Bracket Battle 2007, Episode IV

A special thanks to my wife, the Dragon Queen, for the idea for this one and to "ThinkExist.com" where I borrow some of Uncle Kerouac's dialogue from the real Kerouac.

Bracket Battle Update (The Final Four)

About the most devastating thing that can happen to someone in a bracket battle is to lose your championship team early in the tournament. Frank managed to hang in there until yesterday when Georgetown knocked out his pick to win it all, North Carolina. With that bit of bad news, Frank is guaranteed to finish last place in the bracket battle. Frank's Uncle Kerouac isn't much better off. Even in the best case scenario for that catnip-smokin' cat, he can only tie for second place.



I and my wife's newest pet dragon Hip are the only players left with a chance to win the bracket battle. Hip's bracket isn't quite as strong as mine, though. Where as he only has one team left in the Final Four, Ohio State (his pick to win the tournament), I managed to predict all of the Final Four.

So what does all this mean? In short, Hip can still win this thing... but only if two things happen.

One: Both Florida and Georgetown have to lose their next games. That would place Hip's pick of Ohio State up against UCLA in the championship game.

Two: Ohio State has to win the tournament. Even if Ohio State makes it to the championship game, Hip still won't have enough points to beat me if they lose against UCLA.

The next games are this Saturday night, so we'll have to wait until this weekend to find out if Hip can manage this upset scenario.

Frank                                                        Hip


Uncle Kerouac                                           Wildcat

Bracket Battle 2007, Episode III

The Haircut

Bracket Battle Update

The so-called Sweet Sixteen faced off the past two nights, and the results haven’t changed much in The Wildcat’s Lair’s bracket battle. I’ve held onto the top spot in the bracket battle, and I’m the only one whose Final Four picks are still in play. The most significant change is that Frank is no longer in last place. In fact, Frank’s brackets are the only ones that didn’t change at all after the past two nights. To be fair, he doesn’t have that many games left on his bracket, though.



All that said, don’t count out Frank yet. Let me explain. If I were to get all of my remaining picks wrong (and that’s not all that improbable given the close matchups left), then my score would take a dive to 325. What Frank needs is for North Carolina to win it all and Memphis to make it to the Final Four, and he can hold onto his score of 435. North Carolina has been playing pretty darn strong, too.

Alas, it’s already over for Uncle Kerouac whose score dropped to 425. That catnip-smoking cat picked Ohio State to win it all, but so did Hip. If Ohio State wins it all, then Hip is still guaranteed to have a better score than “Uncle K.” The best he can hope for now is second place.

The most important thing to remember is this: everyone still has their championship pick in play. The three teams to watch are Florida, Ohio State and North Carolina. Today is perhaps the most important day for Hip. The two teams he’s picked for the championship game, Kansas and Ohio State, play today. If Kansas and especially Ohio State lose today, then it’s all over for Hip.

Tomorrow will be the big day for me and Frank when North Carolina faces Georgetown. If North Carolina loses, then Frank will be out of the Bracket Battle. I’ve got Georgetown making it to the championship game, so if they lose, I’m in big trouble.

Frank                                                        Hip


Uncle Kerouac                                           Wildcat

Bracket Battle 2007, Episode II

Bracket Battle Update

Well, the first weekend of the NCAA Basketball Tournament has come and gone… and some of our brackets are looking pretty bad at this point. Poor Frank isn’t doing too well. In fact, he’s dead last. I’ve held on to the top spot so far, but Hip is hanging in there. Uncle Kerouac on the other hand… well, he’s not doing much better than Frank (at least Uncle K can blame the catnip). Uncle Kerouac has lost three of his final four picks, so odds favor Frank might manage third place before it’s all said and done. That depends on North Carolina.



For those wondering how the score in our bracket battle is tallied, I’ll try to explain. First round picks are worth five points. Second round, ten points. Third round, fifteen points. Fourth round, twenty-five points. The semifinals are worth fifty points, and a correct pick on the championship game is one hundred. If you got every game right, you’d end up with 740 points.

Each of us started with that idyllic 740 points, but each wrong pick deducts points. In the first round, I managed to squeak by with only two wrong picks. That cost me ten points. But that didn’t make my score 730. No, my score at that point was 720. Why? Because, I’d also chosen one of my first round picks to win a second round game. That means I’d already lost another ten points, so after the first round I’d lost a total of twenty points. If that doesn’t make sense… well, then just take my word for it.

If you want to see what our brackets are looking like, then I’ve got them posted below. You can click on each for a larger view. Even in those smaller versions, you can already see quite a lot of red “X’s” in there.

The sad news is that after the second round of the tournament, we’ve lost all of the teams that had “wildcats” for their mascots. Kentucky was the last to go. All the others bit the dust in the first round.

Frank                                                        Hip


Uncle Kerouac                                           Wildcat

Bracket Battle 2007, Episode I