URGENT!! Get your entries in for this years FREE (as always) HOPSKI 2ND CHANCE DANCE SWEET 16 POOL!!

It has been a minute since you heard from the Commish and indeed a pre-Sweet 16 update will be coming Thursday before tip-off.  Atleast I will do my best as

For one thing, there's the jet lag......

So what can I say, 

BUT IT IS TIME for YOUR 2nd chance at Hopski glory - so get your entries in for the Hopski 2nd Chance Dance Pool by Thursday 7pm EST!!

CLICK HERE to complete your 2026 Hopski 2nd Chance Dance Sweet 16 Brackets or just go login at RYP and click on "2026 Hopski 2nd Chance Dance (Sweet 16 Pool)", then "make your picks"!

Same scoring as the main tournament, with upset points available for brave picks!

Entry is included with your $30 (that you have already paid - right?!)  Payment required BEFORE Sweet 16 starts or no 2nd Chance Dance entry BTW) and you can win 5% of the prize pool with a 1st Place Finish!!

You are limited to 1 entry for each paid entry in this year's Hopski Main Pool.

Pick well!  Good luck! Oh - and......

The Commish

A bit of a throwback to the old "HOPSKI LIVE BLOG" days of watching a game....

Once I got the AI stuff sorted out, I had a LOT of fun watching the Iowa / Florida game and then figured I would jot down some notes while watching.  It is not as fun of a read as the old 3am LIVE MARCH MADNESS BLOGS from Warsaw, but figured why not share instead of wasting it.....

Notes started at the 10:45 or so mark of 2nd half - with Iowa just moving to take a 55-45 lead with some beautiful basketball!!!  I was a huge McCollum fan before this game and now - well......

Oh man just feeling for Iowa as they have played a great game but w 10 mins left some bad breaks (missed layup, dribbled off foot on a breakaway 49 secs later) and now they are facing a real gut check moment w game tied and FL having ball and all momentum w 7 min to go.  Iowa had a few possessions where they did not attack until midway thru shot clock too and came up empty with forced shots at end of shot clock.  Oh man cmon Hawks

Just game up a dunk and now down 2.  FL crowd going nuts and Koch gets a wide open corner three AND….. nails it!!!   That shot may have saved Iowa!!

Arghhh.  fl comes right back with a 3 and we hav another hit check moment for Iowa!!!!!!

Oh man.  A missed 3 and FL can stretch the lead.    Oh nooooo Gators another bucket and Iowa down 4 with 5:39 to go. 

Koch just buries a late shot clock 3 right over short FL defender and BOOM!!!!!!!!!   Iowa up 1 w 4 to go!!

What a great game!!!

Oh man. BOTH teams trade missed 1 and 1s and a terrible call now against Iowa give FL another one and one with they convert.  Damn bad luck on that call.  

Iowa down 1 w ball and 3:20 to go. Feels like they are hanging by a thread. Getting no flow from offense and launching long threes when shot clock running out.  

Oh geesh. Banks misses another one and one.  

Damn.  Iowa down to after another paint score layup by FL.  Not seeing how Iowa gets their mojo back.  Turning into another scare for a top seed that makes them stronger. 

Damn.  Iowa missing 1 and 1s and nothing easy from offense.  Oh my - The Spaniard with a great backdoor pass and Iowa down 1!!!   Finally some offensive movement!!

Oh geesh.  After FL score and now down 3 with FL ball.  1:20 to go.  Looking dismal for Hawks.  

Love this game though.

Iowa challenge that could be huge w 1:20 left.  

This idea of only 2 challenges per game and even if they are successful you get no more?!   Seriously?!

Iowa ball!!!!!!  There is hope in Iowa City!!!!   Wish they were playing in San Jose next week.  I get stuck rooting against Purdue in person!!

Stirtz down the lane and it is a 1 pt game!!!

Iowa gets ball back and here we go - D2 to Drake to Iowa what a story this will make as Stirtz drives and…. Misses??!!   Noooooooooo

FL fouled w 8 seconds to go and missed the first.  Makes 2nd.

Oh what a game. Iowa down 2 w 8 seconds to go.  

Ohhhhhhjjjjjjj!    

The Spaniard nails a 3333333333333333333!!!!!!!   

Oh what a great shot.  It was a no doubter for him after it left his hands.  It felt good.  You could see it.  

Oh my what a great shot.  He had not seen his mom in person since August and she is there watching.  

Oh.  No.  4.5 left fo FL.  Oh no not another Santa Clara boom boom and you are out finish.  

Wow.  Gators don’t get a shot off. Surprised they did not go with Boogie instead of Lee.  Too many people in the lane to make that pass and Lee went baseline under basket and had no shot!   

Wowowowowowow!  

Defending Champs - GONE!!!

Oh love this!!!

Iowa to the Sweet 16 and hey - why not more Ben - I ask you!

All I want to do is just watch the darn games in peace (and in chronological order without spoilers)!!

 

OK - watching the games from Europe has obviously come a LONG way since the first Hopski back in 1999.  I am pretty sure it was ESPN International or something to that extent, with the most memorable non-basketball thing that I can recall was the commercial showing a bunch of Saudi's dressed in white at a football match singing the "WE WILL ROCK YOU" (@Kyle Bowers - refresh my memory on this one).  They ran that same commercial over and over and over again.  That was tough to stomach on the 6pm to 6am March Madness Marathons that we would endure as basketball starved expats in Warsaw!

That was actually a huge leap over calling my Mom back in March 1993 to hear the end of Indiana's regional final game and having her put the phone up to the TV in order hear the end of the Indiana / Kansas game and to know if I was getting on a plane for New Orleans (I did go but not to see Indiana, who lost that game to Kansas and Oostertag).  I did have a great view of this:

To this day I love flashing the time-out sign when I see anyone wearing Michigan Maize and Blue!

Thus, it is maybe a bit of soft privilege showing through in my old age when I complain about watching games here in Spain this morning my time.

Thank you Uncle Mickey for making this weekend a piece of cake (well almost) to watch the March Madness games live or on convenient replays with commercial breaks cut out (not halftimes though - not sure the why on that one but why be picky right?).

All was going well until this morning (Monday) when I sat down at 7am to watch the post-Purdue Sunday night games on replay.  See for the past few days all replays were in original order of finish - making it easy to watch without spoilers.  This morning I thus was confused to see the Purdue game last on the replay options and my spoiler radar went up immediately!  The obvious solution to save the day - CHECK CHAT GPT!!

This is where things got a bit ugly and I lost a lot of confidence in the AI race.  In fairness the below discussion seemed to go well - but then the wheels came off.  What gets me are the apologies though that are supposed to make up for an obvious blunder!!

Seemed like a simple question - but it would be good to know the teams that are playing.....

BOOM!  I was happily clicked on the Tennessee vs Virginia game and settled back with my granola and yoghurt to enjoy a few hours of Madness.....  Unfortunately about 10 minutes into the game the announcers share "what an amazing finish to the St John's / Kansas game as the Johnnies won on a last second shot!".   WTF???   That dropped a few grape nuts on the stomach and i quickly launched into an extended chat with my AI friend......

I love how I have a right to be frustrated and they are sorry, but.......

Fool me once.....  I quickly identified another error!!  Leading to a follow-up question/remark:

Finally I think I have something that I can work with....  and if you are still with me at this point - kudos to you.

  

It Is Done........ Round 1

Yes indeed March Madness Round 1 is done, but more importantly, twas a beautiful morning today in Sitges....

Beautiful more so as the the Hopski Spanish HQ has been repurchased, successfully Reversing the Curse!!  

Much as the trade of the Bambino haunted the Sox so many years, the sale of the Sitges HQ in 2019 has haunted the Commish, with no top 10 Hopski finishes since!  Oh yeah - there was that other haunting by my better half - but that is all done now (for atleast a few days anyway!).....

Because as my wife wrote yesterday - WE ARE BACK BABY!!!!!

THUS, ON TO THE LEADERBOARD!!!

Taking the top of the leaderboard is Taco Trader (The 2013 Hopski Champion David Miller of Muscle Shoals, Alabama), picking 28 out of 32 first round winners, including the big upset points from High Point and VCU!

Kudos as well to Bay area residents in a tie for 2nd - The Portal Did This To Me (Jacob Kivett, a Palo Alto Dad and friend as well as a Florida alum - yeah - pretty much "A Florida Man" himself!  Also took 2nd in the 2018 Hopski) alongside Wish I Was in Sitges (Jay Baum the 2012 Hopski Champion).

A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT is due to 2024 Hopski Champion and Menlo Park resident Mark Iantosca - one that is impossible to overlook (well unless you don't look all the way to the bottom of the standings report!).  Talk about a slow start out of the gates, as not just one but both of his entries are at the bottom of the standings in 140th and 141st place (Qhubert- great creativity - love this one Mark! and The Russian Judge)!!!

Gotta run for now and this will likely be the lasts update until I get out of Sitges on Tuesday morning, as quite a few things to deal with here (like what the heck are we doing with this place for the next 4 years and oh - btw - anyone want to take a year or two sabatical?).  

So most likely the next update will be from the flight home or Wednesday after some pickleball.

Get your entry fees paid and enjoy the Madness!

The Commish

Spanish Madness

Home Sweet Home Sitges, Spain! 

The Commish is coming to you live from Sitges, Spain, Home of the Hopski HQ for the 2005 - 2017 period.  This is no vacation but the culmination of a Quest to re-acquire the Hopski Homestead which you can zoom and see in the distance of the above pic, which was shot from our hotel balcony.  Provided all goes well with Friday's closing, this year's 1st Round Hopski u\Update will come to you live from the old Hopski HQ   

Right now though, it is hard to feel any level of March Madness here whilst finalizing things with notaries, banks and the seller, but hopefully I will be able to find some time to catch some of the games starting Thursday.

Meanwhile - GET YOUR ENTRIES (AND PAYMENTS) IN FOR THIS YEAR'S 27TH ANNUAL HOPSKI INTERNATIONAL MARCH MADNESS POOL and do feel free to pass the invite via this link below on to other worthy participants!

https://sm.app.splashsports.com/contest/?jCode=d745a9cdff5445a893b3aa22da96dadd

Saludos Cordiales -

Your Commish

27th Annual Hopski International March Madness Pools is ALIVE!!!

I am 5 hours from take-off to Barcelona - so this is short and sweet!!!

QUICK UPDATE HERE RE RULES, ETC....:

Welcome to the 27th Annual Hopski International March Madness Pool!

FOR ALL LATEST UPDATES - https://thehopski.blogspot.com/   You should also receive these automatically by email via mailchimp - but just in case.

Splash Sports has bought RunYourPool - but same set-up as last year in terms of hosting the Hopski this year.  

Thus, for any returning entrants, just use your same login and password from last year to enter this year’s pool.  If you've forgotten your login information, use the 'Forgot username or password' link in the login area (e.g. don’t contact me!).  DEFINITELY come up with a NEW ENTRY NAME as this keeps the Hopski colorful AND YOUR WILL AVOID PUBLIC HARASSMENT BY THE COMMISH!

A Heads Up from a longtime Hopski Participant that already went to sign-up/sign-in at Splash Sports (thanks Scott Iantosca - clearly the best of that bunch!) - "Just a heads up so everyone doesn’t get mad, the app apparently got bought by “splash sports” so everyone’s same password works, but you do have to download splash sports. Not a big deal. Everything is still there from last year, I think it just needs to be reactivated.  Shouldn’t be an issue for anyone."

For new entrants - give them this link for the pool:

https://sm.app.splashsports.com/contest/?jCode=d745a9cdff5445a893b3aa22da96dadd

The pool ID is:  226932

The points and underdog points (when you pick the lower seed to advance - you get the point differential) are as they have always been!!  Enjoy the Madness!!

The entry fee remains at $30!!  Payment via venmo (@Mark-Hopper-27) or zelle (3175233988).  NO PAYPAL THIS YEAR.

More importantly, in our ongoing effort to keep this time of year societal productive, we will stick with $5 going to Ukrainian relief fund given the ongoing issues there and the ties that the Commish, our family and many Hopski entrants have to the region.  These fees will go to POLISH HUMANITARIAN ACTION (https://www.pah.org.pl/en) a relief charity that is supporting Ukrainian refugees.  In this respect, if the $5 seems paltry - GREAT!!  Click the above link and donate directly to PHA OR donate to YOUR favorite Ukrainian support charity and send me the receipt by email.  For new donations of at least $100, I will cover your Hopski entry.  Nothing like a bit of ingenuity towards making your Hopski participation tax deductible!!!

This link to PAH for donating may work best:  https://www.pah.org.pl/en/donate/

A brief reminder: Get your bracket(s) in before the pick deadline and make sure to review the pool settings for scoring and tiebreakers. Only the main 64 teams that make up a standard bracket are included (i.e. the play-in games, or 'first four', are NOT included).  

If you have any questions, please contact me at markhopski@yahoo.com.

— The Commish

2026 Hopskis IS HAPPENING!

Same website as last year.  Traveling home now from Pismo Beach bball tourney and flying to BCN tonight.  Will get it going - have no fear!!!!!