Hopski Historical Stats (for you analytics!)

This will be a quick post to share Hopski Historical Stats and of course, the Hopski Hall of Fame!!

Jeff Chamberlin has been added to the Hall of Champions, albeit with the lowest Hopski Champion's score ever!!

South Beach Wannabee from Joey Wagoner was added to the record book this year with the all-time highest underdog point total of 63:

2014 was an average year in terms of pick % and slightly low in terms of scoring.  It was the FIRST year ever to not have at least 1 entry pick the Champion though.

Lastly, Matt Powell extended his Top Ten-less streak to 14 years this year, while Bill Carey moved within one Top Ten finish of Kyle Bower's record 5 Top Ten Hopski finishes:

2014 Hopski Champion: The Law Firm of Revis, Browner & Chambo; Congrats Jeff Chamberlin!

Congratulations to the U Conn Huskies - 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions (thank goodness - anyone but UK and Calipari!!).

The suspense was ended on Saturday when Florida was eliminated, making The Law Firm of Revis, Browner & Chambo the 2014 Hopski International March Madness Pool Champion!  Jeff Chamberlin was close before as back in 2012 his Respect the Drag Bunt entry led the Hopski until the final game when KU let him down and Kentucky snatched the Hopski Championship away from him.  Now in 2014, Jeff Chamberlin wears the Hopski crown!  Jeff now lives/works in the DC area for the US Department of Energy (Nuclear Nonproliferation) after growing up near Boston, going to Boston College and spending his formative Hopski years on the hoops court in Warsaw, Poland in the last 90s.

When contacted, he commented that "I owe it all to my close Indiana U ties - with his mom, aunt and cousins all being Indiana grads.  He wanted to thank 2010 Hopski Champion Mark Noferi for his unending support through this years Hopski rollercoaster and for "Nofeing" it this year as well as 2-time Hopski Champion Kyle Bowers for teaching him what is means to be a true Hickory Husker as the Law Firm of Revis, Browner & Chambo was all about the fundamentals.

Well done Jeff - the 2014 Hopski Title is yours!

Florida's loss ended the Hopski title hopes of the Godfather of Green Bay, Mike Dorsey.  Mike has recently returned to Wisconsin after an 8 year stint in Denver.  When contacted, he said "I owe this year's Hopski success to a lack of hoops watching this year due to fatherhood, as Mike and his wife had twins in August last year."  His Hopski winnings will of course be going towards shoes, as in "babies needs new pairs of shoes"!  Here's Mike on the slopes (pre-fatherhood of course):

Grabbing the last of the 2014 Hopski medals is Attack of the Clones and John Springer!  His Cyclones let him down this year, but his picks did not.  Big John will of course be spending his Hopski winnings on chew!

The Hopski 2nd Chance Dance Championship came down to the tiebreaker and luckily, I noticed over the weekend that both "finalists" had the same tiebreaker, so that was modified and by virtue of picking 133 points in the final game (vs 139 by the tough luck runner-up Charles Peligro's THIRD Chance from Richard Yunis), Going for Three became Champion!  Bill Carey was also the 2007 Hopski Champion and this year's 4th place finish gave him a 4th all-time Hopski Top Ten.  Bill knows how to pick 'em (then again, he has benefitted greatly from his "homer" picks of the Florida Gators too!!).

Best Entry Name for 2014 is…………………………

When I Think of You, I Touch Bill Self, from THE Matthew P Powell!  Matt resides now outside of Cincinnati, but his heart and home is Kokomo, Indiana!  Matt is one of my best friend's from my IU college days and after 14 years of futility in the Hopski Pool, he at least gets free entry in next year's pool with this year's entry name winner!

And so ends another Hopski pool with my new mantra of "never again".  Yet, check back at this blog site or the standard pool internet site next March and yep, it will probably be going yet again.

Please do once again consider a donation for the Great Lakes Outreach effort in Burundi for whatever reason best moves you to action!!!  Click here:  BURUNDI DONATION  I managed to ride 191 miles in the past few weeks of the tournament in preparing for my fundraising ride in May, so not all time was spent managing the Hopski!  Donations of the same $25 for the Hopski would be well used and greatly appreciated, so do not overlook what might be considered a small token donation!

As always, March Madness and the Hopski are great opportunities to get in touch with many of you that unfortunately we are not able to be in as regular contact these days.  It is also a great opportunity to introduce many of you and to meet new entrants as well.  Take care.

The Commish

Post - Elite 8 Letdown

FIRST OFF - BEST ENTRY NAME - PLEASE DROP A QUICK EMAIL ASAP WITH YOUR VOTE!!  1 VOTE PER ENTRY AND NOT FOR YOURSELF!  I AM BEHIND ON THIS AND POWELL IS NOT AROUND THIS YEAR TO GIVE US HIS ENTRY NAME ANALYSIS, THERE ARE SOME GOOD ONES.  PLEASE VOTE!!!

Sorry for the radio silence, but the week turned busy (with work - shocker eh?!) and a Hopski update was unfortunately low on the totem pole of priorities.  On the bright side, I did hit the road for two 2 hour + training rides, including one today inland to the local mountain range.  My legs burned and screamed on a 30 minute / 4 mile climb, but all is well that ends well….right?  Burundi will unfortunately have a few climbs way more than double that as well as 4-6 hours of riding time per day, but I figure if I can train on 1/2 of it, I can survive…right?

Back to the Hopski and yep, as much as it pains me to do so, this update is in Kentucky Blue!!!  On that note, kudos to my all-time favorite Wildcat, Kyle Macy from my hometown of Peru, IN:
  

Gotta give credit where credit is due and those Wildcat freshman stepped up to the plate last weekend and delivered back to back impressive wins over Louisville and Michigan.  Not only were they impressive victories, but they knocked out 20 entries' champion picks and 98 entries' Final Four picks!!  Only 2 entries in the Hopski picked the Wildcats into the final four:  Its Marty's Time (Marty not Mickey Koehler, an Andersen colleague and mentor, now a VP at Mid-American Group near Chicago) and Kreativhead (the Croatian Creative Sensation, Damir Brajdic, in Warsaw for nearly 12 years I think and now out of Atlanta, but working in DC for Capital One).

I have re-set the "mover/loser" figures on the website so as to show changed from the pre-Sweet 16 standings and will report against that since this is my first real update since then…..

Surging into the Hopski top spot is The Law Firm of Revis, Browner and Chambo (Jeff Chamberlin, a BCU grad is about all I can confirm at this point - though he may be a Nuclear Game Theory Specialist from all I can find on the web…Jeff??

Chambo managed to pick 5 of the Elite 8 teams and 2 of the Final Four team (tied best of any entries in the Hopski this year).  Jeff has been in 8 previous Hopski, with just 1 Top Ten finish, so this is nosebleed territory for him.  That said, provided that Florida DOES NOT win the tournament, his entry will take the 2014 Hopski (not a bad time to consider a hedge bet on Florida Jeff!!).

Checking into 2nd place, an 8 spot leap from pre-16, is the Godfather of Green Bay entry from Mike Dorsey of Milwaukee who is a Domer (e.g. ND grad) and works now for Northwestern Mutual.  Certainly he's looking at some alternative outcome bets to hedge his Hopski championship winnings IF Florida wins it all.  On a side note - Mike is leading the 2nd Chance Dance as well, but no chance to pull a double and win both!

Holding on to third place is Attack of the Clones from John Springer, our previous number 1.  Arizona's loss to Wisconsin ended Springer's Hopski title hopes (along with quite a few others), though he could still get some money out of the Hopski for the first time in 15 years!!!! 

We have a New Toilet Bowl Champion (this section in brown….for obvious reasons) Champion.  The 2014 Hopski Toilet Bowl goes to Spartacus Rules from Kamran Koochekzadeh.  Kamran managed to go 0 for the Elite 8, locking up early the Toilet Bowl title over a strong attempt from A Year Without Santa Clause (Julie Grundberg, a 7 time Hopski participant out of Chicago)

Looking into this weekend, aside from the 82 entries that have predicted a Florida presence in the Championship Game, there are a few entries with a lot to gain in the standings.  7 entries have Wisconsin making it to the final, including:

• Docent Darling (Terry Kenney of SF, CA, from "that" Kenney USC group that has someone contending each year!)
• Donovan for President (Bill Carey, UF grad, zero handicapper and permanent Warsaw expat)
• Dunkin Blumpkin (Don Lubreski, the rebounding monster, at least in his Warsaw days in the early 90s!, now out of DC)
• Its Marty's Time
• Not Comin' In Last Again This Year! (none other than Vicki Maloney, indeed last year's Toilet Bowl winner with a Hopski all-time low point score.  Vicki was in Budapest back in 1992 when I left the US as well and now is in DC)
• TennisTime? (yet another ex-Budapest expat AND 2008 Hopski Toilet Bowl winner, Linda Genty now out of Tokyo and living in Kenilworth in suburban Chicago)
• The Law Firm of Revis, Browner and Chambo

The four which I have highlighted in Orange even have a Florida/Wisconsin final predicted (well done!!)!!  Not to be overlooked is the Kreativhead prediction of a Kentucky presence in the final game - the ONLY entry to pick UK there, while no one predicted UConn in the Final.

OK - gotta cut this short.  Kids are almost home from school and it is sunny - so I have zero chance of getting away with typing on my computer.  Enjoy the games and VOTE for the best entry names.  Adios until Monday's pre-Final Update.

**My Finals Picks:  Florida vs Kentucky (UGHHHHHHH - an ALL-SEC FINAL!!)