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Uncle Crappy

“words. pictures. beer.”

March 15, 2010 faucnffc 2.0.

Thad says you should give it a try. AND THERE'S NO WAY THAT'S A FOUL.

As much fun as I had watching Ohio State and OU win their respective conference championships, the real fun is about to begin — it’s time for the Fifth Annual Uncle Crappy NCAA Final Four Challenge.

The regulars know the drill, but I’m hopeful, as always, we’ll have some newcomers to join the fun; with them in mind, let’s take a brief stroll through the instructions, in handy list form:

  1. Find yourself a copy of the bracket. This shouldn’t be hard, but if you’re having trouble — and in deference to our favorite Yahoo employee –  Yahoo has a nice PDF version here.
  2. Pick the four teams — one from each region — you think will win their regional championship and travel to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
  3. After consulting your bracket, pick the two teams you think will win the national semi-final games on April 3.
  4. Of those two two semi-final winners, pick who you think will win the championship game on April 5.
  5. We’ve had some tight finishes in the past so I’m going to modify the scoring a bit this year. A correct Final Four pick gets a point. A correct semi-final pick gets two. A correct pick in the title game gets three. The entry with the highest point total at the end is our winner.

Using this year’s bracket, here’s a completely hypothetical — and highly unlikely — example of what your entry might look like:

Final Four: Lehigh vs. Vermont/East Tennessee St. vs. Robert Morris
Championship: Vermont vs. Robert Morris
Champion: Robert Morris

As always, you’re encouraged to supplement your picks with whatever
explanations or smack you feel like tacking on (examples are here). Get your picks to me by noon Thursday — when the first-round games begin — via email, comment or smoke signal, and I’ll have them all posted here Thursday afternoon for everyone to see.

The best parts? It’s free! And we’re competing for Fabulous Prizes,* hand-selected by Uncle Crappy!

And so we’re all clear on one thing — Juan, oh he of very little basketball knowledge or interest, will be entered against his will for the fourth year in a row. If we can find the picks of Phil’s Mom, we’ll use those; if not, we’ll use the penny-flipping method that earned Juan exactly zero points a year ago.

And if you don’t know about Phil’s Mom, here’s my standard explanation:

Now — what’s with this Phil’s Mom thing? Uncle Crappy’s infatuation with Monday Night Football color guy and occasional radio host Tony Kornheiser is well-documented, and the mother of Phil “The Showkiller” Ceppaglia, who served as the producer for Kornheiser’s radio show when it was on ESPN, has been a fixture during tournament time for several years. She’s usually relied upon to provide a little comic relief, because she knows absolutely nothing about basketball, but a few years ago, Phil’s Mom shocked the world by picking George Mason to win it all. GM nearly did, making it to the Final Four and making Phil’s Mom a folk hero.

If you have other questions, please feel free to get in touch. If not, get your entries to me by noon Thursday, and we’ll get the fun underway.

*Prizes not actually fabulous. Unless Uncle Crappy wins his own contest.

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