What I'm Watching - Friday March Madness Edition

To help you focus you March Madness viewing, I am ranking the watchability of the games in each round in an effort to focus my limited time in front of the TV.  The two parameters I am looking at are projected margin of victory  and average tempo of each game.  I am ranking the parameters for each game and then taking the average of the two rankings.  One is the best score possible.  If you have limited time, choose the game with the lowest score and watch that game.  Here is the breakdown for Friday's games:

Game to Watch: (7) Notre Dame vs. (10) Iowa Sate (9:45 PM ET CBS) - Projects to be a close game with a fast pace.  Win-win.   A must tune in for me.

Theme of the Day:  North Carolina vs. Philly - A pair of great 8-9 match ups are at the top of the board today: (8) North Carolina vs. (9) Villanova (7:20 PM ET TNT) and (8) North Carolina State vs. (9) Temple (1:30 PM TBS).  Both Carolina teams like to get up and down the court.  Tune in to see if the Philly boys can keep up.

Tip of the Day:  Take a nap in the afternoon so you can watch the late games.  Three out of the top five rated games tip off after 9:00 PM ET.  Take a nap during the late afternoon games so you can make sure you are awake for the finish of the late match ups.

How to trim your March Madness viewing and avoid being fired - Thursday Edition

To help you focus you March Madness viewing and avoid being fired, I am ranking the watchability of the games in each round in an effort to focus my limited time in front of the TV.  The two parameters I am looking at are projected margin of victory  and average tempo of each game.  I am ranking the parameters for each game and then taking the average of the two rankings.  One is the best score possible.  If you have limited time, choose the game with the lowest score and watch that game.  Here is the breakdown for Thursday's games:

The Game to Watch: (8) Colorado State vs. (9) Missouri (9:20 PM ET on TBS) - This should be a close game that is fast paced.  Win-win.  It is a win-win-win if you factor in partying with Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy after the game.

Upset Alert: (11) St. Mary's vs. (6) Memphis (2:45 PM ET on CBS) - Keep your eye on this one.  St. Mary's has a shot.

Polarizing Game of the Day: (6) Butler vs. (11) Bucknell (12:40 PM ET on TRU) - Projects to be a close match-up, but at a very slow pace.  This game is going to help me decide if drama or pace is more important.

Those are the three games I'll have my eye on.  Do not worry about Gonzaga or Louisville there is little chance of them being up set.

Finally, make sure to join the Marcello Ball group on Yahoo! Tourney Pick 'Em.

First Four (aka We still need to win one more to get in)

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical, Liberty, Long Island-Brooklyn, and James Madison I feel for you. Middle Tennessee, St. Mary's, La Salle, and Boise State not so much.  A few years back the Minor League Basketball Tournament expanded beyond 64 teams in an effort to get more teams involved.  More is better (just ask AT&T); however, I think it sucks for the teams who won their conference tournaments and are now stuck in what is essentially a play-in game.  This tournament is the pinnacle for these teams and their players, unfortunately only half of them will actually get there.  I do not mind the play-in game for the teams who were on the so-called bubble, but I also think it is pretty useless.  These teams do not advance far enough to make a difference in the tournament.  Pick the 64 teams and move forward (I know the argument is made that job success is determined by tournament berths, but I hope the folks who make those decisions have a better idea of what is going on).

As outlined yesterday, I am ranking the watchability of the games in each round in an effort to focus my limited time in front of the TV.  The two parameters I am looking at are projected margin of victory  and average tempo of each game.  I am ranking the parameters for each game and then taking the average of the two rankings.  One is the best score possible.  The final result is a game score similar to NERD that was introduced by Carson Cistulli at Fangraphs, which he uses to rank baseball games every night.  If you have limited time, choose the game with the lowest score and watch that game.  The break down for the games on Tuesday and Wednesday is below.

And the winner is Long Island-Brooklyn vs. James Madison.  Long Island-Brooklyn plays at the fastest pace among the eight schools listed and gives up a ton of points.   My advice would be to watch this game if you have the chance.  I am personally also going to watch the Middle Tennessee vs. St. Mary's matchup as well because I have either of those teams upsetting Memphis in Round 2.

Happy watching.  I'll be back on Thursday to break down Round 2.

Minor League March Madness, Baby!

The time has come for us to celebrate the Annual Minor League Basketball Tournament, also known as the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.  I do not like to use the term NCAA or the names of the universities involved in said tournament because the NCAA and its amateurism is a sham.  Let's call this thing what it truly is and recognize it is a minor league basketball tournament.  It is filled with great drama and story lines, but make no mistake - it is minor league basketball.  While the games are not usually well played, they are generally close in score and the players are playing their butts off from the tip-off to the final whistle (which cannot be said for most NBA games, even in the playoffs).  The real draw is the single elimination tournament.  The possibility of elimination (and the possibility of filling out an incorrect bracket) is what feeds the madness and holds our interest.

Even its greatest skeptics have to admit, minor league basketball is fun to watch.  I will admit that I did not watch much regular season minor league basketball this year (read: I did not watch a single game).  However, I did watch the conference tourneys the past week and I have been looking over the wonderful statistics available at kenpom.com to prep for the tourney.  As a result, I am an expert on minor league basketball and as a result, you should help me guide your viewing.  

Drama and pace are a two things I am planning to pay attention to as the tournament unfolds.  Close games are great to watch, so I am choosing to focus on those games in the hopes of getting more drama (sorry Mary J).  After crunching some numbers I have ranked the games based on projected score and I plan to keep the closest eye on the ones I project to be the most bitterly fought and have the smallest margin of victory.  Second, I am going to try to watch the games that have the fastest pace.  After reading the Grantland.com article about how West Liberty University loves to push the pace of the game, I realized how bad it is to watch low scoring, poorly played, and terribly executed minor league basketball.   Therefore, I am going to focus on the games that will have the fastest tempo - frankly, to avoid falling asleep.  

Margin of victory and tempo are the two trends that I find most interesting.  I will post the rankings for projected margin of victory for the with the quickest pace before each round of the tournament.  These will be updated after each round so keep coming back as the tournament progesses.  Tomorrow I will preview the 1st round games, also known as the "First Four" and previously known as the "Play-In Game".

Finally, join the Marcello Ball Tourney Pick 'Em group on Yahoo!  I am trying to come up a prize for the winner.  At the very least you tell me how poor my prognostication skills are.