Is he in the clubhouse? I guess not... but let's go with it. Rory has caught and passed Stephen Gerztoff. Team Ro-Ro has been carried to the finish line by the stand-out play of George Mason and UCLA. While the CAA may get three bids this year, GMU has been tearing that conference up like the University of Richmond used to do. UCLA plays in the Pac 10, which may get two bids this year... ugh... and has been basically enjoying being slighty better than the little sisters of the poor.
College basketball is sometimes like poker in that you don't even have to be a good poker player to make money, you just have to be better than everybody else in the game. UCLA, with the exception of Arizona, is just better than the Pac 10. I don't think anybody is banking on them winning too many games in the NCAAs but the conference season is a lot longer than the tournament.
Steve and Rory share Pittsburgh and Illinois. Pitt despite winning 25 games last year is only one win away from tieing that mark. Illinois has faltered of late in the arduous big 10 and looks to be the anchor of both players slates. Stephen's combo of Arizona/Georgia is right there with Rory's selection of UCLA/Mason. With Arizona a little bit than UCLA and Mason a little better than Georgia.
Which means the pool may be decided by how well Stephen's Mizzou does against Ro-ro's Florida. Personally, I like Rory as Florida should have an easier conference tournament and a higher NCAA seed.
Meanwhile, Big Daddy has also emerged as a viable contender. He's is the third player to cross the magical 100 win mark and like Rory and Stephen is all profit from here on out. BD's first year in the pool has been significant. He has three teams than neither Rory or Stephen has so his focus will be on Memphis regrouping, Creighton getting hot, and North Carolina emerging as a high seed in a weaker ACC.
Behind Big Daddy is Georff Perry who is two wins short of 100. He shares no teams with Rory and two with Gerztoff, and only one with Big Daddy. Fairfield, Conneticutt, and Michigan State are all his own. Perhaps the best possible scenario for Perry would be for Conneticutt to catch Pitt in the Big East, Fairfield to keep winning (they could get to almost 30 this year), and for Michigan State to head to the N.I.T. and go deep.
Izzo is a master of tournament performance, though his team with a low seed in the NCAAs would have a battle every game. They likely would be the class of the second tier tournament. Wonder if he'd have too much pride to play in the N.I.T.
On the other side of things, Martin Tyson has his work to do just to reach 100. It's been some time since a player fell short of "profiting" from one year to the next. With two teams 10 wins shy, and one 6 wins shy it'll be an uphill climb.
The rest of us? We are a whole bunch of mediocre.
Showing posts with label College Basektball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College Basektball. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
5 Teamer Basketball Betting Update Part 2.
"The Bar for Heroism has just been raised"--it'll mean something later, bare with me.
Wrapping up our look at the betting odds for the this years 5teamer pick selections. The only thing better than March Madness is betting on March Madness, why not get started in November right?
Of note, Martin Tyson is a newcomer to the pool, but not to Basketball betting online, but as traditionally happens, he's bringing up the rear. Congrats to Big Daddy, a fellow first-timer, for staying with the middle of the pack, this is often a tough nut to crack in your first year.
Tyson has the dubious honor, I believe, of going the longest before one of his teams picked up their first win in our pool history. Marist actually quickly won another game after the first (winning streak?) and is at two wins. This also means, he may have the additional honor, of the earliest tying of last year's record by a selection, and the earliest surpassing of it, as Marist had just one win last year.
I don't know much about Marist but I do know that their conference (the MAAC) is fairly solid with teams like Iona, and Geoff Perry's pick Fairfield, that Marist won't just plough through that part of their schedule either (even if extremely improved). Why would a guy pick a one win team from last year maybe "Martin Tyson" thought "Marist y nnot"?
This year, nobody, including the two newcomers, took an Ivy League team. Without a conference tournament it takes a special team to make up for those two or three lost win opportunities, as John Price, last year’s newcomer, discovered when he took Harvard.
Interestingly enough last year we had 18 different teams picked and this year it was 28. Not nearly as many commonalities which means more games to pay attention to. UNC was picked by six people, six people that are probably already regretting that selection, Pittsburgh by four people, four people probably relishing that selection, and Florida was picked by 4 people, four people probably not sure about their pick yet or not. Georgia and Arizona, two low cost teams, were picked second most 5 times each. Arizona is looking like a solid pick Memphis was the only other team to be picked by more than two people, selected three times.
In the past, usually groupthink gets you close to the top of the leaderboard. Only Bill P, selected the three most common teams (UNC, Georgia, Arizona), which means he’s really going to rely heavily on Minnesota and Baylor. Incidentally, he shares both those teams with one other player (Melissa for Minnesota, Jessica for Baylor). Eric Johnson’s slate also has a lot of common teams (UNC 6, Georgia 5, Florida 4, Memphis 3, and Illinois 2).
The thing that surprised me about Eric’s slate was picking two teams that will play each other at least twice with Florida and Georgia. He’s shortening his schedule by at least two games, and that’s an unusual selection for a veteran player. Pool leader Stephen is the only other player to have all his selections also picked by other players. Which is good for him, since he already has a lead, and it will be that much tougher for those with mutual teams to catch up to him.
Everybody else, had at least one unique pick in the slates. Martin Tyson picked the least most common slate with four teams selected only by him, and his fifth team Marquette, only selected by Melissa. Geoff Perry had three unique picks (well done on Connecticut, not so well done on Fairfield, and the schedule is tough for Michigan State but they do look like a contender). Geoff Roswick also had four teams picked only by him, but his fifth team North Carolina was picked by more than half the pool.
Also of note the top three, all went under the 100 win allotment. Quirky, but like them, I felt this year the best fits were either slightly over 100 or slightly under. Sometimes it works out that way. Course the season is early and anything can happen, and many years we’ve seen somebody not catch fire until the end of the season. Nobody at this point looks to be out of it, though if I were Geoff Roswick I’d be sending letters to Cal SB and Weber State telling them to get their act together, or at least get Harold "The Show" Arceneaux a New Orleans baller some more years of eligibility.
By the way Kevin Harlan, the original Gus Johnson?
Wrapping up our look at the betting odds for the this years 5teamer pick selections. The only thing better than March Madness is betting on March Madness, why not get started in November right?
Of note, Martin Tyson is a newcomer to the pool, but not to Basketball betting online, but as traditionally happens, he's bringing up the rear. Congrats to Big Daddy, a fellow first-timer, for staying with the middle of the pack, this is often a tough nut to crack in your first year.
Tyson has the dubious honor, I believe, of going the longest before one of his teams picked up their first win in our pool history. Marist actually quickly won another game after the first (winning streak?) and is at two wins. This also means, he may have the additional honor, of the earliest tying of last year's record by a selection, and the earliest surpassing of it, as Marist had just one win last year.
I don't know much about Marist but I do know that their conference (the MAAC) is fairly solid with teams like Iona, and Geoff Perry's pick Fairfield, that Marist won't just plough through that part of their schedule either (even if extremely improved). Why would a guy pick a one win team from last year maybe "Martin Tyson" thought "Marist y nnot"?
This year, nobody, including the two newcomers, took an Ivy League team. Without a conference tournament it takes a special team to make up for those two or three lost win opportunities, as John Price, last year’s newcomer, discovered when he took Harvard.
Interestingly enough last year we had 18 different teams picked and this year it was 28. Not nearly as many commonalities which means more games to pay attention to. UNC was picked by six people, six people that are probably already regretting that selection, Pittsburgh by four people, four people probably relishing that selection, and Florida was picked by 4 people, four people probably not sure about their pick yet or not. Georgia and Arizona, two low cost teams, were picked second most 5 times each. Arizona is looking like a solid pick Memphis was the only other team to be picked by more than two people, selected three times.
In the past, usually groupthink gets you close to the top of the leaderboard. Only Bill P, selected the three most common teams (UNC, Georgia, Arizona), which means he’s really going to rely heavily on Minnesota and Baylor. Incidentally, he shares both those teams with one other player (Melissa for Minnesota, Jessica for Baylor). Eric Johnson’s slate also has a lot of common teams (UNC 6, Georgia 5, Florida 4, Memphis 3, and Illinois 2).
The thing that surprised me about Eric’s slate was picking two teams that will play each other at least twice with Florida and Georgia. He’s shortening his schedule by at least two games, and that’s an unusual selection for a veteran player. Pool leader Stephen is the only other player to have all his selections also picked by other players. Which is good for him, since he already has a lead, and it will be that much tougher for those with mutual teams to catch up to him.
Everybody else, had at least one unique pick in the slates. Martin Tyson picked the least most common slate with four teams selected only by him, and his fifth team Marquette, only selected by Melissa. Geoff Perry had three unique picks (well done on Connecticut, not so well done on Fairfield, and the schedule is tough for Michigan State but they do look like a contender). Geoff Roswick also had four teams picked only by him, but his fifth team North Carolina was picked by more than half the pool.
Also of note the top three, all went under the 100 win allotment. Quirky, but like them, I felt this year the best fits were either slightly over 100 or slightly under. Sometimes it works out that way. Course the season is early and anything can happen, and many years we’ve seen somebody not catch fire until the end of the season. Nobody at this point looks to be out of it, though if I were Geoff Roswick I’d be sending letters to Cal SB and Weber State telling them to get their act together, or at least get Harold "The Show" Arceneaux a New Orleans baller some more years of eligibility.
By the way Kevin Harlan, the original Gus Johnson?
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