So...How'd I Do?

I was about to spout that I'm not Bracketologist (one wonders if 'bracketology' involves sticking a finger up the bracket's play-in game to, you know, check it out), but I guess that I am. I typically think of true Bracketologists as guys with enormous egos nothing better to do with their time, but I guess that, given the amount of time I dedicate to sitting on my ass couch watching basketball, I'm fairly knowledgable about the game and the tournament.

And, of course, there was THAT post from last week, where I claimed I wouldn't try to predict the field, and then went and predicted the field. Well done, Slappy.

So, I guess that begs the follow up as to how I did with my predictions. For a while, I was getting down on myself, thinking "Wow, I did crappy". But then I think about Joe Lunardi and his "I predict the field with 99% accuracy" self-approval rating. The thing is, Lunardi doesn't actually say "The Patriot League will spit out Holy Cross as the champion". No, he takes the current leader of a small conference and plugs them in to fill the hole. He doesn't go out on a limb and say which team will actually make it in. Plus, he updates hourly as the tournaments get filled. I predicted ahead of any of the tournaments taking place (and even before Penn clinched, so there).

With that in mind, let's take a gander at how things shook out:

Number 1 Seeds
Ohio State, North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA (Florida)

Not bad. I got 3/4 of them. I still don't get how Florida is the overall number one seed when Ohio State was No. 1 in the nation going into the Big Ten tournament, Ohio State won the Big Ten tournament, and Ohio State didn't suffer any injuries to any of their key personnel. I guess Ohio State doesn't have a shameless self-promoting asshat star who could double as Liz Taylor and Michael Jackson's love child. *shrug*

American East: Vermont Albany...if it wasn't for Vermont's piss poor execution on that last play, they would have won and made me feel all good. As it is, I have the Great Danes pulling an upset over Virginia.

Atlantic 10: Xavier George Washington. Xavier did make it in, though.

Atlantic Coast: Maryland UNC. Predictably, my pick lost in the first round to the worst team in the league. However, UNC, Duke, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Boston College and my late pick of Georgia Tech made it in.

Atlantic Sun: Belmont. Lipscomb also pulled the upset I predicted.

Big Twelve: Kansas A&M didn't make it to the final, but oh well. Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech all made it in.

Big East: Notre Dame Georgetown, but ND's game against Georgetown was far more entertaining than the actual championship. If only that last shot would have fallen...Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Villanova, Louisville (thanks, easy league schedule), Marquette, Syracuse. Everyone thought Syracuse was in, even Lunardi.

Big South: Winthrop. This was a no-brainer, but I would have liked to see VMI in the field, just because. By the way, Winthrop is the big, sexy pick to play Cinderella this year. Luke Harangody, please stay out of foul trouble.

Big Sky: Northern Arizona Weber State...whoops.

Big 10+1: Ohio State. I predicted Wisconsin to not get that far, but that's because I didn't expect lame-ass Illinois to beat Indiana. Hey, Bruce Weber, "offense" is under "o" in the dictionary, right down the page from "offal", which is what your offense smells like. Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue. Glad to see the fourth Indiana team in, even if it is the Boilers.

Big West: Long Beach State Go 49ers, beat Tennessee.

Colonial: Old Dominion Virginia Commonwealth. But, ODU did make it, as well. And I predicted that Drexel wouldn't be dancing. I should get something for that. I also predicted VCU would be in.

Conference USA: Memphis...not much else to say here.

Horizon: Butler Wright State. I did leave in the opportunity for Wright State to win it, but I didn't call it. Butler is in the field, though.

Ivy League: Pennsylvania I really want Dartmouth to win one year, just so we can see the keg mascot in the tournament.

Metro Atlantic: Marist Niagara. I did pick the Purple Eagles to win the play-in game.

Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts The giant praying hands pull through for me in the end. Oh, yeah, and the No Fat Chicks shirt. I also think Oral Roberts can beat Washington St. Of course, since I've predicted it here, they're sure to lose.

Mid-American: AkronMiami. Team LeBron should have won, but then again, I should have had this hydrogenation done three days ago.

Mid-Eastern: Delaware St.Florida A&M. Kind of a big upset, and it happened down in Raleigh. So, there, I know two things about this league now: North Carolina A&T is in Greensboro and the conference championship is held in Raleigh. I think North Carolina Central will probably try to join the conference, too, when they're eligible.

Missouri Valley: Southern Illinois Creighton. Like the Colonial, I had the two teams right (Creighton and Southern Illinois) but I had the at-large and the conference champion switched. The Curse of Steve Alford continues to hang over Missouri State.

Mountain West: Air ForceBrigham Young. I didn't realize UNLV's win, which kept Bob Knight from breaking Dean Smith's record for one more game, was that big of a deal. Apparently it was. BYU did make it in, though.

Northeast: Sacred Heart Central Connecticut St. Sacred Heart almost did it. Perhaps I should have reread the book of Revelation, since the Blue Devils of CCSU beat the Catholic Sacred Heart. I'm sure that was in there somewhere. Fifth rider of the apocolypse? No, wait, that was Duke dropping out of the top 25, also known as the the Dark Blue Rider.

Ohio Valley: Austin Peay Eastern Kentucky. Perhaps next year, I'll just try to predict the teams who play in the championship game, as I'm doing pretty well with that.

Pac-10: UCLA Oregon. Apparently the first-round choke cost UCLA it's No. 1 seed. So, does that mean Kansas only got it by beating Texas? Wonder how that would have played out if Texas won and UCLA didn't lay an egg in their first round game of the Pac-10 tourney. Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, Washington State, USC, Stanford all made it in.

Patriot: Holy Cross Fear the Crusader. This was an excellent game versus Bucknell. Unfortunately, the Bison didn't make it in as an at large, which was my dream, but not my prediction. Loopholes, anyone?

Southeastern: Florida In case I needed extra reason to hate Noah, that dance thing where he was humping the air for thirty seconds was ridiculous. Go Jackson State. Florida, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Arkansas. The Arkansas thing really surprised me, but they did make it to the championship game.

Southern: Appalachian State Davidson. I'm going to assume that other low-major conference upsets kept the Mountaineers out. I still think they're a little more deserving than, say, Illinois, but then they laid an egg at Mississippi St. last night in the NIT, so what do I know? Davidson over Maryland is the chic upset pick not involving Notre Dame.

Southland: Texas A&M Corpus-Christi Corpus Christi means "body of Christ". I wonder if it got that name because of the Spanish Mission there, or because everything is flat, brownish and rather bland.

SWAC: Mississippi Valley St.North Texas. I considered the Mean Green for a while, but then I remembered Bracey Wright was from that area and figured that everyone who played for NTU was a bunch of ball-hogging, show-boating, inflated egomaniacs as well, so I didn't think they could win anything. Much like Bracey Wright.

Sun Belt: South Alabama Jackson St. In case I needed extra reason to hate Noah (and the Gators) that dance thing at the end of the SEC championship where he was humping the air for thirty seconds was flat out ridiculous. Plus, he took a swing at a cheerleader. Asshat. Go Jackson St.

West Coast: Santa Clara gonzaga. Yeah. And then did you see who they drew in the first round? Yeah. Let me reiterate: I effing hate gonzaga.

WAC: Nick Fazekas New Mexico State. I did say that the Aggies could have made it in. Sexy coach Reggie Theus managed to guide his team to the big dance. Has Nick Fazekas graduated yet already? Jeez. Nevada did make it in.

So, counting up the bold-faced teams...that's 48 out of 65 for a whopping 74% success rate, a worthy percentage yield for any organic chemist. Factoring in the Lunardi affect, I would have been 58 for 65, giving me an 89% success rate. It could have been higher, but I punished myself on a couple of them, like Xavier, where the league ended up sending an at-large team as well as the league champ (under Lunardi's rules).

I actually had fun with this. I'm going to do this again next year. See you then!