We're rounding the corner on NCAA basketball conference championships for 2014. I'll set up the Yahoo! brackets for LCT. Prize is bragging rights and a virtual picture of an NCAA basketball championship trophy.

Selection Sunday is coming up this weekend!!

Cheers, Anne

Thanks, Anne - this could be my year!

That's the beauty of the tournament ... someone's gonna win

Cheers, Anne

Hi Annne, it's Pat and I will join the March Madness . Let me know what to do to get the bracket....Happy travels....Pat

Not sure I am confident enough to join in without my bracket picker Anne, but I'm so proud of my GATORS . 24 and counting. I'll be watching !

The brackets are set up. Here's the information for joining the group:

use the following link: https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/quickenloansbracket/group/124063/join?key=

You'll need the following information to join
Pool ID#: 124063
Password: lct

Have to have your brackets in by March 20 at noon Eastern time.

If you need help with the Tourney Pick'em game, the following link may help answer questions: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/tourney-pickem

Let's have some fun and go for the win!

Cheers, Anne

Anne - It's not letting me in. It probably doesn't help that I don't have a cell phone. Any ideas?

Sigh ... the 'enhanced' version of the software for the Tourney Pick 'em is once again a pain in the ***.

betty, please pm me with your e-mail. I'll send you an e-mail that should route you straight into the group

Same goes for any other interested parties if you can't link in through the information I got off the Yahoo! site. You will need a Yahoo! user id - but don't need a cell phone

Cheers, Anne

I agree, I went round and round last night trying to sign in and make my picks. Sometimes "enhanced" is not so great! But I somehow got in, so here we go! Cheering for the Badgers of course!

Nope. I could not get in.

The way I finally got in, as I recall, is I had to sign up for a Yahoo email account (which I will probably never use!)

Jim - sent you an invite to your hotmail account. You do have to set up a Yahoo! user ID and password to use this Tournament Bracket.

Kristin - your Badgers look awesome.

Cheers, Anne

EDITED to show correct link

I was able to get in using this link a few minutes ago. If this doesn't work, pls send me a PM for a workaround.

Sign in with your Yahoo! User ID and password. Then use this link:

https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/quickenloansbracket/register/joingroup

1. Click on Join a Private Pool
2. Pool ID is 124063
3. Password: lct (note: lower case)

PM me if it doesn't Thanks & happy picking - Anne

I'm in; can't believe that Pac-12 got shut out of East Bracket. I think I am probably the only one picking Arizona over Arizona State in the Final Four semifinal.

Anne - I was able to get in. Yahoo finally answered my email. They ended up calling me to verify. So weird. But now I'm set. Let the games begin! Thanks for your help.

You are most welcome Betty. First game in Durham on the ladies' side, this Sat @ 1:30 (probably Eastern time) is DePaul v. Oklahoma. Winner gets beaten up by Duke - who will get beaten up by UConn. Such a lousy bracket for both of our teams.

We'll virtually join you



Anne

So true, Marc. Lots of teams west of the Allegheny Mtns in the Big East.

Saw on Yahoo! "the Digger" last night the #1 choice of those who have completed brackets are

Florida
Arizona
Michigan State
Louisville

exactly the line up both Gary and I came up with on the first pass

This will be OU Women's 15th straight trip to the dance. I cringed when I saw who we play. Agree - lousy bracket. One of us will be happy.

Thanks, Anne! - we've been so inconsistent though. Will probably choke when it matters the most. I'm just hoping for some thrilling games, with every team. And I want to win that billion dollar prize - ha!

If the conference championship tournaments were any indication, this should be a great year for basketball NCAA style.

12 entries so far. Who is Christopher?

Fair warning: brackets close promptly at 12 noon today.

Good luck on the billion dollar bracket. I forgot to enter it! doh

Thanks for setting this up, Anne. Have to admit for the first time I used Al's picks instead of mine. I'm pretty much clueless this year!

Thanks for nothing Ohio State. My 1 billion $ is gone!

That was quick! Fun to watch Craft though....

you're very welcome, Kathy. I hardly had time to think about the picks & rushed through 'em.

Cheers, Anne

Wow, already several upsets. The term "March Madness" always holds true year after year!

Dena has nailed every game so far. Keep it up Dena!

Betty - over 80 percent of the Yahoo! brackets had OSU - 83.7% to be more precise. The writer noted not all of them may have been in the billion dollar bracket (like yours truly) but it would be a very small difference.

Kristin - 40 points? Highest point spread for a 2 beating a 15 in tournament history (if I heard it correctly on ESPN this morning)

I added one bracket from the automated choices - Most Popular Picks - to see how upset-prone this year's tournament is.

Champion picks: 8 different teams. Repeats are Florida (5), Louisville (2) and Michigan State (2).

Standings (bracket name, actual score, final pick, possible points remaining):

Dena's HereGoesNothing Bracket 13 Florida 189
Kathy's First-Rate Bracket 13 Florida 189
Most Popular Picks 13 Florida 189
Chris's best shot 13 Duke 185
Pat's Terrific Bracket 12 Florida 184
christopher's Fine Bracket 12 Louisville 182
The A Team 12 Michigan St. 180
Gary's Going With This Bracket 12 Louisville 186
Michele's Matchless Bracket 12 Michigan St. 186
grant's yada yada yada 11 Florida 187
Kristin's Legit Bracket 11 Villanova 179
Betty's Brilliant Bracket 11 Michigan 185
Marc's Tip-Top Bracket 11 UCLA 173
Betty's Slam-Dunk Bracket 10 Syracuse 178

Wow! Aren't most brackets blown with Duke's loss? A wild tournament! (But I know Beth is elated!)

hot off the press: After #Mercer win over #Duke, only 2,185 #PerfectBrackets out of 11.01 million on http://ESPN.com remain. ... Quicken will award $100,000 for each of the 20 most accurate brackets.

Standings at the end of the Round of 64 (bracket name, actual score, final pick, possible points remaining):

christopher's Fine Bracket 24 Louisville 172
Kathy's First-Rate Bracket 24 Florida 178
grant's yada yada yada 24 Florida 174
Most Popular Picks 24 Florida 178
Marc's Tip-Top Bracket 24 UCLA 168

Gary's Going With This Bracket 23 Louisville 173
Kristin's Legit Bracket 23 Villanova 173
Michele's Matchless Bracket 23 Michigan St. 176
Chris's best shot 23 Duke 117

Dena's HereGoesNothing Bracket 22 Florida 174
The A Team 22 Michigan St. 166
Pat's Terrific Bracket 21 Florida 176
Betty's Brilliant Bracket 21 Michigan 177
Betty's Slam-Dunk Bracket 17 Syracuse 165

Wow. Too many upsets: No perfect brackets left in Quicken Loans $1 billion challenge

Standings after the Round of 32:

Gary's Going With This Bracket 47 Louisville 171
Dena's HereGoesNothing Bracket 46 Florida 166
Chris's best shot 45 Duke 113
Kathy's First-Rate Bracket 44 Florida 160
Most Popular Picks 44 Florida 164

Michele's Matchless Bracket 43 Michigan St. 159
christopher's Fine Bracket 42 Louisville 146
The A Team 42 Michigan St. 150
grant's yada yada yada 42 Florida 146
Marc's Tip-Top Bracket 42 UCLA 146

Pat's Terrific Bracket 41 Florida 157
Kristin's Legit Bracket 41 Villanova 105
Betty's Brilliant Bracket 37 Michigan 133
Betty's Slam-Dunk Bracket 35 Syracuse 71

Sweet sixteen starts Thursday!

Cheers, Anne

OK .. no repeat champ this year. Blue is the color of the day both for Kentucky fans and for the disappointed Cardinal followers.

still have 3 possible champs alive in our bracket: Florida, MIchigan St. and Michigan

Standings after Sweet Sixteen:

Gary's Going With This Bracket 63 Louisville 103
Dena's HereGoesNothing Bracket 62 Florida 150
The A Team 62 Michigan St. 150
Pat's Terrific Bracket 61 Florida 157
Kristin's Legit Bracket 41 Villanova 101


Kathy's First-Rate Bracket 60 Florida 132
Most Popular Picks 60 Florida 132
Michele's Matchless Bracket 59 Michigan St. 147
Chris's best shot 57 Duke 89
christopher's Fine Bracket 54 Louisville 86

Betty's Brilliant Bracket 53 Michigan 117
grant's yada yada yada 50 Florida 130
Betty's Slam-Dunk Bracket 47 Syracuse 55
Marc's Tip-Top Bracket 46 UCLA 70







Cheers, Anne

Greg and I are so pumped that three of the final eight are from the Big 10! It's probably the first time ever?!

We're down to .. Kentucky .. Connecticut .. Florida .. and Wisconsin. 2 from SEC; one from Big Ten and one from American.

Seven entries still have point earning potential. The rest have achieved all the points remaining

Standings as we go into the final 4:

Seven who could move up:

Kathy's First-Rate Bracket 76 Florida 124
Dena's HereGoesNothing Bracket 70 Florida 118
Pat's Terrific Bracket 69 Florida 117
Most Popular Picks 68 Florida 116
Chris's best shot 65 Duke 81
christopher's Fine Bracket 62 Louisville 78
grant's yada yada yada 58 Florida 106

Those with final scores:

Gary's Going With This Bracket 71 Louisville 71
The A Team 70 Michigan St. 70
Kristin's Legit Bracket 69 Villanova 69
Michele's Matchless Bracket 67 Michigan St. 67

Betty's Brilliant Bracket 53 Michigan 53
Betty's Slam-Dunk Bracket 47 Syracus47
Marc's Tip-Top Bracket 46 UCLA 46

Sat night will be exciting - and of course Monday night - having people in for dinner Sat - buffet do not want to miss a shot - GO GATORS!!!!

Anne, my brothers would just love your devotion to this exercise. One went to Duke, the other UMd as did I. I have no clue about basketball or any other sport.

So I think I will go with the Gators since UMd is missing from the list, just to be cheering with Joannapv, since her daughter might be at the game on Saturday! GO GATORS!!!!

Maryland's women's team is in the Final Four! It should be an exciting weekend, indeed. What will I do to escape the post-NCAA letdown?

GO GATORS!!!!!

Betty,

I bet you are on pins and needles right now. Hoping your Gators win!!

Beth, they gave it a heck of a run!

Didn't they all! So ... kentucky or uconn? We'll know Monday night. UConn could once again double - men's and women's NCAA champions.

Our tournament is over. Because we want to give our winner an accurate virtual trophy, here are the possibilities:

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UConn holding up the trophy (coach emeritus Jim Calhoun's - it'll be Kevin Ollie if they win this year)

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Kentucky holding up the trophy (coach John Calipari)

Congrats to our winner Kathy, who rolled in with 76 points. Second place goes to Gary, with 71 points. Dena takes third with 70 points.

See you next year .. and now I have to figure out what to do for the next 11 months 1 week. I'm sure I'll come up with something ...

Cheers, Anne