Day 3 Roundup: Have a Relaxing Sunday

As a Michigan fan, I'm coded to find flaws.  I am supposed to hail all losses as the end of the world, and find faults in nearly every victory.    When the Longhorns cut the lead to six, I was certain this team was not good enough...for anything.  When them game ended, I saw that we hit 14 three-pointers and thought we should have probably only really hit nine or ten of those, that those four or five extra constitute luck, and would have effectively removed the amount of points we won by.

Then I saw Syracuse and Villanova lose.

It reminded me to heed a recent UMTailgate.com study that concluded that single elimination tournaments are determined by about 30% pure basketball, 30% matchup draw, and 40% how good your team responds to tournaments.  Of course at Sparty it's 80% injuries and 20% referees, but that's a unique case.

Michigan has won it's two tournament games by solid margins, and they've done it with a not-as-porous-as-advertised defense that held Wofford to it's lowest point total of the season, and Texas to it's 4th lowest point total this season.  

Jordan Morgan proved more than serviceable against the giants down low despite the bevy of Texas-sized offensive rebounds, and notched yet another double-double...as I reaffirm my apologies to him and his family for the horrible angry thoughts I've had throughout the season :)  I mean, honestly, aside from Mitch McGary's breakout games against VCU and Kansas last year (21 point, 14 rebounds and 24 points, 14 rebounds) Jordan Morgan's 10/10 and 15/10 the last two games stand up to anything Mitch has done in his career.

Seriously, this guy's name is Jake Ryan.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Michigan makes the sweet sixteen and marches on to Indianapolis for the regional finals, where they will have the advantage of Duke being back in Durham, and me and The Cakemaker in attendance.  The latter will certainly inspire the team on to their second consecutive Final Four, though whether they will be able to hear me from my football seats at a basketball game remains to be seen.  The former is nice, but allow me to refer you to the 30/30/40 rule outlined above.  While Tennessee and Mercer are not our Blue Devil nemesis, there can be no complacency in the NCAA tournament.  The chalk lines point to Wichita State matchup on Sunday, but I'm inclined to think we are going to be seeing a 2013 Championship rematch with the Cardinals instead.  And with that I broke my old friend Norman Dale's rule:  Don't talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you.

Tournament Challenge Update:

Digger's Maize Highlighter maintained it's dominance, and stands at 35 picks correct out of the 40 games played.  However, at this point it might be advantageous to look at who has the most possible points remaining.  A shout out to Robby Araujo, who has a completely clean bracket moving forward as of noon on Sunday.  Pretty impressive.

And finally, our "Thanks for your $20" bracket of the day goes to our boy Vik Bhatia, who has the elusive Syracuse - St. Louis championship game:

Relax and enjoy some basketball on this beautiful Sunday.  Really take it all in...ya know, like Aaron Craft is.  

GO BLUE!

Day 2 UMTailgate Tournament Challenge Roundup

While it rarely translates to overall greatness, first round game picking greatness is something that should be revered.  And yes, I'm aware that the powers that be are attempting to shove the idea that the play-in games are round 1 and what we witnessed on Thursday and Friday was round 2.  But there's literally no one that thinks that isn't stupid.  Anyway, a shout out to bracket entry "Digger's Maize Highlighter" for getting 29 of 32 in a round of 64 that was complete madness.  His bracket has a two-point lead on the entire field.  He picked all three 12 seed upsets...and even picked the one 5 seed (St. Louis) that advanced.  He also had all the 7-10 match ups correct.  So, ya, raise a glass. some other bullet points:

• Close:  One bracket went 27 of 32, good enough for 2nd place, and 8 brackets are tied at 26.
• Loveable Retard: Only one bracket took Mercer over Duke...and that bracket belongs to our own Baby Gorilla (pictured above)
• Next time flip a coin:  Five brackets only managed to get 20 of the 32, good for the very back of the pack
• Future Mortgaged:  12 people lost a Final Four team when Duke went down, 8 of those took them as far as the championship game, and 3 had them winning the whole damn thing.  One bracket had Oklahoma St in the Final Four.

And finally, our "Thanks for your $20" bracket of the day is the only participant that lost two Final Four teams in the round of 64, as the Duke vs. Oklahoma matchup in Dallas just isn't going to happen.  This bracket is also starting the day today having lost 12 of the sweet sixteen before the teams even take the court...

Round 1 Comes to a Close

That was uninspired, or at least uninspiring.  The WOLVERINES, and due to the new Adidas alternates there's no doubt that's who we are, mailed in a 17-point victory against Wofford, playing much of the second half just a small Terrier run from having an "upset alert" broadcast from the NCAA tournament app.  It's tough to pretend it doesn't matter, but it doesn't.  There are no style points here.  Tournament play, especially the one game elimination variety, does not require you to be good...or motivated.  It only requires you to win.  We just have to have our shit together enough to make it to the next round.  No doubt a time will come in the next week (or two) where we will need to be good AND motivated, hell that time might be tomorrow at 5:15pm, but fortunately that time was not last night.

Recaps:  Maize and Go Blue  |  UMHoops  |  Maize and Brew

Michigan moves on to play Texas, and I won't pretend I've seen them play at all this year.  But Johnny Cleveland and I did see the TJ Ford led Longhorns fall to Carmello Anthony in New Orleans in 2003, and they have the same coach as they did then (Rick Barnes), so there's that.  I also remember with great clarity falling to Texas in the first round of the 1996 tournament.  So let me give you my expert opinion:  Worry about rebounding and what we might do if our shooting goes cold.  And you may feel free to copy-paste that into all future 2014 NCAA tournament games.

Previews:  SI.com  |  Rant Sports  |  MLive  |  Bleacher Report  

I am also a expert in classic porn.  Texas has a player named Jon Holmes.  This could be a problem.

Go Blue!

UMTailgate Tournament Challenge

One man stands alone at the top of the list after day one...Digger's Maize Highlighter got 15 of the 16 day one games correct.  Eight participants behind him are tied for second with 14 of 16.  Three participants bursting with Big 12 love lost a Final Four team (Oklahoma), one of which became the "Thanks for your $20" Bracket of the Day:

Ahhh, yes, taste the tears.  Gotta say though, I've seen MUCH worse after previous year's day ones.  We're all still in it, and that's saying something.

Enjoy the games!

UMTailgate.com Tournament Challenge By the Numbers...

Interesting facts about the 14th annual UMTailgate.com tournament challenge:

• 93 brackets got in before the first game tipped off, the 3rd most in history
• With the suggested donation increase, this will be the largest prize pool we've ever had
• Homers: 30 people, nearly 1/3 of the participants, have Michigan in the Final 4, 19 have them in the final game, and 12 have them winning the National Championship.
• Savvy or Hating Ohio?  16 people had it right, picking Dayton over the Buckeyes.  Only two Big Ten lovers took Ohio to the Elite 8...nobody took them further.
• 12 Teams were chosen as National Champions:
  • Florida 24, MSU 19, UM 14, Louisville 9, Arizona 7, Virginia 4, Wichita State 4, Syracuse 4, Duke 3, Kansas 3, Villanova 1, Iowa St, 1
• The highest seed selected to make it to the Final Four is 7th seeded Oregon.
• Three hours in to the tournament and only 16 of 93 brackets remain perfect.

Last Call!

3 hours to get your bracket in...  http://pickhoops.com/umtailgate

Need the password? Email tourney2k14@umtailgate.com.