# NCAA March Madness 2006 - Polish up that glass slipper! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068 "2006-03-12T19:46:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/61 "2006-03-17T02:50:38Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > I’ll ignore that dig at the team you didn’t mention. Thought you’d be interested to know that UCLA won the way a #2 seed should, 78-44. Belmont led 18-12 with 6:40 to go in the first half, then UCLA went on a sick 52-12 run to make the score 64-30 by the time there was 6:12 left in the game. > > You underestimate my Bruins, winners of their last 8, at your own peril. Eric Kuselius from ESPN radio (I can’t stand his show, I only listen to hear what blowhard thing he says next, so I don’t care enough to look up the correect spelling of his name) was so seemingly desperate early on to jump on board with an upset pick that he acted like the world was going to stop spinning at any moment when Belmont was leading. “UCLA has been held to just 10 points in the first quarter of the game. They’ll be lucky to score 50 against Belmont at this rate…” he’d crow. Blah blah blah…The guy’s an idiot. I’m glad UCLA laid a beating just to shut him up. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/62 "2006-03-17T04:53:24Z")
Nothing real substantive to say, but I just want to mention that it would be REALLY nice if we could ignore the seeming national hard-on for Duke long enough to switch from a 16 point game with 9 minutes to go to a 3 point game with two and a half minutes to go. I KNOW I should be thinking about my man-love for J.J. Redick right now, but I could totally go for switching to the competitive game BEFORE the last 15 seconds. Sorry, I forgot that the entire country is Duke’s local market for a second and got disgruntled. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/63 "2006-03-17T04:59:20Z")
[cbssportsline.com](http://cbssportsline.com) has free video feed for the first round. Syracuse game is on TV (local boy G-Mac throwing up an 0-fer tonight. Stat keeps saying he’s never had a game w/o a FG. Too bad, so sad.) I have the IU game on the computer now, otherwise, I’d miss it. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/64 "2006-03-17T05:03:45Z")
I’ve got IU losing to San Diego State (which I called), but I would like to see the end of the Syracuse-Texas A&M game (which I called.) ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/65 "2006-03-17T05:06:42Z")
> [@brianjedi](#): > > I’ve got IU losing to San Diego State (which I called), but I would like to see the end of the Syracuse-Texas A&M game (which I called.) One out of two ain’t bad, eh **brianjedi**? ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/66 "2006-03-17T05:19:30Z")
I have SDSU winning in all my brackets, but thought Syracuse would pull it out. Can’t believe McNamara went out like that ☹ My average bracket is going to have something like 12 correct today… give or take, since none of my pools are exactly the same. I should note, in my coverage-bitching, that my local market right now is actually Hartford, CT (and not Baltimore as my location generally is - in which case Duke might make a little sense, for rivalry reasons if nothing else). As for the 'net feeds - yeah, and thanks, but the laptop streaming picture isn’t QUITE the same as the HD grandeur picture 😃 Wow, on the shot by Indiana - 3.3 is just enough left for a great finish, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/67 "2006-03-17T05:37:42Z")
The Big East went 0-3 today. Not that I’m completely surprised but I figured Syracuse would gut one more out before collapsing in the second round against Gonzaga. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/68 "2006-03-17T05:37:56Z")
The Big East went 0-3 today. Not that I’m completely surprised but I figured Syracuse would gut one more out before collapsing in the second round against LSU. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/69 "2006-03-17T05:42:15Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > One out of two ain’t bad, eh **brianjedi**? Yeah, looks like I called that one a BIT early. ---
**Author:** ![CatsCradle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cab0a1/32.png) [@CatsCradle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatsCradle)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/70 "2006-03-17T06:20:53Z")
Boy, I really suck at picking these games. Anyway, in our market (SoCal) they hardly showed Duke at all–they showed Utah St-Washington (_Bo_-ring). They did switch to the exciting conclusion of Indiana-SDSU, though–that three-point shot at the end was sick. That and the end of the Tennessee game were the most exciting moments for me. UCLA impressed me, just absolutely _destroying_ Belmont in the second half. They came out flat, but got over that real quick. I won’t be surprised if UCLA makes it all the way to Indianapolis, after that performance. I mean, come on…Howland _has_ to do a better job than Lavin, who always managed to bring UCLA to the Sweet Sixteen, despite being horrible during the regular season. Duke? Looked vulnerable. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/71 "2006-03-17T07:07:22Z")
I had Syracuse winning at first, but I decided against it- I figured they were spent, and a one-man team to boot. Too bad that McNamara’s college career had to end that way, though. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/72 "2006-03-17T07:47:49Z")
Since it’s too late to change anything, I’ll ask this: what do you guys base your picks on? I mostly go with my ‘sense’ of the team, which I think is often related to the way ESPN talks about them when I haven’t seen the team in question. (Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it seems to steer me right.) The only other things I really paid attention to in making my picks were: 7-8 upsets in the first round is average, a 12 seed beats a five seed at least once a year, and a stat called offensive efficiency. I saw an article on [SI.com](http://SI.com) yesterday - I’d link to it if I could find it again - that showed to my satisfaction that teams with low offensive efficiency (it’s basically points per possession) tend to lose early even if they’re high seeds. It caused me to back off of Gonzaga and Florida a little bit. Anybody else look at these things? ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/73 "2006-03-17T18:00:24Z")
I pick based on “feel”, usually… it tends to be a bit hit and miss, because my inherent bias gets involved too often. I’ve done money pools since… 1999, I think? So this will be my eighth year. Of the past seven, I’ve finished in the money (top 3) three times, but the other four times I’ve done pretty abysmally (bottom 25%). That’s a bit less impressive because two of the three times I’ve done well, UConn won it all as a 1 seed where I had seen almost all of their games - so I was able to make a homer pick that I had a really good feel for. I tend to think that (at least in pools with no upset bonuses), how many you get in the first round doesn’t really matter as long as your deeper picks are still in it. Getting three of the final four, and both of the final two, is worth a lot more than picking a couple extra upsets correctly in the first round. That said, the very first year I won my money pool, the margin of victory was my pick of some 10 seed beating Stanford and going all the way to the regional final, that no one else picked. Oh yeah, Gonzaga 🙂 For the opposite example, my amazing bracket last year where I finished with like 12% in Yahoo-scoring. I did pretty much standard for my first-round picks (75% correct or so)… but I only got like 7 of the Sweet 16, and one of the final four. “Feel” didn’t help nearly so much, especially when I was too busy with life to stay up on some of the better teams, never mind the underdogs. The other thing is I like to take a champion pick outside the “mainstream”. I have UConn this year in the SDMB pool, but in my money pool I have 'Nova. There’s nothing worse than running a pretty good bracket, sitting just outside the money going into the final four… and having no chance of moving up because the entire top ten has Duke and UConn in the final in some permutation. Also, this year, I had the time to follow a LOT more non-Big-East stuff than usual… so theoretically I have a better “feel” for it. We’ll see if that actually helps or not. * * * As for the Big East going 0-3 yesterday, Marquette is the only one of those losses that really surprises me. Everyone knew Seton Hall was perfectly capable of laying down a bad one against a decent team, and most of us though Cinci would have been a better pick in that spot anyways… and though I certainly WANTED to believe in Syracuse, there were plenty of visions of McNamara against Vermont last year in the back of my mind (after a similar, though less miraculous, Big East run). Marquette, though, was the type of team that could have caused some trouble, and Alabama didn’t look to be the kind of team that could keep up with them. To 'bama’s credit, though, they played one of their absolute best games of the year, and kept Marquette’s “miracle” opportunities down to just that one shot (when early tourney losses are so often the result of letting the trailing team have multiple shots at that last three-pointer to tie or win). In the Friday afternoon games, the Big Ten is having some first-half issues: Arizona is absolutely running it up on Wisconsin, Ohio State is losing to Davidson at halftime, and NW St is keeping it close to Iowa. I imagine all of those except for the Badgers will work themselves out, but who knows. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/74 "2006-03-17T19:38:55Z")
It was as though a million brackets cried out in pain, and then were silenced. Northwestern (LA) St. 64, Iowa 63. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/75 "2006-03-17T19:46:20Z")
So much for that dream WVU-Iowa matchup everyone was waiting on. That shot was just like the Lofton shot for Tennessee yesterday, except possibly even more ridiculous. Bucknell over Arkansas… not exactly an upset, but there are major programs galore that would kill for tourney wins two years in a row. Arizona over Wisconsin… yeah. OSU over Davidson, but not exactly a confidence-inspiring win. Ohio State had the home crowd and some favorable officiating (took a dozen more foul shots, and it wasn’t because they were dominating inside, let me tell you THAT) and still barely pulled it out. Dials was… unimpressive. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/76 "2006-03-17T19:52:57Z")
> [@brianjedi](#): > > It was as though a million brackets cried out in pain, and then were silenced. > > Northwestern (LA) St. 64, Iowa 63. Brilliantly phrased. Looks like Coach Alford will have even more time to get his office packed up and shipped to Bloomington, where it belongs. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/77 "2006-03-17T20:44:18Z")
> [@Kiros](#): > > So much for that dream WVU-Iowa matchup everyone was waiting on. That shot was just like the Lofton shot for Tennessee yesterday, except possibly even more ridiculous… It’s fun to try to imagine the end of a game just by watching the score update on Yahoo! Sports. What they had: (62-60 Iowa) :14.6 Timeout Northwestern St. (…long delay…) then :14.6 Northwestern St. misses a 3-pointer. (At that point I figure it’s done. Iowa has the lead and the ball.) then FINAL Northwestern St 64, Iowa 62. WTF happened? ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/78 "2006-03-17T20:52:59Z")
Yahoo is crazy, I think - it was never 62-60 except between free throws. For the play-by-play, see [here](http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=264000055&period=2) - but basically, Iowa missed a free throw that would have put them up by 3, failed to get a defensive rebound with under ten seconds left, and then NW state made a falling away baseline three with half a second to go. Iowa actually had a decent toss-catch-shoot but front-rimmed it. Oral Roberts is playing extremely tight with Memphis at the moment… something to keep an eye on for sure. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/79 "2006-03-17T20:57:42Z")
> [@Kiros](#): > > , Iowa missed a free throw that would have put them up by 3, failed to get a defensive rebound with under ten seconds left, and then NW state made a falling away baseline three with half a second to go. Iowa actually had a decent toss-catch-shoot but front-rimmed it… I assumed that when NWS missed their first attempt on their last possession, Iowa got the rebound. Faulty assumption on my part. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068/80 "2006-03-18T05:09:28Z")
Well, so much for the legions who had Kansas as their sleeper in that bracket. The MVC is absolutely thrilled that they got the name win after all the crap they’ve been taking - now we have to see if Bradley or Wichita St. can push through to the Sweet 16, since both will be underdogs but in very winnable games. If yesterday was a bad day for the Big East, today was just as bad (if not worse) for the Big Ten. They have to be considered the big losers (along with Kansas) today, dropping two big favorites as well as Wisconsin. Incidentally, of the top seven conferences this year (which were well ahead of the rest), four of the conference tournament champions are gone in the first round (Syracuse, S. Illinois, Iowa, Kansas). Ohio State and Duke were all pushed more in the first round than anyone expected them to be. UCLA is the only major tournament champion that didn’t look tired in the first round. On to round two! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-march-madness-2006-polish-up-that-glass-slipper/348068.md?page=5)