X's T'wolves (NBA 2K11)

[The X]

2011 MARCH MADNESS – NCAA TOURNAMENT


27 March 2011

WEST REGION

KENTUCKY ROLL AS THEY FRY THE MOUNTAINEERS

(8)Kentucky looked very impressive as they destroyed (7)West Virginia 77-54 behind freshman power forward Jackie Stapley (15 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals) and the containment of star Mountaineers' frontcourt players, senior centre Chuck Long (8 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, 4 turnovers) and sophomore forward Jeffery Morgan (12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, 3 turnovers).

Senior centre Chuck Long was the MVP of the West Region after averaging 12.3ppg, 10.8rpg and 3.5bpg for the Mountaineers.


MIDWEST REGION

BUCKEYES OUTGUN MUSKETEERS, BOOK TICKET TO FINAL FOUR

A year after Evan Turner left early to the NBA, nobody gave them a chance of advancing to the Final Four, but now (5)Ohio State can lay to that claim after getting hot in the second half and beating (3)Xavier 71-60. The Buckeyes were led by freshman centre Jeremy Webber (15 points). Xavier were once again led by senior shooting guard Leland Booker (17 points, 3 steals).

Senior shooting guard Leland Booker was the MVP of the Midwest Region after averaging 14.5ppg and 2.3spg as he led Xavier to the Elite Eight. Once again Xavier could just not get over the hump, as for the fourth straight year they made it to the second weekend of play, but failed to get to the Final Four.

[The X]

So final four is set, (1)North Carolina, (8)Kentucky, (7)Georgetown & (5)Ohio State. All powerhouses of the NCAA, but some have far outperformed their seeding & talent level. I will get final four bracket up later today (or tomorrow) with prediction scoreboard update and prediction picks.

How are the Wolves doing?

Still the same, haven't played a game since starting this NCAA March Madness. The T-wolves schedule opened up & there was more or less no games in March. I think I went a bit overboard with March Madness coverage as it wasn't suppose to take this long. I was enthusiastic at the start, but has waned over time. Lesson learned for next season (no prediction games, less NCAA coverage)

[hova-]

I'm looking forward to some Minny stuff, too, since I did miss out on the start of the whole march madness thing with my inet being down.

Do you know a good internet page where I could look up who plays against whom in the march madness because I simply have no clue ... and I want to add some college flavour to my D, too.

[The X]

hova-, if you're asking how the NCAA tournament are selected, it's pretty complicated. Based on seedings really, which are based on a combination of team records, strength of schedule (SOS) & ratings percentage index (RPI).

It's too complicated to really go into it or give you any one link that will explain it.

The best exposure is to actually watch March Madness, starting from conference tournaments. It will take a little while to understand the intricacies but you get a idea of how it is. More or less you got the 31 odd conference tournament champions (in case of Ivy League it is regular season champion since they don't have a conference tournament), plus the 37 next best teams and put them in a single game knockout tournament. Botton 8 teams have to have a play-in game to get field down to 64 (Round 1), then it's knockout down to 32 (Round 2), 16 (Sweet 16), 8 (Elite Eight), 4 (Final Four), 2 (Championship Game) & 1 (Champion).

The 64/68 teams are split between 4 regions & top seed plays bottom seed (1 v 16), then it runs down (2 v 15) & eventually to the most evenly matched teams (8 v 9). This is replicated in each of four regions. Winner of each region advances to Final Four.

Here's a couple of links that might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Championship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_basketball_tournament_selection_process

[The X]

TOURNAMENT PICK 'EM UPDATE

We have (finally) reached the Final Four, so here's how the Tournament has played out to date.



LEADERBOARD (AFTER ELITE EIGHT)

Agent420: 11
X's Wife: 11
----------------
shadowgrin: 10
Axel.: 9
Houndy: 9
Lamrock: 8
Thierry: 8
dare: 7
Sit: 7

Axel. was the big mover, moving from last to only 2 points off the cut-off level, meanwhile Sit sits at the bottom of the standings.

The final four scoring system will be double points due to its significance, so 2 points are up for grabs for each semi final and 4 points are up for grabs if you correctly pick the final winner. Looking at the current standings, it means that anybody can still conceivably win it

Get your picks for the Final Four in the following format:

UNC vs Kentucky (pick a winner - 2 points)
Georgetown vs Ohio State (pick a winner - 2 points)

Pick title winner (note that you must have picked that team to win one of the semis - 4 points)

So the default pick is as follows:

UNC beating Kentucky
Ohio State beating Georgetown

UNC beating Ohio State in the Final

If the default pick came to fruition then it would score 8 points (2 + 2 + 4).


Please let me know your predictions for the Final Four by PM.

[Pistol]

LEADERBOARD (AFTER ELITE EIGHT)

Agent420: 11
X's Wife: 11
----------------
shadowgrin: 10
Axel.: 9
Houndy: 9
Lamrock: 8
Thierry: 8
dare: 7
Sit: 7

Just staying number one throughout the tournament. No big deal

[The X]

Equal 1st

[Fresh8]

Staying last the whole tournament. Now that's my style

[The X]

2011 MARCH MADNESS – NCAA TOURNAMENT


2 April 2011

FINAL FOUR - NATIONAL SEMI FINALS

KENTUCKY SHOCK NATION, BEAT THE UNBEATABLE, ONE WIN AWAY FROM A CINDERELLA TITLE

Nobody gave (8)Kentucky much of a chance against the heavily favoured rivals, (1)North Carolina, except the Wildcats' faithful that bleed blue. The two NCAA powerhouses in matched up in what ended up being one-sided, but not the way anybody expected. Kentucky won the game 82-64 and led for all but the first two minutes of the game.

The Wildcats had a strong gameplan that denied and kept the ball out of junior guard Ken Davidson's (6 points) hands. They also played with supreme confidence, which should come as no surprise playing for John Calipari. Sophomore shooting guard Sheldon Sargent's 21 points, which included 5 three pointers proved the difference in this game. The Tarheels best were freshman power forward Lloyd Murphy (18 points) and Bernard York (12 points, 4 assists, 2 steals).

(8)Kentucky's dream run leads them to within one game of another national title. The Wildcats hope to match the feat of the 1985 Villanova Wildcats, who are the highest seeded team (also a number 8 seed) to ever win the title, when they beat Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas.


BUCKEYES TOURNAMENT RUN ENDS, SMASHED BY THE FORCE OF G-TOWN

For once (7)Georgetown didn't have to scrap for a victory, instead the cake walked it, blowing out (5)Ohio State 80-52. Senior point guard Kenny Lane (17 points, 3/5 3Pt, 6 assists, 2 steals) was once again the star for the Hoyas, whilst none of the Buckeyes' big guns fired, with freshman shooting guard Hank Paschel (12 points) being the only player on his team to reach double figures.

(7)Georgetown played much better than its seeding suggested and a message is being sent to the selection committee after so many mid-level seeds advance. That's more a reflection of the parity of the NCAA at the moment with the drain of talent to the NBA each year rather than the failure of the NCAA Selection Committee.

[Fresh8]

Wow, go Kentucky. And the Hoyas had a big winning margin for once

[The X]

2011 MARCH MADNESS – NCAA TOURNAMENT


4 April 2011

FINAL FOUR - NATIONAL FINAL

KENTUCKY CLINCH THEIR EIGHT NATIONAL TITLE WITH EASY WIN OVER HOYAS

(8)Kentucky continued its dominant display in the NCAA Tournament, dismantling (7)Georgetown to win its eight national title 73-49. Senior point guard Ronny Sommerville led the way with 20 points for the Wildcats, as he also held Hoyas' senior point guard Kenny Lane to zero points on the night. With the win, (8)Kentucky match the 1985 Villanova championship team as the lowest seeded team to ever win a national title.

The Final Four Most Outstanding Player was Kentucky's Ronny Sommerville, who averaged 16.5ppg, 4.0rpg, 5.0apg and 1.5spg over the weekend as the Wildcats won by an average of 21 points to stamp its dominance of the Tournament.

[Pistol]

Fuck you Kentucky

[The X]

Only in a computer game

But never fear, you were smart enough to pick the exact same picks as my wife (UNC, G-Town & G-Town), even though she claims later she meant Kentucky (but I didn't accept that)

[Pistol]

No one passed us up?

[The X]

No one passed us up?

You'll find out in about 2 minutes

[The X]

TOURNAMENT PICK 'EM UPDATE (FINAL)

It's all over, see below for how the 2011 NCAA Tournament played out.



FINAL LEADERBOARD

Houndy: 15
Agent420: 13
----------------
X's Wife: 13
----------------
Axel.: 11
shadowgrin: 10 (I didn't wait for his Final Four picks since he was just doing it for fun, so default choices leaves his score the same)
Thierry: 10
Sit: 9
Lamrock: 8
dare: 7

Well done Houndy, I didn't give you a chance after the first round after a scoreless first round. You redeemed yourself quickly with a perfect second round and were solid every round after that, which has earnt you the win. As the overall winner, you get a spot in the 2012 Draft Class and a bonus 10 attribute/tendency points (2 lots of 5) to spend after I've created your player. Agent420 was unlucky not to win it all after leading the entire tournament, but still gets a spot for finishing above the cut-off line. Please PM me your details Agent420 for your NLSC-er.

Sorry to the others who didn't make it. However there is still one spot left in the 2012 class (hova, houndy & agent420 being current members of class), which can be taken by designing a T'wolves (not Darko oriented) sig for my Association.

For those who aren't in a class yet, please still PM me your details anyways & I'll keep on file & you automatically go into 2013 class. I'll try to also make a conscious effort to get through seasons a bit quicker than I've been going.

Thanks again for following. I can now FINALLY get back to the T-wolves now that the NCAA experiment is over

[The X]

Note, I am giving Lamrock 5 bonus attribute/tendency points (PM me them L-Rock, must be put to only one attribute or tendency) for knowing that Knicks won a title in my Live '05 Hall of Fame Bobcats Dynasty when I didn't. Is always a surprise when somebody knows more about your own dynasty than yourself

This bonus point is just a random gift so no need to scour back through my old stories to try to get points guys

[Fresh8]

Lamrock is the association/dynasty guru.

Knowledge from the past and also of the future!

[kibaxx7]

Well, close enough.

[Houndy]

Holy shit, I won

Thanks X, your March Madness coverage was great

[Pistol]

What info do you need?

[Houndy]

What info do you need?

NLSC'er stuff. Like physical apperance, age, personal stuff, and some things like weaknesses and strengths.

[The X]

To add to that Agent420, since it's a multi-verse, surnames or first names will change & the mandatory 5 o'clock shadow too

Holy shit, I won

Thanks X, your March Madness coverage was great

Yep, I thought Agent420 had it in the bag, but you were only person who went out on a limb and picked Kentucky & that's why you got up.

As for the coverage, I thought it was alright, probably a little too indepth at points & a little too time consuming. I'll probably continue it in following seasons, but more concise by losing prediction game & only concentrating on games that NLSC-ers & draft prospects are in (& maybe Final Four predictor to add points to your player).

Let me know where you want your 10 bonus attribute or tendency points to go to by PM.

[Pistol]

My bad I thought I sent you that stuff a while back. I'll get right on it.

[dare]

Bad choice to go for the default picks