RTC Your Shadow: Pick the Sweet Sixteen Contest

RTC Your Shadow Final Results 

Congratulations to MURAWSKI for nailing 12 of the Sweet Sixteen in this contest, including three teams that were worth two points each because they were seeded between #7-#12. He is our grand prize winner this year!  ADAVEN90 and ULHOTHOT will pick up second place prizes for also getting 12 of the Sweet Sixteen including two teams each seeded between #7-#12.

Many thanks to everyone else who played this and some of our other games with us this season! Enjoy the rest of the Tournament!

You can also view the Google Doc here.

The fifth and final Swap Window has now closed. Sweet Sixteen picks are hereby locked and loaded. Good luck to everyone throughout this opening weekend.

Keep in mind the rules: Seeds #1-#6 are worth one point each. Seeds #7-#12 are worth two points each. Seeds #13-#16 are worth three points each. You will not get double-credit for picking the same team twice.

You can also view the Google Doc here.

The fourth Swap Window is closed.

NEXT OPEN WINDOW: Monday, March 16 – you may remove up to 2 teams from your original list and replace it with up to 2 new teams.

The third Swap Window has now passed, with 51 contestants making changes this week.

NEXT OPEN WINDOW: Monday, March 9 – you may remove 1 team from your original list and replace it with 1 new team.

The second Swap Window has passed with 42 contestants making changes to their original Sweet Sixteen picks.

Some interesting numbers after three swaps, showing mostly a concentration of choices among 14 teams:

Team Total “+/-“ %
Kentucky 206 2 99%
Duke 200 3 96%
Wisconsin 197 4 94%
Kansas 197 3 94%
Arizona 196 4 94%
Virginia 193 1 92%
Gonzaga 188 3 90%
Villanova 161 -1 77%
Notre Dame 144 4 69%
Iowa St. 142 8 68%
North Carolina 141 0 67%
Louisville 140 -22 67%
Utah 138 11 66%
Wichita St. 118 13 56%

Here’s everyone’s Sweet Sixteen after the third swap.

WEEK FOUR SELECTIONS

NEXT OPEN WINDOW: Monday, March 2 – you may remove 1 team from your original list and replace it with 1 new team.

Some interesting numbers after two swaps:

  • Louisville has been the most removed team, dropping from 16 ballots.
  • Baylor has been the most added team, showing up on 14 ballots.

Here’s everyone’s Sweet Sixteen after two swaps.

WEEK THREE SELECTIONS

The first Swap Window has passed with 26 contestants making changes to their original Sweet Sixteen picks.

NEXT OPEN WINDOW: Monday, Feb. 23 – you may remove 2 teams from your original list and replace them with 2 new teams.

The W3 form will be emailed to you at the end of this week. Remember that you are not required to make any changes if you’re happy with the teams you have. You’ll be allowed to make one or two swaps if you like next Monday. The open window will be roughly from Midnight ET to 6:00 PM ET that day. We’ve copied all of the rules below the table if you want to remind yourself how the scoring works. Any questions: email rushthecourt@yahoo.com or tweet @rushthecourt.

WEEK TWO SELECTIONS

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s RTC Your Shadow Sweet Sixteen contest. We’ll publish the changes every Monday night for the sake of transparency. May the best prognosticator win!

NEXT OPEN WINDOW: Monday, Feb. 16 – you may remove 2 teams from your original list and replace them with 2 new teams.

The W2 form will be emailed to you at the end of this week. Remember that you are not required to make any changes if you’re happy with the teams you have. You’ll be allowed to make one or two swaps if you like next Monday. The open window will be roughly from Midnight ET to 6:00 PM ET on that Monday. We’ve copied all of the rules below the table if you want to remind yourself how the scoring works. Any questions: email rushthecourt@yahoo.com or tweet @rushthecourt.

Some preliminary stats to mull over:

  • 209 entries
  • 92 total schools were selected

Schools on over 50 percent of the ballots.

Kentucky 204 99%
Duke 197 95%
Kansas 194 94%
Wisconsin 193 93%
Arizona 192 93%
Virginia 192 93%
Gonzaga 185 89%
Louisville 162 78%
Villanova 150 72%
North Carolina 141 68%
Notre Dame 140 68%
Iowa St. 134 65%
Utah 127 61%
Wichita St. 105 51%

WEEK ONE SELECTIONS

RULES & PRIZES.

It’s Groundhog week, so prognostication is in the air. In the spirit of Punxsatawney Phil seeing his shadow on Monday, we thought it would be fun to center a new game around the uncertainty of college basketball between now and Selection Sunday. The objective of this game is simple: Pick the Sweet Sixteen. But there are some tweaks to this game that will keep things interesting along the way. Please read all of the rules below before entering your selections below.

Prizes:

  • GRAND PRIZE: Two tickets to the 2015 Final Four in Indianapolis
  • Second/Third Place Prizes: RTC t-shirts

Rules:

  • From now through the first deadline on Monday, Feb. 9 at 6 PM ET, take your best shot at predicting this year’s Sweet Sixteen from the below list of teams (KenPom’s top 100). If a team that you want to choose is not listed, feel free to write it in using the “Other” checkbox. If you want more than one unlisted team, contact us directly (@rushthecourt).
  • You will be allowed to replace up to eight of your 16 original teams along the way. The following replacement windows apply:

Monday, Feb. 16 – you may remove 2 teams from your original list and replace them with 2 new teams.
Monday, Feb. 23 – you may remove 2 teams from your list and replace them with 2 new teams.
Monday, March 2 – you may remove 1 team from your list and replace it with 1 new team.
Monday, March 9 – you may remove 1 team from your list and replace it with 1 new team.
Monday, March 16 (after bracket release) – you may remove 2 teams from your list and replace them with 2 new teams.

  • You are not required to remove teams if you are happy with those you already have. This option allows for second thoughts.
  • Once you remove a team from your list, however, you may not later go back and replace it. That team is gone forever.

Scoring:

  • Sweet Sixteen teams that are seeded #1-#6 are worth 1 point each.
  • Sweet Sixteen teams that are seeded #7-#12 are worth 2 points each.
  • Sweet Sixteen teams that are seeded #13-#16 are worth 3 points each.

The player with the most total points when the Sweet Sixteen is set will win the Grand Prize.

  • Tiebreakers: the first tiebreaker will go to the player who picked the worst seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen; the next tiebreaker will go to the player who ended up with the highest aggregate seed value total.

One entry per person, please.

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