f13.net

http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joinprivategroup_assign_team?GID=36298&P=georgia (http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joinprivategroup_assign_team?GID=36298&P=georgia)

Group: 36298
pass: georgia


Join up for bracket bragging. Plus the million dollar thing if you pick them all right, which I think they've never done in the history of anything.

Make sure to sign up today if you haven't already. We only have one day to get picks together before the tournament starts on tuesday.

It looks like everyone from last year got invitation emails, but if you want to join another bracket contest-
   
http://f13.mayhem.cbssports.com/

Password- f13bc


I can't tell if this is just the old group from last year- it looks like to rolled over into a new group for this year. Will be able to tell after the selection show.

Still a couple days left to sign up in the yahoo one for those that haven't yet.

7 signed up in the Yahoo one so far, you have until tomorrow to get in and make selections since the games start Thursday.

Luckily they don't count the call-it-the-first-round-when-it's-just-a-play-in games as the start.

Yeah I was sweating that- haven't had time to half-ass any research yet!

I hope everyone is ready for a thorough ass kicking.  My brackets are lock solid. :grin:

Mine are batshit insane.

I have no chance of winning but threw in a bracket anyway.  Good luck to those of you that know what you're doing.

I think it's a strong assumption to believe that any of us know what we are doing.   :why_so_serious:

Edit:  BTW, how you liking Tubby up there now?  Seems like he may be considering ditching you guys and heading to Arkansas. 

Tubby has to do what's best for Tubby.  Besides, Minnesota is a hockey state.  We don't need no stinkin' basketball. 

I won the f13 bracket a few years ago when I had the time to follow NCAA basketball.  The key then was to look at matchups.  Anyone that knows the team tendencies can do well in these brackets.  Ok, that and knowing which teams are healthy and playing in top form. 

That and taking the chalk. Nobody above a 5 seed is going to the final four.

I'll take that bet.  I'll go a step further and bet that 3 of the 4 Final Four teams are 1-3 seeds. 

I follow college basketball pretty closely, but never have much luck with brackets.  I've come in third on a few pools over the past 20 plus years, but rarely do very well. 

That's almost a lock. Certainly happened the last 3 years.

Isn't the whole point of betting to win your bet?

I think Paelos means anyone below a 5 seed. "Above a 5 seed" means 1-4 to me.

Oh... I was confused.  I thought he meant the exact opposite. 

My bad.

Above means bigger number to me. 6 is above 5, etc.

However, it can be confusing because a higher seeded team means a lower number.  :uhrr:

Looks like UAB made a pretty strong case for being let into the tournament....

I don't get the 12 versus 12 play in game.  It seems logical to me that the play in games should all be 16 seeds. 

13-16 seeds are pretty much reserved for minor teams with auto-bids for the most part, would be lame to make auto-bids have to play in, it should be reserved for the iffy bubble teams.

But the seeding essentially ranks the teams from first to last in terms of quality.  Yes, Clemson barely got in but I don't think anyone would argue that they are a much better team than any of the #16 seeds.  It makes sense that the worst teams should be the ones to "play in" and it shouldn't matter if the bid is automatic or not. 

The big problem with the NCAA tournament is that there are too many small potatoes conferences that don't stand a chance in hell anyway.  I am not a proponent of "the little guy" in these situations.  I see no merit whatsoever in watching a 16 or 15 paste a 2 or 1 from a small time conference.  I would much rather see the 16 or 15 play a bottom dweller from a major conference that didn't get in, e.g. Minnesota or LSU.

The smallers schools lobbied against that treatment because they said the NCAA was trying to knock them all out by giving them 16 seeds for winning their tournaments.

Toss in the fact that teams that were halfway decent (Clemson, Southern Cal) are on the bubble from major conferences, and they got a 12 seed.

Most of the 15 and 16 seeds would be eliminated in the first or second round of the NIT.  This is the problem.  The NCAA tournament is supposed to be comprised of the 64 best teams.  It's clearly not.

I don't think it's supposed to be comprised of the 64 best teams. It's supposed to be comprised of the conference champions of Division one basketball, and then a bunch of top tier losers.

That's been Bobby Knight's gripe for years.  The NCAA should be the 64 best teams, but they have the automatic bids for some reason.  I guess it's to give the smaller schools a chance to KO Mike Tyson, but for all the talk of parity the little guy still doesn't get anywhere.  The only slice of the pie they may get is a little bit of the money. 

Div 1 Basketball has like 350 teams. Div 1 football has 120.

If they wanted to change the tournament, they would have to admit than many basketball conferences aren't division 1.

Just did my first pass through of my brackets. Awfully chalky, but that has been the trend recently. Will do some more research and amend later (maybe).

Which would be a very good thing for the student athletes.  The demands placed on a Division I basketball or football player make it almost impossible to succeed as a student. 

The universities have a serious quandary with this-  football and mens' basketball pays for almost every other sport at many schools and in some cases provides a very nice positive revenue stream.  Yet athletics in university settings is very much the antithesis of what it means to be scholarly.  Athletes often have no interest at all in an education, don't go to class, and put the university at risk by taking money from agents.  I love college football and basketball with a passion, but could not argue if they were to make them non-scholarship activities. 

That's less of a problem in basketball than it is in football.

The great NBA players don't come from nowhere schools like they do in football. They come from like 10 big programs:

UCLA 14, Duke 13, Kentucky 12, Kansas 11, UNC 10, Florida 10, Texas 10, Wake Forest 8, Ohio State 7, Georgia Tech 7

So like 25% of your league went to those schools. Some of the best players didn't even go to college before the rule started.

Here's an interesting article (http://www.rpiratings.com/NBA.html) on who came from where in the NBA.  It's weighted heavy, but there are still some players from the lower tier conferences. 

1 in 5 players are foreign or went straight from high school.  Roughly 80% were from the BCS conferences. 

Yep, telling these kids from Morehead State or UAB that they have a shot in the real tourney is stupid. However, as long as you still declare them Division 1, I support them being there.

But apparently the NCAA doesn't-  you can't even really watch these play in games on television. 

You know I'm a sports elitist though.  I support the bowl system.   :grin:

The bowl system would be fine if they played every single team in their conference twice and a required 3 games in the big six conferences. It would be very easy to declare the top 2 teams at that rate. That's like 24 games though.

I personally don't care about there being a "best" team that much.  I much prefer all the heated discussion that comes with determining who is the best team in football.  I find the NCAA tournament boring, most years. 

Damn.  I look for Pittsburgh to have trouble with Butler.  Also, Kentucky loses to WVU again and SDSU is overrated. 

Hey Louisville!

Enjoy the free nuts on the plane home, you fuckers. Cost me a 4 way parlay!

Well shit, I'm already 3 out of 5.

Couldn't happen to a better bunch of folks (Louisville, not you)

Washington could not have had a worse first half, and they are tied with the Dawgs 28-28. This is a bad sign.

Yep, pissed it away in the second half. Held a Washington team to 68 points. That should have been a win if we hadn't shot so poorly in the first half.

Holy shit, Illinois won and get to play Kansas now?

Come on Illini, beat KU just so that jackass Bill Self can again lose to the team he pissed on.

I can go for that.  I hate Kansas. 

Jesus the Hoyas have been Jekyl/Hyde this year.  Tonight they looked like they had never seen a fucking press defense before. Feh.

That seems to be the norm the last 3 or 4 weeks for Washington. Play good defense and shoot ice cold in the first half, then come on in the 2nd half. Don't think that will work so well against Carolina.

Can we change it to a contest to see who can get the fewest correct?   :grin:

Um, ya. I'm done. Thanks Big East for laying a total egg in the tourney.

Pitt.   :awesome_for_real:

The Big East is once again failing miserably.

That makes my shambles of a bracket worthwhile.

God... damnit. I had them going to the semis. Fuckers.

Oh Washington.  :facepalm:

Wow.  The refs really like UNC.  There is absolutely no way that UNC had 9 fouls to UW's 20. 

I'm starting to pity anyone that has to play Ohio State before the final four. They are in a totally different class.

Such a winnable game. God that was frustrating. Glad MBA, Holiday, and Overton are all graduating. Or at least out of eligibility. Next year's team is going to be a bit smaller (no MBA), but they are going to be filled to the brim with lethal guards. Gaddy will be back from his ACL, and Tony Wroten Jr.  should get some time as a freshman. Romar might have to run a 4 guard team to get everyone PT!

Pitt and ND bent me over this weekend on my bracket. I hate those guys. Fucking Big East overhyped bunch of bastards. 11 solid teams and nobody with NBA talent that can win the whole damn thing.

Ohio State and Kansas is still the likely matchup in the final game.  I think Kansas will probably be able to take them based on depth, but OSU looks very, very good when they are on.  If Diebler hits his threes OSU wins.  If he hits more than 4 threes they are almost unbeatable. 

No it isn't.

I wouldn't say Ohio State over UK -> UNC -> Duke is the most likely possible scenario to the finals from that side of the bracket. People need to stop with that talk.

UK has what? Four future NBA players two or three of which would go lottery depending on who you ask? Its Memphis all over again and that team could have beat Kansas. When was the last time Ohio State played a team that was more athletic?

Ohio State losing to Duke is possible. Losing to Kentucky? The team that couldn't put 60 on Princeton? I don't buy it.

Also I don't buy UNC because they spot everyone an early lead. They did that with Duke in the ACC finals and got crushed. If they do it with Ohio State, expect more of the same.

Princeton is a good team, they just don't have the athletes.  So I don't put a lot of stock in UK not putting up a lot of points on them.  What is a problem for Kentucky is they have no depth at all .  They have one bench player that is reasonable and the rest are terrible.  So they are one person in foul trouble away from getting blasted.  Duke is good, but I don't think they'll get past UConn.  You have to remember that any team that comes out of that bracket is going to have a similar path.  Somebody has to do it and I think that team will be Ohio State. 

If you'd like to see all of my lock solid predictions just check my bracket.   :grin:

My Southwest and Southeast brackets are fucking trainwrecks. Pitt, Nortre Dame, Purdue, Louisville all fucked me hard.

Welp, Bruce Pearl fired at Tennessee.  They had to do it, but it was the wrong move. 

I don't see a problem with one less slimy douchebag on unemployment.

There's no way it could be the wrong move. He broke the one rule you can't break. Don't lie to the NCAA when you are stone-cold busted.

Pearl has been breaking NCAA rules (and lying about it) for 20+ years.

UT has struggled mightily at times over the years.  I personally feel that they would be better off to keep him with a second chance and take their lumps.  And let's be realistic-  it's not like he handed a recruit a ton of money or got him hooked up with a shady agent (ahem, Calhoun!). He just got caught doing something all coaches do at some point. 

Alright.  Let's go 'Zona.  I hate Duke, and don't particularly like repeat offenders.

Go UNC and Kansas!  :awesome_for_real:

I wont be watching BYU v Florida, god I fucking hate both those schools.

I guess I'm pulling for the winner of OSU and Kentucky

Nice win for Rasix's Wildcats last night.  They complete walloped the Blue Devils.

Hilariously enough, despite being in dead last currently in the brackets, I still can win if UNC and Kansas go to the finals.

Was a great game.  Unfortunately, it signaled the end of my bracket.  

Destroyed my bracket, but oddly enough, I don't care.  :grin:

There is only one thing better than Duke losing in the tournament, it's beating them in the tournament.  Blowing them out is nice in addition.

UofA has come a long way from last year's 16-15 non tourney team.  Helps when you have the best player in the country.  I know people are high on Kemba, Jimmer, Kyrie, and Sullinger, but Williams has been putting up ridiculous numbers all year long and winning games in the clutch.  My brother actually got someone to bet him that Williams isn't one of the top 5 picks.   What NBA team doesn't want a bigger, stronger version of Andre Igudola, who makes more than 60% of his threes and shoots more free throws than some entire teams? Guy keeps getting better too.  He's going to be a big loss, but apparently next year's recruiting class is a bit ridiculous. 

 :rock:

I totally called Duke getting beat by Arizona.  :awesome_for_real: My bracket looks a mess, but of the 4 people who chose Kansas to win it all, I've got the highest points total.

If UNC gets to the finals, though, you be owned.  :drill:

Okay.  I guess I'm done.   :heartbreak:

I think you may be the winner.  If Kentucky beats UNC, you may have it.

There are no winners in the brackets this year due to this clusterfuck. I'm declaring a mistrial!  :awesome_for_real:

Me too.  Unless I win. :grin:

Edit:  Seriously, if I win with this piece of shit bracket something is wrong.

Holy shit. Has this ever happened? No seed higher than a #3 in the final four?

Actually, no.  It hasn't.   :awesome_for_real:

What a fucked up tourney.  Go Cats!

This is rich.  Coach K thinks (http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/ncb/news/story?id=6270285) that Jalen Rose's comments about Duke were "insulting". 

Haha.  It was meant to be insulting, ratface.  I'm glad he caught on. 

Here's a better question: Why should Coach K give two fucks what Jalen Rose thinks? Duke wins, has won, and will win again. Michigan won't be relevent in basketball again for a long time.

Coach K's philosophy is the right one. Find kids that come from good situations with good work ethics and a modicum of intelligence.

There's more to it than that, but sure.  He's a great coach.  But I hate his ugly guts. 

This is literally the worst finish I've ever seen to a college basketball season. This final is just embarrassing. There is no salvaging this season. Both these teams are terrible, the tournament was filled with weak teams, and BOTH of them can't manage to shoot over 30% in the championship.

Fuck, I'm glad baseball started.

Yeah, last night looked like a volleyball game more than anything else.  Bad.... 

Again the NCAA tournament gets it wrong.  OSU or Kansas would beat the pants off of UConn in a 7 game series. 

I can't believe I hung onto my lead with that bloodbath of a tournament. That was probably the worst championship game I've ever seen. Oh well, on to hockey playoffs.

It was the worst since 1949 statistically. ESPN tossed that gem out today. It will probably get vacated anyway, so nobody will have to remember it.