Hopski Sweet 16 Preview

Back in time for a Sweet 16 preview………………

First, the delinquents list:

• Mark Iantosca (unfortunately responsible for Logan and Rob Jeffries too)<NOW PAID!
• John Springer (hey Heyseed - get it done!)<NOW PAID!
• Larry Corrigan (Big Lar - really??)
• Matthew Powell (the Other One - at least The One pays on time!)
• Bill Carey (what, no secretary now??!!)

Yep - that is it - the Final Five of "we could give a crap about your time as clearly our time is more valuable".  The 2nd Chance Dance will not accept your entry if no payment received by Thursday 6pm.  The pressure will get turned up from there with a release of your emails to the Pool.

Speaking of the 2nd Chance Dance…..let me repeat.  This is FREE if you are entered in the Hopski Main Pool and more so, you can WIN MONEY!  Click here SECOND CHANCE DANCE to enter your Sweet 16 Picks by 6:30pm EST Thursday.

Here's the # of Entries Picking each Sweet 16 team to Win ( Tournament Summary Report ):

Kentucky	159
Duke	143
Arizona	139
Wisconsin	138
Villanova	doh!    109
Notre Dame	97
Virginia	doh!      96
Gonzaga	92
Iowa St	doh!      61
Michigan St	35
Wichita St	30
N Iowa	doh!      28
Oklahoma	25
N Carolina	24
Kansas	doh!      23
Louisville	23
Baylor	doh!       11
Utah	9
Xavier	5

UCLA	3
NC State	2

West Virginia                   1      < Go Blue & Gold (Linda Genty - whoo hoo!!!)

Certainly some bonus points still out there for the taking in these games!  At this point though the key is keeping your Final Four intact!!  Heading into the Sweet 16, only 16 entries have their entire Final Four alive and well!!

BEST ENTRY NAME:  Please email me with your favorite entry name vote!!!  You cannot vote for your own entry (the Susan Eslick rule) and please do vote for at least 2 or 3 entries when you email me.  Best Entry Name Winner gets free entry into the 2016 Hopski International March Madness Pool!!

CURRENT YEAR STATS:

Lyon's L"R"ocks from Bill Lyon are really falling like a rock, dropping 63 spots to 66th place from Round 1 to Round 2, largely due to a 38% pick percentage!!  Bill though is tied with My 2 Sons (former Champion Jay Baum of SF fame) with 35 underdog points each, though Jay's bonus points have his entry in 5th place!

to be continued tomorrow - it is bedtime here……..

Gotta Luv the Huggy Bear!! On to the Sweet 16!!

“I wish I could sit here and tell you we’re definitely going to win — I can’t do that,” Huggins said. “But I can tell you that we’re not going to be scared.”  Had to add this to yesterday's update - great quote!

Huggy Bear and the West Virginia Mountaineers "Got Next"!!  After a passionate display of Do or Die Basketball in their victory over Maryland yesterday, I have hope that WVU can be the team to take down Kentucky.  This of course is a wish, but certainly WVU showed many aspects that Huggins former school (Cincinnati) showed in Round 2 that at least made their loss to UK interesting.  WVU may not have the height for UK, that could be the limiting factor, but certainly they have the discipline, the depth, the recklessness, the swagger, the ability to hit a big 3 or two, get easy buckets off of turnovers and of course - The Coach to do it.  At least I hope so and certainly so does the Go Blue & Gold from Linda Genty, a WVU alum and friend from the '92 Budapest days now spending her time holding the Big Dog's leash (that Big Dog would be husband Ron - My Other Bracket Is On My Personal Server)

Cincinnati, West Virginia, Oregon, Wichita State, Xavier, Dayton, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Butler, NC State, Louisville - whilst not an exhaustive list, win or lose in the 2nd round, these teams really showed some serious heart and desire in taking the fight to their opponent I felt in watching them this weekend (and no, I did not watch all games!).  Oregon especially had the "edge" in terms of determination and emotion against Wisconsin, unfortunately for the Ducks just not the talent.  What a great weekend of hoops that ended with not much left in terms of Cinderellas (c'mon - that shoe will never fit UCLA!).

As far as the Hopski, certainly the apocalypse is upon us as the Iantosca Brothers (only 2 of the 3 thank goodness) lead the pool as we head into the Sweet 16.  Wiltjer's Warriors (Scott, the more tolerable of the two from memory) leads the Hopski, moving up 25 spots after the 1st round on the strength of a Hopski Pool high 13 out of 16 in round 2!  1 point behind is Release the Kraken ("good" Mark and just  past his 1 year wedding anniversary to a seemingly blind modelesque Argentinian lawyer who must also know something about hoops given this year's entry) and The Contrarian Crossover (two-time Hopski Champion and an all-time leading 5 top ten finishes Kyle Bowers of Warsaw).  

In fact, the  top twenty Leaderboard is rather full of former Hopski Champions as My 2 Sons (Jay Baum 2012 Champion) is in 5th, Broken Gopher (Blaine Rowlette 2000 Champion),  is in 8th, Return of the Mack (Kyle Bowers 2003 and 2010 Champion) is in 10th, Bill Cosby Roofied My Bracket (Scott Hoagland 2001 Champion) is in 14th, UNI - Iowa's Other University, no more (Mark Conlon 2006 Champion) is 17th  and the defending champion Jeff Chamberlain's entry, 4 for Brady, 1 for Chambo, slots in at 19th!  Quite impressive starts!  Not to be overlooked is the fact that Release the Kraken (Mark Iantosca, 2003 runner-up).  Maybe this thing DOES require some skill!

I will cover other aspects of the Pool results to date later this week as for the moment, I have to get some work done today and want to get something out.  I have the blog set via mailchimp to email out any updates on a daily basis (only if there is something new), so do not worry about checking back in unless you really miss me.

ENTRY FEE DELINQUENTS LIST - 5 TO GO!

• CORRIGAN
• HASLUN
• IANTOSCA ("GOOD" MARK - PAYING FOR JEFFRIES
• THE OTHER MATT POWELL
• SPRINGER

The 2nd CHANCE DANCE SWEET 16 POOL is awaiting your free entry!!!  This is your true 2nd chance at glory after spending the past 4 days thinking "if only I had known that last week, I would have picked ....."  Entry is free provided you have entered the main pool, though if you are on the delinquents list for the main pool, your entry will not be accepted into the 2nd Chance Dance (let's call this The Mark Iantosca Rule).  2nd Chance Entry deadline is Thursday at 18:30 EST.

Adios!

Hopski Day 2 - on to the Round of 32

That is indeed as good as it got on Day 2, with Dayton's KO of Providence the ONLY upset of the day.  There were a lot of near misses, including Louisville, Maryland, W. Virginia and Belmont, but in each case the bell tolled early for Cinderella and that was that.  The MOST excited I was all day was when the UC Irvine / Louisville game switched on and I saw THIS GUY:

This picture does not really do justice to just how big UC Irvine's Mamadou Ndiaye really is, though note the "vertical" he required to dunk this is quite similar to my best days' 10" vertical leap!!  Mamadou is HUGE.  Montrezl Harrell is there to his left and he looks like a small forward (and Montrezl is normally the monster on the court!).  Mamadou is 7'6 and weighs 300lbs and that sounds like a lot of weight, he certainly carries it well.  When he is on the court, it is amazing how small every other player around him looks.  Unfortunately, Louisville held on to eliminate UC Irvine and we'll have to wait until next year for Mamadou (presumably as he is a Sophomore and still a "project" for the NBA at this point).

This is a quick update unfortunately as Ola (my wife) is off with Mia skiing today and tomorrow and I have Tasza and Sophie anxious to get out of the house at the moment.  Thus, to the standings…..

ABK (Anyone But Kentucky) from the right winger of Carmel, IN Marc Powell has surged into the top spot.  This was certainly to be expected on a day without upsets that the conservatives take over!  ABK is tied at the top with former Champion Jay Baum's My 2 Sons.  Lyon's Locks slipped 2 spots to 3rd position, with Bill still contending in spite of a 41% pick % - the lowest in the field so far!!

Go Blue & Gold (the homage to West Virginia from WVU grad and ex-Budapest expat Linda Genty) holds the top pick % after the first round with a sizzling 84% (27 out of 32)!  Unfortunately for Linda, 2 of her 5 misses were teams she had in the Final Four (SMU and Baylor) so she will very soon be contending for the Toilet Bowl (again) I fear!!  Speaking of the Toilet Bowl, Lavin's Turtlenecks (David Iudica) is in sole possession currently of last place, picking only 16 of the first round winners correctly AND getting ZERO underdog points in the process.  Kudos David as THAT is not an easy thing to do!!

Looking ahead to today's games, Back to the Salt Mines (Ann Arborite and ex-Poland, ex-UK, ex-Belgium, ex-Burundi expat Brian Gimotty) is the ONLY entry with Cincinnati upsetting UK.  Just 3 entries have Oregon knocking off Wisconsin and just Lyon's Locks (of course) has UAB picked into the Sweet 16!  

Enjoy the games.  Do not be surprised if there is no update tomorrow as it is hard enough watching the games before church, let alone getting an update out.  Most likely I will get something out at the start of Sunday's games!!  

Get those paypal payments in if you have not already done so (as I understand it, Amazon Payments is no longer an option - ooops!!).  The delinquents will be chased and chastised shortly!

Adios, The Commish

Hopski Day 1

Day 1 is in the books and the blog is honoring Georgia State's great comeback with some black and blue colors!

Lyon's Locks (Bill Lyon of Arlington Heights, IL) has taken hold of the top spot by picking 7 of the 16 games, but meanwhile racking up 30 underdog points by virtue of having picked the Ga State, UAB & UCLA victories!  Bill benefitted greatly from a day of upsets and his "work back from the Elite 8 with upsets" strategy has garnered some good early points.  Here's Bill (left side of photo) in his hoops heyday when we finished 2nd in the Warsaw Adidas 3 on 3 (anyone remember who the guy on the right is??!!):

Just to show that there are multiple ways to skin a cat in the Hopski, Docent Darlin's Back (Terry Kenney from San Francisco) went the traditional route, picking 14 of the 16 games correctly and stands in 2nd place.  Terry is hurting though from the Baylor loss, having picked them into the Final Four.

I attempted to give a nudge to a few entrants that were less than colorful with their entry names.  Alas, this did not work with most of them and if you cannot find your previous boring entry name, trust me, it has been changed!  The Spirit of the Pool Rule was invoked by the Commish.

Also note that we have finished with 162 entrants (and the Presidential Picks make the pool 163).  Please check that your entry is included as one entry (and I remembered the entry name when it was imported into the pool, but somehow it was knocked out) was not included in the final list yesterday.  This was added overnight and the pool should now be complete!

For those new to the Hopski, please note a plethora of reports exist on the Hopski Pool Website, including:

THE LEADERBOARD:  The Top 25 entries in the standings will always show up on the first page of the website.  After the 1st day and subsequent key break points in the tournament, the Leaderboard and the Current Standings will both show how many positions entries have move up and down the standings since the previous break point.  These breaks are at 16, 32, 40, 48, 52, 56, 58, 60 and 62 games.

Champions Summary report:  Summary of the teams picked to win the tournament and how many times. Kentucky leads the way with 88 entries trusting in Calipari and the Wildcats.  Wisconsin with 26 and Arizona with 18 entries are the next two.  11 teams have been picked to win it all this year, with Iowa State the first to exit the tournament.

Tournament Summary report:  Shows, by team, how many entries picked them to win in each round. I will change this report as the tournament progresses so it sorts by each round (unfortunately, I cannot exclude teams that have been eliminated).

Current Standings report:  Shows the entire pool standings.  This is a 4 pager and whilst you may not win or contend to win the pool, it is certainly a worthwhile objective to finish on the 1st page (and certainly avoid the dreaded last page).  From this report as well you can click on any entry name to see the entire bracket entered by that person.

Projected Standings report:  This is a sorted report by possible point totals, showing the maximum points an entry might get if all the remaining games go as they have picked.  This reports also shows predicted champ. 

Now that all entries are in - please feel free to email me your vote(s) for Best Entry Name.  Each entrant is allowed to vote for up to 3 entry names and the entry name with the most votes takes the title and gets free entry in 2016!

Re-charge those hoops batteries as Day 2 starts in 6 1/2 hours!!

Adios - 

The Commish

BLAST OFF!!!!

161 entries are battling for the title of 2015 Hopski International March Madness Pool Champion.

Well, let me correct that as 2 entries were in it for about all of 2 hours as with Iowa State losing - 2 teams lost their champions.  Another 14 entries had Iowa State in the championship game.  OUCH!!  A big congrats goes out to the 7 entries picking UAB (green update in honor of UAB by the way) and taking the first 11 underdog bonus points of this year's Hopski!

Not 45 minutes later, another 3 seed goes down - Baylor.  This was not as devastating on Hopski entries as only 4 entries had Baylor into the Final Four.  Still - OUCH!  Georgia St was picked by 29 entries.  

I had to get this Ron Hunter video out to everyone.  This is just beautiful to see:  It's Good!

Ron Hunter used to coach at IUPUI and he is also well known for coaching barefoot annually for the benefit of Samaritan's Feet, a charity getting shoes to those that need them most.  From what little I know about him, he is a great person and a good coach.  Fantastic win for him and his family (it was his son that scored 10 points in the last 2 minutes of the game!).  Just AWESOME! 

ONLY 2 entries picked BOTH Georgia State and UAB:  My Two Sons (2012 Champion Jay Baum's entry into this year's Hopski) and Lyon's Locks (Bill Lyon, ex-Warsaw and now living in the Chicago area).

This is likely the last blog update of the night as I will watch a few games and then hit the record button.  I will attempt to get the website to auto upload, but it has not always worked out.  Thus, be patient as after I get through my breakfast of recorded games, I will get it all updated in time for your breakfasts in the US.

Get the last of the entry fee paypal payments in tonight please!  Amazing job to date  NOT referring to the pool, brackets or March Madness.

Adios -

The Commish

Ready, set……………..5 1/2 hours til GO!!!

The 2015 Hopski International March Madness Pool (and of course the real games themselves) are ready to tip-off in about 5 1/2 hours.  The pool stands currently at 109 entries, so I expect that it will end up in the typical 140 to 160 range.

GET THOSE LAST MINUTE ENTRIES IN!!


Had to invoke the Spirit of the Game clause requiring creative and NEW (not Gopher Broke or Boys of Springer for the 15th consecutive year) entry names earlier today.  This included the Godfather, Lube Job and Udaman - all very, very worn re-treads of entry names of years past!!  A few others were just not creative whatsoever to start with:

MiamiChris - didn't we go through this last year??  Come up with something for your 2nd entry at least.

Rookie - great to have you - but seriously - 123456789 and 1234567891??

Down on the Upside - great, but not for BOTH entries.

Dtosca 1 and Dtosca 2 - I can only live with one of these and that is only if I must!!

PapaHoppa - jet lag or no jet lag - get those creative juices flowing!!

Hopefully this group (and any last minute entries as well) will get "up to speed" and email some decent creativity later today.

If you are struggling for entry names, head over to TMZ.com (I need a translator for that site) or keep in mind some of this year's current news and pop culture:  Game of Thrones, , Hillary's email, anything anti-Calipari or Ashley Judd, Ebola, Putin, Ukraine, Chris Christie (e.g. Chris Christie's Breasts), Greece leaving the Euro, etc….  Remember, pop culture with a twist to tie it to the Hopski or March Madness is a winner!

The Commish

2015 Hopski International March Madness Pool

For the 17th consecutive year, the Hopski International March Madness pool is back!

The website and pick entry sheet is alive and well now as I type!

The website is as it is every year:

http://www.mysideline.com/u/2588/collegebbmens/default.htm

Rules, etc… - all as in the past for you experienced Hopskiers, whilst rookies, please make yourself familiar of course with the Underdog Scoring Rules!!  ALL RULES are on the main pool webpage under (YOU GUESSED IT) - RULES!

Entry fees this year are $25 USD and given the weakness of the EURO and the likely pending parity, 25 EURO to book!!  If you are paying in Polish zloty - a nice even 100 PLN note will get you into the Hopski.

ALL ENTRY FEES are DUE by tip-off on Thursday unless you catch me in a lenient mood.  By lenient mood I may allow a grace period for those with good credit.  I can guarantee right now that Brandon Snow is the odds on favorite for "last to pay entry fee" as he is relocating (flying as I type) from Connecticut to Beijing!!  If anyone has a better excuse than that, of course you can pay later!

ALL POOL UPDATES will be via this blog!!  Bookmark it now along with the Hopski Website above!!

More soon, but for now, rest assured that the Hopski International March Madness Pool is back again!

I am strongly considering a 5 point bonus for anyone that DOES NOT pick Kentucky to win it all and join the 1976 Hoosiers as modern era Undefeated Champions!

Adios -

The Commish

**WHILE I DO HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, WHEN MAKING PAYMENTS VIA PAYPAL:

1. Make this a personal payment (SEND MONEY TO FAMILY OR FRIENDS OPTION) and do not reduce the prize pool and give paypal any fees!
2. ALSO - DO NOT in the reference mention anything except your name or your entry name.  SERIOUSLY!!  Last year, Paypal froze my account.  Let me repeat - DO NOT MENTION NCAA, POOL, etc….  HAPPY BIRTHDAY - that is fine.  Love the Hopski and March Madness - NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
3. markhopski@yahoo.com is my account