The admin blog updates are out of the way now (2nd Chance Dance and Platform User Guide sent already), so.......
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LET'S CELEBRATE THOSE PEACOCKS!!!!!!!
Yes, those beautiful PEACOCKS of ST. PETER'S!!!! They are just the 3rd #15 seed in history to make the Sweet 16 and as an added bonus, they eased so many of us Hoosier fans away from the edge of the roof, the cliff or whatever we were preparing to jump off of after losing to St. Mary's - by eliminating the hated Kentucky Wildcats!!!
That started off a parade of double digit seeds into the Sweet 16 this weekend, with Iowa State, Michigan and Miami all dealing out underdog bonus points to their faithful entrants!
31 entries nabbed 8 points from Michigan, 23 entries took 8 from Iowa State (hey that's great - aka Schoolhouse Rock) and Miami delivered 8 points to 8 of its followers!! Not a bad haul to say the least, though no one took St. Joseph's (seriously - 2 picked them to beat Kentucky but Murray State - that was too big of a mountain to climb?!).
As a result, King Slayer from Keir Novesky (New Yorker & GQ Design Direct that had identical picks to Peter Pell last year, drove me crazy, after checking out his work - will need to get a Hopski Logo at somepoint!) leads the Hopski with 101 points (with a whopping 58 underdog points!!!). With 3 of his Final 8 out of it (including Indiana?!), it will be tough sledding to stay on top though!
In 2nd place with 97 points (and the highest possible points at 243) UDAMAN from long-time Hopski entrant Mike Ching and the 2011 runner-up (since he was last at the top of the leaderboard midway thru the 2017 Dance, Mike has returned to EY as a partner in Honolulu). Udaman has a LOT riding on the Iowa St and Michigan advancing another round as one of only 4 to predict Iowa St and 9 to tab Michigan into the Elite 8! Mike's also 1 of 5 to have Kansas winning it all.
Rounding out the first weekend podium in 3rd place is AarUpThere from Aaron Jackson (Aaron is a dancing sensation out of Chicago who loves Arby's and surgical power tools - we'll presume in that order). AarUpThere combined accuracy (26/32 first round winners) with the Iowa St and Michigan picks into the Sweet 16 (Iowa St into the elite 8).
ButlerDawgs from Brad Miller (relative of my Indiana U boss Steven Miller) was our first round dart thrower, picking 27 of 32 first round games, albeit losing his Champion Kentucky in the process - e.g. - end of Hopski Championship hopes.
Three entries picked 11 of the 16 (B10 Brethren, My A** (Eric Gates - longtime IU friend - we were just golfing last weekend and debating on our commitment to rooting for other Big 10 teams), Mahonez (Zach Mahoney - a Hopski rookie - I think - unless it is Maloney....) and BGifty (Brian Gift - a 20+ year Hopski entrant and the only one of these 3 to get 11 of 16 AND still have their Championship hopes intact!
At the other end of the spectrum and with a early inside track on this year's TOILET BOWL is Mark Conlon - from - you guessed it - that deft and creative due Mark Conlon of Minneapolis. Mark has won the Hopski back in 2006 but I guess he has forgotten the need to have a decent entry name!! Karma clearly is working against him in 2022, though he does have Gonzaga remaining. The lowest possible point total is Play-in Game (Julie Grundberg - another IU alum and current Seattle resident) at 86 points. That is an early low water mark set to go lower if Gonzaga is eliminated!
34 entries lost their Champion this first weekend - congrats to the remaining 133 as maybe you still have a chance at the title!
That about catches us up on the standings and such. We have 137 entries this year, though I have yet to verify entry fees nor total up the charitable donations (which look great btw!!!!). I will leave that for later this week and a Sweet 16 Preview.
Stay well -
The Commish
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