2018 NCAA Pool

bsj

Renegade Crazed Genius
SoSH Member
Dec 6, 2003
22,774
Central NJ SoSH Chapter
I always try to aim for keeping my Elite 8 intact or only losing one and keeping the Final Four intact after the first round, then all Final Four teams after the second day, and so on. I feel like it's useless to worry about teams you have going one or two and done unless you have one of the bigger teams winning, which I don't. The 300 people in the bracket complicates it a bit but it helps keep me sane.
Yeah, agree. I lost with Zona and V Tech yesterday. The Tech game pisses me off more because its one I flipped on a couple times.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
I always try to aim for keeping my Elite 8 intact or only losing one and keeping the Final Four intact after the first round, then all Final Four teams after the second day, and so on. I feel like it's useless to worry about teams you have going one or two and done unless you have one of the bigger teams winning, which I don't. The 300 people in the bracket complicates it a bit but it helps keep me sane.
Yeah--I just know that if I lose a team I had making a long run AND my champ in that bracket is a pretty popular pick, well, that bracket is likely dead because if so many teams have the same champ, one of them definitely had Arizona losing earlier than I did. I could have nailed the champion and still lost because 80 other teams have Villanova.
 

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
SoSH Member
Dec 2, 2006
16,090
Tuukka's refugee camp
That's why I've gone with more unconventional picks, ever since I almost won with Michigan a few years back. I don't really watch college basketball so I feel like I have a better chance with a less conventional pick than battling it out with 80 people for the top.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
Yeah---so my Michigan bracket is now my Golden Ticket. Only 9 of us.

When you go with the popular pick you have to nail some early upsets or a dark horse Elite 8 team to stand out.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Who’s the 1 guy who picked UMBC?
I was the one. I decided prior to the draw that I was fading my 6 high-seed frauds right out of the gate. Unfortunately (for me), aside from Virginia that also included Cincinnati, Auburn, Texas Tech, Purdue, and Tennessee as well (a couple of heartbreakers in there) so I'm still only middle of the pack even with the bonus points.

To give you an example of how sharp a field Murf's pool has......I'm not even in the Top-100 of the 287 entrants. I submitted this same bracket in 3 other pools, two of which utilize the exact same scoring system. In those two, I'm tied for 5th out of 111 and in 3rd out of 95. I did notice there are a ton more multiple entries in this pool but not even sure how that affects this huge disparity.
 

The Needler

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
1,803
I was the one. I decided prior to the draw that I was fading my 6 high-seed frauds right out of the gate. Unfortunately (for me), aside from Virginia that also included Cincinnati, Auburn, Texas Tech, Purdue, and Tennessee as well (a couple of heartbreakers in there) so I'm still only middle of the pack even with the bonus points.

To give you an example of how sharp a field Murf's pool has......I'm not even in the Top-100 of the 287 entrants. I submitted this same bracket in 3 other pools, two of which utilize the exact same scoring system. In those two, I'm tied for 5th out of 111 and in 3rd out of 95. I did notice there are a ton more multiple entries in this pool but not even sure how that affects this huge disparity.
Murf's standings haven't been updated yet. You'll be in the top 10 when they are. But your bracket doesn't look very good going forward.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Murf's standings haven't been updated yet. You'll be in the top 10 when they are. But your bracket doesn't look very good going forward.
Ok this makes much more sense. Guess I need a Michigan/Duke final with a Butler win vs Purdue mixed in.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
Troy Tsoumas, whoever that is, had 7 entries, and picked UVA on all of them. That kind of defeats the purpose of multiple entries.

My Michigan sheet still has a shot, even though I'm way back now.
 

Dan Murfman

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,187
Pawcatuck
My wife with too much time on her hands went through her Quicken has determined that we’ve paid out 38k in winnings over the years.
 

bsj

Renegade Crazed Genius
SoSH Member
Dec 6, 2003
22,774
Central NJ SoSH Chapter
My odd day brackets are much stronger than my even days, so after day 1 I was doing well, after day 2 I fell, after day 3 back to doing well...but expect to fall again
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
So 3 of the top 5 picks are out before end of first weekend. Madness indeed.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
Not seeing them yet--is it one of those "clear my cache" kinda things?
 

Dan Murfman

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,187
Pawcatuck
No . My bad. I brought my laptop in to work to run it. It takes about 6 hours to run. . It has been running for 4 hours and I didn’t realize I hadn’t plugged laptop in all the way. I looked over and the laptop was dead. I’ll run it again when I get home.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
Still got a shot at 3rd.

What's the money breakdown this year?
 

Dan Murfman

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,187
Pawcatuck
In theory you are correct but as long as I allow checks I have to deal with this. Plus if I delete them gives them less incentive to pay which isn’t fair to the winners and everyone else who did pay.
 

Dan Murfman

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,187
Pawcatuck
So I go to enter tonight’s games and I check to see if anyone picked Loyola. And of course Eric Honsel picked them on all 8 sheets.
 

Dan Murfman

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,187
Pawcatuck
It did. When I updated the early games I didn’t run it because it would take to long and I assumed the old one would stay up. It’s back now
 

luckysox

Indiana Jones
SoSH Member
Apr 21, 2009
8,076
S.E. Pennsylvania
$680 unpaid is just wrong. I'm sorry you have to deal with that crap. If it's anyone from here, I hope they read this and are shamed into getting you paid asap.

Also, thanks for working so hard on this and running all the scenarios and reports. It's appreciated - though I have to admit, I still like spending too much of my own day figuring out what needs to happen for me to still be alive!
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
SoSH Member
Mar 24, 2008
7,204
Looks to me like Honsel is almost guaranteed to win. I think Kansas is the only team that he doesn't have as the tourney winner that someone else does and could pass him. Even then, he's got a 40 point lead on that person, so he could win anyway. It's really really freaking impressive.

Other contingency is he's neck and neck with a Purdue picker, who currently has 1 more point than him that would basically be a coin flip from here on out.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Looks to me like Honsel is almost guaranteed to win. I think Kansas is the only team that he doesn't have as the tourney winner that someone else does and could pass him. Even then, he's got a 40 point lead on that person, so he could win anyway. It's really really freaking impressive.

Other contingency is he's neck and neck with a Purdue picker, who currently has 1 more point than him that would basically be a coin flip from here on out.
He has Villanova in the Finals on most of his brackets and making Final Four in all but one (where he has Purdue winning it all). The scenarios still have 8 others alive for 1st (yay I'm one of them) with all but 2 needing West Virginia to win this game. In short, a Huggins win pretty much opens the door for a fantastic finish while a Nova win should leave only 2 others chasing Honsel for 1st and likely needing a perfect runout for them to catch him.

Go Huggy!!!
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
I just want to know what Honsel is going to do with his crystal ball once the tourney is over. I'd be happy to borrow it.

Honsel, so hot right now.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,060
Hingham, MA
I'm starting to wonder whether we should discuss reducing the bonus points for picking upsets. I'm not sure that seeding matters all that much in the tournament. Accuracy of picks should be more important than nailing a few big upsets but otherwise submitting a meh bracket. Just some food for thought going forward.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,850
I think all 4 teams I needed to win yesterday (still have shot at 3rd) won but I lost a number of scenarios to finish in 3rd. Now down to 8. Why would that be?

Anyway, I need all 4 favorites tonight.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
SoSH Member
Mar 24, 2008
7,204
I'm starting to wonder whether we should discuss reducing the bonus points for picking upsets. I'm not sure that seeding matters all that much in the tournament. Accuracy of picks should be more important than nailing a few big upsets but otherwise submitting a meh bracket. Just some food for thought going forward.
Plenty of pools to join if that's what's you're looking for. I enjoy the bonus. Besides it's just like the Patriots if you have the proper coaching, people will adjust their picks to whatever the rules are.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,060
Hingham, MA
Plenty of pools to join if that's what's you're looking for. I enjoy the bonus. Besides it's just like the Patriots if you have the proper coaching, people will adjust their picks to whatever the rules are.
I love this pool - it has been my sole $ pool for like 10 years now - mainly because it is SoSH. I even won the thing in 2015. I just think that the upset bonus points almost make it more like an algorithm than about picking a good bracket. I'd be curious to see how many points a theoretical bracket would have if it took all 1 seeds to the Final Four but upsets in all of the other games, but had the correct winner. Like this year if you project Villanova to win it all and got that right and chose upsets in basically every other game, would you be ahead of the field? Or what if you picked the correct winner overall and picked an upset in literally every other game including the other 1 vs 16 games? I have no idea where that bracket would stand, but if it is even close then that points to picking a bracket that is more about strategy than about actually picking games. That's boring to me.
 

Dan Murfman

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2001
4,187
Pawcatuck
I have thought as tim has and we even have had discussions about the scoring here a couple of times. But the universal reaction is people love the bonus points. And after 20 plus years it would be hard to make the change.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,060
Hingham, MA
I have thought as tim has and we even have had discussions about the scoring here a couple of times. But the universal reaction is people love the bonus points. And after 20 plus years it would be hard to make the change.
Fair enough, I totally respect that. We just need to be cognizant of people trying to game the system.

Question because I can't find it in the rules: are bonus points doubled each round, as the regular points are? Like if a 10 beats a 7 in the first round, that earns you 4 points (1 for the win, 3 for the bonus). If you then correctly pick the 10 to beat the 2 in the second round, is that worth 2 points for the win plus 8 for the bonus, or 2 points for the win plus 16 for the bonus?