Pre-Championship Update - It All Sorts Itself in the End

We are down to the Championship between 2 #1 seeds but the road getting here this year was far from predictable, resulting in just a 58.5% pick % for the Hopski and the 3rd lowest correct picks for the Elite 8 and Final 4 ever in a Hopski.  We are left with two contendahs now for the title......

In the baby blue corner backing North Carolina, we have Make Indiana Great Again from Mary Beck of Stamford, CT, a Cornell graduate that has rocketed up the charts with MLB and MLB Network and somehow along the way adopted, errr, married my college roommate and Best Man Robert Beck, this gal has energy galore and should not be underestimated in the post......

And the challenger, in the red corner and backing the Bulldogs of Gonzaga, we have the Throwback entry of Angelo Iantosca, #1 our hearts and #14 in your programs, who played under Jimmy Valvano while at Rutgers and is now living in Hinsdale, IL running Rana Pasta USA and infamously known in Warsaw, Indiana, Spain and other parts of the world as the father of the Brothers Iantosca (including THE ONLY ENTRANT NOT YET HAVING PAID THIS YEAR'S ENTRY FEE - NONE OTHER THAN THE "GOOD MARK")  Angelo, oh Angelo - where did you go wrong with that boy??!!

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It is all down to this and it is all or nothing - loser goes home with no Hopski dough!!!

The battle for 2nd place also has an Iantosca connection as Lonzo Ball Soup and I JoSharted - BOTH from Peter Pell who was a roommate at Richmond of Mark Iantosca's (yes - that one that STILL has not paid) and now is based in NYC as a MD at CSM Capital Corp.  It will be a big choice for the Commissioner as to who will cover this shortfall - Daddy or Peter!!!  Peter is looking like the sure thing as in a Hopski First - he has locked up 2nd place with one of these two entries as they are in 3rd and 4th spots right now and with one having the Zags and the other the Heels, Peter will have one in 2nd place when the dust settles tonight!!

Battling it out for 3rd place tonight are Cheeto-in-Chief (Dylan McGuill, the Iowa Hawkeye now out of Dallas and the nephew of "Uncle Mark" Conlon - our 2006 Hopski Champion) and The Inaugural LaVar Ball 1 on 1 Invitational entry of Scott Hoagland, an Illinois State alum now in Atlanta and also the 2001 Hopski Champion and a perennial contender for the Best Entry Name competition (2 time winner!).

The 2nd Chance Dance has a two way battle for Champion as well between good friends Hacking My Way to the Championship (Mike Ching of Hawaii) and Protest This! from Ron Genty - ex-Budi Big Dawg and E&Y partner now living in Chicago.  These two are long-time friends that will certainly enjoy trash talking this outcome!  Don't worry Ron - if you win - I already know what photo I am posting!!!

TODAY is your last chance to drop an email and vote for your favorite entry name!!

There is NO DEADLINE on sharing my Burundi Blog or making a donation though - so keep it in mind!!!

All the best-

The Commish