What an exciting weekend of basketball. Gonzaga wins one for the little guy – making it to the Final Four for the first time and becoming the first WCC team to make the Final Four since San Francisco in 1957. Oregon managed to hold a Kansas team who was scoring an average of 96 points a game in the tournament to 60 and beat the Jayhawks in what basically was a home game for them in Kansas City – the last time the Ducks made it this far was 1939 – the very first NCAA tournament (which they won). South Carolina came back to beat Florida – giving the Gamecocks their first trip ever to the Final Four (South Carolina now has won only 8 NCAA Tournament games in their history – meaning half of those victories are from this year). And what an amazing finish to watch Luke Maye hit a shot with just 0.3 seconds remaining to lead North Carolina to an exciting two point victory over Kentucky.
So, lots of fun story lines for the Final Four – can South Carolina keep their winning streak alive? Can Gonzaga be the mid-major school to win it all? Will Oregon finally end the longest drought of the major conferences – it has been 20 years since the Pac 12’s last championship (Arizona in 1997)? Or will it be North Carolina coming back and winning the title that eluded them last year after losing to Villanova on a buzzer beater? Should be a fun Final Four in Phoenix.
But now to the leaders. At this very critical time in the pool, our leader is Lauren Martin – she stands a top at 900 pts – having correctly picked three of our Final 4 teams (which is about as perfect as you can get this year in our pool – since it looks like no one picked South Carolina to win the stacked East regional). Laura Carini, Patricia Kirtz and Mark Schumaker are just 40 pts behind in 2nd place. Stephanie Palermo and Earl McKnight are tied for 5th just 60 pts behind. Ashley P, Steve Glass and Kelly Woods are tied for 7th just 70 pts behind. And Rohit Kapoor wraps up the top 10 – 80 pts behind.
In the Upset Pool, Kyle Kelly predicted Xavier to win the West regional, and that loyalty paid off big time – as having an 11 seed correctly to the Elite 8 has catapulted him to the top of the Upset Pool with 245 pts (those picks are in a tie for 311th in the standard pool). Mark Schumaker is only 6 pts behind, Ryan Zotti and Greg Williams are tied for 3rd just 10 pts behind, and Gabbi Ams and Earl McKnight are tied for 5th just 12 pts behind.
In our Second Chance Pool, we have a three way tie for the lead between William England, Tony Bisese and Laura Carini – who all are at 440 pts – they are closely followed by a group of 12 at 400 pts – so the Second Chance Pool really could be anyone’s battle at this point.
We also look like we unofficially have our first prize wrapped up – Last place in the Standard Pool. Ashley P and Hailey are in last place – but they were playing for fun, so are not eligible for the prize. The next two also don’t qualify as while Michelle Miller and Wendy both have low scores, they don’t meet the Last Place requirements (having picked at least one 4 seed and one 6 seed) – both Michelle and Wendy picked Kansas, but Michelle’s next highest seeded team is #7 St. Mary’s, and Wendy’s next highest seeded team are the #8 seeds Wisconsin and Northwestern. That gives the person tied with Wendy the next chance. And Joe Chapman meets both criteria – his score of 380 pts is at the bottom of the standings. And his picks of Villanova, Louisville, UCLA and West Virginia make his picks eligible for the prize. And Joe’s picks looked decent after the first round – going 24-8. But he only got 7 of the second round games right, and that would be the last ones that would be correct for him – being the type of bracket that you can rip to shreds. The Lunatic is doing so poorly, he doesn’t feel right saying his tagline – so he will modify it. Joe – you get your entry fee back, you should never have challenged Lauren in the pool.
Speaking of the Lunatic, he is sitting in a tie for 144th place. He still has one bracket that predicted UNC – so he could theoretically move up some places. But I don’t believe it is possible for him to be anywhere close to the leaderboard – well done by everyone in a complete stomping of the Lunatic!!!!