And the time that all of us are waiting for – the unveiling of this year’s Stomp the Lunatic champions!!!!!

Our overall champion is David Caldwell, who correctly picked Kentucky to beat Kansas and scored 1310 points to take the main pool.  Our upset champion is Keith Schleicher with 284 points – however, since Keith was playing for fun, extra mention deserves to go to Keith Lancette who will get the top Upset prize.  Finally, congratulations to Patrick Sykes – our Second Chance Champion, who wins the tiebreaker over Rob Mercer and Kevin Kingston.

Below is a list of all our prize winners:

Standard Pool

1) David Caldwell – 1310

2) Ed Hodgson – 1270

3) Bill Kahn – 1240

4) Michael Strange (FUN) – 1220

Tied 5) June Degenhardt and Jennifer Carter – 1210

7) Jonathan Stalls – 1200

Tied 8th) Aaron McGuire, Robert Shipp, Steve O’Neill and Philip Ventrella – 1190

LAST) David Gatewood – 150 (you should not have challenged David Caldwell)

 

Upset Pool

1) Keith Schleicher (FUN) – 284

2) Keith Lancette – 276

3) Christina Lee (FUN) – 273

4) Rick Flynn – 268

Tied 5th) Mark Walsh and TJ Acuto – 255

7) Aaron McGuire

 

Second Chance Pool

1) Patrick Sykes – 920

Tied 1st) Rob Mercer and Kevin Kingston – 920

 

Congratulations to all our winners and of course, the 2012 National Champions – Kentucky Wildcats.  Also, thanks again to everyone for making this such a fun and special pool to run.  I think that this is the largest stomping ever – as 254 of you stomped the Lunatic – providing a unprecedented but well-deserved stomping of our resident crazy person.

I hope that all of you enjoyed the games, and that you will join us again next year when March comes and the madness begins to start – when it will once again be time to STOMP THE LUNATIC!!!!!!!!!!

Kansas kept trying to pull one last come back – and after Anthony Davis missed his first FT, all I could think about was the last time Calapari was in the Championship game, when Memphis had Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks dead to rights – until they started missing FTs, and those Jayhawks kept coming until they forced OT and won.

But this year was different, Kentucky hit their FTs – and Kansas either had their shots blocked or turned the ball over in the last minute.  And the Kentucky Wildcats are the 2012 National Champions!!!!

Congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats!!!!!!!!

I am not sure that this is the best strategy for Kansas – the Jayhawks seem to like to fall down early to teams, and then make charges either late in the first half or starting in the second half to widdle the lead down.   Kansas has now found themselves down double digits to 4 of the 6 teams they have played (Kentucky has joined Purdue, North Carolina State, and Ohio State).  However, there are probably two important factors in play here.

1) Kentucky has extended their lead to be more points that any of the other three.

2) With no offense meant to the Boilermakers, Wolfpack, and Buckeyes – Kentucky is a much better team.

It probably also doesn’t bode well that the announcers just mentioned that Kentucky has won the last 40 times they have led at half (I checked – you have to go all the way back to Feb 1, 2011 when the Wildcats lost by 2 at Ole Miss after leading by 1 at half).  So, right now, I imagine David Caldwell is feeling much better about his chances.

However, as I mentioned against Ohio State, there is still a lot of basketball to play.  And if any team is capable of coming back from double digits, the Jayhawks are that team.  After doing it 3 times already, the only lead that I would say is safe against this resilient team would be a 4+ point lead with 1 second left.   Only time will tell – just 20 more minutes of play until we have a 2012 National Champion!!!!

There is no quit in the Kansas Jayhawks.  They continue to just fight and fight and fight.  In a game eerily like the one that watched my beloved Boilers season end, Kansas continued to cut the Buckeyes lead, until a few steals led to some breakaway baskets and suddenly, the Jayhawks were the ones with the lead.  Then, there was the great steal with 8 seconds left that looked like it wrapped the game up – until Kansas threw the ball away, giving Ohio St one last chance.  But Bill Self had his kids foul immediately, and Craft’s attempt to catch everyone asleep failed when he himself crossed the FT line to fast and got a lane violation called on himself.  And with that, the Jayhawks were able to finish off the clock, and they will be looking forward to Monday night, and their date with the Wildcats to determine the national championship.

At this critical point in the tournament, we have co-leaders – David Caldwell and Kayla Lindvall.  Of course, as we know from earlier tonight – David has Kentucky winning and Kayla has Kansas winning – so there will be no tie this year.  The tie between David and Kayla will be decided on the court.

I am proud to say that my dad is all alone in 3rd place in the pool – hoping that Kentucky will win so he can move up.  But I know that he is thrilled that he has scored enough points to be in the prize pool – regardless of the outcome.  In 4th place is Danny Bird, who will be rooting to move up if Kansas wins.  Then, Bill Kahn and his always impressive Bradley Terry models has moved up into 5th place.  And in 6th place is a tie between Michael Strange and Christy Lindvall.

In the Upset Pool, as we know – Keith Schleicher has clinched the victory.  But thanks to the Jayhawks, Keith Lancette will win the top prize.  Christina Lee is in 3rd – followed closely by Rick Flynn, Mark Walsh, TJ Acuto and Jerry Caldwell.

In the Second Chance Pool, it looks like there will be a three way tie no matter what.  Right now, the leaders are Patrick Sykes, Rob Mercer and Kevin Kingston – they all have Kentucky winning the championship.   However, Sarah Manley, Jerry Caldwell, and Ashley Peterson are close behind and ready to take the lead if Kansas wins Monday night.

Good luck to everyone who still has a horse in this race – and good luck to Kentucky and Kansas on Monday night.

But there are obviously other people who are watching the Ohio State / Kansas game closely.  We won’t mention all the top of the standings, but it seems fair to mention who win win.

The biggest Kansas fan will be Kayla Lindvall – who will win the Stomp the Lunatic contest if the Jayhawks win tonight and also beat Kentucky on Monday.

David Caldwell is a Jayhawks fan only for tonight – then he will need Kentucky to win Monday night to win the main pool.

Jennifer Carter is the Buckeyes fan only for tonight – our current leader in the pool has Kentucky beating Ohio State in the championship, since she is in the lead – she simply needs her teams to keep winning.

And of course, our upset champion Keith Schleicher would sweep both pools if his Buckeyes win the NCAA Championship.  We all know the tragic twist of this story – and the person who would most benefit in the main pool would be Andrea Zimmerman.

Of course, considering the Buckeyes are up 11 points right now, Jennifer, Keith and Andrea are probably happier at the moment.  But there is still a lot of basketball to be played.

The winner of the Blue-grass Battle, and more importantly (although maybe not to them) the first spot in Monday’s Championship game belongs to the #1 seed Kentucky Wildcats.  Every time Louisville made a charge, Kentucky seemed to have the answer.  And then, the Wildcats played stifling defense over a 5 minute stretch to extend their lead to a comfortable place where they could get away with just trading baskets.

Although I have to admit that I am still confused on the ending, Louisville seemed to have this weird idea in their head that they could trap Kentucky in the back court to force a turnover, and then would foul after they crossed half court.  Except whenever Kentucky got across half court, they would aggressively attack the basket and walk away with a breakaway dunk.  And then, when Kentucky got their last dunk, Louisville looked like they just gave up – they seemed to walk it up the court, then wait to get into their offensive set, and then took so much time to get a missed three pointer.  By that point, it made sense not to foul – there wasn’t enough time after wasting 15-20 seconds to come back.

So, the Wildcats will now await the winner of the Buckeyes and Jayhawks to try to finally get Calapari his first ever NCAA title – as well as add their names into the history book of many championship teams from Lexington, Kentucky.

The Lunatic will now cruelly remove the scenarios involving Louisville – as they are no longer actual scenarios.  If the un-official scenarios are accurate (and I have read them correctly – I am trying to go quickly before Charlie goes to bed :-), even more painful congratulations are in order.  That is because all 4 scenarios remaining say that we have a winner of the upset pool – Keith Schleicher.  Unfortunately, this victory is bitter-sweet for Keith – since Keith entered the pool for fun this year.    This will open the door for either Rick Flynn (rooting for Ohio State) and Keith Lancette (rooting for Kansas) to take the big prize.

Apparently, something is putting random blogs saying weird stuff like “Your site has so much information.  It is the best article I have ever read” and then creates a name that is actually a link to a site.

I will try to keep on top of it and delete it.  But just to be on the safe side, don’t click on any names to see who they are – it might lead you to a fake site.

Also, I apologize if I accidentally deleted a real person’s post – I got aggressive after seeing over 30 of them on just deleting all.  If I deleted your blog on accidentally, please feel free to post it again – and send me a reminder not to delete it.  🙂

The links are on the table of contents to the left.   As always, these are un-official results.  While I believe that these are all done correctly, I have not gone through the trouble to validate the calculations.
However, if you were wondering if you have a team you should be rooting for – this should at least give you your best chances at winning.

Good luck to everyone who has a chance at winning the pool!!!  And enjoy the games on Saturday!!!!

My apologies to all of you who have probably been searching through the standings page to see where you are in the Upset Standings.  It didn’t even occur to me when I was doing my updates that I was searching through the main standings for the Upset leaders.

Well – no longer.  It might be extremely late – but the Upset Standings are now a link on the menu.

 

And all our leaders in the pool……

Not much to write about the games.  Kentucky jumped on Baylor early and never looked back.  Kansas and UNC was a much closer battle – tied at half, Kansas would get up a few baskets, and UNC would fight their way back – and then, in the final four minutes, it was all Jayhawks.  In that crunch time, it was painful obvious how badly the Tar Heels missed their star point guard Kendall Marshall – after some turnovers and a bad foul by the freshman replacement (if you are going to foul a breakaway, make sure he doesn’t also score the layup).  And in the end, the Jayhawks took advantage and earned their trip to New Orleans.

That leaves us with two re-matches for the Final Four.  The Bluegrass State will be going  crazy as the Big East conference tournament Louisville will get a second chance at SEC regular season champion Kentucky – this time on a neutral court instead of the Wildcats’ Rupp Arena.   And in the other game, Big 10 regular season co-champion Ohio State will get a second chance against the Big 12 regular season champion Kansas – although this time it will not only be at a neutral court instead of the Jayhawks’ Phog Allen Fieldhouse, the Buckeyes will have a healthy Jared Sullinger.

At this critical time in the tournament, our leader is Jennifer Carter – out of 362 entries, Jennifer was the only person who correctly predicted that Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, and Kansas would be the four teams playing in New Orleans.  She is closely followed by 6 people who are just 20 points behind – Robert Shipp, Steve O’Neill, David Caldwell, Kayla Lindvall, Philip Ventrella, and Ross Vetter.

In the Upset pool, Keith Schleicher has overtaken the lead from Christina Lee.  However, Keith Lancette is closing fast riding the success of Louisville.  And in the Second Chance Pool, Shirli Zelcer and Taylor Early continued their amazing run – going 12 for 12 through the Sweet 16 and Elite 8.  They are followed by Stephen Glass – just 40 points behind.

As for the Lunatic – he has received a thorough beating, and it will only get worse.  The Lunatic picked North Carolina and Michigan State in the championship game and so can finish no better than 163rd – and there will likely be others who will pass him in the final weekend.   However, he is proud that his 2 year daughter has already beaten him using Vegas models to try to win, his mother-in-law Kate who was a mainstay on the leaderboard until her Tar Heels went down today, and even prouder of his dad, who is currently in a tie for 11th place.

Good luck to all the leaders in the pool!!!!  And congratulations to everyone who has already STOMPED THE LUNATIC!