5 Teamer Hoops Pool

The 5 Teamer isn't exactly sports betting but it's not far off. This blog is essentially devoted to sports betting so this is as good as place as any to put the updates. So here you go.

Anyway, ya'll know the rules pick 5 teams whose win total from last year can't exceed 100. The slate with the most wins this year wins. I haven't done my customary analysis and prognostications but now they conference play is almost here I feel it's a good time.

Here's the Leaderboard:

Playas W L Rank
Andrew Bird 64 4 2
Bill Phillips 61 6 6
Chris Brancati 64 2 2
David Bourg 64 4 2
Eric Johnson 65 5 1
Geoff Perry 55 13 10
Geoff Roswick 63 8 5
John Price 56 14 8
Steve Gersztoff 56 12 8
Rory O'Brien 61 5 6

Number 1 you'll see is Eric Johnson he's probably made the best sports bets of anybody. His slate is:

Eric Johnson LY W L
Kansas 27 13 0
Kentucky 22 15 0
Texas 23 14 0
Georgia Tech 12 11 3
Ole Miss 16 12 2
100 65 5

Kansas was picked by every single player in the pool which was the safe bet. Therefore this years 5 teamer works like a 4 teamer. Kentucky was picked by all but Steve Gersztoff (everybody is betting on the favorites). Their 15-0 record and a slightly weak SEC East probably has Steve wondering if he could do it over again. Texas was interesting as it was picked by 6 out of 10 players. Three players had the exact same slate (Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, Georgetown and Georgia Tech) and they all got it right by selecting Texas.

I would be stunned if anybody without Texas wins this pool. West Virginia was the same price (23 wins) and two players myself, and Rory took the 'eers instead of the longhorns. I'm embarrassed to say I thought Damion James left last year and didn't want to rely on so young a team that would have some freshmen as its best players. With all the hype Wall is getting at Kentucky there are a couple of Longhorns that are getting overlooked and are truly impact freshmen.

Texas will win a lot of games and lose few. They also play in the big 12 which is arguably a much easier road to hoe than the big east this year. Us Mountaineer "fans" better hope for a truly magical conference season but I suspect it won't happen.

Back to Eric Johnson's slate his fourth team is Georgia Tech which six players own. I view GA Tech as a suspect pick and selected Charlotte instead. Well, GA Tech is supect but Charlotte is probably more suspect. The A10 is loaded this year with 4 or 5 teams competing for at large spots and while Charlotte is good they are probably the least of the best. In the ACC, Georgia Tech is probably the third or fourth best team. Despite a loss to in-state rival, Georgia Tech will have a better chance to win more games than Charlotte.

His fifth team was Ole Miss, which I was the only other player to pick. I loved this pick in the preseason. I still like it. Miss St is good but I think teams like Ole Miss improved moreso than Miss St and they can win the SEC West with Bama, Auburn, LSU, and Arkansas all relatively down. Georgetown like Ole Miss also had 16 wins and many probably considered one or the other. And I'm not sure here if Eric made the right decision. The Big East is loaded but Georgetown is really firing on all cylinders. Sure they dropped one at home to ODU but that's a good mid-major team (that beat them at Georgetown in their recent final four year too--I think).

There are several rules I look to win doing this pool and one of them is to have as few of my teams play each other. Therefore I don't like conference mates. Eric's Ole Miss team definitely plays Kentucky once this year and might play them twice. As it's a split conference it's not as egregious a strategy flaw but it's still a mistake. Upside he'll get a least one win when they play, downside is he loses an opportunity for two wins.

The triumvirate is 2nd with the same slate as Eric (except for Georgetown over Ole Miss). Thus, I make them the favorites to win our pool. Odd, because the slate that jumped out of the magazine when I set about to do this was the five they chose. I wanted to be a little different but variation for variation's sake was a bad strategy. The best 5 is probably the most obvious.

Geoff Roswick is just behind with the same foursome but instead of Ole Miss or Georgetown he went with Denver. Denver got beaten up a little bit in noncon but if they can pull a Gonzaga on their conference, Roswick might be able to make up the difference. They'll hurt him in March but but if he can somehow get four games up on Gtown or Ole Miss he could win it (he's down two so that's at minimum a six game swing that'll he'll need to win so could be tough).