March Madness 2015

buff81

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Do you like bracket challenges?
Want to compete against your fellow SAF friends?

A Service Academy Forums Group at ESPN Tournament Challenge was created a couple of years ago. Last year, we had 13 SAFers join and compete against one another with LITS being the winner.

To join the fun, go to: http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2015/en/group?groupID=260864

Group Password: saf

Let the games begin......
 
Damn. I'll be driving on Thursday to get to Quantico for an OCS graduation and commissioning on Friday. I'll miss two important days of play! :( The things I do for my country! :)
 
Wait, WHAT?!?!?! I WON?!?!?! Are you sure?

Of course you did, and nobody recalls your thrilling come-from-last place victory better than I. A great lesson in humility was in store for me after heaping ridicule on your moonshot pick of first round loser GWU to win it all. (Question to mods.: If LITS doesn't claim his $10 million prize before the deadline, does it go back into this years's pot?)
 
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My picks are based entirely on schools I like, states I like or mascots I like (or schools I dislike, states I dislike or mascots I dislike).

OK, I'll claim my $10 million
 
Damn. I'll be driving on Thursday to get to Quantico for an OCS graduation and commissioning on Friday. I'll miss two important days of play! :( The things I do for my country! :)

My job is very flexible so I busted it these past 2 weeks so that I could be home Thursday and Friday. ;)
 
Kentucky has a 49% chance of winning this year. Thats 51% between every single other team haha
 
Kentucky has a 49% chance of winning this year. Thats 51% between every single other team haha
I won't argue with your statistics. Nevertheless, when it gets to the final it's (or should be in some sense) 50-50.
 
I just wonder how many fine five-string banjos I can buy with that $10 million prize from last year.... after taxes of course.
 
I just wonder how many fine five-string banjos I can buy with that $10 million prize from last year.... after taxes of course.

By my calculations, assuming you buy a high quality instrument, 1000.
 
Haha, the really expensive, $150,000-$200,000 are pre-War (that's pre-WWII) Gibson original five-string flat head banjos. Why are they so expensive? First, Gibson did a horrible job documenting how it made banjos. The tone rings (a metal ring inside the banjo you can't really see) were made from a certain metal. That metal changed during WWII and never went back to that pre-war quality. Next, in the 1920s jazz was big. Gibson cut back on the number of five-strings it was producing, because a majority of the banjos out there were being used in jazz and jazz players used flat picks and wanted all but the 5th string. So Gibson produced a much larger number of 4-string "plectrum" banjos (it's a 5-string without the short 5th string). Finally, of the banjos being produced at the time, Gibson was pumping out more "arch top" banjos instead of "flat head."

Earl Scruggs played a pre-war Gibson 5-string. That's the sound people want in bluegrass.

Eventually the 5-string banjo became more popular, again, and the 4-string faded a bit. Today, one of those original banjos, unaltered are VERY hard to find.

What happens more often is someone buys a Gibson 4-string and has it converted to a 5-string (or purchase one that's already been converted). Those Gibson conversion banjos still pull in $5,000+.

In all honesty, the Gibson name adds another $1,000-$2,000 to the price of newer Gibson banjos (Gibson stopped making banjos a few years ago).

Now there are other good size builders such as Deering, Stelling, Gold Tone, Recording King, etc. and a number of small shops (including one man shops) such as Hatfield (my banjo), Yates, Sullivan, Nechville, Bishline, etc.

And you want to talk about people who are really into the tools as well as the music? Banjo players approach their instruments like a science.... trying to achieve the perfect set up.

I'm only a year into this, but I've learned so much. It's a fun, difficult instrument to learn. And my Hatfield is kind of like my baby. HA!
 
Haha, the really expensive, $150,000-$200,000 are pre-War (that's pre-WWII) Gibson original five-string flat head banjos. Why are they so expensive? First, Gibson did a horrible job documenting how it made banjos. The tone rings (a metal ring inside the banjo you can't really see) were made from a certain metal. That metal changed during WWII and never went back to that pre-war quality. Next, in the 1920s jazz was big. Gibson cut back on the number of five-strings it was producing, because a majority of the banjos out there were being used in jazz and jazz players used flat picks and wanted all but the 5th string. So Gibson produced a much larger number of 4-string "plectrum" banjos (it's a 5-string without the short 5th string). Finally, of the banjos being produced at the time, Gibson was pumping out more "arch top" banjos instead of "flat head."

Earl Scruggs played a pre-war Gibson 5-string. That's the sound people want in bluegrass.

Eventually the 5-string banjo became more popular, again, and the 4-string faded a bit. Today, one of those original banjos, unaltered are VERY hard to find.

What happens more often is someone buys a Gibson 4-string and has it converted to a 5-string (or purchase one that's already been converted). Those Gibson conversion banjos still pull in $5,000+.

In all honesty, the Gibson name adds another $1,000-$2,000 to the price of newer Gibson banjos (Gibson stopped making banjos a few years ago).

Now there are other good size builders such as Deering, Stelling, Gold Tone, Recording King, etc. and a number of small shops (including one man shops) such as Hatfield (my banjo), Yates, Sullivan, Nechville, Bishline, etc.

And you want to talk about people who are really into the tools as well as the music? Banjo players approach their instruments like a science.... trying to achieve the perfect set up.

I'm only a year into this, but I've learned so much. It's a fun, difficult instrument to learn. And my Hatfield is kind of like my baby. HA!

The things you can learn on this forum! I actually had something of an idea as one of my friends is a sometime blue grass banjo player and song writer. He actually has had some hits on the bluegrass charts including a number 2. He thoroughly enjoys walking to the mailbox and collecting those royalty checks.
 
You better PM me and tell me who and what songs I should look up to make him richer. HA!
 
The UVA logo is really nice so they made it all the way to the finals -- the weather in Oregon is spectacular so they made it to.
 
OK, I'm in.

What do I win? I'm looking for a new kitchen floor. Or, ok, CASH.
 
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