League Basketball Pool

49 thoughts on “League Basketball Pool”

1. IN!

   And who says we can’t gamble???  The possible stakes, as stated, could be very fun and interesting.Report

2. Sure, you would have to do this in the one year I just haven’t found time to pay attention to college hoops.  But count me in, all the way.Report

   1. Pre-emptive excuse, Hanley?  Wouldn’t have pegged you as much of a whiner…Report

      1. That’s just cold, BSK. But in fact since the Rose Bowl, I just haven’t been able to get into college sports this year, until the last week and a half. I don’t know why. But Purdue’s surprising victory in the Big 10 women’s tourney, and the Purdue men’s defeat of Michigan at Ann Arbor (the only team to beat them there this year), got my juices going again.

         I enjoyed seeing Duke get humiliated at home, too.  Of course I would have enjoyed watching UNC get humiliated as well.Report

         1. Wait, are you a Purduevian? I thought you were a Wisconsin or Oregon person.Report

            1. Ryan,

               I did go to UO, so I’m a big Duck fan. (And I’m ridiculously amused that their new basketball arena is built directly on top of the site where one of my kids was conceived.)

               But having grow up in Indiana, I’m also a dyed-in-the-wool Purdue fan, as all true Hoosiers are.Report

               1. This is valuable information. A couple of my friends run a Big Ten football pick ’em league in the falls, and it’s a Michigan-heavy group, so we’re always looking for new Big Ten people to round us out. It’s insanely fun, and they do tons of statistics. I’ll keep you in mind in the fall.Report

                  1. Ryan,

                     My brother might be interested, too. For a number of years, until he tired of doing it, he ran his own ranking system for college football and basketball, based on his own algorithms. It was a pretty good one, too, about as predictive as most of the others out there.

                     Of course we’re both in Michigan, so it keeps it heavy that way, but neither of us are fans of the mini wolves.Report

               2. “(And I’m ridiculously amused that their new basketball arena is built directly on top of the site where one of my kids was conceived.)”

                  [Desperately googling what used to be where the new arena is]Report

                  1. [Desperately hoping the answer is “a Denny’s”]Report

                  2. No, but part of the property was a bakery. The smell of cinnamon rolls in the morning was awweeeesommmme.Report

                  3. Uh, that previous comment was actually me, on Johanna’s computer.  I guess our secret is blown now.Report

                  4. I mever knew cinnamon rolls were an aphrodisiac., but I can see it.Report

   2. James, if the League is anything like every office I’ve ever worked at, the winner is going to be someone that’s never watched basketball and uses some method like, “the place I’d rather visit” as a method for choosing each game’s winner.Report

      1. That’s a good method!  I usually go with the Dimitri Martin approach… who would win a battle of the mascots?  “Magic vs Wizards?  I’m in!”Report

      2. I won money on a super bowl like 6 years ago by choosing the color I liked best. I know nothing about sports, but you boys have fun.Report

3. I’m game.Report

4. I’m in. And I like the suggested prize.

   I think we did one of these a few years ago, but I can’t remember who won.Report

5. I would love to do it!Report

6. I’m in.Report

7. Sure.Report

8. I’m in.Report

9. Totally, totally in.

   Who’s going to volunteer to do the scoring? Or is there some kind of online thing that will do it for us.Report

   1. ESPN will do the scoring for you. I am usually in about half a dozen different ESPN pools every year.Report

10. In.  I’d also like to add to the prize pool by offering the winner the right to control my gravatar for the next year.Report

    1. Now I really, really want to win.Report

    2. Can  a prize be so awesome that we tremble at the thought of winning it?Report

       1. What – controlling Mark’s gravatar doesn’t fit into that category?Report

          1. Surely it does!

              Report

       2. I’m really going to regret this offer, aren’t I?Report

          1. Oh yes.  Yes you are.  If I were you, I would start trying to make sure it was me that won.  Because the one thing I would absolutely, positively not want to happen would be to have that Kelly guy win.Report

             1. My incentives seem to be large.  Methinks I’ll be putting an inordinate amount of effort into my picks this year.  Now I just need to figure out if that means reading up on every single player for every single team, or doing a full history of every single team’s mascot.Report

          2. Wait, does “controlling” your gravatar mean we actually get to throw lightning bolts? Because that would be totally awesome.Report

             1. Heh.Report

11. I’m in. I know next to nothing about college hoops. This will not stop me from participating, and it shouldn’t stop anyone else, either. Mark Ryan, will you set up a bracket pool at ESPN or Yahoo sports or some similar site?

    A thought: can you set up the rules so that there is some sort of bonus for picking an underdog?Report

12. For those asking, I am planning to use Yahoo. I will check it out to see what kind of scoring tweaks are available.Report

13. Count me in. I would prefer ESPN but I’m open to Yahoo.Report

14. If I win, I’m going to have Burt write one post containing all his planned Supreme Court’s greatest cases, and Mark’s gravatar will be the mascot of his most hated team.Report

    1. Heh.  Getting Burt to write another “great cases” post was exactly what I was thinking, too.  But all of them at once?  That’s just evil.Report

    2. Wait — you mean a list of the cases, right? Because otherwise you’re risking getting something like:

       …And then there was McCullough v. Maryland, and Justice Marshall was a bastard in that one too but he was right even though he was a bastard about it. State can’t tax Federal institutions, it’d make a mockery of the Supremacy Clause. So then we jump on up to Dred Scott, and whoo boy! that one got people ticked off too. Taney said once a slave, always a slave, and slaves can’t sue their masters. So we had that whole Civil War thing and three new amendments to the Constitution to straighten that out, but you know, the Court never really overruled it. And then there were some butchers in Louisiana and that made a hash of labor law, and we sent a lot of Japanese folks to concentration camps in the middle of nowhere because the Army wanted to do it and no one had the balls to stand up to the Army, but later we made a “one man, one vote” rule that was kind of a big deal and we said “oh, hey, sorry about that whole concentration camp thing” when nearly everyone who’d been in them was dead already. We had separate but equal until we didn’t have it anymore, and abortion was illegal until it wasn’t anymore only now it kind of can be again except when it can’t, and then gay sex was illegal until it wasn’t anymore, and then the Supreme Court voted for George W. Bush to be President. And everyone was pissed off about every bit of it. The end.

       So I could do that. Or you could be happy with a list and let me do a decent job of each case over time.Report

       1. That would be totally cool.  Because it would be hilarious, and I think you would still do the serious posts with all deliberate speed.Report

          1. I actually think you should post that as is.Report

15. Count me in.Report

16. I’m in.

    I will lose, but I’m going to talk trash all the way.Report

17. In!

    I’ve also barely paid attention this year – but when I’ve won work pools it’s usually in seasons when I paid zero attention.Report

    1. Let the cutie-pie pick your teams.Report

       1. She thinks all sports teams are the Packers.Report

          1. I’m pretty sure that counts as child abuse.

             At least in Chicago.Report

          2. At least she doesn’t think all sports teams are the Bills, like mine does.Report

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