The stars have aligned and the Syracuse Orange, who many (including the Commish) felt should have been left out of this year's dance, have made it into the Final Four. It certainly shows that anything can happen in the Big Dance and certainly, match-ups had a LOT to do with it (Dayton, 2 double digit seeds and then a team that had beaten them 3 times this year), but Jim Boeheim led his team to the comeback of the weekend over Virginia. Shocking it was for me to see them take out Virginia after trailing by 15 with 9 or so minutes to go - but they did it and now they'll be the darling of the Final Four (in part because most of us detest UNC and Roy Williams!)!
Suspend me.....................but you gotta love me!!!
Clearly the best playing teams of the tournament (aside from Virginia) will join the 'Cuse in Houston. UNC, Villanova and Oklahoma have cruised in decisive manners through most of their tourney foes and no doubt, Houston should host some great games next weekend!
Back to the Hopski..........
Niang's 12th Year's A Charm (David Iantosca, the "good" Iantosca brother living/working in Chicago for Treehouse Foods as a Channel Director) has stormed to the top, supported by his UNC Tar Heels pick for the title! Dave's closest call over the weekend was the Commish almost suspending his entry for non-payment......but it was a clerical oversight! Dave really only had 2 significant misses so far - West Virginia and Michigan State.
Chasing Dave and currently in 2nd is Trump/Laettner 2016 - No Thanks (Matt Briesch, a Hoosier alum and ex-Andersen colleague of mine in Chicago, now busy being a Dad and working at McMaster-Carr). McMaster-Carr must be a company specializing in fashionable scarves judging from Matt's linked-in pic below:
Unfortunately Matt had the Jayhawks winning it all and his ceiling is set at 2nd place now. Still - good to see you Matt!!
Holding onto 3rd place is I've Made A Huge Mistake (Beth Paul, Northern Illinois alum living/working in Chicago) whose Michigan State mistake was the biggest of these top 3 as she picked them to win the tournament! Somehow though, Beth is still in the running for this year's Hopski title!! Her 2nd entry this year ' Mid Major Lives Matter - is one of my favorites for the Entry Name contest - PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR NOMINEE!!!!
In addition to David and Beth, former champion Mark Noferi of NYC (Nofe, Don't Kill My Vibe)is in contention for this year's Hopski title as well as none other than Desert Dweller (Jeff Wagoner, my roommate from IU who recently moved out to Arizona after spending most of his life in Indiana!). Noferi is riding the Oklahoma bandwagon into contention, while Wags' brackets are driven by the Oklahoma/Villanova combo. In fact, looking at his bracket, one would think he had no chance to contend given his pick of Kentucky to win it all and Virginia into the Final Four (may have a software glitch to check out later).
At the other end of the Hopski spectrum, the Hopski has its first repeat "winner" in of the Toilet Bowl Award for last place!! Yes, none other than Linda "Country Roads" Genty (Linda, a West Virginia alum, was part of the Andersen Budapest 1992 expat group along with her husband - the Big Dog Ron Genty! They are now back on the north coast in Chicago with their kids) has repeated in last place with her Mountaineers ATW (ATW is mountain talk for All the Way, BTW) entry! Linda racked up an astounding 4 underdog bonus points this year, supporting her 51 point overall outburst for the 2016 Hopski Toilet Bowl title!!
Looking at the Final Four - here are the "picked" breakdowns for next weekend's games:
| Picked to: | ||
| Final | Champion | |
| Oklahoma | 23 | 3 |
| N Carolina | 32 | 16 |
| Villanova | 8 | 1 |
| Syracuse | 0 | 0 |
YES - NOBODY has picked Syracuse to win it all - let alone even make it to the Elite 8! on the other hand, 3rd Drumf Dog (Julie Grundberg, a friend from the Wrigley/Chicago early 90s days now working logistics with Medicins Sans Frontieres - Doctors Without Borders), Maverick Melly (Jon Melson - I have no info on him aside from being a Hopski rookie!) and Nofe, Don't Kill My Vibe (Mark Noferi) all have Oklahoma picked to win the championship. More so, ONLY 1 entrant has Villanova picked to win the title this year - none other than Mother Should I Build The Wall (Mike Maloney, yet another Andersen Budapest alum, now living in DC). Maloney could become the 3rd entrant to be the only one picking the champion - none of which having won the Hopski!!!
OK - it is VOSE (that's original language version) movie night in Sitges, so My Perfect Wife and I are off to see The Room, so gotta go for now!!
GET THOSE BEST ENTRY NAME NOMINATIONS BY EMAIL TO ME - PLEASE!!!
ALSO - WHO KNOWS JARED ROSS (JROSS60@LIVE.COM) - IS THIS A PERSON?? THE EMAIL ADDRESS GETS A WEIRD RESULT IF I GOOGLE - SO SOMEONE PLEASE ADVISE AS JARED HAS NOT PAID.
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