SDMB 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Pool

[Shoeless]

It’s tournament time once again. Fill out your bracket at Men's Tournament Challenge - ESPN or download the mobile app.

Group name: SDMB Bracketeers
Password: cecil123

Limit of 3 brackets per user.

It’s good to be back! I haven’t done this since 2019. No tournament in 2020 due to COVID, and I just flat out missed the tournament last year, although IIRC y’all were able to still able to use the old group name and password.

[Ponch8]

Awesome, thanks @Shoeless! I will enter two brackets (assuming I get to it before the tournament starts): one bracket will be my own picks, and one bracket will show the results of a dice simulation of the tournament.

Below is my 2021 post about the rules for the dice simulation. This year, none of my favorite teams or least favorite teams are in the tournament, so there are no special provisions for replacement of the dice this year. Last year’s dice were particularly terrible; I think that the dice simulation bracket only finished in the 3rd percentile!

@Ponch8

First, I looked at all-time results by seed in the first round of the tournament at this site. For instance, the 4th seed beats the 13th seed 79% of the time. I conducted my simulation using percentages that were fairly similar to these all-time results.

Each game was determined by two rolls of a single die: one roll per team. In games with two teams that are the same seed or only one seed apart (e.g., a #1 vs. #1 matchup), the team that got the higher dice roll advanced. In case of a tie, I rerolled for each team. For matchups of a much higher seed vs. a much lower seed (e.g., #2 vs. #15), the 15th seed would need a much better dice roll than the 2nd seed in order to advance. Here was my magic formula:

-Two teams whose seeds are identical or differ by one: higher dice roll advances; tie requires reroll

-Two teams whose seeds are 2 or 3 apart (e.g., #1 vs. #4): lower seed needs higher dice roll to advance; tied dice roll results in the higher seed advancing

-Two teams whose seeds are 4 or 5 apart: lower seed needs to win dice roll by two; if lower seed wins dice roll by one, then I reroll

-Seeds 6 or 7 apart: lower seed needs to win dice roll by two; if lower seed wins dice roll by only one, the higher seed advances

-Seeds 8 or 9 apart: lower seed needs to win dice roll by three; if lower seed wins dice roll by exactly two, then I reroll

-Seeds 10 or 11 apart: lower seed needs to win dice roll by three; if lower seed wins dice roll by only two, then higher seed advances

-Seeds 12 or 13 apart: lower seed needs to win dice roll by four; if lower seed wins dice roll by only three, then higher seed advances

-Seeds 14 or 15 apart: lower seed needs to win dice roll by 5 (i.e., roll a 6 vs. a 1) AND THEN win a second dice roll

One other important set of rules: if the dice said that Florida lost in any round, I fired the dice and replaced them with new dice. If the dice allowed FSU to advance to the Sweet 16 or any round beyond, I fired the dice and replaced them with new dice. Finally, if the dice allowed fuckass colleges Oral Roberts or Jerry Falwell U. (Liberty) to advance, I fired the dice and replaced them with new dice. I ended up needing six dice for my simulation.

[opiewan]

I joined, although I am terrible at March Madness brackets. We’ll see if the streak of badness continues for another year.

[Ponch8]

I have completed my dice simulation of the tournament. (I will fill in the bracket on ESPN.com tomorrow.) San Diego State will defeat St. Mary’s in the championship game. The other two Final Four participants will be Duke and Houston. You may laugh at this prediction, but the dice have spoken. There is absolutely no arguing with what the dice say will happen.

[Shoeless]

Come on folks! Only three people have submitted brackets so far. Brackets get locked Thursday morning - get yours in before it’s too late!

[Frosted_Glass]

Just finished my first bracket.

Hopefully, I get to make a Rutgers themed bracket this year but we’ll see how tonight goes.

Thanks @Shoeless for setting this up!

[Railer13]

Thanks for doing this!

I have 3 losers entered in the pool. I have thus ensured that two of my brackets will not finish in last place.

[Shoeless]

@opiewan

I joined, although I am terrible at March Madness brackets. We’ll see if the streak of badness continues for another year.

After the first round, you have two brackets in a two-way tie for first and your third bracket is in a three-way tie for third. Not bad so far…

I thought for sure Wisconsin was going to bust my “Jayhawks Tank!” bracket last night but they managed to hold off Colgate. Whew!

[Shoeless]

Don’t know if anyone would know the answer to this, but for a while yesterday (after Iowa State beat Wisconsin but before Auburn lost to Miami) when I checked the group standings in the app it looked like my “Jayhawks Win” bracket was in a tie for first with one of opiewan’s brackets. But it didn’t show my rank as 1, it showed as 18+. Does that mean something or was it just some kind of glitch in the app? This morning it looks normal, it shows a 2 just like everyone else tied for second.

[Shoeless]

Well, at this point it looks like our tournament pool is at an end. Nobody in the pool picked North Carolina to win it all, so the top three brackets right now, which all have Kansas winning, will remain exactly where they are whether KU wins or loses.

#1: “Jayhawks Win!” - 62Shoeless
#2: “Ponch’s Genuine Picks” - Ponch8
#3: “mjconnor10 1” - mjconnor10

Thanks everyone for participating!