Game Pigeon Tournament Upset

The past couple of weeks, CJ, Griffin, Daniel, and I competed in a 64 team Game Pigeon tournament.  The bracket was set up like an NCAA Tournament bracket, where each person had four teams in each region.  Each person was seeded based on a random number generator, but the maximum number of teams each person had in a region was four.  Because it was random, it was possible for a person to play himself in the first round and automatically advance.
I was the clear favorite after the opening round as I put up unheard of scores with a 77, 76, 74, and a 80.  Of  my 16 entries, 10 advanced to the second round, the most of any competitor.  I only lost three games in the second round, but in one of the games I had to play myself, so I lost an entry that way.  I occupied 6 of the "teams" in the Sweet 16, tied for the most with Griffin.  I lost two entries in the Sweet 16, because I played myself.  I was able to defeat CJ by a score of 73-69, but lost to Griffin after he broke my record for most points with 84.  Griffin and I were the only players left in the Elite 8, but Griffin had 5. Griffin defeated me in every Elite 8 match, with the closest being a score of 82-79.  Griffin composed all of the Final Four teams and won the Championship by defeated.
I lost an opening round game to Griffin 63-62 on a buzzer beater.  That entry ended up knocking out two of my entries and if I had won that game, I would have made the Final Four by default.

T'was disappointing that I easily could have won the championship, but I had a few lapses of judgement.  We followed this up with a one on one tournament, so tune in next week to see how the favorite does then.

Why Duke Lost

Duke's NCAA Tournament loss to my sister's school, South Carolina, occurred for a plethora of reasons.  Even though the officiating was questionable, that is not one of the top reasons they lost.  Duke received a number two seed in the tournament, but because of House Bill 2, they had to play in Greenville, SC.  Originally, these games were supposed to be played in Greensboro, NC, but the NCAA sided politically, which is against their values, and removed championships from North Carolina.  Then, the selection committee put South Carolina in Duke's sub bracket, setting up an essential road game for the Blue Devils.  According to the commentators, the stadium was 90% rooting for South Carolina.  More South Carolina fans were able to go to the game than Duke fans, because Columbia is 100 miles from Greenville, while Durham is over 250 miles from Greenville.  The home-court advantage played a major factor in the upset and putting pressure on Duke.  Duke also got into foul trouble early in the second half, leading to tentative defense and easy buckets for the Gamecocks. 3 key Blue Devils also got injured at some point in the game including Amile Jefferson, Jayson Tatum, and Matt Jones.  Duke began the season as the preseason #1 and definitely had the best potential of any team in the Tournament, but because it took a long time to get their mojo, because of injuries, they had no continuancy with their mojo.  Grayson Allen, Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard, and Frank Jackson all might leave after this year, but I think Jayson Tatum is the only likely player to leave, as a projected top-5 pick.

Brad-ketology

For the fifth straight year, I competed on the Bracket Matrix.  This is the link to my final bracketology: bradketology.blogspot.com

I ended up correctly picking all 68 teams that made the tournament.  61 of the teams I picked; I correctly seeded or was one seed line off.  However, I only correctly seeded around 33 teams.  Joe Lunardi, ESPN's bracketologist, picked 67/68 teams right, but trumped me with 62 teams correctly seeded or one line off.  My pick to win the National Championship is Duke.

Championship Week

The College Basketball regular season has officially concluded and with it Championship Week has begun.  The week of the conference tournaments is arguably the best week of the College Basketball season not including March Madness.  Conference Tournaments bring a lot of intensity because the winner of every conference tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.  For teams that won their regular season conference championship but did not win their conference tournament and did not receive an at-large bid to the tournament, they get an automatic birth to the NIT.  So far, the teams that have won their conference tournament and are going dancing is Jacksonville Gamecocks, Wichita State Shockers, Winthrop Eagles, and Florida Gulf Coast.  This will be the first year that the Ivy League has a conference tournament.  In years past, the Ivy League automatic bid went to the Regular Season champion, but this year the Ivy League's top four teams are competing in a tournament for that bid.  Championship week concludes with Selection Sunday and the Selection Show.  This will be the day that teams on the bubble find out their NCAA fates, then Tournament play begins.