Invitation to Join My Dad's NCAA Men's Basketball Pool

[EvanJ]

My Dad makes an NCAA Tournament Pool, and the last one was down to 32 people. I was second, and I won money for the third time in my life. First gets 60 percent, second gets 30 percent, and third gets 10 percent. Ties share the combined amount. For example, a two-way tie for second and third would be 20 percent each. The 2019 Tournament was great for me because I went to Hartford to see Florida State (my favorite team in a top conference) beat Murray State in Ja Morant's last NCAA game. After the game, I got a photo with FSU's band. That was in the Round of 32, in which I got 15 of 16 games right. I picked Virginia to win the NCAA Tournament when they became the first 1 seed to lose to a 16 that was Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC). I picked Virginia again, and the second time was the charm. I hate Duke, who was the most common pick. I knew that as long as Virginia was alive, I had a chance to win money, and I did. Virginia had comebacks in the last few seconds on their way to winning the Tournament. I was 96.5th percentile on ESPN. I have my ESPN percentiles for the last seven tournaments. My average is 74.6th, and my worst is 53.8th, so I was in the top half every time. I pick very few worse seeds. I'm Jewish, and if I win money then the NCAA Tournament is "the most wonderful time of the year" unless something better happens later like the Yankees winning the World Series. I gamble $10 per year, and I don't do any other pools, fantasy leagues, FanDuel, DraftKings, etc. With the NCAA Tournament and international soccer, the second half of March is a big sports time for me.

If you want to participate, post your e-mail address or e-mail EvanJ35@hotmail.com and I will send you the announcement when Dad does it. I will give my address to send a $10 bill or check in the mail. That's per bracket, and you are allowed to submit multiple brackets. The simplest way to submit your bracket is to do it online, save it as a PDF, and attach it to an e-mail. I will scan any brackets we get in print. You will get the standings e-mailed after each week (and maybe after the Round of 64), and I will post the scores for members here.

[Hofstra]

Evan, I am in there like swimwear.

Any shot you take paypal? Venmo? If not, I know you posted that it must be a $10 bill. Would two $5's be acceptable? Kidding.

Thanks for running an old school pool. Lets do this.

[EvanJ]

PayPal should be okay. We've never used Venmo.

[HofstraMathew]

I am in. Will send you an email.

[EvanJ]

I got both of your e-mails. Hotmail sent Mathew's to Inbox and Hofstra's to Junk. I wish e-mail didn't have a Junk folder because I check it and it would be quicker to have all e-mail in one place. I know some people get a lot of junk, but I think e-mail providers should let people eliminate the Junk folder and send everything to Inbox. The Junk folder is meant to be helpful, but help I don't want isn't help.

In 2019, the average games right were:

Round 1: 21.78 (68.07 percent)
Round 2: Exactly 12.625 (78.91 percent)
Round 3: 4.66 (59.20 percent)
Round 4: 0.84 (21.09 percent)
Semifinals: 0.25 (exactly 12.5 percent): 8 of 32 people got one and 24 of 32 people got neither
Final: Exactly 0.0625 (the winner and me who were second were the only ones who picked Virginia

I'll you something that some people who met me at Savoy heard, which is that Evan Jones is a fictional name. https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-cha ... D=19128859 has my bracket from 2019. Dad's pool does not weight the rounds the same as ESPN. The Fans of Hofstra group had 405 people including intentionally bad brackets that picked 16 seeds to win the Tournament. I was tied for 18th.

[EvanJ]

I just forwarded my dad's e-mail to two people. It has his e-mail address for PayPal.

[fiftiespride]

Thanks for opening up your Dads' pool to the board Evan. I have swapped picks with my boys for 40 years and participated in a calcutta for 25 or so in Minneapolis, 20 years or so ago. We would play for a couple of hundred per entry, the tournament field would be auctioned off 1 team at a time, high bidder winning the team. When your money was gone you had your teams and the person with the most total victories won the pot. We normally had around a dozen participants but I haven't been able to get one going here in Florida. With any reasonable semblance of technical skills I could probably participate or create one virtually. But being a bit of a Luddite I am afraid to participate in your pool, much as I would like to, for fear of being unable to perform electronically.

[EvanJ]

Do you have an account on ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, or any other site that has a "Tournament Challenge" as ESPN calls it or whatever other terms are used? If you e-mail me, I can download a blank bracket and attach it to a reply. You can print, write, and scan. If you can't scan, you can mail the bracket. If you don't use PayPal, you can pay with a $10 check or cash in the mail.

[fiftiespride]

Evan, Thank you for offering to facilitate my participation. I don't believe I have any such accounts although I did successfully swap brackets via the net with my sons a couple of times but have failed recently a couple of times as well and resorted to the phone. In any case forward me a bracket/reply and I'll do my best. Pools add spice to what is a great time of the year with NCAA championships culminating in a number of sports. With your acumen for analytics you should explore more complex events with richer payoffs.

[EvanJ]

I don't like to gamble, and the rare events I find aren't related to making good predictions. I made a note to e-mail you a bracket, and in that e-mail I can give you my address to mail $10 check or cash.

[cactus]

Hi EvanJ, I am in if you can accept venmo or quick pay

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[EvanJ]

My dad isn't going to make new payment methods for this. It has to be PayPal or through the mail.

[Wags]

My dad isn't going to make new payment methods for this.

He doesn't have to with QuickPay if he has Chase - he just provides his e-mail address and people pay him right to his bank account. If he doesn't have Chase, that's different.

[cactus]

I didn't read the whole thread, I'll do PayPal, but if there's a transaction fee where he doesn't get the whole amount let me know. Venmo is super easy and as wags mentioned chase quickpay is automatic. Neither of those have transaction fees.

[EvanJ]

We have Chase. PayPal doesn't charge a fee if money is coming from a PayPal or bank account. They charge a fee if money is coming from a credit or debit card.

[Hofstra]

Just sent the money. Thanks again for running it on here.

[EvanJ]

I made my bracket at https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-cha ... pID=707314 and there is a Flying Dutchmen Group with password flyingdf that I think somebody else made a prior year. In 2019 cactus and I were the only people in the group.

I was going to pick only three worse seeds, but I decided I needed to do something that could make my bracket stand out. I picked 2 seed Houston to beat 1 seed Illinois. ESPN thinks Illinois will win the region and Semifinal. I will root for Houston's Justin Gorham, who averages 8.6 points and 9.0 rebounds. He transferred from Towson, while he played for Towson I tweeted that he led them in rebounds per game as a sub, and he liked my tweet. I didn't think about Gorham until after I picked Houston to win the region. 5 seed Colorado has a better NET and RPI than 4 seed Florida State, but I like Florida State and I don't want to have to root against a team I like or root against my bracket. Not wanting to root for or against players on teams I like or don't like is one reason that I will never play fantasy sports or anything that deals with individual players.

[Jmills12]

i did my bracket other day, will look into this thanks.

[Hofstra]

Evan, please confirm you get my bracket. I sent it last night. Might be the winning bracket.

[EvanJ]

I'm going to post about the NCAA Tournament, and cactus can change the title if he wants.

8 seed Loyola Chicago beat 1 seed Illinois 71-58. Loyola Chicago led by as much as 14, and it was the first time this season that Illinois never led. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... =401310888 has the box score. Top conference teams are known for having a height advantage on mid-majors, but Loyola Chicago had more rebounds (31 to 27) and more blocks (4 to 2). Loyola Chicago had more steals (12) than turnovers (11).

With that game and Abilene Christian's win over Texas that ended after midnight, the first two games today had a Christian school win a big upset over a school named after a state in the same state as the Christian school. The small amount of people who picked Loyola Chicago dropped my ESPN percentile from 64th to 62nd, but I'm thrilled because I picked 2 seed Houston to win the region. At first I was going to pick all 1 seeds in the Final Four, but I decided to do something to make my bracket stand out, so I picked Houston to beat Illinois in the Regional Final. On ESPN, 52.0 percent picked Illinois to reach the Final Four, so the Regional Final is a game I can win that a majority of people can't. 31.5 percent picked Illinois to win the Semifinal, and 15.2 percent picked them to win the Tournament. Illinois was the second most common pick to win every amount of games from two through six. In ESPN's Fans of Hofstra group with 186 people, my potential is tied for 21st because of how many people picked Illinois and/or Ohio State to go farther than I did.

1 seed Baylor leads 4 seed Wisconsin 14-11. There won't be two games at the same time until 6:10 P.M., and that start will probably get delayed. For a long time there were only two night games in the Round of 32, but now there are ten. I define "night" as 6:00 P.M. or later. 12:10, 2:40, 5:15, 6:10*, 7:10, 7:45*, 8:45*, and 9:40* are the start times today and tomorrow, with a * indicating games that I think will be delayed due to the previous game at that building.