March Madness Begins

Posted on March 12, 2023 by vanbraman

It is time again for March Madness.

The brackets for the NCAA Basketball tournament are now set and the games will begin later this week.

How upsetting will the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament the year?

There are two stats that I keep during the tournament each year.

UF (Upset Factor) is a number that is a sum off the seed differences when a lower seed knocks of a team with a higher seeding. For instance, when a 15 seed knocks off a 2 seed the UF is incremented by 13. If an 9 seed knocks off a 8 seed then the UF goes up by 1. If a 10 seed beats a 15 seed, there are no UF points since the higher seed was the winner.

BP (Bracket Points) is probably familiar to most sports fans. When scoring your bracket you get 1 point for a first round win, 2 points for the second round and then 4, 8, 16 and 32 for the following rounds. Basically, you fill out the bracket with the higher seeded team winning each game. You then add up the points based on the tourney results. For the Final Four, the points are given when a #1 seed wins.

Disclaimer: The First Four is ignored as all four games are against teams of equal seeding. There are no upsets in the First Four games. The traditional first round is now sometimes referred to as the second round. It is the first round to me.

Basketball Arean - NCAA Tournament - Upsetting Tournament - Bracketology - Stockton Arean - Stockton CaliforniaI usually will write about these stats after each weekend of games, but they are usually the least viewed of my posts. Should I continue? I will keep the stats anyway, but maybe I won’t write about them this year.

Will this be a big year for upsets, or will it be a tournament that goes according to plan.

There are usually a lot of upsets, but is it because of the selection committee? If the selection was perfect there would be no upsets and the higher ranked team would always win. However, we know there are far too many variables to the games and it is not always the better team that wins. Sometimes it is just the way that the ball bounces.

The tournament in some ways is more about coaching than the skills of the players. Which coach will best utilize the skills of their player with a strategy that takes advantage of weaknesses of the other team?

Hamburg, Iowa, Wildcats Basketball, Corner ConferenceWill a team from a small school beat the big schools?

Will the more experienced players hold up better under the stress of the tournament? Will teams that have nothing to lose play the games of their life to upset the favorites?

A lot to think about when filling out a bracket. However, I have stopped filling out brackets and just look at the stats as the tournament unfolds. A lot less stress to just watch and not worry about my team winning.

Steven

Posted in Culture, Sports | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Virtual Hike to Wall Street, NY

Posted on March 11, 2023 by vanbraman

The next destination on my Virtual Hike was to Charging Bull statue near Wall Street, NY.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New Jersey The previous destination on my virtual hike was Sloatsburg, New York.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New Jersey The virtual hike from Sloatsburg was mainly through the New Jersey suburbs west of New York City, but started out through the Ramapo pass that leads up into Upper New York from New York City.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New Jersey The hike first went though areas that were not too densely populated, but the density increased as the route went south.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New Jersey To make it across the Hudson River I needed to take a ferry as I would not have been allowed to cross through the tunnels or over the bridges on foot. Here is a great view of Manhattan from where the ferry crossed.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New Jersey Once in Manhattan a lot of the route was along the Hudson River on promenades by the shore.

Virtual Hike, Sloatsburg, New York, Wall Street, Hudson River, New Jersey The destination for this segment of the virtual hike was the Charging Bull statue which is near wall street and is representative of Wall Street.

There was a very specific reason to choose this spot as it is right by where some of my ancestors lived in New Amsterdam.

Van Duesen, New Amsterdam, New York, Wall Street, Charging BullYou can see here an old map that shows where Abraham Pietersen Van Deusern owned a lot in New Amsterdam. You can see that it is right on Broadway.

Van Duesen, New Amsterdam, New York, Wall Street, Charging BullOverlaid on a satellite map you can see that just across the street from their lot is the Charging Bull statue.

Abraham Pietersen Van Deusern is the immigrant ancestor of my Van Duzor line which is back through my Grandma Braman. My branch of the family moved north up into the Tappan, Sloatsburg and Cornwall areas in the 1700’s. They then moved a bit further west to south of the Finger Lakes after the Revolutionary War and on to Iowa after the Civil War.

The next destination on my Virtual Hike is to a place where I have been to before in New Jersey and where someone famous lived.

I have been setting shorter distances between destinations for better motivation for my daily walking and so far it has been working. I have been walking more each day and have made good progress on my Virtual Hike. I am still a few stops behind on my posts.

I will now be heading west and have some interesting stops planned that are both family and history related.

Steven

Images in this post are from Google Maps and Street View.

Posted in Blog, Culture, Family History, Travel, Virtual Hike | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments