NCAA Hoops + Contest

Greetings!

The purpose of this thread will be twofold.

Fold One

The first fold of this thread will be for the general discussion of NCAA Basketball. Basketball is a sport in which players must bounce a spherical projectile repeatedly, though they may also pass this projectile to one another, with the eventual goal of causing the projectile to drop through a circumferential ring known as, "The hoop."

Sometimes, a player may effectuate the passage of the projectile through the circumferential ring not only with great force, but often with a certain degree of gusto, or flourish. This event is known as a, "Slam dunk," and is very exciting. In fact, sometimes there are contests consisting of an undefended player causing this event to unfold.

Anyway, I hope that you will discuss NCAA (which is a college athletic association) basketball in this thread. I would also like everyone to know that it is NOT called an interception if someone on the opposing team catches a pass not intended for him, but rather a steal. Other things can also be steals. You can steal the ball even when there is no attempt at a pass, but that is not a fumble, but rather, is still called a steal.

There are other similarities between basketball and hockey. To wit, they are the sports that people sometimes care about, but only under the condition that NFL Season is over. Some people even care about these sports during NFL Season, if you can believe such a thing! I do not know why. There are 489 regular season games in both basketball and hockey, plenty of time to wait for NFL Season to end before caring about these other sports.

Fold Two

On behalf of the National Association of Greedy AP's, (NAGA) I would like to announce another Free Roll contest.

This contest will consist of picking winners in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Annual Invitational Basketball Tournament, more frequently referred to as, "March Madness." Much like the game of basketball itself, this contest has rules, and here they are:

PRIZES

There are potentially six prizes in this tournament and will be as follows:

1st Place: $100
2nd Place: $50
3rd Place: $25
YOU SUCK PRIZE: $25

Elite Eighty Prize: $80 + $10 (The $10 is a donation from Kuma from the WoV Picks Game)

Pick 5 for $50: $50

THE MAIN GAME RULES

1.) In order to ENTER this game, an individual much be a registered participant at WizardofVegas.com (hereafter called, "Member") on or before 14:00 Eastern Standard Time on this 12th of February, year of our Lord, Anno Domini, Twenty and Two-Thousand.

2.) In order to receive a reminder to make your Picks, you must make a post in this thread of some kind. Alternatively, you will receive a reminder if you participated in the main WoV NFL Picks Game of 2019, so there will be no need to make a post, but please do so if you want to.

3.) You can make Picks without receiving a reminder, the choice is yours.

4.) The manner by which PICKS should be made will be as follows:

Each member shall present six lists which MUST be headed as follows:

ROUND OF 32
SWEET SIXTEEN
ELITE EIGHT
FINAL FOUR
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
CHAMPION

Separately, you will also pick any TWO TEAMS you wish to appear in the Finals and what the score of that game will be. You are not required to do this, but you should if you wish to have a chance to win in the event of a tie. These two teams DO NOT have to necessarily agree with your championship game main list.

Under these headings, each member must list all of the teams that said member expects to reach that level of the tournament. These picks often known as, "Brackets," will all be presented at once. We will now discuss the scoring mechanism:

IMPORTANT---YOU MUST INCLUDE THE SEED OF YOUR PICK BY YOUR PICKS IN THE ROUND OF 32 AND SWEET SIXTEEN LISTS!!!! IF YOU NEGLECT TO INCLUDE THE SEEDS, I RESERVE THE SOLE RIGHT TO DISQUALIFY YOUR ENTRY ENTIRELY!!!***

***You may see the bottom for an example of a good entry.

4a.) For both the Round of 32 and Sweet Sixteen Picks, when correct, the member shall receive 25% of the team's seed value in points. For example, if the member successfully advances a #1 seed to these two levels, then the member will receive 0.25 points each time this happens. If the player advances a #12 seed successfully, on the other hand, then the player will receive three points each time for doing that.

4b.) Elite Eight will be scored as 1.5 points for each correct team. Final Four will be scored as 2.5 points for each correct team. The Championship Game will award 3.5 points for each correct team. Finally, there will be 4 points awarded for correctly picking the champion.

4c.) THE LISTS:

Your lists MUST agree with each other. In other words, you may not have a team in the Sweet Sixteen that you did not first advance to the Round of 32 and so on and so forth. Every time this happens, the player will receive -1 point AND will be disqualified from winning the You Suck prize automatically.

5.) TIEBREAKER RULES:

In the unlikely event of a points tie for any paying prize, the tie will be adjudicated by each member having picked two teams (and score) for the championship game. The order of preference will be as follows:

---Both teams correct, winner correct.
---Both teams correct, winner wrong.
---One team correct, winner correct.
---One team correct, winner wrong.
---No teams correct***

***In the event that neither member correctly picks one team for the championship game, then it will be resolved by the TOTAL number of points the two teams that they DID PICK scored throughout the tournament. If this ends up being a tie, then it's just a tie.

6.) PICK REMINDERS: Pick Reminders will be sent to all who played the 2019 WoV NFL Picks Game as well as all who participate in this thread as soon as practical to the announcement of who the teams in the tournament are.

6a.) REMINDERS AND EARLY PICKS: You may make Picks anytime after selection Sunday even if you do not necessarily know who will be in the Round of 64 yet, or you can wait until the full Round of 64 is known, it's up to you.

7.) PICKS DUE: In any case, lists are due on or before 23:59 Eastern Standard Time Wednesday, March 18th, 2020.

8.) GRADING: In order to make it easier on myself, I will attempt to keep grading as current as possible in a separate OFFICIAL THREAD, which I will start the day prior to the tournament beginning. The first post in that thread will be a running list of current standings.

9.) The YOU SUCK prize winner will have scored the fewest points. A tie will be decided by which player's two championship game picks (listed separately) scored the fewest total points in the tournament.

ELITE EIGHTY ($80) + $10 PRIZE

1.) The Elite $80 prize shall be awarded to the player who has a perfect Elite Eight bracket. If none, then the prize is not paid.

2.) If the Elite Eighty Prize has no winner, then the $10 from Kuma will instead be added to the Pick 5 for $50 Lottery Prize.

3.) Your Elite Eight from your normal lists will automatically qualify you for this Entry. However, if you wish to select a different Elite Eight for the purpose of this prize, (the Elite Eight from your main entry will no longer be used for this prize if you do this) then you may do that.

3a.) If you choose to avail yourself of RULE 3, then you must clearly label that section: ELITE EIGHTY PICKS

4.) Ties will be resolved the same way as the main game.

PICK 5 FOR $50 LOTTERY PRIZE

1.) This is very easy, simply pick five numbers from 1-64 at the bottom of your submission.

2.) Prior to each tournament round, another APPLE PHONE USER (would you like to volunteer?) will get on FaceTime with me and I will use random.org in order to select five numbers from 1-64.

2a.) For each number that you have correct, you will be credited with one point.*** The five lottery numbers will be selected prior to all six tournament rounds and then one more time after the tournament is complete.

***These have nothing to do with main game points.

3.) A tie in points will be resolved the same way as the main game.

4.) In the extremely unlikely event nobody matches a single number, this prize will not be paid.

PARTICIPATION

You MAY NOT PARTICIPATE in only the lottery game. However, you may participate in the Elite Eighty game and Lottery Game only, if you wish. You may also participate in any combination of 1-3 games IF the main game is one of them. Of course, if you participate in the Main Game, then you automatically are participating in Elite $80 as your main game list would be used.

SAMPLE LIST

ROUND OF 32:

Park University (8)
West Virginia Northern Community College (1)
University of Phoenix Online (11)
DeVry University: (9)
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (14)
Trump University (7)
Potomac State College of West Virginia University (4)
Community College of Allegheny County (5)
Rocky Balboa School of Neuroscience (12)
John Gruden's QB Camp (3)
Hellmann's Mayonnaise Academy of the Arts (15)
The Institute of Tom Brady (2)
The Lucifer Morningstar Academy of Business (3)
The Pontius Pilate Institution of Hard Knocks (5)
The Harley Quinn School of Design (2)

---and on and on. You get it, 32 teams and their seeds. Same thing with Sweet Sixteen. Rounds Elite Eight and beyond do not necessarily have to include seed ranking.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

West Virginia Northern Community College 87 v. Rocky Balboa School of Neuroscience 73

ELITE EIGHTY:

Park University (8) v. West Virginia Northern Community College (1)
University of Phoenix Online (11) v. DeVry University: (9)
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (14) v. Trump University (7)
Potomac State College of West Virginia University (4) v. Community College of Allegheny County (5)

Pick 5 for $50 Lottery:

14, 29, 35, 7, 19

Thank you to everyone and I hope we all have a good time! Even though it hurts your EV, please encourage folks to play. I have given a period of approximately twenty-four (24) hours for new folks to sign up for this site if they wish to play this game.

I really tried to read the whole thing but I failed. Attention span not strong enough. Anyway, I'm in. Some thoughts....

1. When is the submission due?
2. The elite 80 probably has an EV in the pennies. MUCH more difficult than you would think.
3. There ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY should NOT be a you suck prize. It would be quite easy to try for that and unless another is actively trying, it will be a lead pipe cinch to win. It defeats the idea of THIS contest.

(By the way, Mission, your OP here is evidence of OCD!)

Thanks for the freeroll Mission! Also, thanks to Kuma for the generous donation! I'm looking forward to watching the "Suicide Squad" from Harley Quinn School of Design run roughshod over the field.

Quote: SOOPOO

I really tried to read the whole thing but I failed. Attention span not strong enough. Anyway, I'm in. Some thoughts....

1. When is the submission due?
2. The elite 80 probably has an EV in the pennies. MUCH more difficult than you would think.
3. There ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY should NOT be a you suck prize. It would be quite easy to try for that and unless another is actively trying, it will be a lead pipe cinch to win. It defeats the idea of THIS contest.

(By the way, Mission, your OP here is evidence of OCD!)

1. 23:59 Eastern Standard Time the night before the round of 64 begins.
2. Perhaps true, but it's free and the normal picks are automatically an entry into the Elite $80.
3. That's the idea! Does one wish to go for the You Suck prize or main prizes? Also, the fact that the first two rounds score points based on 25% of seed value (a sixteen seed winning would be four points, for example) makes sucking a little tougher than one would think!

(LOL @ OCD)

Sounds like fun. Thanks for the free roll!

I’m an Apple phone user if you don’t get other volunteers to validate the random numbers.

UnJon,

You're welcome, thanks for playing! You'll be the one who will validate if you think you have time to do it before each round. I'll PM you my phone number close to the time and we can set up a schedule!

(Please see the Rules for the Free Roll above)

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/sports/34302-ncaa-hoops-contest/#post757153

I believe that the, "Steal," in basketball should be separated into two different events and each event should be called something different. However, one event can still be called a steal.

EVENT 1: Occasionally, a player will be in possession of the spherical object without the intention to disseminate the spherical object amongst his compatriots, nor with the intention to attempt to advance the spherical object through the circular ring. At any such time, this player is in clear, "Possession," of the spherical object. If a player from the opposing team manages to deprive the first person of his continued possession of the spherical object AGAINST that person's will, with or without the use of force, then I believe he has stolen the physical object.

EVENT 2: As is so often the case in both sport and life, what we merely attempt to do is not always the end result of the action in question. Basketball is no different. In the event a player attempts to transmit, either through the air or by bouncing, the spherical object to one of his compatriots, then that player should be looked upon as having voluntarily relinquished possession of the spherical object. Because this relinquishment was voluntary, the result cannot be a steal, but rather an interception. Henceforward, this form of team possession of the spherical object changing from one team to another should be classified and statistically annotated as an INTERCEPTION. I would argue that all parties on the wooden field have equal rights to the spherical object when a player has released it of his own volition.

I have no objection to everything that is classified as, "Out of bounds," remaining so, even though one could advance a meaningful argument to create different categories of becoming out of bounds.

Holy Cow!!

that is a long write up for a free contest. I won't be done reading and comprehending that until the tournament is over.

Quote: DRich

Holy Cow!!

that is a long write up for a free contest. I won't be done reading and comprehending that until the tournament is over.

It's a brand new contest and I wanted to cover every contingency in the rules to avoid confusion.

I'm also thinking of doing an optional bracket pool where, instead of listing the teams, someone can upload an image of his/her bracket and PM me a link to it and I will list them myself. This service would require a bracket pool fee of $5 per participant with all proceeds going to the winner. The bracket would have to otherwise correspond with the rules.*

(If I were to win first place, bracket pool fees would go to second place)

First, thanks for this Mission. We all love free-roll contests, no matter how mediocre we are at sports-casting.

(Edit: I now realize this is wrong.) For clarity, you will not be asking us to pick winners in the round of 64? Just winners in the round of 32 and later rounds before the round of 64 has begun?

You have some interesting scoring innovations, but I think that successfully picking the champion and perhaps the runner-up will almost always be necessary (and perhaps sufficient for a field this size) to be the contest winner because that scores points for you at each level of the bracket including the ones that are weighed the most heavily.

Quote: gordonm888

First, thanks for this Mission. We all love free-roll contests, no matter how mediocre we are at sports-casting.

For clarity, you will not be asking us to pick winners in the round of 64? Just winners in the round of 32 and later rounds before the round of 64 has begun?

You have some interesting scoring innovations, but I think that successfully picking the champion and perhaps the runner-up will almost always be necessary (and perhaps sufficient for a field this size) to be the contest winner because that scores points for you at each level of the bracket including the ones that are weighed the most heavily.

The list of 32 would consist of the winners of the Round of 64.
The list of sixteen would consist of the winners of the Round of 32.
The Elite Eight would consist of the winners of the Sweet Sixteen.

And, so on...Basically just like a regular bracket, except in list form.

I guess we will see on the champion and runner-up, but I might get some more input and modify the scoring system before entries have been made. I'm sure nobody will be making entries before Selection Sunday. I tend to agree and was actually originally going to rate those more heavily. I think I'll knock a little off of the flat scoring rounds.

***Changes have been made to reduce late round scoring.

Quote: Mission146

6a.) PLAY-IN GAMES: Reminders will likely go out before play-in games have taken place. You can wait for those games before making picks if you wish, or pick them anyway.

Pardon me for posting this, but this is one of my "buttons."

The NCAA men's basketball tournament does not have "play-in games." A "play-in game" is a game where the winner is in the tournament and the loser is not. Also, when the NCAA did have play-in games in the past (right after the tournament expanded to 64 teams, I think), the winners were not put into the bracket in advance (i.e. they did not say, "The winner of this game will be the 16 seed in the East Region"). The NCAA considers all 68 teams to be "in the tournament."

Actually, there is some discussion of bringing actual play-in games back. I wouldn't be surprised if they do something similar to football's "Celebration Bowl" and have the MEAC and SWAC winners play each other, with the winner being put directly into the first round without having to go through Dayton. I think last year was the first time in decades where neither the MEAC nor the SWAC had a team in the round of 64.

ThatDonGuy,

Thank you for that correction! I will amend my statement to, "After Selection Sunday, but before the full Round of 64 is known."

No need to make up funny team names when there are so many to choose form.

Akron Zips
Whittier Poets
Long Beach Dirtbags
University of Evansville Purple Aces
Evergreen State College Geoducks
Williams College Purple Cows
Campbell Fighting Camels
South Dakota School of Mines HardRockers
U. of Idaho Vandals
U. of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos
Washburn University Ichabods
California Irvine Anteaters
Trinity Christian College Trolls
North Carolina School of the Arts Fighting Pickles
U. of Calif- Santa Cruz Banana Slugs

AND

Rhode Island School of Design
- Nads (hockey)
- Balls (basketball)
- mascot is named Scrotie

Also, sometimes the name of the university is weird all on its own.
University of the Incarnate Word
Prairie View

Those are awesome! West Virginia Northern Community College was the Thundering Chickens!

Two more:

Grays Harbor College Chokers (Schools In Washington state seem to favor weird names.)

and, a team that played my Tennessee Vols basketball team within the past two years:

Presbyterian Blue Hose. Sounds like a Vegas act.

C'mon. How would you like your daughter to be recruited to play for the Blue Ho's? Or, as I'm sure some uncouth college kids call them: the "Blowing Ho's. "

Greetings!

Please see the first post in this thread for the Free Roll rules if you have not:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/sports/34302-ncaa-hoops-contest/#post757153

The results of last night's National Collegiate Athletic Association's basketball games that featured at least one ranked team are as follows:

Penn State Nittany Lions (13) 88 v. Purdue Boilermakers 76

--Led by Mike Watkins, who with 10 rebounds and 19 points, also had the best ratio of points scored to minutes on the wooden playing surface, the Nittany Lions easily overcame the Purdue Boilermakers in a basketball game.

Kentucky Wildcats (12) 78 v. Vanderbilt Commodores 64

--Tyrese Maxey provided his Wildcats with 25 points in this affair, however, he did not pass the ball terribly well as he recorded zero assists. It is well-known that Kentucky is a good basketball team. I know it's well-known because I know it, so for me to know this basketball fact, it must be pretty well-known.

Rhode Island Rams 67 v. Dayton Flyers (6) 81

--Obadiah Toppin for Dayton achieved 10 rebounds and 22 points, though he also failed to make an assist. Rhode Island has a very good record, so Rhode Island and Providence Farms are being well-represented and may also be represented in the NCAA Tournament as long as things do not go very badly the rest of the way. Rhode Island now has an 18-6 record.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 70 v. Maryland Terrapins (9) 72

--This was a surprising nailbiter considering the underwhelming 7-16 record that the huskers of corn had going into this game. Maryland jumped out to the expected commanding lead in the first half of last night's contest, but the Cornhuskers showed tremendous tenacity and almost made a surprise comeback. The leading scorer was Nebraska's Haanif Cheatham, who registered six rebounds and 20 points.

Michigan State Spartans 70 v. Illinois Fighting Illini (22) 69

--Rocket Watts put up 22 points for Sparty in this matchup, so whether or not this win will be sufficient to promote the Spartans to the Top 25 remains to be seen as they had a very similar record to the Fighting Illini going in.

Missouri Tigers 78 v. LSU Tigers (25) 82

--Skylar Mays had 5 boards, two assists and 23 points for the victors, so we here at WoV are very proud of him for not only scoring the most points, but also disseminating the spherical object to his teammates in a fashion that would eventually lead to points being scored. Not once, but twice.

New Mexico Lobos 59 v. San Diego State Aztecs (4) 82

--The Aztecs of San Diego State remain unbeaten in college basketball with a record of 25-0. They were led by Matt Mitchell with 12 rebounds, four assists and 22 points. We at WoV are extremely pleased with Mr. Mitchell's performance as it demonstrates not only an ability to grab the spherical object before other people grab it, not only an ability to effectuate the spherical object's successful passage through the circumferential ring, but also an ability to disseminate the spherical object amongst his compatriots in a manner and fashion that leads to additional points being scored.

It remains to be seen how the Aztecs will do against the top teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament, because they have not played any top teams yet and will presumably not do so until then.

Thanks for this offer. I am interested in the free roll.