After a frantic first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, many poker players shared their thoughts on Twitter about the upcoming Sweet Sixteen, which starts tonight.
“I don’t like it when people say they only like the NBA and not NCAA,” Tim “Tmay420” West noted before the NCAA tournament games began last week. “These kids are playing their hearts out to extend their season and careers.”
For those who entered into bracket competitions, the upset-filled weekend – in which four teams that were higher than a 10 seed made the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1999 – was unkind. “Picked the first round of #marchmadness poorly,” Shannon Shorr groaned. “Went 21-11. Only lost 2 Sweet 16 teams, though, and have a creative bracket. I’m optimistic.”
Full Tilt Poker’s Phil Gordon Tweeted to his followers, “NCAA bracket officially toast. Butler did me in. Oh well!”
Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby was watching one of his favorite teams, the University of Illinois, attempt to work their way to the Sweet Sixteen. “#Illini playing tentatively & shooting poorly but only down 4 at half to KU,” Caby said on Sunday as the team took on Kansas. “Keep shooting 3’s and hope to shoot above expectation. Winnable.” Unfortunately for Caby’s Illini squad, they lost to the Jayhawks.
Betting on the tournament was also quite popular. “Planning to ride SDSU all tournament,” chirped UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin as last weekend played out. “Covered in game 1 while shooting poorly. -5.5 against Temple.” Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar also was riding a winning streak, Tweeting, “Already 3 for 3 ATS today and have Arizona +5.5 and VCU +9.” Virginia Commonwealth and Arizona won their games outright, giving Aguiar two more wins against the spread.
“What an end to the Michigan/ Duke game,” West observed after the defending champion Blue Devils narrowly recorded a two-point win over the Wolverines. “Really thought U of M was gonna pull it out.”
Baldwin’s attention was drawn to the Butler/Pittsburgh game, whose frenzied finish was one of the weekend’s most memorable. “What an incredible finish to Pitt/Butler,” Baldwin said. “Advocate of swallowing the whistle, but think they had to call both fouls. What dumb fouls!” Butler, the runner up last year to Duke, earned a one-point win and moved on to the Sweet Sixteen.
When it comes to potential wagers on the Sweet Sixteen games this weekend, Baldwin offered up his choices. “Taking SDSU, Wisco, and BYU,” he advised his Tweeps. Someone who seemed to be in tune with Baldwin’s choices was Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, who listed off his favorites for the upcoming Sweet Sixteen weekend: “Let’s go BYU, San Diego St, Arizona, and Wisconsin.”
Although he is watching the NCAA Tournament, Shorr seemed to have something different on his mind. After his University of Alabama Crimson Tide earned their way to New York for the semi-finals of the NIT, Shorr Tweeted, “Roll Tide. Very tempted to fly up to New York for NIT Final 4.”
