March Madness Fantasy 2014 - Elite 8 Results

First, let’s talk about the Sweet Sixteen round. 

Ben had two top performers, both in losing efforts. As predicted, Hogue did benefit from Niang’s absence, and scored a lot of points in a loss for Joe, who also got a big Branden Dawson performance. Stu owned two of the worst players, with Brady Heslip and Keith Appling combining for 10 points. Appling may be the turd of the tourney. Nine drafted players scored fewer points than him, but almost all of them only lasted one game. Drafted #21 overall, he scored 21 points over 4 games, including zero points in the Elite 8 game (due to subtraction for turnovers); that’s the same point total Shane Southwell earned in this tourney. That stinks, and that’s why he’s the Turd of the Tourney ©.

Gav had two of the seven top studs in the Elite Eight.

Overall, 6 of the top 10 scorers so far were owned players, and Dan had two of them. 

Unfortunately for him, he drafted two huge duds: Sean Kilpatrick and Kendall Williams, who combined for 29 points in their first-round exits. 

Gav picked 4 Elite Eight players, like Dan, and his worst pick was a bonus player who grabbed 29.5 points in his loss. 

So, combining those “good” bad picks with Julius Randle, bonus point earner extraordinaire who should become the overall top point scorer on Saturday, Gav in the driver’s seat to win this thing. (This marks the second straight year that Gav has picked a 1.5x-earning player who reached the Final Four; last year he had Wichita State’s Carl Hall.)

What an amazing draft for Gavin. Let’s remember - this guy put together a stud-filled team against all odds. He was on his phone because he couldn’t find his girlfriend’s wifi password, and eating dinner, and not comprehending which players were already drafted and which were still available. This could be the greatest evidence yet that an infinite number of monkeys working for an infinite number of years would type the works of Shakespeare.

Dan 635.5

Gav 629.5

Despite being 6 points behind, Vegas favors Gavin to win it all. Randle’s bonus earnings are an obvious advantage. Dan needs Randle to break his leg, get caught doing something so incredibly illegal that the school or NCAA would suspend him, or even just play basketball very poorly -- something that would cause Wisconsin to advance to the final. However, while Dan’s best scorer, Frank Kaminsky, accumulates points, so will Gav’s other remaining player, point guard Traevon Jackson, his final pick of the draft. 

Dan’s other remaining player, Michael Frazier II, is not one of Florida’s primary threats, and though he has scored a high of 19 in this tourney and a high of 37 (11/18 3-pointers!) this season, he is likely to add only 10 or 12 points per remaining game.

The remaining standings:

 

Joe 547.5

Both Michigan State players reached the 100 point plateau. If Sam Dekker is the only person on the court for the next two games, victory is within reach for Joe.

Ben 501

All out of active players, since Gav drafted all the good ones for himself and picked Ben a team full of Average Adams.

Bob 493

My 'Zona bro did pretty well considering he entered my house minutes before the draft began, and his research took place while waiting for Gav to make his picks.

Brian 485

I thought Daniels over Boatright was a bad choice, but Daniels has been great, scoring 25 more points than the UConn guard.

Chuck 455

Not a lot to say, Chuck. Three really good players was not enough. Not even close. Tyler Ennis is going pro, though, so that should be good for a laugh.

Chris 370.5

Hey, so it didn't work out. Shabazz Napier, though!

Shawn 340

The difference between the first Florida player selected, Prather (#2 overall), and the last, Michael Frazier II (#25 overall), is 6 points. A great team with balanced scoring, folks.

 

Stu 234
Yuck. Gross. Hope you had fun, Stu! Better luck next year!

Here is a graph that kinda makes sense. This is among all players on the spreadsheet, so basically all decent players from all seeds, drafted or not. You can see that the median score is 36, so if you drafted anyone that scored less than that you've got a loser on your team.

I will post the final results on Tuesday, after Monday's championship.
 

March Madness Fantasy 2014 - Round of 32 Results

It turns out that we were all right for lusting after TJ Warren. Despite only playing two games, the ACC player of the year accumulated 106 points. And if his team hadn’t crapped the bed against St. Louis in the second half, he may have surpassed the current point leader, Jarnell Stokes of Tennessee, who has averaged 55 per game, and has 164 total points thanks to his bonus play-in round.

The highest scoring player from a non-bonus earning seed is Cleanthony Early of Wichita State, with 70. Shabazz Napier (68), Xavier Thames (68), Adriean “Major” Payne (62), and Doug McDermott (62) are the next best non-bonus players.

The worst? Well, are we counting Joel Embid, the seventh-round risk that Chris burdened himself with? The only other player on the board to earn zero points was Andre Dawkins of Duke, who went scoreless in seven minutes. At least that guy attempted 5 shots, though, right? At least he laced ‘em up and walked on the court, right?

A whopping 9 other chosen players scored less than 22 total points before their tourney exit. Three belonged to Stu, two to Joe, and two to Dan.

The leaderboard:

Gav 436.5.

5 players left. Riding Randle. Iowa State’s Ejim is his only hope on the other side of the bracket.

Dan 389.

6 players left. Needs Tennessee or anyone but Kentucky to win the Midwest, and Florida’s sixth-best scorer to be dominant.

Brian 369.

3 players left. Sunk by the Shockers loss, unless Isaiah Austin becomes tourney MOP.

Ben 367.

4 players left. Lost Doug McBuckets. Needs a PAC12 vs Michigan final.

Joe 358.5.

5 players left. Providence’s Cotton (73.5 points in one game!) made up for VCU and Iowa picks. Could the Niang injury benefit Hogue's points? Riding 2 Michigan State guys.

Bob 327.

5 players left. Got mileage out of his SF Austin bonus guy. Riding 2 Arizona players.

Chuck 323.

4 players left. Will lose one of his Harrises in the Sweet 16. Riding San Diego State.

 

The loserboard:

 

Shawn 292.

2 players left. Boned by Duke and mediocre white guys from 8+ seeds.

Chris 286.5.

2 players left. Boned by Andrew Wiggins’ egg-laying and drafting a spectator named Joel Embid.

Stu 224.

2 players left. Boned by #1 pick Jabari Parker and Niang’s broken foot and Le’Bryan Nash AND Wayne Selden and even Keith Appling.

 

The next update will be on Monday, or who knows? Maybe Tuesday? Before the Final Four starts, that's 4 sure.

March Madness Fantasy 2014 - The Draft

As we did last year and the previous, uh, maybe five years? Geez, have we done this for five years now? Huh. So yeah: fantasy NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, aka March Madness.

This year’s squads, arranged by draft order:

ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL	OWNER
1	1	Jabari Parker	Duke	Stu
2	20	Georges Niang	Iowa State	Stu
3	21	Keith Appling	Michigan State	Stu
4	40	CJ Fair	Syracuse	Stu
5	41	Lebryant Nash	Oklahoma State	Stu
6	60	Brady Heslip	Baylor	Stu
7	61	Wayne Selden Jr.	Kansas	Stu
8	80	James Micheal Macadoo	UNC	Stu
1	2	Casey Prather	Florida	Shawn
2	19	Rodney Hood	Duke	Shawn
3	22	James Bell	Villanova	Shawn
4	39	Tyler Haws	BYU	Shawn
5	42	Cory Jefferson	Baylor	Shawn
6	59	Treveon Graham	VCU	Shawn
7	62	Taylor Braun	North Dakota State	Shawn
8	79	Shaq Goodwin	Memphis	Shawn
1	3	Doug McDermott	Creighton	Ben
2	18	DeAndre Kane	Iowa State	Ben
3	23	Jordan Adams	UCLA	Ben
4	38	Caris LeVert	Michigan	Ben
5	43	Markel Brown	Oklahoma State	Ben
6	58	Buddy Hield	OU	Ben
7	63	Jahii Carson	Arizona State	Ben
8	78	Dwight Powell	Stanford	Ben
1	4	Melvin Ejim	Iowa State	Gav
2	17	Marcus Smart	Oklahoma State	Gav
3	24	Nik Stauskas	Michigan	Gav
4	37	Josh Scott	Colorado	Gav
5	44	Julius Randle	Kentucky	Gav
6	57	Lamar Patterson	Pitt	Gav
7	64	Kaleb Tarczewski	Arizona	Gav
8	77	Traevon Jackson	Wisconsin	Gav
1	5	Nick Johnson	Arizona	Dan
2	16	Montrezl Harrell	Louisville	Dan
3	25	Michael Frazier II	Florida	Dan
4	36	Frank Kaminsky	Wisconsin	Dan
5	45	Sean Kilpatrick	Cincinnati	Dan
6	56	Jarnell Stokes	Tennessee	Dan
7	65	Kendall Williams	New Mexico	Dan
8	76	Glenn Robinson III	Michigan	Dan
1	6	Aaron Gordon	Arizona	Bob
2	15	Patric Young	Florida	Bob
3	26	TJ McConnell	Arizona	Bob
4	35	Malcom Brogdon	Virginia	Bob
5	46	Darrun Hilliard	Villanova	Bob
6	55	Rasheed Sulaimon	Duke	Bob
7	66	Ben Brust	Wisconsin	Bob
8	75	Jacob Parker	SF Austin	Bob
1	7	Russ Smith	Louisville	Joe
2	14	Adreian Payne	Michigan State	Joe
3	27	Branden Dawson	Michigan State	Joe
4	34	Sam Dekker	Wisconsin	Joe
5	47	Bryce Cotton	Providence	Joe
6	54	Dustin Hogue	Iowa State	Joe
7	67	Juvonte Reddic	VCU	Joe
8	74	Roy Devyn Marble	Iowa	Joe
1	8	Andrew Wiggins	Kansas	Chris R
2	13	Kyle Anderson	UCLA	Chris R
3	28	Fred Van Vleet	Wichita State	Chris R
4	33	Isaiah Armwood	George Washington	Chris R
5	48	Shabazz Napier	UConn	Chris R
6	53	Cameron Bairstow	New Mexico	Chris R
7	68	Joel Embiid	Kansas	Chris R
8	73	Marcus Paige	UNC	Chris R
1	9	Cleanthony Early	Wichita State	Brian R
2	12	Dorian Finney Smith	Florida	Brian R
3	29	Ron Baker	Wichita State	Brian R
4	32	JayVaughn Pinkston	Villanova	Brian R
5	49	Isaiah Austin	Baylor	Brian R
6	52	Joe Jackson	Memphis	Brian R
7	69	DeAndre Daniels	UConn	Brian R
8	72	Langston Galloway	St. Joe's	Brian R
1	10	Gary Harris	Michigan State	Chuck
2	11	Scottie Wilbekin	Florida	Chuck
3	30	Xavier Thames	San Diego State	Chuck
4	31	Perry Ellis	Kansas	Chuck
5	50	Quinn Cook	Duke	Chuck
6	51	Tyler Ennis	Syracuse	Chuck
7	70	Tekele Cotton	Wichita State	Chuck
8	71	Joe Harris	Virginia	Chuck

ALL YOUR TEAM ARE BELONG TO US

Five Florida players were chosen, followed by four players each from Arizona, Duke, Iowa St, Kansas, Michigan St, Wichita St, and Wisconsin. The only 8+ seed with 3 players selected was Oklahoma State.

NO THANKS

1-4 seeds with fewest players chosen:

1 seed Virginia, 2

3 seed Creighton, 1

3 seed Syracuse, 2

4 seed San Diego State, 1

PLAYING FAVORITES

Half of the chosen players came from 1, 2, and 3 seeds, and 50% of these were drafted during the first three rounds.  Bob chose the most players from a 1 seed - he has a whopping 4, while Brian and Chuck have 3. Ben, Joe, and Stu have no players from a 1 seed.

GAMBLIN’ GAV

22.5% came from 8+ seeds - these players earn a 1.5x bonus on their points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. Gav had the most 8+ seed selections, with 4, all from 8 and 9 seeds. Ben and Shawn had 3. Joe picked two 11 seed players, including an Iowa player in a play-in game. Dan was the only other play-in owner, picking a Tennessee player. Everyone wanted to pick TJ Warren from NC State’s play-in game, but it was forbidden due to the draft overlapping with the actual game. Stu, Dan, Chris and Bob only chose one player each from a 8+ seed.

EAST COAST BIAS

The most players were chosen from the East region (23), followed by the South (21), West (19), and Midwest (17). Chris was the only one who didn’t select a player from each region, neglecting the West. Brian, Chris, and Joe have the least balanced teams, with 4 players each from one region. No one chose a perfectly balanced bracket of 2 players from each region.

REALLY POINTLESS DATA

The most frequently chosen first names of players are DeAndre, Isaiah, James, Joe, Marcus, Traveon, and Tyler - two of each were picked. Throw in Nick if you count Nik as the same name. Among all decent tournament players, the most frequent name seems to be Jordan; I count 5, and the UCLA one was chosen by Ben.

The next update will be posted around Monday, after the rounds of 64 and 32 are over.