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 Virginia.  This 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 – 3^rd 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