Tourney Game: Effectively Over

For the first time ever, all the 1-seeds are going to the Final Four. By necessity then, everyone has one player remaining, their player from the 1-seeds.

It also appears that Poseur's and my own brief threat to overtake Jason will fall short. In fact, I know mine has. Poseur is still mathematically in it, but he's 51 points behind, meaning Kevin Love would have to outscore Tyler Hansbrough by 51 points over the remainder of the tournament in order for Poseur to catch up. That's pretty far-fetched.

Anyway, here are the current standings:

Jason: 697 points, Tyler Hansbrough remaining
Richard: 683 points, Tyler Hansbrough remaining
Poseur: 646 points, Kevin Love remaining
Rollie Fingers: 602 points, Tyler Hansbrough remaining
Daniel: 598 points, Chris Douglas-Roberts remaining
Jroberts: 490 points, Chris Douglas-Roberts remaining
Scott: 388 points, Darren Collison remaining

No matter what, I will end the tournament 14 points behind Jason. As mentioned, Poseur has to have Love outscore Hansbrough by 51 in order to catch Jason. No one else is even remotely close.

It's been a pretty fun tournament, though I regret there's no underdog story in the Final Four. Watching Stephen Curry's run through the tournament was exciting. Watching Western Kentucky (to the small extent I got to watch them) was also exciting. I also enjoyed watching Joe Alexander from West Virginia.

What did I learn about the game that I will be applying next year?

1. Find the dynamic scorers and pick them, no matter what. If I had picked Michael Beasley, I would have won the game. I didn't pick him because I thought USC was going places, and I didn't want to pick Beasley, who played USC in the first round and would have gotten the stifling Wisconsin slow-down game in the second. I picked Ramel Bradley instead, and though Ramel had a good game, he was outscored by Beasley 46-19. There are always a few dynamic scorers in the tournament. Find them and pick them, and don't overthink it.

Of course, it was exactly this thinking that made me pick Shan Foster, so take this advice for what it's worth.

2. Avoid players on teams that have "balanced scoring". Picking players off of Louisville or Wisconsin this year didn't pay off. David Padgett only scored in double figures in one game out of his four. Trevon Hughes had one big game and scored a total of 8 points in his other two. Find another team with a star player instead.

3. Don't believe the hype about guard play being most important. This maxim made me pick Jamont Gordon instead of Charles Rhodes. Gordon had a respectable 29 points. Rhodes scored 48. Once again, I would have won this tournament if I'd just picked the other Bulldog. This also made me pick DJ Augustin, who only had one game in the 20s and also one game with 6 points. Then again, Augustin was the best among the 2's anyone actually picked.

We won't be focusing so hard on the tourney from here on out. Frankly, I have no rooting interest anymore. I dislike all the teams remaining. I suppose I dislike Memphis the least though.