Rep Bet: 2023 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament

[fletch]

Selection Sunday 3/12 starting at 6 PM Eastern time is when bracket is released.  Picks are due by Thursday 3/16 Noon Eastern time.  I will rep (and encourage others to rep) whomever scores the most points in the following format for correct picks:

National Champion (30 points or 0 points),

Final Four Teams (8 points for each correct pick),

Four double-digit seed (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16) underdog picks starting in round of 64 (seed for win, seed X 2 for 2 wins, seed X 3 for 3 wins, etc; play-in games in Dayton don’t count).

 

Sample picks:

National Champ – South Dakota State

Final Four – South Dakota State, Marist, St Johns, Winthrop

Double digit underdogs – 10 Akron, 12 Washington State, 13 UMBC, 14 Weber St

 

If LSU wins the national championship.

If Final Four is LSU, Oregon State, Marist, and St Johns.

If Akron wins 2 games, Washington State wins 0 games, UMBC wins 1 game, Weber St wins 0 games

 

I would get

0 points for my South Dakota State pick

8 points for my St Johns pick

8 points for my Marist pick

2*10 = 20 points for my Akron pick

1*13 = 13 points for my UMBC pick

 

Final score 8+8+20+13=49

 

No one really ‘knows’ college basketball and I don’t feel like picking every game, so this is an easy way to get some rep for correctly guessing what 17-22 year-old young men do for 3 weeks.   Round of 64 starts just after noon Eastern on Thursday, so get your picks in before then.  Once games have started, feel free to post reaction to games in the thread.

 

Enjoy figuring out your picks, and congratulations in advance to the luckiest one of us.

 

[fletch]

My picks:

 

National Champ – Purdue

Final Four – Arizona, Texas, Gonzaga, Purdue

Double digit underdogs – 12 Drake, 11 Pittsburgh, 12 VCU, 10 Boise St

[fletch]

Feeling good about my bracket just before tip.  Will track double seeded upsets in thread

[fletch]

First round upsets:

13 Furman over Virginia

15 Princeton over Arizona

10 Penn State over Texas A&M

11 Pittsburgh over Iowa State

16 Fairleigh Dickinson over Purdue

Edited March 18, 2023 by fletch

[fletch]

Second round (the double digit seeds continue to kill brackets):

15 Princeton over Missouri

[fletch]

Per ESPN, this is the first men's ncaa basketball tournament where no. 1 seeds reached the Elite Eight.   In pools (no money waged this year), after the first weekend I want my champion and 3 out of 4 Final Four teams to make it to the Sweet 16 to figure I've got a chance.  This year, Gonzaga-UConn is probably going to decide the winner in the one free pool I'm in.  Crazy year.

Edited March 25, 2023 by fletch

[fletch]

Maximum possible score for this year:

Princeton (15 x 2) = 30

Fairleigh Dickinson = 16

Furman = 13

Pittsburgh = 11

All Final four teams = 8 x 4 = 32

National champion = 30

Total = 132 points

[LindG1000]

It's all about the U baby.

[fletch]

17 hours ago, LindG1000 said:

It's all about the U baby.

 

Winner of UConn-Miami does seem to be the favorite heading into the title game; favorites appear to be at a disadvantage in this year's tournament!