Saturday, March 21, 2015

Hopski Day 2 - on to the Round of 32


That is indeed as good as it got on Day 2, with Dayton's KO of Providence the ONLY upset of the day.  There were a lot of near misses, including Louisville, Maryland, W. Virginia and Belmont, but in each case the bell tolled early for Cinderella and that was that.  The MOST excited I was all day was when the UC Irvine / Louisville game switched on and I saw THIS GUY:



This picture does not really do justice to just how big UC Irvine's Mamadou Ndiaye really is, though note the "vertical" he required to dunk this is quite similar to my best days' 10" vertical leap!!  Mamadou is HUGE.  Montrezl Harrell is there to his left and he looks like a small forward (and Montrezl is normally the monster on the court!).  Mamadou is 7'6 and weighs 300lbs and that sounds like a lot of weight, he certainly carries it well.  When he is on the court, it is amazing how small every other player around him looks.  Unfortunately, Louisville held on to eliminate UC Irvine and we'll have to wait until next year for Mamadou (presumably as he is a Sophomore and still a "project" for the NBA at this point).

This is a quick update unfortunately as Ola (my wife) is off with Mia skiing today and tomorrow and I have Tasza and Sophie anxious to get out of the house at the moment.  Thus, to the standings…..

ABK (Anyone But Kentucky) from the right winger of Carmel, IN Marc Powell has surged into the top spot.  This was certainly to be expected on a day without upsets that the conservatives take over!  ABK is tied at the top with former Champion Jay Baum's My 2 Sons.  Lyon's Locks slipped 2 spots to 3rd position, with Bill still contending in spite of a 41% pick % - the lowest in the field so far!!

Go Blue & Gold (the homage to West Virginia from WVU grad and ex-Budapest expat Linda Genty) holds the top pick % after the first round with a sizzling 84% (27 out of 32)!  Unfortunately for Linda, 2 of her 5 misses were teams she had in the Final Four (SMU and Baylor) so she will very soon be contending for the Toilet Bowl (again) I fear!!  Speaking of the Toilet Bowl, Lavin's Turtlenecks (David Iudica) is in sole possession currently of last place, picking only 16 of the first round winners correctly AND getting ZERO underdog points in the process.  Kudos David as THAT is not an easy thing to do!!

Looking ahead to today's games, Back to the Salt Mines (Ann Arborite and ex-Poland, ex-UK, ex-Belgium, ex-Burundi expat Brian Gimotty) is the ONLY entry with Cincinnati upsetting UK.  Just 3 entries have Oregon knocking off Wisconsin and just Lyon's Locks (of course) has UAB picked into the Sweet 16!  

Enjoy the games.  Do not be surprised if there is no update tomorrow as it is hard enough watching the games before church, let alone getting an update out.  Most likely I will get something out at the start of Sunday's games!!  

Get those paypal payments in if you have not already done so (as I understand it, Amazon Payments is no longer an option - ooops!!).  The delinquents will be chased and chastised shortly!

Adios, The Commish






No comments:

Post a Comment