ESPN Tournament Challenge 25 Hour Marathon Open Thread + General Bracketology Talk
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So I normally hate gimmicky stuff like this that ESPN does, including the Fantasy Football version of this show in the fall (sucks), but this is a marathon that I grew to absolutely love last year. My time to worry about Bracketology is restricted to my free time from now until the first game, and it's nice to have a show to count on no matter when that free time comes! So, the ESPN Tournament Challenge is on now, shifting across ESPN channels from now until 7:00 ET tomorrow, and also on WatchESPN and the ESPN App.
I have no idea why it's 25 hours instead of 24, I guess that's one of the stupid parts of this!
I thought that in addition to being an open thread for the event, this could be a good place to have general non-Michigan-specific bracket talk. So, who have you got in your bracket? Who is your final four? Major upsets? Which matchup is currently giving you a headache? Discuss below.
Let's have fun and discuss below, and hopefully any of us not picking our boys to take this thing are dead wrong. Go Blue!
The intial bracket where it's tough to not put a bunch of 1-3 seeds in:
(1)Virginina
(1) Villanova
(2) UNC
(1)/(2) Kansas/Sparty
My, "let's be a little more tricky and pick some matchups where guards could ignite or a team I've seen play I think could go far":
(5) Kentucky
(2) Purdue
(1) Kansas
(4) Gonzaga
My 1st round upset special I've most confidnce in:
(11) Loyola-Chicago over (6) Miami
My mid-tier seed (6-9) to make a Final Four:
(9) Alabama
My high seed to make an Elite 8/Final 4:
(12) Davidson
Finally, I think Michigan could do some real damage in this tournament. And that scares me. There are times when over confidence seems to bite me in the ass (@Iowa, 2016 football season)...some superstiitional bullshit probably. But when I put Michigan out "early-ish" in brackets I seem to have this mentality of, well, if I'm wrong and I hope I am it's okay, my team is advancing! It's a bit of a weak-minded philosophy, I admit. But it's hard to overcome even though I'm reallllly not that superstitious.
I do the same as you described below. My system is to go super pessimistic with UM except I put them one round farther than that mindset says.
Also, Go Loyola-Chicago!!
UVA, UM, Purdue, Duke
I think Purdue is being overlooked. If you had to build a championship team from scratch, it might look an awful lot like Purdue. Great post play, amazing shooters, wing threats, and well-coached. We made them look human in the finals. They are not.
I have the exact same final four!
Don’t join the pool, though.
Houston, Virginia, Purdue, Kansas
I think Purdue will benefit from facing teams that haven’t seen them all year in conference play. It seems like they got a little stagnant toward the end of the year. It’ll be tough for teams to prepare for them. Great combo of post play and 3 point shooters.
I mostly agree. Have them going out against Nova, though. I have us winning the whole thing.
March 13th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
...so do I. But they could beat ‘Nova.
Jalen and Greenie picked UM in final. Jalen picked us to win it all. He said Michigan over Duke in Championship, would be revenge from 92’. This team will do what the fab 5 couldn’t.
Hope you’re right Jalen!!
Dackich picked MSU, OSU and Purdue all in the final four with OSU beating Sparty to win it all. Lol.
Is there a reason that family turned on us? Serious question.
March 12th, 2018 at 10:15 PM ^
that we turned on them after Andrew ended up at OSU. So that's probably why.
What did they think would happen when he went to a rival? I would care more if he was a starter for us or something, but I don’t blame people for not liking him going to osu.
His final four has 3 big ten teams and thinks Ohio St wins it all.
Lol
He'd better cheer hard for UNC in the Sweet 16 then, because I cannot imagine Michigan losing to that OSU team on a neutral court when Beilein's got two game plans ready to go from earlier this year.
I pick the opposite of what I want to happen in real life so that I have a bracket with minor winnings to console my feelings of loss.
I remember what seems like a few years ago when I just wanted to be relevant again.
Then the Burke year happened , and he was from my HS and the championship game took me longer to emotionally recover from than a grown man should admit.
Now I've got that feeling this team could make another run... so I have UNC beating UM in the sweet 16. Hope I'm wrong.
My 5 year old daughter has picked the champion 2 of 3 years she's tried. Unfortunately she loves her dad alot and picked UM last year. This year her to pick whomever she wanted. She has UNC beating the cute bird (Kansas) in the final...
“...the championship game took me longer to emotionally recover from than a grown man should admit.”
I remember texting my crew that night, “It’ll be a long time before I get over that one.”
[NARRATOR: It was.]
March 12th, 2018 at 10:10 PM ^
Besides The Game in 2016, which LITERALLY got me sick for the rest of that weekend, I think that National Championship was probably the hardest Michigan loss to recover from for me in any sport.
March 13th, 2018 at 12:11 AM ^
in a Ron Howard voice
I like SF Austin over Texas Tech, Jackrabbits over Buckeyes, SDSU over Houston, and Texas A & M over UNC in the second round. And I am absolutely certain Duke knocks MSU out. Decisively too.
March 12th, 2018 at 10:08 PM ^
Lol Dakich.