Starting Eight (2012) - A new NCAA tourney game

[Young Drachma]

Here's the premise:

1. You pick a roster of any 8 players from the NCAA tournament field.
2. You score as many points as each of your drafted players scores in the NCAA tournament.
3. You get a multiplier for the seed of his team. (i.e. if Nate Wolters of 14th seeded South Dakota State scores 18 points, you would earn 252 points.)
4. "First Four"/play-in round games do not count towards the players point total.
5. Deadline is tip-off of the first games on Thursday.
6. (RULE ADDED)

We were playing around with the spreadsheet and thought it would be better to give you some more flexibility to take higher-seeded guys if we added a multiplier to each round the player scores points in.

So the 1st round (of 64) is just x1, each round after adds a x1 so:

Round of 32: x2
Sweet 16: x3
Elite 8: x4
Final 4: x5
Championship: x6

So now if you have a guy who is a 1 seed who scores 20 points in the sweet 16, instead of being worth only 20 points, it'd now be worth 60 points. If he's was on a 2-seed team that'd be 120 points and so forth. If you pick this year's VCU and manage to get them to the Final Four? Jackpot. But what's nice is, a 18 point game from a 3-seed in the Elite 8 is worth 216 points (18 x 3 x 4) which will make up a lot of ground from the guy who scored 288 points for his 16-seed who had a guy scoring 18 points in their one-and-done game. Make sense?

There is no draft, you just pick a roster of 8 players that you want. Make any changes you want up through the deadline, any edits after that will not be counted. Basically took the best of both worlds and tried to do something interesting.

Have at it.

Scoring Spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...TVJamQxX2VHU0E

[wade moore]

I'm in for this. Will put a roster together later today probably.

[Karlifornia]

Sounds interesting. I'll give it a shot.

[jbergey22]

CJ Leslie(NC St)
Kevin Jones(West Virginia)
Mike Moser(UNLV)
John Jenkins(Vanderbilt)
J'Covan Brown(Texas)
Marcus Denmon(Missouri)
Jarred Sullinger(Ohio State)
Drew Gordon(New Mexico)

[jbergey22]

Is editing prior to Thur allowed?

Nevermind, just needed to read the rules.

[britrock88]

Jared Sullinger, Ohio State
Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin
Cody Zeller, Indiana
Will Barton, Memphis
Doug McDermott, Creighton
Robbie Hummel, Purdue
CJ Leslie, NC State
J'Covan Brown, Texas

[Butter]

Doug McDermott (Creighton)
Casper Ware (Long Beach St.)
John Jenkins (Vanderbilt)
J'Covan Brown (Texas)
Garrett Stutz (Wichita State)
Perry Jones III (Baylor)
Tu Holloway (Xavier)
Isaiah Canaan (Murray State)

[Young Drachma]

Jamal Olasewere, LIU
Wendell McKines, New Mexico State
Kevin Jones, West Virginia
Will Barton, Memphis
Nate Wolters, South Dakota State
Kenny Boynton, Florida
Shabazz Napier, UConn
Austin Rivers, Duke

[wade moore]

Mike Scott - UVA (10)
Bradford Burgess - VCU (12)
C.J. McCollum - Lehigh (15)
Rodney McGruder - Kansas State (8)
Marcus Denmon - Missouri (2)
Tu Holloway - XU (10)
Jamaal Franklin - SDSU (6)
Casper Ware - LBSU (12)

[Karlifornia]

Tu Holloway - Xavier (10)
Casper Ware - LBSU (12)
Andrew Nicholson - St. Bonaventure (14)
Jared Sullinger - Ohio State (2)
Robbie Hummel - Purdue (10)
Matthew Dellavedova - St. Mary's (7)
Nate Wolters - South Dakota State (14)
Perry Jones III - Baylor (3)

[Ramzavail]

C.J. McCollum (Lehigh 15)
J'Covan Brown (Texas 11)
Mike Scott (Virginia 10)
Nate Wolters (South Dakota State 14)
Ian Clark (Belmont 16)
John Jenkins (Vandy 5)
Isaiah Canaan (Murray St 6)
Will Barton (Memphis 8)

[Lathum]

Casper Ware LBS
John Jenkins- Vandy
Justin Denmon-Mizzou
Jarrod Sullinger- Ohio St
Perry Jones- Baylor
Jorge Gutierez- Cal
Darius-Johnson Odom-marquette
J'Covan Brown-texas

[dfisher]

C.J. McCollum - Lehigh
Ray McCallum - Detroit
Nate Wolters - South Dakota St.
Doug McDermott - Creighton
Will Barton - Memphis
J'Covan Brown - Texas
Bradley Beal - Florida
Andrew Nicholson - St. Bonaventure

[wade moore]

FYI - I've worked on setting up a spreadsheet in google docs with DC so we're good to go on scoring this. All entries received so far have been put in the sheet.

[Young Drachma]

Sent everyone the PM about the rule addition, which is now in the first post.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Sent everyone the PM about the rule addition, which is now in the first post.

Good rule change...

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Good rule change...

A note - if anyone changes their list, please post here so we know to change it in the spreadsheet.

[SkippyDies]

Ricardo Ratliffe (Missouri)
Tarik Black (Memphis)
Mike Glover (Iona)
Anthony Davis (Kentucky)
Jordan Morgan (Michigan)
Jack Cooley (Notre Dame)
Keith Wright (Harvard)
Drew Hanlen (Belmont)

[cartman]

J'Covan Brown (Texas)
Thomas Robinson (Kansas)
Garrett Stutz (Wichita State)
Michael Snaer (Florida State)
Casper Ware (Long Beach State)
Anthony Davis (Kentucky)
Cody Zeller (Indiana)
Mike Scott (Virginia)

[Ragone]

Kerron Johnson (Belmont)
Kevin Jones(West Virginia)
Peyton Siva(Louisville)
Perry Jones III(Baylor)
Isaiah Canaan(Murray State)
Will Barton(Memphis)
Anthony Davis(Kentucky)
Marcus Denmon(Missouri)

[Young Drachma]

Everyone's entries are in and updated in the spreadsheet.

[muns]

Kevin Jones (West Virginia)
John Jenkins (Vanderbilt)
Garrett Stutz (Wichita State)
Trey Burke (Michigan)
Perry Jones III (Baylor)
Michael Snaer (Florida State)
Marcus Denmon (Missouri)
Harrison Barnes (UNC)

[henry296]

Harrison Barnes (UNC)
Draymond Green (MSU)
Marcus Denmon (Missouri)
Doug McDermott (Creighton)
Kevin Jones (WVU)
Darius Johnson Odom (Marquette)
John Jenkins (Vandy)
Isiah Caanan (Murray State)

[wade moore]

Updated my list above:

Mike Scott - UVA (10)
Bradford Burgess - VCU (12)
C.J. McCollum - Lehigh (15)
Rodney McGruder - Kansas State (8)
Marcus Denmon - Missouri (2)
Tu Holloway - XU (10)
Jamaal Franklin - SDSU (6)
Casper Ware - LBSU (12)

[Panthersfan75]

John Jenkins(Vanderbilt)
Keron Johnson(Belmont)
Marcus Denmon(Missouri)
Jared Sullinger(Ohio State)
Tyshawn Taylor(Kansas)
Harrison Barnes(UNC)
Casper Ware(Long Beach State)
Draymond Green(Michigan State)

[kingfc22]

Anthony Davis (Kentucky)
Jared Sullinger(Ohio State)
Marcus Denmon (Missouri)
Perry Jones III (Baylor)
John Jenkins (Vanderbilt)
Doug McDermott (Creighton)
Will Barton (Memphis)
Noah Hartsock (BYU)

[wade moore]

Spreadsheet is up to date.

You can find it here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...TVJamQxX2VHU0E

Between DC and I, hopefully we can keep this fairly up to date as games go on.

[Panthersfan75]

Updated my list above

John Jenkins(Vanderbilt)
Keron Johnson(Belmont)
Marcus Denmon(Missouri)
Jared Sullinger(Ohio State)
Tyshawn Taylor(Kansas)
Harrison Barnes(UNC)
Casper Ware(Long Beach State)
Draymond Green(Michigan State)

[wade moore]

Updated you on the spreadsheet Pantersfan.

Now time to head to the sports bar for a long lunch

[whomario]

Isaiah Canaan (Murray State)
John Jenkins(Vanderbilt)
Jared Sullinger(Ohio State)
Doug McDermott (Creighton)
Matthew Dellavedova (St Marys)
Casper Ware (Long Beach St.)
Joe Ragland (Wichita State)
Kevin Pangos (Gonzaga)

[wade moore]

Rodney McGruder!

Please win this game KSU!

[wade moore]

Added you to the sheet whomario.

[wade moore]

Updated through the finished afternoon games.

I have a slight early lead, but like 3 others, I lost Casper Ware.

[britrock88]

Oh, mine never got added to the spreadsheet. Probably b/c I made a placeholder post and then edited in the picks.

[Butter]

Thanks for nothing, Garrett Stutz. What a bunch of wasted hype that was.

On the other hand, impressive that VCU came back to the tourney and essentially picked up where they left off.

[wade moore]

Updated the scores and added britrock88's entry.

Here's how we stand after day 1:

Player    Total    Tms left
Dark Cloud    789    4
wade moore    636    7
whomario    619    6
Karlifornia    500    6
Ramzavail    491    7
butterof69    455    6
Lathum    429    7
henry296    415    7
jbergey22    409    6
kingfc22    391    7
Panthersfan75    363    7
Ragone    310    7
cartman    296    6
muns    291    6
dfisher    266    7
britrock88    148    8
SkippyDies    112    7

Dark Cloud has an early lead with his 789, but he's already down to 4 guys - which is worse because everyone that's played for him so far has been eliminated.

Everyone but britrock88 has had at least one player eliminated, but he's down at the bottom end on points because he went with the safer seeds. Could slide up over time as others get eliminated though.

I'm very intrigued to see how this game plays out, I think adding the seed multiplier was a good decision.

[wade moore]

Oh, and worth noting probably - so far I'm the only one that has had a double-digit seed advance. Could be a huge bonus for me in round 2.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Thanks for nothing, Garrett Stutz. What a bunch of wasted hype that was.

On the other hand, impressive that VCU came back to the tourney and essentially picked up where they left off.

+1

Although to be fair (even though I shouldnt cause I had him) it was a horrible matchup . A pressing team and he cant handle the ball for crap. He also was in foul trouble the whole game. He did however miss more than his fair share of easy layups at the end of the game.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by muns

+1

Although to be fair (even though I shouldnt cause I had him) it was a horrible matchup . A pressing team and he cant handle the ball for crap. He also was in foul trouble the whole game. He did however miss more than his fair share of easy layups at the end of the game.

Yeah, I think a pick on Stutz was because you thought they'd get past VCU and he'd get big games later, not because he'd get big points against the VCU defense.

Although, that being said, VCU's bigs are undersized (weight, not height), so I could see where someone would think he'd have a big day.

[whomario]

I actually sort of figured that Stutz would struggle because of the matchup but as i couldn´t figure out a player from another team i picked Ragland. Of course that was under the assumption they would at least play a 2nd if not more games ...

Happy with what Pangos did, although had the game been a little closer he would have propably scored more even

[wade moore]

Through games so far:

Ramzavail	1018	4
dfisher	981	5
wade moore	964	4
Dark Cloud	845	4
jbergey22	823	4
butterof69	792	5
Karlifornia	780	5
whomario	747	6
Lathum	678	4
cartman	655	4
britrock88	650	7
henry296	611	6
kingfc22	559	6
Panthersfan75	431	6
Ragone	406	5
muns	345	5
SkippyDies	266	4

We have a new leader!

[wade moore]

So, after day 2 - here is where we stand. Please let me know if you see any mistakes:

Player	Total	Tms left
dfisher	1679	3
wade moore	1644	4
Ramzavail	1596	3
Dark Cloud	1283	1
Karlifornia	1194	4
butterof69	1022	5
britrock88	878	6
whomario	831	5
jbergey22	823	4
cartman	687	4
kingfc22	687	5
Lathum	678	4
henry296	611	6
Ragone	534	4
Panthersfan75	507	5
SkippyDies	456	1
muns	409	4

[wade moore]

Pretty good battle at the top where if it comes down to the current top 3, McCollum gets cancelled out because we are the three guys who picked him.

I feel pretty happy with my spot as I have a 15, 12, 8 and 10.

So, they may not go far, but should get me some good points this weekend with big multipliers. But I could be sitting around waiting for awhile hoping that someone doesn't get a deep run with a good player.

[Butter]

Tu Holloway's bracket just got super easy, as did Perry Jones III... bet one of them is making the Elite 8. That is going to help me.

[britrock88]

Unfortunately, I think the entrants have been scrambled in the spreadsheet. My list of player's is on whomario's row; the players on my row are Ramzavail's picks.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Unfortunately, I think the entrants have been scrambled in the spreadsheet. My list of player's is on whomario's row; the players on my row are Ramzavail's picks.

That's what I get for trying to organize it within Google Docs on half sleep. I reverted it to my original fixes. It's fine now.

[wade moore]

This thing could get interesting. I've got a bit of a lead now, but to finish with a W I think I really need for Xavier to win and NC State to lose.

[Young Drachma]

With wade only having one guy, it'll get really interesting as the other guys have 3 and 4 left. The highest scoring guy still left is Tu Holloway with 650 pts. CJ Leslie has 473 pts. It'll be interesting to see if it's chalk through the later rounds because then it'll be a matter of who has the most guys left for as long as possible.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

With wade only having one guy, it'll get really interesting as the other guys have 3 and 4 left. The highest scoring guy still left is Tu Holloway with 650 pts. CJ Leslie has 473 pts. It'll be interesting to see if it's chalk through the later rounds because then it'll be a matter of who has the most guys left for as long as possible.

I certainly didn't count on having Leslie go this far. Jordan Taylor is my best chance to go deep as non-1 seed against the weaker Syracuse team, though Cody Zeller also plays for a 4-seed (though that 4-seed is about to run into Kentucky).

[Young Drachma]

Spreadsheet is updated

We've got a virtual dead heat at the top between wade and dfisher, Tu Holloway should give wade some space tonight but will he be around for the Elite 8?

wade moore 3084 (1)
disfher 3056 (1)
britrock 2680 (3)
Karlifornia 2386 (3)
Ramzavail 2338 (0)
butterof69 2126 (2)
whomario 1823 (1)
Dark Cloud 1794 (1)
jbergey22 1681 (2)
henry296 1572 (1)
kingfc22 1419 (3)
panthersfan75 978 (3)
cartman 955 (3)
Ragone 894 (3)
muns 681 (2)
SkippyDies 486 (1)