Whose interested in NCAA team competition?

[vickie1ok]

We've done this a number of times for the men's tourney, I thought it would be fun for the women's. Instead of the traditional pick your bracket competition, a friend and I came up with this team competition years ago. You get together all those who want to have a "team" of their own. We hold a draft the day before the tourney begins. Every participant will "draft" any player from any team in the NCAA tournament. Draft order is determined by random drawings. Each person drafts 10 players for their team. Then you total the top FIVE scorers for each team in each round of the tournament. Scores are cumulative and the top score after the championship game wins. Notice I said top FIVE scores in each round, not all scores. This plays into your selection strategy. It's an enormous amount of fun and changes the way you watch the tourney.

To prepare for the draft, you need to download USA today's team capsules that have rosters with ppg, etc. It is helpful to have a list of draftees in order that you want to select. However, part of the strategy is that you spread your team members out among the brackets so you don't have all of your players beating each other out by the final 8. The other strategy is you want high scorers but also people you project to go far in the tourney so you keep gaining points into the final four.

To make it competitive, we need about 5 people to participate but logistically can't do more than 10 because there just aren't enough players to go around. (seriously!, if we have 10 people, you should have about 120-140 names on your list; if you don't want to do a list, you can highlight your USA today rosters) The more prepared everyone is, the faster the draft goes. I can keep scores; I have a spreadsheet we used last year, and post them every Monday. Also, we do the draft in serpentine order so it doesn't give those at the top of the random drawing too much advantage. (ie, we start 1,2,3,4,5 then 5,4,3,2,1, and so on)

Anyone in?

[YCN]

I'm confused, vickster.

Do I need to nominate a certain number of players for the "drafting pool"?

[vickie1ok]

No, this is how it goes:

1. We determine how many people want to participate and set up a chat room, probably Thurs. night to hold our draft.
2. Do your homework before the draft! Put together your lists of players and bring along with your bracket to draft.
3. We have a random drawing (someone can pick numbers out of a hat, I trust you) for each participant to determine the order in which each person drafts. We draft in serpentine order, ie, 1,2,3,4,5 and then 5,4,3,2,1, etc, until all 10 rounds are finished.
4. Once a player is drafted, they are gone. Just like the NBA.
5. After the draft, I will track everyone's "team" for each round of the tourney. As I said, only the top 5 scores from each round count. Scores from each round are cumulative and high score for the tourney wins.
6. THe strategy is to not only pick high scorers but players you project to advance in the tourney so you don't fizz out after the first few rounds. Also, you don't want to load up on player in one or two regions or sides of the bracket.

So, no, you don't pick in advance, or else we'd have alot of the same people, but rather we all pick at a live draft in order.

Does this make it more clear? I know it's a really different type contest, but a lot of fun. Kind of a fantasy tourney league, if you will.

[swok34]

I'm game if everyone else is.......

[vickie1ok]

Oh, and one more thing. The pool of eligible players are all players from every one of the 64 teams in the tournament. Obviously, there are alot of teams you won't even look at while doing your homework...and others, like UCONN, will not only have every starter picked but some subs as well.

[YCN]

I'm game vickie, let's do it.

It's not like I have anything planned this weekend! ;^))

[vickie1ok]

Anyone else? We need at least 5, no more than 10. If more than 10 are interested, than another person could sponsor another league. I don't have a server for a live chat but if nothing else we could use OUfans.com. And I'm thinking about Thurs. night about 7pm, CST? I'll check back tomorrow night and see who we have and take it from there.

[RaiderPower1]

I'll go with it!

[vickie1ok]

Trust me, guys, this will change how you watch the tourney. And who you root for, though I never root against my Sooners! And after the draft, I'll do all the work keeping scores, though I do ask each person to double check their team members in those rare cases I miss something or use a source that had a player's points wrong.

[vickie1ok]

We have four and counting! If you know anyone else who's game for this sort of thing, tell them to hurry!

[YCN]

vickie, is it scoring only?

No rebounds, blocked shots...NOTHING?

Just wanna know the rules, ya know...

[vickie1ok]

Yes, just scoring only. You'll find the time to prepare just for that is enough. Here is how I prepare for the draft:

1. I have a list of the top 10-20 girls I want based on their PPG and team (which determines how many rounds you think they will play)
2.. Then I have a list for each region, with each team with their top scorers below it.
3.. I have my bracket so I can check every time I've selected someone from a region, either north or south. You may want to choose Dionnah Jackson in the West, but you might already have 3 players from that region and that side of the bracket, so you may want to choose differently. This is where strategy comes into play.

You may just want to have your USA Today team capsules and highlight the teams and players. It takes a little less time. Regardless, you want something where you can mark players off as they are selected in the draft so you know they are no longer eligible. It just saves time.

[schooner2]

Count me in.

[HoopScoop]

HoopScoop already has a chat room. We just don't use it. Simply go to http://hoopscoop.net/big12wbb/chat.html.

[Zo31]

Count me in also. Sounds like fun. It is certainly a different approach from anything else I have ever done.

[mred]

Count me in, too.

The link above for the chat room doesn't work right because of the extra period on the end. http://hoopscoop.net/big12wbb/chat.htmlThis link</a> works.

[This message has been edited by mred (edited 03-12-2002).]

[swok34]

Can we use this chat room for some of the games, also.

[ISUbballfan]

If you still have room I would like to join too.

[HoopScoop]

Originally posted by swok34:
Can we use this chat room for some of the games, also.

Sounds good. The chat room is always there and ready for use by whomever would like to use it. So someone just needs to ask that everyone pile into the chat room at such and such time and we all will. Don't look to me to be the one organizing that. I leave it up to everyone else to use that chat room whenever they like.

Suggestion: Maybe we could just say that on days when games are being played, those who would like to could head to the chat room at 9PM CST to discuss the days events, etc. Or you could just post on this forum when you would like to meet. Seems this forum is read often enough that the word will spread quickly.