20060316

SELECTION BREAKDOWN

The only time I
ever rooted for
the Huskies

Greetings fellow amateur bracketologists and welcome to our 14th annual "Great American March Madness NCAA Basketball Pool." This year, we have a standing room only crowd of 161 entrants, just shy of the record of 171 entrants set in 1999 (would have beaten it too, except Wayne & Janet Gretzky didn't get their picks in on time). With each entrant paying an inflation-proof $5 entry fee, the pot this year will tip the scales at a robust $805. Payouts are in the same format that we've used since the pool's inception (see box).

Narrative updates can be found throughout the tournament by clicking here. I typically try to have something new up every day or so when there are games on, so keep checking back. Also, feel free to poke around here and explore the history of our pool, including all the epic heartbreak of my futile, 14 year long, Quixotic-like pursuit of NCAA glory.

Duke over Pittsburgh
Villanova over UConn

Villanova over Duke

#12 Montana over Nevada
#11 San Diego St over Indiana
#11 Wisc-Milwaukee over Oklahoma
#10 NC State over California

UCLA over West Virginia
Boston College over N. Carolina

Boston College over UCLA

#15 Winthrop over Tennessee
#11 Wisc-Milwaukee over Oklahoma
#10 NC State over California
#10 Alabama over Marquette
#10 Northern Iowa over Georgetown

Final 4

Champ

Biggest
First
Round
Upsets?

Texas over UCLA
UConn over Florida

Texas over UConn

#13 Iona over LSU
#12 Kent St over Pittsburgh
#11 George Mason over Michigan St
#10 NC State over California

Duke over UCLA
Villanova over UConn

Duke over Villanova

#11 San Diego St over Indiana
#10 Seton Hall over Wichita St
#10 Alabama over Marquette

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

Reminder: tiebreakers for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will be the total score of the NCAA Championship game. The tiebreaker for "Best First Round Score" will be whoever called the biggest upset of the first round.

There was quite the range of selections by this year's group. The UConn Huskies proved to be the most popular pick, no doubt due to the number of biased, homer, Connecticut residents who take part in the pool. Second was the Evil Empire (aka Duke) followed by Villanova and Boston College, who as a #4 seed,were picked on more sheets than their regions #2 and #3 seeds combined

loss to Syracuse in the Big East tournament.. Now as veterans of this pool know, I'd rather be stuck in an elevator overnight with Hillary Clinton than pick UConn to win anything. Matter of fact, I think in the last 15 years the only time I actually rooted for the Huskies was when I took Jack to see that new Disney movie about the sled dogs. Whatever. In any event, as we went "to press" (i.e. - The Mrs could have made some 11th hour changes to her picks that I'm unaware of), the following were the selections this year for "Team Dennehy":

PAYOUTS

1st Place:
$465.00
(60%)

2nd Place:
$232.50
(30%)

3rd Place:
$77.50
(10%)

Best First Round Score
$25

Last Place
aka
"The Nancy Burns Award"
$5 refund

Even though you can access everyone's picks online over at CBS Sportsline, Sarbanes-Oxley requirements mandate that Pool Management (ie: me, your humble, beloved Commissioner) publicly post the selections of all members of my household. Federal regulations aside, we also don't want a repeat of "The Chuck Miller Scandal of 1996" (as it came to be known as).

As for my picks, my gut tells me that the Connecticut Huskies are still going to win it all this year despite their stunning

70 Connecticut
29 Duke
17 Villanova
13 Boston College
5 Memphis
5 North Carolina
5 Texas
4 Gonzaga
4 Ohio St.
2 Illinois (Sandy Thomas, Muna Hendricks)
2 Syracuse (Dave Bach of course, Bill Pilkington)
2 UCLA (Tracy "Mrs" Robinson, Peter Kobin)
1 Florida (Wade "Mark" Napier)
1 Kansas (Loren Spears)
1 Kentucky (Angela Gilbert)

The Commish

Lauren Dennehy

Mrs Commish

Jack Dennehy

Final 4

Champ

Biggest
First
Round
Upsets?

the single biggest tournament underachiever over the last 5 years or so. Even though their regional is close by in Oakland, getting pushed to the wall recently by the likes of Loyola, San Diego, and the University of San Francisco didn't exactly win them a whole bunch of respect points with me. Memphis? Too many underclassmen. And besides, they won a Conference USA that was missing Cincinnati, Louisville, and Marquette. Ohio State? Sorry, but my Fiesta Bowl wounds have not yet healed. UCLA? Shirley you jest! Texas? A couple of spots down and their seeding would have matched Vince Young's wonderlic score! Tennessee? Ha! I laugh in your general direction! Boston College? Dave "The Canton Crusher" Dawson would never let me hear the end of it.

So in my mind that pretty much leaves the Villanova Wildcats out of all of the viable contenders. The conventional wisdom goes that to win this thing, you need strong play at the guard position, so God knows they've got that covered. Heck, they start 4 guards and a center for cryin' out loud! And hey, as everyone will recall, the Wildcats got absolutely robbed last year out of a win over eventual champion UNC in the sweet 16, so I'm hoping Karma comes to the rescue here and makes things right. Well, then again, we all know how well Karma's treated me in this pool in the past.

My thinking is this: I can't root for UConn for, well, obvious reasons (ie: I hate 'em), so let's not even go there. Duke? Oh, how cliche of you! Besides, they spooked me a bit down the end tanking against Florida State and UNC. Gonzaga? Puh-leeze! They have easily been

TO DREAM THE
IMPOSSIBLE DREAM ...

Could 2006 finally be the Commish's year?

As for their opponents? Okay, I copped out and went with Duke. Sue me. I would much rather have preferred putting Boston College in that spot to be honest, but the brackets didn't shake out that way. Instead, Boston College (who looked absolutely great in the ACC tournament) and Villanova will just have to meet up in the Sweet 16 instead of the finals I guess. But hey, what the hell do I know? If I knew anything about this stuff I wouldn't be $65 in the hole over the course of the last 13 years in this pool.

In terms of first round upsets, I tried to pick games where the favorites rely a lot on freshmen and sophomores and the underdogs are loaded with upper classmen, thinking the difference in experience levels might offset any disparity in skill. I actually looked long and hard at having #3 Florida getting knocked off by #14 South Alabama for that very reason (plus the fact that the Gators have choked the last several years), but just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger, especially since I've got Wisconsin-Milwaukee knocking off Oklahoma in the same part of the bracket as them and didn't want to have them go 2 rounds on a whim . So yeah, basically I chickened out. I also chose Montana over Nevada just because they're a #12 seed and, well, you know ... a #12 wins every year ... yada, yada, yada.

I also went against my better judgment and had Gonzaga going to the Elite Eight. Yes, the same Gonzaga I just trashed as being perennial underachievers. Hey, let's face it ... that Oakland bracket in my opinion is weak as hell, as evidenced by the fact that I've got a #5 seed (Pittsburgh) advancing out of it. And #2 UCLA, like #1 Memphis, starts waaaaaaaaaay too many underclassmen to suit me.

As for the rest of my "squad," appears daughter Lauren disagrees with the selection committee's #2 ranking for the Tennessee Volunteers as she has them bowing out to upstart Winthrop. I kinda like that pick. The Vols have totally hit the skids of late and should have been a #4 seed. Her brother Jack played it a little closer to the vest, only advancing one #11 and two #10's. Mrs Commish initially had the favorites dropping faster than guys in orange vests on a Dick Cheney hunting trip, but in the end she went with a conservative "4."

Oh! Before I forget ... if you are new to CBS Sportsline you will probably want to change your settings under your profile over there or you may start receiving emails with each and every posting to the group message board. To do this, you go to "Options", "Alerts" and then make sure the box next to "Forward messages posted to the Group Message Board to my INBOX" is unchecked. Let me know if you run into trouble. (Note to Corinne Watterworth: Please do not attempt this at home without an adult being present)

Well, that's a wrap for today. Check back tomorrow for the next update, which by the way is St Patrick's Day. And yes, I have confirmed that it is indeed settled tradition that all Irish basketball pool commissioners are to receive free beer from their pool participants on that day. I was very disappointed at the lack of respect shown this time honored tradition by last year's pool entrants. Let's not let it happen again this year folks, okay? Neighbors can leave their offering on my front steps, co workers on the table in my office. As for everyone else ... just send me the money instead. I'll buy my own beer.

Best regards,

Don Quixote

You can take the girl out of Massachusetts, but you can't take the Massachusetts out of the girl

Quote: "I think it's the Longhorn's year." Matt Leinert would probably agree with her.

Steered Duke to back-to-back titles on X-Box.

Says it's a sign.

PS - We can cancel the APB on mystery entrant "Jeff Gentil". Allyson Bernert claims to be engaged to him. My apologies to Jeff by the way, who I mistakenly identified initially as "Jim Gentil." But thanks to entrant Buzz Imhoff "to see the Wizard" for putting forth the theory that our mystery applicant was actually ... this guy.