hoopage « Uncle Crappy

Mar 15 2012

svaucnffc (btybb) tipoff.

As usual, we have a ton of entries for the Seventh Annual Uncle Crappy NCAA Final Four Challenge (Brought To You By Bocktown), so let’s get right to the list, so we can get our first look at who might be in line to win our Bocktown gift card.

As per tradition, we start with yours truly:

If my Buckeyes are paying attention, they’re as good as anyone on the country. However, I’m betting that there will be a lapse at some point in the tournament, and if it happens against Florida State, Ohio State will be done. In that light:

Kentucky/Missouri

Vanderbilt/North Carolina

Mizzou and Carolina face off in the title game, and even though Mrs. Crappy will be in bed by halftime, the Tar Heels will be this season’s national champions.

Mrs. Crappy is fairly predictable:

Kentucky/OSU & UNC/Kansas

Kentucky v UNC

UNC

Mom’s entry is awfully chalky:

Mike, Here is my entry: Final Four: Kentucky vs Mich. State and
Syracuse vs North Carolina. Final: Kentucky vs North Carolina. Winner:
Kentucky. Tie breaker: 74-72. How’s that for not going out on a limb?
No guts here! Mom

And no one should be surprised by my dad’s picks:

My final four are UK/MSU and OSU/UNC Champ Game is OSU 62 MSU 58. Go Bucks.

Casey was one of a couple people to take advantage of the newly instituted Melo Rule. His amended picks:

As allowed by the Melo Rule, new updated picks:

Semi-Finals: Kentucky/Michigan State & Florida State/Kansas
Championship: Kentucky/Kansas
Champion: Kentucky

Defending champion Tim taunts Ted, who apparently didn’t enter this year:

Final 4: Duke, Mich St, Syracuse, UNC
Championship: Kentucky v. UNC
Champion: Kentucky 72-68

Looking to repeat! Ted, you don’t have a chance!

Curl Girl Michelle:

Semi-Finals:
Kentucky/Missouri & Ohio St/North Carolina

Championship Game:
Kentucky/North Carolina

Champion:
North Carolina 63-54

Good luck everyone!

Our favorite Aunt Annoyed Angel is back:

I never do well here, so I don’t know why I’m trying again, maybe to get my mind off of school for a hot second…

So, here I go.

Semis: KY/Mich St & OSU/NCU
Finals: KY/OSU
Winner: KY
Score: 74-68

Large made his picks before Phil’s Mom did:

Kentucky, Florida St., Kansas, Missouri
Kentucky, Florida St.
Kentucky
68-63

I always suck at this so my expectations match Juan’s.

Kim Z lives in the heart of B1G country, and you can see it in her picks:

Semis: Kentucky/Michigan State & Ohio State/Georgetown
Finals: Michigan State/Ohio State
Winner: Ohio State
Score: 67-61

I don’t know Adam Music (I don’t think I do, anyway), but his picks — especially the one about OU — are always welcome here:

Semis: Kentucky, Gonzaga, Murray State, North Carolina
Finals: Kentucky, North Carolina
Winner: UNC, 75-68
I did vote for the Bobcats to make it to the Sweet 16 though.

Jaci got married since last year’s tournament, but she’s still a Buckeye:

My picks:

Final Four: Kentucky/Michigan State and Ohio State/North Carolina.

Final: Kentucky/North Carolina

Winner: Kentucky – 77-68

Barb, there are millions of people around the country who share your irony:

Ironically, I know nothing about college b-ball, but enjoy March Madness every year!

Four: Kentucky, MI St., Syracuse, and Kansas
Final: Kentucky, Kansas
Winner: Kentucky, 76-75

Former Yinzteamer Michael joins us from Indiana:

Final Four: Kentucky/Missouri, Syracuse/Georgetown
Final: Kentucky/Syracuse
Winner: Kentucky — 72-64

The Most Rev. Father Spoon had Syracuse getting to the Final Four in his original version; he also took advantage of the Melo Rule:

DOH updating mine

FINAL 4 – Florida ST/UNC & Mich St/Kentucky

FINAL – Mich st / UNC

Champion – UNC

I like Grandpa Caldwell’s picks:

Final Four: Ohio State/Kansas / Kentucky/Michigan State
Final: Ohio State / Kentucky
Winner: Ohio State: 72-69

Kimly got back to Pittsburgh just in time to join us for SVAUCNFFC:

OK here are my picks. It’s usually safest to bet AGAINST me. I’m always wrong.

Final Four: Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State

Finals: Michigan State/North Carolina
Winner: North Carolina
Score: 81-77

We’ll see if the Shadow knows:

duke/michigan state
syracuse/georgetown

duke over syracuse 59 to 58.

Gina has a long history of letting her pets make her picks. She really had to scrounge this year:

My dog doesn’t care & my cat is very bored by the whole thing, so I am picked myself up to the finals and then let (I kid you not) the goldfish pick the final winner:

Kentucky vs. Michigan State and Florida State vs Kansas
Michigan State vs Kansas
Michigan State 78-64

Hellpellet couldn’t get her cat to pick for her, so she had to come up with her own:

DUKE vs. MICHIGAN ST
OSU vs. N CAROLINA
DUKE vs. N CAROLINA
DUKE wins

72 to 67

( I love that you said The OHIO Bobcats will beat Michigan…)

I look forward to Kewyson’s AUCNFFC picks as much as I do anything else during the whole year:

Okay – here we go with my bball predictions for 2012 – first off, I have to give credit where credit is due – I stole these picks from someone who has a lot more focus on the game than I – if I win, I will certainly share the fabulous prize. He only has to track me down, correctly state where obtained said bracketology knowledge was hap-hazardly left lying around – in a condition that a reasonable person would conclude that this information was discarded, abandoned, neglected or simply posted on the Internet.

In the South-West corner – we have the feline connection. The battle of the cats – Kentucky’s WildCats taking on the Missouri Tigers. Although UC’s connection to the Bluegrass State would normally be enough for any of his loyal, supportive readers to go with Kentucky – I’m focusing on national parks – Mammoth Cave vs. Lake of the Ozarks – both certainly have unique attributes – however, Kentucky wins this draw due to the fact that it’s park is a natural creation and has less WalMart’s within a 50 mile radius.

In the East-MidWest corner – we have the plant / mineral confrontation. A nut (Buckeyes) vs. a mineral (Tar heel – my apologies to Dorset Ram – my simple stories cannot handle a multiple mascot concept). I feel in this primal battle between basic elements, reliance on a dead language is most useful.
• OSU: Disciplina in civitatem – Education for Citizenship
• UNC: Lux Libertas – Light & Liberty
Light and Liberty are 2 actionable items- shedding light and the act of liberty.
Education is and act, but Citizenship is a description.
UNC wins the motion test.

So we have Kentucky versus North Carolina. I’ll keep it simple – petrochemical countries continue to win over whiskey distilling ones 97% of the time – my prediction – UNC over Kentucky – 78 – 65

Ethel!

OK, here are mine (I’m logged in as momsbrain but, you know, this is Ethel)

Baylor v Missouri
Ohio State v UNC

OSU beats Missouri in the final

score: 66-63

Newcomer Garrett, who hooked me up with this year’s Phil’s Mom episode of the Kornheiser show:

Picks: Kentucky/Mizzou, Fla. St./UNC; Kentucky/UNC; Kentucky. 75-68

My favorite accordian player Fuzzwad:

bracket entry: Duke2/Mich St1, Wisc4/Kansas2, Duke2/Kansas2, Duke 55-47

I didn’t meet John until a few months ago; I’m happy he decided to join us:

Final 4: Kentucky, Mizzou, Fla St, UNC; Champ Game: Kentucky vs UNC; Champion: Kentucky Pts: 155

I don’t know who Otimemore is, but his or her picks are here. Thanks for playing:

Message: Semi finals
Kentucky/Memphis
Vanderbilt/Kansas

Finals
Kentucky / Kansas

Champ
Kentucky 83-78

My favorite editor Larry came up with especially good picks this year:

Ohio State/North Carolina

Kentucky/Michigan State

Ohio State over Kentucky in the final, total points 135.

Cindy’s back for another shot at the Bocktown gift card:

My picks:

SEMI-FINALS:
Kentucky/Marquette
Wisconsin/Temple

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
Kentucky/Temple

CHAMPION:
Kentucky

TIE-BREAKER:
72-64

From Nashvegas, we hear from Carla:

Going out on a limb this year. Because, well, why the heck not?

Final Four:
Kentucky/Michigan St. and Vandy/Kansas

Final
Michigan St./Kansas

Winner:
Michigan St.
67-60 (or 127 because we all suck at math).

Go Dores! Go Belmont! Go Bobcats! (I have them beating Michigan.)

An entry from Susan, one of my favorite internet people I’ve never actually met:

Baylor, Missouri, Syracuse, NC. Missouri, NC. NC. 148

New Dad, otherwise known as multiple AUCNFFC Champion Mr. Burns:

Kentucky, Mizzou // UNC, THE Ohio State University
UK, UNC
UK
155

Carolina Boy found me at the last second:

Final Four

UK/Mizz

Vandy/UNC

Championship

UK/UNC

Champion

UK Points: 141

My North Side neighbor Clif:

Final 4:
Kentucky/Michigan State and Ohio State/North Carolina

Championship Game: Michigan State/North Carolina

Champions: Michigan State 78 to 72

A veteran of many AUCNFFCs, Calipanthergrl:

You didn’t think I’d forget did you?? I’m going to go with:

Kentucky/Missouri

Ohio State/North Carolina

Kentucky/North Carolina

North Carolina

Total points – 165

A new contestant, my friend #OhJill:

Final Four:
Kentucky/MSU & OSU/UNC

Championship Game:
MSU/UNC

Winner:
MSU
74-68

And finally we have Juan, oh he of little basketball knowledge. We were able to track down Phil’s Mom’s picks, thanks to the aforementioned Garrett, and Juan actually has a shot this year:

Kansas State/Vermont

Baylor/Iona

Baylor/Kansas State

Baylor

(Yeah, we’re not going to worry about the tiebreaker for this one too much.)

And there you go, boys and girls, all 8,457 entries. If I screwed up your entry or missed it entirely — a distinct possibility — just let me know and I’ll get it straightened out. Thank you all for playing, thanks to Chris at Bocktown for the prize and good luck to everyone. Especially me.

Tagged aucnffc, hoopage, the longest post ever, woo-hoo

Mar 14 2012

actual hoopage.

I’ve managed to write about college basketball for a couple days straight without actually mentioning basketball, and given the success of the two teams I really care about (not to mention the success of Mrs. Crappy’s favorite hoopsters), it’s probably about time I change that.

I also have a prediction. Pay attention, boys and girls.

* Ohio State. My Buckeyes were up and down this year, something I attribute to youth and not a ton of depth on the bench. When they’re paying attention — see Duke and second Michigan State games — they are frighteningly good; if they’re not — see first Indiana and Michigan State games — they can look pretty pedestrian. Their NCAA outlook is much the same. If they’re playing well, they’re capable of winning the whole thing, but if they have one of the lapses they’ve had all year, a team like Florida State could make them look awfully bad.

* North Carolina. I’m always happy this time of year that I’ve chosen to be a Tar Heel, in gratitude and support of Mrs. Crappy, who’s adopted the football Buckeyes as her own. UNC fandom seems to work pretty well in March, and that could work out again in 2012. I haven’t filled out any brackets yet, but don’t be surprised if Carolina is my final four team coming out of the Midwest. And (POTENTIAL FORESHADOWING ALERT), how cool would it be to have a Carolina-Kentucky game in the final?

* OU. For the second time in three years, my Bobcats won the MAC tournament and will play in the big show. And for the second time in three years, they’ll face a hefty test in the first round, this time against … Michigan. If we go back to 2010, you’ll recall that OU had to play Georgetown in the first round, a game they had no business winning. You’ll also recall that I bet my friend Robyn, a two-time Georgetown grad, beers and T-shirts on the game (I was thinking of going double or nothing on an Ohio State-Georgetown matchup a couple rounds later, to be honest). And you’ll also recall — I’m sure Robyn would, anyway — that my Bobcats dusted Georgetown in one of that year’s biggest upsets. As I said before, I haven’t started filling out brackets yet, BUT YOU SHOULD WRITE THIS ONE DOWN: OU will beat Michigan on Friday night. Take it to the bank.

___

Psst. Have you signed up for the Seventh Annual Uncle Crappy NCAA Final Four Challenge (Brought To You By Bocktown) yet? Details are here.

Tagged aucnffc, hoopage, woo-hoo, yet another dreaded bullet update

Mar 12 2012

28 Comments

Social Media, Sports

SVAUCNFFC (BTYBB) TIME.

The selection committee has spoken, which means its time for the Seventh Annual Uncle Crappy NCAA Final Four Challenge (Brought to you by Bocktown).

Given that this our seventh year, there is a mess of you who already know the AUCNFFC drill; for those of you who don’t here’s how it works in handy bullet list form:

Find yourself a copy of the bracket. If you can’t manage that, you probably shouldn’t be operating a computer, driving a car, breathing, etc., but if you’re having trouble, there’s a nice PDF version provided by our friends at Yahoo! Sports here. Fill it out.
After consulting your bracket, pick the four teams — one from each region — that you think will win the regional championships and travel to the Final Four in New Orleans.
After consulting your bracket again, pick the two teams you think will win the national semi-final games on March 31.
Consult your bracket once more, and pick the team from your semi-finalists who will win the title game April 2.
How do I figure out who wins? You get two points for picking a correct Final Four team, four points for a correct semi-finalist and six points for a correct national championship pick. Assuming I can add correctly (and that can be quite an assumption, boys and girls), the entry with the highest point total is our winner.
Yes, there is a tie-breaker. When you submit your pick, please also include your project score for the championship game. If it’s necessary, the entry whose score is closest will be our winner.

Still confused? Given that I’m writing this in a hurry, that’s entirely possible. Here’s a purely hypothetical example of what an entry from this year’s bracket could look like (Note 1: this is NOT my entry. Note 2: These are the lowest seeds in the tournament; if you want to make this your entry, feel free, but do so knowing the risk of being Blutarskied):

Semi-finals:

Western Kentucky/LIU-Brooklyn

Vermont/UNC-Asheville

Championship game:

Western Kentucky/Vermont

Champion:

Vermont

Simple, right? As you begin to mull your picks, here are a couple of other things to keep in mind:

One thing to make sure you don’t do: Send me money to enter. As has always been the case, AUCNFFC is free.

In the first four years of the contest, we were competing for cheesy trinkets and I usually included a disclaimer that our FABULOUS PRIZES weren’t actually fabulous. And then Chris at Bocktown Beer and Grill blew that out of the water by putting up a gift card to the contest’s winner — as she’s doing again this year. All together, boys and girls: “Thank you, Chris!”

The tournament’s first-round games get underway around 12:15 Eastern Thursday; I’m not a huge stickler, but I’ll need to have your entries by noonish that day for you to be eligible.

How do you enter? Comment. Email. Twitter. DM. Text. Facebook. Smoke signal. Please feel free adding whatever commentary you wish regarding how you arrived at your picks; each entry will be listed in a comprehensive post that’ll show up at some point early Thursday afternoon.

The fine print (AKA The Juan Rule): As is tradition, Juan will once again be entered against his will, using either the Phil’s Mom Method or the Penny-Flipping Method.

To summarize:

Free.

Easy.

Deadline is noon Thursday.

Bocktown gift card for the winner.

Have any questions? Let me know. Otherwise, good luck to everyone — especially me.

Tagged aucnffc, hoopage, internet fun, woo-hoo, yet another dreaded bullet update

Uncle Crappy

words. pictures. beer.

Tagged with hoopage …

actual hoopage.

Follow “Uncle Crappy”