Back on March 19th, I wrote about some ways which I processed some NCAA Men’s Basketball data to make predictions for the crazy March Madness tournament, bragging about how well I had done with my analysis most years, beating former President Obama’s Barackets almost all the time, and all. Well, it seems I had really jinxed myself because this year’s March Madness results were so unpredictable that just picking by tournament seedings exactly as they were landed you in the top ten percentile! In other years, you’d be about middle of the pack. That’s because the upsets this year were so generally unpredictable that those looking to find upsets often got stung by getting many wrong, but then also stung by getting many expected winners wrong! Double-whammy, if you will!
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A Mad Way to Fill Brackets for March Madness?
It’s one of my favourite time of the year, March Madness with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament, and I’m so happy the tournament’s on again after COVID shut it down last year. Still, it isn’t the same without the fans, a weak North Carolina Tar Heels team that is my favourite, and neither perennials of Duke nor Kentucky, as much as despise those teams. It’s all a little less mad than other years, but still mad, as shown by the first big upset almost out of the gates with #15 ranked Oral Roberts upsetting #2 seed Ohio State.
Barack Obama’s Barackets for 2018 Men’s NCAA March Madness is DONE!
With one game still remaining in the Elite 8 of the 2018 Men’s NCAA March Madness tournament (Duke vs Kansas), former President Barack Obama’s Barackets is DONE! He has Villanova in the Final Four, but because he predicted (eliminated) Michigan State would beat them next game, Villanova will be getting no more points for Obama this year. The former POTUS had UNC and Virginia as the other Final Four teams, both of whom had been eliminated early.
So where does this leave the Barackets in the ESPN Standings?
Will Republicans Jump on Obama’s Barackets as Being Symbolic of His Presidency?
Obama came into office like a champ. Don’t start with the trash talk yet. He won the Presidency and you can’t be saying that about anybody else so keep the lid on the trash can for now.
Obama also opened his Barackets campaign picking the ultimate champ, North Carolina, and beat about 90% of all ESPN brackets in 2009.
Fast forward to 2016. It’s been a rough ride in the middle for his March Madness picks. Thrice he has picked Kansas to go all the way, and thrice they have failed him, including Saturday night. He has also failed to pick the correct winner in any other year, if I’m not mistaken. And Mashable shows him to be fairly “average” in his track record.
Kansas’ loss to Villanova Saturday night left the President in just the 47th percentile, meaning 53% of the 12 million brackets entered on ESPN were doing better than him. Worse for him, things will likely only get worse because the one team he has remaining, North Carolina, is the most popular pick remaining, and he doesn’t have them going all the way as 1 in 7 people do. Half the brackets have UNC winning Sunday as does Obama. In other words, lots of people still have other teams remaining in their pool that the President doesn’t, and they can make ground on him, whereas UNC that he has remaining, lots of people also have so he won’t be making grounds on that many. Pending how things turn out, the POTUS could still finish in the upper half of all brackets, but that’s about the best as he’ll do this year. More likely, he’ll tailspin to a crash on his final Barackets submission.
OK, Republicans. Now you can spout your nonsense, as if this has anything to do with how he did in office. 🙂
One person Obama won’t be beating is me, though. I picked Villanova to beat Kansas tonight in my bracket entry, also in the graphic above. I also have UNC going further than da Prez so anything he gains from UNC, I will also gain. He cannot mathematically catch me, in other words, and it’s only half way through the Elite 8 round! I’m also sitting in the top 0.5%, by the way, just for bragging rights while I can in case my brackets crash and burn in the future. 🙂
I will finish 7-1 against Obama during his 8 years of Barackets submission. I was expecting better competition than that, I have to admit. However, I hope Obama will continue to submit his Barackets after he’s out of the Oval Office.
Obama is about hope, right?
Maybe his luck will change for the better then. 🙂
He can only hope so. 🙂
Obama Ahead of 80% of Brackets After 2 Rounds in 2016 March Madness
After two rounds in the first weekend of 2016 March Madness, President Obama’s Barackets is ahead of 80% of other brackets submitted to ESPN’s pool online. The POTUS has 430 points. He has only lost Michigan State and West Virginia that he had predicted to go far, but so has the vast majority of other people. Michigan State was the second most popular pick to go to the National Championship Game besides #1 overall Kansas. The Prez still has a lot of potential points to gain (1120 to be exact), but that’s only potential. It still has to be realized, of course.
Me, I’m sitting at 460 points, ahead of 94% of the brackets on ESPN. My advantage over the President coming out of the first day where I was a perfect 16/16. It was only the first day, but it was really exciting to have a perfect first day! Even better coming out of the gates being tied at the top of the leader board for what I estimate to be about 12 million entries. I also have Michigan State and West Virginia busted like the President, as his 1120 potential points remaining. However, our remaining picks differ enough the final outcome could be a massive difference in our comparative end results… not the least due to the scoring system where each round is worth 320 points so that the right/wrong winner could cost the other one 320 points. He has Kansas to win it all, hoping for third time lucky as his previous two Kansas picks had blown it big. I have North Carolina for whom I’ve cheered for decades. 🙂
Nobody has a perfect bracket in either the ESPN or CBS pool this year, by the way, with all the upsets.
Digital Citizen 