Monday, March 21, 2016

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 (8th 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

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