For the diehards, Hopski Historical Stats

This is not exactly Stanford level analytics, but certainly some historical perspective is necessary to ensure that we do not start thinking that all of this bracket picking madness is pure luck (especially given that our 2015 Champion Kent Holding did not watch a game this year!).

Hopski International March Madness Pool HALL OF FAME:

ALL-TIME HOPSKI RECORDS

Just one new record this year as Lyon's Locks (Bill Lyon) managed to pick just 13 of the 32 winners in the first round as Bill employed the "Elite 8 & All Upsets" strategy. Nice try Bill…….32nd place and an early place on the podium are nothing to sneeze at!

ANNUAL AVERAGES

2015 was an average scoring year by Hopski historical standards, with an average entry score of 112.7 just above the all-time average of 110.3. Underdog points were 5th lowest of all-time and the 4.3% Champion Picked % was also 5th lowest of all-time (likely some correlation there!).

TOP TEN FINISHES

The Top Ten is certainly a distinguishing finish in the Hopski, albeit only the top 3 collect any winnings. Tracking the Top Ten finishes (or lack thereof) thus reflects those experts among us who seem to consistently contend.

A big Hopski Congratulations goes out to Yo BaBee (Stephen Miller of Bloomington, IN and my boss during the IU days of yore) who in 2015 and with his 28th and 29th entries over a 14 year stretch finally finished in the Top 10!!! Joey Brackets (Joey Wagoner) and ABK Anyone But Kentucky (Marc Powell - 13 years) also snapped career dry spells for cracking the Top 10 this year. Leaving this list of folks still looking to be CONTENDAHS just once!

Matthew P. Powell, another of my best friends from the IU days….15 years??? Really?? Then there is Mr. Schoenstein (fellow Budapest expat alum) with a whopping 23 entries finishing outside of the Hopski Top Ten!!

Quite a few names added to the above list this year and more so, these folks are in the "on deck" circle with 9 years and no Hopski Top Tens: Nick Adam, Julie Grundberg, Bill Lyon, Beth Paul and Victor Szczerba! Best step up in 2016!!

Ok, that is IT for this year's Hopski. See you next year (and look out for the Hoosiers in 2016 now that they have 6'10 Thomas Bryant coming to town!!