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!!)
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