Sweet 16 Starts Tonight - Schedule & My Updated Bracket

The Sweet 16 starts in 2 and a half hours so now's the perfect time to leave work and start drinking. Right now I'm in the 68th percentile in Yahoo brackets with 33 of 48 correct picks for 41 points and my bracket looks like a Christmas tree. Not terrible but I could have done better. One of my biggest regrets was picking Belmont over Wisconsin. I should have gone with the safe pick and took Wisconsin into the Sweet 16. I still have 3 of my Final 4 teams alive and both Finals teams. Ohio State has looked dominant and Kansas has looked like the 2nd best team so I still think that will be the championship match-up.

There are only 4 games tonight but they should all be really good. Here's the TV schedule:

3 Connecticut vs. 2 San Diego St., 7:15 p.m., CBS

3 BYU vs. 2 Florida, 7:27 p.m., TBS

5 Arizona vs. 1 Duke, 9:45 p.m., CBS

8 Butler vs. 4 Wisconsin, 9:57 p.m., TBS

I'm doing the Yahoo Second Chance Tournament and tonight I picked San Diego St., BYU, Duke and Wisconsin. If I was betting on the spread I'd pick San Diego St. (-1), BYU (+3), Arizona (+9) and Butler (+4.5).

Sunday's March Madness TV Schedule & My Updated Bracket

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Yesterday I picked 5 of the 6 games where I had teams and so far today I'm 2 for 3 (picked Washington for the upset and they should have won - yes, I'm bitter). My only loss of teams I had left in the sweet 16 yesterday was Pittsburgh and they deserved to lose after that idiotic foul. I should have known not to pick them because they choke EVERY SINGLE YEAR. I thought this year would be different because their region was by far the easiest of the 4 but they set out to prove me wrong. They still have never made a Final Four. Penn State on the other hand? They have made 1. PSU > Pitt.

7 Washington vs. 2 North Carolina, 12:15 p.m., CBS

8 Michigan vs. 1 Duke, 2:40 p.m., CBS

8 George Mason vs. 1 Ohio State, 5:15 p.m., CBS

5 Arizona vs. 4 Texas, 6:15 p.m., TNT

11 VCU vs. 3 Purdue, 7:10 p.m., TBS

11 Marquette vs. 3 Syracuse, 7:45 p.m., trutv

9 Illinois vs. 1 Kansas, 8:40 p.m., TNT

10 Florida State vs. 2 Notre Dame, 9:40 p.m., TBS

Saturday's March Madness TV Schedule & My Updated Bracket

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After a slow start on Thursday (10 for 16), I was nearly perfect yesterday going 15 for 16 and only missed the VCU/Georgetown upset. And let's be honest, VCU sucks. If I could go back in time and I knew VCU was going to win I would still pick Georgetown. I'm no math major but I think 10/16 and 15/16 makes me 25/32 which is good for 93rd percentile in Yahoo. The last time I saw 93% on something was on a Sporcle test about The O.C. Saturday of the tournament is when I start to get depressed because we go from 16 games each of the past two days to 8 today, 8 tomorrow and then only 15 left total after that.

There were only 7 upsets in the first round and 5 of them were in the Southwest region. I told you chalk wins and we you wanted to win which means you used my bracket so you're welcome. Here's the TV schedule to all of today's games.

5 West Virginia vs. 5 Kentucky, 12:15 p.m., CBS

7 UCLA vs. 2 Florida, 2:45, CBS

13 Morehead State vs. 12 Richmond, 5:15 p.m., CBS

7 Temple vs. 2 San Diego State, 6:10 p.m., TNT

8 Butler vs. 1 Pittsburgh, 7:10 p.m., TBS

11 Gonzaga vs. 3 BYU, 7:45 p.m., CBS

5 Kansas State vs. 4 Wisconsin, 8:40 p.m., TNT

6 Cincinnati vs. 3 UConn, 9:40 p.m., TBS

Friday's March Madness TV Schedule

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Well my bracket was pretty average yesterday. Sort of like Jennifer Anniston's acting abilities. I got 10/16 but I still have 182 possible points. Here is today's TV schedule.

Well, first here's the link to the naked Sammi pic again just because. [NSFW unless you work at Apple, then load this bitch on every computer/iPad/iPhone in the store]

13 Oakland vs. 4 Texas, 12:15 p.m., CBS

9 Tennessee vs. 8 Michigan, 12:40 p.m., trutv

15 Akron vs. 2 Notre Dame, 1:40 p.m., TBS

9 Villanova vs. 8 George Mason, 2:10 p.m., TNT

12 Memphis vs. 5 Arizona, 2:45 p.m., CBS

16 Hampton vs. 1 Duke, 3:10 p.m., trutv

10 Florida State vs. 7 Texas A&M, 4:10 p.m., TBS

16 UTSA vs. 1 Ohio State, 4:40 p.m., TNT

16 Boston U vs. 1 Kansas, 6:50 p.m., TBS

15 Long Island vs. 2 North Carolina, 7:15 p.m., CBS

14 St. Peter's vs. 3 Purdue, 7:20 p.m., TNT

11 Marquette vs. 6 Xavier, 7:27 p.m., trutv

9 Illinois vs. 8 UNLV, 9:20 p.m., TBS

10 Georgia vs. 7 Washington, 9:45 p.m., CBS

11 VCU vs. 6 Georgetown, 9:50 p.m., TNT

14 Indiana State vs. 3 Syracuse, 9:57 p.m., trutv

March Madness Live Tweeting Extravaganza

As I said earlier, I will be live blogging/tweeting during all the games. Below is a feed of the tweets.

Everything March Madness & My Winning Bracket

I promised you that I would post my final bracket and here it is. I changed a few things from the last version but not too much. I told you my plan was to get drunk last night and make some bold changes but I went to take a nap at 6pm and didn't wake up until 6am. Yeah, I'm awesome. You'll notice that I have all four 1 seeds in the Final 4 and you can call that pussy but I'll take it to the bank. It's likely at least two will get there and instead of try to pick which two and guess wrong I'd rather give myself better odds. I will be live blogging and tweeting all of the action today so be sure to follow us on twitter (twitter.com/uggbootsformen) because it is St. Patrick's Day so I will be getting Anne Tanked and won't be at my computer all day while I'm watching the games. I'm going to post today's schedule of games along with the TV lineup below my bracket.

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12 Clemson vs. 5 West Virginia, 12:15 p.m., CBS

9 Old Dominion vs. 8 Butler, 12:40 p.m., trutv

13 Morehead St. vs. 4 Louisville, 1:40 p.m, TBS

10 Penn State vs. 7 Temple, 2:10 p.m., TNT

13 Princeton vs. 4 Kentucky, 2:45 p.m., CBS

16 UNC Asheville vs. 1 Pittsburgh, 3:10 p.m., trutv

12 Richmond vs. 5 Vanderbilt, 4:10 p.m., TBS

15 Northern Colorado vs. 2 San Diego State, 4:40 p.m. TNT

15 UC Santa Barbara vs. 2 Florida, 6:50 p.m., TBS

14 Wofford vs. 3 BYU, 7:15 p.m., CBS

14 Bucknell vs. 3 UConn, 7:20 p.m., TNT

13 Belmont vs. 4 Wisconsin, 7:27 p.m., trutv

10 Michigan State vs. 7 UCLA, 9:20 p.m., TBS

11 Gonzaga vs. 6 St. John's, 9:45 p.m., CBS

11 Missouri vs. 6 Cincinnati, 9:50 p.m., TNT

12 Utah State vs. 5 Kansas State, 9:57 p.m., trutv

March Madness Bracket 2011 Edition

I'm going to ignore the fact that there hasn't been a post since December 20th and just get into the 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Actually, no I'm not. Blog Dylan decided to stop posting in October even though he had nothing else to do. He even deleted his facebook so he literally had nothing else to do but still was too lazy to post. And it gets really lame updating a blog by yourself. I'm actually hoping this makes Blog Dylan feel bad and he starts posting again. Anywho, the blog is officially black back for 2011!

It's everyones favorite time of year. The time of year when office productivity goes to the shitter and people call in sick pretending to have pink eye because they would rather their boss think they have pink eye than skip watching the tourney. Last night the 2011 March Madness bracket was revealed and I am here today to bring you my very early preliminary picks. This bracket is mostly chalk in the late rounds with some upsets in the first few. You can read all the articles you want that tell you things like "the total of all the final 4 teams is always around 10" or "only once (2008) have all four #1 seeds advanced to the final 4" or "Mike Krzyzewski dyes his hair". Well no one says that last thing in bracketology articles but there's no way a 64-year-old man's hair is that black. Maybe he goes to Cartoon Cuts with Barry. Back to bracketology. You can read a million articles that tell you stats like that and you can even use them to fill out your bracket but you still have to decide which of those teams it will be that follow that rule. That's where things get risky.

Right now I have three #1 seeds advancing to the final 4 even though I know the total seed is around 10. I could have picked say Texas (4), Duke (1), Purdue (3) and Pitt (1) to get to around "10" but that's way riskier. What if Ohio St. and Kansas are the only two 1 seeds to get there and the higher seeds come out of the West/Southeast? Then I'm screwed. If I went with all four 1 seeds in that scenario then I would still picked two of them. It's tough to predict what will be the higher seeded teams to advance to the elite 8/final 4 so I like going with chalk to increase my odds.

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I'm probably going to change the bracket between now and Thursday so check back to see if maybe I got drunk one night and decided to get a little risqué.

Wake Forest Shot With 1.3 Left - VIDEO

Wake Forest nailed this shot with 1.3 seconds left to beat Texas. Just another ridiculous ending from the first day of the tournament. There were more OT periods in the opening day than the entire tournament last year and 8 games were decided by 5 points or less - including this one!

Bracket Update

We are just taking a look after the 1st round of the tournament. We made 27 correct picks (of the 32). That is better than most experts, thank you very much. We will check back Sunday and see if our bracket is still the best in the field!

Here are our picks - http://uggbootsformen.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-madness-bracket-2010.html

Old Dominion vs. Notre Dame Final Shot

As mentioned earlier Notre Dame had a chance to tie Old Dominion with a 3 at the end but it swirled out. Very close. Here is the video.

Murray State Shocks Vanderbilt - VIDEO

In case you missed it, here is the video...enjoy!

March Madness Live Blog (Thursday, March 18)

*We will be tweeting all the score updates because this post is getting quite lengthy - follow our twitter at http://twitter.com/UggBootsForMen*

I will be live blogging all of today's action, updating every 10 minutes or so.

12:10pm - Breaking News - Villanova's two leading scorers, Scottie Reynolds & Corey Fisher, will not start today for an undisclosed reason (they will play).

3:25pm - 14th seed Murray St. leads 3 seeded Vanderbilt 36-32 at the half. They haven't beat a ranked opponent all year...could this be their time? Meanwhile, Sam Houston is hanging tough with Baylor and leads them by 1 with 6 minutes to go in the 1st half.

4:03pm - Murray State is still playing tough and up by 5 against Vanderbilt with 11:21 left. St. Mary's and Richmond are tied at 14 about 7 minutes in.

4:39pm - Score Updates: St. Mary's vs. Richmond 36-36 at the half, Baylor vs. Sam Houston 51-50 7:26 remaining, Vanderbilt vs. Murray St. 65-64 with 4 seconds left, Kansas St. blowing out North Texas by 16 at the half

4:43 - MURRAY STATE WITH THE BUZZER BEATER TO UPSET VANDERBILT 66-65. Incredible opening day so far!!

Game 1: (7) BYU vs. (10) Florida
20:00 - And we're off!!! BYU vs. Florida starts it off. This is a big game for me as I have BYU in the elite 8.

15:00 - I haven't watched BYU this season but their PG Jimmer Fredette is really something special. He is sneaky quick and deceptive. Pretty even so far with Florida holding a 9-8 lead 5 minutes in.

9:55 - Florida over BYU 17-15

4:20 - BYU leading Florida 29-28. Fredette has 8.

2:40 - BYU leading Florida 35-30

Halftime - It's a tight one with BYU leading 35-33. Michael Loyd Jr. leads all BYU scorers with 10 while Kenny Boynton has 8 for Florida.

16:40 - Fredette has one of the most ridiculous finger rolls I have ever seen. It is unreal. He goes end to end with such ease. He has 14 and BYU leads 43-38.

8:54 - BYU on a 10-0 run and has a 59-46 lead. Fredette is still impressing everyone as he has a game high 20.

6:04 - Florida has stormed back on an 11-2 run and are only down 57-61 now.

4:11 - Fredette continues to break ankles and leave defenders in the dust but the story right now is Kenny Boynton from Florida who has scored their last 14 points and pulled them to within 3, 66-63.

2:50 - Florida has taken the lead on a, guess who, Kenny Boynton 3 and they are playing with a lot of energy right now. They lead 71-68.

0:0.5 - Half a second left. Florida missed a turn around jumper to win and BYU will have a shot to win it, otherwise we are going to OT.

End of OT - Florida again had a shot near the buzzer to win it but once again missed. We are going to a 2nd OT, gang.

3:57 - BYU opens the 2nd OT by draining a 3 and then Fredette knocks down a FT to give them a 4 point lead. Kenny Boynton has fouled out for Florida.

End of game - BYU wins in double OT 99-92 behind 2 magical performances. Jimmer Fredette had a game high 37 and his teammate Michael Floyd Jr. added 26.

Game 2: (6) Notre Dame vs. (11) Old Dominion
11:40 - Notre Dame leading 12-6

4:30 - Notre Dame leading 26-17

2:10 - Notre Dame leading 26-19

Halftime - ODU cut the defecit to 6 at the half as they trail 22-28. Ben Hansbrough has 10 while his teammate Luke Harangody was held scoreless. Frank Hassell has 7 for ODU.

14:10 - ODU takes the lead 31-30 on a shot clock buzzer beater.

5:16 - Notre Dame and ODU are trading leads and are currently tied. Should come down to the wire.

0:56.2 - We've got an exciting one in the South bracket as ODU is up 49-46 with under a minute remaining. It will likely come down to free throws.

0:25.2 - ODU missed their last 2 FT attempts and only hold a 3 point lead. Notre Dame has the ball and the shot clock is turned off. They can hold for the last shot if they want.

End of game - WOW! Notre Dame nearly made a 3 to tie it but it swirled out. ODU gets the first upset of the tournament with a 51-50 victory. Harangody only had 4 points on the day and his career is now over at ND.

Game 3: (2) Villanova vs. (15) Robert Morris
3:51 - Scottie Reynolds has entered the game. Apparently he and Corey Fisher failed to answer a question on the scouting report. Villanova is leading 9-5

13:00 - Robert Morris is on an 8-0 run to take a 13-9 lead

7:16 - Robert Morris is shutting down Villanova and leading 17-11. Upset in the making? I know, I know, it's early.

2:43 - Robert Morris leading 26-19 in a very physical game so far.

Halftime - Villanova started to get a little bit of momentum at the half but they continue to struggle from the charity stripe (6-11). Last year they were down by 10 at the half to 14th seed American but ended up winning 80-67. They should come out of the locker room with added enthusiasm.

17:00 - Wow, this game is boring! No scoring, sloppy, timeouts = ugh. Robert Morris leads 30-29.

11:05 - A bit of excitement as Karon Abraham makes a 3 and gets fouled to put Robert Morris up 41-34

4:50 - Scottie Reynolds is really struggling and appears very frsutrated on the court. Robert Morris leads 53-47.

3:06 - Villanova has not led since 14:59 of 1st half. They are currently trailing 51-55.

1:48 - Villanova has tied it thanks to 2 FTs from Scottie Reynolds. He is 12-12 from the line today.

End of regulation - Villanova nearly wins it at the buzzer but Robert Morris comes up with a huge block. We are going to OT. So much OT!!

1:06 - Scottie Reynolds with the dagger as he nails a contested 3 to put Villanova up 67-61. Only his 2nd made FG of the game.

0:9.1 - Robert Morris drains a DEEEPP 3 to pull within 1 but then Mr. Reliable Scottie Reynolds knocks down 2 FT to go up 3. If you are not watching this I highly suggest you find a way to (cbs.com is streaming all the games).

End of game - Villanova pulls out the win 73-70 as Robert Morris ran a terrible possession at the end and chucked up a weird looking 3 that didn't hit. 2/3 of the game was boring but the end was very exciting.

Bracketology 101

Ahhh March Madness, the time of the year when the American workplace decides to stop doing work and focus on their brackets. It is estimated that "office pools will create $1.8 billion in lost productivity this year, due to the average worker wasting 100 minutes in the first week alone of the tournament". We know filling out your bracket can be nerve racking so Ugg Boots For Men is here to help. Below we will list some tips and themes among tournament teams and later will post our official bracket.

1. Advance all 1-3 seeds in the 1st round (no #16 has beat a #1 in the past 25 years & only 4 #15s have beat a #2)
2. Check betting odds to see which games are likely to be upsets in the 1st round. Vegas knows which teams have injuries or shouldn't be ranked as high as they are. Last year Vegas picked #12 Arizona to win their first game and they did just that.
3. Pick a #12 over #5 upset because it has happened 19 of the past 21 years.
   
4. Don't put all 4 #1 seeds in the final four. It has only happened once (2008).
   
5. Advance only #1-#3 seeds to the final four as those seeds have made up 78% of the final four teams since 2000. (#1 - 42%; #2 - 22%; #3 - 14%)
   
6. If you add up the sums of the seeds in your final four you want it to be an average of 10.7. In the past 9 years it has been between 6-15 95% of the time.
7. 2nd round - If you pick a #10 to beat a #7 in the first round you are looking at a potential #10 over #2 in the 2nd round. In recent years the #10 seed has beaten the #2 seed more often than not. The key is the #10 seed first beating the #7 seed because if they don't, the #2 seed is likely to beat the #7 seed. Yeah I know, it doesn't make sense but that's how it has happened.
8. The larger your bracket pool, the more risks you want to take. The more people in the pool means that there will be more people picking the favorites so you want to pick a few more upsets in the 1st round to try and distance yourself from the field.
9. There are an average of 16 upsets per tournament (13 of them are in the first 2 rounds) - feel free to pick some upsets but make sure they are in the first weekend of the tournament
10. When looking for your national champion be sure they possess these 6 characteristics:-
    
    • They are seeded No. 1 through No. 4
      
      • 16 teams seeded 1-4 (Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse, Ohio State, Kansas State, West Virginia, Villanova, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, New Mexico, Baylor, Maryland, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Purdue)
        
    • They come from a Power conference
      
      • 15 teams left (New Mexico gets the boot as they are from the Mountain West)
        
    • They went to the tourney last year
      
      • 10 teams left (Kentucky, Kansas State, Georgetown, Baylor & Vanderbilt all missed the big dance last year)
        
    • Their coach has at least five tourney appearances
      
      • 9 teams left (Purdue's Matt Painter has 4 tournament appearances)
        
    • They scored at least 77 points a game
      
      • 5 teams left - Ohio State (73.8), West Virgina (73.0), Pittsburgh (68.1) and Wisconsin (67.5) all averaged under 77 PPG
        
    • Their average margin of victory is 10 points or more
      
      • 4 teams left (Villanova has a 9.7 margin of victory)
        
    17 of the past 19 champions have possessed all 6 of these characteristics and the teams that qualify this year are:
    
    • Kansas
    • Syracuse
    • Duke
    • Maryland

March Madness

It's that time of the year again! The greatest 4 week sports period of the year. Yes, I am talking about March Madness (and then the start of the baseball season in April). I am running a March Madness pool on Yahoo and it is $5 to join. Payment is online and if you win you will be paid by Prepaid Credit Card, E-Check, or Paper Check (payment instructions are on the group homepage). Here is the link to join - SIGN UP HERE NOW - Password: 2010

(click for a more detailed view)

We will be posting our picks and bracketology within the next few days and will be live blogging throughout the entire tournament since we have nothing better to do during the day. Be sure to check back often for tournament updates and insights.