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

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

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.

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

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

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)

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.