THE MEDAL STAND TO DATE
FIRST OFF - kudos to our pre-Final Four leader, Cheeto-in Chief (Dylan McGuill, a Hawkeye now living in Dallas?? Sorry Dylan - i need some info from you or at least a reminder!!!). After picking 29 of the 32 1st round winners, Dylan leads us into the final weekend on the strength of a perfect South Region and a darn near perfect Midwest and West (missing just 2 and 3 winners respectively in each). He'd be running away with the lead if not for a terrible East region.
In at #2 is none other than the Defending Champion - The Champ Is Heeeeeeeeereeeee (Dave Iantosca, let's just say a souped up version of his older brother Mark and certainly the best hooper of the clan aside from Dad! We could give him kudos for picking prowess - but basically he just picked the Carolina blue again this year - unfortunately that will leave him at best in 2nd as Arizona's loss to Xavier ended his repeat chances!).
The #3 is then shared by Streakin' Among the Stars (Robert Curtis, denied in 2010 by Duke's victory over KU yet still finished 3rd, Bob is back in the title hunt. He is also the only 2-time winner of the 2nd Chance Dance!!!) and Fuqin California Wine Mixer (Eric Gates, what can I say, the Big E is in the top 3 yet picked just 62% - the lowest of the top 20!! Well done on the upsets, unfortunately, UCLA left you with no title hope).
THE CONTENDAHS!
We are down to the Final Four and the Hopski is down to a Final Five with a chance to take this year's title!!!
- Cheeto-in Chief (Dylan McGuill, yes, he may hold onto that top spot this weekend!!;
- I Miss Barack & The Hoosiers (Julie Grundberg, yes, the Seattle grunge movement has a shot here in the final weekend and many, many years of Hopski futility!);
- Make Indiana Great Again (Mary Beck, MLB Network is spawning some basketball hoops knowledge as well as Mary seeks to go where husband Rob has only dreamt - Hopski Champion!)'
- Streakin' Among the Stars (Robert Curtis);
- Throwback (Angelo Iantosca, former Rutgers player under Jimmy V, somehow dropped the Iantosca brothers upon us all - must be Mama Iantosca's genes! and now resides in the Chicago area as President of Rana USA - looking to become the 1st father/son team to win Hopski titles as son David is the defending champ!)
Interestingly none of those entries is guaranteed the Hopski title just by virtue of a single team winning the tournament - each entry needs the right combo for the title game as well!!
70 entries still have their champion alive, albeit NOBODY picked South Carolina and only 1 entry picked Oregon!
To check your best finish (or worst) possibility this weekend, check out the Player Scenarios report.
THE TOILET BOWL
Congrats to Sheen Baldwin 2020 (Logan Jeffries) who was able to lock-up the Toilet Bowl Title this year quite early - possibly last Saturday night!! In any event, we'll look forward to next year's free entry for a better performance!! Logan's 4 underdog points were actually "topped" by a single underdog point from Master Debater (Jeff Luebbert, a Domer alum gone bad in NYC) - the winner of this year's "Mr. Blutarski, 0.00" aware for lowest dog points - the accumulation of which is really quite the point of the Hopski!!
BEST ENTRY NAMES!!
I am thinking we may not get the full scale entry name report from Marc Powell this year - but THE HOPSKI HOME OFFICE STILL NEEDS YOUR VOTE!!!! DROP A QUICK EMAIL WITH YOUR VOTE FOR BEST ENTRY NAME!!!!!
It is a busy weekend coming up - with Sunday activities making it a challenge to watch the games - especially if I am going to be getting out of bed after a 122km / 2,000m bike race on Saturday (all part of the Biking for Burundi training!). I will do my best to get something out on Monday previewing the title game!!!
Adios -
The Commish
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