Welcome to the Upside Down Sweet 16

Welcome to the Upside Down March Madness!

Given the results from the first 48 games of this year's March Madness, is it any coincidence that Stranger Things was ALSO based in Indiana??!!  Indeed, Stranger Things is based in the fictional Roane County in Indiana, while the NCAA this year is based in the fictional backyard of the Big Ten (thank-you Big 12 for joining the March Flop this year!)

Delving a bit deeper, Stranger Things and The Hopski both have a Hopper running it (just imagine he is saying "Archie was my friend".

This has been an Upside Down March so far, with 45 of our entries losing their champion pick here in the 1st weekend!  37 entries alone were flushed by Sister Jean and her Blues Brotherhood of Loyola of Chicago on Sunday!

Think we can get Krutwig and Porter Moser to pose like that when they get to the Final Four?!

On to the Hopski standings.......

Surging into the top spot is none other than Timme! from our defending champ - Ryan Fazio!  Ryan comes to the Hopski out of Norwalk, CT and via Northwestern University in Chicago and indeed was the 2019 Hopski Champion!!  His 2021 entry looks great - with 6 of his Elite 8 and the entire of his Final Four still alive!!

Tied for 2nd are our 1st round leaders and with identical entries no less - continuing the UPSIDE DOWN theme of this year's Hopski - No Suggs in the Champaign Room (Peter Pell - 2nd place in 2019) and King Slayer (Keir Novesky).  Seriously - their entries are identical and more so - the tiebreaker on each entry is the same 148 points!!  That is a Hopski first without a doubt!!  Hopski investigators have concluded there is no connection between the two and the entries were independently filed.  

This photo below was plucked from a Peter Pell twitter account.

When contacted at his home to comment on the connection with Peter Pell, Kier declined to comment, only to say that GQ is indeed contemplating a Hopski spread for its March 2022 fashion spread!

Some resemblance has been noted in these photos.  We cannot comment further on any connection to protect the innocent.  Given that their brackets are pretty much shot except for Gonzaga and Baylor, I think we will avoid a coin flip for the 2021 Champion to be named.  We will be watching closely their entries for the 2nd Chance Dance!

If only we could Upside/Down the standings for the Big 10-to-da-4 entry of Glen Gregory (a friend from the Warsaw days and to this day, Glen has 20+ years in Warsaw, Poland, for some time in the coffee business and now running his start-up Pinio.io.). 

In the Upside Down standings world, Glen would be standing tall but as it is in reality, he has a serious inside track on this year's Toilet Bowl with just 35 points and a pick rate of 40% so far!  His max possible points of 71 is also the 2nd lowest total (66 points is the current lowest and the "bar" to get past to guarantee your entry avoiding the Toilet Bowl spot!

Not to be overlooked are the magnificent entries of Mark Iantosca (In Roy We Trust & Make Tom Crean Great Again), our favorite high finance JP Morgan MD out of Richmond University and a former star PG in the WNBA of Warsaw (have to say I was so thankful when he showed up and was a pass first PG - since he could not shoot the 3).  Mark's has not 1 but 2 entries in the bottom 10 of this year's Hopski.  Nice pickin' Spider!!

That is enough for today.  The Second Chance Dance is up and going - this is FREE and you can still win some cash by applying your knowledge gained from the first two rounds and create a Sweet 16 Winning Entry.  Click to Enter Your Picks.  Your entry name does not have to be the same as in the Hopski main pool

On the subject of entry names - we must revert back to 2019 as I overlooked naming the best Entry Name that year.  The voting was in - I guess I was exhausted and busy.  In any event, belated congratulations and free entry into the 2021 Hopski goes to the 2019 Best Entry Name of Row, Row, Row Your Boat into USC from Sky Kenney!!  Well done!!!

Please email me throughout this week to vote on this year's BEST ENTRY NAMES!  You cannot vote for your own entry (Susan!).  Votes will be tabulated and the winner will be announced before the Commish departs for Death Valley!!