Home

Normalcy Has Returned

After an upset-filled first weekend to the tournament, a bit of normalcy has returned as the remaining higher seeds have advanced to the Elite 8 including all four 1 seeds. Thus the pool remains wide open to a majority of our entrants.

The payment deadline has come and gone and only 1 entry had to be DQ’d to be bring our total to 130 entries. However I need for Rick Branham to contact me ASAP. I have been unable to reach him via email.

Here’s the unofficial prize breakdown:

Rank Winnings
1 $325
2 $150
3 $100
4 $50
5 $25

Also I have added a sign up to the HoopsHysteria Mailing List. If you receive emails from HoopsHysteria you are already on it. If not please sign up so you will not be missed on any updates or invites the following year.

Good luck to everyone. It looks to be a weekend of good basketball.

Giddy Up! Upset Trend Continues

So crazy first two days, huh? This tweet best sums up the action thus far.

The day started strong with 13 seed Hawaii dispatching 4 seed Cal. However the biggest upset of this tournament (and possibly one of the biggest in tournament history) saw the Middle Tennessee State Raiders stun Michigan State (and thousands across the nation) and send countless brackets into disarray. Sparty was the second most popular National Champion pick (30) in this pool. Their ouster will surely add more intrigue. The upset also led to the revelation of one Giddy Potts, the nation’s leader in 3-point percentage. Also one cool name.

The upsets continued into the evening when 14 seed Stephen F. Austin (more like Stephen F’n Austin) sent the 3 seed Mountaineers back to West Virginia. Hello Thomas F’n Walkup!

https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/711006274284953601

The final upset of the day was your classic March Madness back and forth battle between Texas and Northern Iowa ending in one of those magic moments.

However the night couldn’t end without one more moment that will live on in March Madness lure. However for fans of the Bearcats this one felt like a punch to the gut maybe even worse considering how their AAC tournament ended.

Here’s how it ended:

https://twitter.com/CauldronICYMI/status/711047511746682880

Here’s the (unfortunately) definitive image:

Literally a split second. March Madness can be cruel.

As for how these upsets affected this pool, 37 brackets have had their predicted champion ousted (MSU 30, WV 4, UC, 2, Arizona 1). That’s a whooping 28% of total entries!

Upsets Rule the Day

It’s called March Madness for a reason. See Exhibit A – Purdue and Arkansas-Little Rock. The Boilermakers held a 14-point lead with less than 5 minutes to go. Time for the 12-seed Trojans (yes, I had to Google Arkansas-Little Rock’s mascot name) to start the buses. Even advanced analytics was prepared to call this game.

But like Lloyd Christmas famously stated …

The Trojans battled back to take the Boilermakers to not one but two overtimes capping off an improbable comeback.

Need another example. Well see Exhibit B. The 12-seed Yale Bulldogs won their first tournament game in school history. It’s good to see something happen for these underdog Yale kids. I mean seriously nothing ever goes their way, right?

With Yale advancing, they will now square off against Duke. Yep. The internet wins.

Still not convinced? Leave it to the 11-seed (and First Four winner) Shockers then to sho … stun the Arizona Wildcats (and Lisa Burns 😥 – see below ) on Thursday night. It was a bad night for Sean Miller on two fronts: first his team was upset in the first round and second …

What’s the saying? Never let them see you sweat? At least he’ll probably get an endorsement deal out of it.

The last example of the day. Exhibit D the 11-seed Gonzaga Bulldogs made easy work of the Big East tournament champs Seton Hall Pirates. However the Bulldogs win isn’t as shocking considering their pedigree.

Let’s see what day two has on tap for more upsets.

As for our pool, we currently have 131 entries. I must receive payment by end of day on March 23rd so get those payments (or at least arrangements) in ASAP.

Before I present a quick breakdown of predicted champions a couple facts:

  • 13 different schools selected
  • 1 entry has had their champion eliminated (Arizona – Lisa Burns)
Team Total Percent
Kansas 31 23.7%
Michigan St. 30 22.9%
North Carolina 29 22.1%
Kentucky 11 8.4%
Oklahoma 7 5.3%
Virginia 6 4.6%
Oregon 5 3.8%
West Virginia 4 3.1%
Xavier 3 2.3%
Cincinnati 2 1.5%
Arizona 1 0.8%
Duke 1 0.8%
Miami 1 0.8%

Welcome Back! It’s Bracket Time

Just a refresher as we kick off our 2016 version of the Madness.

We use CBS Sports Bracket Manager. Our group is name is HoopsHysteria and can be found at http://hoops-hysteria.mayhem.cbssports.com/. You will need to register with CBSSports.com prior to joining the group. Returning users will not need to re-register.

New user can join using the group link: http://hoops-hysteria.mayhem.cbssports.com/e?ttag=BPM15_paste_cbsinv (Password: NothingButNet)

Scoring: (Per Correct Selection)

Round of 64: 1 pt

Round of 32: 2 pts

Sweet 16: 4 pts

Elite 8: 8 pts

Final 4: 16 pts

Championship: 32 pts

Entry Deadline:

Bracket picks must be submitted by 12:00 PM ET Thursday, March 17th. Payment deadline is Wednesday, March 23th.

Fee:

$5 per entry. The Bracket Manager caps users to 10 brackets. If you want to enter more than 10 brackets you will need to register an additional email address on CBSSports.com.

Payment:

Please see the How to Pay page.

Payout:

The number of winners will be dependent upon the total number of paid entries. The past three years I have paid out the top five.

K Equals W

The Duke Blue Devils held off the Wisconsin Badgers to earn Coach K his fifth National Championship. Duke’s victory also means that John Fiasco is the 2015 HoopsHysteria.net champion. John correctly predicted all four Final 4 teams, both National Championship teams and the National Champion en route to his comfortable victory. John also finished third. It’s the second year in a row that a person has placed multiple winning brackets. Congrats John!

And congrats to the others that won including Jeff Warren, Deanna Manning and Tim Dougherty who was our winner last year.

Rank Team Name Score Winnings
1 john fiasco 157 $330 Duke (146)
2 Jeff Warren 146 $150 Duke (146)
3 john fiasco (2) 142 $100 Duke (144)
4 Deanna Manning 139 $50 Duke (137)
5 Tim Dougherty 139 $25 Duke (143)

The winners will receive an email with instructions on claiming their winnings.

Thanks to everyone for another fun tournament season. See you next year.

 

38-Oh!

Notre Dame gave the Wildcats (and Big Blue Nation) a scare. Wisconsin gave both a nightmare ending Kentucky’s bid at history. The Badgers will square off against Duke on Monday night for the National Championship after the Blue Devils made easy work of the Spartans.

Now for the important stuff. The scenarios for this pool.

If Wisconsin wins ..

Rank Team Name Best Score Best Correct
1 KIMBERLY AMMON (4) 156 50 Wisconsin (132)
2 thomas e. kakaris (2) 152 48 Wisconsin (155)
3 Joe Lapensee (2) 138 42 Wisconsin (119)
4 Allison Corcoran (3) 134 47 Wisconsin (151)
5 Al Schulte 132 41 Wisconsin (139)

If Duke wins …

Rank Team Name Best Score Best Correct
1 john fiasco 157 44 Duke (146)
2 Jeff Warren 146 43 Duke (146)
3 john fiasco (2) 142 43 Duke (144)
4 or 5 Deanna Manning 139 45 Duke (137)
4 or 5 Tim Dougherty 139 45 Duke (143)

The tie-breaker would only come into play should Duke win to settle 4th and 5th place. Good luck to all in the running … including my dad.

In the last mail I sent out the breakdown of National Champion but included the 15 disqualified entries. Here is the corrected totals.

School Entries %
Kentucky 76 57.1%
Wisconsin 14 10.5%
Duke 14 10.5%
Arizona 12 9.0%
Villanova 8 6.0%
Gonzaga 5 3.8%
N. Carolina 2 1.5%
Wichita St. 1 0.8%
Oklahoma 1 0.8%
Total 133 100.0%

Below is the payout structure.

1st – $330
2nd – $150
3rd – $100
4th – $50
5th – $25

Thanks for another fun tournament. Once again good luck to all.

Are You Not Entertained?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs

Yes Maximus. I was. What a way to kick off March Madness with a tournament record five games decided by 1-point including UC’s thrilling OT win over Purdue. However it can’t be March Madness without upsets and those came quickly as two 14 seeds (Georgia State & UAB) sent thousands of brackets to the trash unless your name is Jeff Warren who correctly predicted both upsets. He is the leader after day one getting 15 out of 16 correct. He came oh-so-close to perfect start but saw SMU fall to UCLA in a controversial ending when the referees awarded UCLA with the go-ahead basket on a goaltending call with 10.9 seconds. SMU missed two attempts to win the game before time ran out and were upset by the 11 seed Bruins. The SMU loss could be even more costly to Jeff’s entry as it had the Mustangs making the Elite 8.

However the darlings of day were Georgia State and UAB. Both are 14 seeds and both won their opening game by one point. Georgia State rallied late outscoring Baylor 13-0 in the last 2:54. It included an unbelievable 3-pointer from RJ Hunter with 2.7 seconds left that left Baylor stunned, 57-56. Meanwhile UAB destroyed countless brackets with their upset of Iowa State, 60-59. The Blazers surprisingly owned the boards against the Cyclones who surrender a season high 19 offensive rebounds to the Blazers.

The night continued with several more close games. Ohio State needed overtime to advance defeating VCU 75-72. Two 5 seeds both escaped upset with narrow victories.North Carolina squeaked by Harvard 67-65 while Arkansas slipped by Wofford 56-53. The UC/Purdue game had it all including Troy Caupain’s game tying basket as the clock expired. It was a shot that you would expect to see in movie but even then you would say that it’s too cliche.

What made this shot even more incredible was that UC trailed by seven with 48.6 to play. But this happened in a 9 second span ..

UC Purdue Game Log

A 6-0 lightning quick run by the Bearcats and suddenly they trailed only by one. Ultimately the game goes to overtime and continues as a back-and-forth battle. With UC leading 66-65, Troy Caupain is fouled with 5 seconds. He misses the free throw and Purdue’s Vince Edwards gets off a three that just misses. For once everything went right for UC in a tournament game (including overcoming Ellis’ ejection) and their reward is Kentucky. Undefeated Kentucky. David meet Goliath.

Xavier controlled their game from the tip against Ole Miss en route to a comfortable 76-57 win. The Muskies took advantage of a slow starting Rebels team possibly due to their track meet against BYU on Tuesday night. Matt Stainbrook owned the paint scoring 20 to go along with 9 boards. Xavier gets Cinderella Georgia State for a chance at the Sweet 16.

As for the pool, we have 148 current entries but the official total will not be verified until all payments are received. Once this is complete I will announced the prize pool. Good luck to all and hopefully the rest of the tournament is just as exciting.

 

 

Bracket Time!

Well the waiting is over and the brackets are out. It’s now time to analyze the matchups and select your champion. Please pass along this invite to HoopsHysteria to your family, friends and co-workers. Again we will use CBSSports.com to run the pool. Good luck to everyone and enjoy the action this week.

It’s Almost Time

Welcome back to HoopsHysteria! The site is a bit different than the past several years because the previous site got corrupted and I had to start from scratch. If anything is missing, please let me know.