This is your opportunity to put your own thoughts on the tournament onto the site. Whether it be comments on the games, telling the world who you think will win, or simply wanting to have fun – this is your chance to be heard!!!!
My only rule is that you keep things clean – we have families who come to the site. I reserve the right to remove any inappropriate comments.
All you have to do is reply using the form at the bottom of the page!!!!
9 responses to “2016 User Blog”
Calling my shot now- this is THE year- a 16 finally upsets a 1…probably Kansas 🙂
That would be totally awesome!!!!!! I keep hoping that it happens one of these years.
Tom,
And, still again, thank you for running this show. To everything there is a season–“…a time to model, a time to bet…” Ahh, a few of my favorite things.
I have Purdue winning two–slight favorites over Iowa State. Good luck to them. And to you.
And, I am now seeing you as my main competitor. Normally I’ve been sweating bullets over the hot shot statisticians cranking the numbers. But your performance last year was simply awesome. Missed the complete victory dance by just epsilon. Does this mean I might actually have to start learning some content knowledge about the domain I am modeling? Oh heavens no. Worst of all, do I have to start watching the games? I haven’t a clue what is happening. A bunch of very big young people running to and fro, a whistle blows every few seconds, and the numbers on the TV screen change. After a few hours the only thing I understand is revealed–a right or wrong classification of the outcome.
Well, of the millions of basically equally likely tournament outcomes I have now put my ego down on what I think is the maximum likelihood.
Let the games begin.
What a joy.
-Bill
Where do we send payment and how much this year? Thanks
Chad Wright–Hello hello. Congrats on racing to the early lead. I love your entry name–Random Errors. You got some perfect early upsets. Maybe I should just automatically overrule my probability model and pick the 12-5 upset. What’s that called? Bayesian modeling? Anyway, congrats on the picks. And the name. I hope all is going well. -Bill Kahn
Crazy! Tom–you are the man! Both your picks are soaring. And my mathematically optimized not even above median. Argh. And still again I am learning the lesson that content knowledge matters.
But Hailey Peterson’s, “Bacon,” at the bottom, may surprise us. Middle Tennessee is in the hunt. With my MidWest bracket blown apart I am totally routing for the Blue Raiders now.
Does anyone have a regular mailing address to which I can send a check to pay for this pool ?
Tom,
And, thank you still again. What a wonderful few weeks you give all of us. So greatly appreciated.
And, you may not believe this, but I actually watched five minutes of basketball last night. That is more than I have ever watched before. Small pieces almost made sense–I mean I have long understood that you are supposed to throw the ball into the air and make it go through the hoop. But beyond that I saw bits of how one player would stand in front of a defending player to block him from following the ball. Pretty tricky.
And I greatly enjoy reading your essays on the games and the tournament structure. Highly informative. And funny. And beautifully written. You are a tremendous writer. One doesn’t have to understand the sport to look forward to your latest.
Thanks again.
-Bill
Thanks, Bill!!!! I am glad that you watched some of the game!!!!! Doing the pool and ranting on the blog is always one of my favorite things to do in the year – was lucky that the tournament was so awesome!!!!