pays out 3 times the entry fee.  Even though the leader only has 2, this is a very hard category to make up ground on since not many conference champions are 3 seeds or lower.  If you have yet to score a bonus point and/or your Bonus Point Losses are close to equaling your Max Bonus Points, you going to quickly find yourself eliminated from being able to win the Bonus Points category.

Finally, if anyone cares, the SWAC tipped off this afternoon, but they are DEAD to me for the crap they pulled with their conference tournament.  As a reminder, we are pretending the SWAC does not exist in terms of impacts to our pool due to the winner may not actually be the winner and the winner may end up being the loser.  #SWACProblems

3 More teams Are Going to the NCAA Tournament

I don't have time to write a long entry today, but we had 3 more teams punch tickets for the NCAA Tournament -- that begins NEXT WEEK!

The Delaware Blue Hens scored with 12 seconds left in the game to beat William & Mary for the Colonial Conference championship.  Then, only a few seconds later, Iona missed a game tying 3-pointer resulting in a loss to MAAC conference tournament champion Manhattan.  A few hours later Wofford become the 8th team to punch a NCAA Tournament ticket with a Southern Conference championship.

                 

                                             

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with most of tonight's action.  BYU/San Francisco is the only game not reflected in the standings.

We Now Have 5 NCAA Tournament Teams with Punched Tickets

With 1 week left in the Conference Tournament games, we now have 5 teams that have punched tickets to the NCAA Tournament, 4 of those teams did it by winning a Conference Tournament.

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with most of tonight's action, and we have had a lot of movement throughout the day today.

Below is the current top 10 now that we have some actual wins - Still only 1 team has brought in any bonus points.

We only had 22 games played today, half of those were Conference Tournament games, but since these games were Semifinal and championship games, it really shaped our current standings.

Big South

Atlantic Sun

Missouri Valley Conference

The regular season is officially over and all conference tournaments are started, or will be started within the next 48 hours.  We also have determined that Mark Few does Coke off of David Stockton's back, regularly.

Ohio Valley Conference Champion Crowned

In addition to Harvard being the 1st official team in the NCAA tournament, Eastern Kentucky knocked off Belmont in a shocker in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship tonight to join them.

    

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with most of tonight's action, and we have had a lot of movement throughout the day today.  Tomorrow morning I'll update some of these late night Horizon and West Coast Conference games still going on.

Below is the current top 10 now that we have some actual wins - The 1st Championship winner brought in some bonus points!  Pressure is on Joel to keep his 100% accuracy rating.

Tomorrow brings us 3 Championship Games:

The 1st is the Atlantic Sun Championship between Florida Gulf Coast and Mercer, which will give us our 3rd NCAA Tournament team.

The 2nd is the Big South between a surprise Winthrop team and Coastal Carolina

The 3rd is the Missouri Valley Championship that will be won by the Wichita State Shockers - It doesn't even matter who they are playing.

Other observations today include:

• UNC-Ashville chokes every year in Myrtle Beach Madness
• Mount St. Mary's is shocking everyone in the NEC and in the Championship game
• James Madison lost in their first game - Sorry Amanda
• My new favorite player may be from Eastern Kentucky, Eric Stutz, or as I refer to him epic bandanna Axel Rose wannabe guy

So Many Games Going On

This is about the point in the blog where the focus shifts from detailing out every winner in every game, and moves more towards focusing on the standings and championship games.  Just way to many games about to be going on to detail out each one, this is about the point in time where Tim starts a Facebook chat while we watch the games.

Most people in the pool have losses, with much more to come throughout tonight, it's been a bloodbath the past 2 days.

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with all of today's action, we had a lot of losses today.

Big South Conference Quarterfinals

• All 8 Big South teams were in action today, and considering we have all 8 in our pool, that means we had 4 losses in the Big South that impacted standings.

Missouri Valley Conference Quarterfinals

• Wichita State easily handled Evansville today, which gave Doug another loss;  With 84% of us on Wichita State, this conference tournament will have the least impact to our standings.

Wichita's mascot is not a bee, cornstalk, gang symbol, or whatever other ideas you may have had.  He is a piece of wheat, his name is WuShock, and this is his back story...

History of WuShock

It was in 1904 when Wichita State University was known as Fairmount College that R.J. Kirk (Class of 1907), a football manager, invented the name "Wheat Shockers" for posters to advertise a game against the Chilocco Indians.

Kirk had put the word "Indians" under the name Chilocco and a press agent for the Wichita Fall Festival, helping to publicize the contest, demanded that Kirk should produce a nickname for Fairmount to balance the poster.

In those days, when wheat was shocked or headed, the majority of the players earned a stake for college expenses by working all summer in the harvest and threshing and came back tough enough to play 60-minute games.

Although the name was never officially adopted, it caught on, was combined into one word, and survived until it was shortened to "Shockers" as Wichita State teams are known today. 

He has been the WSU mascot since 1948, and has been in the movies, thrown out of a basketball game, been kidnapped and has entertained thousands of Shocker fans

Ohio Valley Conference Semifinals

• Belmont will play Murray State or Eastern Kentucky in the Ohio Valley Championship tomorrow, we'll have our first winner in the pool and first NCAA team to punch a ticket to the tournament

There was much more action, but I am too tired to write about it.  All standing are updated.

Throwback Thursday Update #tbt

First, for our Throwback Thursday #tbt picture of the day, I show you Tina's method of tracking the tournament -- loose leaf paper.  Even though I created a fairly advanced spreadsheet for tracking the conference tournaments, Tina uses LOOSE LEAF paper.

Although we have 5 conferences in action today, the only update of any real significant comes from the Atlantic Sun and Ohio Valley.

Missouri Valley Conference

• Bradley defeated Loyola (IL) to me on to the next round, while Drake lost to Evansville; Yes, someone in our pool picked Evansville to win the MVC conference championship

MAAC Conference

• Most of us in the pool have the 1-3 seeds, so these early round games in the MAAC don't have much impact on us;  3 teams advanced to the next round today, it doesn't even matter which teams. 

West Coast Conference

• Portland and Pacific moved on today in the lower seeded West Coast tournament games;  70% of us have Gonzaga, so the teams that played today had no impact to our pool.

Ohio Valley Conference

• Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State moved on today and will play in the Semi-finals tomorrow; No one lost a team from this conference today or when they tipped off on Wednesday.

Atlantic Sun Conference

This is where we had the most movement today as we now are down to 2 teams ready to play for the Atlantic Sun conference title on Sunday, 3/8 - punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament!

Florida Gulf Coast had a tight battle with ETSU, but FGCU ended up pulling out a last second victory to advance the championship game on Sunday.

Mercer had to go 2 overtimes with USC Upstate to get the win - This game was on ESPN3 and an awesome game to watch!

We'll have a FGCU/Mercer conference championship on Sunday, 3/8 in the Atlantic Sun!

Full Slate of Games Today With Some Standings Movement

As promised, we had a ton of action today from the conferences that are in play.  Action got started early in the morning with the Big South.

• Winthrop, Radford, Charleston Southern, and Gardner-Webb all advanced today, meaning no one has lost any Big South champions yet.
• Charleston Southern was the first upset in the always bumpy Big South conference tournament, although they were favored to win by 5.5, they were a 5 seed playing a 4 seed.

The Fighting Camels have been eliminated and the mascot has an awesome back story!  

Before 1934 Campbell's athletic teams were known as the "Hornets." Other early known nicknames for the program were simply reflective of the school name, like "Campbells" or "Campbellites." The origin of the name "Fighting Camels" is popularly believed to be derived from a statement by early school patron Zachary Taylor Kivett, who approached school founder James Archibald Campbell after a fire had destroyed the three then existing school buildings in 1900 and said, "Your name's Campbell; then get a hump on you! We've got work to do." The current Camel is named "Gaylord the Camel" after Campbell alum and Hall of Fame Baseball Player Gaylord Perry.

And although they did not stand a chance against Radford today, we need to take a moment to call out the Presbyterian Blue Hose mascot.  This may be one of the most random mascots in NCAA Conference Championship history. 

Moving to the Northeast Conference, all 8 teams were in play today.  The consensus among both us, and the experts, is that the Robert Morris Colonials will win this tournament.

• St. Francis PA, Wagner, Robert Morris, and Mount St. Mary all won;  5 people in our pool lost a team with Bryant being upset!

In the Ohio Valley Conference, which started today and will be the first conference to punch a ticket to the dance on 3/8, didn't add much excitement to the day.  We didn't have any of the 4 lower seed teams that played today.  Tennessee Tech and SEMO (Still playing, but leading) moved on.

Last, we have the Patriot League back in action tonight.  Almost 60% of us are on Boston University, which completely dominated Lafayette tonight.

• Holy Cross, Army, and American University also moved on tonight.

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with tonight's action.

As a reminder, I made it very easy to track the tournaments in action, with dates for each round, and tournaments not in action.  Just scroll down to row 33 and you will see all the information, it is also summarized in Column AX.

Going into Thursday, the only games that may impact the standings are going on in the Atlantic Sun Semi-finals with FGCU in game 1 and Mercer in game 2.  8 total conferences will be in action as we begin tomorrow, however the games are between such low seeds it doesn't impact us.

We Have the First Updates to the 2014 Standings

This update will be shorter than normal since I was summoned to Trivia tonight.  #TeamGrimmer

The Atlantic Sun was the conference in play today that all of us had teams at risk, below are the results from the games tonight.

• Mercer and Florida Gulf Coast easily advanced to the Semi Finals and are on track to meet in the Championship game on Sunday, 3/9, as 70% of us expected to happen.
• The game that finally caused someone to lose a champion was North Florida/USC Upstate;  USC Upstate defeated North Florida, and as is tradition, Ron has the 1st loss of the tournament.
• Eastern Tennessee was the 4th and final team to advance to the Atlantic Sun Semifinals on Thursday, 3/6.

The other conference that tipped of tonight was the Horizon League.  The Horizon League has 4 rounds so today the lower seeds faced off.  Oakland, Milwaukee, and Valparaiso all advanced to the Quarterfinals on Friday, 3/7.

For access to the current excel standings document, use this link.  The standings are now updated with tonight's action.

Remember, tomorrow we will have 4 conferences playing games - Big South, Ohio Valley, Patriot League, and the NEC.   More than 10 teams are playing tomorrow that are picked to win in our pool, some playing against each other, so we'll continue to have major updates to the standings over the next few days.

Someone will need to break it to Tina that tomorrow is not a holiday just because the Big South Conference Tournament tips off.

Conference Tournament "Week" has Tipped Off!

The best 3 weeks in sports has tipped off tonight...

This is the last e-mail I will be sending until have our first tournament champion on Saturday, 3/8 in the Horizon League.  I am still going to attempt some sort of blog entry every day, or at least every other day, so you can see what is going on and have up to date standings.

The links below will be important:

• For access to the excel standings document, bookmark or use this link.  Standings will be updated a few times each day or as games complete.
• For access to the blog you will use the link below;  you can subscribe to the blog if you want to be alerted for new entries.

 http://2014ncaaconferencetournamentchallenge.blogspot.com/

Review the standings spreadsheet one last time and be sure to let me know if anything looks inaccurate.  The only changes made today were entries that were incomplete or inaccurate.  No changes will be allowed after today.

And the first NCAA team ELIMINATED from the big dance is The Navy, which is a pretty UN-American way to start the conference tournaments.  Although the official tip off to the conference championships started tonight, we only had two games played, both in the Patriot League and neither on TV.

Colgate, the toothpaste company, and Lafayette moved on tonight.  Lafayette beat Loyola MD (Which stands for Maryland and not doctors -- Tina)

Tomorrow will bring us much more action and we will start to see some of our pool teams at risk for the first time.  Below is a highlight on what to watch for tomorrow.

• All Atlantic Sun teams are in action, everyone is at risk of losing a team tomorrow;  53.6% of us picked Florida Gulf Coast, so most people will be rooting against FGCU.  The team favored to win, even though they are a 2 seed, is Mercer.  If FGCU and Mercer lose that only leaves 4 of us alive in the Atlantic Sun.
• The Horizon League brings us one match up that impact our pool - Valparaiso vs. UIC.  4 of us actually have Valparaiso, nobody has the UIC Flame.

Once we get to Wednesday we'll have 4+ conferences in play, with 10+ games.  The Big South tips off Wednesday, always one of the best early conference tournaments.  #myrtlebeachmadness

Good Luck to Everyone over the Next 2 Weeks!

2014 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament Picks

The picks are in and the spreadsheet is updated with everyone's selections.  Please take a close look at your picks and if anything looks inaccurate or you need to make a change due to seeding changes, you will need to let me know before the end of the day today, Monday, March 3.

Important Information about the SWAC:  We will not be including the SWAC in our tournament challenge this year due to the unclear NCAA ruling on team eligibility and its impacts to the tournament.

Remember, you will want to bookmark this link so you can see up to date standings throughout the next few weeks.  Standings will be updated a few times each day or as games complete.

Also, as conference tournaments complete at different dates through Sunday, 3/16 I will post updates with the current standing on the blog.

 http://2014ncaaconferencetournamentchallenge.blogspot.com/

Jenn is already starting in last due to her 1 bonus point pick - way to take a risk!  And as usual, Tina tries to gain an advantage by making her name start with A, so when the standings are sorted she can be towards the top - Alphabetical is the 5th sort order on this spreadsheet, so I don't think your strategy will work this year.  

Below are a few enhancements to the 2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament Spreadsheet:

• Conference Tournament start dates have been added for each conference, along with the conference tournament site and a indicator if the conference tournament started, is in progress, or did not yet start
• Each round date has been added, along with the date of the Championship game
• Our overall pool favorites, favorites to actually win, the regular season champion, and the previous 2 years conference tournament champions are still part of the spreadsheet, as well as the TV schedule

   

Updates to the spreadsheet will continue to happen over the next several days as conference tournament seeding is finalized for the different conference tournaments.  This will impact the bonus points for our pool.

Within the next 48 hours, these are the conference tournaments that will be tipping off.  You can also view all conference tournament brackets here.

The only games taking place on Monday, 3/3 are lower seed Patriot League games, which not one of us has anything on stake with them.  However, teams will officially be eliminated from the NCAA Tournament today, too bad it is not on TV, Tina will not be able to see the sad faces.







Good Luck!