2015 March Madness is Too Tough

Another year, another March Madness showdown in the JMR family.  For the past five years, I have been pitted against C, G and DLG/Mom.  Without independent research, I am confident that i won the first four so I am now defending my crown to win the JMR for the fifth year in a row! 

This year looks fairly easy to predict.  Easily the two best teams in the brackets are Kentucky and Duke.  Don't get me wrong, i detest both of those programs, but a victory is a victory and victory at any cost tastes just as sweet.  When the teams were announced a couple of weeks ago, I started my challenge with a Championship Game of Kentucky over Duke.  I would then back out my teams from there.  To add some extra pressure on me, Mom declared that she would use my picks as her picks in her work pool.  I asked her if she was going to share her winnings if my picks won.  The answer was not startling to hear.

But little did I know that C has watched more basketball than I have this year.  Apparently, all of the Instagrams and Vines have taught him a little bit about College Basketball this year.  He was ready for the challenge.  Or so he thought.

Can 2015 Be Their Year?

The first couple of rounds (we always disagree about whether the first four games are actually the first round of the pool) were not so kind to the JMR pool.  My South bracket was decimated when Iowa State and Davidson both lost in their respective first games.  I had Davidson going all the way to the Elite 8, in a fit of Stefan Curry overload.  I was not going to get any extra points from that part of the brackets since all four of us had Duke advancing.  Coupling that with a couple of upsets that did not materialize - Buffalo, Albany and Ole Miss come to mind - and I was mired in a tie with DLG and Mom for second place after the first week.  C was winning with 48 points and G was stuck in last place with 37 points, 2 behind us.  I never gave up hope.

Despite being berated by an angry Mom who declared that she should have just made "her own picks" in her work pool, I kept the faith.  All of my Final Four teams remained in tact, and I had a couple of late round upsets that could vault me into the lead.  We will see at the weekend ends.  Below are the standings after the Sweet Sixteen Games were played along with the teams still in:

C:  68 points (Kentucky, ND, Wisconsin, Arizona, Duke)
JMR  67 points (Kentucky, ND, Wisconsin, Arizona, Louisville, MSU, Duke)
DLG/Mom 57 points (Kentucky, Arizona, Louisville, MSU, Duke)
G:  55 points (Kentucky, ND, Duke, Gonzaga)

Points will be updated later this weekend.