Thursday, March 19, 2009

Lady G 1-on-1 vs. Baracketer-in-Chief

I'm glad to see that President Obama managed to find time to fill out his Barackets this year.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/0317/obamasbracket09.jpg

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/03/a_bracket_you_can_believe_in.php

He's picking winners straight up and I'm picking winners against the spread. But, when he is picking underdogs to win outright, we can delineate clear differences between his prognostications and mine. Just for fun, I will be keeping track of who's got the better system – Veronica Gipp (aka Lady Godiva) from Coventry, England with no knowledge or interest in basketball or the Baracketer-in-Chief. And, I am willing to give the President the benefit of the points even when he is picking upset winners straight up.

Lady G Pick:

Obama Pick:

Arizona

Utah

USC -2

BCU +2

Cal -1

Maryland +1

UCLA -7

VCU +7

LSU -2.5

Butler +2.5

ASU -4.5

Temple +4.5

I won't count the fact that I started correctly picking Morehead State -3.5, while the President opted for Bama State +3.5 in the play-in game.

Monday, March 16, 2009

March Madness

I myself take no interest whatsoever in American college basketball, but toy boy Archibald can't get enough roundball. Every year he organizes a friendly, non-profit office pool for the NCAA men's tourney. Instead of picking bracket winners, the object of his pool is to pick winners against the point spread each and every day as the tournament unfolds. The winner of his winner-take-all pool is the contestant who picks the most winners against the spread over 64 matches. All matches are weighted equally starting with tonight's play-in match to determine the 64th team through the 6 April championship.

To humour Archibald, I participate by relying on economists' studies showing that "heavy" underdogs win more than their fair share of college basketball games against the point spread, while "non-heavy" overdogs win slightly more than 50% (although this particular result is not statistically significant).

http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/print/179073423.html

Last year, I followed this approach and finished 2nd with a 37-27 record or 57.8%. The "non-heavy" overdogs part of my strategy worked like a dream at 33-19 or 63.5%. But, "heavy" underdogs let me down at 4-8 or 33%. Last year's winner followed a plain-vanilla, all-overdogs approach that took home the prize with a 41-23 record or 64%.

It was very unusual to see overdogs win 64% against the points over 64 games. It has occurred to me that the "science" pointing to "heavy" underdogs in basketball may apply only to regular season matches. Playoffs may be different with teams going all out to bury opponents in elimination games. There is some evidence, albeit inconclusive in a statistical sense, that this may be true in NFL football.

In any case, just for fun I am sticking to the same strategy this year. So, in tonight's play-in match I recommend

Morehead State -3.5 over Alabama State

Thursday games:

Pick

Spread

Against

Bing

+22

Duke

Texas

-4

Minnie

Radford

+26.5

UNC

LSU

-2.5

Butler

Chatt

+20.5

UConn

BYU

-2

Texas A&M

American

+17

Villanova

UCLA

-7

Virginia Comm

CS Northridge

+19.5

Memphis

Cal

-1

Maryland

Morgan

+16.5

Oke

Clemson

-5

Michigan

Purdue

-8.5

N Iowa

Wash

-5

Missie State

Illini

-4.5

WKU

Akron

+12.5

Gonzo

Friday games:

Arizona

0

Utah

Wake

-7.5

Cleve State

Syracuse

-12

SF Austin

ASU

-4.5

Temple

Morehead St.

+21

Louisville

OSU

-3

Siena

ETSU

+20

Pitt

Tennie

-2

Oke State

Bob Morris

+17

Mich State

USC

-2

BCU

Kansas

-10

NDS

WVU

-8.5

Dayton

Cornell

+13

Missouri

Marquette

-4

Utah State

FSU

-2.5

Wisconsin

Xavier

-11

Port State


 


NBA Update


 

So far this year, heavy NBA underdogs are 45-38-2 or 54% against the spread.


 

Friday night take:


 

Minnie +12.5 over HOUSTON

Wash +14.5 over DENVER


 

Archibald refers you roundball fans to a New York Times article by Moneyball author Michael Lewis on the quantitative approach to picking players taken by the management team in charge of the Houston Rockets. We can predict that the Rockets will be a top team for years to come as long as they stick to this plan.


 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html