April 8, 2003

Final results are posted.

Seven folks picked Syracuse to win it all. Normally these folks would be battling for all the money. In a year where only one top seed made it to the final four (go Horns!), it meant that picking the mid-round upsets was critical to a good score. That’s how Bryan Denney could pick UT to win it all and still win the big money. He correctly picked three of the final four (How did Marquette beat Kentucky anyway? Eight entries did pick Marquette to make the final four; none finished in the money) and got one of the finalists. His 76% pick percentage was good enough to overcome scoring no points in the finals.

The top entry with a Syracuse pick was from Brent Anderson who could do no better than fifth place. The rest of the Syracuse fans finished out of the money.

The biggest Kansas fan was Michele Spinn who would have won it all if Kansas would have won. She had to settle for second place. Geoff Niemann and Allie Gair rounded out the money spots at third and fourth, respectively.

This is the second year in a row that the top entry did not correctly pick the winner of the tournament.

No one picked Syracuse to win in the second chance pool but Tom Veitch did pick them to get to the finals. Again, it was the early round success that determined the final outcome. The top three finishers all picked Kentucky to win it all but scored enough to beat everyone else – even the many Kansas entries. Second and third went to Bruce Harris and Dominic Savarino, respectively.

The women’s tournament was a different story with favorite Connecticut winning it all. The top six finishers and twelve of the top fourteen all had Connecticut winning the tournament. David King, with an impressive 87% winning percentage blew away the field beating second and third place Matt Preece and David Walters by nine points.

Granger Huntress won the hotly contested NIT contest with a 29 to 23 score over yours truly. His pick percentage was 38% to my 33%. The NIT is hard to predict.

As previously announced, Dennis Vaughn took 443rd place in the men’s tournament with 34 total points and a 41% pick percentage. Last place in the second chance pool went to HO Combo which include NIT champion Granger Huntress with 3 points and a 20% pick percentage – truly awful. The women’s contest was again a tough one. Chip took last place but scored 68 points and had a 60% pick percentage.

Yours truly? Big 12 – second to last (12th); women’s – 21st; men’s – 313th; second chance – didn’t even try. I did get second place in the NIT (unfortunately there was only two entries). No one can accuse me of cheating.

Thanks everyone for participating. Hope to have you back next year.