Hoop D'Ville

Three games decided by a total of 15 points. That's what Final Fours should be. Rick Pitino becomes the first head coach ever to win national championships with two different teams -- first with Kentucky and now with Louisville -- but much more importantly, our contest winner is Sanders, with 295 points, followed by Steinhardt (282), who has won a prize for the second straight year, and Dye (280). Full standings may be found by clicking here or on the link on the right hand side of the page.

We had 85 entries that "counted," meaning the prizes will be 414 "credits" for Sanders, 207 for Steinhardt, and 69 for Dye, in addition to the 50 each previously earned by Biebel and Moscow. Congratulations all.

It's been a fun tournament. See you all next year.

You're It

It's always nice when a contest as old as ours gets an infusion of new blood. Competing for only the second time in pool history, the Tag Team entitled Members of DBR (240.8) has come out on top, beating out a brand new group, the Ant Farm (234.75) by more than five points. The decline of Whiteside continues, as Whiteside and his Enemies (225.0) barely edged the Ripley Believe-it-or-Nots (224.5) and the Friends of Natalini (223.0). Of course while embracing the new, we'd hate to give up the old, so we take some small comfort in knowing that the Leach Gang (213.75) has once again floundered in second-to-last place. The D'Zuro Group (215.2) spared themselves the ignominy of finishing below the Leaches, something we can't say about the Urban Engineers (193.11).

They could've chosen any school, but they chose Temple. And apparently a lot of other winners, because fans of Temple (245.0) were the best in this year's contest. Maryland (237.0) was at least better than Duke (221.33) at something. Among non-Temple Pennsylvania schools, Penn State (214.88) beat out both the University of Pennsylvania (210.5) and Villanova (205.33).

Females (223.93) came out on top of males (220.12), where pretty much everyone wants them to be. Children (240.86) thumbed their noses at their elders. Among the various species, Lawyers (221.33) couldn't beat out Humans (222.08), but at least they were better than Dogs (205.0). Angels (177.0) need to wheedle some more inside information out of their boss. Our average pool participant scored 220.79, not nearly as well as our average commissioner (234.5). Non-paying participants (214.43) once again showed they didn't pay for a reason (those who paid averaged 221.84).

Students (235.85) always think they know better than teachers (222.25), but this year they really do. Those in sales (230.0) out-thought those in IT (223.75). The unemployed (223.25) clearly have more time on their hands than those with gainful employment (214.88), but we don't know how to explain retired people (213.0). Number crunchers in the accounting world (215.8) probably aspire to be someone with a fancier financial-related title (219.5). Attorneys (212.25) can take solace in that at least they're smarter than engineers (206.17). Self-styled "provocateurs" (233.0) are just a bit cleverer than those fancying themselves a "genius (on sabbatical)" (229.0).

This year the prime place from which to pick pools was the Deep South (239.63). People in New York City (232.4) tend to have a superiority complex but at least this year they more or less backed it up. The West (232.0) bested the Midwest (226.0). Philadelphia suburbs (222.8) beat out Philadelphia urbs (213.8). Those who live in extended DelMarVa (213.8) and Western PA (209.8) should probably move.

Breaking it down further, this year's top state of mind was Tennessee (237.5). New Yorkers (232.43) got the news three hours earlier than Californians (229.0). Floridians (227.0) warmed up faster than Pennsylvanians (217.63), Virginians (216.50), or Marylanders (213.50). New Jerseyites (208.33) should find a new exit on the turnpike.

In the name game, if you want to choose wisely you should change your name to Jeff (234.0), or maybe Mike (224.5) or David (224.5). We wouldn't recommend John (213.75) or Bob (210.0).

The Final Four starts in just over 24 hours. Enjoy the games.

Rivalridiculous

"I can hear them... giggling ...as they are plotting against me!" Yes, these were the words from the troubled mind of Booth, as she prepared to do battle in the annual Whiteside Booth-bash.

Is it really paranoia if they are in fact out to get you? Whitesidekick J Butscher came into the contest talking a little trash: "Will Nancy Booth finish last? Probably."

Perhaps J Butscher might want to look up the one about kharma being a bitch, because while Booth did end up in an eight-way tie for 56th with a mediocre 218 points, among those who managed the exact same paltry total was the Butscher himself (218), as well as fellow Whitesider McKillip (also 218). Maybe J Butscher ought to stick to taunting K Butscher (208) instead.

But what of C Whiteside? Sure, coming into this year's contest he'd hammered his sister-in-law Booth ten times in the past ten years, by a whopping average of 41 points. But in 2012 his aura of invincibility took a hit. His own progeny entered the contest and both J Whiteside and B Whiteside kicked their old man's behind. Rumor had it the muttered words "beginner's luck" could be heard after the kids went to bed, but the twins simply smirked. This season, when C Whiteside attempted to dissuade ten-year-old J Whiteside from his choice of Syracuse as national champion, the young lad flat out refused his counsel.

Ever hear the one about laughing last? Apparently young B Whiteside (262) and J Whiteside (261) haven't. Both children whupped daddy for the second straight year. Even scarier for "Shabba," he only beat his annual bean bag Booth by a mere point, 219 to 218. We have not been able to verify reports that C Whiteside checked in to a cardiac ward after he saw the scoring totals.

In other grudge matches, K Sullivan once again said she didn't want to make B Peloso cry, but that didn't keep her from mercilessly trouncing her rival, 229 to 220, and forcing B Peloso to take solace in the beating of his Duke-loving wife, M Peloso (198). Sullivan also bested her husband, D'Zuro (210), and deceased mother-in-law, Haklar (219). K Ripley (213) sadly missed her modest goal of topping father R Wanger (226), brother M Wanger (241), and/or husband P Ripley (218).

In Leach World, poor P Leach (183) collapsed piteously beneath the heels of his father E Leach (236), his two daughter's, M Leach (266) and Sa Leach (226), and even the family dog, Su Leach (226).

Smaller family squabbles were settled when R Kornfeld (219) whipped D Kornfeld (182), J McAtee (196) edged M McAtee (188), R Schlegel (225) slipped by L Schlegel (219), T Cristinzio (237) clobbered A Cristinzio (165), L Donadio (256) stomped on J Donadio (185), Adams (246) pounded Coach Doc (228), D Josephs (240) flew past commissioner M Josephs (218), and G Wright (218) put B Wright (193) in his proper place. After scoring both 254 and 211, M Paston may need treatment for a bipolar condition.

Among members of DBR, Nocilla (264) won bragging rights, over ACCBballFan (256), Kedsy (251), Tommy (217), and Sporthenry (216).

Tag Team totals tomorrow.

Cuatro

Well, on Easter Sunday, a bunch of Cardinals beat the Devils. That shouldn't have been too hard to foresee, should it? With Michigan and Louisville rounding out the Final Four, we have a new leader, Smith, with 277 points, followed by Marshall (270) and Martin (269).

Depending on who wins next week in Atlanta, here's how the top three will look in our contest:

Louisville
Sanders 295
Steinhardt 282
Dye 280

Michigan
M Wanger 281
Serri 278
T Cristinzio 277
Smith 277

Syracuse
J Whiteside 301
Smith 277
Marshall 270

Wichita State
Sciarabba 333
Smith 277
Marshall 270

Look for Tag Team and Rivalry posts this week.

Shocker! (For real this time)

Honestly, who would've thought Wichita State had any chance to make the Final Four? Really? Well, who besides Sciarabba, who took Wichita as his Wild Card and basically on the strength of that one pick sits atop our leader board with 258 points? M Leach is still second, although she didn't get any points today, with 246.

The other Final Four team decided this afternoon, Syracuse, had the support of four entrants (B Whiteside, J Whiteside, Brenner, T Cristinzio), two of whom (B Whiteside, 242, and J Whiteside, 241) are now in third and fourth place, respectively. Only J Whiteside has the Orange as national champs.

The rest of the Final Four will be decided tomorrow. Louisville (chosen by 27 to make the Final Four) will play Duke (45), while Florida (41) battles with Michigan (19).

Enjoy.

Ocho

The Elite Eight is complete, with Louisville (chosen by 49 into the Elite Eight and 27 into the Final Four), Duke (74, 45), Florida (74, 41), and Michigan (51, 19) moving on. And while the 61 people who predicted Kansas into the Elite Eight are probably not so happy with the Jayhawks blowing a double-digit lead with 3:18 to go, the rest of us are more or less just sad for Florida Gulf Coast.

We have a new leader and it's not particularly close. Madison Leach, who last year finished in 92nd place, has taken control of the pool with 246 points. S Smith has surged into second, with 237 points, followed by Crotty and L Donadio, with 236 each. Full standings may once again be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Tune in tomorrow for more.

Shocker!

What the heck, right? It's been a while since we could use that headline for an Elite Eight game. Anyway, according to our research, until tonight a #13 seed had never played against a #9 seed in an NCAA tournament game. And after LaSalle's performance this evening, one could argue they still haven't.

The only person who gave any support to Wichita State was Sciarabba, who picked the Shockers as his Wild Card and has currently ridden the Shockwave into fourth place, with 208 points, trailing third place holder Haklar (209) and our current co-leaders, Biebel and Moscow, both with 213. Both Haklar (UCLA) and Moscow (Gonzaga) have lost their champions, though. Full standings, incomplete though they are with only half the Elite Eight decided, may be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page.

Our entrants once again flaunted their knack for jinxing their favorite for national champion (only six of our 24 favorites have won the title, a dismal 25% showing), as Indiana (favored by 28 to win it all) went down hard against Syracuse (favored only by J Whiteside). Some of us (23 to be exact) did get behind the Orange as an Elite Eight team, and four contestants (Brenner, T Cristinzio, B Whiteside, J Whiteside) picked Syracuse into the Final Four. The team Syracuse will play to see who goes to Atlanta will be Marquette, picked by only three to get to the Elite Eight (Haklar, Sa Leach, K Ripley) and by only Haklar to be one of the last Four standing.

In the West, Wichita State will match up with Ohio State, which was chosen by nine to reach the Eight (Brindisi, Huffnagle, Hymowitz, D Kedson, M Kline, M Leach, Moscow, Sciarabba, Selarnick) and three to make the Four (Hymowitz, M Kline, Moscow).

Which means, if you like to add things up, that the four teams already in the Elite Eight received a combined total of 35 votes for the Elite Eight and eight (8) votes for the Final Four (plus one Wild Card nod).

So it's pretty much par for the course in our contest. If tonight's games were any indication, look for Oregon (chosen by only cbabs and Haklar into the Elite Eight and nobody into the Final Four) and Florida Gulf Coast (chosen by nobody to do nuthin') to make some noise tomorrow.

Sweet, part two

When it came to Elite Eight, Final Four, and champion last year, our entrants' four most popular choices ended up as the four #1 seeds, and our next four most popular choices came in as #2s. Not so much this year. While our top two 2013 favorites for all three end-of-tourney honors both got #1 seeds (Indiana and Gonzaga, although of course one of those top two isn't even playing any more, so we're not sure how proud we should be on that front), after that our group and the selection committee didn't quite see eye to eye.

Whether that divergence says something about the committee or something about our contestants, we decline to venture an opinion. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see how much our gang disagreed with the seeding:

Our top Eight:

-----Team-----	Elite 8	Final 4	Champs
#1 Indiana	95	82	28
#1 Gonzaga	78	43	14
#2 Duke	74	45	10
#3 Florida	74	41	12
#3 Michigan State	65	35	6
#1 Kansas	61	29	3
#2 Miami	58	58	7
#4 Michigan	51	21	5

So if our entrants ruled the world (how's that for a scary thought), #2 Duke and #3 Florida would have had #1 seeds, and #3 Michigan State and #4 Michigan would have been awarded #2s. On the other hand:

-----Team-----	Elite 8	Final 4	Champs
#1 Louisville	49	27	8
#2 Georgetown	39	21	3
#4 Syracuse	23	4	1
...
#2 Ohio State	9	3	1

Which means we'd have awarded top overall seed Louisville a lousy #3 seed and given #2 Ohio State a lowly #5.

We've already mentioned how 18 of us have already lost their champions. But our overall favorite, Indiana (with 28 votes) remains and is the only team in the hunt with more than a dozen supporters. Of course, in this contest our top overall choice has only actually ended up as champion in 6 out of 23 years (26.1%), so I wouldn't go printing up those Hoosier t-shirts just yet. The complete tally for our choices of champions:

-----Team-----	votes	-------------------who?---------------------
Indiana	28
Gonzaga	14	Urban's Angels, Booth, K Butscher, Hahn, M Josephs, M Kleiman, Mahalko, J Moscow, M Paston 1, K Ripley, L Schlegel, K Sullivan, Watson, B Wright
Florida	12	Alberts, Biebel, Harlan, D Josephs, Karlsruher, D Kornfeld, R Kornfeld, Leace, Paston 2, B Peloso, Sciarabba, Warner
Duke	10	Colleran, Crotty, J Donadio, D Kedson, Nocilla, Rubinson, R Schlegel, selig, R Simon, B Whiteside
Louisville	8	Barone, Baum, cbabs, Dye, E Leach, Rybaltowski, Sanders, Steinhardt
Miami	7	Brenner, J Butscher, Cristinzio, Eberly, Kaelin, Pogach, P Ripley
Michigan State	6	B Brenner, Brindisi, D'Zuro, Fitch, P Leach, G Wright
Michigan	5	Atkinson, T Cristinzio, Steitz, Serri, M Wanger
Kansas	3	Su Leach, M McAtee, C Whiteside
Georgetown	3	Bland, Broder, M Leach
Ohio State	1	Hymowitz
Syracuse	1	J Whiteside
UCLA	1	Haklar

A grand total of 56 contestants got at least one Wild Card point, for choosing St. Louis (27), Minnesota (11), VCU (9), UNC (4), Iowa St (2), Creighton (1), Illinois (1), and Wichita St (1). Only one entrant was clever (or wild, if you will) enough to choose a Wild Card that garnered more than one point, and that was Sciarabba who has gained six points and counting from his selection of Wichita State.

For someone who lives in California, it must seem as if most of the country is part of the Midwest. Which might at least begin to explain how Rubinson managed to have five of his Elite Eight (Duke, Michigan State, Louisville, Oklahoma State and St. Louis) and three of his Final Four (Duke, Michigan State, and Louisville) in the Midwest Region. Five others matched Rubinson's Final Four feat (Brenner, 3 in the E; Warner and M Wanger, 3 in the S; Booth and Adams, 3 in the M), while thirteen confused contestants managed to pick four of their Elite Eight in one region (Bi Acchione (S); Fitch (M); McKillip (S); Brindisi (M); Serri (M); J Whiteside (E); J McAtee (S); K Sullivan (S); Rybaltowski (M); M McAtee (E); Booth (M); Sa Leach (E); T Cristinzio (S)).

No seed of 13 or lower has ever made the Elite Eight, so we can perhaps forgive our contestants for completely ignoring #13 LaSalle and #15 Florida Gulf Coast when choosing the Elite Eight and Final Four. Two entrants picked #12 Oregon into the Elite Eight (cbabs, Haklar). We mentioned earlier than only nine of us liked Ohio State into the Elite Eight (Brindisi, Huffnagle, Hymowitz, D Kedson, M Kline, M Leach, Moscow, Sciarabba, Selarnick) and just four were bold enough to pick the Buckeyes into the Final Four (Hymowitz, M Kline, Moscow). Arizona was even more popular, with 14 votes for the Eight and four for the Four (Barone, Sanders, Selig, Templeton). To round out the Sweet Sixteen, Marquette had the support of three (Haklar, Sa Leach, K Ripley) and one (Haklar).

Full breakdowns for the Elite Eight and Final Four, showing exactly who picked what, are available by clicking the links in this sentence. As always, current standings may be found by clicking the link on the right hand side of this page.

Next week: Tag Team tally and Rivalry posts. Enjoy the games.

Sweet

Well, it took longer than we expected to regain our vim, and at our age perhaps vigor is a bit too much to hope for. Still we're back and so is the Sweet Sixteen. So here goes, with the first of two really long posts to cover the events of the weekend.

Let's start with a look back. We've had four days of games since our last report. But even before the games, some entrants were at a teensy disadvantage, since there were eight (8) Elite Eight choices that didn't even make the tournament: George Mason (Urban's Angels), Arizona State (Cristinzio) Baylor (Urban's Angels), BYU (Urban's Angels), and Florida State (Steitz).

Thursday started innocently enough, unless of course you were one of the 28 contestants who spent an Elite Eight choice on New Mexico (17) or Oklahoma State (11). Or worse, one of the seven who wasted a Final Four choice (M McAtee, M Paston 1, Sciarabba, M Peloso took New Mexico; Brindisi, Rybaltowski, K Ripley took Okla St). Another seven entrants saw one of their Elite Eight teams dash against the rocks: Grossman (Missouri), Serri (Missouri), D Kedson (Pitt), Mahalko (Pitt), Urban's Angels (Bucknell and St. Mary's), Atkinson (Davidson), and Rybaltowski (UNLV).

So after the first day of the tournament, three contestants had already lost two of their Final Eight (Rybaltowski had Oklahoma State and UNLV; Barone had New Mexico and Oklahoma State; Cristinzio had Arizona State and Oklahoma State). And the self-proclaimed Urban's Angels were down an unimaginable five out of Eight (G Mason, Baylor, BYU, Bucknell, and St. Mary's).

The Angels would lose a sixth Elite Eight team on Friday (Notre Dame), but at least they still had Gonzaga and Butler. Um, oops. And thus Urban's Angels became the first entrant in pool history to lose his or her entire Elite Eight by the first Saturday of the tournament. Needless to say (although we'll gleefully say it anyway), Urban's Angels also had a ceiling of zero (0) Final Four teams at the same moment in time (for history's sake, the Angels' Final Four consisted of the religious quartet of Notre Dame, Gonzaga, Butler, and BYU).

Of course, Urban's Angels weren't the only contestants to gnash their teeth on Friday. That was the day Georgetown bit the dust, taking with it the hopes of the 39 who chose the Hoyas into the Elite Eight, the 21 who fearlessly predicted a Georgetown Final Four berth, and the three who went all the way out on the limb for Georgetown as national champion (Bland, Broder, and M Leach).

Also walking around with their frown right side up were the backers of Wisconsin (11 into Elite Eight; Sciarabba into Final Four); Kansas State (Atkinson, B Brenner, Brindisi, Eberly, P Leach, C Whiteside into Elite Eight; B Brenner into Final Four); Notre Dame (Urban's Angels, B Brenner, B Whiteside into Elite Eight; Urban's Angels, B Whiteside into Final Four); Cincinnati (Steitz, Moscow into Elite Eight; Steitz into Final Four); UCLA (Haklar into Elite Eight, Final Four, and Champion); Villanova (Cristinzio into Elite Eight); and NC State (Bland into Elite Eight).

Everyone else could at least savor the feeling of accomplishment in knowing their Elite Eight and Final Four choices all made the second round (and, no, we're not calling the round of 32 the "third" round just because the NCAA decided to schedule a few play-in games). That feeling probably evaporated pretty quickly when Gonzaga (chosen by 78 into the Elite Eight and 43 into the Final Four) got knocked off by Wichita State (chosen by absolutely nobody except Sciarabba as a Wild Card). Butler going down didn't please the 16 and 5 (Urban's Angels, Dye, Hymowitz, M Kline, Sa Leach) who liked them into the Elite Eight and Final Four, respectively, as well as the few and probably not very proud who went out on a limb for St. Louis (Atkinson, Brindisi, Haklar, Rubinson, L Schlegel, Watson into Elite Eight, Watson into Final Four), Memphis (Canning into Elite Eight, Booth into Elite Eight and Final Four), or Colorado State (Fitch, Warner into Elite Eight). Sunday was only a not-so-fun day for those who liked North Carolina (Booth, Cristinzio into Elite Eight) or Minnesota (D'Zuro into Elite Eight).

With Gonzaga's demise, 14 entrants (Urban's Angels, Booth, K Butscher, Hahn, M Josephs, M Kleiman, Mahalko, J Moscow, M Paston 1, K Ripley, L Schlegel, K Sullivan, Watson, B Wright) joined Haklar, Bland, Broder and M Leach in looking forward to 75% of the tournament without a chosen champion to root for.

That's it for part one. Part two of the blog post that wouldn't end will be offered up tonight.

Wow

Hey, I just got back from the Wells Fargo Center, where I watched #15 seed Florida Gulf Coast beat #2 seed Georgetown and join #14 Harvard, #13 LaSalle, three #12s (Oregon, Cal, Ole Miss), probably a #11 (Minnesota is currently winning by 12), almost certainly a #10 (Iowa State is winning by 24), and two #9s (Wichita State and Temple) in the upset column. And as I write this, #1 Kansas is only beating #16 Western Kentucky by three points. Brackets are broken, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!

I'd really intended to go over everything and detail who got clobbered in the pool and all that, but I've been working on press row all day and I'm just too tired. So sometime tomorrow I hope to return and roast all your selections with my usual vim and vigor, OK?

So Wild

We spoke about Wild Card selections that were so wild they were downright illegal, but we'll gladly mention those again: the Wild Card picks of Frame (Duke), Day (Ohio State), and M Wanger (Marquette) have been invalidated.

What about the other 96 contestants? Well, by far the most popular Wild Card in this year's contest is St. Louis, chosen by 27 entrants and graced with a #4 seed. #5 seeds UNLV (13 votes) and VCU (9 votes) were the 2nd and 4th most popular selections, respectively, and #11 seed Minnesota (11 votes) was exactly in the middle.

Six contestants' selections were so wild the committee didn't even invite the selected team to play in the NCAA tournament: Four people chose Virginia (Hahn, Leace, McKillip, Warner) and one each took Weber State (B Wright) and Loyola-Maryland (Kaelin). B Peloso is the only entrant whose Wild Card was selected but lost before the bracket pools are due, having chosen Tuesday night loser Middle Tennessee. Interestingly enough, B Peloso's wife, M Peloso, has St. Mary's -- the team that eliminated MTSU -- as her Wild Card. That must have been some living room in the Peloso household yesterday evening.

No other Wild Card got support from more than five contestants. Here's the list:

#6 UCLA: 5 (D'Zuro, Steitz, D Kedson, Kovolski, Selig)
#8 North Carolina State: 5 (Fitch, M Kline, Selarnick, R Simon, R Wanger)
#8 UNC: 4 (Su Leach, Martin, Pogach, Smith)
#10 Cincinnati: 3 (Cristinzio, R Kornfeld, Sanders)
#11 St. Mary's: 3 (D Kornfeld, J McAtee, M Peloso)
#9 Missouri: 2 (Brindisi, Rybaltowski)
#10 Iowa State: 2 (B Brenner, Grossman)
#7 Creighton: 1 (Watson)
#7 Illinois: 1 (Moscow)
#9 Wichita State: 1 (Sciarabba)
#10 Oklahoma: 1 (Sa Leach)
#11 Belmont: 1 (Rubinson)

So have a wild evening. The real games begin tomorrow at high noon.

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.

Almost there

With 30 conference champs decided, the winner is... The Monkey. Mississippi (chosen only by Cristinzio) beat Florida in the SEC, meaning that a majority of our entrants chose the correct conference champion in a pathetic 13 of 31 (the remaining conference tournament features a Wisconsin team selected by six vs. an Ohio State team favored by five). That's 42% for our entrants and 58% for the proactive primate.

In the standings, Moscow has surged into the lead with 95 points, just ahead of Biebel (94).

Stay tuned. We'll be back after the selection of the field.

Two more for the lesser ape*

Well, Wisconsin (selected by six: Brenner, Huffnagle, Leace, M McAtee, Sciarabba, and Templeton) sent our favorite Big Ten choice Indiana (taken by 63) packing on Saturday, and the Badgers move on to the Big Ten final today, against Ohio State (picked by five: D Kedson, Sa Leach, Moscow, Rubinson, Selarnick). And in the Southland, our contestants' favorite Stephen F. Austin (selected by 74) fell to ignominious defeat at the hands of Northwestern State (chosen by 18).

That's two more for the monkey, who also Saturday took credit for Oregon (liked by 24); Albany (7: J Broder, Frame, Gorenstein, Steitz, M Josephs, J McAtee, Selig); Pacific (8: Alberts, Booth, Canning, Crotty, Steitz, M Leach, R Simon, G Wright); New Mexico State (7: Booth, B Brenner, cbabs, Steitz, Sa Leach, M McAtee, Sanders); and North Carolina A&T (0). The ACC will also spill onto the monkey's side of the ledger after either Miami (30) or UNC (3: M Leach, Sciarabba, J Whiteside) win today.

That's 15 for the smarmy simian, out of 31 total conferences. Unless you count Louisville (picked by 37), which was not taken by a majority of our entrants but was our top votegetter in the Big East, in which case the monkey is already officially better than our (mostly) human contestants. And of course we think the coin-flipping mammal should take the credit for a conference champion chosen by barely more than a third of our group, but in deference to those who foolishly disagree with us, there are two additional conferences still in play.

The Atlantic 10 championship pits St. Louis (another non-majority but top votegetter with 46) and VCU (liked by 17). And the SEC features overwhelming favorite Florida (84) against little Ole Miss (just Cristinzio). If either VCU or Mississippi win then nobody can argue with the monkey's superiority.

Except possibly M Kline, who has already chosen 17 correct conference champions and sits atop our leaderboard with 85 points, just ahead of Moscow, who has 84 points but only 15 properly selected conference champs. Within spitting distance of the leaders are Biebel, Frame, and E Leach, all with 81 points, and cbabs and J McAtee, both with 80.

At the other end of the standings, Pogach has correctly chosen a mere six (6) conference champions and languishes at the bottom with just 42 points. Sa Leach (52) and Cristinzio (53) are better, but not by much.

Full standings may (as always) be found using the link on the right hand side of the page.



* - Yes, we realize the monkey is not really a lesser ape. You're just going to have to live with our little literary licenses. And our alluring alliterative abilities as well.

More monkeying around

Well, as we reported Wednesday, of the 14 conferences that have had winner's decided, the majority of our contestants have been correct in seven and incorrect in seven. We also noted that on Wednesday the top two votegetters in the MEAC (Norfolk State (76) and NCCU (18)) both lost their first tourney games, leaving Savannah State (5) as the only MEAC team still alive on which any of our entrants took a chance. Predictably, Savannah State lost its next game, leaving it guaranteed that the MEAC winner will have been picked by nobody associated with our contest.

Perhaps just as predictable, the very next day the very same thing happened in the WAC. The only difference being the top two teams that lost in their first games were named Louisiana Tech (picked by 79) and Denver (picked by 12). There are currently three teams alive in the WAC. New Mexico State (selected by 7) will play the winner of Texas-San Antonio and Texas-Arlington, neither of which was selected by any of us.

Then today our choice in the ACC, Duke (chosen by 62), went down in its first game as well. Big West favorite Long Beach (liked by 83) and Pac 12 top choice Arizona (46) at least waited until their conference semifinals before bowing out.

So here's what we have at this moment in the 17 conferences in which the champions will be crowned this weekend:

ALREADY CLINCHED FOR THE MONKEY:
America East: Albany (7) vs. Vermont (8)
ACC: Miami (30) vs. NC State (2); UNC (3) vs. Maryland (0)
Big West: UC-Irvine (4) vs. winner of Cal Poly (1)/Pacific (8)
MEAC: Morgan State (0) vs. NC A&T (0)
Pac 12: UCLA (20) vs. winner of Oregon (24)/Utah (0)
WAC: New Mexico State (7) vs. winner of UTSA (0)/TX-ARL (0)

MONKEY WINS ON A TECHNICALITY
(no team in these conferences was chosen by a majority of us, but the top votegetter is still alive)
Atlantic 10: St. Louis (46) vs. Butler (31); Massachusetts (0) vs. VCU (17)
Big East: Louisville (37) vs. Syracuse (19)

COULD GO EITHER WAY
Big 12: Kansas (75) vs. Kansas State (13)
Big Sky: Montana (63) vs. Weber State (36)
Big 10: Indiana (63) vs. Wisconsin (6); Michigan State (17) vs. Ohio State (5)
Conf USA: Memphis (89) vs. Southern Miss (10)
MAC: Akron (88) vs. Ohio (10)
Mountain West: New Mexico (62) vs. winner of UNLV (24)/Colorado State (10)
SEC: Florida (84) vs. Alabama (1); Ole Miss (1) vs. Vanderbilt (0))
Southland: Stephen F. Austin (74) vs. Northwestern State (18)
SWAC: Southern (68) vs. Prairie View A&M (0)

So if you're scoring at home, well, then you're probably not reading this. Nevertheless, the monkey now has at least 13 out of 31 conferences, 15 if you count the Atlantic 10 and the Big East, conferences that had no majority. That means for the monkey to beat our pool participants, just one more conference upset has to happen (three more if you don't count the A10 and the Big East).

We know what we're rooting for.

Shock the Monkey

Bucknell took the Patriot League tonight, and since 88 of us thought that was going to happen, it gives our majority 7 out of the 14 conferences decided at this point, bringing us even with the mythical monkey flinging coins and who knows what else.

As we've noted previously, however, the America East conference is a victory for the wayward primate, since when they finally get around to deciding the winner in that conference it'll be Albany (chosen by 7 of us) facing off against Vermont (chosen by 8).

Well, add the MEAC to the monkey's side of the ledger, because in their very first game, both top seeded Norfolk State (picked by 76) and second fiddle NCCU (selected by 18) went down. Hard. So while there are six MEAC teams still alive in their tournament, only one of those teams got any votes from our entrants, and that was Savannah State, the favorite of five contestants (Alberts, Booth, M Peloso, Pogach, R Simon).

The standings look more or less the same as they did before (since all the leaders chose Bucknell). About the only visible change is we've been told that Biebel 1 and Biebel 2 are really just Biebel. We guess he was just stuttering or something.

Three more

If Long Island won its third straight NEC championship, but nobody picked them, does the three-peat still make a sound? Fortunately, we don't have to answer that classic philosophical question, since Gorenstein and M Leach were clever enough to pick the Blackbirds.

Also winning tonight were Valparaiso (chosen by 73) and South Dakota State (63). So our majority has been correct on 6 of the 13 conference champions decided so far, a nifty 46% and not quite as good as the mythical monkey.

M Kline maintains his lead, with 9 correct conference champions for 45 points. K Biebel 1, K Biebel 2, Brindisi, Moscow, and G Wright are tied for second with 40 points (8 correct champs), and Adams, Frame, Gorenstein, and B Wright are currently in third with 38 points (7 champs).

At the bottom of the standings, Pogach has been right in just two (2) conferences for 13 points. Next in line for the distinction of dubiosity are Fitch (18 points) and Cristinzio (19).

Full standings are available using the link on the right hand side of the page.

Five more dancers

Five more conference champs have been decided. And our contestants guessed right in two of the five, giving the contest majority a whopping four out of nine conference tournaments correct (five of ten if you count Harvard in the Ivy, once again matching the monkey with a silver dollar). Of course, that score goes down if you include the two conferences in which both finalists were chosen by fewer than 10 of us, which would bring our overall tally to four out of 11 (a fine 36% accuracy; so much for matching the monkey).

Tonight's champions include Sun Belt (hill)topper Western Kentucky (selected by exactly none of us), Colonial champ James Madison (chosen by four of us: Brindisi, Gorenstein, M Josephs, Leace), King of the MAAC Iona (picked by 11: Adams, Baumgarten, Gorenstein, Harlan, D Kedson, M Kline, M Paston 1, M Paston 2, Sanders, Serri), Southern maven Davidson (90), and WCC top dog Gonzaga (93).

New standings may (as always) be found on the link at the right of the page.

Our new leader is M Kline, who has seven correct champions out of ten, for 35 points. Just behind the leader are Frame and B Wright, both of whom have six correct champions and 33 points.

The Summit semifinals were also played this evening, and it looks like tomorrow will feature an old fashioned Dakota hoedown, with South Dakota State (chosen by 63) taking on North Dakota State (picked by 24). Also tomorrow will be the Horizon final, with Valparaiso (73) against Wright State (0), and the NEC final, in which Mt. St. Mary's (0) will face Long Island (2: Gorenstein, M Leach).

Some fun.

Give me Liberty...

...or give me Florida Gulf Coast. Once again our entrants have proven that when it comes to predicting conference champions we can compete with a monkey flipping coins.

So far this season, 14 conferences have played tournament games. And so far, the majority of our contestants are dead wrong in at least seven (7) of those 14. To our credit, we were correct in the OVC (Belmont was chosen by 81 of us), and still have a shot in six other tournaments that are still going on.

But first, let's take a look at our many errors. Leading the way is Liberty, chosen by none of us, a team that beat our favorite Charleston Southern (taken by 56) in the Big South. The Sun Belt championship won't be played until tonight, but since the championship game participants are Florida International (chosen by 0) and Western Kentucky (also chosen by 0), it's safe to say that's two goose eggs for the rabble.

The MAAC also plays its championship game tonight, but while none of our contestants chose Manhattan, at least there were 11 of us who took Iona (Adams, Baumgarten, Frame, Gorentstein, Harlan, D Kedson, M Kline, M Paston 1, M Paston 2, Sanders, and Serri). The NEC finishes its tournament tomorrow, pitting Mt. Saint Mary's (selected by none of us -- see the trend here) against Long Island U. (taken by only Gorenstein and M Leach). The America East final won't happen until Saturday, but when it does it'll feature Albany (chosen by 7: Broder, Frame, Gorenstein, Steitz, M Josephs, J McAtee, Selig) and Vermont (liked by 8: Bi Acchione, Atkinson, Colleran, Cristinzio, Pogach, Sanders, Templeton, Yolles).

Two tourneys that have finished also finished with champions chosen by the few, rather than the many. In the Atlantic Sun, Florida Gulf Coast (picked by 28) beat out Mercer (69). And in the MVC, Creighton (40) outlasted Wichita State (52).

As we said earlier, six other tournaments have started in which the majority of us still have a chance. In the Colonial, Northeastern (liked by 69 entrants) faces James Madison (favored by only four: Brindisi, Gorenstein, M Josephs, Leace). In the Horizon, Valparaiso (73) takes on Wright State (another "zero hero"). In the Patriot League, Bucknell (88) hopes to hold on against Lafayette (yet another "goose egg gamer"). In the Southern conference, it's Davidson (90) against Charleston (5: Bi Acchione, Eberly, Gorenstein (seems like we're typing his name a lot, doesn't it?), Hahn, D Kornfeld). In the WCC, Gonzaga (93) tries to tame St. Mary's (6: Canning, Cristinzio, D Kedson, Kovalski, Pogach, Yolles). Finally, the Summit semifinals feature South Dakota State (63), North Dakota State (24), Western Illinois (9), and Oakland (4).

The Ivy League, the only conference that doesn't hold a tournament, also crowned its automatic qualifier, and not surprisingly it was Harvard (chosen by 91), the team that was winning the Ivy when the pool was due. Thus spoiling the always-unlikely scenario spun by dreamers like Alberts, Canning, Cristinzio, Harlan, Steitz, D Kornfeld, Leace, Sa Leach, and B Whiteside.

With five conference winners in the books, we have standings, as well as a ten-way tie for first (among Biebel 1, Biebel 2, Blatt, B Brenner, Crotty, M Kline, Moscow, Selarnick, B Wright, and G Wright) with 20 points. Just behind the many leaders are eight more entrants with 18 points (Frame, Grossman, D Kedson, B Peloso, Rybaltowski, Templeton, Warner, Yolles). Down at the bottom, six contestants have a meager 8 points (Hymowitz, Leace, Sa Leach, Sanders, Watson, B Whiteside), and eleven more are almost as bad (with 10 points: J Broder, J Donadio, Harlan, Kaelin, Karlsruher, M Kleiman, D Kornfeld, M Leach, M McAtee, Pogach, Sciarabba). Full standings may be found at the link on the right of this page.

Tonight, conference champs will be determined in the Colonial, MAAC, Southern, Sun Belt, and WCC. Happy watching.

Well, isn't this embarrassing?

After all the clever remarks about how easy it is to know which teams are ineligible, here's one we missed: regular season SWAC winner Texas Southern is not allowed to participate in either the SWAC tournament or the NCAA tournament due to various NCAA violations. That's apparently news to 24 entrants, including commissioner D Kedson.

And in fairness to the contestants we called out in our earlier post, it's only right we list those who failed to ferret out the truth about Texas Southern, too: Adams, Alberts, Baumgarten, Booth, B Brenner, Butscher, Coach Doc, J Donadio, Gorenstein, Harlan, Huffnagle, D Kedson, P Leach, Su Leach, M McAtee, M Peloso, Pogach, Rubinson, Rybaltowski, Sanders, Serri, Templeton, G Wright, and Yolles.

That is all.