20070405

Final Standings

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THE HALL OF SHAME

The Great American
March Madness
NCAA Basketball Pool

Robert Bousquet (2)
Suzie Gallagher
Ian McLean
Jim Manning
Oscar Allen
Kathy Mason
Dean Arvin
Earlen Ritter (1)
Earlen Ritter (2)
Tom Byron (2)
Nora Dennehy
Robert Bousquet (1)
Lisa Romie
Emily Chapple
Tom Jabs (1)
Doug Bruser
Matt Ponzi
Craig Antas
Antonio Malachi
Roslyn Faust

Chris Reilly
Craig Antas
Emily Chapple
John Page
Laura Reilly
Loren Spears
Loretta Pazdan
Michael Poliquin
Scott Hendricks
Sebastian

No soup for you!

Julie "Whatever!" Sheedy (Jon Harris' sister-in-law) nailed down last place with an impressive 37 points to claim the $5 last place refund. Also garnering a $5 refund is Kim "Tim Duncan's #1 fan" Gleason who sent in $10 for her entry fee. Or maybe $5 was a gratuity? As Julie would say though, "whatever." I'm sending it back.

Speaking of entry fees, I STILL am missing money from the following folks and am now forced to go out of pocket. You are all risking lifetime bans. To quote from that Sam Cooke song, "The best things in life are free" ... but this basketball pool ain't one of 'em..

Take heart Ohio State fans. At least this one was closer than the BCS Championship, right? And there is also no truth to the rumor that 'Saved by the Bell's' Mario Lopez, who finished second to all-time Florida Gator great Emmitt Smith in DWTS, is a Buckeye Alumni.

Well, there ya have it. Florida has done it again, emerging as NCAA Basketball Champions for the second consecutive season, a feat last accomplished by the now crumbling Evil Empire in the mid 1990's. Ohio State, aka 'Runner-up U', gave 'em a go, pulling within 6 points with about 5 minutes to go but just couldn't put together a nice enough little run to challenge the Gators. Part of the reason was the stone cold efficiency of Florida, no sooner would RUU hit a basket then the Gators would it bring it down the floor and answer right back.

After all was said and done, Bob Bousquet (2), an entry which we're told is actually Bob's daughter, was able to claim first place with a record 176 points. This eclipsed the previous record of 162 points set by Jim Barile in 2001. Matter of fact, this year's pool was so high scoring, we had 9 entries actually meet or exceed that total. Granted, you couldn't tell from my bracket that it was such a high scoring pool though.

We ended up with a tie for second place between my cousin Suzie "I spelled my own name wrong when signing up" Gallagher and Ian McLean, who each had 168 points. We then had to resort to the tiebreaker system to see who came closest to guessing the total points scored in the Championship, which was 159 (84 + 75 = 159, Tom). Cousin "Suzir," in a nice Nostradamus moment came within 1 point (160) of nailing it dead on, but it was close enough to claim second place for herself.

Here's a look at how the top 20 ended up shaking out:

A pox upon you all!

HAT TRICK!

Gators 84-75 win completes historic sweep of titles in
football, basketball, Dancing with the Stars!

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168
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152
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146
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143

"The Big O" walking the walk

Brother John finished 8th last year

2005 Champ hasn't paid his entry fee??

The Bracket Master!

Hartford's #1 morning drive time DJ can't afford to shell out $5?

May forfeit his 2005 championship

I'm on vacation the rest of this week, so if you sent your money to me at work, I won't be back there until Monday.

Thanks again for a great pool, everyone. As the wife of 4th place finisher Jim Manning would say, "It's been a hoot."

Until next year.

The Commish

(NOTE - As indicated in my last (quote) "load of dribble," I have been out of town all week, hence the tardiness of this update. My apologies)

PAYOUTS

1st place
$621
(60%)

2nd place
$310.50
(30%)

3rd place
$103.50
(10%)

Best 1st Rd
$25

Last place
$5 refund

Don't forget Father's Day, kid!

Come on, soldier!