West Virginia ended a wild Sunday of basketball where they were determined not to fall to the upset bug that was happening, as they beat Marshall 94-71.
This created something that I don’t remember seeing in the pool. We have an 11 way tie for first place – as Josh Martin, Butch Bisese, Christy Lindvall, Edward Zhang, Alex Simon, Andrew Braslow, Bob Degenhardt, Steve Martin, Michelle L Miller, and both of Andrea Zimmerman’s picks are in the lead at 440 points, with another 6 entries (and my 2 fun entries of the Sagarin and BPI picks) just 10 points behind. To make it even more crazy, 5 of our 11 leaders can’t correctly predict this year’s tournament winner. With the scores so close and with so many upsets, there are a lot of people who are within striking distance to win the pool.
In the Upset Pool, Christy Lindvall has a decent sized lead as she has accumulated 239 points. Triona Weeks is in second at 202 points, followed by Joe Chapman and Edward Zhang at 191 and Alex Simon at 190.
The Lunatic is hovering in 45th place – but with both Virginia and North Carolina out, he is stuck hoping that Villanova or Purdue will win the East and then the whole tournament. Of course, he is also being beaten by his daughter Katie with her entry called Pink Sparkly Unicorns.
This morning, Charlie asked me how he was doing, and after letting him know that he was slightly ahead of Katie and I, Katie asked where she was – and I told her she was 60 points behind the leaders – tied with me. She responded with the question, “Are points good or bad?” So you know that she is probably destined to beat me with her picks of where Grandpa and Grandma went to school vs. the ones I poured hours of analysis into.
Whether you picked based on analysis or schools you simply like, my guess is you also had your bracket crushed today. But you are not completely done – that is because all of us get a second chance. The Second Chance Pool is up and ready for you – simply login to get to the Second Chance Pool entry page.
Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!