Long Overdue 1st Weekend Hopski Pool Report & Sweet 16 Preview

The Commish took a 72 March Madness sabatical to get caught up on some work, cycling and family stuff (fiber optic operational at 300mbps!!) and without further adieu, here is the overdue update on the Hopski results for the 1st two rounds!

OUR LEADERS

Udaman from Mike Ching (ok, upon further review Mike is back in Hawaii, left E&Y and is running publicly traded First Hawaiian Bank.  Given he is a regular in the Hopski, finished 2nd in 2011 AND is leading it - buy, buy, buy!!!!).  Udaman has managed to pick 11 of the Sweet 16, with his only big miss to date being Villanova.  He also nabbed 31 underdog points, most notably Rhode Island, Mid Tenn State & Xavier!!  Here's Mike:

A Bracket Has No Name (Joshua Bailey, an 11 year Hopski alum and I am a bit surprised that I cannot find anything on Josh - that or my mind has fried after all these years as we have exchanged a few emails over the years, but only about payments basically) - what a great entry name BTW!! - is tied with Udaman for 2nd on the strength of 11 of the Sweet 16 as well and also 32 underdog points.

Guts & Glory - The Ricky Bobby Storey (Randy Krueger, a Hopski rookie, so feeling less bad about no info - but I can usually piece things together with a quick google search, alas, not in this case!) held onto 3rd place, led by a pool leading 29 out of 32 in the 1st round (one of a few at 29)!

That rounds out the top 3, but kudos as well to Streakin' Among The Stars from Bob Curtis of Woodstock, IL for nailing 12 of the Sweet 16, along with My Other Brother Darryl (Darryl Feldman).  Nice picking gents!!


VYING FOR THE 2017 TOILET BOWL

Is it just a worrying coincidence that I receive a "problem making payment" email this morning from Alfordstillsucks (Deb Baratz, Iowa Hawkeye grad who obviously is NOT providing a reference for Steve Alford from his coaching days there) AND it just so happens her entry is in last place.....hmmm.......have to put this one on the watch list.  Poor Deb provided a pool low 4 correct picks for the Sweet 16 - something accomplished only 3 other times in Hopski history (there were 3 such efforts in the obviously brutal 2000 Hopski).  The all-time record low by Phil Purevich's "Coin Flip" in 2005 should be excluded (in fact - I just updated the record books) as literally - Phil flipped a coin and should have received a lifetime Hopski ban for such atrocity.  Just sayin......I am sure that entry fee will show up soon - right Deb??!!

Clueless in Washington (Michael Fazio of London - no less the clueless there - a New Yorker and ex-banker that clearly seems to be going the route of the Yankees in this decade - e.g. just not being that competitive!) is battling Deb for the Toilet Bowl, with just 5 of the Sweet 16 winner picked.

Looking at the Projected Standings Report (everyone's best case scenario), it appears that White Lighting (Andrew Whiting) has "set this year's Toilet Bowl bar" at 73 points - his best case scenario as North Carolina over Butler is his entry's only potential points grabber remaining!!
 
Honorable mention in this section goes to 2 Hopski veterans that tried to get a bit too "analytical" with the underdog bonus points and were bit hard in the first round, hitting on just 14 of the 32 first round games - just 1 above the all-time Hopski worst of 13.  I Grabbed Her By the Krzyzewski (Richard Rykhus) and 4 Point Play (Bill Lyon of Schaumberg, IL and ex-Warsaw expat and hoopster).    

Let this be a lesson that analytics should not overtake pride in the Hopski - lest you make me spend more time next year and revamp the scoring rules!!!!


SWEET 16 PREVIEW
How the 8 Sweet 16 games breakdown in terms of teams picked:

• Wisconsin (6 entries) vs Florida (9 entries) - Low Seed Count with a lot to gain from Wisconsin in this one!
• Baylor (13 entries) vs. South Carolina (ONLY picked by Ty D Bol, the dual ex-Toilet Bowl Champions entry from Vicki Maloney and Linda Genty);
• Gonzaga (103 entries) vs. West Virginia (26 entries);
• Arizona (129 entries) vs. Xavier (only Going to Disney Again (Wes Maciejewski) and Maybe Boeheim Has An Opinion (Mike Doud);
• Kansas (126 entries) vs. Purdue (15 entries - seriously??  Purdue is already in nosebleed territory!!);
• Oregon (31 entries) vs. Michigan (35 entries - interesting surprise so many picked the Wolverines!);
• North Carolina (143 entries) vs. Butler (13 entries - GO DAWGS!!!);
• Kentucky (61 entries) vs UCLA (81 entries);

2017 BY THE NUMBERS

Whilst this is not an official figure yet (still have not reconciled payments - so any late payers are getting an unusually extended reprieve period), the 2017 Hopski has tied the all-time record for entries at 163, previously set in 2006:

1st round average correct picks of 23.4 was quite high, especially versus the past couple of years and 3rd all-time vs 2004 and 2000.  Meanwhile, the Sweet 16 average dipped well below recent years and likely due to the #1 (Villanova) and #2s (Louisville, Duke) going home.

Only 17 entries still have their East bracket champion pick alive after Villanova and Duke fell last weekend.  Next lowest number of regional champion picks still alive comes from the Midwest region at 108 entries, driven lower primarily by Louisville's loss.

As a result, just 6 entries have their Final Four completely intact, so a shout out to:

• Frank's Fighting Hawks (Eric Frankberg, a Fighting Hawk from U. North Dakota and working with long-time Hopski entrant John "Hayseed" Springer at Polaris in Minneapolis);
• Glennon is the Future (Nick Lagattuta, a Partner in a Schaumberg, IL law firm - not sure of his connection with The Hopski but hopefully not suing me!);
• I Miss Barack & The Hoosiers (Julie Grundberg, a Hoosier alum and ex-Chicagoan working for Raytheon out in Seattle) even has 7 of her final 8 intact;
• Low Seed Count (Action Jackson - still no idea who this is but with all 8 of their Elite 8 picks alive - we may know more soon!);
• Make Indiana Great Again (Emmy Award winning Mary Beck of MLB Network, savior this past year to one Darin "The King" Townsend who realize he had no passport the night before our 50th Celebration in St. Andrews and married to none other than Rob "I'm Too Busy for the Hopski" Beck!);
• No Illini? (Eric Achepohl, a suffering Illini alum out of Elmhurst, IL - Chicago 'burb, 2016 St. Andrew's 50th attendee and winner of the longest drive competition on the 17th hole - a ball still rolling somewhere on the asphalt of Scotland);