NCAA Contest Update #4
The field has been whittled down from 64 to 16. Congratulations to all those teams who have advan….. you know what screw it. I’m not being PC, I wish all teams had lost so that everyone would feel like me as a Maryland fan! But I guess that is why God invented gambling, to MAKE you have to care about something. So since I care about keeping a hold of the ITunes gift card, I will use that for my motivation.
So here are the latest standings, the parenthesis are for how many Final Four teams each person has left:
Kristin* 45 (3)
Lee* 43 (3)
Bob Wev* 41 (3)
Alex 37 (4)
Chris 37 (4)
Bob Wim 37 (3)
Jodi 35 (2)
J 34 (3)
Trish 33 (1)
John U 32 (3)
John F* 31 (4)
Laura 23 (1)
*=Eligible for $5 bonus
The Ritz Carlton
Kristin is looking to go wire to wire and may just indeed pull it off. Take away the Missouri loss and her bracket only has 13 “Xs” on it. The Missouri pick does leave the door open for all of us chasing her, but if Michigan State losses, that door could just as quickly shut. All in all, still looking good.
Lee rises up into second place. Her Duke pick could be her undoing, but otherwise everything looks pretty good. Got a lift with the Cincinnati win over a much liked FSU team (based on everyone elses bracket).
Next up is me, I am pretty happy with my picks so far. While everyone at work jokes about how bad their bracket looks, I just quietly stroke my beard and nod my head, all the while thinking “Sucks to be you”. Unfortunately the time when I’m most confident is when the gambling gods decide to conspire against me, so don’t be surprised if this is my high water mark. As of now, Missouri in the Final Four is the only pick hurting me.
Alex is fourth, but don’t let that fool you, he may have the best shot at winning this whole thing (and Chris too). He has all of his Elite 8 left, which of course means he also has all of his Final Four left. A ton of points remain to be had, but in order for him to win it all, Syracuse is going to have to get pretty deep. Alex has to like his chances better after SU’s second game, than after their first.
Chris like Alex is looking great. Sure he started out slow, but as long as you don’t kill yourself in those early rounds, you are never really out of it. Chris proves that by bringing himself back into contention. All Elite 8 teams are left making this bracket a dangerous one. Unlike Alex though, Chris has hitched his wagon to Kentucky. Can’t find much fault in that pick after two rounds.
Bob Wim still has an outside chance. Like Alex he is banking on a deep run by Syracuse. Bob Wim can also take pride in knowing that he had Ohio as a Sweet 16 team. I doubt many outside of the Buckeye state can make that claim.
Knights Inn
Hard to believe that we have already dissolved into two groups, but here we are. Jodi is in some serious trouble. I can’t help but think where she would be if she hadn’t put Temple as her National Championship, because overall she still has a decent amount of points. But if the Temple blow wasn’t enough, having UNLV come out of the South is the final nail in the coffin. I don’t see enough zaniness picks for her to be able to re-pass those above her, so this could be all she wrote.
J could still make a climb, but the climb may not be big enough. Oh wait, I didn’t cross off all the FSU’s he had picked. J is now without both his final teams. Well the good news is that you didn’t have to pay to get into the pool, so you can take some comfort in that.
Trish only has Kentucky remaining on the left side of her sheet. And she only has NC State on the right. I think we can all do the math for this one. Oh wait, I take it back, she also has Cincinnati winning once more, so she has 3 teams left.
John U has enough long shots in the game that he may not quite be dead, but at first glance things look pretty grim. If Ohio State can keep moving on, maybe so too can John. If OSU does go down, then I think it is academic, as his remaining picks are pretty popular with the group of people he is trying to catch.
John F can still get a prefect Final Four, so there is that hope, but will it happen and will it happen in a way that allows him to gain on the leaders. That is yet to be seen.
Oh Laura, this very well could be the worst bracket in the history of pools. There were 48 games played and you were right on 20 of them. That is 41% success rate. If this was just straight up evenly matched teams that would have been hard to do, yet alone when you take seeding into account. To pile on more, Laura now has as many points as Kristin had after Friday.
So that is where we sit while we wait for Thursday’s action to pick up. Good luck to those of you who still have a chance in this thing.
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