Fast Running Blog

Anyone up for a fun (no money involved) NCAA basketball pool? If so find the best free online bracket tracker and let us know. I know there is one on espn but there could be some better ones. We would all need to join the same pool and do so before games start on Thursday.... Speak up if your interested.

I actually thought the same thing, but never had time today to look at it. I'd join in if it's free.

Yahoo sports does some easy to use ones, also.

I created a group for us on the CBS challenge page. So here are the details: Go to this website-  http://www.ncaa.com/games/bracketchallenge/
Click on join a group-

Group Name: Fastrunning
Password: runblogrepeat

Then fill out your bracket. I sent emails to a few of you to notify... it was right off that website. However anyone on the blog is welcome to join and it should be a lot of fun. Plus it's free!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Am I blind? Where does it say "Join a group"?

Oop I forgot to say sign up first. So Sing Up by choosing a name and password for yourself then it will take you to where you can join the group and fill out your bracket.

Password: runblogrepeat
[/quote]

I'll also note that the password is case-sensitive, and should actually be "Runblogrepeat"

Another Oops!

Hey, looks like we have 3 people so far! 8)

Sweet! Now we will have to find out who people are under their tournament name. Who is stubtoe? Also make sure you sign up for the Mens tournament... I didn't do anything with the laddies side.

Oh, and for the record, I don't follow college basket one iota, other than the Aggies (who WILL advance to the Sweet 16, mark my words). I pretty much make my picks at random. One year, I had a cat choose all my picks. I tossed out two ping pong balls, one with "U" for underdog and one with "F" for favorite. Did this for the entire bracket. Whichever ball the cat batted at got the nod. Kitty was beating one of my roommates through Day 1, but got massacred thereafter. So it goes. Another year, I took 2nd in the USU Geology pool, due to the fact I picked Indiana to win it all simply because I'm from Indiana. Everybody laughed at me, but they weren't laughing when IU shocked the country and advanced to the championship game and darn near won it. Big points for me. Another year I took 3rd in my dorm pool because I picked Michigan State, a 1-seed, to lose early. I was going to school in Michigan at the time, and all my Michigander dorm mates of course picked MSU to go all the way. To be contrary, I picked them to lose, and lose they did, which messed everyone over but me. This year I'm picking Memphis, with my rationale being that they have good ribs and Sasha ran a good marathon there.

Yeah I just have fun with it too... I filled out my bracket but may go back and change some things. I have Pitt winning as of now because they have taken it to UCONN twice but I may make some last min changes as we can edit our brackets up until game time I think.
BTW I love the Memphis rational... not really the ribs part either.

It's on.  This should be fun.  I may have been more loyal to Utah and BYU than reason allows, but oh well.  In the end I have Louisville winning it all in a titanic game against Pitt.

I just filled out my bracket.  I've never done one before, took about 3 minutes to fill it out and hate college basketball.  I should do pretty well.

Ha ha, I'll consider you my chief rival then. We can wallow in each other's ignorance.

Don't let anyone fool ya... My mother-in-law does pretty good every year by picking the teams that are located in places she's been to. For instance if the match up was Pitt vs. North Dakota St and she had visited North Dakota then she'd pick them...

I haven't really followed college BB this year either, other than catching up on BYU basketball every now and then.  I'm under "CoolRunnings".  Thanks for setting this up.

We are at 10!

The Hulk is going to Pile Drive you!!!

Here we go!  Finally, some trash talking.  It has been scientifically proven that the least you know the better chances you have at bracket selection, which means you should all should just throw in the towel right now, I've got it all wrapped up!

I am in -
Watch out hulkster

Homer versus Hulk?  Man, that's not even a fair competition!  They're gonna have to invoke the mercy rule to keep me from pulverising you, and that's even assuming they tell you there are donuts for the winner.  You're gonna suffer, cartoon boy, SUFFER!

There are also quite a few statistics supporting the guy that everyone can't stand because he walks around the office with his butt crack showing and flakes of skin falling of him.  You know the guy.  The one that thinks he knows everything, even though you know he doesn't.  But he seems to get lucky on a few picks just so he can rub it in your face, and you have to sit there and take it without losing your cool.  But deep down inside you want to shove your engineer scale in his eye socket to avoid any skin to skin contact.  That guy.  He usually fairs well, too.

Lets say that anyone who gets Sasha to sign up and play gets a 30 point head start! This could even the filed for someone with horrible picks... like for instance taking any Utah team past the second round.

Wait, you mean I might not be the only one who has Utah and BYU in the final four?

No you have Gonzaga winning the tourney.... You still can edit your picks until 12 p.m est on Thurs.

I'm in. GoBSU.

Maybe we need to offer a cash prize to the person who gets Sasha to enter.

I know, Clyde, I was kidding.  But I thought I had Memphis winning.  Maybe that was my other bracket- I better check it.

Hillarious.. Keep your cool Burt, your post could be used as evidence in court after you murder that guy! 

Oh, he's a fictional guy.  It's all hypothetical.  ;)

I have Gonzaga winning 93-72 over Michigan State. And BYU not advancing out of the first round (c'mon guys, really?).

I haven't watched a basketball game in 4 years.  :-*  That's a kiss goodbye to all your sorry attempts to compete.

Hey, Obama has BYU AND Utah going through the first round...change we can believe in, I guess.

It starts tomorrow baby! ???

I wanted to join but I'm too late.  I tried the password even case sensitive.  But I tried different  ways but not the correct case with just the first letter.  Oh well.

WHY! Why did I choose BYU over Texas A&M?

Sorry you didn't get in Kory. It will just save you the stress of picking dumb teams like the Y.... Now watch them come back and win.

In my other poll I took Texas A&M over BYU.  I don't believe BYU has the depth to beat them.

28 to 14????  Is it too late to change?  BY-PU more like.

Very, very sad.  Oh well, they would have lost to UConn anyway.  I'd really like to see Utah State make it out of the first round though.

Dang, I'm two for three so far!  Meanwhile Flakey McFlakerson is three for three.  This sucks.

What is it now, 19 years they haven't advanced? Glad I've got no school pride....

1993 was the last year they won a first round game.... The only reason I picked them to win was I though "they are due".... due for a quick trip home I guess.

Well, I picked them too - it wasn't until it was too late that I found out they played A&M last year too and lost.  Then again, I picked Butler over LSU as well.  So far, thought, those are the only ones I was wrong on, and that includes Maryland over Cal.

I think Butler let a lot of us down.  Now, why did I pick MSU over washington (conf. champs versus at large...tougher conference, 23 wins...but now choking in the first round).

Gun to the head... I had Miss St. winning twice. >:(

VCU let me down - them and Illinois :(  There goes my bracket . . .

At least all my wrong picks I didn't pick to advance any further.  :(

It's a bad sign when your pick for national champ almost loses on the first day...

I'm 4/4 for upsets....

But that's not hard when all your picks are upsets.

This string is quickly making it way to being the longest thread in FastRunningBlog history. Kinda sad commentary, but who cares, I'm near the top. Go BSU.

I picked Utah State but they are looking like a bunch of plow boys.

Utah State just loves to make it exciting and challenging for their comeback... I hope.

By the way, the most posts ever is 84, so we have a ways to go.  But I'm guessing we get there, esp. if someone start doing a play by play on a game.

Yeah and there is still like 2 more weeks of the tourney.

Wow.  Utah State's coming back...

Holy moly!!!! USU is up by 6!!!!

That must have been an exciting game to watch.  I just had to watch the scores update every 30 seconds online.

Man, I'm the loser of the bracket so far.  But none of my 2nd round picks have lost yet, so I'm still gonna pile drive all of you.

Arggh. Very excited game, but came up just short. Jon, I think NCAA is streaming all of the games on their website, so you might check that out, if your boss isn't looking.

No streaming video here.  Big Brother won't allow it.

Ditto, blocked.

This is what the ESPN guy said:
This was the best game of the day so far.
We FINALLY have a 3-pointer at the buzzer in a close game in this year's tournament! Unfortunately, Utah State was trailing by four.

Hey, baby, 19 points for govandals...tied for first with Utahwins (at least for the moment!). 

Bring in on Hulkster!

Conveniently, I forgot to go to work today until 12:30PM. Kind of how I conveniently forgot to run yesterday. The game looked great in high-def.

I didn't notice until just now that you get x2 pts for correctly picking upsets.  Hmm, I might have picked differently.  Oh well, I will skunk you all when Zaga wins it all!

Every 30 seconds, which site is that? Yahoo only updates every 5 minutes. And it doesn't speed it up to hit reload over and over and over and over and over.....

Try ESPN.com

I'm Utahwins and I was feeling all sorts of confident after yesterday (14/16 correct, 4/4 on upsets) but I've hit the wall this morning.  Today was my day for upsets and they just aren't happening (thanks a lot Utah State, North Dakota State and Tennessee)!

The last 4 games have been very good to me. Now I'm 5/5 on upsets, assuming Dayton doesn't blow it in the next 30 seconds.

I'm glad I'm not one of the many people who have Pitt and/or Memphis in the final four. Both did terrible against their wimpy matchups.

Go BSU

Shoot... the bracket is broken. Dayton won that game, right? ESPN is showing WV won 68-60, but I think it was the other way around.

So did Dayton win? ESPN has them 68-60, but the bracket has it the opposite. I WANT MY POINTS! GIVE ME MY MONEY!!!!

I'm getting shalacked! I had Tenn, Utah St., Miss St, Temple, and others winning some upset points and it didn't pan out. However these first rounds are just penny candy if you pick the Winner. Go Pitt! Winner winner greasy cheeseburger dinner.

I need Dayton...I need those points!!!!!!!! Why is the world against me??

Dayton did win. Order is restored.

Let's see if Utah will screw up my streak.

I need Utah to lose. That will help me out.

 I need Utah to win and I really need USC to win. That would be 2 valuable points. I've given up on winning this thing but I'd like to be middle of the pack and not 3 from the bottom. ::)

All day I thought I had picked Western Kentucky, but NO I picked Illinois.  I AM AN IDIOT!

There is too much concern about these early games. What really matters is that you guess the lafs few games right.

It's like a marathon. A few seconds gained in the early miles sounds great, but it's those last few miles that determine the ultimate outcome.

Then again, it sure is fun rooting for those early underdogs.

Man, I just finished watching my first games of the tournament- Siena in a 2OT win, and Wisconsin in an OT win.  Awesome, exciting, close games.  Gotta love it.

Thank goodness Siena pulled it off. I needed those bonus points.

I'm toast... 4 of my sweet 16 and one elite 8 teams are already out.  And I only got 1 first round upset correct.  It's funny, though- I was rooting for Cleveland St and Wisconsin during the games even though I had their opponents heading to the sweet 16.  I guess I really care more about exciting upset games than being correct in the bracket.

Jon I'm with ya. I root against my bracket all the time. I live to see the good games and upsets.

Hey, I'm tied for 2nd after the 1st round! Sienna winning, Wisconsin winning, and Utah losing really pulled my score out of the doldrums. If only USU had won...

Me too!  The only one doing worse than me is Jon.  At least I can still hold my head high...until he passes me up too.

I'm with you and Clyde, Jon.  I used to love filling out brackets, but haven't (until this year) for at least 5 years because when it comes down to it I would way rather see some good upsets then be worried about my stupid picks winning.

Man I suck!  I can't beat any of you in a foot race, so this was supposed to be my chance.  I'm almost in last place!  Just got to beat one person now.  That will be my moral victory.

And if there is a tie, I think we need to have a foot race for the tie breaker.

I got killed yesterday but will hopefully be able to make it up today and tomorrow.  I picked Purdue to win today but it is showing up red on the bracket and is shorting me 4 points.  Anybody else having this problem?  Hopefully it is just a bug and will work itself out.

It will most likely work it's self out Andy.

Paul your on a roll!

And now we officially have the most posts.

Guys if you need to feel better just look at my bracket. Man, I waaay over-valued all the Utah teams plus Washington because I wanted to root for them (except for Gonzaga of course, that would have been to logical)

Wow, I was in 1st place after round 1, but the random picks aren't so hot now... I'm in last for round 2.

At least you aren't in dead last...  :'(

There were some really good games this afternoon. ;D

Three more days till the next games...lets not let the thread die. I don't want any thread to ever get higher than this one. The highest count thread on a running blog is completely unrelated to running.

Usually it comes down to two or three people and the very last game.  Whoever picked the winner ends up winning the whole thing.  I know I picked the winner this year, but I think the rest of my picks have been so lousy that it's not going to matter this time.

Bummer, I was tied for first yesterday morning, but sunk due to yesterday's games.

How about this?  Every year there are these cry-baby schools that whine that they didn't make it to the big dance.  So it's like, okay, you didn't make it.  You think you should have.  Then you should have no problem winning the NIT tournament.  They never do.

Who would've thought the U of A would make it to the sweet 16 and not ASU?  Obviously me.  ASU beat the U of A twice this year.

Tomorrow night baby. Here we go baby. Oh baby. You gotta love it baby.

I really feel bad I missed out on signing up for the contest.  Basketball is actually my thing.  In high school I just went out for Cross Country to get in shape for basketball.  I just happened to be more talented as a runner so after two years of playing ball in high school I quit to pursue running more serious.  However, today I still enjoy playing, watching, and attending basketball games whenever possible.  I'll be sure to check back on this thread the next few days to keep it going.  Some great games last week.

It looks like Dick Vitale has hijacked Clyde's blog.

I picked the Suns beating the Jazz last night.  Does that count for anything?

Glad to see Pitt won... lets keep it rolling.

I had Memphis in the finals so my bracket is shot.  Hopefully I will go 4/4 tonight.

Since when does Duke not make it to the Final Four???  Come on!!

I predicted Duke losing to Nova!  Of course, that is only the 2nd upset of the whole tournament that I have predicted.  Pathetic!  Now I'm ANGRY!!!

Although I missed Duke and Memphis I don't care!  They are my two least favorite teams in the world.  Go HEELS!

I was glad to see Nova and Missouri win.

I predicted Nova losing early because they were involved in that (what comes after quadruple?) quintuple overtime game, and I thought they'd be burned out.  Apparently 1 week is enough time to recover.

Duke hasn't made it past the sweet 16 since 2005, I believe, and they lost in the first round last year or two years ago . . . not dissing Coach K, 'cuz I think he's the bomb, just think the talent hasn't been up to par these last few years.

i have a feeling tonight is going to be a good night for my picks. last night was a bomb. so tonight has got to be right on. if its not, my final four is shot.

UNC
Okl
kansas
Louville tonight folks. count it.

I had a good night. The only thing is that everyone ahead of me did too.  ;D

wow...Spartans down by 15 with 3 minutes left and then winning by 5. KANSAS BLEW IT!

Yes they did... and I needed it. Today and tomorrow are huge.

The Michigan State comeback is going to start my own comeback! I'm second to last right now but I'm still alive mathematically. For the next few hours at least.

Wow what a game with Pitt and Nova! Sucks for me that Pitt goes down but I'm guessing no one has Nova winning it all either.

I think that I am officially done.  Both teams that I had in the finals are out.

dunzo

I am officially going to finish dead last.  Sweet.  I suck.

Jon, You just joined the wrong pool. The one back at my old job gave prizes to the winner and the "last winner"... :)

Mich St's big win just moved me from zero to hero.... well for now I'm in the lead. However a correct pick of the winner is 32 pts and my Pitt is already out. Go Nova now!

Huh, all my final 4 teams are out.  That's it for me- no need to pay attention any longer.

I think I'm still mathematically in it. Hard to tell. The NCAA website is not user friendly. Next year we should try a better site, maybe yahoo.

I think I've picked the most games right - 45/60 - but it looks like I need a Michigan St./Carolina title game with a Carolina victory to get the victory (and everyone who watched NC DESTROY State earlier this year in the same building as the Final Four knows we will see it again!)  GO HEELS!

I think I win with UNC beating UConn in the final.

The Louisville loss was the last straw...aaaggghhhh.  Well, there's always next year.

Yeah this next round will tell the tale. Go UConn and Nova with a Nova win and I can hold all you suckers off. 8)

Now for that Carolina title!

Yeah yesterday wasn't good to me. And if I were a betting man I'd say NC will take Mich St. out on Monday. But I'd love to see the Sparties win!

You all better watch out!  When Gonzaga wins tonight, it's going to give me enough points in my bracket to come back from last place and win!!!  Oh, wait... what?  Nevermind  ???

Looks like the best I can do is a second place with a UNC win. Of course, my wife is an MSU alumnus and my son is at home in his MSU sweatsuit. Sadly, I've got to work.

Well that was that. Dave wins and finishes in 209th place out of the thousands who joined in around the nation. Looking forward to next year.  ;D

Winner Winner - Clyde owes me a chicken dinner!

I've got some canned chicken from Costco I can dump on some salad and BANG! The best chicken dinner ever...

Glad I didn't tie for first place with Dave, because I can't beat him in a foot race.