Hopski Headquarters has been a bit down this week after JuJu Watkins' season ending ACL injury Monday night. What a terrible break for an incredibly mature and gifted 19 year-old athlete. We were hooked on her after she dropped 51 points on Stanford just over a year ago and my daughter Mia was a ball girl that night (and waited 45 minutes until she came out of the locker room to meet her and get an autograph). Hopefully she is able to come back and continue fully her ascent to the top of women's basketball next season. In the meantime - we are off to Spokane Friday to root on USC, albeit sans JuJu :(.
FIGHT ON JUJU, FIGHT ON!!
Agree, on to some Positive Vibes and the Hopski Round 2.....
and Pre-Sweet 16 Update!
THE LEADERBOARD!!!
Hellooooooo Mike Doud and the Artist Formerly Known as Harper & Bailey. AFKH&B surged into the top spot after the first weekend with a whopping 32 DAWG points and a St. John's champion pick....
DOH! indeed. So long Mike - your stay as a contendah will be short lived - but you garnered a Hopski shout-out!!
In 2nd place and leading the Potential Points category is the guy my wife still "affectionately" refers to a Monkey Boy...
None other than Stan Kwitnieski and Groketology: AI of the Tiger (Stan was one of the early expat settlers in Warsaw, Poland back in '91 or so and now resides in Boulder, CO! We had some great times (and "moments") on the basketball court together as well.).
3rd place is It's Been 38 Years (Eric Gates, IU alum, one of my oldest friends and just such an aspirational AND inspirational guy to all. I started the Eric Gates Fan club back at IU my freshman year and have never given it up!
He's a 4.8 pickleball near pro and well, that is about it. I could say much more but no sense in dredging up the past!!!).
Joining Big E in 3rd place is Josh Bailey2 (from none other than.... you guessed it, Josh Bailey). This is a real shocker for the Commish this year as Josh is a seasoned Hopski veteran yet mailed it in in terms of an entry name this year - not once but twice!! UGH!!!!!
Bad karma Josh - but for now - welcome to the podium!
Yes - 69 is the magical AVERAGE score after 2 rounds of the Hopski this year, with 17 underDAWG points!
This means that about half of the Hopski Pool has already been "eliminated" from the Toilet Bowl Last Place award this year as somehow Aaron Jackson and AarUpThere has reduced his potential point total to 67 in just 2 rounds. THAT is the point threshhold everyone must cross to avoid the mess that is last place!!
Dreaming of a Three-Peat #2 from Don King is our current toilet bowl resident btw, with just 37 points and a pool low 1 DAWG point!!
In terms of Sweet 16 picking - The Hopski Pool of America from Marc Powell (Marc is Matt's lil' bro - see Gates Fan Club picture for Matt on the left, Marc was an essential member of the Hopski team for about 10 years when he was single and childless. All that changed about 6 or so years ago when he and his wife had twins and he basically disappeared from the face of the earth (face of Hopski atleast). He used to provide a fantastic breakdown/analysis of entry names. I say it is time to come back Marc and MHGA!!! Oh yeah - he picked 14 of the Sweet 16 and kudos to him for leading the Hopski in that respect! At the other end of the Hopski spectrum of accuracy is Mazman Bryan Mazlish (Palo Alto entrepreneur and girls basketball Dad and coach). Bryan managed to get just 4 of the Sweet 16 - but still has a reasonable 117 possible points so as to avoid this year's toilet bowl!!
16 entires have had their Champion eliminated - namely Wisconsin, UConn and St. Johns. Oh woe is you!!
Gotta go - games starting in about 1 minute. I am optimistically taking my laptop with me to Spokane, WA for weekend updates in between women's regional games with my daughter Sophie!!
Enjoy the Madness -
The Commish
