We’ve done March Madness fantasy games in the past, which I’ve called Märzen Madness, but I’ve never done an NBA fantasy basketball game of any kind. Since my son has been playing high school basketball for the past few years, my interest has grown, not to mention our local Golden State Warriors have been a lot of fun to follow lately. So this year, I thought, why not give it a try? Our league is called Hoops & Hops and will last all season long.

Similar to both Baseball fantasy and Football fantasy, in Basketball fantasy you draft a team, play your starters and then earn points for what they do in each game. I tried to keep it fairly simple since I’m both an idiot when it comes to the finer points of basketball (and especially NBA) knowledge and also since this is all so new. Each team has a roster of 16 players, from which you’ll start 10 players each day. Scoring is also fairly straightforward, with 1 point for a free throw, 2 points for a field goal, and 3 points for a three-pointer. Then there’s also points for total rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots and negative points for a turnover. And there are big points for the elusive double-doubles and triple-doubles, but that’s it. There were a lot of other statistics you can give points to, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you see something you think should be added, say something now, since I can edit the stats before the season starts, but not after.

The season starts on October 22, so you have about 6 weeks to sign up, which is good since I don’t know what I’m doing and that gives us more time to fix anything. We need a minimum number of 4 teams, but we can have as many as 16, although we have to have an even number. I’m not sure why that is, because you get points just for how your players do rather than going head-to-head against other players, but c’est la vie. So while there’s no hurry per se, the sooner you sign up, the sooner you’re locked in to fielding a team this season. We’ll use the Autopick draft feature, again to make things easier, and once it’s set to “Go” then the draft will run, usually overnight. In order to sign up for a team, you’ll need a Yahoo ID (which is free if you don’t already have one), and then simply follow this link and follow the instructions to join Brookston’s Hoops & Hops. When you sign up, you’ll also get a chance to look over the league settings for rosters and scoring, and please do let me know if you have any suggestions for improving things, keeping in mind my goal of keeping it fairly simple. Enjoy.

I may not be college basketball’s biggest fan, but I do still enjoy March Madness every year. The tournament is usually a fun diversion for a few weeks each year, so for the ninth straight year, I’ve set up a fantasy game, similar to fantasy football. It’s a bracket game through Yahoo which I call “Märzen Madness.” It doesn’t look like there’s a limit to the number of people who can play, so sign up and make your picks beginning on March 17, with the first games taking place on March 21, which only gives you a short window to complete your bracket.

To join Märzen Madness and play the Yahoo! Sports Tournament Pick’em game, just follow this instructions below. You’ll also need a Yahoo ID (which is free if you don’t already have one).

To accept the invitation, just follow this invitation link. For reference, here’s the group information.

Group ID#: 44394
Password: brookston
NOTE: You may not need a password this year if you use the invitation link.

Good luck everybody.