Sweet 16!

My dog Spott Moskowitz always makes my picks for the NCAA Basketball pools, just as his predecessor Spot Moskowitz did before him.  The original Spot was pretty darn good at it, but the new one just doesn't care as much.  He did move up 3 spots in the standings, however. 

"Always Nappin"

Spott, doing what he does best.

Ken Cooper's comments on things so-far: (and the top 25)

Did anyone else feel absolutely sick for Northern Iowa?  Man, up by 12 with 31 seconds to go, then up by 5 with 12 seconds.  That one will hurt for a long, long time.  Same for Stephen F. Austin and Xavier.  Crushing losses, but the epitome of March Madness. 

I find it hilarious folks are talking about the “6 teams from the ACC” in the Sweet 16.  A decade ago, those 6 teams represented ACC (Duke, UNC, Virginia), the Big East (Syracuse, Miami) and independent (Notre Dame).  I just can’t consider Syracuse an ACC team or Texas A & M an SEC team.

Congrats to me for leading the pool through the Sweet 16.  But, as mentioned in the last results update, I am a dead man walking with Michigan State as my champ.  Go Gonzaga.  They are now my team and only hope.

Nice work to Tyler McCandless, Jay Novak, and Darryl Jones who hit 13 of the Sweet 16 and made significant jumps in the standings. 

The avg. of 9.53 was above average.  8.99 was the avg. over the past 17 years.

The clear upset pick of the Sweet 16 was Syracuse.  Only 4 people (Courtney Roth, Alyssa Verhoeven, Jason Fraysier and Hartranft Hall had that nailed).  19 people had Gonzaga into Sweet 16.

Division Leaders

Celebrity – Mike Greenberg

Hoops – Will Morse

Kid (8^th grade & Younger) – Noah Crescenzi

Kid (High School) – Tom Bisko III

Non-Penn Staters – Corey Cain (Brown alum)

Penn State (non T&F) – Emily Oliver

Penn State Spouse – Missie Stewart

PSU T & F (Distance) – Ken Cooper

PSU T & F (Mid-Dist) – Crash

PSU T & F (Sprint) – Tom Bisko

PSU T & F (Field/Multi) – Darryl Jones

T & F Alum (non PSU) – Mark Rupe (Cincinnati)

Current Standings:

Current		Total
Place	Name	Points
1	Cooper, Ken	51
2	Bisko, Tom	49
3	Crescenzi, Noah	49
4	McCandless, Tyler	48
5	Novak, Jay	48
6	Oliver, Emily	48
7	Crash	47
8	Mangan, Larry	47
9	Scholarship, Harry Groves	47
10	Will, Sean	47
11	Sailer, Aaron	47
12	Kletter, Todd	47
13	Jones, Darryl-Jumper II	47
14	Greenberg, Mike	47
15	Verhoeven, Nick	46
16	Dadagian , Jen	46
17	Anderson, Mark	46
18	Hamer, Bob	46
19	Cain, Corey	46
20	Lilienthal, Michelle	45
21	Fraysier, Jason	45
22	Whittaker, Bill	45
23	McCarthy, Dennis	45
24	Konzal, Sean	45
25	Stewart, Missie	45