Showing posts with label Debbie Nieman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debbie Nieman. Show all posts

Monday, March 21, 2016

NCAA Tournament Pool Standings - Sweet Sixteen

NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL STANDINGS
Round 2 Day 2

The second round has come to a close, and what a ridiculous day it was.  With the exception of Wisconsin (which was a 7 seed), all of the higher seeds won, so no true Cinderellas escaped from the second round yesterday.  With that being said, Stephen F. Austin almost took down the ACC’s Notre Dame, until the Fighting Irish had 3 chances at a layup in the last 9 seconds or so, the last of which was just a tip of the ball which happened to go into the basket, by a player who had not scored in the entire game until that point.  Northern Iowa suffered more of a heart breaker as the Panthers actually led SEC co-champion Texas A & M BY 12 WITH 44 SECONDS LEFT!!!  Not only has a team come back by that many points in that short a time span in tournament history – IT HAD NEVER BEEN DONE IN AN NCAA GAME!!!  Amazing.

What does that mean for our pool – well, for one thing, it means that not much movement occurred given the lack of upsets.  It also means that some people that took some chances on smaller schools lost the opportunity to score big points.  Nobody took as big a chance as Michael Litsey and Andrew Giannone, who both had Northern Iowa advancing to the Elite 8.  For that, they have the “Hard Luck Brackets of the Day”.

We did have one game yesterday that qualified for the bonus as number 7 seed Wisconsin defeated 2 seed Xavier on a ridiculous fade-away three pointer from the corner with a  man in his face as time expired.  Something tells me that we will see that shot on “One Shining Moment”, along with the Notre Dame tip, and a couple of A & M’s dunks from their comeback.  Several brackets correctly picked Wisconsin over Xavier so they received the 5 bonus points.  Those brackets were: Jen Armstrong, Anthony LaPira, Steve Usma 3, Hannah Sosa, Silas Nichols 2 and Day Yi 2.  That was a great pick, but as you can see, there were 6 of those.  We only had 1 person with Syracuse advancing to the Sweet 16, and for that Debbie Nieman receives the “Pick of the Day” award.

With the assistance of her Syracuse pick, Debbie Nieman remains in first place.  The race for last place has tightened up as Jessica Koch has relinquished her claim on the basement.  We now have a three-way tie for last, between Phil Doherty 2, Alvaro Gonzalez and George Walks 1.  Who will receive their money back?

We have 9 remaining champions in the pool are:  Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Villanova and Virginia.  We will definitely have some drop off next round as Miami plays Villanova, Oregon plays Duke and North Carolina plays Indiana, so Thursday-Friday’s games are huge.  This list will remain the same throughout all of the updates, but I will remove the “bold” from teams as they lose.

For the pool, we had 0 unanimous selections, as about 3 entries had someone other than Oregon advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.  We collectively thought that at least 1 number 1 seed would lose, which despite all of the upsets did not occur.

I will send an update or two during the slow week to keep everyone interested in the pool before Thursday.  These mid-week updates will include the champions/runners-up of each entry so that you can gauge exactly where you stand.

As always, please review the standings and double check my math, as I may have missed something, missed an upset, or just simply miscalculated.  I try to be accurate, but sometimes I do mess up.  I will listen and change things as necessary.

            Please remember to pay, if you have not.  Payment instructions are on the rule sheet, or you can make other arrangements with me as necessary.

            Good luck to everyone, and happy game watching.  Now, on to the standings.

1.         Debbie Niemann – 77
2.         Greg Kummerlen – 76
3.         Jacey Fowler II – 75
4.         Colleen Hamilton 1 – 74
            Mango Merchant – 74
6.         Jason Spuhler – 73
7.         Kevin McAlister – 72
            Jane Reynolds – 72
            Measha Williams 2 – 72
            Measha Williams 4 – 72
11.       Pepe Sosa – 70
            Jonathan Wasserman 2 – 70
13.       Rebecca Seelig – 69
14.       Matt Hopps – 68
            Glen Merchant – 68
16.       Keith Bornhorst – 67
17.       Hershey Zdrowak – 65
18.       Alex King – 64
            Anthony LaPira – 64
20.       Jen Armstrong – 63
            Kingfish Parham – 63
22.       Charli Aichele – 62
            Bryan Apolinar – 62
            Carolyn Fowler & Jane Reynolds – 62
            Eric Inge – 62
            Ty Leatherman – 62
            Rich Samuel 2 – 62
28.       Jacey Fowler I – 61
            Michael Litsey – 61
            Cory Mauro – 61
            Duncan Merchant – 61
            Kareem Montague – 61
33.       Andrew Giannone – 60
            Kline Kroesen – 60
35.       Karen Katz – 59
            Matt Nieman – 59
            Steven Usma 3 – 59
            Joshua Zdrowak – 59
39.       Kent Armstrong – 58
            Kim Bancsi – 58
            Carolyn Fowler – 58
            Katie Kollmeyer – 58
            Allison Parker – 58
44.       Rich Samuel 1 – 57
            Abigail Sosa – 57
            George Walks 2 – 57
            Katie Zdrowak – 57
48.       Kyle Henderson – 56
            Hilary Kroesen – 56
            Ashley Poer 1 – 56
            Kyle Sheehan – 56
52.       Phil Doherty 1 – 55
            Martha Kroesen – 55
54.       Jason Murray – 54
            Roxy Sheehan – 54
            Steven Usma 1 – 54
57.       Stephanie Aichele – 53
            Vic LaPira – 53
            Hannah Sosa – 53
60.       Silas Nichols 1 – 52
            Day Yi 1 – 52
62.       Barkley Sosa - 51
            Cheryl Spuhler – 51
            Measha Williams 1 – 51
            Measha Williams 3 – 51
66.       Steffan Alexander – 50
            Silas Nichols 2 – 50
            Lee Seelig – 50
            George Walks 3 – 50
            Amy Zdrowak – 50
71.       Chris Kroesen – 49
            Kulwadee Yung – 49
73.       Justin Yung – 48
74.       Jonathan Wasserman 1 – 47
75.       Brent Bellinger – 46
            Colleen Hamilton 2 – 46
            Joshua and Katie Zdrowak – 46
78.       Mac Kroesen – 45
            Keith Zdrowak – 45
80.       Jeff Plamondon – 44
81.       Emily Lawson – 43
            Samantha Sheehan – 43
83.       Steven Usma 2 – 42
            Day Yi 2 – 42
85.       Serena Davila – 41
            Ashley Poer 2 – 41
            George Walks 4 – 41
88.       Phil Doherty 4 – 40
            Traci Sheehan – 40
90.       Phil Doherty 3 – 37
            Jessica Koch – 37
92.       Phil Doherty 2 – 36
            Alvaro Gonzalez – 36

            George Walks 1 – 36

Sunday, March 20, 2016

NCAA Tourney Pool Round 2 Day 1

NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL STANDINGS
Round 2 Day 1

My humblest of apologies.  In short, I am an idiot.  For some reason, yesterday morning as I was calculating all of the scores, I had it in my head that Wisconsin lost to Pittsburgh, when in fact they won a close-fought, horrible game.  The crazy part is that I cannot blame it on an error in score on a website, or that the newscaster said the wrong team name, because I WATCHED THAT GAME.  Yes, I was drinking some beer when I watched it, but I watched it.  Now, as anyone who watched that game can attest, that was one of the worst NCAA Tournament games of all time, and how poorly Wisconsin played is probably what made me think they lost.  That being said, there is no excuse for my mistake of calling out Jen Armstrong for picking Wisconsin, when they in fact won.  The points have been recalculated for that game as of the current standings.  For those of you that had Pittsburgh, I subtracted a point, while for those of you that correctly chose the Badgers, you received a point.

While I am confessing by tournament related sins, I believe I also mis-spelled Greg Kummerlen’s name, as well as Lee Seelig’s, which should be corrected by now.  If you see any other mistakes, please let me know.
We were going to lose at least one champion yesterday as Kentucky and Indiana were paired together, and with the Hoosiers being victorious, all those that support the Wildcats, including yours truly, will slowly sink into the abyss that is our standings. That leaves 10 remaining champions. The champions selected in this pool are:  Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Villanova and VirginiaThis list will remain the same throughout all of the updates, but I will remove the “bold” from teams as they lose.

We did have some entrants select Little Rock and a couple of others selected Yale to advance to the second round, and a surprising number who had Wichita State to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.  Alas, that did not occur, but one bonusable (is that even a word) game occurred yesterday with Gonzaga beating – and I mean absolutely beating – 3rd seeded Utah.  Being the game with the most points at stake for the winner, I have to give the “Pick of the Day” award to the eleven entrants that had Gonzaga defeating Utah.  Those entries are Measha Williams 2, Jacey Fowler II, Jane Reynolds, Measha Williams 4, Jason Spuhler, Colleen Hamilton 1, Rebecca Seelig, Charli Aichele, Hershey Zdrowak, Allison Parker and Kulwadee Yung.  Three entrants had Gonzaga beating Fresno State in the second round, and although they received the two points for a correct selection, they did not receive the 5 b onus points for the upset.

I will not award any recognition for an entrant missing a very important game as the worst decision yesterday in the pool was my scoring of the Wisconsin-Pittsburgh first round game.  Because of that, I am the chump of the day.

We have a new leader, so congratulations to Debbie Nieman for taking over first place.  We also have a new leader for last place Jessica Koch.   However, do not feel sorry for Jessica as she has her entire Final Four intact, and 7 of her Elite 8, so I do not expect her to stay in the basement for long.
For the pool, we only had 1 unanimous selection – Kansas, which advanced.  More importantly for the scoring, that means some people had North Carolina and Virginia not advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.  This means you Virginia folks gained some ground.

Some important separation games today, as the entries are split on Wisconsin-Xavier, and those that have Texas A & M, Notre Dame and Maryland can all gain some ground on others who selected against those teams.  Watch those, as they are much more fun than that Duke-Yale debacle from yesterday.  During the contest I was perusing twitter and everybody was making fun of that game.  One of my favorites was, “If you think this game is bad now, CBS just announced that Coldplay will be performing at halftime”.
As always, please review the standings and double check my math, as I may have missed something, missed an upset, or just simply miscalculated.  I try to be accurate, but sometimes I do mess up.  I will listen and change things as necessary.

            Please remember to pay, if you have not.  Payment instructions are on the rule sheet, or you can make other arrangements with me as necessary.

            Good luck to everyone, and happy game watching.  Now, on to the standings.

1.         Debbie Niemann – 67
2.         Greg Kummerlen – 66
            Mango Merchant – 66
            Measha Williams 2 – 66
5.         Jacey Fowler II – 65
6.         Colleen Hamilton 1 – 64
            Jane Reynolds – 64
            Measha Williams 4 – 64
9.         Jason Spuhler – 63
10.       Jonathan Wasserman 2 – 62
11.       Kevin McAlister – 60
            Glen Merchant – 60
13.       Rebecca Seelig – 59
14.       Matt Hopps – 58
            Pepe Sosa – 58
16.       Keith Bornhorst – 57
17.       Charli Aichele – 56
18.       Michael Litsey – 55
            Kingfish Parham – 55
            Hershey Zdrowak – 55
21.       Carolyn Fowler & Jane Reynolds – 54
            Andrew Giannone – 54
            Alex King – 54
            Jacey Fowler I – 54
25.       Duncan Merchant – 53
            Kareem Montague – 53
27.       Bryan Apolinar – 52
            Eric Inge – 52
            Kline Kroesen - 52
            Ty Leatherman – 52
            Rich Samuel 2 – 52
32.       Cory Mauro – 51
            Abigail Sosa – 51
            Carolyn Fowler – 51
35.       Allison Parker – 50
            Ashley Poer 1 – 50
37.       Karen Katz – 49
            Matt Nieman – 49
            Joshua Zdrowak – 49
40.       Jen Armstrong – 48
            Kent Armstrong – 48
            Kyle Henderson – 48
            Katie Kollmeyer – 48
44.       Martha Kroesen – 47
            Anthony LaPira – 47
            Rich Samuel 1 – 47
            George Walks 2 – 47
            Katie Zdrowak – 47
49.       Kim Bancsi – 46
            Hilary Kroesen – 46
51.       Phil Doherty 1 – 45
            Vic LaPira – 45
53.       Silas Nichols 1 – 44
            Kyle Sheehan – 44
            Roxy Sheehan – 44
            Steven Usma 3 – 44
57.       Measha Williams 1 – 43
58.       Steffan Alexander – 42
            Jason Murray – 42
            Lee Seelig – 42
            Steven Usma 1 – 42
            Amy Zdrowak – 42
            Day Yi 1 – 42
64.       Stephanie Aichele – 41
            Barkley Sosa - 41
            Cheryl Spuhler – 41
            Measha Williams 3 – 41
            Kulwadee Yung – 41
69.       George Walks 3 – 40
            Justin Yung – 40
71.       Chris Kroesen – 39
            Jonathan Wasserman 1 – 39
            Hannah Sosa – 39
74.       Joshua and Katie Zdrowak – 38
75.       Silas Nichols 2 – 37
            Keith Zdrowak – 37
77.       Brent Bellinger – 36
            Colleen Hamilton 2 – 36
            Jeff Plamondon – 36
80.       Mac Kroesen – 35
            Emily Lawson – 35
            Ashley Poer 2 – 35
            Samantha Sheehan – 35
84.       Steven Usma 2 – 34
85.       Serena Davila – 33
86.       Traci Sheehan – 32
            George Walks 1 – 32
88.       Day Yi 2 – 31
89.       Phil Doherty 2 – 30
            Phil Doherty 4 – 30
91.       Phil Doherty 3 – 29
            George Walks 4 – 29
93.       Alvaro Gonzalez – 28

94.       Jessica Koch – 27

Saturday, March 19, 2016

NCAA Tournament Pool Round 1 Day 2

NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL STANDINGS
Round 1 Day 2

 I hope that everybody survived the second day of round 1, as four more upsets occurred yesterday.  That means fully ¼ of the games in the first round resulted in bonus points!!!  Well, technically not ¼, as not one single person in the pool selected Middle Tennessee State over Michigan State.  Sadly, Michigan State was one of the unanimous picks from day 2, with the others being Villanova, Oregon and Oklahoma.  For those of you following closely, that means we did have one entry select a 15 over a 2, just the wrong game as Weber State could not pull off the upset over Xavier.

We lost two champions yesterday, including the aforementioned Spartans, who were the second betting favorite in Vegas, as well as the third most popular pick in our pool.  The other champion to lose was Texas.  That leaves 11 remaining champions. The champions selected in this pool are:  Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Villanova and Virginia.  This list will remain the same throughout all of the updates, but I will remove the “bold” from teams as they lose.

Interestingly enough, experts in sports analytics have calculated that the Middle Tennessee State victory was the third biggest upset in NCAA tournament history, so all of us that picked Michigan State were simply unlucky.  Although, I may have re-thought that selection if I knew that MTSU’s best player looks exactly like Andre 3000 from Outkast.

As stated earlier, four different teams that were eligible for bonus points won yesterday:  Middle Tennessee State, Stephen F. Austin, Hawaii and Northern Iowa.  Excepting Middle Tennessee State, some people in our pool picked each of these upsets, and several entrants had 2 upsets corrects.  Interestingly, two entrants selected all 3 of the upsets correctly, and they each had their respective guarantees win as well.  For that, I give my congratulations to Debbie Nieman and Barkley Sosa for winning the illustrious “Picks of the Day” award.

A lot of entrants had Michigan State at least in the Elite 8, if not further and winning, so a number of picks were especially hurt by the Spartans’ loss.  However, the worse defeats yesterday were suffered by Abigail Sosa, Silas Nichols 1, Jen Armstrong, Karen Katz, and Phil Doherty 2, who each lost 2 of their Final Four selections.  Abigail and Karen had Michigan State and West Virginia lose, whereas Silas and Phil both had Michigan State and Texas.  Jen suffered with Michigan State and Wisconsin, which means she either really loves the Big 10 (which could be true), or she went with one of her alma maters (which is definitely true).  So for losing two of her Final Four, with one of them actually be her school, Jen Armstrong  is the hard luck bracket of the day.

We have a new leader, so congratulations to Mango Merchant for taking over first place.  We also have a new leader for last place, and he had Michigan State winning it all, so good luck Alvaro Gonzalez.

Some interesting games today, starting at 12:10 with Wichita State and Miami.  Wichita State’s seniors are 9-3 in the NCAA Tournament in their career, which is pretty remarkable.  Economists have calculated that the most expensive ticket in the entire second round is Indiana v. Kentucky in Des Moines, and the second most expensive ticket is Yale v. Duke; my own personal basketball hell.  However, it isn’t just my personal basketball hell, as Slate.com described the game thusly:

With the bad guys going 2-for-2, the stage is now set for the most irksome game in the history of America’s least irksome sporting event.  It’s George W. Bush vs. Richard Nixon.  Theo Epstein vs. Christian Laettner.  Morgan Stanley vs Deutsche Bank.  Slate vs. Wherever Duke grads work.  Catamarans v. Monohulls.  Chenille vs. Seersucker.  Connecticut vs. New Jersey.  People who couldn’t get into Harvard vs. People who couldn’t get into Yale.

Some potentially big movers today, as a couple of entrants each have Little Rock and Yale winning two games, which means that not only did they have upsets picked correctly on Thursday, they followed those upset picks with continued upsets today.  Could be big swings as most entries have Duke at least into the Sweet Sixteen.

As always, please review the standings and double check my math, as I may have missed something, missed an upset, or just simply miscalculated.  I try to be accurate, but sometimes I do mess up.  I will listen and change things as necessary.  I myself found an error in the day 1 calculations as I skipped a game pod in Rebecca Seelig’s scoring.  That has been corrected and you gained 7 points (two wins plus a Wichita State bonus of 5).

Please remember to pay, if you have not.  Payment instructions are on the rule sheet, or you can make other arrangements with me as necessary.

Good luck to everyone, and happy game watching.  Now, on to the standings.

1.         Mango Merchant – 57
2.         Debbie Niemann – 54
3.         Greg Kummerlen – 51
            Jonathan Wasserman 2 – 51
5.         Measha Williams 2 – 50
6.         Kevin McAlister – 49
            Pepe Sosa – 49
8.         Kingfish Parham – 48
9.         Keith Bornhorst – 46
            Jacey Fowler II – 46
            Jane Reynolds – 46
            Measha Williams 4 – 46
13.       Carolyn Fowler – 45
            Eric Inge – 45
            Alex King – 45
            Jason Spuhler – 45
17.       Jacey Fowler I – 44
            Colleen Hamilton 1 – 44
            Duncan Merchant – 44
20.       Carolyn Fowler & Jane Reynolds – 43
            Andrew Giannone – 43
            Matt Hopps – 43
            Ashley Poer 1 – 43
            Rebecca Seelig – 43
25.       Glen Merchant – 42
            Matt Nieman – 42
27.       Bryan Apolinar – 41
            Hilary Kroesen – 41
29.       Charli Aichele – 40
            Michael Litsey – 40
            Cory Mauro – 40
            Kareem Montague – 40
            Abigail Sosa – 40
34.       Jen Armstrong – 39
            Kyle Henderson – 39
            Kline Kroesen – 39
            Ty Leatherman – 39
            Hershey Zdrowak – 39
39.       Martha Kroesen – 38
            Anthony LaPira – 38
            Vic LaPira – 38
            George Walks 2 – 38
            Katie Zdrowak – 38
44.       Katie Kollmeyer – 37
            Rich Samuel 2 – 37
            Day Yi 1 – 37
47.       Rich Samuel 1 – 36
            Joshua Zdrowak – 36
49.       Kent Armstrong – 35
            Karen Katz – 35
            Silas Nichols 1 – 35
            Amy Zdrowak – 35
53.       Phil Doherty 1 – 34
            Barkley Sosa - 34
            Cheryl Spuhler – 34
56.       Kim Bancsi – 33
            Jason Murray – 33
            Kyle Sheehan – 33
            Roxy Sheehan – 33
            George Walks 3 – 33
            Joshua and Katie Zdrowak – 33
62.       Stephanie Aichele – 32
            Allison Parker – 32
            Measha Williams 3 – 32
65.       Steffan Alexander – 31
            Lee Selig – 31
            Steven Usma 1 – 31
            Steven Usma 3 – 31
            Justin Yung – 31
70.       Chris Kroesen – 30
            Mac Kroesen – 30
            Ashley Poer 2 – 30
            Jonathan Wasserman 1 – 30
            Measha Williams 1 – 30
            Keith Zdrowak – 30
76.       Brent Bellinger – 29
            Hannah Sosa – 29
            Kulwadee Yung – 29
79.       Emily Lawson – 28
            Silas Nichols 2 – 28
81.       Jeff Plamondon – 27
            Steven Usma 2 – 27
83.       Samantha Sheehan – 26
            Day Yi 2 – 26
            Colleen Hamilton 2 – 26
86.       Traci Sheehan – 25
87.       George Walks 1 – 23
88.       George Walks 4 – 22
89.       Phil Doherty 2 – 21
            Phil Doherty 4 – 21
91.       Phil Doherty 3 – 20
            Jessica Koch – 20
            Serena Davila – 20

            Alvaro Gonzalez – 19