It Tastes Like Chalk: The NCAA Block Squares Pool

Two 5’s, one 6, and one 11. That is what prevents the Sweet 16 from being all chalk. This committee appears to have gotten this tournament seeding correct and I am quite pleased that the best teams in this tournament are being represented. I am also pleased that the non-chalk representatives are teams that we are long familiar with:

• 5-seed San Diego St was in the final game last year and is clearly showing itself to potentially be a power
• 5-seed Gonzaga has been a recent mainstay in the tournament out of the West Coast Conference
• 6-seed Clemson and 11-seed NC State are power conference teams making a strong run from the clearly underrated ACC

So, what do we think now? Well, the 1-seeds are mauling people. This is what we expect from them.  And, with the exception of Kentucky and Auburn (the SEC has been BAD this year), all of the top seeds have played very well. Have there been some close games? Some overtime games? Sure, but that is to be expected in an NCAA tournament. Hell, the Houston-Texas A&M game was only close because four Houston starters fouled out and the other one finished the game with four fouls! So that we are clear, that just doesn’t happen.

Anyway, here is a tweet from The Bear at Fox Sports regarding how vanilla this tournament has been up to now.

The point is that teams that are supposed to be winning are. And if you gamble, you probably did pretty well this weekend. Overall, this will make for a really good and competitive Final Four that I am looking forward to attending this year.

One more thing. The ACC and Big East continue to demonstrate that they are elite in this tournament. The ACC is 8-0 in the Round of 64 and 32 which is tied for the best record in those two rounds with the 2003 Big East (that trash heap we call Virginia lost in the play-in round). As a reminder, that 2003 tournament finished with America’s University as the National Champion! Also, the Big East is 6-0 in this tournament and the West Coast Conference is 4-0. Those three conferences have 9 of the remaining 16 teams!

So, the Block Squares Pool saw Erik Rosales pick up a couple of wins as we close out the 2^nd Round. The winners are shown below.

Starting on Thursday, the dollar values will increase to $100 per game. Good luck everyone.

--Your Commissioner