March Madness Fantasy - Round of 64

Well, I had a nice vacation. Gav was over here, and we stared at these screens and Sean Connery and the "You Work, I Win" opulent pig flyer and the notecards marking U-Verse's channels for the 4 networks showing the tournament games.

As is March tradition, Gav brought Major Peters with him. We had some bloody marys and some beers and some Texas chili (3/4 of a cup of chili powder is ludicrous, use 1/4 cup instead) and some imitation cheetos and some beers and some peanut M&Ms and some brownies and some blueberry muffins and some OJ and some Johnsonville andouille sausages and some sweet potato fries.

Gav also helped with data entry, and I crunched the numbers this morning after restocking on groceries ahead of the class 3 snow killstorm. Here is the leaderboard - note that the "Active" column indicates if the player's team won and advanced to the current round.

Owner	Player	School	Active	Game0	Game1	Total
Brian G	Marcus Smart	Oklahoma State	No	0	22	22
	C.J. Leslie	North Carolina State	No	0	40.5	40.5
	C.J. Fair	Syracuse	Yes	0	16	16
	Brandon Triche	Syracuse	Yes	0	23	23
	Tim Hardaway Jr.	Michigan	Yes	0	25	25
	Deshaun Thomas	Ohio State	Yes	0	29	29
	Allen Crabbe	California	Yes	0	44	44
	P.J. Hairston	North Carolina	Yes	0	47	47
				0	246.5	246.5
Alex	Rodney McGruder	Kansas State	No	0	21	21
	Shabazz Muhammad	UCLA	No	0	24	24
	Anthony Bennett	UNLV	No	0	26	26
	Romero Osby	Oklahoma	No	0	47	47
	Rotnei Clarke	Butler	Yes	0	20	20
	Jeff Withey	Kansas	Yes	0	28	28
	Jamaal Franklin	San Diego State	Yes	0	32	32
	Doug McDermott	Creighton	Yes	0	34	34
				0	232	232
Dan	Nate Wolters	South Dakota State	No	0	28.5	28.5
	Ian Clark	Belmont	No	0	32	32
	Matthew Dellavedova	Saint Mary's	No	46	24	70
	Peyton Siva	Louisville	Yes	0	13	13
	Cody Zeller	Indiana	Yes	0	14	14
	Lenzelle Smith, Jr.	Ohio State	Yes	0	15	15
	Patric Young	Florida	Yes	0	26	26
	Seth Curry	Duke	Yes	0	32	32
				46	184.5	230.5
Chris	Mike Muscala	Bucknell	No	0	28	28
	Travis Releford	Kansas	Yes	0	14	14
	Gorgui Dieng	Louisville	Yes	0	14	14
	Perry Ellis	Kansas	Yes	0	16	16
	Keith Appling	Michigan State	Yes	0	22	22
	Marshall Henderson	Mississippi	Yes	0	33	33
	Murphy Holloway	Mississippi	Yes	0	33	33
	Khalif Wyatt	Temple	Yes	0	56	56
				0	216	216
Shawn	Le'Bryan Nash	Oklahoma State	No	0	12	12
	Andre Roberson	Colorado	No	0	28	28
	Alex Kirk	New Mexico	No	0	33	33
	Adreian Payne	Michigan State	Yes	0	8	8
	Vander Blue	Marquette	Yes	0	18	18
	Victor Oladipo	Indiana	Yes	0	19	19
	Juvonte Reddic	VCU	Yes	0	27	27
	Trevor Mbakwe	Minnesota	Yes	0	32.5	32.5
				0	177.5	177.5
Brian R	Steven Pledger	Oklahoma	No	0	7.5	7.5
	Sean Kilpatrick	Cincinnati	No	0	34	34
	Solomon Hill	Arizona	Yes	0	12	12
	Adonis Thomas	Memphis	Yes	0	14	14
	Ben McLemore	Kansas	Yes	0	16	16
	E.J. Singler	Oregon	Yes	0	21.5	21.5
	James Michael McAdoo	North Carolina	Yes	0	29.5	29.5
	Derrick Nix	Michigan State	Yes	0	37	37
				0	171.5	171.5
Bobby	Anthony Drmic	Boise State	No	46	0	46
	Chane Behanan	Louisville	Yes	0	8	8
	Aaron Craft	Ohio State	Yes	0	10	10
	Trey Burke	Michigan	Yes	0	13	13
	Scottie Wilbekin	Florida	Yes	0	14	14
	Durand Scott	Miami	Yes	0	24	24
	Erik Murphy	Florida	Yes	0	27	27
	Mason Plumlee	Duke	Yes	0	29	29
				46	125	171
James	Otto Porter Jr.	Georgetown	No	0	26	26
	Richard Howell	North Carolina State	No	0	41.5	41.5
	Treveon Graham	VCU	Yes	0	8	8
	James Southerland	Syracuse	Yes	0	13	13
	Elias Harris	Gonzaga	Yes	0	13	13
	Christian Watford	Indiana	Yes	0	16	16
	Michael Carter-Williams	Syracuse	Yes	0	19	19
	Reggie Bullock	North Carolina	Yes	0	30	30
				0	166.5	166.5
Gavin	Elijah Johnson	Kansas	Yes	0	7	7
	Kevin Young	Kansas	Yes	0	12	12
	Ryan Kelly	Duke	Yes	0	15	15
	Shane Larkin	Miami	Yes	0	20	20
	Carl Hall	Wichita State	Yes	0	23.5	23.5
	Colton Iverson	Colorado State	Yes	0	27.5	27.5
	Kelly Olynyk	Gonzaga	Yes	0	29	29
	Dwayne Evans	Saint Louis	Yes	0	31	31
				0	165	165
Peter	Angel Rodriguez	Kansas State	No	0	4	4
	Marcos Knight	Middle Tennessee	No	42	0	42
	Mike Rosario	Florida	Yes	0	10	10
	Kenny Kadji	Miami	Yes	0	10	10
	Kenny Boynton	Florida	Yes	0	13	13
	Will Clyburn	Iowa State	Yes	0	15.5	15.5
	Quinn Cook	Duke	Yes	0	17	17
	Russ Smith	Louisville	Yes	0	22	22
				42	91.5	133.5

Gavin noticed that the player he drafted for Georgetown has been out for some time with academic issues, so we replaced that guy with Kevin Young of KU. This was done prior to KU's tipoff, so it was nice and legal. As a result, Gav was the only owner to have all his players survive into the round of 32. Chris and Bobby had 7 of 8 players advance. Alex was hit hardest, with half of his players taken down.

The top performers came from players earning the 1.5x scoring bonus. Chris' early 4th round choice of Temple's Wyatt paid off huge, with 56 points. Each drafted play-in game (Game 0) player did okay; Dan had the only one who made it to the round of 64, earning 70 total points. Had Dellavedova hit his buzzer beater against Memphis, he'd be earning more points today.

The final player selected showed his lack of worth in K-State's loss to La Salle -- Angel scored 4 lousy points, including his terrible, terrible desperation shot from behind the backboard to end the game. Aaron Craft is on this list? OH GODDAMN IT I FORGOT TO INCLUDE STEALS IN THE FORMULA. I think we axed them last year, but I told people they counted this year. So I guess I can add them back. I'll do it next round, because it would take me another hour or so to re-format this junk.

Derrick Nix of Michigan State and PJ Hairston of UNC are the top late-round performers so far.

Here is a histogram. It's pretty fun, I guess. Some poor bastard from Akron had a negative 1 output due to turnovers. 3 La Salle players make up the top 6 scorers, including the top 2.

March Madness Fantasy 2013 - The Draft

Yeah, so the blog. It's still a thing. I was working on something for a series of posts, and I wasn't able to get it all put together, but I will soon, so in the meantime--

For the past few years, we've developed a fantasy league for the NCAA basketball tournament. Your score is based on your players points, rebounds, steals, blocks, and assists, and you get a 1.5x bonus for selecting players from "bad" teams - those seeded 8-16. One point is subtracted for each turnover.

I will post our fantasy shenanigans here this year, rather using mass emails.

The draft was last night; it was conducted via seedy chat room rather than a Google Hangout or whatever the kids use these days. Here are the teams, in order of the first round of the draft:

PETER

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	1	1	Louisville	Russ Smith
2	20	3	Florida	Kenny Boynton
3	21	2	Miami	Kenny Kadji
4	40	10	Iowa State	Will Clyburn
5	41	2	Duke	Quinn Cook
6	61	3	Florida	Mike Rosario
7	60	11	Middle Tennessee	Marcos Knight
8	80	4	Kansas State	Angel Rodriguez

ALEX

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	2	1	Kansas	Jeff Withey
2	19	7	Creighton	Doug McDermott
3	22	5	UNLV	Anthony Bennett
4	39	4	Kansas State	Rodney McGruder
5	42	7	San Diego State	Jamaal Franklin
6	59	10	Oklahoma	Romero Osby
7	62	6	UCLA	Shabazz Muhammad
8	79	6	Butler	Rotnei Clarke

DAN

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	3	1	Indiana	Cody Zeller
2	18	2	Duke	Seth Curry
3	23	1	Louisville	Peyton Siva
4	38	13	South Dakota State	Nate Wolters
5	43	3	Florida	Patric Young
6	58	11	Saint Mary's	Matthew Dellavedova
7	63	11	Belmont	Ian Clark
8	78	2	Ohio State	Lenzelle Smith, Jr.

JAMES

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	4	2	Georgetown	Otto Porter Jr.
2	17	1	Gonzaga	Elias Harris
3	24	1	Indiana	Christian Watford
4	37	4	Syracuse	Michael Carter-Williams
5	44	8	North Carolina	Reggie Bullock
6	57	4	Syracuse	James Southerland
7	64	8	North Carolina State	Richard Howell
8	77	5	VCU	Treveon Graham

BRIAN G

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	5	2	Ohio State	Deshaun Thomas
2	16	5	Oklahoma State	Marcus Smart
3	25	4	Syracuse	C.J. Fair
4	36	4	Michigan	Tim Hardaway Jr.
5	45	12	California	Allen Crabbe
6	56	4	Syracuse	Brandon Triche
7	65	8	North Carolina State	C.J. Leslie
8	76	8	North Carolina	P.J. Hairston

BRIAN R

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	6	1	Kansas	Ben McLemore
2	15	8	North Carolina	James Michael McAdoo
3	26	10	Cincinnati	Sean Kilpatrick
4	35	6	Arizona	Solomon Hill
5	46	12	Oregon	E.J. Singler
6	55	6	Memphis	Adonis Thomas
7	66	3	Michigan State	Derrick Nix
8	75	10	Oklahoma	Steven Pledger

GAVIN

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	7	1	Gonzaga	Kelly Olynyk
2	14	2	Duke	Ryan Kelly
3	27	2	Miami	Shane Larkin
4	34	2	Georgetown	Greg Whittington
5	47	8	Colorado State	Colton Iverson
6	54	9	Wichita State	Carl Hall
7	67	1	Kansas	Elijah Johnson
8	74	4	Saint Louis	Dwayne Evans

CHRIS

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	8	1	Louisville	Gorgui Dieng
2	13	11	Bucknell	Mike Muscala
3	28	3	Michigan State	Keith Appling
4	33	9	Temple	Khalif Wyatt
5	48	1	Kansas	Travis Releford
6	53	12	Mississippi	Murphy Holloway
7	68	12	Mississippi	Marshall Henderson
8	73	1	Kansas	Perry Ellis

SHAWN

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	9	1	Indiana	Victor Oladipo
2	12	3	Michigan State	Adreian Payne
3	29	5	VCU	Juvonte Reddic
4	32	5	Oklahoma State	Le'Bryan Nash
5	49	11	Minnesota	Trevor Mbakwe
6	52	10	Colorado	Andre Roberson
7	69	3	Marquette	Vander Blue
8	72	3	New Mexico	Alex Kirk

BOBBY

Round

Selection

Seed

Team

Player

1	10	2	Duke	Mason Plumlee
2	11	4	Michigan	Trey Burke
3	30	1	Louisville	Chane Behanan
4	31	3	Florida	Erik Murphy
5	50	2	Ohio State	Aaron Craft
6	51	2	Miami	Durand Scott
7	70	3	Florida	Scottie Wilbekin
8	71	13	Boise State	Anthony Drmic

BONUS BROS
Dan and both Brians each drafted 3 players from teams seeded 8 and above, hoping to benefit from those sweet sweet bonus points. But no man gambled more than Chris, who chose 4 bonus players, including 2 Mississippi teammates.

DAYTON DUEL
Bobby chose a Boise State player (his only drafted bonus point player), so he has a vested interest in the Wednesday night play-in game versus La Salle. Peter and Dan drafted play-in game participants as well - they face off against each other Tuesday night. They literally face off - Dan's player is the St. Mary's point guard, and Peter's is the Middle Tennessee State point guard.

PERRY WRINKLE
Chris chose Perry Ellis with his last selection rather than the player who Ellis subs in for, KU starter Kevin Young. (Young was later drafted by proxy for Alex, who also said, "No thanks" and selected a Butler guard instead.) Ellis averaged just under 6 points and 4 rebounds per game this season. That's a lot of faith put into a guy whose biggest game totals came against the undersized forwards of Iowa State and Kansas State.

SYRACUSE SIMILARITIES
James and Brian G each have 2 Syracuse players, plus a player each from North Carolina and North Carolina State.

BIG LEAST
Brian R is the only person who does not have at least one player from each region. He didn't draft anyone from the East. The number of players chosen by region breakdown: South 25, Midwest 21, East 19, West 15.

GATOR AIDES
5 players each were chosen from Florida and Kansas, but as we've already noted one of those KU players barely counts. 4 players each were taken from Syracuse, Louisville, and Duke. 3 each from Indiana, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina (the only 8+ seed with this many players drafted), and Ohio State.

I guess that's enough analysis for now. Oh also: I could not be more disappointed that no one chose a player from LIU-Brooklyn.

Last year at this time, I was on a lot of prednisone and typed a shitload of stuff about the tournament. You can read all that in the archives, start here and move forward. It'll get you in the mood for March Madness.

2012 Recap - Motion Pictures

2012 films reviewed, from best to worst. Sorry it's a little late, but I wanted to wait until I saw Zero Dark Thirty before I ranked my list. Good thing I did, cuz:

Zero Dark Thirty*

This was very affecting. You have probably read about the scenes depicting detainee torture, or the use of real 9/11 recordings -- these did not impact me as much as less controversial scenes, ones where the historical truths were likely enhanced by a great screenwriter. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it inspired feelings of true respect and admiration for the people who devote their lives to their (very difficult) jobs. The issues with Argo I discuss below (fact vs fiction regarding movies based on real life, knowing how it ends) do not exist with Zero Dark Thirty.

The Cabin in the Woods*

Original, smart, and the most fun movie watching experience of the year. I’m not very familiar with Joss Whedon type stuff, and his association with it was not a selling point for me; also, I am not very into scary movies. This was a really pleasant surprise. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching it without reading any reviews, watching any trailers, or even reading the Netflix summary.

21 Jump Street

I originally had this ranked lower, but is there anything not to like about this movie? I guess you could say the plot is stupid and it’s a cash-grab reboot, but I would counter with: it is very funny when Ice Cube yells at people.

Django Unchained*

It falls a hair short of greatness because of a less than amazing ending, but it’s still excellent and exactly what I want from a Tarantino movie. Well, Inglorious Basterds is technically EXACTLY what I want, but this was good. Really good. DiCaprio plays his role with such gusto that I wish he would choose more absurd roles -- he’d nail Anchorman 2 or Step Brothers 2.

Skyfall*
The Dark Knight Rises*
The Avengers*

I am lumping these together, since they all featured people held captive in places they weren't supposed to be able to escape. And if you count The Dark Knight Rises as a continuation of The Dark Knight, you've got three movies with villains who got caught on purpose. Here’s hoping Hollywood cools it with that plot. I place Skyfall at the top because it looked the nicest, courtesy of the Coen brothers’ cinematographer. Hey, so did he bone Moneypenny in that hotel? Is that left to our imaginations? Seems like he would’ve, but Moneypenny lore tells us that they only flirt. Talking in the Bane voice will be the gift that keeps on giving for years to come, as will jokes about Hawkeye’s uselessness. Congrats on being the new Aquaman, Jeremy Renner! Finally, I am more than a little concerned that the awfulness of Iron Man 2 has hardened my heart too much to love him ever again.

Looper*

Rian Johnson is very good at making movies, and he has become a Wes Anderson, see-whatever-he-makes guy. I could have done without the Rainmaker part of the plot, but the premise and execution were great, especially for a difficult-to-pull-off time travel movie. I look forward to re-watching this every time it’s on TNT. Kudos to me for being super observant and learning that Emily Blunt was the chick in this during the closing credits.

Moonrise Kingdom*

Everything was good except for the McDormand/Willis affair subplot, and the part where the kid got hit by lightning. The latter was the first time I was ever confused by a Wes Anderson scene, unless you count the intentional confusion he sparked when explaining the rules of Whack Ball in The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Oh, also I agree with Gabe at Videogum: "I found the scenes where they were painting and dancing on the beach in their underwear made some people, hard to say which people, a little uncomfortable. Did you know the actress was only 12 at the time of filming? Eek!"

Silver Linings Playbook*

I think David O Russell is great. I loved The Fighter even though I’m never excited to watch boxing, and I Heart Huckabees was much enjoyed. This movie was interestingly directed, even though it was really just a rom com. The camera really moved around and did interesting things. Bradley Cooper impressed me. Still, I wonder if the message of the film was a little too “medicine can’t cure your mental illness, but dancing and the love of a good woman can!”

Argo*

This is a well-assembled film about a historical event. When you know the history, the suspense it removed. Even if you don’t know, you can still be sure that there’s a happy ending. Everybody knows Hollywood wouldn't say, “Hey, remember when we tried to rescue those hostages in Iran, and they got all the way to the airport, but then their cover was blown and they were gruesomely executed? Let’s put it on the silver screen!” I was too conscious of these things to love the movie. Too much, “They had to add this in the script - it’s too silly to have really happened,” and “Whoa it must have cost a fortune to get the license to that Zeppelin song.” So why is there so much awards buzz for Argo but not Zero Dark Thirty? Because Hollywood likes to jerk itself off by congratulating themselves for their not-all-that-spectacular association with the hostage rescue? Way to go, guys! Way to not refuse to do a few small things to help free hostages!

Wanderlust*

Watching this in the theater with my Stella-loving friends = A+. Watching this on video with less invested people = B-.

The Bourne Legacy*

Nick and I saw this because he had promised to see Premium Rush with somebody else. I was not excited to see the new Bourne, but it was good enough to win me over. Rachel Weisz looked shockingly young to me, hubba hubba. The action scenes were fine, but I’m pretty sure this Bourne killed more civilians than the previous one. Security guards and cops are NOT BAD GUYS, Bourne! Or whatever your name is, Bourne Legacy guy!

Haywire*

We psyched ourselves up to see this last winter, when it was the first new movie to be released in weeks that looked bearable. And it was bearable! Punch, kick, Michael Douglas, karate chop, Michael Fassbender, car chase, Dublin rooftops, Antonio Banderas! The only bad thing about seeing Haywire was trying to find someone else who had also seen it.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Oh Jeff, will you ever stop living at home? This movie is essentially the bar for a decent rental experience. Above Jeff is good, below Jeff is bad, and equal to Jeff is Jeff. Meh.

The Hunger Games*

I already wrote about my Hunger Games experience in detail. Between the lack of exposition and emotional depth, the CGI was very poor, like a movie the SyFy channel would make.

The Queen of Versailles

Maybe it was an effect of watching it while preparing for a colonoscopy, but I didn’t care for the documentary subjects’ trash reality TV vibe.

*Denotes theater viewing, and the expectations that accompany such ventures

On The Wall

Whoa, it's been so long since I've updated you about the walls I stare at every workday. After a year and a half or so, things have changed -- I now have things hanging from all non-window sides!

Straight ahead, you can see part of my mom's Xmas gift, wrapping some old T-shirts I selected around foam board. You've got Lollapalooza '96 on the left, then the front and back of my Smashing Pumpkins' Infinite Sadness Tour shirt, and the back of a Meat Puppets shirt that my brother got me. I always love that Meat Puppets art -- I used to doodle it.

On the right are photos I took of statues while on various trips, framed in the cheapest thing Wal-Mart had to offer. In the middle is the Prometheus from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, then the upper left is a WWI soldier from Bushmills, moving clockwise it's U.S. Grant in D.C.; a Civil War cannon dude in Buffalo; some explorer guy in Valparaiso, Chile; somebody on a horse with a sword near the U.S. Grant statue in D.C.; some other guy in a different part of Valparaiso, Chile; Lady Liberty; and Daniel O'Connell on his namesake street in Dublin.

Above my free map of Kansas is an absurd assortment of additional T-shirts. From left:

The Red Dawn shirt Shawn designed for Brian's bachelor party.

The 9/11 fundraiser shirt from K-State, which I loved to wear during float trips, to show the rednecks I was a true American. (I will use this in a similar fashion around the office.)

The free shirt distributed at my KSU orientation.

The shirt I got for being a somewhat relevant 6th man for our KSU intramural basketball team, which won the "Independent" league, then I think beat the residence halls champions before losing in the title game to the six-foot-and-under team.

The 3rd Annual Colwich 3-on-3 Basketball Tourney sponsored by the Sacred Heart CYO participant shirt.

On the credenza you can't see at the bottom of the photo rests a framed tile thingy from a Taiwanese former coworker, a block robot Kim gave me several Xmas's ago, and a thermometer I look at every morning before I say, "SIXTY-THREE DEGREES IS UNREASONABLE AND MAKES ME FEEL SO UNAPPRECIATED AND INSULTED."

The Rest Of The Story

So we all watched this Super Bowl ad with Paul Harvey and pictures of farmers and farms and TRUCKS



It's garbage. I mean, in the sense that it's playing to our sense of an America that no longer exists in an attempt to sell HARDWORKING TRUCKS, it's garbage, but it's also garbage because have you ever met a farmer? There are plenty of farmers who are assholes, you know? If Paul Harvey never met a farmer he didn't like, then Paul Harvey didn't meet too many farmers.

The YouTube comments are superior, as usual:

Sadly, this ad was a slap in our face. These men are gone and the devil has taken over. I grew up on a tractor in Kansas in the 80's and I will tell you the farmer is gone and the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is gone. It is just a matter of time before the Communists win. They beat Russia in 1917 and the Beat the USA in 2008. Americans will be slaughtered just like the Russians were and there is nothing we can do about it. The Jews win!

FORD = JUNK ford will sacrifice your life in the name of a better ride using low air pressure in a tire because ford refuses to test tires like DODGE and GM

God made breasts on women to feed those fine kids that grow up to be farmers. Respect the breasts !

"He'll stay up all night with a baby colt, and watch it die, and dry his eyes and say 'maybe next year'"- The story of the Ravens in the playoffs. Today is tomorrow.

i dont see why people love this commercial soo much....HIS SPEECH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH AUTOMOBILES!..commercial was awful...now if the commercial had something to do with farming..then it would be a different story

2012 Music Recap

2012 albums by order of enjoyment:

So Very Good
Hospitality - Hospitality

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...

Pretty Dope
Metric - Synthetica
Andrew Bird -Break It Yourself
Two Door Cinema Club - Beacon
Divine Fits - A Thing Called the Divine Fits

High Highs and Low Lows
Menomena - Moms

Fine 
Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
Stars - The North 

Lame
The Shins - Port of Morrow 

Special Category for Albums I Bought On Sale for $4 and Initially Rolled My Eyes at but Now Kinda Find Myself Digging It Except for One or Two Tracks That are Real Abortions
Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan

Music I purchased in 2012 that was not released during 2012, which are all solid:

Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls
Lisa Hannigan - Passenger
Sleeper Agent - Celebrasion
Van Halen - The Best Of Both Worlds