The Recap in the Quest to Out-Pick Joe Lunardi

So, the brackets are out, and now it’s time to see if my quest was successful. There were two matchups we set up, the who gets more teams in contest, and the “who called the seeds better,” contest.

Joe wins the first matchup on getting teams in, props to him, getting Villanova over Illinois St, both of us said Arizona St out. Joe goes 65 for 65. I go 64 for 65. Most others I looked at were 64 of 65. Now for the numbers game… here’s the breakdown.

(NOTE: I didn’t charge him points for Villanova off one, because I picked Illinois St, so no points either way for the teams that were different in the in/not in contest.)

In order of East (1), Midwest (4), South (2), West (3)

Actual: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA

Me: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA (perfect, 0 pts)

Joe: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA (perfect, 0 pts)

Actual: Tennessee, Georgetown, Texas, Duke

Me: Georgetown, Tennessee, Texas, Duke (all teams right, 0 pts)

Joe: Georgetown, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin (3)(1 pt)

Actual: Louisville, Wisconsin, Stanford, Xavier

Me: Stanford, Xavier, Louisville, Wisconsin (all right, 0 pts)

Joe: Xavier, Stanford, Pitt (4), Duke (2) (2 pts) (3-0 me)

Actual: Washington St, Vanderbilt, Pitt, UConn

Me: Vanderbilt, Michigan St (5), UConn, Drake (5) 2 pts

Joe: Drake (5), Notre Dame (5), Clemson (5), Louisville (3), 4 pts (7-2 me)

Actual: Notre Dame, Clemson, Michigan St, Drake

Me: Marquette (6), Butler (7), Washington St (4), Pitt (4) 5 pts

Joe: UConn (4), Michigan St, Indiana (8), Butler (7) 6 pts (13-7 me)

Actual: Oklahoma, USC, Marquette, Purdue

Me: Purdue, Indiana (8), Clemson (5), Notre Dame (5) 4 pts

Joe: Wash St (4), Marquette, Purdue, Vanderbilt (4) 4 pts (17-11 me)

Actual: Butler, Gonzaga, Miami-FL, W Virginia

Me: BYU (8), W Virginia, Gonzaga, Arkansas (8) 2 pts

Joe: Texas A&M (9), Oklahoma (6), USC (6), Arkansas (8) 5 pts (22-13 I’m up)

Actual: Indiana, UNLV, Mississippi St, BYU

Me: Kent St (9), USC (6), Oklahoma (6), Texas A&M (9) 6 pts

Joe: UNLV, Gonzaga (7), W Virginia (7), BYU 2 pts (24-19 I’m up)

Actual: Arkansas, Kent St, Oregon, Texas A&M

Me: Kansas St (11), Miami-FL (7), UNLV (8), Miss St (8) 6 pts

Joe: Kent St, Miss St (8), Davidson (10), Kansas St (11) 4 pts (28-25 I’m up)

Actual: S Alabama, Davidson, St Mary’s, Arizona

Me: St Mary’s, Oregon (9), Baylor (11), S Alabama 2 pts

Joe: Kentucky (11), Miami-FL (7), S Alabama, St Mary’s 4 pts (32-27 I’m up)

Actual: St Joseph’s, Kansas St, Kentucky, Baylor

Me:  Temple (12), Illinois St (incorrect), Kentucky, Arizona (10) 2 pts

Joe: W Kentucky (12), St Joseph’s, Temple (12), Villanova (correct), 2 pts (34-29 I’m up)

Actual: George Mason, Villanova, Temple, W Kentucky

Me: Davidson (10), Oral Roberts (13), St Joseph’s (11), W Kentucky 4 pts

Joe: Oregon (9), Arizona (10), Baylor (11), Georgia (14) 8 pts (42-33 I’m up)

Actual: Winthrop, Siena, Oral Roberts, San Diego

Me: Siena, G Mason (12), Cornell (14), Boise St (14) 3 pts

Joe: Oral Roberts, G Mason (12), Siena, Cornell (14) 2 pts (44-36 I’m up)

Actual: Boise St, CS-Fullerton, Cornell, Georgia

Me: Georgia, CS-Fullerton, Austin Peay (15), San Diego (13) 2 pts

Joe: CS-Fullerton, Boise St, Winthrop (13), San Diego (13) 2 pts (46-38 I’m up)

Actual: American, UMBC, Austin Peay, Belmont

Me: American, Belmont, Winthrop (13), UMBC 2 pts

Joe: UMBC, Austin Peay, Belmont, Por St (16) 1 pt (47-40 I’m up)

Actual: Mount St Mary’s/Coppin St, Portland St, UT-Arlington, MVSU

Me: MVSU/Coppin St, Mt St Mary’s, Portland St, UT-Arlington

Joe: American (15), UT-Arlington, Coppin St/MVSU, Mt St Mary’s 1 pt

J

oe is 48 seeds off, I am 40. I beat Joe in that department.

Joe’s still real good.

Apologies to the Winthrop supporters who berated me for putting them so low. I was wrong.

I also compared the seed department with the two other bracket predictors on bleacher report, Jordan Schwartz, Chris Copeland and David Cassilo.

With the one by Schwartz, he also picked 64, but was off 45 on seeds, which was very good. Cassilo also picked 64 teams, and was off 48 on seeds. Copeland picked 64 teams, and was off 42 seeds (assuming Georgia would have been correct and moved up the right teams, so really like 42-45, but we'll say 42).

So for those who think the Bleacher Report people can't pick like the experts, they're dead wrong. 

I might look at a lot of other "expert" brackets and compare their seeds off to mine, since I think I did pretty good. Gary Parrish from cbssportsline.com picked 64 teams and was 44 seeds off. The best one I've seen was the bracketology blog at www.bracketology101.blogspot.com who got 64 teams and only 29 seeds off. 

Thanks to all who took the time to read.