BCI Tournament Pool: Winner, Winner

Congratulations to West Coast Bias for winning the first annual BC Interruption Tournament Pool. Bias correctly picked 50 of 63 games including the national champion North Carolina.

The truly sad part of it all is not that I finished next to last, but that West Coast Bias is actually my future sister-in-law. I guess we now know where all the college basketball knowledge lives in the family. West Coast Bias is actually a women's college basketball coach by trade, so I am going to cry foul and say that maybe she had some inside information on this year's tournament?

The rest of the top 10 after the jump.

1	West Coast Bias	26	30	24	8	16	32 (UNC)	136	136
2	Witty Bracket Name	24	22	16	24	16	32 (UNC)	134	134
3	Andy's Picks	21	24	24	16	16	32 (UNC)	133	133
4	Hoosier Daddy	24	22	20	16	16	32 (UNC)	130	130
5	conlonc	21	24	20	16	16	32 (UNC)	129	129
6	Tarheel Tourney Pick'em '08 (G	22	26	16	16	16	32 (UNC)	128	128
7	Mosakowski's Men	22	26	24	8	16	32 (UNC)	128	128
8	number2	24	20	20	16	16	32 (UNC)	128	128
9	Conte Coffin	22	26	24	8	16	32 (UNC)	128	128
10	Reggie Jackson's Headband	23	24	16	16	16	32 (UNC)	127	127

BCI Tournament Pool: And Then There Were Four ...

Can you hear that sound? Yes, that's the sound of my bracket being sunk.

What a finish. If your National Championship pick has to be bounced from the tournament, that is the way to go.

The Leaderboard

1	West Coast Bias	26	30	24	8	-	North Carolina	88	136
2	Witty Bracket Name	24	22	16	24	-	North Carolina	86	150
3	Andy's Picks	21	24	24	16	-	North Carolina	85	133
4	Hoosier Daddy	24	22	20	16	-	North Carolina	82	146
4	Adam Garcia	24	26	24	8	-	Pittsburgh	82	82
6	conlonc	21	24	20	16	-	North Carolina	81	129
6	Omar	25	24	24	8	-	Louisville	81	97
8	Tarheel Tourney Pick'em '08 (G	22	26	16	16	-	North Carolina	80	144
8	Conte Coffin	22	26	24	8	-	North Carolina	80	128
8	Mosakowski's Men	22	26	24	8	-	North Carolina	80	128
8	number2	24	20	20	16	-	North Carolina	80	128

West Coast Bias is still your leader with 88 points, however Witty Bracket Name comes out of nowhere to claim 2nd place by successfully picking 3 of 4 Final Four teams.

Scenario Planning

Four teams and three games remain in this year's NCAA tournament. And we've come down to three brackets remaining who can take home the BCI tournament pool title.

Here are your possible winners in our bracket challenge:

• With a (1) Connecticut vs. (1) North Carolina/(3) Villanova final, Witty Bracket Name wins with a Tar Heel/Wildcat win, while I think it moved... wins with a Husky title.
• West Coast Bias wins if (2) Michigan State advances to the title game, regardless of who wins the UNC/Nova Final Four game.
  

Straight Bangin'

This week's Straight Bangin' award goes to Witty Bracket Name and claver2010 who each selected 3 of 4 Final Four teams correctly. Both brackets correctly picked (1) Connecticut, (1) North Carolina and (3) Villanova to advance to the Final Four.

Bracket FAIL

Me. It's all me this time. My bracket is a monument of FAIL this round. And I had started off so well. Thus proving it's not how you start, but how you finish.

Jeff vs. Brian

I don't want to talk anymore about my bracket. After picking four of eight Elite 8 teams correctly, I laid the big goose egg in the Final Four. Yep, that's right. Not ONE correct team. This is truly pathetic. Thanks for nothing, Gonzaga, Pittsburgh, Memphis and Louisville.

With Jeff correctly picking North Carolina to advance to the Final Four, he is your winner in the Jeff vs. Brian bracket challenge. Congrats.

Thanks to Fear the Stache for keeping my bracket out of the basement.

BCI Tournament Pool: Elite 8

OK, OK. So my Gonzaga pick was a little off. Lawson and the Heels straight up dominated the Zags last night to move within a game of the Final Four. In the first half, it seemed like UNC couldn't miss. This is of course good news for the 18 pool participants that picked North Carolina to win the National Championship.

North Carolina was THE pick of this tournament, with 41% of brackets picking the Heels to win it all. Pittsburgh came in second with 27% of brackets, and Louisville third with 10%. Of all the brackets, only 5 have lost their National Champion pick (2 for Memphis, 2 for Boston College and 1 for Washington).

With only 7 games left to play, "let's go to the leaderboard ... Mo!"

1	West Coast Bias	26	30	24	-	-	North Carolina	80	168
2	Adam Garcia	24	26	24	-	-	Pittsburgh	74	162
3	Omar	25	24	24	-	-	Louisville	73	161
3	Bracketological Beats	21	28	24	-	-	Pittsburgh	73	153
5	Conte Coffin	22	26	24	-	-	North Carolina	72	160
5	Mosakowski's Men	22	26	24	-	-	North Carolina	72	160
7	Coach Handsome	25	26	20	-	-	Pittsburgh	71	159
8	Furb	20	30	20	-	-	North Carolina	70	134
9	Andy's Picks	21	24	24	-	-	North Carolina	69	165
9	Der Springer	25	24	20	-	-	Pittsburgh	69	157

The Leader

For the second straight round, West Coast Bias is your overall leader with 80 points and a possible point total of 168. Bias has correctly picked 47 of 56 games correctly, having only missed 3 games beyond the first round games. West Coast Bias has a comfortable 6 point lead on our second place bracket Adam Garcia (Adam's bracket can only win the entire tournament with a Louisville-Pittsburgh final where Pittsburgh wins it all).

New to the Top 10 this week is Conte Coffin, Mosakowski's Men and Andy's Picks. All three brackets correctly picked 6 of 8 Elite 8 teams.

Straight Bangin'

This week's Straight Bangin' Award will be split 9 ways. Congrats to Bracketological Beats, Conte Coffin, Hoosier Daddy, Bean, Left Coast Chris, ATLeagle, BCMike, BC'10412 and mlcmnd for picking Missouri to advance to the Elite 8. Only 16% of all Yahoo brackets had Missouri in the Elite 8. Of those 9 brackets, 6 were man (or woman) enough to have the Missouri Tigers advancing to the Final Four.

This award usually goes to a bracket that goes out on a limb and has a great upset pick come true, but with pretty chalky Elite 8 - four 1s, two 2s and two 3s - I have to take what I can get. It's just too bad that Bracketological Beats didn't trust in the ACC and pick Maryland over California in the first round, otherwise this bracket would have had a ...

Perfect Regional

Last time around, we had whittled our way down to 2 perfect regionals. With 2 seed Memphis being upset by 3 seed Missouri, that took out our last two perfect regionals, as West Coast Bias and BC Billy 1979 had Memphis advancing to the Elite 8.

Bracket FAIL Award

We will stop picking on Fear the Stache - still in last place - and turn our attention to southerncomfort and Jeff. These brackets only picked 2 of 8 Elite 8 teams correctly, the lowest point total of the round. And of the two brackets, southerncomfort is actually in a better position than Jeff, having selected Louisville in the Midwest and North Carolina in the South to advance to the Final Four. The only teams Jeff has left are North Carolina and Oklahoma who play in the South regional final tomorrow. Jeff will be rooting for the Heels, his eventual National Champion.

Jeff chalks up this Bracket FAIL award to the ACC who let him down and completed effed his bracket over this year.

Jeff vs. Brian

This week, I currently lead Jeff by 5 points on the strength of picking 4 of 8 Elite 8 teams correctly. As I mentioned, Jeff had a forgettable set of Elite 8 teams - Wake Forest, Boston College, Purdue, Memphis, Florida State, Duke, North Carolina and Oklahoma. Gotta ... little carried away with those ACC teams, eh Jeff?

Jeff's hopes of defeating me this year in our bracket challenge now lie solely with North Carolina.

Also worth noting that Jeff and myself can no longer win this thing. The best I can finish is 3rd (with a Louisville-Pittsburgh final) and the best Jeff can finish is 15th (with a North Carolina vs. Missouri/Michigan State final).


Enjoy the Regional finals and check back on Sunday for an update after the Final Four.

BCI Tournament Pool: Sweet 16 Recap

... and then there were 16. A bit dry and chalky for my tastes, but it is what it is. After the craziness from Friday's opening round upsets, the weekend was surprisingly calm with the No. 1 through No. 3 seeds all advancing to the Sweet 16. Two of the No. 4 seeds advanced in Xavier and Gonzaga. And in the West regional, the No. 5 seeded Purdue Boilermakers bounced the third No. 4 seed Washington Huskies (and Left Coast Chris's National Champion pick). I guess I spoke too soon about the West Coasters owning this pool.

The one surprise of the weekend is the No. 12 seed Arizona Wildcats advancing to the Sweet 16. When the field of 65 was announced, some thought that Zona didn't even deserve to be in the tournament. But they quietly knocked off the Mountain West champs Utah in the first round, and dispatched the 13th seeded Horizon League Champ Cleveland St. Vikings today.

Our new leaderboard (top 10):

1	West Coast Bias	26	30	-	-	-	North Carolina	56	184
2	Coach Handsome	25	26	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	51	175
2	bobble24	27	24	-	-	-	North Carolina	51	167
4	Adam Garcia	24	26	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	50	178
4	Furb	20	30	-	-	-	North Carolina	50	150
6	Omar	25	24	-	-	-	Louisville	49	177
6	Coach Handsome and T-Rice Show	25	24	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	49	177
6	Der Springer	25	24	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	49	173
6	Bracketological Beats	21	28	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	49	165
6	Doug Flutie Likes Guacamole	21	28	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	49	165

The Leader

Our new leader this week is West Coast Bias. West Coast Bias correctly picked 15 of 16 Sweet 16 teams which is quite an impressive accomplishment. The only incorrect Sweet 16 pick was surprising Arizona (this bracket picked Wake Forest). West Coast Bias has a comfortable 6 point lead in the possible points column, and will only relinquish the top spot if this tournament gets a lot less chalky (Bias has all No. 1s and No. 2s in the Elite 8). Way to go out on a limb! I guess I don't have much room to talk though.

Newcomers to the Top 10 include Adam Garcia, Furb, Bracketology Beats and Doug Flutie Likes Guacamole, who turned it on in the second round - probably because I made fun of this bracket on Saturday.

Scenario Planning

If all the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds win next Thursday and Friday, West Coast Bias will increase its lead from 5 points to 13 points.

If you are a fan of chaos and all the lower seeds advance to the 8s, Coach Handsome and T-Rice Show will be your new leader going into the Regional finals.

Straight Bangin' Award

This round's Straight Bangin' Award goes to Furb. After only picking 20 of 32 picks correctly in the first round, Furb turned it around and successfully picked 15 of 16 Sweet 16 teams correctly, only getting tripped up by Arizona.

Speaking of Arizona, BC'10412, Andy's Picks and my bracket were the only ones to have the Wildcats in the Sweet 16. Correctly picking the right 12 seed to advance to the 16s earns these three brackets this round's Straight Bangin' runner up award.

Perfect Regionals

After Friday's games, there were only 15 perfect regionals left in the pool. Now, after the second round of games, we are down to only 2. Congrats to West Coast Bias and BC Billy 1979 who both still have perfect West regionals.

Bracket FAIL Award

Fear the Stache takes the award for the second straight round, after only picking 7 of 16 Sweet 16 teams correctly. That was the lowest point total of the second round. Got a little crazy with the Sweet 16 this year with (12) Western Kentucky, (7) Clemson, (7) Boston College, (6) Marquette, (6) West Virginia and (5) Florida State all penciled into the second weekend. Fear the Stache is currently in last place.

Although not in last place, BC Mike has the lowest possible point total left (103 points). BC Mike lost his National Champion on Friday (a team from Chestnut Hill) and only batted .333 in the Midwest regional (5 of 15 picks correct). Although his Midwest regional is a disaster, BC Mike still managed to pick 10 of 16 teams correctly in the second round, including a perfect 4-for-4 in both the West and South regionals.

Jeff vs. Brian

Jeff correctly picked 25 of 32 games correctly in the first round, and backed that up by correctly picking 11 of 16 Sweet 16 teams. Jeff's possible point total sits at 139, however, as he lost a Final Four and National Championship game participant in Wake Forest.

I picked 24 of 32 games correctly in the first round, and 10 of 16 Sweet 16 teams and am 3 points behind Jeff. Possible point total is much higher as all four of my Final Four teams are still in play - (1) Louisville, (2) Memphis, (1) Pittsburgh and (4) Gonzaga.


We'll be back with an update after the Regional semifinals.

BCI Tournament Pool: Opening Round Recap

Brian: Not ready to talk about it yet. We'll have more on the loss and a season wrap-up in the next few days, but not today. Too soon.

Ok, so raise your hand if Cal State Northridge, East Tennessee State or Morehead State made you sweat more profusely than Gary Williams after Greivis Vasquez just picked up his fourth foul? Exactly.

I felt dirty inside rooting for my bracket (Memphis) when I should have been rooting for the Matadors of Cal State Northridge. I think Rick Maese of the Maryland blog 'Tracking the Terps' said it best though:

"It’d ruin all of my brackets, but if you can’t root for a 15 seed to upset a 2, you were probably born with no heart!"

Those teams played well against their No. 1 and No. 2 seeded opponents. I think we are coming closer and closer to a 16 finally breaking through and beating a 1 seed, but maybe I'm just deluding myself.

A somewhat boring first day where chalk ruled ... so you just knew it would open up on the second day. (13) Cleveland State, (12) Wisconsin, (12) Arizona, (11) Dayton and a (10) seed that will remain unnamed here all pulled off the upset on the second day, wreaking havoc on BCI readers' brackets.

On to the leaderboard:

1	bobble24	27	-	-	-	-	North Carolina	27	183
2	West Coast Bias	26	-	-	-	-	North Carolina	26	184
2	Left Coast Chris	26	-	-	-	-	Washington	26	182
4	Omar	25	-	-	-	-	Louisville	25	181
4	Coach Handsome	25	-	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	25	181
4	Coach Handsome and T-Rice Show	25	-	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	25	179
4	Der Springer	25	-	-	-	-	Pittsburgh	25	177
4	Jeff	25	-	-	-	-	North Carolina	25	143

And 9 brackets tied for 9th place with 24 points.


The Leader

bobble24 went on a tear in the first round. Two perfect brackets so far in the West and East regional, a nearly perfect bracket in the South (Jeff called it but confound you, Hilltoppers!) and a 'meh' Midwest regional bracket that saw two Sweet 16 picks from the ACC crash and burn. I lost count but bobble24 ended up rattling off something like 13 straight wins on the tournament's first day. Impressive. Most impressive.

West Coast Bias is a point back in second but actually has the inside track to the title given that her bracket has 15 of 16 Sweet 16 picks still in play. We are not sure whether bobble24 is located on the West Coast, but the meme of the opening round was the superior knowledge of West Coasters - with West Coast Bias, Left Coast Chris and Omar all topping the leaderboard.

A couple of Coach Handsomes make the leaderboard, although I didn't see the T-Rice Show last night. Oh yeah, and Jeff would hurt me if I didn't mention that he makes the Top 10 this week. However, the first round loss of one of his Final Four teams - Wake Forest - knocks his possible total points way down.

Straight Bangin' Award

This round's Straight Bangin' award goes to Der Springer, who correctly predicted the (13) Cleveland St. upset win over (4) Wake Forest and is currently tied for 4th place. Well played, sir. Runner up goes to the only other bracket to correctly pick the Vikings over the Deacons - conlonc.

Perfect Regionals

Lots of brackets still have perfect brackets, with the majority of brackets getting the West Regional 100% correct. Props to bobble24 (x2), BC Billy 1979 (x2), West Coast Bias, Left Coast Chris, Coach Handsome, Der Springer, I think it moved..., lawrencelancer, Eagle98alum, Tarheel Tourney Pick'em '08 (G, and Fear the Stache.

And Jeff and myself for picking the West regional correctly. We disagree though on who will make it out of the first weekend in the West though ...

Great Bracket Names, Terrible Picks

World of Ricecraft. Great bracket name (would be an even funnier poster), but can thank the Cleveland State Vikings for knocking out a National Championship game participant. If Rice was a World of Warcraft character, what character would he be?

Doug Flutie Likes Guacamole also can't be too excited about Wake's loss.

Bracket FAIL Award

Fear the Stache takes this round's Bracket FAIL Award for forgetting to pick a National Champion. Thanks for bringing down the Facebook group with the same name down a few notches. Also, after the first round, one thing I can say with confidence is that march152009, bcsuperfan94 and Pirate Drinks will not be winning this year's BCI NCAA Tournament challenge.


We'll check back in after we get down to the Sweet 16. Try to enjoy the games this weekend and forget about the events of last night ...

Join Our NCAA Tournament Pool

If you are up for a challenge, you can match wits with Jeff and myself in our first annual NCAA Tournament pool. There will be nothing at stake except Boston College fan bragging rights. But on a blog like this, bragging rights is all we really have.

All you have to do is have a Yahoo! account. Click here to join.

Group ID# 72057
Password easternclothing

You know you want to. If you don't join, Joe Trapani will be very upset with you.


After the field is selected tomorrow night, simply fill out a bracket, sit back and cheer on the Eagles. And if you are a frequent commenter, make sure your name of your bracket matches your blogger user name so we can make fun of your picks. We will publish standings updates along with some commentary as the tournament progresses.

Go Eagles!