That’s right – with Syracuse’s 1 point victory over Wisconsin, it is official. David Gatewood has successfully defended his title as Loser of the Standard Pool. Wisconsin (his top 4 seed) joined Wichita State (his top 6 seed) and his other upsets on the sideline – ensuring that he can get no more points.
David becomes the first person in history to win the “Loser” of the Standard Pool prize in back to back years – setting a new standard for losing. In fact, David becomes only the second person to finish last in the pool multiple times. The only other person to accomplish this feat was my roommate from college, David Zimmerman. Of course, while Mr. Gatewood has won in back-to-back years, it was Mr. Zimmerman who still has set the ultimate standard – when he picked all upsets (no one better than a 9 seed). It is one thing when you win back to back years – but it is a totally different standard to force a new rule to be put in to prevent others from trying that insanity.
I don’t know if there has anything to do with the combination of being named David and Wisconsin (one picked Wisconsin, the other is from Wisconsin) that makes you susceptible to bad picks in the pool. I am still trying to figure out how to get rid of that stupid Lunatic curse thing – so this is too much for me to try to tackle right now. Maybe I can get one of my fellow statisticians to do a study into this.
As a side note, David runs this crazy fun pool called the Loser Pool – where you pick Losers instead of Winners. Unfortunately for David, I think that mentality is starting to wear off on his picks for the Lunatic contest. Either that, or he is forgetting which pool he is entering and is putting in his expected losers.
It is a tradition – so it is necessary to say, “Sorry, David – But you should not have challenged the Lunatic!” But considering how horrible my picks are, we really should be saying something like “you shouldn’t have challenged Ella Flora (our current leader)”
And for all of you where your hopes was “Just don’t finish last” – we can all thank David for protecting us from that honored distinction.