At this critical stage in the tournament, congratulations go out to Mike Wassmer – who leads our pool with 960 points.  Mike correctly picked Villanova, Oklahoma, and UNC to the Final Four to take a 30 point lead over Tanmay Gautam (who also had those three teams in the Final 4).   Then, Nathan Standley, Andrew Braslow, Audra Lifson, Jim Carini and Ann Hawkins trail our leader by 60 – with a total of 900, and David Chamowitz and Michael Swinson are behind by only 70.

In our Upset Pool, John Bachmann hangs onto the lead at 275 points.  But Gregg Farber has shot up into 2nd place just 2 points behind our leader as Gregg was the only person brave enough to pick Syracuse to the Final Four.  Kelli Shonts is in 3rd, just 6 points behind, Doug Crowe is in 4th just 7 points behind, and Rick Flynn is in 5th just 8 points behind.   So, we have a really tight leader-board in the Upset Pool (although, there might not be a lot more movement as since Gregg didn’t pick the Orange to the Championship game, the only teams that can score people points are 1 and 2 seeds).

Andrew Murphy holds the lead in the Second Chance Pool – leading with 520 points.  Just 40 points behind are Pam Ciejek, Ann Hawkins, Mary-Rian Bradley, Jim Wambach, Matt Shafiee, Dan Miller, Will Caldwell, Jerry Caldwell, John Bachmann, Kristian Schmidt, Nick Kindig and Lowell Isaacs.   So, the Second Chance Pool looks like it will be extremely close…….

Congratulations to Mary-Rian Bradley, because not only is she doing great in the Second Chance Pool, but she also has the traditional first prize awarded in the Lunatic Pool.   At 240 points and after picking Kentucky, Arizona, Northern Iowa and Fresno State, Mary-Rian’s picks have guaranteed the last place of the paid entries into the Standard Pool, and gets her entry fee back.   Considering the Lunatic’s poor second week performance, he does not deserve any recognition.   Mary-Rian should not have challenged our leader Mike.