Saturday, March 10, 2012

Buffaloed

The University of Colorado competed in 35 Big 8/Big 12 tournaments in school history. You know how many they won? We're talking goose egg, zilch, the big nada. They've now competed in precisely one (1) Pac 12 tourney and, you guessed it, they came out on top. Well, let us rephrase that. If you're playing in our contest, you didn't guess it at all. Exactly nobody in our contest picked the Buffaloes to win the Pac 12. Which quite frankly doesn't distinguish them that much from most other conference tournament winners. So far 26 automatic bids have been decided, and a majority of us chose the winner in only 11 (42.3%).

Since our last blog entry on this topic, the majority has ruled in four conferences -- the MEAC (Norfolk State, chosen by 51); Conference USA (Memphis, 72); the SWAC (Mississippi Valley State, 92); and the Big West (Long Beach State, 91). The majority was fooled in another seven conferences -- the Big 12 (Missouri, 33); America East (Vermont, 31); the MAC (Ohio, 27); the WCAC (New Mexico, 19); the Southland (Lamar, chosen by 3: Baumgarten, C Brown, B Wright); the Big East (Louisville, selected by 3: Fitch, D Kedson, Steinhardt); and the Big 12 (the aforementioned Colorado Buffaloes, picked by nobody).

It's not going to get any better in the last five tournaments, either. Tonight, in the WAC, New Mexico State (only picked by 19) faces off against Louisiana Tech (0). Tomorrow, it's Xavier (8: M Barone, Brenner, B Brenner, Brett Steven B, M Josephs, Pogach, Rybaltowski, and Steinhardt) vs. St. Bonaventure (0) in the Atlantic 10; North Carolina (46) against Florida State (2: Pogach, Steinhardt) in the ACC; Ohio State (40) v. Michigan State (49) in the Big 10; and Kentucky (89) against Vanderbilt (3: D Baum, S Leach, Rybaltowski) in the SEC. So, at most two of the five remaining champions will have been picked by a majority of us, meaning the best case scenario is we'll get it right in 13 of 31, or 41.9% of the conferences, and our worst case this year is 11 of 31 (35.5%). Which, mind-boggling as it may be, would actually be better than last year, when the majority of us were correct in only 10 of 31 (32.3%)

So, nice job, folks.

M Peloso (92 points) is still our leader, clinging to a one (1) point lead over Steinhardt (91) and D Kedson (91). Huffnagle (89), Harlan (87), Alberts (85), and C Brown (85) are all hanging around too.

Pogach (48) has pulled out of the cellar and now leads Slayen (42), although Pogach is still 9 points behind M Leach, N Donadio, and Brenner (all with 57) in the race for 3rd-to-last place.

Selection Sunday tomorrow -- stay tuned.

No comments: