Cinderella Left the Party Early

Wow - it was an exhilarating 2nd round, but after the dust settled and heart rates returned to reasonable levels, it was mostly favorites left standing - especially on Day 2.  Northern Iowa (up 12 with 35 seconds to go - are you kidding me), St. Joseph's (damn - Pac12 got 1 team to the Sweet 16), Hawaii, Yale, VCU, Providence, SF Austin, and even Butler.........ALL GONE.  We really in all honesty have NO CINDERELLA at the dance this year!!  The surprises of the Sweet 16, Wisconsin, Syracuse and Gonzaga all have great programs and are just a season or so away from when they were contenders for the Final Four.  Thanks for the memories and palpitations, but it is far from midnight and Cinderella is nowhere to be seen!

Thus, we are really just left with the Hopski!

Bob Mulcahy (Bob Mulcahy's entry - no response from him as to who, what, how....) and 50 Fades of Grayson (Matthew Powell - also a no responder with personal info) have flip/flopped their Round 1 positions and now stand 1st and 2nd respectively after picking 1/2 of the Sweet 16.  Not a great performance, but Bob has set a new Hopski all-time record for bonus underdog points with 65, gaining 8 in the 2nd round behind Gonzaga's victory.  Unfortunately, Bob's upside is limited with just 3 of his Elite 8 remaining and his champion pick, Kentucky, eliminated.  50 Fades of Grayson does have some staying power for contending with Kansas and Texas A&M picked to the Final Four and a KU championship.

Moving up into 3rd place is the other entry from David Iantosca, Niang's 12 Year's A Charm! Iantosca's entry jumped 9 spots after picking 11 2nd round winners.  David's hopes rest in Carolina blue moving forward.

There will be more stats, analysis and a preview of the upcoming weekend later this week - gotta run for now.

 

Hoo-Hoo-Hoo Hoosiers!!!!

My socks are soaked but wow - Indiana pulled it off in spite of some tough injuries.  Just a great victory as for those of you not from either Indiana or Kentucky- this border war goes back a long, long way.  It is HUUUUUUUUGE!

 Hey Kentucky - THIS IS INDIANA!! (great video link)

Calipari - maybe you best re-think that neutral court preference! (he chose to cancel the annual home and home series between IU and UK back in 2010, saying he would only play on neutral courts)

True Kentucky Blue

Next update - maybe Sunday afternoon!!  Busy day tomorrow!!

Record Setting Underdog Bonus Points in Round 1!

There was no gleeful chorus of the Yellow Rose of Texas last night thanks to Paul Jesperson of Northern Iowa!!

At this point he has to be thinking, "boy, that felt pretty good.....it's got a chance"

And then now it is all about "It is so good to be THE MAN!!".  It cannot feel better than that!!

I was yelling for a few seconds after and then my thought went immediately back to Butler vs Duke in the 2010 Championship and how Gordon's shot SHOULD HAVE gone in as well.  It just SHOULD HAVE GONE IN DARN IT!!  

You gotta listen to the Northern Iowa radio guys go nuts after the half court game winner - click this: NIU RADIO  It only would have been a greater shot had NIU been down 1, but still one of the great finishers in Madness history! 

In terms of the Hopski pool - this was technically not an upset as 93 entrants had picked Northern Iowa, presumably as most entries had Texas A&M going into the Sweet 16 - so may as well roll the dice.  On that topic - here are the numbers on the other major picked upsets:

• VCU - 124
• Gonzaga - 91
• Wichita State - 77
• Hawaii - 66  
• Yale - 56
• Little Rock - 32
• SF Austin - 22 (just 22!!)
• Middle Tennessee State - 1 (just 1 - I am in awe!)

More on the upset picking at the end........

Stephen F Austin as well delivered some big bonus points (11 to be exact) as it whacked West Virginia - another Hopski pool favorite predicted to go a long way.  NOT SO!!

This guy - Thomas Walkup - destroyed WVU's defense for 33 points and 9 rebounds - leading SFA to a match-up with Notre Dame and it will not surprise me if SFA is favored in that game!!

So, even with a record number of big opening round upsets, 50 Fades of Grayson (the other Matthew Powell) ties the all-time Hopski record by picking 29 out of 32 games (missing only Michigan, Pitt and Michigan State) and holds the top spot in the standings!  Outstanding!!!  Unfortunately - his homage to the Michigans will hurt in the standings as Matt had MSU in the final and Michigan in the Final 8 - ouch!  Still - record setting none the less with the 29 picks. 

Moving up 2 spots to 2nd place from Thursday is the Bob Mulcahy entry from none other than.......care to guess.......BOB MULCAHY!!  Bad entry name karma did not stop Bob from picking 26 winners and all of the important bonus point winners in the first round!!  Bob is one of the few having picked Kentucky to win the tournament and is primed to take the Hopski IF they do so (NOT HAPPENING BOB - GO HOOSIERS!!).

Rounding out the money spots is I've Made a Huge Mistake (Beth Paul of Thoma Bravo in Chicago), who moved up 6 spots from Day 1 into 3rd place, but also has unfortunately lost her champion Michigan State.  We'll not be hearing from her again.

My previously perfect wife - I Bullshit You Not (Ola Hopper) dropped like a rock (heck - I am even ahead of her now) on the 2nd day, all the way to 44th.

The biggest move up on Day 2 was from Drumph Roll and Ricardo Yunis - jumping a whopping 103 places to 46th thanks to being the only entrant to pick the Middle Tennessee State upset of Michigan State!  The biggest Day 2 drop was 77 places by Spartacus Rules (Kamran Koochekzadeh of Washington DC - hopefully replicating the name only and not the finish of his 2014 Toilet Bowl winning entry) from 41st to 111th.  He'll be moving up though as he at least has Virginia as his champion!

Speaking of the Toilet Bowl.....Day 1 "leader" Big Nips (Darren Kenney) has been joined in last place now by Few's Flyfishing Season Starts Friday (Joe Kozlak, Gonzaga alum and soon to be Amsterdam resident, currently living in Wroclaw Poland and taking money off the commish again in our NCAA side bet).  Ugh - he bets better than he picks!!  Coincidentally, the other side bettor with the Commish ended the 1st round with the worst number of correct picks in the pool, just 15 for 32, Cadwallader University (Tom Wojt of Long Island, former Warsaw expat famous on the court for the Freddy Flintstone travel and off the court for numerous unmentionables).  Our side bet is Big 10 plus Butler (me) vs Big 12 plus CU.......did I already mention GO HOOSIERS!

FOR FULL HOPSKI STANDINGS - CLICK HERE

For the first round - you were average if you picked 22.56 of the winners AND racked up 24.7 bonus points.  Average in this case would put you in 72nd place in the standings!  That 22.6 is consistent with the historical Hopski first round average of 22.4.  The bonus underdog points though already approaches the all-time best average for a complete tournament of 25.9 (2014), a year when no one picked the UConn Huskies as champion!

For Day 3 - do not expect a complete Day 3 blog update as a busy Sunday with church and a calcotada (roasted wild onions with a tasty orange sauce - a tasty Catalan tradition) thereafter.  Of course I will be watching Indiana/Kentucky live tonight and may muse a bit but most likely, be patient for a full update on Monday regarding the Saturday and Sunday game.  I WILL though update the standings on the Hopski Website on Sunday morning!

NOTE - IF you are a rookie or someone not well known to me that is suddenly contending (and definitely if you are into the top 10!) - drop me a quick note of introduction and something to share with the pool!

Given the extensive upsets of the 1st 32 games and that most pool members are picking them, I am wondering if this whole bonus point thing is the way to do the brackets anymore!  Everyone has kind of figured out (or most anyway) that you pick a Sweet 16 and pick every other game as an upset, rolling the dice for Hopski bonus points.  I am just thinking out loud here - but maybe the way to go in the future is to revert back to a straight scoring system without underdog bonus points as the playing field (court) is much more level these days say than ten years ago.  Just a thought - comments appreciated!

BOOOOOOOM GO THE BRACKETS!!!

Middle Tennessee State goes coast to coast leading Michigan State and blows up many, many Hopskis brackets.  How many??  Well, certainly the 56 that picked MSU to win the tournament are pretty much gone (The Commish's entry included), but more so - 82 entries had them in the Championship game and 119 had them in the Final Four.  Sooooooo - the field has quickly been whittled down provided that Carolina and Kansas both avoid upsets this weekend!!
 

A HUGE HOPSKI DRUMPH ROLL for RICARDO YUNIS (Joining the Madness all the way from Bogota, Columbia!), the ONLY ENTRY to pick the MTSU upset victory over Michigan State!!  His brackets are a bit of a mess though with Seton Hall and Arizona picked in to the Elite 8 - but certainly a moral victory no less!!

Apologies to THE OTHER MATT POWELL (50 FADES OF GRAYSON) as it is that Matt Powell entry that was perfect through 16 games and NOT the entry of my fellow IU alum Matt Powell of Cincinnatti.  Special thanks to Lou Hevezi (a Boiler) for pointing this error out to me with a top of the morning phone call saying, and I quote "There's no way in hell Powell would be smart enough to pick 16 out of 16.  I know him and that is just impossible" unquote.  50 Fades of Grayson continues to lead the pool, now with 21 out of 22 winners (but the loser a big one as he had MSU to the final).  An all-time Hopski record setting 30 winners is still within sight!

That is it for me.  I will finish the evening with the Oklahoma game and then watch the remainder tomorrow morning.  Website will be updated thereafter (by 8am EST).

Reports and Analysis

For those new to the Hopski, please note a plethora of reports exist on the Hopski Pool Website.  TO ACCESS THESE, CLOCK ON REPORTS AND CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

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. Michigan State leads the way with 56 entries trusting in Izzo and the Spartans.  Kansas is next with 49 and N Carolina is 3rd at 16.  11 teams have been picked to win it all this year (same as last year!).

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. 

TO SEE ANY ENTRY, USE PLAYER LISTING:  The player listing report lists all entries by entry name.  To see any full set of brackets that an entry includes, along with points scored each game, click directly on that entry name.
 

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 2017!

My Perfect Wife

 My Perfect Wife.......



DOH!  Not that one.....THIS ONE....

has started off the 2016 Hopski a perfect 16 for 16!!!  I Bullshit You Not (Ola Hopper, indeed the perfect wife of the Commish who just walked in on me with a screen full of Penelope Cruz shots and just laughed without asking a question - not that it is a normal thing mind you!) along with 50 Shades of Grayson (Matt Powell, one of my best IU friends, now living outside of Cincy and keeping his 4 boys out of trouble).  Both of these entrants will be looking to break the all-time Hopski record of 29 1st round winners by the end of Friday!!

The only other entrant to get all of the 27 Hopski underdog bonus points on Thursday was Make the Iantoscas Great Again (David Iantosca, the "good" Iantosca brother of Mark).  That was good enough for sole possession of 3rd place at the end of Thursday.

At the bottom of the Hopski in sole possession of 153rd place is Big Nips (Darren Kenney), somehow this Hopski vet missed every upset yesterday and hit on just 7 of 16 picks - shocking!

A big tip of the hat to the Indiana Hoosiers for their romp over Chattanooga to open the tournament, setting up a 2nd round match-up with the also under-seeded Kentucky Wildcats.  UK Coach Calipari ended what used to be one of the best non-conference annual rivalries in 2012 between IU and UK (after the Watford Shot, click and enjoy some goosebumps and tingles down the spine) and thankfully the Committee has put them together for Saturday night!  GO HOOSIERS!!
 
 

 

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!!!

There are enough of you in this pool from the Midwest to know that us Hoosiers just take a bit of pleasure out of any Purdue loss - but especially ones like today when they just fell apart and blew it!

Way to go Arkansas Little-Rock Trojans!!!  32 entries picked this upset (I sure did not see it coming).

The first of the late games are cruising to big wins unless Utah blows it.  I am off to bed - to watch the remaining games in the morning.

I have set the software to run the reports and update the website while I sleep - however, this never seems to work.  So.....the website will be updated by 8am EST!!!