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Memphis Chokes At The Line

slinger — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:33:00 +0000

Geez! Too much pressure for Memphis at the end of the championship game, missing free throws, can't make a basket to save their lives, bad decisions. Kansas was too much for Memphis and until the last two minutes of regulations, didn't show the same spark they had during their match up against North Carolina. Kansas wins in Over Time, 75-68.

Congratulations goes to Keith Deutsch for winning the 2008 OfficePool64.com Tournament Contest.

Your Top Ten Pick Sheets for the 2008 Office Pool

Kansas Jayhawks Versus Memphis Tigers

slinger — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:48:00 +0000

Memphis Tigers from Conference USA versus the mighty Kansas Jayhaws of the Big 12 Conference.

Memphis Tigers [38-1] are the only team in NCAA history to earn 38 victories in one season. This is the second time Memphis has played in the Championship game. Their other appearance was in 1973 against UCLA which was a loss. They are also the first team from Conference USA to advance to the Championship game.

Kansas is in the Championship game for the eighth time, their first since 2003. Kansas's 18 point victory over North Carolina is the second largest over a team ranked #1 in tournament history.

Monday's Championship Game - Tipoff @ 9:21 [ET]

#1 Kansas Jayhawks [36-3] - 56 pick sheets selected Kansas
#1 Memphis Tigers [38-1] - 46 pick sheets selected Memphis

See if your name is on the list

Round Five Games

slinger — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:40:00 +0000

This is it, we've waited for 51 weeks to get to this point of having four teams in the finals. The first time all four number one seeds have advanced. Which goes against one of my personal rules for filling out my bracket sheet, never advance all four teams into the final weekend of games. Another rule that I use for picking my championship team is only pick the winner from the big conferences. I wanted to take Memphis when I was filling out my bracket, but since they are from a conference that only sent one team [Conference USA], I took Georgetown as my championship team. Arrgh. So I will be rooting for Memphis this weekend. My main reason is they are not from a power conference and it would be a huge testimony for a smaller conference to win the championship game. I would be I'm not alone in rooting for them.

Here are the games for tonight

@ 6:07 pm [ET]
#1 UCLA Bruins
#1 Memphis Tigers

@ 8:47 pm [ET]
#1 Kansas Jayhawks
#1 North Carolina Tar Heels

Only 8 Scenarios Remain

slinger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:40:00 +0000

Well, after two weekends of games, sixty team eliminations, we are down to only four teams. What I found amazing was 43 of you correctly selected all four teams. That has to be a record number of pick sheets correctly picking all four teams in this round.

Here is what it comes down too, the eight scenarios that can happen will be for the championship game. Follow each link to see where you will finish of Team A beats Team B:

Davidson Upsets Wisconsin

slinger — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:42:00 +0000

Round 2 Completed, 16 Teams Remain

slinger — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:23:00 +0000

Another first weekend of games have completed and yet ANOTHER year of me losing one of my final four teams of the tournament during the first weekend of games. This year it's my championship team I've lost.

It was a really tough year for predicting the winners. This years best for the most correct picks in the Field of 16 was 13 correct. There was three of you that managed to do this.

It was an interesting weekend of games, a lot of higher seeded teams have survived, more than usual. Of course we lost a couple higher seeded teams. Two of the number 2 seeds, but all four number 1 seeds advanced.

Duke losing to West Virginia - 38 of you selected that one
Georgetown losing to Davidson - 29 of you selected this one

Round 1 Completed, On With Round Two

slinger — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:58:00 +0000

With a total of 360 pick sheets entered into the 2008 tournament, Kim Ross takes the first round lead a pick percentage of 91%. That's an impressive 29 of 32 correct pick selections. The one blemish is, out of the three incorrect picks, two of them were selected to be winners in the Field of 16. That hurts if you want to maintain the lead.

What did I see that was surprising in the first round? Well, the Duke-Butler game is the one that stands out the most because of the shock value. None of us predicted a #12 versus a #13 in the WEST bracket OR the MIDWEST bracket. There was a few, and I mean a few, that predicted only one of the winners in that round two match up. My biggest victory of the first round was Siena over Vanderbilt. I did foresee such the large margin of their win, but hopefully in round two they come through for me as I have them winning once again [over Clemson, not Villanova].

We are half way though the best weekend of the year. Lots more basketball to be played. Many questions to be answered....can Duke survive yet another game? Will UCLA have the easiest road to the Field of 8? Can Wisconsin stop Kansas State? Will all four #1 seeds advance? Will any of the top teams fall flat in round two and lose early? Only time will tell....

Tournament Games Begin

slinger — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:15:00 +0000

The tournament games have begun with Xavier vs Georgia, Kansas vs Portland State and Michigan State vs Temple.

The current standings updates happen automatically at the top of each hour. You'll find the links to the current standings on the column to the left.

2008 Office Pool 64 Tournament Is Live

slinger — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Entry Submissions Is Closed

Deadline: Tip-Off, March 20 @ 12:30 PM [EST]
Entry Fee: $0.00

Make sure you hit the SUBMIT PICKS button at the bottom of the page or your picks will not be entered into the pool.

Enter as often as you like. When entering multiple times, please place a number after your name to make it unique [or it will over write you last submitted picks] For example: Timmy 1, Timmy 2, Timmy 3

For more details on the teams in the tournament and help on your brackets, visit my NEW bracket match up pages

Viewable And Printable 2008 Brackets

How To Win Your Office Pool

slinger — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:11:00 +0000

Last year I did a four part series on how to win your office pool. This year I've added one new rule and I've combined them all into one post so it's easier to read.

My goal is to give you some tips on how to beat the odds over the average person in your pool. Picking only the higher seeds is not going to make a hill of beans by the championship game, picking a lot of upsets is very risky and usually doesn't pay off, so hopefully you'll do better in this years office pool. I've analyzed the winning pick sheets and here are a few tips and trends I've noticed through the years of my winners.

Here are my 21 Tips To Win This Years Office Pool

Always pick last years championship team to repeat as champs if they return all five starters.
Pick all of the number 1 seeds to win their first round games. Since 1985, all number 1 seeds have won their games over the number 16 seeds 100% of the time.
Don't pick a number 1 seed to be one of the last four teams, let along the national title, if the school wasn't in the playoffs the previous year.
Pick at least one number 2 seed to lose before the second round games complete.
Don't pick more than two of the four number 1 regional seeds to reach the final weekend of games when only four teams remain in the tournament.
Pick at one number 3 seed team to lose in the first round of games.
Pick a team seeded 1 or 2 [there will be eight of them] to win the national title.
Don't pick more than two of the four number 1 seeds to be the last four teams in the tournament. In 2006, not one of the number 1 seeds made it to the championship weekend. I'd call it a fluke year.
Pick one team seeded 12th to reach the regional semi finals.
Despite some success, and I do mean some, don't go too far with the number 4 and 5 seeds.
Pick two teams seeded 13th to 15th to be victorious over teams seeded 2nd to 4th.
Don't pick a team from the Big Sky, MEAC and Southland to win a first-round game. They're winless in the Division I playoffs since the field was expanded to at least 52 teams in 1983.
Don't pick an at-large team with a losing conference record to get beyond the second round.
Two of your Final Four picks should be teams that didn't finish atop their regular-season conference standings.
Don't be too concerned about a regular-season defeat against a conference rival with a losing league record.
Don't pick a team to reach the Final Four if it lost in the first round of a postseason conference tournament.
Don't pick a team seeded #16 to #13 into the field of 8. Not once has one ever advanced.
Do pick three #1 seeds into the field of 8. 70% of all number 1 seeds have advanced to the fourth round of games.
Don't pick a team seeded #16 to #9 into the field of 4, only two times has a team in this range advanced to the field of 4 [George Mason in 2006 was the last]
Don't pick a team seeded lower than a #6 to the championship game, not a single one has advanced in the last 21 years.
Do pick a seed ranked #4 or higher to win the championship game. For 18 straight years, this has been true.

31 Automatic Bids

slinger — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:08:00 +0000

31 automatic bids are earned by the Conference Tournament Champions. Here is the list of conferences, schedule and winner when known.

	Dates-Winners [record]	Conference [record]
1.	North Carolina Tar Heels [32-2]	ACC [14-2]
2.	UMBC Retrievers [24-8]	American East [13-3]
3.	Belmont Bruins [25-8]	Atlantic Sun [14-2]
4.	Temple Owls [21-12]	Atlantic 10 [11-5]
5.	Pittsburgh Panthers [26-9]	Big East [10-8]
6.	Portland State Vikings [23-9]	Big Sky [14-2]
7.	Winthorp Eagles [22-11]	Big South [10-4]
8.	Wisconsin Badgers [29-4]	Big Ten [16-2]
9.	Kansas Jayhawks [31-3]	Big 12 [13-3]
10.	Cal St. Fullerton Titans [24-8]	Big West [12-4]
11.	George Mason Patriots [23-10]	Colonial [12-6]
12.	Memphis Tigers [33-1]	Conference USA [16-0]
13.	Butler Bulldogs [29-3]	Horizon 16-2]
14.	Cornell Big Red [20-5]	Ivy League [12-0]
15.	Siena Saints [22-10]	MAAC [13-5]
16.	Kent State Golden Flashes [28-6]	MAC [13-3]
17.	Coppin State Eagles [16-19]	MEAC [12-9]
18.	Drake Bulldogs [28-4]	Missouri Valley [15-3]
19.	UNLV Rebels [26-7]	Mountain West 15-4]
20.	Mount St Mary's Mountaineers [18-4]	Northeast [11-7]
21.	Austin Peay Governors [24-10]	Ohio Valley [17-4]
22.	UCLA Bruins [31-3]	Pac-10 [19-2]
23.	American Eagles [21-11]	Patriot [10-4]
24.	Georgia Bulldogs [17-16]	SEC [4-12]
25.	Davidson Wildcats [26-6]	Southern [20-0]
26.	UT-Arlington Mavericks [21-11]	Southland [7-9]
27.	Oral Roberts Golden Eagles [24-8]	Summit [16-2]
28.	Western Kentucky Hilltoppers [27-6]	Sun Belt [16-2]
29.	Mississippi Val. Delta Devils [17-15]	SWAC [13-6]
30.	Boise St. Broncos [25-8]	WAC [12-4]
31.	San Diego Toreros [21-13]	West Coast [11-3]

2008 Key Tournament Dates

slinger — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:35:00 +0000

Welcome Back! The 11th annual OfficePool64.com contest site is up and running.

With less than 13 days until selection Sunday, I'll be updating the site with the 2008 links. There are 30 'automatic bids' to be earned this year and 36 'at large bids'. Cornell of the Ivy League has earn the first spot in the tournament via winning it's regular season championship.

Key Dates courtesy of NCAA Sports

March 16 - Selection Sunday @ 5:00 CST on CBS
March 18 - Opening Round game [play in game]
First Weekend Of Games
March 20-21: Round One Games
March 22-23: Round Two Games

Second Weekend Of Games
March 27-28: Round Three Games
March 29-30: Round Four Games

Final Weekend Of Games
April 5: Round Five, Semi-Finals
April 7: Round Six, Championship Game

New Rule For Future Picks

slinger — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 02:26:00 +0000

I had two new rules I was going to add for future years, but I'll be darned if I can think of the second one right now. I'll add it later on if I recall it. Here is the one that should be quite obvious:

Always pick last years championship team to repeat as champs if they return all five starters.

2007 OfficePool64.com Top Ten Finishers

slinger — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:09:00 +0000

Congratulations goes out to this years top ten finishers in the 2007 OfficePool64.com contest:

1 - Brian Michnowski [196 points]
2 - Troy Liske [195 points]
3 - kden [193 points]
4 - Brad Balcerzak [190 points]
5 - Gregy D [189 points]
6 - gllll [187 points]
7 - Justin Mangold [185 points]
8 - Dick [183 points]
9 - Hal Cason [180 points]
10 - Steve Mason [179 points]

Like A Stuck Record, Gators Win, Gators Win, Gators Win

slinger — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 03:34:00 +0000

Well, it wasn't that dramatic, but Florida repeats as National Champions of the 2007 Men's Basketball Tournament. All around a decent game to watch. Ohio State was able to keep Oden in the game, which the experts all said needed to happen if they even had a shot at winning tonight. What didn't happen for the Buckeyes was their outside shooting game. It was on the bench in foul trouble this game instead of Oden.

Florida, returning all five starters from the 2006 Championship team proved once again and earned their second consecutive championship. Corey Brewer was amazing, in my eyes tonights MVP. Other than Brewer, no one really stood out from the Gators. That is a good team effort, as it took everyone doing their job for tonights victory.

Sixty Four, Minus Sixty Two, Equals Two

slinger — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:46:00 +0000

I can't believe I didn't have them paired up in the finals. I did four pick sheets with various different methods on how I picked the teams this year. I had Florida winning it all and I had Ohio State winning it all. Not once did I pick Florida and Ohio State to meet in the Championship match up. I was so sure that one of the two would win this tournament, yet I neglected to see the most obvious match up of all. Florida vs Ohio State.

Talk about a dream come true match up for the NCAA selection committee. They hit the home run on this years schedule. You get the number one ranked team in the nation versus last years championship team. Could it get any better than the game on Monday night? I'm psyched! I can't wait.

The odd thing was watching both games unfold. Both teams struggled to get the final four. Coming from behind to win in many of their earlier games. Tonight was not the case. They came to play, they got the lead and never looked back. Ohio State still had the foul trouble with Greg Oden, but they've now won their last three games with him sitting on the bench for the majority of the game. They will need him to stay out of foul trouble on Monday if they expect to win.

Florida was on cruise control. It was hardly a contest this time around with UCLA. Florida looked like they are in top shape to repeat as National Champions two years in a row. A feat that's rare these days in any sport. Five returning starters from a championship team, why shouldn't they win again? When is the last time that has happened?

I'll be adding two new guidelines to follow based on this years tournament on how you can win next years tournament. I'll release them a little later on, but I have mentioned one already.

Rematch Of 2006 Is Set

slinger — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:48:00 +0000

We are down to the final four teams for the 2007 tournament. One side of the bracket has a replay of the 2006 championship match up between #1 Florida Gators and #2 UCLA Bruins, while the other side of the bracket has #1 Ohio State versus #2 Georgetown.

The games are to be played on Saturday and Monday evening. Ohio State and Georgetown kick things off at 6:07 EST followed up by Florida and UCLA at 8:47 EST [or 30 minutes after the first games ends]

Round 3 Stand Outs - 8 for 8

slinger — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 21:23:00 +0000

14 pick sheets correctly picked all eight winning teams. Eight! I was feeling good about going 7 for 8 with my bracket, but 14 people were 100% correct.

Gregy D - 1st place
Adam Michniwski - 3rd
Steve Burow - 4th
Frank Mar 6 - 21st
Trenton Stokes - 6th
Dick - 6th
Brian Michnowski - 12
Chris Charters - 16
kden - 37
Frank Mar 2 - 56th
Mailman Dan - 56th
Joe Lacognata - 71
Tony Jelinek - 93
Frank Mar 3 - 143

Ho Hum, Yet Another Come From Behind Victory For The Number 1 Seed

slinger — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 05:08:00 +0000

So yeah, all four number 1 seeds advance to the final eight teams in the tournament. All four teams have to come from behind to win their games. Tonights late game featured North Carolina with a repeat performance from last night Ohio State come back victory. The Heels, down by as much as 16 points advance over USC and win by 10 points. A 26 point swing. Well, it should have been had it not been for the tantrum the Trojan coach had with under a minute by picking up the technical foul.

So we end up with, going into the 4th round of games, four number 1 seeds, three number 2 seeds and one number 3 seed. Thanks Wisconsin for ruining the curve. I kid you cheeseheads. [I'm thinking of the Randy Moss end zone mooning]

What's interesting for me personally, before the pairings were announced, I was talking with a friend of mine about who we thought we be the national champion. This has been a very strange year as I thought there was 5 or 6 very strong teams that could win this year. I'd been perplexed as to whom I wanted to win it all from the get go. The 5-6 teams I was leaning to before anything announced was Florida, Ohio State, North Carolina, Kansas, Georgetown were the 5, the 6th team was really three teams. Wisconsin was strong, but the had a major injury, UCLA was strong, but they lost in the first round of their conference tournament, and Memphis was a hot team, but I was concerned that they didn't play in a conference that was strong enough for them to compete when the field got down to 8 teams.

Oddly enough, all but Wisconsin have advanced. I'm looking my exact conversation from about four weeks ago. Who really is going to win this year? There isn't one team that you can point at and say, yep they've got it this year. It's still really anyone's game as each remaining team has massive strengths, but are all beatable under the right conditions. Look at all four number one seeds, each team has struggled and come from behind to win. Aside from the UNC victory, they barely won their games.

Wow....Ohio State Rolls On

slinger — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:37:00 +0000

Ohio State, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis all move on to the next round of games on Saturday.

Ohio State, down by 20 points, Greg Oden with 3 fouls, and Conley Jr with 2 fouls [both sitting a good amount of time] end the half looking flat, out played and looks of being schooled by Tennessee. I'm not sure who was playing in the first half compared to the second half team. It was yet another 'what the hell did the coach say' in the locker room to get them motivated?

Saturday we see not one, but two #1 vs #2 match ups. #1 Ohio State vs #2 Memphis, #1 Kansas vs #2 UCLA. The Cinderella teams have left the building. Just think back a year ago, all four number 1 seeds were all eliminated by the final four teams. This year we still have them all. Plenty of basketball to be played, so I may be getting ahead of myself.

Tubby Smith To Coach Minnesota Gophers?

slinger — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:48:00 +0000

Is this for reals? Tubby Smith of Kentucky Wildcats leaving their program for my Golden Gophers? I am based in Minnesota and the basketball program is in a world of hurt. Did someone not mention this tidbit to Tubby? There has to be a catch, why would someone want to come here? Lost a bet perhaps? I simply do not get it.

Don't get me wrong, I really like this move by the Minnesota Athletic department, but how in the hell did they pull this off is what I wanna know?

CBS Sportsline had this on their write up about the coaching move " Minnesota was 9-22 this season, the most losses in the 111-year history of the program, and averaged just 60.6 points a game, its lowest in 56 years"

Personally I've been so disinterested in watching the Gophers, this may be what it takes to win me back. My highlight of this season was getting to watch Ohio State play. Oddly enough, I liked them so much I picked them to win my bracket [in one of the couple I entered].

2nd Round Salutes

slinger — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:19:00 +0000

With round two completed, I'm giving a second round salute to two people for correctly picking 14 of 16 teams correct. That's outstanding

Casey Croslin 2
kelly mooberry 2

ABC News Sports Article Quote

slinger — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:55:00 +0000

This site was mentioned in an ABC News Sports article by Marcus Baram. He wrote a piece titled "How To Win Your Office Pool" that was posted on March 13.

It was basically a good run down on various tips to win your office pool. He used my tip in his article. It was the number 3 tip on the list:

3) Don't pick a team to reach the Final Four if it lost in the first round of a postseason conference tournament, say the folks at OfficePool64.com.

There wasn't any link back, but I did get the site mentioned, thank you.

The Best Weekend Of Basketball Has Completed

slinger — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:16:00 +0000

Hopefully you didn't overdose on watching basketball the past four days. So many games, so much to watch, pick sheets, brackets, predictions....it can consume you if you've let it.

Thursday and Friday's games were rather uneventful. Saturday and Sunday's games....WOW! Those were some close finishes, minor bracket killers, upsets, some teams look unstoppable. Sixteen teams remain heading into next weekends games which start on Thursday once again.

Little numbers break down. What seeds advanced to next weekends games:

Thursday, March 22 [West Region]
#1 Kansas vs #4 So. Illinois [7:10] - #2 UCLA vs #3 Pittsburgh [9:40]

Thursday, March 22 [South Region]
#1 Ohio State vs #5 Tennessee [7:27] - #2 Memphis vs #3 Texas A&M [9:57]

Friday, March 23 [Midwest Region]
#1 Florida vs #5 Butler [7:10] - #3 Oregon vs #7 UNLV [9:40]

Friday, March 23 [East Region]
#1 No. Carolina [7:27] vs #5 USC - #2 Georgetown vs #6 Vanderbilt [9:57]

1-1-1-1
2-2-2
3-3-3
4
5-5-5
6
7

This really wasn't the typical year for seed # winners compared to previous years. Some of the expected numbers were there, but there is nothing between #8-12. 10 of the 16 teams make up the top three seed numbers. There were no #12 vs #5 upsets. There were two #11 vs #6 upsets, but they were unable to advance in the next round versus the #3's.

The West bracket saw the seed numbers 1-2-3-4 all advance.

Eight For Eight

slinger — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 06:47:00 +0000

Not too shabby on the four people who went 8 for 8 on Saturday. Four people correctly picked all eight winners today, dnamertz, Robb Perkins, steve foster, and Casey Croslin.

Today was the highlight of the three days. So many games came down to the last shot, double overtime, #1 and #2 seeds clawing their way back to a victory. What intensity that was displayed in almost every game.