The NCAA website continues to try to stop me at every turn. They have not updated the NET rankings for the last 5 games. However, ESPN doesn’t care – they have the 5 box scores for today’s games. So, I have updated the box score data with the 5 games and just left the NET and WAB rankings as they were – to be honest, I can’t imagine they changed that drastically due to 5 games.

I also created the cheat sheet. With all the changes in the data, I think the offensive and defensive ratings are back to being their average points per game – they have not been adjusted based on pace of play (like we did last year and as you might see on other analytics websites that provide the ratings based on 100 possessions). At some point, I might go back and look at fixing it. But then again, lets be honest – whether it is points per game or points per 100 possessions, it still tells you a similar thing. And the adjusted values are based on how they did vs. how many points per game their opponent did. So, the adjusted margin numbers mean similar things – they are just not adjusted for pace.

Lets face it, we want to see the rantings of the Lunatic anyways. This lets me move on to my handicapping page. So, while all of you are concentrating on winning the actual pool, I will be doing a pointless exercise to predict against the spread for all 67 games.

As for my bracketology, I am pretty pleased that the only team that I got wrong was San Diego State over SMU. And to be fair to me, I was really probably concentrating more on the fact that my Boilers had taken a lead on Michigan and were trying desperately to hang on to it. I even mentioned the fact that I wasn’t sure what the committee would do about the injury to SMU’s BJ Edwards ankle – apparently, that was some type of foreshadowing as the last team I mentioned in the bracketology page would be the one team I missed. But apparently, the press all got it right – as it looks like many of them got 68 of 68 teams right this year.

At some point, I will do a final wrap-up on the bracketology as well as think about what I think the committee got wrong (which couldn’t be too much since the only team I missed on was the last team I entered into the field). But not tonight.

The Lunatic is tired but happy. The tournament has been released. The website is ready for you to enter your picks. The cheat sheet is on the research site for those of you who want to take a peak at it before you pick the games. The Lunatic’s bracketology that he created over half of while watching the Purdue game ended up relatively respectable for the amount of attention he put into it (since he had to spend so much time trying to figure out the basketball stats).

So, the Lunatic is going to get some sleep in a feeble attempt to not turn into a zombie by the time Thursday and Friday come along. We all know better that this is a lost cause. And lets face it – the Lunatic’s rantings are better when he is sleep deprived.

I hope that whatever team you were rooting for got a good seed or a decent matchup in the tournament. And I hope that all of you find some time this week to join us and make your picks – it should be an incredible NCAA men’s championship!!!! The brackets are released and ready for you to enter your picks. Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!