What a fantastic Elite 8 – well with the exception of my Boilermakers losing in overtime. But alliances aside, as a college basketball fan, how could you have asked for a better Elite 8? We had two games go to overtime, another game go to the buzzer ending as a one point upset victory, and the other game being a 2 point game with 12 seconds before free throws stretched the lead to a 6 point upset victory. You really could not have asked for four better games if you were not a fan of one of the four losing teams.
And that fantastic four also left us with 4 champions. The best 4 conferences all have sent one of their champions to Minneapolis. The SEC Tournament Champion Auburn will try to upset the last remaining #1 seed – ACC Regular Season Co-Champion Virginia (ironically, Auburn was the team that took out the other ACC regular season co-champion). And Big 12 regular season co-champion Texas Tech will try to take out the only remaining team that won a share of their regular season championship as well as their tournament championship – Big 10 champion Michigan State.
Once again, can’t ask for more – the four best conferences are sending their champions to the Final Four to battle for the NCAA Championship. And if the Final Four and Championship are anything like the Elite 8, we are in for a treat.
This becomes a very important point in the standings – at this point, if you have Michigan State, Texas Tech, Virginia or Auburn, you are thrilled that you might still have a chance to win or place in the pool. Or you could be like the Lunatic, where you have no more possible ways of scoring points and now are simply a spectator as you watch people continue to leap-frog you in the standings.
The person in the best position at the moment is our Standard Pool leader – Jim Carini. Jim has been in this position before as he was our 2004 Champion. But unlike in the actual games, experience doesn’t lead you to victory – your picks do. And Jim had the foresight to predict Virginia to beat Texas Tech in the championship. His 990 points not only has the lead – but he also has his champion and runner-up both alive. But Jim is not running away with this.
John Woodburn and Ian Berglund are both tied for second at 950 points – but neither can catch Jim as John has Duke and Ian has Virginia. Ethan Busby (who had Duke beating Auburn) and Kyle Kelly (the top person in the standings with Michigan State) are tied at 4th with 940 points. Brody Atkinson and Brian Lawton are tied at 6th with 930 points. And Rosemary McKnight, Rich Napolitano, John Howarth and Lauren Martin are tied for 8th at 920.
In the Upset Pool, John Woodburn has a slim 1 point lead at 263 points. Brody Atkinson is one point behind at 262 points, Lauren Martin is in 3rd and 260 points, Kyle Kelly is 4th at 256 points, and Michael Cheung and Murli Buluswar are in 5th at 255 points. But it looks like we have a few people who are within striking distance that could make a move up the standings if one of the four remaining teams win.
In the Second Chance Pool, we have a tie at the top as Joshua Glass and Sam Luy are both at 520 points. Wendy Joseph is clinging onto third all alone at 480 points, but is followed closely by Evan Goldstein at 440 points and 10 others at 400 points.
We do have one prize that is settled – as typically is by this point. Wendy Joseph is unofficially the person who is in last place in the standings and in the money pool as her upset picks of Villanova, Belmont, Michigan and UNC did not do well – giving her a total of 290 points. The normal tradition is to say that she should not have challenged the Lunatic, but with the Lunatic doing so poorly, we will just say that her upsets didn’t turn out well.
The Lunatic is going to get a thorough stomping. He is in a large tie for 123rd place, and has no possible way of scoring any more points as Duke and UNC were eliminated over the last two rounds. Yet that stomping is nothing compared to watching his Boilers lose that 3 point lead with 6 second left (and then living in Virginia so that every sports radio station can help him relive those 6 seconds over and over again).
Sometime this week, I will try to create the unofficial scenarios pages – that way, you can see what outcome in the Final Four is the best for you. After two weeks of sleep deprivation, I am going to spread things out throughout the week instead of staying up until midnight each night.