Worst. Game. Ever.

In what was the worst game ever played, UCONN beat Butler to win the National Championship. Why do I have to post this you ask? Because Jeremy gets more points. Blah.

Final standings on the right...

Jeremy clinches 2011 Young Family Bracket Challenge!

Well, UCONN beat Kentucky by 1 point in the Final Four and Jeremy clinched the 2011 Young Family Bracket Challenge title for the first time.

The National Championship is between UCONN and Butler but we don't have a winner yet because Jeremy was very impatient about the blog posting showing that he won. Also, since this is the case, it's possible that these point totals are not final. Thanks Jeremy, for making sure there will be one more blog post. Lame.

So we give a cold congratulations to Jeremy for winning the challenge even though I should have won.

Coming in second is Mom (Jo) in easily her best performance ever. Following her is Heather, Nathaniel, and Eric to round out the top 5, respectively.

Final (Possibly) Standings:

1.	Jeremy	140 points
2.	Mom (Jo)	154.5 points
3.	Heather	147 points
4.	Nathaniel	137 points
5.	Eric	130.5 points
6.	Brad	128.5 points
7.	Melissa	126.5 points
8.	Allison	120.5 points
9.	Jacob	106 points
10.	Beth	98.5 points
11.	Robert	94 points
12.	Teresa	70 points
13.	Lindsey	39 points

So everybody send Jeremy $5 even though he didn't deserve it!

Checks made payable to Beth Jeremy Bird
7741 Grandwind Dr.
Lorton, VA 22079

He will also be getting the traveling trophy from Jacob. So I guess congratulations?

Final Four set... It's down to two for the Challenge title!

The Final Four is set: Kentucky, Connecticut, VCU, and Butler are heading to Houston in the weirdest Final Four I've ever seen, but to top that off, two unexpected people are going head to head for the Young Family Bracket Challenge: Mom (Jo) and Jeremy.

Mom (Jo), Heather and Jeremy are the only people who can still get points, but since Heather and Mom (Jo) both have Kentucky advancing to the championship game and no further, Mom (Jo) will automatically beat Heather in points since she currently sits in first place.

Jeremy, however, has UCONN heading to the Championship game, and winning the championship, so he can win if UCONN beats Kentucky, regardless of whether or not UCONN wins it all.

Current Standings:

1.	Mom (Jo)	154.5 points
2.	Heather	147 points
3.	Jeremy	140 points
4.	Nathaniel	137 points
5.	Eric	130.5 points
6.	Brad	128.5 points
7.	Melissa	126.5 points
8.	Allison	120.5 points
9.	Jacob	106 points
10.	Beth	98.5 points
11.	Robert	94 points
12.	Teresa	70 points
13.	Lindsey	39 points

So it's almost over folks. Saturday night in Houston will tell the tale. If UCONN beats Kentucky, Jeremy wins. If Kentucky beats UCONN, Mom (Jo) wins... either way, they both suck and I should be winning it. Blah!

Keep Juanita Abbott in your prayers...

As most of you know, Matt's mom, Juanita, is in the hospital.

She was recently transferred to Ohio State University's Medical Center in Columbus and are unsure of when she'll go home.

If you didn't get a chance to meet Juanita, she is truly a great person. Every time I visited Heather she always welcomed me into her home and treated me like family!

Please keep her and their family in your prayers.

We love you guys -

Jeremy takes the lead as UCONN heads to the Final Four!

Well, Jeremy went with UCONN (again...), but for the first time ever, it seems to have paid off!

UCONN dropped Arizona to punch its ticket to Houston for the Final Four, pushing Jeremy to the top spot in the bracket challenge. Only he, Bradley and Mom (Jo) picked UCONN to make it to the Final Four. With those picks, Mom (Jo) moved up to 3rd place while Brad is in 5th.

"The one year I don't pick UCONN..." was all his loving wife, Beth, could muster.

Butler surprised everyone again this year and made it to its second consecutive Final Four. Nobody picked Butler to make it to the Final Four. They withstood the Florida Gators in an overtime thriller.

Tomorrow will show the last two teams punch their tickets to the Final Four as Kentucky takes on North Carolina (GO HEELS!) and Kansas takes on surprise contender VCU.

What a crazy tournament... again.

Standings:

1.	Jeremy	140 points
2.	Nathaniel	137 points
3.	Mom (Jo)	134.5 points
4.	Eric	130.5 points
5.	Bradley	128.5 points
6.	Heather	127 points
7.	Melissa	126.5 points
8.	Allison	120.5 points
9.	Jacob	106 points
10.	Beth	98.5 points
11.	Robert	94 points
12.	Teresa	70 points
13.	Lindsey	39 points

Let's go Heels!

A big upset... a lot of brackets likely busted... Heather makes a big jump!

Well, Ohio State lost to Kentucky tonight and wiped away a lot, and I mean a lot, of everyone's National Champions

hip selections. Only Heather and Mom (Jo) picked Kentucky for the upset. Ugh. BUT! North Carolina is in the Elite 8 and Dook isn't, ha!

So, as I explained yesterday, most everyone's selections were the same for today, so there was little change in the standings. Except Heather jumped from 7th place to 3rd! Way to go, sis!

Standings:

1.	Nathaniel	137 points
2.	Eric	130.5 points
3.	Heather	127 points
4.	Melissa	126.5 points
5.	Allison	120.5 points
6.	Jeremy	120 points
7.	Mom (Jo)	114.5 points
8.	Bradley	108.5 points
9.	Jacob	106 points
10.	Beth	98.5 points
11.	Robert	94 points
12.	Teresa	70 points
13.	Lindsey	39 points

It's unfortunate, but there are some players who can no longer receive points because their brackets are dead. Eric, Lindsey, Robert, and Teresa are completely tapped out. They have no more selections available to them. So sad. But not really!

Those still alive:
Allison: ...has UNC and Kansas in the Final Four - UNC to win it all... (GO ALLIE!)
Beth: ...has Kansas in the Final Four
Bradley: ...has UCONN and Kansas in the Final Four - Kansas in the Championship game
Heather: ...has Kentucky and Kansas in the Final Four

and the National Championship game - Kansas to win it all...
Jacob: ...has UNC, Kansas in the Final Four - Kansas in the Championship game
Jeremy: ...has UCONN and UNC in the Final Four - UCONN winning it all
Melissa: ... has UNC, Arizona AND Kansas in the Final Four - North Carolina and Kansas in the Championship game - Kansas to win it allMom: ...has Kentucky and UCONN in the Final Four - Kentucky in the championship game
Nathaniel: ... has Kansas in the Final Four

So most everybody is out of it... but you never know! I still can't believe that Melissa still has 3 of the Final 4 still alive... way to go, Melissa... but I sent you money for the Bowl Challenge, I don't want to send it to you for basketball too!

Dook HUMILIATED! HAHAHA!

DOOK wasn't just outplayed tonight... they were absolutely HUMILIATED tonight. It. Was. Hilarious. All is right in the world tonight.

In other news: UCONN took down SDSU, Florida topped BYU in OT and Butler surprisingly punched its ticket into the Elite 8 by beating Wisconsin. Pretty much everyone got only one right tonight... except for Nathaniel, Eric and Melissa who each got 2 of the 4 correct.

And now there is only two people who have 3 of their Final Four teams still in it - Brad (OSU, UCONN, Kansas) and Melissa (UNC, Arizona, Kansas)! Melissa made a big jump in the standings, but now you have to look out for Brad now too! Bahaha!

Standings:

1.	Nathaniel	107 points
2.	Eric	100.5 points
3.	Melissa	96.5 points
4.	Allison	90.5 points
5.	Jeremy	90 points
6.	Mom (Jo)	84.5 points
7.	Heather	82 points
8.	Robert	79 points
9.	Brad	78.5 points
10.	Jacob	76 points
11.	Beth	68.5 points
12.	Teresa	55 points
13.	Lindsey	39 points

So, Nathaniel maintains the lead.

There are a few games tomorrow, too...
Marquette vs. North Carolina (GO HEELS!)
Kentucky vs. Ohio State
Richmond vs. Kansas
VCU vs. Florida State

Points are 15 per each correct selection... for the most part the standings will remain unchanged as mostly everyone has the same selections for tomorrow... boo!

HOLLA!

Sweet 16 set! Nathaniel jumps Jeremy and Allie for lead...

The Sweet 16 is set and we have a new leader! Nathaniel Royce Abbott correctly chose 11 of the 16 teams and passed Jeremy and Allison to take a 1.5 point lead going into the week.

Current Standings:

1.	Nathaniel	77 points
2.	Allison	75.5 points
3.	Jeremy	75 points
4.	Eric	70.5 points
5.	Mom (Jo)	69.5 points
6.	Beth	68.5 points
7.	Heather	67 points
8.	Melissa	66.5 points
9.	Robert	64 points
10	Bradley	63.5 points
11.	Jacob	61 points
12.	Teresa	55 points
13.	Lindsey	39 points

After all of the trash talk he's been spewing, he's lucky that he can now back it up. It's good that he finally did because I was about to take care of that little punk.

There were a ton of upsets today... somehow VCU is still playing in the tournament. Nobody had them going into the Sweet 16. Florida State upset Notre Dame today to make it into the second weekend of play and Lindsey and Mom (Jo) both had FSU in their Sweet 16 - good call!

The games start again on Friday afternoon and here are the matchups:

Kentucky vs. Ohio State
Marquette vs. North Carolina (GO HEELS!)
Arizona vs. $*#@
Connecticut vs. San Diego State
Richmond vs. Kansas
VCU vs. Florida State
Butler vs. Wisconsin
BYU vs. Florida

The games to watch are the Butler vs. Wisconsin and Kentucky vs. Ohio State games... look for those to have the bigger upsets.

Watch out for Melissa - she is the only one who has her Final Four still in tact!

People whose National Champions have been eliminated: Robert (Pittsburgh) & Teresa (Purdue)

Pittsburgh sucks and Allie takes the lead on Day 3!

Pittsburgh sucks. I mean, really, really sucks. I have never liked them. Nobody does. But you always pick them because somehow they always get a number one seed. Which is stupid. Because they suck. If you didn't hear, the number one seed, Pittsburgh, lost to Butler in the second round.

Robert was the only one who picked Pittsburgh to win it all. He is the first member of the bracket challenge to have its Championship selection to fall. When I asked him how he felt about it, he sadly declared, "Devastated. As usual."

So in honor of this... this is for you, bro.


So, in other news... The first eight teams of the Sweet Sixteen have punched their ticket... and Allison has taken the lead on Day 3 of the 2011 Young Family Bracket Challenge by correctly selecting 6 of the 8 games on Saturday. Also selecting 6 of the 8 games correctly were Jeremy and Nathaniel who are in second and third place, respectively.

Jeremy is only .5 points away from Allison, and Nathaniel made a big jump from ninth to third... a lot of bracket challenge drama to come!

1.	Allison	55.5 points
2.	Jeremy	55 points
3.	Nathaniel	52 points
4.	Eric	50.5 points
5.	Mom (Jo)	49.5 points
6.	Robert	49 points
7.	Heather	47 points
8.	Beth	43.5 points
9.	Melissa	41.5 points
10	Jacob	41 points
11.	Bradley	38.5 points
12.	Teresa	35 points
13.	Lindsey	24 points

So after her fast start, Mom (Jo) has fallen a little bit. But with Pitt out of the Southwest bracket, there is a good path for BYU to make it out of that bracket and she has BYU winning it all.

Great.

The remaining Sweet 16 will be finalized tomorrow. Let's go Heels!

Mom (Jo) leads after Round 1 - ties Bracket Challenge Record

The first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament and Young Family Bracket Challenge is officially over and perhaps our very own Cinderella story is atop the standings. Mom (Jo) correctly guessed 28 of the 32 possible games in the first round to hold claim of first place, followed by Allison and Eric tied with 25 correct selections.

Mom also tied Brad for the record for most First Round selections (28; 2010) while Eric and Allison are now tied for the second most First Round selections (25) as well. See the records page for more info...

There was a big surprise victory today as VCU rolled over Georgetown, 74-56. A big surprise, but there were two people who correctly chose VCU to make it to the second round: Heather and Teresa! Good call... I think it's bull crap, but whatever.

Beth, our dear sister, is getting pissed off about the bracket challenge. As you can see in the picture of her reaction to hearing that Michigan State lost, and subsequently that Mom is kicking her butt after Round 1 is over, Beth is visibly frustrated. Everyone keep her in your prayers.

And just so everyone knows, UNC was the only team to put up 100+ points in the first round. Don't hate.

Round 1 Official Standings:

1.	Mom (Jo)	29.5 points
2.	Allison	25.5 points
	Eric	25.5 points
4.	Jeremy	25 points
	Teresa	25 points
6.	Robert	24 points
7	Beth	23.5 points
	Brad	23.5 points
9.	Heather	22 points
	Nathaniel	22 points
11.	Melissa	21.5 points
12.	Jacob	21 points
13	Lindsey	19 points

So, Doodle is bringing up the rear so far... but she called Morehead St. to go to the Final Four, so look for her to make a push a little bit later on during the challenge. Remember, she has more in her head.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's games - winners advance to the Sweet 16.

Holla-

Mom (Jo) leads... wait, what?

Mom (Jo) leads after Day 1 of Round 1 of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. And if you're wondering if it's a misprint... it's not. She correctly guessed 15 of the 16 games. That's right, the only one she missed was the outcome of the Wisconsin vs. Belmont game.

She went from simply asking if she could just send the winner money to being in first place after day one. You're welcome, Mom, for making you fill out a bracket.

All she had to say, "Well, I'll be damned!"

In other news, Bradley (your favorite relative) is tied for last place. Again, not a typo, although I understand that you all must have initially thought so. If it weren't for the play-in rounds, he would have been dead last. Ouch. And I sense a collective cheer from everyone right now. And shame on you!

Day 1 Standings:

1.	Mom (Jo)	16.5 points
2.	Robert	14 points
3.	Allison	13.5 points
4.	Eric	12.5 points
5.	Jacob	12 points
	Jeremy	12 points
	Teresa	12 points
8.	Beth	11.5 points
9.	Heather	11 points
	Lindsey	11 points
	Nathaniel	11 points
12.	Brad	10.5 points
	Melissa	10.5 points

I hope Day 2 turns out much better (for me!)!

In other news, I'm proud to present to you Allison's new hat (see picture)! Oh wait, am I mistaken?! Is that... a NORTH CAROLINA hat?! I believe it is. (And Uncle Brad did not buy it for her, she made that decision all on her own!!!) Well, look at that. Am I seeing another Tar Heel in the making in this family? I sure hope so! Ali, don't let your Mom and Dad talk you out of going there. And when you want to take your college visit you let me know when and Uncle Brad will make sure to go too and show you around Chapel Hill! Is this what happiness feels like? I think so!

A monumental upset already!

That's right, everybody... in the first four games, there was a huge upset. Morehead State beat Louisville by 1 point to upset the Cardinals. Who saw that coming? Oh, only two people: Lindsey and Mom. In fact, Lindsey has Morehead State in the Final Four. Wow!

When asking Lindsey Doodle as to why she picked Morehead State, she simply pointed to her head and said, "It's because I have more in my head."

Awesome.

So, let's all give a collect "Screw You" to Louisville for ruining our brackets. Teresa can lead it since she's the only one to have them in the Elite 8. The floor's all yours Teresa...

The 2011 Young Family Bracket Challenge begins!

Alright, everybody... it's that time of the year again. The 2011 Young Family Bracket Challenge has officially begun. After last year's incredible rookie run by Jacob Young we look to the other 12 members of the bracket challenge to see if anyone can take that trophy from him this year. Or... can he repeat? I know that his cousins in Ohio have been waiting all year to get back at him, and I know that Boo Boo has been studying college basketball these past few weeks in preparation for this year's challenge. He better watch his back!

The brackets have been announced and released and sent to your email addresses. The four #1 seeds are: Ohio State, Kansas, Pittsburgh, and an ugly university 8 miles from the best university in the country! It looks like there are going to be a lot of upsets this year, so our challenge is going to be pretty intense.

All of the rules are the same as last year. There are no changes to the rules, instead, there is a new one.

This year there are four play-in games. These eight teams will face each other in order to make the final 64. These games are being played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because these are not officially first-round games, these four games will garner 0.5 points each. So, if you get all of these correct, you're looking at a 2-point advantage before the tournament really begins.

With that said... EVERYONE MUST HAVE THEIR BRACKETS TURNED IN TO ME BY 6:30 PM (ET) ON TUESDAY. That is the tip-off of the first play-in game.

The first round will then begin on Thursday and continue for the next few weeks. This is the time where I will begin to dominate and we can all trash talk. Woot!

If you have any questions or concerns, post a comment or send me an email. Just remember, you need to have your brackets submitted by Tuesday by 6:30 PM (ET). Once I have received everybody's brackets, I will send out a PDF of everyone's selections.

Get pumped everybody! It's my year! :)

HOLLA!