ness Page 80 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Vote, You Whiners: Round 1 Of The Bitchy Bracket
Read the intro here and start voting below. You have until 5 p.m. EDT tomorrow. Here's where to vote for the second half of Round 1....
Who Are The Bitchiest, Most Defensive Fans In America?
Not long ago, our Billy Haisley wrote a post shitting on Major League Soccer. When you rip on American soccer, you can rest assured that a tidal bore of American soccer fanboy defensiveness is headed your way. It's almost as if they're all huddled together outside your house, waiting behind the shr...
Six Potential Cinderellas–And How They Can Win
We may not remember who won the NCAA tournament three years ago, but we can always recall the 14-seed that went to the Sweet 16. We love March Madness for the Cinderellas. Dedicated loyalty is fine for alumni, but the people who pay attention for three weeks each year could care less. The sleepers b...
What Are The Best Upset Picks In The First Round?
You may have noticed that the "expert brackets" we put together are mostly chalk, because they're picking the single most likely outcome of each individual game....
Is A No. 11 Seed Actually Among The Best Teams In The Country?
One of the quirks of college basketball is that we get to see only a brief audition of each team before the NCAA tournament begins. By the time the NBA playoffs start, there are 82 games' worth of data on each team, and each of those consists of 48 minutes. At the college level, teams entering the t...
Your Last-Minute Bracket Cheat Sheet: What All The Smart People Say
The "first" "round" of the NCAA tournament is underway, and the deadline for bracket submissions is fast approaching. To help you out with your last-minute picks, we took a look a seven March Madness/college hoops models, and used them to build out seven different "expert brackets."...
A March Madness Pool Scoring System That Doesn't Suck
Before we get to today's Funbag, a quick bit of news: I'll be singing the U.S. and Canadian anthems tonight at the Raptors-Hawks game in Atlanta. I've also taken over the Hawks' official Twitter feed (@ATLHawks) for the day. Or at least until they kick me off. So join me today for MAXIMUM HAWKITU...
These Cool Interactives Will Help Guide You To Bracket Success
Over at The Power Rank, Grantland's Ed Feng has put together a nice interactive bracket with his tournament predictions, based on his own ranking system. If you go to his site and click on individual teams, you'll see the odds that they advance through various rounds. If you click on individual game...
Which Pundit's NCAA Tournament Bracket Should You Copy?
The March Madness brackets is fresh off the presses. Which of the so-called experts has a bracket worth using for your office pool?...
The Dance-Card Model Picked 35 Of 36 At-Large Bids This Year
The bracket-predicting model developed by Jay Coleman, Mike DuMond, and Allen Lynch had another strong performance in 2014, and has now predicted 108 of 110 at-larges over the last three seasons. The only miss was N.C. State, which the model put outside of the bubble, in favor of California....
No, The Odds Of Picking A Perfect Bracket Aren't 1 In 9.2 Quintillion
Thanks to the Warren Buffett-backed Billion Dollar Bracket, more than ever before, outlets are reporting that the odds of picking a perfect bracket are "1 in 9.2 quintillion." This figure has been cited by The New York Times, USA Today, Slate, Bleacher Report, CBS, and Rick Reilly, among others, and...
Download Your NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket PDF Here
The NCAA has released its bracket for the 2014 men's basketball tournament and you can download a PDF here. The NCAA tournament either starts on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. or on Thursday at noon, depending on your perspective (both times EDT). ...
SEC Tournament Punctuated By Overenthusiastic Referee's Technical Foul
Today's Tennessee-Florida SEC tournament semifinal from Atlanta has featured plenty of #refshow, with technical fouls, flagrant fouls, and the always-awful "official replay." Referee Pat Adams took things to the next degree, though, when he emphatically T'd up Volunteer Jeronne Maymon after a high-l...
Seton Hall Buzzer Beater Knocks Villanova Out Of Big East Tournament
In a crazy finish, Villanova, the 1 seed in the Big East Tournament and no. 3 in the nation, was knocked off by Seton Hall on a last second shot by Sterling Gibbs. This is why we love March. ...
This Model Has Predicted 73 Of 74 NCAA Tournament At-Large Bids
Part of the fun of March Madness is obsessively guessing who'll fall on either side of the bubble, but a model known as the "dance card"—which has predicted 73 out of 74 at-large bids over the last two seasons—might be spoiling the surprise....
Is Time For Sad Nightmare Bear
Here we find Nightmare Bear, shortly after the Russian hockey team's loss to Finland, experiencing a nightmare of his own. Now you know how we feel every time we look at you, Nightmare Bear....
Vladimir Putin Would Win All The Gold At Sochi If He Wanted To
At last! We're finally on the cusp of the Sochi Olympics. It's a time to focus on all the extraneous inconveniences, both small and great, that, for better or worse, will be forgotten as as soon as the real action starts. But before we fully lose ourselves in a world of ice dancing and curling, we s...
I Got A Manicure In The Super Bowl Media Lounge
It's been a long day and you've been busting your ass on the radio for hours and hours, dishing out your strong takes to the loyal listeners of ESPN's regional radio affiliate in Altoona. You need a break. You need to come in from the WINDSWEPT MOONSCAPE of this cold weather Super Bowl week. Well...