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cdj
03-12-2011, 10:55 AM
http://thegamingtailgate.com/images/misc/ESPNTournamentChallenge.jpg

March Madness is here! Show your basketball prowess - or supreme guessing ability - in The Gaming Tailgate Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com (http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/frontpage). Make your picks beginning 6 PM ET Sunday, March 13.

There is no entry fee and all entrants are welcome, so feel free to get your friends into the group as well. The winner will receive a prize which will be announced at a later date. Continue on for full group details.

Group Name: The Gaming Tailgate
Password: tailgate2011

psusnoop
03-12-2011, 04:52 PM
Sweet, I'm in.

CLW
03-13-2011, 04:50 PM
I'm in!

texacotea
03-13-2011, 07:18 PM
in

HawkFan
03-13-2011, 07:24 PM
In

gschwendt
03-13-2011, 07:37 PM
In it to win it (or just embarrass myself, can't decide).

Kingpin32
03-13-2011, 08:05 PM
I'm in

morsdraconis
03-13-2011, 08:08 PM
In as well. Haven't taken the time to do anything with picking the games yet though.

HWill
03-13-2011, 08:59 PM
I'm in.

morsdraconis
03-13-2011, 09:37 PM
Kind of a stupid question, but we can wait until after the playin games finish to complete our bracket, right? Or do we have to do it before those games start?

cdj
03-14-2011, 07:05 AM
Kind of a stupid question, but we can wait until after the playin games finish to complete our bracket, right? Or do we have to do it before those games start?

You can fill out the bracket after them according to this buried in the rules:


All picks will lock at the scheduled tip off time of the Tournament currently scheduled for March 17, 2011.

whitepony99
03-14-2011, 07:34 AM
Im in

morsdraconis
03-14-2011, 09:11 AM
You can fill out the bracket after them according to this buried in the rules:

Cool, that's what I figured, but I've never done one on ESPN so I wanted to make sure.

And thanks for looking Chris.

JBHuskers
03-14-2011, 10:07 AM
Filled out my bracket....probably will make some tweaks but taking some chances in the end....but need to look for more early upsets.

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 04:57 AM
Man, it's a shame the First Four games didn't count. I went 4-0 in those games. :(

And I can guarantee that I going to be eaten alive by the Southeast Region. I am taking some MAJOR balls out chances with that region.

Overall, a lot of upsets in my bracket. One 11 seed, three 12 seeds, two 13 seeds winning in the Round of 64. Then two 10s, two 12s, and a 13 getting to the Sweet Sixteen.

JBHuskers
03-17-2011, 09:30 AM
I have a 7 and 9 making the Elite Eight.

CLW
03-17-2011, 11:00 AM
I really had difficulties with this bracket. Last year I was in the top 1% of the country. I'm betting this year I bomb. Best day of the year!

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 01:49 PM
I have a 7 and 9 making the Elite Eight.

Yeah, Pittsburgh was the one I had the most trouble with. Between Monday and this morning, I've had them doing everything from losing to ODU, losing to Utah State, losing to BYU, losing to St. John's, losing to Michigan State, to making it to the Final Four before losing to Kansas. No matter where I had them losing and to who, I was not happy. I either felt I had them losing too early, or I was giving them too much confidence by having them go too far.

JBHuskers
03-17-2011, 02:00 PM
There goes one Elite 8 team of mine bye bye....ODU

HWill
03-17-2011, 02:05 PM
There goes one Elite 8 team of mine bye bye....ODU

Should have went with Butler like I did. :P

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 02:10 PM
So much for pulling a repeat of last year. I was 7-1 in the early afternoon games last year. So far I'm 0-2 this year. :( Thankfully, Louisville is finally starting to pull their heads out of their asses and Temple's managing a halftime lead. So there's at least hope to recover and make it to 2-2. So not great loss though yet. I had ODU losing to Pitt and Clemson losing to Kentucky, so still in good shape.

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 03:02 PM
Ok, who just got reamed thanks to Louisville? :D Thank God, even though I'm 0-3 so far today, every single team that screwed me over, I had losing in the next round, so only minor losses so far, no major blows.

HWill
03-17-2011, 03:06 PM
I switched from Morehead to Louisville about 10 minutes before brackets had to be submitted. :smh:

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 03:19 PM
I switched from Morehead to Louisville about 10 minutes before brackets had to be submitted. :smh:

Ouch. :( Sadly, I never even looked that closely into the Morehead-Louisville upset. I've been big all week on Belmont over Wisconsin and Oakland over Texas, but I never even considering Louisville going down. At least, if Richmond proves me right and wins this afternoon, they'll have an easier road to the Sweet Sixteen, so a potential major help booster to my bracket and my Sweet Sixteen teams.

morsdraconis
03-17-2011, 03:31 PM
Boy did Louisville drop the ball on that one... Way to make the Big East look good... :smh:

JBHuskers
03-17-2011, 03:36 PM
I only had Louisville going to sweet 16, had ODU going elite 8....but I do have Princeton going to the sweet 16 so maybe that will make up for it.

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 04:03 PM
Just flipping around between these games right now, I do not remember a recent tournament where every single game was so close like they are today. Not even just close games that are expected between 8-9 seeds or 12-5 seeds, but even #1s and #2s being played close and/or taken to the wire, and multiple #4s being upset and/or in very close danger of being upset.

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 04:06 PM
Boy did Louisville drop the ball on that one... Way to make the Big East look good... :smh:

Yeah, I'm sort of happy about that. I'm so sick of hearing about the Big East getting 11 teams into the tournament, I sort of want to see the Big East just absolutely bomb and faceplant today and tomorrow and only see two or three BE teams get through to Saturday and Sunday.

Actually, make that four. Syracuse, UConn, St. John's and Pitt. All four are in the Elite Eight for me, so everyone else can bomb, as long as those four win.

morsdraconis
03-17-2011, 04:13 PM
Well, I guarantee you that WVU doesn't bomb against Kentucky. Cheatapari has never beaten Bob Huggins and he won't on Saturday either. Kentucky hasn't faced a team that can out rebound them like WVU can. If we continue to shoot as well as we did against piss poor Clemson, we'll be fine.

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 04:33 PM
Well, I guarantee you that WVU doesn't bomb against Kentucky. Cheatapari has never beaten Bob Huggins and he won't on Saturday either. Kentucky hasn't faced a team that can out rebound them like WVU can. If we continue to shoot as well as we did against piss poor Clemson, we'll be fine.

Yeah, I'm pissed at Clemson right now. I've been calling Clemson over WVU since Monday, even before Clemson pimp slapped UAB. And for 85-90% of the first half today, Clemson was proving me right. Until they forgot that the first half is 20 minutes long and that there was still a second half to be played. :rolleyes:

morsdraconis
03-17-2011, 04:54 PM
Yeah, I'm pissed at Clemson right now. I've been calling Clemson over WVU since Monday, even before Clemson pimp slapped UAB. And for 85-90% of the first half today, Clemson was proving me right. Until they forgot that the first half is 20 minutes long and that there was still a second half to be played. :rolleyes:

Pretty sure WVU's defense had something to do with that. ;)

HWill
03-17-2011, 04:54 PM
Boy did Louisville drop the ball on that one... Way to make the Big East look good... :smh:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/03/18/sports/18pitino1/18pitino1-sfSpan.jpg

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 05:44 PM
Richmond! Richmond! Richmond! I am so glad I had Richmond going to the Sweet Sixteen now! And I'm also pissed that I had the 12-13 match-up Saturday in the Southeast, instead of in the Southwest. Now I'm uncomfortable with my Utah State-Belmont-Oakland picks. No way in hell three 13 seeds are going to win. Two maybe, three no.

morsdraconis
03-17-2011, 06:42 PM
Richmond! Richmond! Richmond! I am so glad I had Richmond going to the Sweet Sixteen now! And I'm also pissed that I had the 12-13 match-up Saturday in the Southeast, instead of in the Southwest. Now I'm uncomfortable with my Utah State-Belmont-Oakland picks. No way in hell three 13 seeds are going to win. Two maybe, three no.

Infact, only THREE times has two 13 seeds won their first game (1987 - Xavier over Missouri and SW Missouri State over Clemson | 2001 - Kent St over Indiana and Indiana St over Oklahoma | 2008 - San Diego St over Connecticut and Siena over Vanderbilt) and never has there been three 13 seeds winning their first game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

More interesting facts:

In 1985, Navy became the first 13 seed to upset a 4 seed by beating the shit out of SEC favorite #4 seed LSU (who was 19-9, which just amazes me that they got a 4 seed with that type of record; they must have won the SEC Tournament or something) (after looking, nope, didn't win the SEC Tournament, Auburn did that year).

The deepest any 13 seed has ever gotten in the tournament has been the Sweet 16; achieved by 4 different schools - 1988 Richmond, 1998 Valiparaiso (everyone remembers the cardiac Cinderella team that won the first two games with last second shots only to be knocked out by Rhode Island who beat the favorites to win it all Kansas the game before), 1999 Oklahoma, 2006 Bradley.

SmoothPancakes
03-17-2011, 07:16 PM
Infact, only THREE times has two 13 seeds won their first game (1987 - Xavier over Missouri and SW Missouri State over Clemson | 2001 - Kent St over Indiana and Indiana St over Oklahoma | 2008 - San Diego St over Connecticut and Siena over Vanderbilt) and never has there been three 13 seeds winning their first game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

More interesting facts:

In 1985, Navy became the first 13 seed to upset a 4 seed by beating the shit out of SEC favorite #4 seed LSU (who was 19-9, which just amazes me that they got a 4 seed with that type of record; they must have won the SEC Tournament or something) (after looking, nope, didn't win the SEC Tournament, Auburn did that year).

The deepest any 13 seed has ever gotten in the tournament has been the Sweet 16; achieved by 4 different schools - 1988 Richmond, 1998 Valiparaiso (everyone remembers the cardiac Cinderella team that won the first two games with last second shots only to be knocked out by Rhode Island who beat the favorites to win it all Kansas the game before), 1999 Oklahoma, 2006 Bradley.

Yeah, I knew going into today that the Southeast Region was going to absolutely slaughter me. There was no doubt about it. That was the region I had the most difficulty filling out of the four. Too many weak teams that could lose in the first round, or could go all the way to the Final Four.

And I never knew that about Navy being the first 13 seed to upset a 4 seed, and an SEC team to boot. That awesome. :D

JBHuskers
03-17-2011, 08:32 PM
That makes two abortions for Pitino in one year.

morsdraconis
03-17-2011, 08:37 PM
I just LOVE watching Pitino fail. $10 says that he blames the refs like he did when WVU beat them towards the end of the season.

gschwendt
03-18-2011, 12:16 AM
I'm ready to kick myself... less than a minute before the deadline, I convince myself to give Utah State a little love and change for them to the sweet sixteen. :/

morsdraconis
03-18-2011, 07:19 AM
I don't remember if it was this bracket or one of the tweleve others I have, but I picked them to the Final Four in one of them :/

SmoothPancakes
03-18-2011, 09:48 AM
And I was correct in my predictions from yesterday. The other three regions I did good in, going 6-2, but as I predicted, the Southeast abused and slaughtered me. Pittsburgh, BYU, and Florida were my only correct picks in Southeast Region. Pitt and BYU were the only ones of those three I had going to the Sweet Sixteen, and none advancing past that as I had Michigan State-Utah State for the Elite Eight and Michigan State making the Final Four.

So I can cross off the entire Southeast now and completely focus my attention on the other regions. That'll also make it easier when it comes to deciding what games I want to watch next week between the Southeast and West region games that are on at the same time.

JBHuskers
03-18-2011, 10:27 AM
Does anyone do a calcutta pool where you pay for a team auction style, and payouts are based on the # of wins they get? I'm in one that gets insane....the #1 seeds went for $300, but the tourney winner will get $1,100. I only spent $115, paid for Memphis, Cincinnati, St. Peter's, Old Dominion, and UCLA. If I get two Sweet 16 teams, I'll make money. One win is about $20, two wins is about $80.

NatureBoy
03-18-2011, 11:30 PM
Ok, who just got reamed thanks to Louisville? :D Thank God, even though I'm 0-3 so far today, every single team that screwed me over, I had losing in the next round, so only minor losses so far, no major blows.:(I had Louisville in the finals losing to Ohio St. Other than that CF, i'm in pretty good shape overall.

JBHuskers
03-19-2011, 12:54 AM
23 out of 36, but the real fun now begins :nod:

gschwendt
03-19-2011, 01:07 AM
I'm 20/32 but I've only lost 2 sweet sixteen teams so far. I lost some footing after today's games but I'm still in decent shape.

NatureBoy
03-19-2011, 09:57 AM
:up: I just checked and i'm tied for 1st place.

CLW
03-19-2011, 10:30 AM
Damn Georgetown RUINED my PERFECT day yesterday.

SmoothPancakes
03-19-2011, 12:49 PM
Damn Georgetown RUINED my PERFECT day yesterday.

Never bet against VCU, at least not in the first round. :D Knocking off Duke in 2007, and now Georgetown. They are an automatic upset pick for me every year they're in the tournament. I already had VCU advancing to the second round over Georgetown back on Monday, before VCU had even beat USC just to get to the round of 64.

JBHuskers
03-19-2011, 01:51 PM
Well, I guarantee you that WVU doesn't bomb against Kentucky. Cheatapari has never beaten Bob Huggins and he won't on Saturday either. Kentucky hasn't faced a team that can out rebound them like WVU can. If we continue to shoot as well as we did against piss poor Clemson, we'll be fine.

Yep nooooo way they don't ;)

JeffHCross
03-19-2011, 07:34 PM
What a crazy pair of overtimes in Temple/SDSU. San Diego State looked like they were winning the whole time, but couldn't get it all together until the end of the second overtime.

JeffHCross
03-19-2011, 08:20 PM
Re: Butler/Pitt.

Wow.

gschwendt
03-19-2011, 08:25 PM
Re: Butler/Pitt.

Wow.Really dumb defensive play by both teams in the final seconds. Not sure if the Pitt free throw was intentionally missed but the coach has to teach them to just to let him shoot it after the miss.

JeffHCross
03-19-2011, 08:27 PM
The funny thing is that I've been reading Scorecasting (http://www.amazon.com/Scorecasting-Hidden-Influences-Behind-Sports/dp/0307591794/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300584371&sr=8-1), and it talks about how refs, statistics show, swallow the whistle at the end of games. They'll only call absolutely blatant fouls. So when the color guy said that Pitt needed to "go toward the basket and force the refs to make a call", I started laughing.

Never in a million years would I have imagined those kind of fouls being made, or called, at the end of a game.

HWill
03-19-2011, 08:29 PM
:smh: :bang:

JeffHCross
03-19-2011, 08:34 PM
Not sure if the Pitt free throw was intentionally missedTie game. No way was it intentional.

gschwendt
03-19-2011, 08:39 PM
Tie game. No way was it intentional.
Ah... you're right. Either way though, unless the ball is coming right at you, you have to let it go and not fight for it in that instance.

CLW
03-19-2011, 08:49 PM
ODD ending to say the least but both were CORRECT calls. If it is a foul in the first minute of the game it is a foul in the last minute of the game.

morsdraconis
03-19-2011, 09:35 PM
ODD ending to say the least but both were CORRECT calls. If it is a foul in the first minute of the game it is a foul in the last minute of the game.

Coming from a Duke fan, you've got to be freakin' kidding me right?

NatureBoy
03-19-2011, 09:38 PM
:nod: The left side of my bracket looks good.
:smh: The right side, not looking good at all.

SmoothPancakes
03-20-2011, 06:09 AM
East, West and Southwest Regions all look great for me. Oakland is the only Sweet Sixteen team I have missed so far. The Southeast, not a single damn team left playing that I had picked. :smh:

CLW
03-20-2011, 07:13 AM
2nd Place and all of my Final 4 still alive.

psusnoop
03-20-2011, 08:08 AM
I'm beating Mors and Papa atleast, otherwise not the best start hahahaha

That ending was just amazing Pitt vs Butler. Why was Pitt even down there for the rebound? They should have all lined up at half court.

morsdraconis
03-20-2011, 08:24 AM
Yeah. Utah State and Louisville totally screwed me...

JeffHCross
03-20-2011, 09:02 PM
Why was Pitt even down there for the rebound? They should have all lined up at half court.Just playing Devil's Advocate, but say that they all lined up at half court, the guy missed the shot, and then somehow Butler hits a ridiculous 3-pointer to win the game. Then everybody says "why weren't they there to contest the rebound?"

psusnoop
03-21-2011, 08:28 AM
Just playing Devil's Advocate, but say that they all lined up at half court, the guy missed the shot, and then somehow Butler hits a ridiculous 3-pointer to win the game. Then everybody says "why weren't they there to contest the rebound?"

I think I'd roll the dice on that and go percentages to be honest. I see your point, but at some point you have to play the numbers game. Pitt just didn't do that at all. With 1.4 seconds left the guy wasn't getting past half court before they needed to shot the ball anyways.

gschwendt
03-21-2011, 08:33 AM
I think I'd roll the dice on that and go percentages to be honest. I see your point, but at some point you have to play the numbers game. Pitt just didn't do that at all. With 1.4 seconds left the guy wasn't getting past half court before they needed to shot the ball anyways.On the flipside, what if the player misses the shot and the ball bounces right to a Pitt player for the put back... ? I don't like the half court idea but I definitely say "anything that doesn't fall into your lap, let it go".

psusnoop
03-21-2011, 12:03 PM
On the flipside, what if the player misses the shot and the ball bounces right to a Pitt player for the put back... ? I don't like the half court idea but I definitely say "anything that doesn't fall into your lap, let it go".

After they tied it, I guess I could see them getting an easy put back there if it was missed but l would be very worried about getting called for a foul there. Even an over the back call would kill ya in that situation. Play for OT and hope your players respond.

NatureBoy
03-26-2011, 09:11 AM
:D I'm out! I had Ohio St winning it all.

gschwendt
03-26-2011, 09:16 AM
:D I'm out! I had Ohio St winning it all.
I've lost my entire final four :/

SmoothPancakes
03-26-2011, 10:00 AM
I still have Kansas, winning it all. :)

JBHuskers
03-26-2011, 04:51 PM
As Chuck would say...my bracket this year was flat out TURRRRRIBLE

JeffHCross
03-27-2011, 07:04 PM
The one single user that got 15 of the Sweet 16 teams -- zero correct teams going into the Final Four.

Also, right now the Tournament Challenge overall leader has all four Final Four teams remaining, and has picked VCU to win the national championship.

SmoothPancakes
03-27-2011, 07:07 PM
The one single user that got 15 of the Sweet 16 teams -- zero correct teams going into the Final Four.

Also, right now the Tournament Challenge overall leader has all four Final Four teams remaining, and has picked VCU to win the national championship.

There's a whole 2 people total who have all four Final Four teams correct in the Tournament Challenge. Here were the numbers going into today's games:


Potential Final Four fields and number of brackets picking each scenario:

Butler, Connecticut, Kansas, North Carolina: 645
Butler, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky: 414
Butler, Connecticut, VCU, North Carolina: 6
Butler, Connecticut, VCU, Kentucky: 2

JeffHCross
03-27-2011, 07:09 PM
There's a whole 2 people total who have all four Final Four teams correct in the Tournament Challenge.Yep. But the second bracket must've really sucked it up in the first few rounds, because I can't even find them in the Top 100.

SmoothPancakes
03-28-2011, 03:16 AM
Yep. But the second bracket must've really sucked it up in the first few rounds, because I can't even find them in the Top 100.

And thanks to ESPN's By the Numbers, it has been found, ranking 6,343th (http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=2627535).

Their Butler to the Final Four pick was the ONLY correct pick they had in the Southeast Region. They went upset hardcore. Had every #1 seed losing in the 2nd round, had 1st round upsets by Wofford, UCSB, Akron, and St. Peter's, had Tennessee, Michigan State, and Illinois going to the Elite Eight, etc.

Bige18
04-03-2011, 03:19 AM
I hope Uconn win

JeffHCross
04-03-2011, 09:14 AM
If Butler wins, there are two guys that have the same score that both picked Butler, so it'll come down to the Tiebreaker. Personally, I think this entry (http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=388203) should be automatically eliminated since he put a higher value in the losing score than the winning score :D

cdj
04-05-2011, 07:48 AM
Congrats to: elijah17benoit (Please PM me ASAP.)

He finished with 1000 points, good enough to finish in the top 96.1%!

psusnoop
04-05-2011, 07:52 AM
Congrats to: elijah17benoit (Please PM me ASAP.)

He finished with 1000 points, good enough to finish in the top 96.1%!

Congrats elijah, well done. I'm pretty sure I fell into the 3.9% that remained. hahaha

CLW
04-05-2011, 09:00 AM
Congrats!

texacotea
04-05-2011, 09:05 AM
If Butler wins, there are two guys that have the same score that both picked Butler, so it'll come down to the Tiebreaker. Personally, I think this entry (http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/entry?entryID=388203) should be automatically eliminated since he put a higher value in the losing score than the winning score :D

its easy to do. I did this in one of my brackets

JeffHCross
04-05-2011, 08:51 PM
its easy to do. I did this in one of my bracketsI'm sure it is. Still had to laugh at it, especially since that guy was one of the Top 3 going into the final.