2011 March Madness Notes

4/11/11

All the tournaments are completed so I can finally send out a final wrap up.

Men’s

You definitely needed to pick the winner this year as the top 6 places all picked Connecticut. 13 of the top 20 all picked Connecticut which means 5 picked Connecticut to win it all but faired so poorly in the early rounds they couldn’t make the top 20.  Tom Engwall was the big winner with 74 total points to win by two points over Javi Sanchez and Mac Nabours. Tom’s 74 points was the lowest ever by a winner beating the record set last year by five points. Tom is a past winner with a first place showing in the second chance pool in 2009. Javi rebounded from a last place showing in this year’s Big 12 tournament to take second place. In last place was Scott Finger who also was last place in the Big 12 in 2009 (still holds the record for lowest points and %).

Men’s Seed

The free pool required folks to enter their picks separately and that threw some people off. It didn’t stop Lou Mays who ran away with the pool who won by 11 points over, who else but, Tom Engwall. Bill Bala Jr. took third place. Lou also took 6^th and 7^th place in the regular men’s pool.

Second Chance

The second chance pool also set a record for lowest points by a winner. FelixS won with 15 points. Last place was a tie between Kevin Frizzell and David Webb who scored a total of 1 point. That’s hard to do.

Women’s

Cory Foster took first place in a tournament where no one picked any of the teams in the finals. Cory won by two points over Jimmy Toy. Hal Cromwell took last place for the second year in a row (but won the NIT).

Hockey

Liz Hartman won the hockey bracket with the lowest all time winning score (a recurring theme). The 13 points was one better than Mike Reardon and Blake Woodson. Americo Leva came in last place with a record setting low % (20%) and a tie for low points (4).

4/2/11

Championship notes. 

Men's Pool - 49 entries picked Connecticut to make the finals. Nobody picked Butler. 18 entries picked Connecticut to win it all. 16 entries can still place in the top 10. First place will be either Lou Mays (if Butler) or Tom Engwall (if Connecticut).

2nd Chance - 9 entries picked Connecticut to make it to the finals and 2 picked Butler. 4 entries had Connecticut winning it all and no one selected Butler. Winner will be determined on who wins the game as two entries are currently tied for first but a Connecticut win will mean they both get passed by two other contestants.

Seed Pool - Top two spots are already determined as Lou Mays will be the winner regardless of the outcome (he picked Kansas to win it all) and Tom Engwall will take second. Tiebreaker will determine third.

3/31/11

NIT

No one picked Wichita State to win it all so there wasn’t any change in the standings other than the tiebreaker. A number of folks had Alabama and their loss cost them a chance to finish in the money. Hal Cromwell took first place by one point with 30 points and a 65% pick percentage. Herbert Warden Sr. won the tiebreaker to come in second while Mike Manos came in third. There were six contestants tied with 29 points.

Hal placed in two different brackets in 2008 and took last place in last year’s women’s bracket.

On the bottom of the standings, Jack Daniel took last place with a record showing. Jack’s 7 points and 19% pick percentage were both all-time lows for the NIT tournament.

3/27/11

Final four update.

Number of entries

Number of Entries That Picked the Big Upsets of the Third Round

Number of Entries That Picked the Big Upsets of the Fourth Round

Number of Entries That Picked the Big Upsets of the Women's Tournament

Number of Entries That Picked the Big Upsets of the Hockey Tournament

3/22/11

Another update.

Current Leaders

Number of entries

Number of Entries That Picked the Big Upsets of the Second Round

Who Was Picked to Win It All

Men

Women

NIT

My Current Standing

3/19/11

Time for an update on how things are going so far. 

Current Leaders

Number of entries

Number of Entries That Picked the Big Upsets of the First Round

Who Was Picked to Win It All

NIT

Men's

My Current Standing

3/13/11

We have our first winner for 2011 March Madness. Bill Wendt scored 21 points (tied for second all time) to win the Big 12 bracket by one point. Bill also came in second in the Big 12 bracket back in 2005. Two players scored 20 points with Jennifer Holland winning the tiebreaker for second place over Ricardo Villarreal. Jennifer also made the standings in 2005 as the low scorer of that year's NIT bracket. At the bottom of the standings, Javi Sanchez scored the second lowest total of all time (2 points) to take last place by four points.

3/6/11

Here are the payouts.

Each entry is $10.