20050319

"He is a loathsome, offensive brute, yet I can't look away"

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

Thanks to everyone who has already gotten their money in to me. Everyone else � please get it in as soon as you can. I've added a link here and on the home page to show who still needs to pay. Now, we do understand that times are tough for some folks and so we do offer a variety of special low interest, short term loans to participants whose households submit 5 sheets or more, which I believe is just the Dennehys and the Hendricks (aka "The Noobs"), so heads up on that, Scott. Props to the McGurrin boys and the Perainos by the way on their 4 sheet efforts.

For those who work downtown here in Cincinnati and wish to hand deliver their funds, I work in DTS-3 on the southeast part of the floor. Ya can't miss me. I'm the guy with the really classy artwork on the wall.

And hey, speaking of The Noobs and "The Kramer," for those who didn't see it yesterday, Noob family matriarch Muna Hendricks was casting dispersions on the message board against all those individuals who played two sheets in the pool. I believe the term she used to describe them was "losers." In any event, pool officials at this

Hey, big shout out to my guy Bill Corcoran back in the Windsor, CT office who has been instrumental as the pool's east coast director of account receivables. I have to admire his guts too in going with Louisville to win it all. Not that it's a bad choice (it's not - despite getting pushed to the wall last night by La.-Lafayette), but I would have freaked once I saw that Sebastian picked them as well. Now Sebastian may do alright in the world of sports handicapping, but when it comes to this pool, he's worse than me. And believe you me, that's saying a lot. (PS to Sebastian - Bill wants you to know he is a big longtime fan of yours by the way)

The round of 16 starts today, and this evening of course is Cincinnati vs Kentucky. A big deal in these parts to say the least. Now let's

Okay. Five extra points in the standings to ANYONE who can help me understand those bizarre new Burger King commercials. You know, those really screwy ones with that Hootie and the Blowfish guy
and he's all dressed like some kind of rhinestone cowboy, and � well, I can't even begin to explain the rest of it. If you haven't seen 'em, be thankful.

I give up. What the hell is the deal here?

keep it civilized though okay? And by that I mean no Kentucky jokes on THE MESSAGE BOARD! And I absolutely mean it � no Kentucky jokes on THE MESSAGE BOARD! Particularly ones like "Who is the richest person in Kentucky?" and stuff like that. I'd sure hate to see a bunch of Kentucky jokes end up on THE MESSAGE BOARD. Yep, that'd be just awful. (braces self for potential onslaught)

Knock, knock ...
Who's there?
Orange!
Orange who?
Orange you glad you didn't pick Kansas!
(And Orange you glad you didn't pick the Orangemen too for that matter?)

Whoa.

Just when I was beginning to think that it had been a rather lackluster first round with only #12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee able to pull off any sort of an upset (an upset that I called by the way - forgot to mention that yesterday I think) .... suddenly last night we get hit with the proverbial 1-2 punch as both #3 Kansas and #4 Syracuse get knocked out in the first round..

In the game of the night, the #14 Bucknell Bison, who had NEVER won an NCAA tournament game before, engineered one of the most stunning victories in recent memory knocking off the heavily favored Jayhawks 64-63, in what was no doubt the worst defeat in KU history. And what a finish! Bucknell scores in the waning moments to grab the lead and then with time expiring, Kansas' All-American forward Wayne Simien grabs a court-length pass and puts up a 15-footer that bounces off the rim as the buzzer sounded. It looked just like Christian Laettner's famous shot against Kentucky in the 1992 Eastern Regional ... except for that whole bouncing off the rim thing. It doesn't get any better than that.

Unless you're Dave Allard, that is.

The Jayhawks ... heading home earlier than expected

Ya see, Dave is alumni of the University of Vermont who pulled off the biggest victory in school history by defeating the Syracuse Orangemen 60-57 in overtime last evening. So, I'm sure Allard was going nuts when that happened. Poor guy. He deserves a break in this pool. Ya see, for several years now he's been having to live with the knowledge that his wife, the basketball savvy Lisa, is a former champion of our pool, having won in 1999 (check out the pool history page for more info). You know how it is guys, right? We've all been there right? The wife doesn't come right out and rub your nose in it, but it's always hovering there in the background ... she won and you didn't. Yeah I thought so. Well, all that ends for Dave. He ended up being one of 5 individuals to tie for best 1st round score. The top 10 were as follows:

27

26

25

Pts Participant

Brian "Asterisk" Farrelly
David "How bout them Catamounts!" Allard
Matt "Chip off the ol block" Reitzel
Rosie "Could teach dad a thing or 2" Peraino
Tony "BB" King (1)
Brian "Kevin" Klein
Chris "2002 champ" McGurrin (1)
Dave "Copied off of Matt?" Reitzel
Phil "the heckler" Ecklor
Thomas "rookie luck" Wegman
Tie between 31 people

Including Lauren
"L Dog" Dennehy

You can all see where this is heading, right? We've got a tie for best 1st round score so we go to see who called the biggest upset. The biggest upset was of course Bucknell over Kansas, but nobody in their right mind would have picked that (Dennis Fardy of course had it though). The next biggest upset was ... you guessed it ... Vermont. And only Dave had 'em of those five folks, so Dave is the winner of the $25 prize for best 1st round score. At least now you have something to fire back at Lisa with.

Well, condolences to my brother-in-law Don who was one of 3 folks with Kansas. Stephanie Carpenter and that no good, double sheeter Tom Byron (2) were the other folks who will be hopping in the back of that pickup truck with the Jayhawks and heading for home. Joining them is long time pool participant Dave Bach "man Turner Overdrive" who apparently was blinded by his loyalty to his beloved Orangemen and is now making an early exit. At least Dave can blame it on being a Syracuse fan. Not sure what my excuse was as I had Syracuse in the Final Four. You can probably stick a fork in me too. Okay ... take out the "probably" part.

hour will not officially comment, but sources close to the Commissioner's office have confirmed that an investigation is underway in which Ms. Hendrick's name has surfaced as part of a growing scandal involving the playing of a second sheet in this years pool under the name of a fictional participant by the name of "Kramer Hendricks." This story is developing and we will be reporting further on it in the coming days.

Later,

The Commish

PS - The "Tooth Fairy" by the way is the richest person in Kentucky

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