Hey everyone! I am boots on the ground in Philly.

I caught up with Metcalf, Bockman and Johnson after their open practices. I snatched up Metcalf since I figured we just talked to Dresser Monday!

Enjoy!

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I've asked every lady in burnt orange if she's Pole Assassin. So far they (or their husbands) deny it. Maybe she'll be the next one...

YouTube channel “The Field of 68 After Dark” is pushing TJ to Indiana. Seems unlikely

ENTRY PERIOD HAS CLOSED for CycloneFanatic’s annual “Auto-Bid Madness."

Anyone who submitted picks for "Group 1," but not Group 2, are still allowed to submit for second deadline.


I’m co-administrator, along with @ImJustKCClone.

It's the 12th year for the contest.

Basic premise
Choose the automatic qualifier for each of 31 conferences for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

New deadline format
For the first time, we’re setting two separate deadlines for submitting picks, based on the two-week tournament schedule cycle. Contestants are free to submit picks for both groups by the first deadline, if they desire. See “Conference Template” below.

Scoring
Each correct pick receives 1 point.

Tiebreaker system
First tiebreaker: Correct Big 12 tournament champ.
Second tiebreaker: You correctly pick a team nobody else did. If still tied, it could extend to multiple cases as additional “2b” tiebreaker, if applicable.
Third tiebreaker: Highest number of correct picks that aren’t favorites (i.e., teams seeded #1 in their respective tournament).

CONFERENCE TEMPLATE
For ease of record-keeping, post your selections in the following order, keeping Group 1 and Group 2 separate, as presented. Include your CF screen name at the top of the list. (Post picks in this thread, DO NOT P.M. THEM). You may revise selections at any time until the deadline. If you make a revision, we request tagging @ImJustKCClone. (Typically, KC begins compiling entries shortly after they're submitted).

Group 1
Deadline: 6 p.m. CT Monday, March 3
ASUN
Big Sky
Big South
CAA
Horizon
Missouri Valley
Northeast
OVC
Patriot
SoCon
Southland
Summit
Sun Belt
West Coast

Group 2
Deadline: 6 p.m. CT Friday, March 7
ACC
America East
American
Atlantic 10
Big 12
Big East
Big Ten
Big West
C-USA
Ivy
MAC
MAAC
MEAC
Mountain West
SEC
SWAC
WAC

In follow-up posts, I’ll note teams ineligible for NCAAT; a few handy links to schedules, sites & brackets; and past A-BM results. Not necessarily in that order.

Let The Madness begin, and good luck!

I always find this kind of stuff interesting every spring when they release yearly population estimates. Figured that based on the popularity of the geography thread earlier this year, there might be interest in this as well. City and metro estimates usually follow in May.

Iowa now has eight counties with more than 100,000 residents (and one that's very close).

Polk 515,185
Linn 231,762
Scott 175,601
Johnson 160,080
Black Hawk 132,348
Dallas 115,343
Woodbury 107,257
Story 102,498
(Dubuque 99,242)

The link for all counties in all states (state by state) is here:


By comparison, California has ten counties with over 1,000,000 residents each.

I have not seen any game watch information for the game this Friday in central Iowa, does anyone have any information about this?

Go Cyclones!

WBB: Iowa State will try and prove it belongs in the NCAA Tournament when it takes on Princeton in the First Four Wednesday.

@cfchangs9 has more from South Bend.

I remember some of this way too much. Even in these forums there were a few who said she wouldn’t cut it or commented about her weight. She carries a big load representing Iowa State the way she does. Here's a good look inside A rather amazing person.

It's been a quiet week in Big 12 women's basketball, but lots of overall action as auto-qualifiers are determined. Here's a look at the Big 12 before Selection Sunday. Not many surprises.

Selection Show 5PM
TV: CBS

I know he missed last year due to his health issues by this is first one since we lost Greg Gumbel. They just won't be quite the same.


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I heard that Iowa's MBB NIL budget is around $2mil and that was a deterrent to Devries not wanting to go there. I know We Will does great with what they have and don't have the resources of other programs, but curious what our NIL budgets are for the big 3 sports (FB, MBB, and WBB) to compare with others.

Good stuff from the team.

I thought it was refreshing to listen to Gaitan and Herrera talk about some of the nerves of their own personal tournaments at Big 12's. Its so hard to get athletes to talk about stuff like that so I found it very insightful! Plus, of course, we talk about their matchups, mental prep and more good nuggets.

Enjoy!

Jacqueline Cordova and Ben Visser preview the 2025 NCAA Championships, set expectations for Iowa State, and dive into any other key storylines surrounding the weekend. Presented by Fareway Meat & Grocery.

Took a bit of a deep dive into the Princeton Tigers today. Here are some things that should catch your attention and give you something to focus on during Wednesday's game.

Connor Ferguson and Rob Gray dive into Iowa State’s draw, the Princeton matchup, the rest of the region, and expectations for the Cyclones ahead of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

I saw CNET did this and was curious. I'm in a $5 bracket with some friends and family and asked ChatGPT to give me their picks and scores for the entire tournament with some well placed upsets and gonna go with exactly what they have and see how it ends up doing...some of these I don't buy but it's just an exercise so we'll see.

Some noteworthy picks by AI:

• Akron over Arizona by 4
• Drake over Missouri by 2
• Texas Tech over UNCW but only by 1
• Purdue over High Point by 25 (weird but whatever)
• Michigan over UCSD by 15 (popular upset pick)
• San Diego State over Ol' Miss by 10
• Marquette over New Mexico by 14
• St. Mary's beating Alabama by 2 in round of 32
• Memphis over Maryland in round of 32
• Drake over TT by 3 in round of 32
• Kansas over St. John's by 12 in round of 32
• ISU over SDSU by 3 in round of 32
• Marquette over Michigan State by 6 in round of 32
• Kansas over Drake by a lot in Sweet 16
• ISU over Marquette by 2 in Sweet 16
• Auburn over ISU by 4 in Elite 8
• FF: Auburn/Florida/Duke/Houston which is all #1 seeds but whatever
• Florida over Houston for title

Here's a look at the #1 seeds, how the Big 12 was seeded and where Iowa State landed.

Ride or die. Idk what’s going on with Key, but good luck to him. If he’s ******* the team over, so be it- weird. I look forward to watching these guys bust their asses Friday!

Who ya got?

I like the 15. If I was placing a trifecta:

15, 8, 2

This movie flew under the radar with very little marketing. But staring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett and directed by Steven Soderberg wow! What a great movie. It’s a slow burn spy thriller that I really hope finds an audience.

It’s only March but it’s the best movie I’ve seen so far no question.

I am concerned the groin injuries of TL and KG, despite sitting both today, won’t be significantly improved for the NCAAs. There was likely little benefit (seedings) to give Tamin a go today - so you may as well rest him along w KG.

In my experience it takes weeks of inactivity to put a real dent in healing a groin strain/pull. Tamin looked mighty gimpy today in warmups.

Hope I am wrong.

Go Clones!