Bracket Health After 2 Rounds

After the first two rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, here is how everyone in our bracket pool looks:

Name	Round of 32 Correct	Sweet 16 Correct	Elite 8 still alive	Final 4 still alive	Champ 2 still alive	Champion still alive
Mike	21/32	7/16	4/8	1/4	0/2	No
Tim	21/32	9/16	4/8	2/4	1/2	Yes
Jason*	22/32	10/16	3/8	2/4	1/2	No
Phil's Mom^	19/32	6/16	3/8	1/4	0/2	No

* The only other participant in our bracket pool is Sunflower Brew's resident beer guru, Jason Leib.

^ Phil's Mom, of course, made her picks on Tony Kornheiser's radio show.  But we love Phil's Mom, so we include her bracket here.

Episode 51 - 2014 MLB Preview

Mike and Tim look at the upcoming Major League Baseball season and make their predictions.

Division	Mike's Pick	Tim's Pick
NL East	Washington	Washington
NL Central	St. Louis	St. Louis
NL West	San Francisco	LA Dodgers
NL Wild Cards	Atlanta Cincinnati	Colorado San Francisco
AL East	Boston	Tampa Bay
AL Central	Detroit	Kansas City
AL West	Oakland	Texas
AL Wild Cards	Cleveland Tampa Bay	Boston Detroit
NL Champions	Washington	San Francisco
AL Champions	Boston	Tampa Bay
World Series Champs	Boston	San Francisco

Who's right? We'll know this fall.



Click here to download.

Dukies out in first round. Mike, BATSU GAME!

You may have seen the final already:

Duke Blue Devils 71
Mercer Bears 78

This game ruined a lot of brackets, including both Mike and Tim's brackets, as both had the Dukies making the Final Four.

It's actually worse for Mike: he had Coach K's team winning the whole thing.

Mike will almost certainly get the batsu game for this, but we will withhold final judgment until after both brackets are considered dead.

Tim's championship team, Arizona, is leading Weber State as of this blog posting.

Phil's Mom's Bracket 2014

Regular listeners of our podcast will know I'm a fan of Tony Kornheiser's radio show, which I listen to via podcast (and it's famous podcast delay).

Mr. Tony has an annual tourney tradition: getting the bracket from Phil's Mom, the mother of a former producer of said radio show.  She is known for blindly picking games and mispronouncing the school names ("Markwet" especially comes to mind).  In 2006, she famously picked George Mason to win the tourney - and they got to the Final Four.

Here's Phil's Mom's bracket for 2014:

South Region (Florida as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Florida
Colorado
Stephen F. Austin
Tulsa
Dayton
Syracuse
New Mexico
Kansas

Sweet 16:
Colorado
Tulsa
Syracuse
New Mexico

Elite 8:
Colorado
Syracuse

Regional Champ: Colorado

East Region (Virginia as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Virginia
Memphis
Cincinnati
Delaware
Providence
Iowa State
St. Joseph's
Villanova

Sweet 16:
Virginia
Cincinnati
Iowa State
St. Joseph's

Elite 8:
Cincinnati
Iowa State

Regional Champ: Iowa State

West Region (Arizona as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Arizona
Gonzaga
North Dakota State
San Diego State
Baylor ("Bay-lore")
Louisiana-Lafayette ("La-Lafayette")
Oregon
American

Sweet 16:
Gonzaga
San Diego State
Baylor
Oregon

Elite 8:
Gonzaga
Baylor

Regional Champ: Gonzaga

Midwest Region (Wichita State as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Cal Poly (winning the play-in over Texas Southern)
Kentucky
Xavier (winning the play-in over NC State)
Louisville
UMass
Mercer
Texas
Wofford

Sweet 16:
Kentucky
Louisville
UMass
Wofford

Elite 8:
Louisville
UMass

Regional Champ: UMass

Final Four: Colorado over Iowa State; Gonzaga over UMass

Championship: Colorado over Gonzaga

Episode 50 - NCAA Tourney Preview

Happy 50th episode of the Winning Side Coaches!

Today Tim and Mike fill out their brackets for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Here are Tim and Mike's respective Final Fours:

Tim: Syracuse, Michigan State, Arizona, Duke
Mike: Syracuse, Virginia, Gonzaga, Duke

Champions:

Tim: Arizona
Mike: Duke

You can play along with Tim and Mike on Yahoo's tourney brackets.  Click here to get started.

Remember, the tournament begins Thursday.



Click here to download.

2014 NCAA Tournament Automatic Bids

Here are the teams that have earned their conferences' automatic bids for the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Major conferences:
ACC: Virginia
Big Ten: Michigan State
Big 12: Iowa State
Pac-12: UCLA
SEC: Florida

Mid-majors we've done Know Your Mid-Majors on as of Selection Sunday:
American Athletic: Louisville^
Atlantic 10: St. Joseph's
Atlantic Sun: Mercer^
Conference USA: Tulsa^
Missouri Valley: Wichita State
Ohio Valley: Eastern Kentucky
Southland: Stephen F. Austin
SoCon: Wofford
Summit: North Dakota State
Sun Belt: Louisiana-Lafayette
WAC: New Mexico State
West Coast: Gonzaga

Mid-majors we will do Know Your Mid-Majors on after Selection Sunday:
America East: Albany
Big East: Providence
Big Sky: Weber State
Big South: Coastal Carolina
Big West: Cal Poly
Colonial: Delaware
Horizon: UW-Milwaukee
Ivy League*: Harvard
MAAC: Manhattan
MAC: Western Michigan
MEAC: North Carolina Central
Mountain West: New Mexico
Northeast: Mount St. Mary's
Patriot: American
SWAC: Texas Southern

*The Ivy League does not hold a conference tournament.  The conference's automatic bid goes to the regular season champion.

^Indicates a school that is changing conferences over the summer.

Mike's Day at Planet Comicon

You may recall that, as a result of picking worse than Tim on how the 2013-14 NFL season would finish, Mike was given a batsu game - go to Planet Comicon and get an autograph from John Ratzenberger, the actor who played mailman Cliff Clavin on Cheers.

Planet Comicon was this weekend at Bartle Hall in Kansas City.  How did Mike do?

Mike got the autograph and generally had a great time at Planet Comicon.