jimdahl

Nope, it seems to be a tap into the ESPN360 feed that requires Windows Media Player. According to the ESPN360 page, tomorrow's UND game will be available from it. If you have the right broadband provider (i.e. one who subscribes to 360) you can watch it free from the ESPN site (link above). Or, if you don't, you can hope that channelsurfing guy doesn't get caught and shut down before tomorrow night

First game is done, the scoring begins. Everyone feeling clever for picking the big #4-#1 upset is the company of over 100 people. Leaderboard (click on a name to see the picks and up-to-date correctness of the picks)

This is why it's so hard to make automated text message score notification systems. Even presumably reliable (the NCAA!) scoreboards often have bad data.

Games are underway, picks are closed. AZSIOUX has again generously offered some prizes to the winner, more details on that later. The first interesting analysis tidbit, the homer confidence ratio -- percentage of entrants who picked UND to win it all: 2007 78% (Minnesota #2 with 10%, BC #3 with 5%, Notre Dame #4 with 2%) 2006 71% (Wisconsin #2 with 14%) 2005 52% (CC #2 with 20%, Denver #3 with 10%) 2004 87% (Minn. #2 with 7%, BC #3 with 2%, Denver under 1% to make the final game) Champs in bold

One person has asked me about, and I've noticed myself on at least one system, a problem with forum times being off by an hour since the earlier switch to DST this year. The board is supposed to detect from your web browser if your computer is currently in DST or not, and adjust the time accordingly. However, if that's not working, you can adjust it manually: Click "My controls", "Board Settings", uncheck "auto correct DST" and check "is daylight savings time in effect", then click the "change" button at the bottom to save. By doing this manually, even if the tech guys have all the DST glitches figured out by then, the forum won't be able to switch you back automatically when DST ends next Fall so you'll have to repeat the process then.

Punch in the name and password you used and hit "Load" and if you see your picks, it was saved!

Deficit cut from 34 to 21. The comeback begins...

Why does INCH hate the Sioux? ESPN 2/2 pick the Sioux INCH 3/7 pick the Sioux

Bison trolls aside, that's actually a great idea for a game, and one that I had been keeping an eye on expecting them to look at. Scheduling a school like Mary gives us additional exposure in Western North Dakota (in contrast to playing the lower tier school in your backyard, like UM-C or C-SP). Mary's no stranger to our schedule in other sports, might as well play them in the one that's going to get the biggest headlines on the local sports page in Bismarck.

I was saying Booo-urns.

The best thing about this game is how no one can bring themselves to bet against their team -- precisely the same percentage of people are picking Michigan to beat UND (3%) as are picking Air Force to beat Minnesota (3%) I'm actually a little surprised how much love for SCSU there has been so far, with 51% predicting an advance to the Frozen Four. Only the Notre Dame bracket doesn't have a clear favorite.

I don't have Photoshop where I currently am, but an "auto-contrast" followed by "sharpen more" and "sharpen edges" filters will create some definition around the color transitions. (Trying the filters in the other order might create some odd pixelization that can be beat down with a modest blur at the end). A combination of a manual "unsharp mask" followed by a custom blur will give the best results, though it could be a lot of work to get right when the auto stuff will get you close. The software can't fill in detail that isn't there, but it should be able to harden the edges to reduce the appearance of blur.

From eLynah, KRACH predictions for the first and second round survivors: KRACH predictions Despite not being on most of our radars for not being a traditional power, KRACH likes Notre Dame's chances, giving them a 58% chance of getting through to the F4. Though Minnesota is at 61%, that's largely on the back of a ridiculous 95% chance of winning their opening round game (to ND's 89%).

Here's the official NCAA full bracket with game times. Linked from the front hockey page, too, if you lose track of this thread.

Quit trying to drive away other posters and telling them not to post here. Keep the discussion about the teams, not about other posters.

Plenty of us don't hate Gopher fans, don't think the refs have it in for us, or any of that nonsense. Since we don't have much to say in those conversations, we don't post in them. By posting and complaining about other people's posts, you're actually keeping that discussion going! The last 10 pages of crap in this thread is the back-and-forth between you guys and those people. If you'd just let it go, it would go away quicker. Posting in it bumps it to the top. If you want to have discussion about Porter, Finley, recruits, how Michigan looks, etc..., join one of the dozens of other threads that has received traffic today or start your own on any topic of interest. Complaining that threads about a Gopher vs. UND championship game contained some anti-Gopher smack after a loss demonstrates unrealistic expectations.

NCAA Pick'em bracket I think I got it right, but my historical success rate is embarrassingly close to 50%. They don't seem to have switched the regions this year, NE meets W and MW meets E, just like last year. I'll link it from the front page in an hour or two. Early users beware -- if mistakes are found, picks will have to be reset.

So what does anyone know about Michigan (other than that we see them every year in the NCAA tournament)? They're also coming off a close loss to the regular season conference leader in the conference championship (a 1-2 loss to Notre Dame). They have a Hobey Baker finalist, T.J. Hensick:

Yep, I should have it up within an hour or so.

"This is a brutal bracket". "No one wanted to play the Fighting Sioux in the 1st round". "I think Michigan has to be disappointed about that". "They [North Dakota] have the most dynamic line we're going to see in the tournament". "I like the Sioux to come out of that region". "Minnesota the #1 seed overall has to play those two teams? Wow." "If I had to pick someone to be the greatest threat in that bracket, it would be North Dakota". "They [North Dakota] have some flaws. They tend to sleepwalk through a period". "Fact or Fiction: Erik Johnson is the best player we'll see? Fiction. Watch for Toews". "Will we see a Holy Cross like upset anywhere in the tournament this year? No. Minnesota will be ready for Air Force". "Fact or Fiction: Minnesota will win. Fiction - B.C. will it all. Fiction, UND has been rolling."

So far it seems to be going exactly by the numbers, the "bracketology" predictions have been dead-on. No sign of anyone getting screwed.

On the flip side, I'd much rather have to delete one troll than turn away new members at the time of peak interest. Though it sucks to have 1 troll who needed to be banned, I'm sure glad I didn't turn away the other 32 new registrants in the last 7 days!

Yeah, and that's the only thing that gives me confidence they're right. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to assume that their treatment of RIT was more an accident of how they happened to implement their PWR code than an informed decision (USCHO had PWR very wrong for quite a few weeks in January until they finally got the new rules tweaked to agree with other sources). Shawn hit the nail on the head, though. If this treatment of RIT is correct, TUC is a serious misnomer in that RIT is clearly not "under consideration". Rather, the criterion is record against top 25. I guess the committee revealed some preference toward that when they quit including autobids as TUCs this year.

Answering my own question, here's what Moy from USCHO says about RIT: I knew the games against them counted, because they are an NCAA team now, but that they still consume a TUC slot and count in the TUC records for other TUCs, despite being ineligible to be chosen, is a little peculiar.

The biggest question in my mind is the treatment of RIT. The USCHO guys have contacts on the selection committee, so probably know better than I, but I wasn't sure how to treat RIT being in the top 25 in RPI but not being eligible as a TUC. It's a huge deal, because if RIT doesn't consume a slot, then Mankato (at #26 in the RPI) bumps up to a TUC. We're 5-0-1 against Mankato, which would help our TUC considerably, pushing us up to #7 in PWR. With serpentine seeding (ignoring regions for now), that would result in: Minn., Michigan, BU, Huntsville N.D., North Dakota, Michigan St, Air Force Clarkson, SCSU, Maine (swapped w/St Lawrence to avoid BC matchup), Mass. (swapped w/Miami to avoid UNH matchup) UNH, BC, St Lawrence, Miami Again, there's good reason to think that USCHO & CHN know how to treat the RIT anomaly, and their interpretation (count RIT as a TUC but just don't pick them) is a reasonable interpretation of the rule that to be under consideration a team must be in the top 25 in the RPI.