Open "at work but not working" Tourney Thread

Submitted by ijohnb on

There is very little I can think of other than the NCAA basketball tournament.  It has become my "default" thought process, I wake up thinking about it, it is my first thought and my last thought for the day. I can't shake it, I am seeing brackets form in front of me on the floor when I am walking.  For those of you in the same boat, who are staring uselessly at projects on your desk, in your office, etc. that are certainly not going to get done in the next 72 hours, any discussion of any signficance regarding the NCAA tourney (or any other spring topics, the Masters, or Bell Oberon for crying out loud), I am sure there are many on this blog who would be happy to chat.

Even the most benign, random thoughts are acceptable, i.e. Michigan v. UCLA 1993, how sweet was that?  Jimmy with the steal and shaking his head as time expired, fantastic.

DrunkOnHiggins

March 14th, 2012 at 8:41 AM ^

Sitting here reading MGoBlog at work. Eating a bagel and drinking a coffee from Tim Hortons. Drew & Mike on the radio. Wishing it was Saturday actually. My bro and a bunch of buddies are heading down to Indy for Supercross. We used to go every year when it was at the Silverdome but that's not happening anymore.

Go Blue!

DrunkOnHiggins

March 14th, 2012 at 10:29 AM ^

I haven't been fair to Dunkin to be honest. I never go there although there are two of them within a square mile from the office. Maybe tomorrow I'll swing by and try it.

I have a Mini Keurig at my desk that works out good.

WalterMitty

March 14th, 2012 at 9:03 AM ^

Here's a random thought on doing bracket pools. They should all add bonus points for the difference in seeds, when you pick an upset. Drives me crazy these pools that use the ol 1 point first round, 2 points second round, 4 points 3rd round, on up to 32 or even 64 points for picking the winner. They are all about getting the Final 4 correct. They give you no incentive to pick an upset. Now, if you got 5 bonus points for nailing the 11 beating the 6, that would make it more fun. The first 4 days are the best of the tournament, so let's make the brackets weighted a little more early toward the early rounds.

ijohnb

March 14th, 2012 at 9:08 AM ^

got a point, and thanks for not just thread killing like those above when clearly they are doing the same thing that we are.

In any case, there really is not that much incentive at all to pick an upset in your standard pool unless you see the team that you are picking for the upset going deep into the tournament.  They are really an all risk-very small reward proposition.

The Wonderful 135

March 14th, 2012 at 10:30 AM ^

Some sites actually allow you to implement rules like that.  Yahoo includes an upset bonus, and a seed differential bonus, and other weird rules.

I thought about using some of them this year for my family bracket challenge and the idea was abruptly shot down.  Apparently my family doesn't like change.

Sambojangles

March 14th, 2012 at 9:07 AM ^

I was just going to go to kenpom.com to help me with my picks, until I saw that he put a paywall up for this season. Which got me thinking: if I pay for it and win my tournament pool, can I write off the cost of the site?

Of course if I happen to win any pools, I'm not reporting the income, so the answer is no, I'm not going to write off a kenpom subscription.

dothepose

March 14th, 2012 at 9:12 AM ^

Which will allow me to fine-tune my bracket and do 8 hours of advanced scouting. So by overthinking each game I will gradually take myself out of the running for winning my pool.

profitgoblue

March 14th, 2012 at 1:12 PM ^

On the other hand, that kind of WIN is just not enough to get me through 3-hour sleep nights.  Teachers should show videos of parents taking care of babies at night as a way to teach abstenence.

 

YouremyboyBlue

March 14th, 2012 at 9:34 AM ^

I've had 2 dreams about the tourney since the brackets were announced.  In the first dream, my wife woke me up and I was telling her about how seeding works (I was still half dreaming).  In the second dream, I thought it was Wednesday when it was actually Thursday and missed the deadline for filling out my bracket.  So I started panicking because I wouldn't have anything but Mich to root for.

mistersuits

March 14th, 2012 at 9:57 AM ^

Flying out tomorrow morning. Got my B1G championship shirt ready to break out for my Spartan friend I'll be meeting.

Not sure if my strategy this year is going to be take all of jamiemac's picks or take the opposite of all of jamiemac's picks....!!

OmarDontScare

March 14th, 2012 at 10:32 AM ^

I've been pretty productive so far this morning. Gotta feeling that's going to change this afternoon.

triangle_M

March 14th, 2012 at 10:38 AM ^

In my office they don't even pretend to be working.  They will have TVs set up in the conference rooms with the NCSU game on Friday as I work with a lot of NCSU grads and they in the tournament for the first time since 2006.  Nothing will happen around here until after that game is over.   I won't watch it for a variety of reasons, the main one being I don't fraternize with the minions and talking basketball around here is like talking to a New Yorker about any other big city (there's nothing they haven't already seen in NYC that isn't superior)[triple negative ftw].

BeatOSU52

March 14th, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^

I got into work and spent the first 3 hours researching for my bracket picks.  Today shouldn't be so bad because I want to get a lot done so I don't have as much work the next two days.

M-Wolverine

March 14th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^

I should take the Wednesday off as well as the Thursday and Friday off for the Tournament. It's not like much more gets done at work, and so much needs to get set up by noon tomorrow...pool, food, etc.  I know how the OP feels.

Y0ST

March 14th, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^

Murray St v. Col St. Both have similar RPIs, but the rams have an SOS of 4. They have struggled against the RPI top 50 going 3-6, but do I smell an upset?

Waters Demos

March 14th, 2012 at 10:21 PM ^

If I was dictator of the universe, every parent, new parent and, most importantly, those contemplating becoming new parents, would be required to listen very carefully to "The Thin Ice" a good dozen or so times at least, and then read stories like that of Tyler Clementi. 

That's a thought that depleted my productivity today.  6 billion and counting.