Stephen's Posterous

Sports, Mobile Tech, Photography, etc...

NIT Prediction (Quaterfinal Round Results)

It's true, my NIT bracket (not unlike my NCAA bracket) is toast.  I went 0-4 when selecting winners to advance to Final Four.  I will then, logically, go 0-3 in the Final Four and in the NIT Championship Game. This will bring my record to 13-18 for whole tournament.  

Remarkably, the WhatIfSports predicted bracket went 2-2 in selected Final Four teams.  Their bracket correctly predicted both Dayton and Ole Miss, while missing on Rhode Island and North Carolina.  For the tournament, that bracket is now 14-14 and will beat my prediction by at least one game.

NIT Prediction (Second Round Results)

For the eight Second Round NIT games, I picked a grand total of 1 of 8 winners correctly (Wow, that's bad).  The only winner I picked correctly to advance to the Quarterfinals was Virginia Tech.  I missed on Illinois, Dayton, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and UAB.  For the tournament, I am now 13-11.  My champion pick, Memphis, lost in the 2nd Round, (just as my NCAA Champion pick lost in the 2nd Round) so my predictions' future is not bright.

The WhatIfSports.com bracket that I generated did better in picking 3 of 8 winners correctly.  That bracket missed on Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and UAB.  For the tournament, the WhatIfSports bracket is now 12-12.  However, that bracket's predicted champion (Ole Miss) is still alive. 

NCAA Predictions (After Second Round)

R2

I took a beating in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.  Along with millions of others prognosticators, I lost my projected champion (Kansas).  

For the round, I predicted 9 of the 16 games correctly.  I lost with Kansas, Georgetown (who I had predicted to beat Ohio and Tennessee), Pittsburgh, BYU, Wisconsin, Marquette (who I had predicted to beat Washington and New Mexico), Texas A&M, and Villanova.  For the tournament, I have made 34 correct picks out of a total possible number of correct picks of 48.  My beat-up bracket is posted above.

NCAA Predictions (After Day Two of First Round)

On the second day of the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, I went 14-2 (barring a last-minute comeback by Houston as I post this).  For the First Round of the tournament, I went 26-6.  This is, by far, my best prediction performance in the NCAA Tournament in recent years.  I lead my bracket pool by a small margin, however, given that the pool weights correct predictions by round (increasing weights as we get deeper into the tournament) I am a long way from clinching victory.

NCAA Bracket (After Day One of First Round)

File

Above is my bracket after the first day of the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.  

I went 12-4 on the day (Misses on Ohio, Murray State, Wake Forest, and Washington).  My bracket's biggest casualty was Georgetown who I had in the Elite 8.  Another of my Elite 8 teams (Villanova) did nothing to boost my confidence in an overtime victory against Robert Morris.  

NIT Predictions (First Round Results)

For the 16 games of the First Round of the NIT the results of my predictions (and those from my WhatIfSports simulation) were:

Me: 12-4 (Missed Jacksonville, UConn, Nevada, and North Carolina)
WhatIfSports: 9-7 (Missed Kent State, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Texas Tech, UConn, Nevada, and UAB)

Refer back to my original predictions (here) for my Second Round predictions.

NIT Predictions

Here are predictions for that other tournament (the NIT).  My employer (Weber State) managed to choke on a 22-point lead and gave away the Big Sky Conference title (and an NCAA bid) to Montana, while my alma mater (Alabama) failed to reach the post-season.  Weber State faces Cincinnati on Wednesday (in Ohio), so I have some interest in the tournament.  

My predictions are attached, as are predictions generated by WhatIfSports.com.  I predict a Memphis-Mississippi State final, with Memphis taking home the title.  My Final Four is pretty conventional with Cincinnati and Virginia Tech (in additon to Memphis and Miss. State).  The WhatIfSports predictions are a bit more unusual with Ole Miss defeating NC State for the title.  Dayton and Northeastern fill out the Final Four.  Northeastern (in the simulation) managed to beat UConn, Virginia Tech, and Wichita State on the road.  Each of these games was tight and won by the Huskies on a last-second shot.  NC State returned the favor with a buzzer-beater to beat Northeastern in the semi-finals.

Look for my NCAA bracket by Thursday.

Click here to download:
NIT My Predictions.pdf (46 KB)
(download)

Click here to download:
NIT WhatIfSports Predictions.pdf (52 KB)
(download)

Photos of Birds at Farmington Bay

My wife, son, and I went out to the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area at the Great Salt Lake on Friday afternoon.  It was a blustery, gray, and snowy day, but we had a great time looking for and watching the birds.  Bald eagles spend their winters at the lake and we were fortunate to see three of them during our hour or so visit.  We also saw hawks and other types of birds.  I took my Canon T1i and a 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens and took some photos.  I wish I had had a longer lens, but I was pretty pleased with the results.  The link below is to the Flickr set of photos from the visit.