20060324

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

7:10 pm - #4 BC vs #1 Villanova

7:27 pm - #11 G Mason vs #7 Wichita St.

9:40 pm - #3 Florida vs #7 Georgetown

9:57 pm - #1 U Conn vs #5 Washington

Well, after last night I may as well surrender. Duke's stunning loss to the LSU Tigers effectively ruined my chances (for a 14th consecutive year might I add) of winning my own basketball pool. LSU, despite missing free throws like they were going out of style, somehow managed to eke out the win over an uncharacteristically sloppy Duke team, who I of course had going to the finals

And as if that wasn't a big enough death blow to my chances, they will now face the Texas Longhorns, who won a classic against West Virginia late last night. WVU's Kevin Pittsnogle nailed a 3 pointer to tie it up with 5 seconds to go. Texas then took the inbounds pass, raced down the court, and canned a 3 of their own at the buzzer for the win. And in an equally improbable finish, UCLA mounted a huge comeback against Gonzaga in the waning moments of their game last night that saw UCLA win it on a stolen inbounds pass with 10 seconds to play. If you didn't stay up to watch it, you're gonna regret it. That and the Texas wins were alltime classics. And even though they ended at about 12:30, it was well worth it just to see Adam Morrison start crying like a figure skater at the end!

Yeah, so basically you can stick a fork in me. I'm now surrendering like the French at the first sound of goosesteps. Did I mention it's been 14 years?

In related news, 9 year old Jack Dennehy is reexaming this whole picking-a-champion-based-upon-xbox strategy.

In the other game from last night, Memphis ended Bradley's Cinderella run in a 16 point blowout win. And while it may have been a bracket killing night for the Dennehy boys, the Dennehy girls certainly got a big boost. Lauren's got UCLA in the finals I think and the Mrs. has got Texas going the distance so she was obviously pumped over that game. Wonder if I can maybe invoke "Karma" and convince her to take me to Longhorn's this weekend?

A quick check of the standings reveals the following:

In any event, the pool must go on without me and so tonight's schedule of games is as follows:

Okay. Make this the second time I'll ever root for the Huskies. The Washington ones of course

George Mason won at Wichita St just last month. And now they're playing just 15 miles from home.

Reminder: for those who wish to pay via "paypal" please click the link below:

... and bringing up the rear:

Leader board

Entrant Pts

64
61
60
60
58
58
57
56
56
55

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Matt Stevens (3)
Chris Dennehy
Chris McGurrin (2)
Matt Stevens (1)
Lisa Allard
Tracy Robinson (3)
Tony King (1)
Ryan Morgan (1)
Jon Boise (2)
3 way tie

Loser board

Entrant Pts

38
38
38
37
36
35
35
34
32
30
25

151
151
151
154
155
156
156
158
159
160
161

Duane Pease (1)
Jon Harris (1)
Paul Garay
Andy Marquart
Suzie Gallagher
Krisha Cronin
Rachelle Weimer
Brian Klein
Bill Pilkington
Kramer Hendricks (1)
Angela Gilbert

RULES CLARIFICATION:
Some folks it seems never put down a total score for the championship game. Those individuals will automatically lose the tiebreaker should it come down to that.

Speaking of which, since yesterday I've received payment from the following:

Pat "Go Bradley!" Sinnard
Marty "Neville" Chamberlin
Andy "Griffith" Marquart
Rick "Sweet Lou" Pattavina
Deb "Losing to Dylan" McGuigan
Dylan "McDermott" McGuigan
Jim Reilly
Sean "Purple" Hayes
Mike "no nickname 4 U" Santoro
Sarah "CMI fan" Comerford

My brother. Our mother didn't raise no dummies! Er, unless you count me that is ...

To answer your question, yes, he did wear that in college

Later,

The Commish

PS - Does anyone actually read these things?

Muna? Is that you???

Pssst!
Hey Dan! Lookie here!

Fun while it lasted.

2002
Champ

Duane "World' Pease

My cousin

1999
Champ