20060318

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

Now there's one situation in particular that I think really needs to be exposed to the light of day. Those who participated last year will no doubt recall the mysterious Hendricks family (yes, of "noob" fame). Well, they are once again back in force this year with 4 total submissions. Dad, Scott, of course has one of them, but the other 3 for some reason are all registered under the name of "Kramer Hendricks." This struck me as odd in light of this controversial posting from clan matriarch, Muna Hendricks, on the message board last year:

Muna is now attempting to claim that the entry for Kramer (1) is actually hers, Kramer (2) is Sam "Jimmy" Hendricks, and Kramer (3) is actually Kramer himself (aka "The noob"). Not sure I'm buying it just yet. Oh Muna .... you got some 'splainin' to do!

Speaking of Kramers, if you still owe me money, please get it in. Coworkers can deliver it to me on DTS-3. I'm located in the southwest portion of the floor. Thankfully, Corinne doesn't work out here. I can just imagine her trying to figure out which direction southwest is. For those seeking a landmark, I've got the lovely portrait to the right hanging on my wall.

And one last note, today is the annual Holyoke, MA St. Patrick's Day Road Race which for years my friends and I had gone to in order to drink beer and heckle runners. Well, my days of runner-heckling of course ended with my move to Ohio in 2004, but the leader of our annual Band of Brothers, John "Screamer" Martin, is currently battling a case of the flu and is listed as "questionable" on the official injury list for today. Please send all your thoughts and prayers out to Screamer for a speedy recovery so that he may engage in a full-blown weekend of Hooligan like behavior.

It occurred to me after yesterday's update that I really need to clear up who some of the entrants in our pool are this year with all these folks running around with multiple entries under their names. First off, Tracy "Brooks" Robinson does NOT need "an intervention" for her gambling problem. The 6 sheets under her name are for various family/friends. Or so she says. Regardless her account has been upgraded to VIP Gold Pass status. "Glenn B (2)" is actually longtime pool participant Kevin Garvin, who was traveling on business when entries were due, so other longtime pool participant Glenn B (aka "The Consultant") did him a solid and entered his picks for him under his own alter ego. Pam Kobin (2) is actually her son, Peter. One of the Sandy Thomas entries is actually her son as well, but my mind is drawing a blank on which as my 3 year old, Matt, woke up last night at 3:30 am, insisting the sun was up and that it was "go time." Neither he nor I have been back to sleep since. Yes, it's going to be a long day.

Leader board

Entrant Pts

26
26
26
25
25
25
25
25
24

Matt Stevens (3)
Lisa Allard
Matt Stevens (1)
Sebastian
Allyson Bernert
Frank McGurrin (1)
Chuck Miller
Laura Reilly
20 tied with

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Well, day 2 does not disappoint. We had it all ... Iowa going down to Northwestern State on a last second desperation three, Loren "no relation to Britney" Spears alma mater, Kansas, getting "disrespected" by Pat Sinnard's Bradley Braves, UConn almost bumbling their way into being on the receiving end of the greatest upset in NCAA history, and seemingly almost every game going down to the wire. So far this tournament has all the making of an all-time classic.

When all was said and done we ended up with a 3 way tie for first place after the first round, and so to determine the winner of the $25 prize for best first round score we had to go to the tiebreaker (ie: whoever called the biggest upset). Our 3 tied entrants were former champ Lisa Allard, Matt Stevens (1), and the improbably named Matt Stevens (3). Matt Stevens (1)'s biggest upsets were #11 Wisconsin-Milwaukee over Oklahoma and #10 Alabama over Marquette. Lisa Allard and Matt Stevens (3) each had one of the two #12 seed victories, Matt with Montana over Nevada, and Lisa with Texas A&M over Syracuse. This thus eliminated Matt Stevens (1)'s entry. Raise your hand if you're as confused as I am at this point. Matt's next biggest upset was #11 Wisconsin-Milwaukee, while Lisa had to settle for wins from two #10's Alabama and NC State, giving Matt Stevens (1) the victory. Team Allard's hopes of having back-to-back husband/wife first round titles came up oh so short.

A look at the standings indicates some familiar names near the top of the leaderboard including 2 past champions (Lisa Allard along with Chuck Miller), and the dad of a former champ (Frank "Mac Daddy" McGurrin):

including my wife's uncle Glenn

Loser board

Entrant Pts

19
19
19
19
17
17
17
16

Antonio Malachi
Duane Pease (2)
Pam Albers
Pam Kobin (1)
Angela Gilbert
Ryan Morgan (2)
Mary Hamilton
Sarah Comerford

154
154
154
154
158
158
158
161

A peak at the other end of the spectrum reveals the following:

Nice work there, "Bracket Master"

Refund?

Fiancee no longer on the side of NCAA milk carton

Three things you can count on:
- Death
- Taxes
- Kansas heading home early

I'll stop now. My eyes are shutting and I just did a "head bob" here at the computer. If you missed an update, you can find it ... here.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz .......

(Note to Bill Corcoran: THAT'S why we don't delete the old messages!)