Get Your Teams In

Alright, people.  I know you're out there.  Put in your teams for the NCAA Tournament Fantasy Game, described below.  We only have one other player so far.  Last year, we had 5 players including myself.  Readership is bigger this year, so there's no excuse for not having a few more players.

The winner last year was Scott, who hasn't put in a team yet.  So far, it's just myself and Poseur.  To recap the rules:

• Pick one player from each seed level, giving your team 16 players in total.  
• The play-in game does not count, and you may post conditional 16-seed players or wait until after the play-in game to choose.
• Count the points scored by your team.  The team with the most wins.

It's that simple people.

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Yesterday, there was a lot of chatter complaining about the brackets.  I understand everyone complains about brackets (except me, because I don't know enough to complain), but some of the complaints were just plain silly:

Complaint #1: Tennessee got screwed by being placed in a bracket with the #1 overall seed, UNC.

The gist of this complaint is that Tennessee, who was playing for a #1 seed going into the conference tournament, got bumped all the way down the #8 seed overall, as evidenced by being placed in the same region with #1 Overall seed North Carolina.

First, I really don't think they seed teams among brackets with the exception of assigning a #1 overall seed and assigning #s 64 and 65 for a play-in.  Other than that, I don't think they really do that, so I don't think anyone decided that Tennessee was the lowest #2 seed.

Second, Tennessee gets to play close to home to start the tournament.  They start in Birmingham, Alabama, where their fans will likely pack the house.  Then they'll go to Charlotte, North Carolina where they will be outnumbered, but not overwhelmingly, by North Carolina fans.  They could have been put in another region and have to start in Anaheim, California before going to Houston, Texas or Washington, DC and then Phoenix, Arizona.

Third, if your goal is to win the National Championship, which is Tennessee's goal, I think the only approach you can take is to not care about the draw and just take whatever comes at you.  If Tennessee is going to win, they are going to have to play several very good teams, and they'll get to the dreaded North Carolina in their fourth game.  Heck, it's entirely possible that neither team will make it that far.  Just play your bracket and stop complaining.

If your goal is to make it the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8, you can complain about a tough draw.

Complaint #2:  Arizona State didn't make it.

I know the arguments, and they make a certain amount of sense.  Fact is, though, Arizona State played their way to the bubble and put themselves in a position to be left out.  If they had won another game or two, they would have been in.  If they had been let in the way they are, they would have been one of the two or three last teams.  Whoop-dee-doo.

Complaint #3: Mid-majors are playing each other.

OK, I actually agree with this one.  Everyone's favorite thing about the tournament is seeing little guys take down big guys.  Everyone wants to see Gonzaga take down a Big East, Big XII or Big X team.  No one wants to see Gonzaga take down Davidson.  It makes no sense to engineer the brackets to have Gonzaga playing Davidson, Butler playing South Alabama, Georgia playing Xavier (which counts as two little guys against each other), and Drake playing Western Kentucky.  It's just bad television.