March Madness

Leslie

I know the times are trying, but a little entertainment never hurts. I have a pool going. Anyone interested? Email me if you are.

Don D

How do you propose to collect?

Leslie

Mail or Paypal. It's just $5 - not exactly a wallet breaker.

Parabeagle

Certainly can tell you work for a casino, Leslie. x;-)

What's the conventional wisdom on the Oregon Ducks? Don't generally follow college basketball... just curious.

Leslie

Oregon is no. 8 in the Midwest bracket. They won the PAC 10 tournament, but that's probably because University of Arizona coach Lute Olsen doesn't like the tournament, already had the PAC 10 wrapped up, and got didn't care. The Ducks have Luke Ridnour, 2nd leading scorer in the PAC. They could get hot and go pretty far, but Final Four is extremely doubtful.

Don D

The Oregon Ducks put a whuppin' on my Mississippi State Bulldogs first football game last season. I had never heard of the Ducks and thought it was a joke until I watched the game. But the Ducks won't float in the basketball tourney with MS State and the dreaded Kentucky playing. The SEC will produce the winner.

Leslie

Beg to differ...the winner is coming out of the PAC 10, West bracket. And while I wish I could say it's my beloved, and alma mater, ASU Sun Devils - it will be my son's beloved, and alma mater, Arizona Wildcats.

Don D

I'm with you on Wildcats, but they ain't from Arizona. They're from the same place that makes that famous jelly, KY.

Gillian

And jelly is what they will be.

Leslie

Don, oh, Don. You do go on so.

I heard on the NBC affiliate this morning that discussions at the work place about March Madness cost businesses $1.4 billion in work productivity, or lack thereof, throughout the duration of the tournament.

I wonder how they calculate this stuff - and I'm also wondering how much discussions of the war will cost. The debates on whether "the tape" was actually Saddam has superceded March Madness by a long shot. Apropos

Either way, we're doing our part!

Parabeagle

Well, Don, if you ever see my girlfriend in Alabama you'll know her. She wears a Ducks ball cap that I gave her (follow their football team, not basketball).

Well, Leslie, from what I'm reading it sounds like it's worth 5 bucks to me. x;-)

Leslie

Cool. The easiest way to pay the $5 is to go to [url]www.paypal.com[/url] and pay to this email address:

[email]leslie_ostrander@hotmail.com[/email]

Or if you prefer snail mail:

Leslie Ostrander
Fort McDowell Enterprise HR
P.O. Box 18359
Fountain Hills, AZ 85269-8359

I'll let you know!

Don D

I never heard of this 'paypal' concept but I do get regular emails from the middle east telling me there's 50 million with my name on it smuggled out of the country by the widow of a deposed ruler. Back to that survey. They did not take into account that workplace discussions of March Madness, just like the superbowl, make people happier, more congenial, more outgoing, more smiling, more buying each other lunch, etc, thereby increasing productivity dramatically. It's those research nerds reaching wrongheaded conclusions who are productivity killers. So there. Besides, where else except in a March Madness discussion could I discuss KY Jelly with people I don't know?

POPEYE

I am fortunate enough to have tickets to watch the next NCAA champions play here in Nashville tomorrow. That would be the Big Blue Wildcats from KY. There is an excellent chance that there may be 3 SEC teams in the final 4, KY
MSU and FL. I love March Madness!!

Leslie

Well, Popeye, put your money where your mouth, uh, keyboard, is! Oh, purchased tickets? Guess you already have.

POPEYE

Well, sort of. My son is a CPA and one of his clients is a major sponsor so he got (I asked no questions) tickets. I helped finance his education so I guess in a round about way I have "purchased" the tickets.

Don D

Popeye is a very wise man and one helluva predictor of outcomes. I like him already. Think of all the money that can be saved by these three SEC teams just going ahead and playing each other for first place.

Parabeagle

Rather see a Pac-10 team (i.e., Oregon) playing an SEC team for first place.

Leslie

Maybe it will be Oregon and U of Arizona...ya never know. Anything can happen.

Parabeagle

Like a west coast team ending up in something called a Mid-West division? How the heck does THAT work? I wasn't aware we had moved east. x;-)

Leslie

Only the number one seeds are guaranteed to stay in their region's bracket. I'll trade my ASU 10 seed out of the West with your Oregon Midwest 8 seed any day. The experts say the West bracket is the toughest. Little do I know...

In any event I still have openings, so I'm going to keep taking people into the pool and knocking off teams as they lose. Soon or later the twain shall meet and I can make the draw.

POPEYE

UPDATE: As of 2:00 CST you can move Marquette, Gonzaga and Cal over to the next bracket.

Leslie

Actually it's working the other way - I removed Holy Cross, NC State, BYU and Cincinatti from the draw. Looks like SC State and Vermont won't be far behind. The only close game going on is So Illinois and Missouri.

POPEYE

Don D I'm sure you know this but other than their losses, the closest games
Ky has had have been with MSU. It would be great to see Austin matched up with Bogans or Estill one more time.

safety

While I am not interested in any pool I would like to express a good luck wish to all teams and one in particular, Go Jayhawks!

Don D

Leslie is going to wind up like Copper.....snatched up and carried away by the constabulary, but for internet bookmaking.

Riley

I am a Jayhawk by birth, but a Wildcat by choice. It kills me to say this, but Rock Chalk Jayhawk, GO KU!!!!

On the girls' side I am 100% Wildcats, the Kansan species !!! They are going all the way this year baby!

Don D

I cannot bullieve Miss State got beat in the last 5 seconds, by ONE POINT. What a low scoring game too. I have never heard of Butler and don't know where it is but they have one helluva strange team, always darting around, never standing and dribbling, passing the ball like the Globetrotters, taking shots from 10 feet back of the 3-point arc. They have one little firecracker of a guy who is a moving wizard. The papers today compared him to a middleweight boxing champion with a broken nose. I buy that. If you catch them on the tube, watch these guys. They are entertainment and several have like 95% freethrow percentages, one with the longest streak of not missing one in the USA. March sadness for my MSU Bulldogs, so they join the Ducks in the pond. I'm pullin' for KY now to seize the whole ball of wax.

POPEYE

Well, I'm not going to give up my day job to become a bookie. I did not do a very good job except that watching KY just made me believe that much more that they can go all the way. Congrats to all of you Big 12 fans and condolences to you Don D. By the way, I think that Butler is in Indiana.

Leslie

Alright, Parabeagle, what is up with your mascot? That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen - an Oregon Duck fighting a Utah hawk (well, Utah had to come up with something for their mascot, because what the heck is a Ute?)

Anyway both mascots end up getting tossed out of the game - the fight of the century!

Leslie

Those now looking for a team to root for (sorry Don D), here's the survivors to the Sweet 16:

Oklahoma
Kentucky
Texas
University of Arizona
Auburn
Butler (Indianapolis, Indiana and one of my draws by the way!)
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania)
Kansas
Syracuse (Syracuse, New York)
Marquette (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Duke (Durham, North Carolina)
Wisconsin
University of Conneticut
Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana)
Maryland
Michigan State