Tuesday, March 11, 2008

BlogDog Bracketology

Basketball isn’t the BlogDog’s game.

He’s a football prognosticator – as evidenced by his sterling 8-4 mark picking Air Force games during the 2007 regular season. (Note: I’m not counting his pick of Air Force over Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl on his official record because his pick was made in suburban Maryland during the holidays under the supervision of the BlogWife. BlogDog was out of his element and confused).

But there’s a simple reason why the BlogDog is qualified to fill out a Mountain West Conference men’s basketball tournament bracket:

The tournament’s being held in Las Vegas.

BlogDog knows when playing blackjack that he always should split aces, never split face cards and double down when he has 11 (or when he has 10 or 9 and the dealer has a bust card). And when playing poker, he’ll go all-in pre-flop, then make the rest of the table fold with an intimidating growl.

He’s pure Vegas.

(Note two: For those of you just finding this blog, the BlogDog is my dog, Norm. Because I enjoy reading prognostication columns – and because The Gazette does not permit me, as a beat writer, to make picks on games – I pressed Norm into service. He correctly picked three of Air Force’s first four games, and a star was born.)

In football, Norm’s picks were determined by a “best three-out-of-five” system. I’d put a mini-replica Air Force helmet and the mini-replica helmet of the opponent the Falcons were facing that week in front of Norm, and whichever one Norm went to first – best three out of five times – was the team he thought would win.

But this is March Madness. One and done. So Norm picked just once on each game.

And, yes, he picked the football helmets, even though this is basketball.

His picks are below. He likes the Falcons to win their first-ever MWC Tournament game, Utah to upset New Mexico and BYU and UNLV to meet in a rematch of last year’s final.


BlogDog’s Picks:


Play-in Game

Wyoming over Colorado State


Quarterfinals

BYU over Wyoming

Air Force over San Diego State

Utah over New Mexico

UNLV over TCU



Semifinals
BYU over Air Force
UNLV over Utah



Final
BYU over UNLV

3 comments:

Mackenzie Block said...

Welcome back Blogdog!

Its Friday night and I am checking on how you did...so far not too good...kinda inconsistent...have you thought about becoming a mountain west conference referee?
I am sure they have no qualification requirements, and there definitely is no accountability...and if you see someone poke out an eye, you can just ignore it...no blood, no foul.

Refdog...I like it, I promise not to yell at you during the games...

Okay, now I feel better.

Jake,

Do you think there's any chance of the CBI for AF? I think I already know the answer...

Seriously, its good to see blogdog again. Looks like he's been cut again and I definitely think that affects his prognostication ability. I think if you do some in-depth investigation, you will notice that blogdog is almost perfect with long hair and has a much worse percentage with short hair...I think its analogous to a home and away kinda effect...

Anonymous said...

I must say, I'm a little dissapointed in BlogDog. My advice? Stick to football. On a serious note, Jake- Where have you been? I don't recall anyone giving you permission to take a spring break from blogging, so we are expecting in-depth insight and clever writing (the kind that results from a long rest) when you return. I, for one, am looking forward to your musnigs on the second half of spring football.

jake.schaller said...

Hi,

I'm looking to getting back to it too -- believe me.

I had intentions of writing about AF's spring practices and pro day last week, but I was felled by some sort of evil sickness. My doctor said it was bronchitis, but I think it might have been the plague.

I had only taken one sick day in my 2.5 years at The Gazette prior to last week. And last week I was in bed the whole week.

Anyway, I'll be back on it when the academy gets back on the field next week. And hopefully the MWC will release schedules this week so I'll have something else to talk about.