underdog — Intrepid Pup

Bracket Full of Dreams: Intrepid Pup Bracketology – 2016 Edition

March 17, 2016 by admin

Tavish making his 2016 prognostications with the help of kernels of Quinn popcorn.

Ok, folks, Intrepid Pup Tavish has completed his picks for the much-vaunted March Madness. For readers who’ve loyally followed through the years, it should come as no surprise that he’s once again made some surprising predictions.

Never has a #16 seed beaten a #1 seed in the first round. But wait no longer, because Tavish is here to tell you that oh, it’s gonna happen. Not just once, but three times in this tourney. And it all starts now!

Team Tavish once again acted as the enabler for Tavish’s singular “bracketology.” Tavish’s key motivator for ~~making wacky picks~~ anything is food. Click here for a throwback to Tavish’s first-ever descent into March Madness and see how we keep the process as unbiased as possible. As a quick recap, every year we switch up the “treat” for variety’s sake. This year, colleges’ hoop dreams were embodied by kernels of organic Quinn popcorn (butter & sea salt, to be precise). Yummy! And it meant we got to eat some, too.

Tavish in action mode: Intrepid Pup Bracketology requires zen-like concentration!

We orchestrated the picks over the course of two nights to minimize the binge factor. Tavish plants himself into a concentrated “sit” while we show him two kernels of popcorn that we’ve verbally ascribed to two teams in the matchup. We place them evenly in front of him and say, “Okay, pick!” And he does! Usually it’s with a swift and decisive swipe of the tongue. Then we do it 66 more times to complete the bracket. This year he seemed to show a bit more circumspection. In the conundrum of #15 Weber State vs. #2 Xavier, for instance, he gazed long and hard at each kernel—a good 10 seconds apiece! (*forehead slap* – should’ve taken a video)—before committing to Xavier. We’re glad to see he’s taking this whole thing seriously! Honestly, we don’t know what he’s thinking, but this year he seemed to have little crushes on Gonzaga and Yale and took them fairly deep into the tourney . . . could it be because they have bulldogs as mascots? Another departure from the norm was that our 19-year-old cat Hobbes showed unprecedented interest in this year’s proceedings. Usually an impartial observer from afar, Hobbes warmed up and took on a considerably more visible role as an enforcer of quality control. In fact, as Tavish was mulling over his Holy Cross/Yale decision, Hobbes snuck in and tried to exert undue influence by batting around the “Holy Cross” kernel. Tavish picked “Yale”. Maybe because of the bulldog thing or maybe just to be contrary. We’ll never know, and he’s not telling.

So, it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world. And—if you believe Intrepid Pup Tavish—here’s how it’s all going down:

While we’re not suggesting you bet the farm on these picks, we do guarantee you’ll enjoy ’em. Click on the bracket above for a larger, printable PDF version of Intrepid Pup’s March Random(ad)ness.

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, Sporting Events Tagged With: bracketology, Bulldogs, dog, Final Four, Hobbes, hoops, intrepid pup, March Madness, men's basketball, MSU, NCAA, Quinn's Popcorn, SF Austin, sports, Tavish, underdog, vizsla, Yale

Game On! Intrepid Pup Bracketology: The 2014 Edition

March 19, 2014 by admin

This Intrepid Pup Bracketology is serious business!

Yep, it’s that time of year again when Intrepid Pup Tavish goes out on the proverbial limb and makes his predictions for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. If Tavish’s consistently inconsistent bracketology prowess is news to you, we unabashedly refer you to our 2012 and 2013 editions where his highly entertaining (and completely unbiased!) process is explained and even shown in action. To briefly recap, though, Tavish does not watch endless hours of game footage. Nor does he use some mathematician’s code-based matrix.

Nope, Tavish relies entirely on his gut.

And this year, his gut had lots of itty bitty pieces of spinach-flavored, shamrock-shaped homemade dog treats that somebody baked him for St. Patrick’s Day.

So what did his gut say? Let’s just cut to the chase:

Click the image to open a larger PDF version

Three years into this whole Intrepid Pup Bracketology escapade, we’ve finally fine-tuned the methodology to where Tavish can make his 68 picks in about 40 minutes–considerably less time than it takes Greg Gumbel and crew on CBS’s Selection Sunday.

Every year, Tavish’s gut reminds us that it’s very fickle indeed. He always seems to conjur up an early Cinderella to beat Duke (Way to go, Mercer!) and certainly champions his share of underdogs (Here’s lookin’ at you, 12-seed Stephen F. Austin, wherever you are). But just when you think you see a pattern emerging with teams with dog mascots (Go, UConn Huskies! Rock on, Gonzaga Bulldogs!), Tavish gets all conventional and advances some very solid teams (That’d be YOU, Creighton). Only very rarely does he hesitate, but there was a brief instant of introspection (or maybe just inattention?) before deciding the fate of his Dayton/St. Louis final in favor of the Billikens.

After Intrepid Pup buzzed through his choices for this year, one member of Team Tavish looked over his completed brackets and remarked disbelievingly, “Sheesh, there sure aren’t going to be many people with these picks!” That, friends, is the point. There won’t be ~~many~~ any people whose brackets look like this. And Tavish still has the same 9.2 quintillion-to-1 odds of winning the Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge. Delightful, isn’t it? Welcome to the madness of March. How do your brackets stack up?

P.s. Several of you commented last year on how nice it was to see Tavish’s elusive housemate (Hobbes the cat) get in on the picks. We tried to rekindle that again this year, but Hobbes couldn’t have cared less. Picking brackets is for the dogs! 🙂

Filed Under: Sporting Events, Wag-A-Meter=1 Tagged With: bracketology, Bulldogs, Cinderella, dog, Huskies, March Madness, men's basketball, NCAA, picks, Tavish, underdog, vizsla, Wag-a-meter=1

Championing the “Underdogs”: Intrepid Pup Bracketology 2013

March 21, 2013 by admin

Tavish takes his basketball very seriously. Unfortunately, he’s consistently inconsistent.

67 pieces of kibble were sacrificed in the making of this article.

Yes, it’s once again time for the Intrepid Pup to release his bracket picks for the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. If you recall…with food (and an affinity for basketball?) as motivation, Tavish forayed into March Madness last year, enthusiastically indicating his picks by tipping Planet Dog™ bowls.

Lessons learned:

1. Tavish likes underdogs. In the Land of Intrepid Pup, Detroit would have gone to the Sweet 16, and Southern Mississippi was headed for the Final Four.

2. Unfortunately, Tavish lacks the accuracy of international sensation Paul the Octopus, who made a pretty impressive run in picking European soccer matches in his short but brilliant career as an oracle from 2008 to 2010. So, Vegas bookies, listen up: let the exact opposite of the Pup’s picks be your true guide!

But all in all, the 2012 edition of Intrepid Pup Bracketology was such fun that Team Tavish decided to resurrect it for 2013. We kept the same technique as last year—a choice between two identical treats each representing a team—but sped up the process. What originally involved three separate bracketology sessions last year (which also incorporated filming the YouTube video) we were now able to accomplish in a single lightning round this year lasting about an hour. What can we say? Tavish was focused!

Once again, Tavish reveals his one consistency: championing the underdogs and thus picking some wild Cinderella teams. For example, in rapid succession Tavish has #16 North Carolina A&T ousting #1 Louisville and Harvard beating New Mexico. Oh, and news flash: LIU-Brooklyn is marching all the way to the Final Four! Seriously, pup, what’s with the fascination with LIU? You’d also picked them to upend Michigan State in the first round last year…do you think their mascot is a vizsla or something? We’re beginning to think this is more about what Tavish would like to see than what will actually happen.

Without further ado, here are the Pup’s complete picks. Spoiler alert: as this post goes to press, we’re mere hours into the tournament and already large chunks of Tavish’s brackets are blown to smithereens:

On a final note, we should mention the cat. He doesn’t often appear in the annals of the Intrepid Pup, but he was watching with cool disinterest from afar while Tavish careened all over the living room, merrily advancing LaSalle and Iona in the “big dance.” While the cat is also extremely food-driven, there was simply no way he was going to sit there and make 67 picks. Leave that to the dog. But, once Tavish had come up with his Final Four, we couldn’t resist—in true Deus Ex Machina fashion—reeling in the cat to pick a champion: Southern University. Oh, brother.

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, Sporting Events, Wag-A-Meter=1 Tagged With: bracketology, Cinderella, intrepid pup, March Madness, men's basketball, NCAA, underdog

Intrepid Pup Bracketology

March 14, 2012 by admin

Every March, members of Team Tavish dutifully fill out their NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament brackets. It’s a time of mild angst and giddy anticipation. Stats are weighed, websites consulted, gut instincts tapped, and alma mater loyalties tested. It’s all in good fun but never has it resulted in a Team Tavish member actually winning an office pool or even securing temporary bragging rights. Alas, for all the data and firm convictions, inevitably there comes a point in March Madness when the outcome of a single day’s games dashes all those careful selections asunder.

Old habits die hard, though, and Team Tavish members did still succumb to the individual rituals of bracket-picking this year. Nevertheless, it was also decided that it was time to introduce a new, less predictable, element to the mix: Tavish, the Intrepid Pup. Forget hours of ESPN coverage, Sports Illustrated analyses, Selection Sunday, and the opinions of Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps. Tavish would have none of it, and he was going to make his picks his way. Let’s just say that lots of dog treats were involved (specifically, Milk-Bone® biscuits and Milo’s Kitchen™ Chicken Meatballs), but the process was otherwise as unbiased as could be. As proof, you’re invited to watch this brief video (click link to view in YouTube or otherwise see below) of the Intrepid Pup making some of his selections:

Completing the brackets was done over the course of three days so Tavish would neither lose focus nor overindulge during any one sitting. While sports analyst wisdom prevailed in some picks, it more often seemed that Tavish had an affinity for, well…the underdogs. But hope springs eternal, and who doesn’t love a Cinderella team? So if 16th seed LIU Brooklyn really does pull off the upset over #1 seed Michigan State in the first round, then Tavish will likely be the only soul in the country to have predicted it.

Welcome to a world where Detroit goes to the Sweet Sixteen, St. Bonaventure advances to the Elite Eight, and Southern Mississippi breaks into the Final Four!

How do your picks stack up against the Intrepid Pup’s? Enjoy the Madness!