Memphis Chokes At The Line

Geez! Too much pressure for Memphis at the end of the championship game, missing free throws, can't make a basket to save their lives, bad decisions. Kansas was too much for Memphis and until the last two minutes of regulations, didn't show the same spark they had during their match up against North Carolina. Kansas wins in Over Time, 75-68.

Congratulations goes to Keith Deutsch for winning the 2008 OfficePool64.com Tournament Contest.

Your Top Ten Pick Sheets for the 2008 Office Pool

1. 181 - Keith Deutsch
2. 178 - Rob Bauer
3. 176 - Michael Wittchow
4. 176 - Joe Romere
5. 174 - Brian Robertson
6. 174 - NCjayhawks
7. 174 - Jay Erickson
8. 173 - Jessie Forga
9. 171 - Scott 214
10. 171 - Darren Olson

Kansas Jayhawks Versus Memphis Tigers

Memphis Tigers from Conference USA versus the mighty Kansas Jayhaws of the Big 12 Conference.

Memphis Tigers [38-1] are the only team in NCAA history to earn 38 victories in one season. This is the second time Memphis has played in the Championship game. Their other appearance was in 1973 against UCLA which was a loss. They are also the first team from Conference USA to advance to the Championship game.

Kansas is in the Championship game for the eighth time, their first since 2003. Kansas's 18 point victory over North Carolina is the second largest over a team ranked #1 in tournament history.

Monday's Championship Game - Tipoff @ 9:21 [ET]

#1 Kansas Jayhawks [36-3] - 56 pick sheets selected Kansas
#1 Memphis Tigers [38-1] - 46 pick sheets selected Memphis

See if your name is on the list

Round Five Games

This is it, we've waited for 51 weeks to get to this point of having four teams in the finals. The first time all four number one seeds have advanced. Which goes against one of my personal rules for filling out my bracket sheet, never advance all four teams into the final weekend of games. Another rule that I use for picking my championship team is only pick the winner from the big conferences. I wanted to take Memphis when I was filling out my bracket, but since they are from a conference that only sent one team [Conference USA], I took Georgetown as my championship team. Arrgh. So I will be rooting for Memphis this weekend. My main reason is they are not from a power conference and it would be a huge testimony for a smaller conference to win the championship game. I would be I'm not alone in rooting for them.

Here are the games for tonight

@ 6:07 pm [ET]
#1 UCLA Bruins
#1 Memphis Tigers

@ 8:47 pm [ET]
#1 Kansas Jayhawks
#1 North Carolina Tar Heels

Only 8 Scenarios Remain

Well, after two weekends of games, sixty team eliminations, we are down to only four teams. What I found amazing was 43 of you correctly selected all four teams. That has to be a record number of pick sheets correctly picking all four teams in this round.

Here is what it comes down too, the eight scenarios that can happen will be for the championship game. Follow each link to see where you will finish of Team A beats Team B:

• If N. Carolina beats Memphis
• If Memphis beats N. Carolina
• If N. Carolina beats UCLA
• If UCLA beats N. Carolina
• If Kansas beats Memphis
• If Memphis beats Kansas
• If Kansas beats UCLA
• If UCLA beats Kansas

Davidson Upsets Wisconsin

Round 2 Completed, 16 Teams Remain

Another first weekend of games have completed and yet ANOTHER year of me losing one of my final four teams of the tournament during the first weekend of games. This year it's my championship team I've lost.

It was a really tough year for predicting the winners. This years best for the most correct picks in the Field of 16 was 13 correct. There was three of you that managed to do this.

It was an interesting weekend of games, a lot of higher seeded teams have survived, more than usual. Of course we lost a couple higher seeded teams. Two of the number 2 seeds, but all four number 1 seeds advanced.

Duke losing to West Virginia - 38 of you selected that one
Georgetown losing to Davidson - 29 of you selected this one

Round 1 Completed, On With Round Two

With a total of 360 pick sheets entered into the 2008 tournament, Kim Ross takes the first round lead a pick percentage of 91%. That's an impressive 29 of 32 correct pick selections. The one blemish is, out of the three incorrect picks, two of them were selected to be winners in the Field of 16. That hurts if you want to maintain the lead.

What did I see that was surprising in the first round? Well, the Duke-Butler game is the one that stands out the most because of the shock value. None of us predicted a #12 versus a #13 in the WEST bracket OR the MIDWEST bracket. There was a few, and I mean a few, that predicted only one of the winners in that round two match up. My biggest victory of the first round was Siena over Vanderbilt. I did foresee such the large margin of their win, but hopefully in round two they come through for me as I have them winning once again [over Clemson, not Villanova].

We are half way though the best weekend of the year. Lots more basketball to be played. Many questions to be answered....can Duke survive yet another game? Will UCLA have the easiest road to the Field of 8? Can Wisconsin stop Kansas State? Will all four #1 seeds advance? Will any of the top teams fall flat in round two and lose early? Only time will tell....

Tournament Games Begin

The tournament games have begun with Xavier vs Georgia, Kansas vs Portland State and Michigan State vs Temple.

The current standings updates happen automatically at the top of each hour. You'll find the links to the current standings on the column to the left.

2008 Office Pool 64 Tournament Is Live

Entry Submissions Is Closed

Deadline: Tip-Off, March 20 @ 12:30 PM [EST]
Entry Fee: $0.00

Make sure you hit the SUBMIT PICKS button at the bottom of the page or your picks will not be entered into the pool.

Enter as often as you like. When entering multiple times, please place a number after your name to make it unique [or it will over write you last submitted picks] For example: Timmy 1, Timmy 2, Timmy 3

For more details on the teams in the tournament and help on your brackets, visit my NEW bracket match up pages


Viewable And Printable 2008 Brackets

How To Win Your Office Pool

Last year I did a four part series on how to win your office pool. This year I've added one new rule and I've combined them all into one post so it's easier to read.

My goal is to give you some tips on how to beat the odds over the average person in your pool. Picking only the higher seeds is not going to make a hill of beans by the championship game, picking a lot of upsets is very risky and usually doesn't pay off, so hopefully you'll do better in this years office pool. I've analyzed the winning pick sheets and here are a few tips and trends I've noticed through the years of my winners.

Here are my 21 Tips To Win This Years Office Pool

• Always pick last years championship team to repeat as champs if they return all five starters.
• Pick all of the number 1 seeds to win their first round games. Since 1985, all number 1 seeds have won their games over the number 16 seeds 100% of the time.
• Don't pick a number 1 seed to be one of the last four teams, let along the national title, if the school wasn't in the playoffs the previous year.
• Pick at least one number 2 seed to lose before the second round games complete.
• Don't pick more than two of the four number 1 regional seeds to reach the final weekend of games when only four teams remain in the tournament.
• Pick at one number 3 seed team to lose in the first round of games.
• Pick a team seeded 1 or 2 [there will be eight of them] to win the national title.
• Don't pick more than two of the four number 1 seeds to be the last four teams in the tournament. In 2006, not one of the number 1 seeds made it to the championship weekend. I'd call it a fluke year.
• Pick one team seeded 12th to reach the regional semi finals.
• Despite some success, and I do mean some, don't go too far with the number 4 and 5 seeds.
• Pick two teams seeded 13th to 15th to be victorious over teams seeded 2nd to 4th.
• Don't pick a team from the Big Sky, MEAC and Southland to win a first-round game. They're winless in the Division I playoffs since the field was expanded to at least 52 teams in 1983.
• Don't pick an at-large team with a losing conference record to get beyond the second round.
• Two of your Final Four picks should be teams that didn't finish atop their regular-season conference standings.
• Don't be too concerned about a regular-season defeat against a conference rival with a losing league record.
• Don't pick a team to reach the Final Four if it lost in the first round of a postseason conference tournament.
• Don't pick a team seeded #16 to #13 into the field of 8. Not once has one ever advanced.
• Do pick three #1 seeds into the field of 8. 70% of all number 1 seeds have advanced to the fourth round of games.
• Don't pick a team seeded #16 to #9 into the field of 4, only two times has a team in this range advanced to the field of 4 [George Mason in 2006 was the last]
• Don't pick a team seeded lower than a #6 to the championship game, not a single one has advanced in the last 21 years.
• Do pick a seed ranked #4 or higher to win the championship game. For 18 straight years, this has been true.

31 Automatic Bids

31 automatic bids are earned by the Conference Tournament Champions. Here is the list of conferences, schedule and winner when known.

	Dates-Winners [record]	Conference [record]
1.	North Carolina Tar Heels [32-2]	ACC [14-2]
2.	UMBC Retrievers [24-8]	American East [13-3]
3.	Belmont Bruins [25-8]	Atlantic Sun [14-2]
4.	Temple Owls [21-12]	Atlantic 10 [11-5]
5.	Pittsburgh Panthers [26-9]	Big East [10-8]
6.	Portland State Vikings [23-9]	Big Sky [14-2]
7.	Winthorp Eagles [22-11]	Big South [10-4]
8.	Wisconsin Badgers [29-4]	Big Ten [16-2]
9.	Kansas Jayhawks [31-3]	Big 12 [13-3]
10.	Cal St. Fullerton Titans [24-8]	Big West [12-4]
11.	George Mason Patriots [23-10]	Colonial [12-6]
12.	Memphis Tigers [33-1]	Conference USA [16-0]
13.	Butler Bulldogs [29-3]	Horizon 16-2]
14.	Cornell Big Red [20-5]	Ivy League [12-0]
15.	Siena Saints [22-10]	MAAC [13-5]
16.	Kent State Golden Flashes [28-6]	MAC [13-3]
17.	Coppin State Eagles [16-19]	MEAC [12-9]
18.	Drake Bulldogs [28-4]	Missouri Valley [15-3]
19.	UNLV Rebels [26-7]	Mountain West 15-4]
20.	Mount St Mary's Mountaineers [18-4]	Northeast [11-7]
21.	Austin Peay Governors [24-10]	Ohio Valley [17-4]
22.	UCLA Bruins [31-3]	Pac-10 [19-2]
23.	American Eagles [21-11]	Patriot [10-4]
24.	Georgia Bulldogs [17-16]	SEC [4-12]
25.	Davidson Wildcats [26-6]	Southern [20-0]
26.	UT-Arlington Mavericks [21-11]	Southland [7-9]
27.	Oral Roberts Golden Eagles [24-8]	Summit [16-2]
28.	Western Kentucky Hilltoppers [27-6]	Sun Belt [16-2]
29.	Mississippi Val. Delta Devils [17-15]	SWAC [13-6]
30.	Boise St. Broncos [25-8]	WAC [12-4]
31.	San Diego Toreros [21-13]	West Coast [11-3]

2008 Key Tournament Dates

Welcome Back! The 11th annual OfficePool64.com contest site is up and running.

With less than 13 days until selection Sunday, I'll be updating the site with the 2008 links. There are 30 'automatic bids' to be earned this year and 36 'at large bids'. Cornell of the Ivy League has earn the first spot in the tournament via winning it's regular season championship.

Key Dates courtesy of NCAA Sports

March 16 - Selection Sunday @ 5:00 CST on CBS
March 18 - Opening Round game [play in game]
First Weekend Of Games
March 20-21: Round One Games
March 22-23: Round Two Games

Second Weekend Of Games
March 27-28: Round Three Games
March 29-30: Round Four Games

Final Weekend Of Games
April 5: Round Five, Semi-Finals
April 7: Round Six, Championship Game