March Madness Fantasy 2015 - Round of 32 Results

I would write more, but I'm already mad I had to stay up watching this dumb Northern Iowa game so I could use the late game's stats in this update. Gav is ahead! Brandon had some great luck when his 8+ seed teams both squeaked by in the first round. Chuck is an asshole in his rightful place - LAST.

OWNER=Gav
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Kris Dunn	Providence	No	0	10	0	10
Rico Gathers	Baylor	No	0	21	0	21
Darrun Hilliard II	Villanova	No	0	17	28	45
Bobby Portis	Arkansas	No	0	31	36	67
Jordan Sibert	Dayton	No	26	28	17	71
Joseph Young	Oregon	No	0	50	56	106
Demetrius Jackson	Notre Dame	Yes	0	24	17	41
Frank Kaminsky	Wisconsin	Yes	0	42	25	67
			26	223	179	428
OWNER=Dan
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Jameel McKay	Iowa State	No	0	29	0	29
Nic Moore	SMU	No	0	29	0	29
Kyle Collinsworth	BYU	No	32.5	0	0	32.5
Tyler Haws	BYU	No	62.5	0	0	62.5
Stefan Moody	Mississippi	No	45	28	0	73
D'Angelo Russell	Ohio St	No	0	54.5	32	86.5
Jerian Grant	Notre Dame	Yes	0	23	24	47
Quinn Cook	Duke	Yes	0	33	21	54
			140	196.5	77	413.5
OWNER=Brandon
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Taurean Prince	Baylor	No	0	28	0	28
Ryan Arcidiacono	Villanova	No	0	21	10	31
Melo Trimble	Maryland	No	0	27	21	48
Pat Connaughton	Notre Dame	Yes	0	12	21	33
Marcus Paige	North Carolina	Yes	0	19	30	49
Jahlil Okafor	Duke	Yes	0	26	36	62
Trevor Lacey	NC State	Yes	0	32.5	38	70.5
Bryce Alford	UCLA	Yes	0	42	41.5	83.5
			0	207.5	197.5	405
OWNER=Shawn
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Tyler Kalinoski	Davidson	No	0	19.5	0	19.5
Thomas Walkup	SF Austin	No	0	38.5	0	38.5
Elgin Cook	Oregon	No	0	41	10.5	51.5
Sir'Dominic Pointer	St John's	No	0	51.5	0	51.5
Dyshawn Pierre	Dayton	No	22	47	26	95
Dakari Johnson	Kentucky	Yes	0	7	7	14
Tyus Jones	Duke	Yes	0	21	15	36
Sam Dekker	Wisconsin	Yes	0	24	22	46
			22	249.5	80.5	352
OWNER=Matt
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Kenny Chery	Baylor	No	0	14	0	14
Monte Morris	Iowa State	No	0	24	0	24
Justin Moss	Buffalo	No	0	30.5	0	30.5
Seth Tuttle	Northern Iowa	No	0	25	21	46
Josh Gasser	Wisconsin	Yes	0	16	11	27
Karl-Anthony Towns	Kentucky	Yes	0	35	16	51
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson	Arizona	Yes	0	33	25	58
Kyle Wiltjer	Gonzaga	Yes	0	29	31	60
			0	206.5	104	310.5
OWNER=Stu
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Jacob Parker	SF Austin	No	0	13	0	13
Phil Forte III	Oklahoma St	No	0	25.5	0	25.5
JayVaughn Pinkston	Villanova	No	0	17	19	36
Andrew Harrison	Kentucky	Yes	0	22	10	32
Juwan Staten	West Virginia	Yes	0	22	12	34
Wayne Blackshear	Louisville	Yes	0	26	15	41
T.J. McConnell	Arizona	Yes	0	21	35	56
Fred VanVleet	Wichita St	Yes	0	34	29	63
			0	180.5	120	300.5
OWNER=Chris
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Georges Niang	Iowa State	No	0	18	0	18
Dez Wells	Maryland	No	0	16	10	26
Le'Bryan Nash	Oklahoma St	No	0	33.5	0	33.5
Perry Ellis	Kansas	No	0	12	24	36
Frank Mason III	Kansas	No	0	30	18	48
Jordan Mickey	LSU	No	0	49.5	0	49.5
Willie Cauley-Stein	Kentucky	Yes	0	20	15	35
Branden Dawson	Michigan St	Yes	0	24	27	51
			0	203	94	297
OWNER=Brian
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Jake Layman	Maryland	No	0	10	10	20
Aqeel Quinn	SDSU	No	0	12.5	8	20.5
Kelly Oubre Jr.	Kansas	No	0	10	14	24
D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera	Georgetown	No	0	30	20	50
Aaron Harrison	Kentucky	Yes	0	11	15	26
Brice Johnson	North Carolina	Yes	0	12	26	38
Terry Rozier	Louisville	Yes	0	17	36	53
Justise Winslow	Duke	Yes	0	23	35	58
			0	125.5	164	289.5
OWNER=Bob
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
Justin Anderson	Virginia	No	0	21	8	29
Dylan Ennis	Villanova	No	0	21	12	33
Anthony Gill	Virginia	No	0	22	18	40
Devin Booker	Kentucky	Yes	0	6	9	15
Brandon Ashley	Arizona	Yes	0	18	9	27
Trey Lyles	Kentucky	Yes	0	19	25	44
Kevin Pangos	Gonzaga	Yes	0	26	19	45
Nigel Hayes	Wisconsin	Yes	0	26	23	49
OWNER			0	159	123	282
OWNER=Chuck
PLAYER	SCHOOL	Active	Game0	Game1	Game2	Total
LaDontae Henton	Providence	No	0	30	0	30
Malcolm Brogdon	Virginia	No	0	26	13	39
Daniel Ochefu	Villanova	No	0	28	16	44
Traevon Jackson	Wisconsin	Yes	0	0	0	0
Montrezl Harrell	Louisville	Yes	0	11	22	33
Ron Baker	Wichita St	Yes	0	25	17	42
Stanley Johnson	Arizona	Yes	0	30	15	45
Buddy Hield	Oklahoma	Yes	0	21	25	46
			0	171	108	279

March Madness Fantasy 2015 - The Draft

Welp, here we go again: an NCAA tourney fantasy league. 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.

Last year, Gav scored a great win thanks to 8 seed Kentucky's amazing run to the title...game.

Our draft was held online Monday. Here are the results and some very necessary draft analysis:

Brandon
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	1	Jahlil Okafor	Duke
2	20	Ryan Arcidiacano	Villanova
3	21	Pat Connaughton	Notre Dame
4	40	Marcus Paige	UNC
5	41	Melo Trimble	Maryland
6	60	Taurean Prince	Baylor
7	61	Trevor Lacey	NC State
8	80	Bryce Alford	UCLA
Gav
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	2	Frank Kaminsky	Wisconsin
2	19	Darrun Hilliard II	Villanova
3	22	Rico Gathers	Baylor
4	39	Joseph Young	Oregon
5	42	Bobby Portis	Arkansas
6	59	Demetrius Jackson	Notre Dame
7	62	Kris Dunn	Providence
8	79	Jordan Sibert	Dayton
Matt
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	3	Karl Anthony Towns	Kentucky
2	18	Kyle Wiltjer	Gonzaga
3	23	Monte Morris	Iowa State
4	38	Seth Tuttle	Northern Iowa
5	43	Rondae Hollis-Jefferson	Arizona
6	58	Josh Gasser	Wisconsin
7	63	Kenny Chery	Baylor
8	78	Justin Moss	Buffalo
Chris
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	4	Willie Cauley-Stein	Kentucky
2	17	Georges Niang	Iowa State
3	24	Perry Ellis	Kansas
4	37	Jordan Mickey	LSU
5	44	Branden Dawson	Michigan State
6	57	Le'Bryan Nash	OSU
7	64	Frank Mason	Kansas
8	77	Dez Wells	Maryland
Bob
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	5	Nigel Hayes	Wisconsin
2	16	Justin Anderson	Virginia
3	25	Trey Lyles	Kentucky
4	36	Anthony Gill	Virginia
5	45	Devin Booker	Kentucky
6	56	Kevin Pangos	Gonzaga
7	65	Brandon Ashley	Arizona
8	76	Dylan Ennis	Villanova
Dan
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	6	Quinn Cook	Duke
2	15	Jerian Grant	ND
3	26	Kyle Collinsworth	BYU
4	35	D'Angelo Russell	Ohio St
5	46	Nic Moore	SMU
6	55	Jameel McKay	Iowa State
7	66	Stefon Moody	Mississippi
8	75	Tyler Haws	BYU
Chuck
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	7	Stanley Johnson	Arizona
2	14	Malcolm Brogdon	Virginia
3	27	Montrezl Harrell	Louisville
4	34	Buddy Hield	Oklahoma
5	47	Daniel Ochefu	Villanova
6	54	Traevon Jackson	Wisconsin
7	67	Ron Baker's Man	WSU
8	74	LaDontae Henton	Providence
Brian
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	8	Aaron Harrison	Kentucky
2	13	Justise Winslow	Duke
3	28	D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera	Georgetown
4	33	Terry Rozier	Louisville
5	48	Brice Johnson	North Carolina
6	53	Aqeel Quinn	SDSU
7	68	Jake Layman	Maryland
8	73	Kelly Oubre Jr.	Kansas
Shawn
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	9	Tyus Jones	Duke
2	12	Sam "Upper" Dekker	Wisconsin
3	29	Dakari Johnson	Kentucky
4	32	Dyshawn Pierre	Dayton
5	49	Thomas Walkup	Stephen F Austin
6	52	Sir'Dominic Pointer	St. John's
7	69	Tyler Kalinoski	Davidson
8	72	Elgin Cook	Oregon
Stu
ROUND	SELECTION	PLAYER	SCHOOL
1	10	T.J. McConnell	Arizona
2	11	Andrew Harrison	Kentucky
3	30	JayVaughn Pinkston	Villanova
4	31	Fred VanVleet	WSU
5	50	Jacob Parker	Stephen F Austin
6	51	Phil Forte III	OSU
7	70	Juwan Staten	West Virginia
8	71	Wayne Blackshear	Louisville

By Team

• 7 Kentucky players were drafted. The last player, Devin Booker, was picked #45, about at the midway point of the draft. Brandon, Chuck, Dan, and Gav are the owners who lack a player from the Big Blue.
• 5 Wisconsin and Villanova players were chosen.
• 4 Arizona Wildcats and Duke Blue Devils were taken.

Doubling Up

• Dan chose teammates, the white wonders of Collinsworth and Haws from BYU. BYU was eliminated in their First Four matchup with Ole Miss. Fun game to watch, though.
• Chris also chose teammates, the nonwhite wonders of Frank Mason III and Perry Ellis of KU. Chris maintained his streak of drafting KU players since always, forever.

By Seeds 1-7

• 22 of the first 30 players chosen were from 1-seed and 2-seed teams.
• All but 3 players from 1 seeds listed on the draft spreadsheet were picked.

By Seeds 8-12 (1.5x point multiplier teams)

• 19 of the 80 drafted players were from teams seeded 8 and up.
• 8 of the 19 came from 8 and 9 seeds.
• 4 of the 19 were drafted in the final 6 selections.
• 6 of the 19 were from 11 seeds.
• Dan has 3 11-seed players. Again, 2 of them, the white guys, have already been eliminated.
• No players were chosen from teams seeded 13 and up.

By Seeds, Again

• Bob has 4 1-seed players and 4 2-seed players; those are all of his players.
• Brian has 4 4-seed players.

Median Seed of Players Drafted:

• Overall: 3
• Bob 1.5
• Chuck 2.5
• Matt 2.5
• Brandon 3.5
• Chris 3.5
• Brian 4
• Gav 4
• Stu 4.5
• Dan 8
• Shawn 8.5

By Region

• 23 players were picked from the West Region - Dan and Gav have 4 each.
• 20 from the East - Chuck has 5 of them.
• 20 from the Midwest - Chris has 4 of them.
• 17 from the South - Shawn has 4 of them.
• Brandon’s team is the most balanced, with 2 players from each region. If everything went perfectly, he could have 7 of his 8 players active in the Elite Eight. I suspect he did this on purpose.
• Gav, Chuck, and Dan have unbalanced brackets, with players from only 3 of the 4 regions. Dan has no East players (I didn’t like the number of defensive-minded teams in it!) and the others have no South players. All others have at least one player per region.

2014 Recap - Music

We all know my well-established rule: no blogging about the albums you purchased until a few weeks after the Grammy Awards. So now, after an appropriate period of time, here are the 2014 albums I enjoyed, from best to least best:

Superb

The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
Spoon - They Want My Soul
Mike Adams at His Honest Weight - Best of Boiler Room Classics
U2 - Songs of Innocence

Real Good

Ex Hex - RipsJenny Lewis - The VoyagerHospitality - Trouble

Solid

First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Unraveling

Not Released in 2014 So Why Do I Still List Them?

Tears For Fears - Shout: The Very Best of Tears For Fears
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense (Live)
Tesla - The Best of Tesla
Def Leppard - Pyromania
U2 - War (Remastered)
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire (Remastered)
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (Remastered)
Blur - The Best Of
Veronica Falls - Waiting for Something to Happen
Arctic Monkeys - AM

2014 Recap - Film

I waited for a timely day to post this, just before the Oscars. I definitely did not wait this long because I just kind of hate being online after staring at a screen all goddamn day at work.

2014 movies I saw, from most liked to least:

Interstellar**

Kind of a mess, but mostly awesome. It is the only movie on this list that featured remote planet landscapes, hot spaceship action, and Jessica Chastain’s nice face.

Whiplash*

I loved Miles Teller in The Spectacular Now and it seems clear that I will love him for years to come. I am so, so thankful that the jazz performed in this film sounded fun and was not of the smooth variety. The impossible question the movie poses -- how much can you or should you push someone toward a goal -- struck me from a philosophical standpoint, and perhaps more boringly, from a new parent standpoint. And speaking of boring new parent stuff, Interstellar had an impact on that area of my psyche as well, so I guess you can ignore my top two picks due to the unfair influence of my hormones.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Kind of a lot of deaths for a madcap movie, now that I think about it. You could say it’s too much like the previous Wes Anderson movies, but it still looks pretty and makes me laugh, so keep it up, you corduroy'd dandy! (The best tweet of the Golden Globes was Julie Klausner’s “I'd fuck Wes Anderson so hard his shots wouldn't be centered anymore.”)

The LEGO Movie

Liam Neeson’s cop was probably my favorite character. I didn’t love the switch to reality toward the end, despite the positive message it gave to the movie.

The Guardians of the Galaxy

I finally saw this last week, so it had a lot of hype that it didn’t quite meet. Groot was great, John C. Reilly was criminally underused, the prison break was fun. But my gosh, they introduced one billion characters in the first 15 minutes of this thing. I felt like an old man trying to keep everything straight.

Edge of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat)

Pretty good! I read this avclub note before I saw it, which I thought about constantly: “I saw Edge Of Tomorrow. It’s set in the future, so Groundhog Day would have already been out. So at some point, [Tom Cruise] should have been like ‘It’s like fuckin’ Groundhog Day. I keep having to do the same thing again.”—Geoff Tate script doctoring Edge Of Tomorrow, on the Doug Loves Movies podcast

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It has its moments, but yikes. Here’s some winter SPOILERS for you… He meets another army guy while exercising, so they become best friends for no reason? They didn’t want to come up with a new bad guy, so they recycled the bad guys from the first movie? You know, the one that took place in the 1940s? The biggest yikes is the Winter Soldier himself. They even recycled the GOOD guys from the first movie. As if any of us gave a shit about Captain’s ol’ pal Bucky.

The Imitation Game*

If the goal of this movie was to inspire people to look up Alan Turing on Wikipedia, it was a success. But when you do read more about Turing, and about the liberties the screenplay took, you wonder why they felt the need to muck up the history of an already fascinating man and the British codebreaking effort. Why try to turn the story into A Beautiful Mind? Because it won some Oscars, probably, and I suppose they’re laughing all the way to the Oscar bank, seeing that Cumberbatch and Knightly were both nominated for their roles. I could be convinced that Cumberbatch did a nice job of steering clear of Simple Jack territory, but Knightly’s performance didn’t seem special, and I have a hard time believing that there wasn’t a more deserving nominee out there.

The Monuments Men

I wanted to see this, because when I saw The Rape of Europa years back on PBS the subject matter blew me away. Clooney took a big dump on it. I mean, really big. It was the dump to end all dumps. We are given no reasons to like the ramshackle team of art heros. Zero. Bill Murray’s character’s backstory is literally a ten-second shot of him looking at architecture blueprints while on a scaffolding. Then, BOOM, can you believe he’s now a part of this ragtag bunch? I can imagine a movie on this topic told from a sympathetic perspective of Hitler that would easily, EASILY, be better than this boring garbage.

*Denotes in-theater experience, and the increased expectations that come with it

**Denotes in-theater IMAX experience because I always pay extra to see outer space in IMAX, duh why wouldn’t you

2014 movies I still want to see and think I’ll like:

Birdman

Boyhood

Obvious Child

Force Majeure

John Wick

Harris

Goddamnit, Harris Wittels died today.

If you want to understand my heartbreak, and I don't think you should, but if you want to, listen to his heroin confessional on Pete Holmes' podcast, which was one of my favorite few hours of 2014.

I'll be spending some time pouring over his old appearances - Analyze Phish killed a lot of time for me while I waited for PET scans in 2011. Goddamnit.