Saturday, March 29, 2008

2008 Bracket Project Predictions - Elite Eight

I, like a lot of people, love the work Gus Johnson does when he announces games. Who can forget that Gonzaga-UCLA game? Anyway, this year, the tournament has dealt him a bad hand. In the 8 games he has broadcast, the closest margin of victory has been 11 points. Hopefully, Kansas-Davidson will give us some magic. Now, the picks:

North Carolina over Louisville
UCLA over Xavier
Texas over Memphis
Kansas over Davidson

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

2008 Bracket Project Predictions - Sweet 16

Before we get to the Sweet 16 picks, some news from my alma mater. Ben Braun was "relieved of his duties" as head coach at California and I wish him a fond farewell from his lair at Cal. He was the right man to lead the team after the Todd Bozeman scandal. But 12 years passed and so did the rest of the Pac-10 around him. But he won a national championship!!! Yeah, but that was the NIT. I'm sure with the system he has, he will land on his feet in no time at another school but his knock was that he couldn't develop the talent around him and that was no more apparent than this year with two, possibly three, NBA draft picks on the floor but a 9th place Pac-10 finish to show for it. Mike Montgomery seems to be the top candidate out there and that wouldn't be a bad move.

On to the Sweet 16, where in my bracket below, my Final Four is still possible so that's good, right?

EAST

North Carolina over Washington State
Louisville over Tennessee

MIDWEST

Kansas over Villanova
Wisconsin over Davidson

WEST

UCLA over Western Kentucky
Xavier over West Virginia

SOUTH

Memphis over Michigan State
Texas over Stanford

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Bracketology on Wikipedia

UPDATE: Bracketology has been taken off the articles for deletion list.

I guess technically there really isn't a term to describe what me and 50 other people do over the course of a college basketball season but the most accepted word is bracketology which has its origins from Joe Lunardi at ESPN.

Obviously, the concept is very popular and rightly deserves its own Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracketology. However, there is a push to delete the page off Wikipedia. It is, as you probably know, a community-run site. If you would like to add your voice to the discussion, go to the page above and click on the links on top. Keep in mind it isn't a majority vote on whether or not to keep it, rather a forum for discussion with a decision made on a later date.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Bracket Project Predictions - 2008 2nd Round

Wow, that 1st round was fun. I feel sorry for the guy in the ESPN tourney challenge who was 28 for 28 heading into the final four games of the night. Sure, he got Louisville and Memphis. But he missed Arkansas. And then, Villanova won, which really screwed him over since he had Clemson winning it all.

Now for the second round:

East

North Carolina over Arkansas
Washington State over Notre Dame
Louisville over Oklahoma
Tennessee over Butler

Midwest

Kansas over UNLV
Villanova over Siena
Wisconsin over Kansas State
Georgetown over Davidson

South

Memphis over Mississippi State
Michigan State over Pittsburgh
Marquette over Stanford
Texas over Miami (FLA.)

West

UCLA over Texas A&M
San Diego over Western Kentucky
Xavier over Purdue
Duke over West Virginia

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

2008 Bracket Project Predictions

These picks should be good for at least a few hours I hope. (Seriously, Yahoo could give away $5 billion for a perfect bracket...I don't think it's ever going to happen.)

This year, with the weak bubble, I'm not so sure about the number of upsets this year. I think it'll be chalky like last year. Siena over Vanderbilt looks enticing as does Winthrop over Wazzu but I'm not picking them. So here we go.

First Round

East

North Carolina over Mount St. Mary's
Arkansas over Indiana
Notre Dame over George Mason
Washington State over Winthrop
Oklahoma over St. Joseph's
Louisville over Boise State
Butler over South Alabama
Tennessee over American

Midwest

Kansas over Portland State
Kent State over UNLV
Clemson over Villanova
Vanderbilt over Siena
USC over Kansas State
Wisconsin over Cal State Fullerton
Davidson over Gonzaga
Georgetown over Maryland-Baltimore County

South

Memphis over Texas-Arlington
Oregon over Mississippi State
Michigan State over Temple
Pittsburgh over Oral Roberts
Marquette over Kentucky
Stanford over Cornell
St. Mary's (CA) over Miami (FLA)
Texas over Austin Peay

West

UCLA over Mississippi Valley State
Texas A&M over BYU
Drake over Western Kentucky
Connecticut over San Diego
Baylor over Purdue
Xavier over Georgia
Arizona over West Virginia
Duke over Belmont

Second Round

East

North Carolina over Arkansas
Washington State over Notre Dame
Louisville over Oklahoma
Tennessee over Butler

Midwest

Kansas over Kent State
Clemson over Vanderbilt
Wisconsin over USC
Georgetown over Davidson

South

Memphis over Oregon
Michigan State over Pittsburgh
Marquette over Stanford
Texas over St. Mary's (CA)

West

UCLA over Texas A&M
Drake over Connecticut
Xavier over Baylor
Duke over Arizona

Sweet 16

East

North Carolina over Washington State
Louisville over Tennessee

Midwest

Clemson over Kansas
Wisconsin over Georgetown

South

Memphis over Michigan State
Texas over Marquette

West

UCLA over Drake
Xavier over Duke

Elite Eight

North Carolina over Louisville
Wisconsin over Clemson
Texas over Memphis
UCLA over Xavier

Final Four

North Carolina over Wisconsin
UCLA over Texas

National Championship Game

UCLA over North Carolina

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Bracket Project Leaderboard - 2006 and 2007

Some people have asked what the rankings were in previous years. Using the links on the right hand side of the blog, we get this:

2007 Best Overall Bracket - Paymon Scoring (Parrish Rank in Parentheses)
1. The Bracket Project (1)
2. Gary Parrish at CBS Sportsline (2t)
3t. Bracketology 101 (2t)
3t. The Backboard (5t)
5t. Bubble Teams (2t)
5t. Netwire/The Meaningful Collateral (5t)

2006 Best Overall Bracket - Paymon Scoring (Parrish Rank in Parentheses)
1t. Bracketology 101 (1t)
1t. Bracket Racket (1t)
3. Warren Nolan (4t)
4. Joe Lunardi at ESPN (4t)
5t. March Madness All Season (4t)
5t. Bubble Teams (3)
5t. NCAA Hoops Digest (8t)
5t. Gregg Doyel at CBS Sportsline (8t)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

The 2008 Bracket Matrix Leaderboard

It was personally my best year ever at The Bracket Project, but looking at the results, I guess I'll be relinquishing my title this year. So without much further ado...

Brackets with all 65 teams picked:

Joe Lunardi at ESPN, Jerry Palm, Bracketology3, Shawn Siegel at CHN, BracketDobber, and The Hoop Group's Facts & Bracks

Top brackets with the most teams seeded exactly right:

(Note: The Bracket Matrix consensus of 53 brackets got 42 exactly right.)

March Madness All Season: 41
Bracketology 101: 40
DantheMan4250: 39
Facts & Bracks: 38
Bracket WAG: 38

Top brackets with the most teams seeded within one of the actual seed:

Bracketology 101: 60
Mike on Sports: 60
March Madness All Season: 59
CollegeHoopsNet: 59
7 tied at 58

Top overall brackets (Gary Parrish scoring):

Bracketology 101: 164
March Madness All Season: 164
Mike on Sports: 161
CollegeHoopsNet: 161
Bracket WAG: 160
Facts & Bracks: 160

(Note: The Bracket Matrix consensus of 53 brackets got a 163.)

Top overall brackets (Paymon scoring):

March Madness All Season: 333
Bracketology 101 : 332
CollegeHoopsNet: 328
Facts & Bracks: 328
Mike on Sports: 326

(Note: The Bracket Matrix consensus of 53 brackets got a 333.)

The full matrix can be found here.

Final Bracket - March 16

The new bracket is up at http://bracketproject.50webs.com/PDFS/FINAL031608.pdf

I couldn't figure out who to take out between Villanova and Arizona State. With Temple winning the A-10 title and Georgia taking the SEC title, they're both out.

I think, I think...

FTP Woes II

After two days of success, I can't upload to my server at all. As a result, I'll be working on the mirror site all day. If the original site becomes functional again, I'll start updating it but I highly doubt they can fix it before the Selection Show. So please use these links for today.

The Bracket Project - http://bracketproject.50webs.com/index.html

NIT - http://bracketproject.50webs.com/nit.html

The Bracket Matrix + Bubble - http://bracketproject.50webs.com/comparison.htm

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Bracket - March 15

Today's bracket is posted on the main page. The next one will be released after the Big Ten Championship.

Ohio State missed out on their opportunity to solidify their standing with the committee. Arizona State moves back into the bracket.

Virginia Tech totally deserves a bid but I don't think it will based on the fact that their best win was against Miami on a neutral court. The Penn State and Old Dominion losses are head-scratchers.

Teams to watch for are Temple, Illinois, Minnesota, and Akron. These teams are threatening to win their conference tournaments and take away an at-large spot.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Bracket - March 14

I'll be quick about this.

Due to almost all the bubble teams losing, there wasn't much movement. Villanova and Syracuse played virtually a play-in game and Nova won so they move into the bracket. St. Joseph's gets in for Arizona State but ASU may get in as I study the Pac-10 situation a little bit more. At first glance, it will be either Oregon or ASU but not both. I'll give a more complete opinion tomorrow.

After the bracket was made, St. Joe's did beat Xavier, so now they're most definitely in.

Also after the bracket was made, Ohio State lost to Michigan State, putting their tourney hopes at risk.

Now the rundown...bubble edition.

Probably in:
Baylor, UNLV, Arkansas, Kentucky, St. Joseph's

In for now, but no more games to impress the committee:
South Alabama, Villanova, Illinois State, Oregon, Ohio State

Out, but still have games left:
Virginia Tech, Temple

Out, must rely on other teams to mess up:
Arizona State, New Mexico, Syracuse, Dayton, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Florida State, Creighton, Southern Illinois, VCU

FTP Woes

Some FTP issues continue on the atspace server so in the meantime, the matrix can be accessed on this site as well.

http://bracketproject.50webs.com/comparison.htm

Update: Everything is working for now, but I'll keep this page live just in case there future mishaps between now and Sunday.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Bracket Matrix

To those finding this site for the first time, welcome. About 80% of the visitors to the site are looking for the vast database of bracket projections. That can be found at The Bracket Matrix.

In previous years, it was called "Comparing the Projected Seeds" and 2006 and 2007 versions can be accessed through links on the right.

New brackets will be produced starting Friday and the matrix will be updated periodically as conference champions are crowned.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Bracket - March 10

After I finished my bracket, I felt very good about the teams I picked. For the first time in weeks, there was a dividing line between the haves and have-nots. Ohio State and Syracuse won big games over ranked teams to get in. Virginia Tech, Maryland, and St. Joe's lost games that put them outside the bubble. Heck, Joe Lunardi and I have the same field of 65 (albeit with different seeds...Davidson with a 7...are you serious?).

Then, I've started watching the Monday games. San Diego triumphs over Gonzaga. Middle Tennessee beats South Alabama. Both Gonzaga and South Alabama figure to have at-large bids which means two spots are now taken by conference qualifiers. The next bracket will be published Friday so there figures to be plenty of changes between now and then.

Now the rundown...

http://bracketproject.atspace.com/031008.pdf

Multi-bid conferences:
Big East - 8, Pac-10 - 7, Big 12 - 6, Big 10 - 5, SEC - 5, ACC - 4, Mountain West - 3, Atlantic 10 - 2, Missouri Valley - 2, West Coast - 2

New teams in the bracket:
George Mason, Ohio State, Sacred Heart, Stephen F. Austin, Syracuse, Utah State, Winthrop

Teams out of the bracket:
Boise State, Lamar, NC-Asheville, Robert Morris, Siena, Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Tech

Last 4 teams in:
Oregon, Ohio State, Syracuse, Arizona State

Last 4 teams out:
Mississippi, Western Kentucky, Villanova, Dayton

Next 4 teams out:
Virginia Tech, Florida State, St. Joseph's, UAB

Sunday, March 9, 2008

The Bracket Project

A short write-up about me and the site from Stephen Wiseman of The State in South Carolina.

http://www.thestate.com/sports/story/340709.html

It’s the time of year when brackets and bubbles are the hot topic of conversation among college basketball fans.

To have an informed opinion about which teams should make the NCAA tournament’s field of 65, fans can point and click their way around the Internet all day looking at projected brackets.

But there’s a way to postpone carpel tunnel syndrome and save yourself some time.

Three years ago, an unemployed Brian Phan turned his keen eye toward the plethora of brackets available. He started The Bracket Project to produce a place where all available brackets could be viewed at bracketproject.atspace.com/comparison.htm


“This was a nice time-killer while looking for jobs,” Phan said via e-mail this week.

Since the site went live in January 2005, it has grown into a must-click site for any college basketball fan.

Phan, 25 and working as a business analyst in California’s defense industry, saw the site draw its 500,000th hit on Feb. 27. It averages around 6,000 hits a day and climbing. It drew 11,000 hits last Monday and that figure will grow as Selection Sunday draws closer.

Simplicity and ease of use is what draws so many users.

Bracketproject.com’s front page has links to the 52 brackets Phan analyzes. They range from ESPN, Fox, CBSSports.com and Yahoo.com, to independent analysts like Jerry Palm (collegeRPI.com) and Warren Nolan (warrennolan.com/basketball).

He also differentiates between sites that act as if selection Sunday were that day, and the ones that project results to formulate their bracket.

Below that is the bracket matrix, which allows fans to get a quick view of where their teams stand.

The matrix shows the date when the various brackets were updated and shows where each team is seeded in that bracket.

The team’s name is listed, along with its conference, the average seed and the number of brackets that include that team.

Fans worried about where their particular team stands can look at how many brackets include them to ease or add to their worries.

Phan started the site when he attempted to project the brackets himself. But he said he quickly realized it needed a hook to attract attention. That’s when the bracket matrix was born.

By the time North Carolina was beating Illinois in the national championship game at St. Louis in April 2005, Phan had found a job and planned to put his bracketologist days in his past.

His growing legion of fans had other ideas.

“The next season,” Phan said, “I started getting e-mails asking when the site would start up again. I didn’t have plans to but the demand was there, so I did it again.”

As the site’s traffic has grown, Phan has sold some advertising. But he hasn’t quit his day job and doesn’t expect to.

“I didn’t do this for the money,” he said.

Phan doesn’t envision big changes to the site. He may switch to a different server. But the site’s main job is to be a one-stop for bracket information and that won’t change.

“The core of the site will remain,” Phan said, “since I’m sure that’s what the people want.”



Championship Week Update Schedule

(Sigh) Championship Week. It's when I trade in my life to update this site. Here's how it's going to go down this week.

The bracket:
New brackets will be published Monday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday right before the selection show.

Doing brackets everyday this week seems like a waste of time since the big teams won't play until later in the week. Besides, I'll be busy with...

...the matrix:
From now until Friday, there will be two updates a day to the matrix, one before 3 pm ET/12 pm PT and one after the day's games have ended. On Monday and Friday, there will be a special update around 9 pm ET/6 pm PT to accomodate the number of brackets that are updated on those days.

On Saturday and Sunday, the matrix will be updated as championship games finish. With the Selection Show at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT, the last update will be published 30 minutes earlier.

Bracketologists please note: Though the last update to the matrix will be 30 minutes before the Selection Sunday show, you still have up to the start of the Selection Sunday show to publish your final bracket for inclusion into the final matrix. To make it easier for me to spot, please clearly denote that your bracket is FINAL or e-mail me saying so.

The final matrix will be updated Sunday night with results appearing right here on the blog with scoring calculated using methods by both Gary Parrish at CBS Sports (March 13th entry) and Paymon at PH Sports.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Bracket - March 7

Oregon's win over Arizona State creates a 3-team logjam for fifth place in the Pac-10 with the third team being Arizona. While Oregon moves back into the bracket, today's game against the Wildcats is a must-win for the Ducks. A loss by the Wildcats moves them precariously close to the cut line, only helped by the strength of their non-conference schedule.

St. Joseph's huge win over Xavier moves them to last team in. Idle Maryland becomes the last team out. Southern Illinois was one of the last 4 teams out in this bracket, however, its loss in Arch Madness places them out of the NCAA's for good. Joining the Salukis and Terps as the last teams out were Ohio State and Syracuse who scored season-saving wins this week but still need wins over Michigan State and Marquette respectively to put them back in.

Now the rundown...

http://bracketproject.atspace.com/030708.pdf

Multi-bid conferences:
Big East - 7, Pacific-10 - 7, Big 12 - 6, ACC - 5, SEC - 5, Big 10 - 4, Atlantic 10 - 3, Mountain West - 3, Missouri Valley - 2, West Coast - 2

New teams in the bracket:
Oregon, St. Joseph's, UC Santa Barbara

Teams out of the bracket:
Florida, Maryland, Cal State Northridge

Last 4 Teams In:
Massachusetts, Arizona State, Virginia Tech, St. Joseph's

Last 4 Teams Out:
Maryland, Ohio State, Syracuse, Southern Illinois

Monday, March 3, 2008

Bracket - March 3

I'm sure by now you've read all about the weak bubble this year so I won't bore you with another recap.

The last time around, I singled out Arizona State and Ohio State as the last two teams in. So with the Sun Devils beating USC and the Buckeyes losing to Minnesota, Arizona State moves up to an 11 seed while Ohio State finds itself on the outside looking in.

(Speaking of Arizona State...why the heck does Joe Lunardi have them going to Phoenix? They're the host! They can't be in the Phoenix regional.)

Florida suffered a loss at home to Mississippi State but a team hurt even more by a home loss was Maryland, who was up by 20 over Clemson and still managed to lose by 9. Both are hanging by a thread along with the last team in, Virginia Tech. Realistically though, the Hokies probably need to sweep its last two games to have a shot of staying in the bracket.

I said I would wait until New Mexico's game with UNLV before deciding to let them in or not, but alas with the weak bubble, they get to move up all the way to an 11 seed. A loss to UNLV however will place them outside until I see their performance in the conference tourney.

Texas Tech's win over Texas placed them all the way to second team out at the time this bracket was released but tonight's 54-point loss to Kansas probably puts the kabosh on any at-large chances, depending on how the conference tourney goes.

Now the rundown:

http://bracketproject.atspace.com/030308.pdf

Multi-bid conferences:
Big East - 7, ACC - 6, Big 12 - 6, Pac-10 - 6, SEC - 6, Big 10 - 4, Mountain West - 3, Atlantic 10 - 2, Missouri Valley - 2, West Coast - 2

New teams in the bracket:
American, Illinois State, NC-Asheville, New Mexico, Rider, Virginia Tech

Teams out of the bracket:
Loyola-Maryland, Navy, Ohio State, Southern Illinois, Syracuse, Winthrop

Last 4 Teams In:
Massachusetts, Florida, Maryland, Virginia Tech

Last 4 Teams Out:
Southern Illinois, Texas Tech, Oregon, Ohio State

Saturday, March 1, 2008

No mas!

As stated in my own matrix principles, no new sites will be added to the Bracket Matrix. This is for a variety of reasons. It helps me plan my schedule for the important last two weeks until Selection Sunday as well as make changes to the layout if necessary. It allows readers time to properly audit sites to find out which ones actually mean something and which ones are complete losers. And finally, aren't there enough sites already?

The growth in bracket sites surprised even me. When I started this 4 years ago, I didn't think I'd outnumber the Massey Ratings comparison table. Massey currently has 41 active computer rankings. When I started on that Geocities site in 2005 that was overwhelmed every day, there were only 14 sites tracked on the old "comparing the projected seeds". Then, there were 23 in 2006 and 30 in 2007. Now look, 50 sites active, 55 total.

Now, exceptions will be made to those sites that were featured in the year-end matrices for 2006 and 2007. They can still be added this year. Otherwise, lemme know about your site and I'll be sure to add it to next year's matrix, if I'm still standing.

Until then, onward to Selection Sunday!

Update: Court Visions added as an exception, bringing the number of brackets to 56. This bracket was supposed to be included last year.

Bracket - February 29

Hey, if my site is mentioned on the Big Ten Network but nobody can get it, was it even mentioned at all?

On Wednesday, the Bracket Project passed 500,000 hits in its 4-year history so thank you.

For this bracket update, we look to the bubble where an ever-increasing amount of teams are making their case for an at-large bid.

With losses to top-notch teams, Arizona State and Ohio State move to the last two teams in. The Sun Devils have wins over Xavier and Arizona twice, but its RPI of 74 is troublesome as well as its 7-8 conference record. Its game vs. Oregon next week figures to eliminate one team from consideration. The Buckeyes have no wins of significance. Sure they're 8-7 in conference, but its best conference win was against Minnesota. With the schedule finishing up at home against Purdue and Michigan State, there is no room for error.

Maryland moves back into the bracket with its win over Wake Forest, which moves out. Also moving in is Kentucky, where a 10-3 SEC conference record can't be denied. It'll be interesting to see if they can stay afloat without Patrick Patterson on the court. Nobody else really passed the eye test, so Syracuse moves back in after not playing this week.

New Mexico is on the doorstep but needs to beat UNLV to get at least one top 50 win on its resume.

Now the rundown:

http://bracketproject.atspace.com/022908.pdf

Multi-bid conferences:
Big East - 8, Big 12 - 6, Pacific-10 - 6, SEC - 6, ACC - 5, Big 10 - 5, Atlantic 10 - 2, Missouri Valley - 2, Mountain West - 2, West Coast - 2

New teams in the bracket:
Kentucky, Loyola-Maryland, Maryland, Navy, Syracuse

Teams out of the bracket:
American, Niagara, St. Joseph's, Villanova, Wake Forest

Last 4 Teams In:
Kentucky, Maryland, Arizona State, Ohio State

Last 4 Teams Out:
Illinois State, New Mexico, Oregon, Western Kentucky