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