Week 1 Wrap Up

CHECK SCORES HERE

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

What a weekend. Pure chaos, which is the best kind chaos. It's probably the only kind of chaos. I guess there's contained chaos, which is basically parenting toddlers. But I digress.

43 points separate 1st (503) to 10th (460). But there's enough variation out there where there's still quite a few who can win.

Let's break it down:

1st - Brian Clark, 503 points - Brian has a slim lead, but only 2 players left from #1 Nova and #11 Loyola.

2nd - Shane Setnor, 495 points - The pools handsomest entrant has 5 players left from #1 Nova, #2 Duke, #4 Gonzaga, #5 Kentucky, and #11 Syracuse.

3rd (Tie) - Bryan Hart Man, 490 points - The newcomer to the pool has 6 players  #1 Nova, #2 Duke, #4 Gonzaga, #5 WVU, #9 FSU, and #11 Loyola. Formidable.

3rd (Tie) - Rick Hoogstraten, 490 points - I only assume if Rick played basketball, the crowd chanted Hooooooooog and it kinded sounded like booing every time he did something good on the court. He has 5 players left with #2 Duke, #3 Gonzaga, #5 WVU, #9 FSU, and #11 Syracuse.

5th - Scott Peterson, 489 points - His is a little more varied than the other entries who went with similar teams. For example, he picked the better Gonzaga player. #1 Nova, #2 Duke, #4 Gonzaga, #5 Kentucky, #7 Nevada

6th - Jeff Crose, 479 points - A little drop off here, he has 3 players remaining: #1 Nova, #2 Duke, and #7 Nevada.

7th - Chris Cischke, 468 points - Outside looking in with #2 Purdue, and #7 Nevada.

8th - Jori Maron, 467 points - Probably going down like Jory in Game of Thrones. But a nice run. #1 Nova, #7 Nevada

9th - Bryan Bosta is the Worst, 463 points - He got me into this pool, but I'm not sure why he chose such an entry name. Bryan, I think you're the est, buddy. Bryan has #1 Nova, #5 WVU, #7 Nevada, and #9 KSU's Dean Wade, who might actually play next week.

10th - Shane Setnor 2, 460 - If you think I included this just to see my name twice, you're absolutely correct. #1 Nova, #2 Duke, #11 Syracuse.

Day 2: They're Good Dogs, Brent

SCOREBOARD

We've made them our workers.

We've made them our security.

We've made them test countless chemical in the name of science.

And we have the gall to call them our best friends. The gall of thinking such a one-sided relationship could be called friendship

But last night, the dogs struck back. The Retrievers of UMBC, full of fury, teeth, and headbands crushed the Virginia Cavaliers by 20. How many of you were smart enough to pick a UMBC player? How many ignored conventional wisdom that UVA plays so slow that it would be unwise to select a player from their opponent?

The answer is one. Lisa Conroy proved for a night that she's simply smarter than the rest of us. Or she's a time-traveling wizard. Either way, congrats to Lisa, whose 306 points has her in 17th.

On the other side, 7 entries had Virginia players. 2 of them had Devon Hall, who normally averages 12 points a game. Well, he only scored one more bucket than I did last night. Amanda Beachum and Beelow probably didn't expect to only notch 2 points from their number 1 seed. Brutal.

JCrose is our leader as of now with 336 points. He had a great selection on Jon Elmore from Marshall. But only has 7 players going forward since he lost his 4, 7 and 8 seed.

With only 21 points separating 1st and 10th, it's still anybody's ball game.

NCAA Player Pool: Day 1

Isn't this the most wonderful time of the year? I know Andy Williams erroneously makes the claim that Christmas (Thank God we can call it Christmas again) time is the most wonderful time, but that song was written in the 60's. That was a time before the moral decay of society was so bad that public gambling became accepted and encouraged. Even emotionless corporations get in on the action now with company office pools. Even former President Obama had his brackets announced every year.

State sponsored gambling! (That sound you heard was all the Libertarians in this group angrily banging their fists on a copy of Atlas Shrugged.)

I don't appreciate that Libertarian joke.
But I do appreciate your Constitutional right to make it. 

If you want to check out live updates, I made a fancy Google Doc. I'll try to keep up with it throughout the day, but I'm solo-parenting a 3-year-old and an 11-month-old, so stick with me. Also pray for me. 

Out of the gate, your early top 5 are Tyler Harrison, Dylan Ninos, Hoosier9, and, perhaps the most handsome entrant of all, Shane Setnor with two entries. 

On the floor, the hero of day doesn't wear a cape or tights, but he does sport a man-bun. Houston's Rob Gray went ham yesterday, dropping 39 points on SDSU. While 18 of the 39 entries are feeling good about that selection, I assume all zero of us feel good about his hair. 

All the pieces matter. All the points matter.
Also, it's Freamon with an A. Come on, man.

Nipping on his heals is Allerik Freeman, who was kind enough to donate 36 points to the cause. 11 entries had Mr. Freeman, though his effort comes in a losing cause. This makes this the best Freeman performance since Clarke Peters in The Wire. Colin Sexton's 25 points is just behind Freeman and the 11 point difference could be made up tomorrow after Alabama's win over VT yesterday. 

On the opposite end, I got an angry email from Bryan Hart Man personally blaming me for making him select Killian Tillie and his 2 points. Joke is on me too, Bryan, because I and 6 other people also selected this dud. I suggest Mr. Tillie make it up to us tomorrow or else Hart Man might start sending him angry emails as well. 

Perhaps the biggest blow is Deandre Ayton bowing out of the tournament with 14 points. 19 entries had him and just lost their 4th seeded player. The 6 entries who selected CJ Massinburg (19 points) for their 13th seed are elated. 

NCAA Player Pick 'Em 2018: The Awakening

Welcome to NCAA Player Pick 'Em Pool.

This ancient game shrouded in mystery has been handed down for generations. Or maybe in one generation. It's like 10 years old max, tbh. And it's not shrouded in mystery either. It's actually pretty straight forward:

You select one player from each seed and their points become your points. Whichever team accumulates the most points at the end of the tournament wins. Tie-Breaker is whoever guesses closest to the championship game score.

You can enter here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaujb6EhqfhOAfEePuzGVmoF9r8zsSZ8DS6d1ZBpK2xak4lg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Each entry is $10. The pool will be split 70-20-10 with a minimum of 10 entries. Less than 10 entries and winner receives entire pool. Your moderator receives nothing in return because he is a hero. Since it is my first year doing this, I am going to cap this at 50 entries.

Money can be sent to my paypal: paypal.me/smsetnor. It must be sent tip-off on Thursday, March 15. Please leave a note that states which entry yours is. That's important.

For those about to rock: We salute you.

For those about to play: We implore you to read this paragraph. The play-in game stats do not count. If you need to change from a player that you selected from the play in list because that player lost, you must email me at smsetnor@gmail.com before noon on 3/16 with a replacement player. Don't FB message me, text me, or Myspace message me with the change. It has to go to my smsetnor@gmail.com email.

Once I have all the entries input into my Excel machine, I will send them out for everyone's review. You can even play along at home. The plan is to show updates via this blog.