Five Friends Keep 14-Year March Madness Tradition Alive Despite Pandemic
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| From left to right: Justin, Jaryd, Carl, Logan, Michael |
"Guys I'm not yet bailing on March. When I am home tonight we should group chat. I have ideas."
Those words, sent to the four of us by Michael shortly after the official announcement of the cancelation of March Madness, put into motion one of the most epic weekends amidst one of our planet's darkest stretches.
The five of us live for March Madness. It's been our national holiday since we stepped on Mizzou's campus together 14 years ago. Specifically, the first Thursday - Sunday of the tournament is our haven.
It was easy at first. We all lived in the same dorm in 2007, so all we had to do was skip our classes, hook a few TVs up in one of our rooms and set up shop. That transitioned to apartments the next two years and finally a house for our final year together in 2010.
When we went our separate ways after college, the thing that brought us back together every year was the tournament. Even when Michael lived in Seattle, Albuquerque, Minneapolis or Denver, when Justin lived in Portland, Logan in Little Rock, Carl in St. Louis or myself in Colorado Springs or Atlanta, we always put in PTO with our bosses and got together for 96 hours to watch those first 48 games. Sometimes it was Vegas. Sometimes St. Louis, where three of us now live. But we didn't care where, as long as we were together.
Michael and I had flights booked to St. Louis to meet up with the rest of the gang again this year prior to the cancelation. Determined not to let that stop us from having our March Madness, we concocted a plan that turned out so well, we felt it was worth sharing. Not because we want attention, but to bring hope and inspiration to those who might feel a bit down right now because their sense of "normal" has been temporarily halted. You may be stuck at home, but you don't have to let being at home stop you from creatively keeping your normal routine.
THE IDEA
The tournament may have been canceled, but having our own bracket and playing CPU vs. CPU video games could still happen. Logan still owns a PS3 and Justin has the technical expertise & equipment to connect gaming consoles to live streaming platforms; in this case it was Facebook. Since Logan and Justin both live in St. Louis, Michael bought NCAA Basketball 10 (the most recent edition prior to EA Sports discontinuing the franchise), had it shipped to Logan's place in time for Thursday, and we were off.
THE SETUP
Now it was my turn. I was tasked with creating a bracket, using 2020 team performance and NCAA bracketing rules & principles. Bracket Matrix was my go-to here as they aggregate 90 different brackets and rankings from around the Internet. I combined their rankings with a few other algorithms, as well as my own eye test and plotted the teams out into the bracket below:
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| Image via PrintYourBrackets.com |
(Bracket Notes: The bracket in the NCAA Basketball 10 game only allows for 64 teams, so four at-large teams that would have made the field got left out. Also, North Carolina Central and Northern Kentucky are not in the 2010 game, so they were replaced by the next best teams in their respective conferences: North Carolina A&T and Wright State).
I next had to compile 2020 team video game rankings so that we could adjust the skill of the teams in the 2010 game. I did this loosely following Jeff Sagarin's composite rankings, which have a similar enough score as what a video game would have. I sent the bracket and the team rankings to Logan so he could adjust the team skill levels and build the bracket in the video game. For Carl, Michael and Justin, the bracket would have to wait - that's right...an official Selection Show was coming!
On Thursday at 12:15 p.m. ET, the five of us got on a group FaceTime and cracked open a beer; a customary tradition that we've always done as the first game tipped off. On this particular day, it was Selection Show time. In a manner I hope would have made Greg Gumbel proud, I read through the bracket, revealing it region by region.
We then broke for a few hours so everyone could fill out their brackets, because yeah...we're doing a pool. I created an Excel workbook that gave everyone the opportunity to fill out their bracket and send it back, including my wife, Carl's wife and Michael's girlfriend, for a total of eight entries. As an added surprise, I also used the two-hour break to run simulations of all the games on various websites to come up with game spreads and moneyline odds for each game. A tab in the workbook showed the lines, and throughout the weekend I acted as the house, taking bets from any of the guys who wanted to participate.
After the break, we were back on group FaceTime and the games were off. Justin streamed the feed to his Facebook profile so we could all watch on a second screen, and Logan ran the tournament, setting up CPU vs. CPU games. We decided to make the halves six minutes each (yes, that was factored in when making spreads), figuring we could get through the tournament in three days that way. NCAA 10 allows you to make your own bracket and plays the games in random order each round, so it truly felt like we were sitting there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday watching the tournament.
A near-stunner happened in Omaha, where the number 1 overall seed Kansas trailed NC A&T most of the game. Down two late, a loose ball turned into a game-tying buzzer beater for the Jayhawks, who pulled away in overtime to beat the bracket's other replacement team.
As Mizzou fans, there's always a part of us that wants Kansas to lose, as you can tell by the reaction above.
Even Carl's dog was on the edge of her seat:
A second 2 seed fell on Day 2 as Little Rock stunned Creighton in St. Louis with a wire-to-wire win. Meanwhile, another 1 seed, the Gonzaga Bulldogs, needed a late free throw to escape with a one-point win over 16 seed Siena.
Things really started to get good in the Round of 32. The remaining 2 seeds, San Diego State and Florida State, both lost, leaving no 2 seeds in the Sweet Sixteen as Big Ten foes Indiana (a 10 seed) and Illinois (a 7 seed) pulled off the respective upsets. As for the 15 seeds? Wright State continued its magical run with a win over 7 seed Michigan, while Oklahoma was bailed out by a last-second foul call in a one-point win over Little Rock.
THE RESULTS
It didn't take long for Madness to ensue. In the second game of the Round of 64, 15 seed Wright State put the clamps on 2 seed Villanova late, finishing on an 8-0 run to pull off the stunner. A reminder: the Raiders would not have been in the bracket this year, but we wanted to give the Horizon League a bid since Northern Kentucky isn't in the 2010 game.A near-stunner happened in Omaha, where the number 1 overall seed Kansas trailed NC A&T most of the game. Down two late, a loose ball turned into a game-tying buzzer beater for the Jayhawks, who pulled away in overtime to beat the bracket's other replacement team.
As Mizzou fans, there's always a part of us that wants Kansas to lose, as you can tell by the reaction above.
Even Carl's dog was on the edge of her seat:
A second 2 seed fell on Day 2 as Little Rock stunned Creighton in St. Louis with a wire-to-wire win. Meanwhile, another 1 seed, the Gonzaga Bulldogs, needed a late free throw to escape with a one-point win over 16 seed Siena.
Things really started to get good in the Round of 32. The remaining 2 seeds, San Diego State and Florida State, both lost, leaving no 2 seeds in the Sweet Sixteen as Big Ten foes Indiana (a 10 seed) and Illinois (a 7 seed) pulled off the respective upsets. As for the 15 seeds? Wright State continued its magical run with a win over 7 seed Michigan, while Oklahoma was bailed out by a last-second foul call in a one-point win over Little Rock.
Things got even better in the Sweet Sixteen. Three of the four 1 seeds lost their matchups. 4 seed Kentucky used a barrage of late threes to beat Dayton, 5 seed BYU shocked Baylor with a three at the buzzer and 4 seed Wisconsin rallied from 11 down with four minutes left to steal an Elite Eight appearance from Kansas.
Lots of love for Bucky as you can see above, except from Logan, who had Kansas winning it all and was eliminated from our pool when they lost.
Meanwhile, Wright State's run ended when a game-winning three at the buzzer rimmed out against 3 seed Michigan State. And in a battle of Big Ten teams, 6 seed Penn State beat Illinois on a buzzer-beating layup while Indiana became the only double digit seed to reach the Elite Eight by topping 3 seed Maryland.
The Big Ten, which had a conference-leading 10 teams in the field, went 18-6 in the first three rounds to place four teams in the final eight, but none made it to Atlanta. Duke broke a tie in the final second with a four-point play to top Wisconsin, Kentucky ran by Indiana, Gonzaga handled Michigan State and BYU topped Penn State.
The Final Four featured a WCC showdown between Gonzaga and BYU, and it was the hot-shooting Cougars who came out victorious. This game sealed a bracket pool victory for Carl's wife, who's original Bracket entry was named "Stupid Video Game Tournament". On the other side, Kentucky beat Duke in a battle of bluebloods to set up a 4 seed Kentucky vs. a 5 seed BYU showdown for the title.
This is how the national championship game ended:
That's right. The SEC Champion Wildcats took home the crown on a buzzer beater. The ending could not have been more perfect.
We all left FaceTime on Saturday night feeling a bit nostalgic and sad that it was over. Which is how we usually feel Sunday when we all go our separate ways after the Round of 32. That's how we know we did something right. As Michael said in a follow-up group chat: "I am proud we made the tough decision to stay home, and it turned out to be a monumental weekend. The beach will always be there. March Madness will return. Things will get back to normal. But for now we need to do the right thing."
We hope our story inspires others to stay home and find creative ways to stay connected. You never know...you might end up with your own version of a walk-off shot to win the championship.
And on that note, we leave you with this:
Lots of love for Bucky as you can see above, except from Logan, who had Kansas winning it all and was eliminated from our pool when they lost.
Meanwhile, Wright State's run ended when a game-winning three at the buzzer rimmed out against 3 seed Michigan State. And in a battle of Big Ten teams, 6 seed Penn State beat Illinois on a buzzer-beating layup while Indiana became the only double digit seed to reach the Elite Eight by topping 3 seed Maryland.
The Big Ten, which had a conference-leading 10 teams in the field, went 18-6 in the first three rounds to place four teams in the final eight, but none made it to Atlanta. Duke broke a tie in the final second with a four-point play to top Wisconsin, Kentucky ran by Indiana, Gonzaga handled Michigan State and BYU topped Penn State.
The Final Four featured a WCC showdown between Gonzaga and BYU, and it was the hot-shooting Cougars who came out victorious. This game sealed a bracket pool victory for Carl's wife, who's original Bracket entry was named "Stupid Video Game Tournament". On the other side, Kentucky beat Duke in a battle of bluebloods to set up a 4 seed Kentucky vs. a 5 seed BYU showdown for the title.
This is how the national championship game ended:
That's right. The SEC Champion Wildcats took home the crown on a buzzer beater. The ending could not have been more perfect.
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| Image via PrintYourBrackets.com |
We all left FaceTime on Saturday night feeling a bit nostalgic and sad that it was over. Which is how we usually feel Sunday when we all go our separate ways after the Round of 32. That's how we know we did something right. As Michael said in a follow-up group chat: "I am proud we made the tough decision to stay home, and it turned out to be a monumental weekend. The beach will always be there. March Madness will return. Things will get back to normal. But for now we need to do the right thing."
We hope our story inspires others to stay home and find creative ways to stay connected. You never know...you might end up with your own version of a walk-off shot to win the championship.
And on that note, we leave you with this:
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