Comments on: The Unlikeliest Final Four

By: Tegan Merring

Tegan Merring — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:39:34 +0000

She said she thinks Erving recognized her during that first meeting. I stood in line for an autographed ball, and I didnt really want to. And I got there. I just stood in line to see what he looked like. And I got up there, he asked me if I wanted a ball, and I said `no, and I walked away.

By: dinero

dinero — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:50:16 +0000

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By: David Zukerman

David Zukerman — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:45:20 +0000

Anyway to determine if the eight TV timeouts a game have an impact? Seems to me, the flow of the game goes for no more than a bit more than five minutes before there is a pause of four minutes. Then another four minutes or so, and pause of four minutes,
another four minutes of play or so. Paise again four minutes. Then less than four minutes to the half (or end of regulation play).

These pauses — this interference with the normal momentum of play, this removal of the flow of game from control of coaches and players — all this has no impact on results?

Where does the money go? For coaches pay and recruiting costs?

By: deron

deron — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:44:43 +0000

This has been one the strangest tournaments I’ve ever seen. VCU’s win sets up a historic game with Butler, two unranked teams in Final Four game. This occurrence says a lot about college basketball today, anyone can win it all.

http://theresastatforthat.blogspot.com/2011/03/vcu-butler-final-four-matchup-would-be.html

By: BSK

BSK — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:28:24 +0000

Does this include VCU’s “play in” game?

I’m also reminded of a thought experiment I read about (the name eludes me, but I’m sure someone here knows it). The premise was that if a lottery exists such that any individual ticket had such infinitesimal odds of winning as to consider them zero, could it still be assumed that SOMEONE was guaranteed to win the lottery? Basically, if no one had a practical shot to win, then is it possible that no one wins? To apply it here, if we assumed that no Final Four was likely, could we conclude that maybe the Final Four just won’t happen??? I SURE HOPE NOT!

By: AHL

AHL — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:32:36 +0000

What’s sad is that we all saw this coming. Everyone was all “none of the 1 seeds strike me as strong favorites” and yet in that uncertainty many more people went chalk, including national media talking heads (Obama lol). Yet even the more advanced “pick Texas to hedge your bets” analysis didn’t work out so hot. Is there an expected time when someone finally picks the Perfect Bracket?

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:15:38 +0000

If you take away the play-in, VCU’s expected path would be the same as George Mason faced in 2006 (about 0.5%), so the likelihood of the 2011 Final Four would become 0.00017%. That still would make it the most improbable Final Four of the 64-team era, though.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:48:42 +0000

How does it compare if you take out the play in game that VCU had to play?