Monday, March 18, 2013

Lunardi Rules!

Some of you may remember that Joe Lunardi, the resident Bracketologist at ESPN, used to play in this pool. You know, before he became rich and famous. Interestingly enough, he never did all that well, and when you're competing against a group that can't beat a hypothetical monkey flipping imaginary coins, that's saying something. But in deference to our most famous pool participant, if we can remember to do so we key in Lunardi's bracket predictions as of the day the contest entries were due. Perhaps predictably, the "ESPN Bracketology" entry has yet to make the top 20.

Until this year.

Yes, the overall acumen of our contestants has sunk so low that our current leader is ESPN Bracketology, with 203 points. Put another way, if you knew absolutely nothing (and we've decided to be nice by using the word "if") and you'd simply filled in your entry by copying Lunardi's bracket on the day the pool was due, you'd be $100 richer right now.

Fortunately for our gallivanting group of gallant prognosticators, ESPN Bracketology is a non-paying entry, and so this year's prize for having the most points as of the selection of the field will be split between Biebel and Moscow, each of whom has 202 points and has earned $50 for that feat. Just behind the leaders are D'Zuro (200) and Marshall (199), each of whom has earned $0 for not being quite good enough.

Moscow and Biebel lead a group of eight (8) members of our contest who managed to select more than half of the conference champions correctly, as each of them guessed right on 17 out of 31 (54.8%, a solid F in Middle School). Also with 17 correct were cbabs, M Kline, and Marshall. Last year's leader at this point, Steinhardt got 16 of 31 right (an even solider F), as did D'Zuro and Kaelin.

On the opposite side of the spectrum (or is it called the Wachovia Center now?), seven of our entrants were correct on fewer than 10 of their conference champ predictions. "Leading" the way is Pogach, who managed to accurately select a mind-numbing seven (7). The others, all with a similarly impressive nine (9) out of 31: J Whiteside, Rubinson, Fitch, J Donadio, Cristinzio and Canning. The bottom of the standings currently belongs to Cristinzio and Frame, each with 135 points. Full standings, as always, may be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Every year at least one of the Committee's at-large selections flummoxes our group. This year, though we were all over NIT participants Kentucky (picked by 89) and Virginia (72), only eight of us saw the diamond in the rough known as Boise State (chosen only by Crotty, J Donadio, Moscow, Paston 1, M Peloso, Pogach, B Whiteside, J Whiteside).

That same Boise State team will be participating in a play-in (aka, the new "first round") game tomorrow.

Enjoy the games.

1 comment:

Matt said...

I only incorrectly predicted Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I missed Villanova and St. John's (MTSU took one of the at-large spots by losing the Sun Belt). Ultimately, however, I did get all 68 on Selection Sunday.