CROSE GOES COAST TO COAST
I was trying to network some song puns, but they didn't quite work...
Don't Stand So Crose To Me feels kinds mean. After all, who doesn't want to hang with a champion?
This one nearly got the green light since we all... long to be a Crose to a champion.
If I were Crose celebrating my win, I could see myself singing Crose To You at the top of my lungs in a sweaty college dive bar with Stevie Ray.
But no, the right choice was always Step Back You're Dancing Too Crose. Just look at the lyrics. We're dancing like the Big Dance, we're excited and, ooh, how we like it. Actually, I've never looked at the rest of the lyrics. Wildly inappropriate for a family website like this. I can't believe they let us play this at high school dances.
The point is that JDCrose is our champion with 641 points. And it wasn't even Crose. (Sorry, I can't stop.) So how did Crose do it? In tournament full upsets, Crose nailed quite a few of the first round upsets when he hit on his 10, 13, and 16 seed picks. For his 16 pick, only 7 other entries had Demetre Roberts of FDU. 9 other entries had #13 Mike Bothwell from Furman. 15 other entries also had #10 Jalen Pickett and his 30 points with Penn State. Those aren't terribly exclusive picks, but hitting all three gave Crose 46 extra points in the second round. Helpful, but hardly exclusive.
Crose did it the old-fashioned way: Just picking the dudes who scored the most points: #2 Jaime Jacquez Jr. (8 points higher than the next highest selection), #3 Drew Timme (33 points higher), #4 Adama Sanogo (20 points higher), #10 Jalen Pickett (13 points higher), #11 Terquavion Smith (5 points higher), #16 Roberts (12 points higher). Plus #1 Jalen Wilson was only one point off of leader Marcus Sasser as was #13 Bothwell.
In second place was Colon with 630 points. There's an old Irish saying "Desperation is a stinky cologne." But Colon's pick's were anything but desperate. Colon hit on point leaders #3 Timme, #4 Sanogo, and #7 Tyson Walker (2 points higher than any other 7 seeds). But their biggest hit was on #6 Ryan Kalkbrenner, who was 30 points higher than the second choice. Timme may have had a bigger differential, but almost the whole pool was in on Timme.
In third place was DylanNinos with 610 points. Despite hitting on Timme, Sanogo, Jacquez, Kalkbrenner, Walker, and Pickett, DylanNinos was let down by #1 Brandon Miller, #15 Tucker Richardson, and #4 Kyle Flipkowski.
Outside of those mentioned, 4 entries out there had #9 Johnell Davis and his 75 points, which was 42 points higher than the second best #9 seed. I'm declaring Mr. Davis the NPPEP MVP, even if he didn't drag anyone to a championship.
The biggest differential selection was #15 Tosan Evbuomwan of Princeton, who outscored the the next guy by 45 points. Kudos to the 3 people who nabbed Evbuomwan.
Who killed you guys? How about Zach Edey and his paltry 14 points from a #1 seed. 21 of us went down with that pick. A big ouch to the 1 person who picked #3 Keyonte George of Baylor. Missing out on 81 points is going to kill any entry. Unfortunately for 3 entries, they relied on UVA players for their #4 pick. Those two dudes each scored 100 points less than Sanogo. #9 Erik Stevenson let down 7 entries with his 9 points, which was 66 points off of Davis.
Winnings: 42 entries (with one being a courtesy entry for the excel architect) equals a pot of $410. Both Crose entries hit the first and second round point leaders, so we're divvying up $390.
JDCrose2: $273.00
Colon: $78.00
Dylan Ninos: $39.00
Thanks again to everyone for participating. This is a labor of love and I enjoy writing these things up when the real world gives me time. I appreciate all of the kind words and I look forward to next year! May you go through the next year with the confidence and dominance of Caitlin Clark.
