Yes, SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG!!!
This year is no different, though certainly we were tossing out our collective brackets in hours and minutes rather than days and weeks this year!
Let's first start with how many entries have now lost their Champion pick - 66!! Yes - 45% of the pool have lost their chance (for the most part) at the 2018 Hopski Title after just 2 rounds of games - unheard of!
Out of those 82 remaining entries......only 22 of them have their final 2 teams still in the hunt!!!
Looking at just the left half of the bracket - containing the South and West regions (e.g. the utter chaos and hell half) - only 5 entries have their regional champion picks remaining! They have all picked Kentucky to take the South, splitting their East champion votes between Gonzaga and Michigan.
Out of those 5 brackets - ONLY 2 - YES - ONLY 2 brackets out of the entire 148 entries - have a complete FINAL FOUR remaining. A Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge Hopski kudos goes out to the Rick Pitino Memorial Bracket from the nomadic Julie Grundberg from Indiana, Chicago, Denver, Antarctica and Seattle to name a few options!! Julie is a double-digit Hopski participant (this is her 11th Hopski) and this year - maybe THIS is her year. It certainly has some serious potential! Joining Julie in this Hopski salute is none other than Eric f'n Gates' entry of Boats n' Hoes. Yes - that would be THE Eric Gates of Valparaiso, Indiana University and for the last 30 years, the Chicago Suburbs!!! THE Eric Gates that has in a way spawned the Hopski as it was THE Eric Gates that fostered the young and naive Mark Hopper through his freshman year of college at IU - instilling in me priorities such as basketball, music, alcohol and wearing sweatpants all of the time! Dare I say that looking back on the past couple of weeks - only alcohol seems to be missing (not entirely of course!) from my day to day life these days!
THE LEADERBOARD
Nothing speaks like the podium of the bracket and as in many of years past, that highest on the podium after the first weekend will likely only be moving downward. Docent Darling Returns (from the desert) - Terry Kenney of ......... (those dots are me searching linked in) - oh my - San Francisco!! Oh my - the whole Kenney clan lives out here (we need a Hopski party!)......Yes - DDR (from the desert) from Terry Kenney (an independent museums and institutions professional clearly violating all kinds of cultural norms in his profession by participating in this madness) is leading the Hopski with a whopping 42 underdog points (leading that category too) but unfortunately for Terry, he went with the Virginia squad to win it all and faces a hard slog to remain in contention this year. Alas - for a weekend though - he was the King!! **On a side note - anyone with any idea on that entry name origin?! Fill me in - ok?!
There is a 3 way tie for the 2nd spot on the Hopski podium coming out of turn number two this year.....2 of them (Lock Sean Miller Up from Ryan Fazio of NYC, a trader at the Noble Group and The Unpredictable Kim Jong Nofe from Round 1 leader Mark Noferi) have a shot at sticking around for awhile as both have potential scores in the upper 100s and that appears to be the target number at this point for winning this year's Hopski. Nofe is one of just a few entries picking Kansas to win it all - with a Michigan runner-up no less. That combo is just unique enough to win this thing. Joining them on the podium for this one brief moment is 50 Fades of Grayson from fellow '89 Hoosier Grad Matt Powell of Cincinnati!! Matty P
THE TOILET BOWL
There is a battle at the bottom for now between Where for art thou Romeo (from the King, Darin Townsend right out of A-Town, Anderson, Indiana - one of my college roommates) and Slick Rick's Adidas Escort Service (from David Lowery), however, each of them have their champion picks still alive and thus, their toilet bowl visit is likely not to last. In fact, let's just say that a LOT is riding on the Purdue vs Texas Tech match-up for Iona Gaels (Kyle Cody) and A Bracket Just Begets More Brackets (The Commish)............irony of all ironies in that I will be rooting for the Boilermakers!
THE HOPSKI SECOND CHANCE DANCE (SWEET 16 POOL)
Get your entries in by tip-off on Thursday night in order to enter the Hopski 2nd Chance Dance! Entry is FREE due to your main pool entry (paid!) and there is a 5% prize to the winnahhhh!!!
ETC... ETC....
The Hopski field favorite - Villanova - has survived this bizarre 2 rounds of high seed slaughter - giving the 36 entries picking them to win it all some hope!!
On a side note - something rather unusual in itself - only 23 entries picked the #1 seed Kansas Jayhawks to win the Midwest Region, instead picking #2 seed Michigan St (64 entries) and #3 Duke (57 entries). Just an oddity - basically no one wanted to pick all #1 seeds and Kansas and Xavier were the odd teams out in that respect (only 20 entries picked Xavier into the Final Four!).
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