Hopski Historical Stats (for you analytics!)

This will be a quick post to share Hopski Historical Stats and of course, the Hopski Hall of Fame!!

Jeff Chamberlin has been added to the Hall of Champions, albeit with the lowest Hopski Champion's score ever!!

South Beach Wannabee from Joey Wagoner was added to the record book this year with the all-time highest underdog point total of 63:

2014 was an average year in terms of pick % and slightly low in terms of scoring.  It was the FIRST year ever to not have at least 1 entry pick the Champion though.

Lastly, Matt Powell extended his Top Ten-less streak to 14 years this year, while Bill Carey moved within one Top Ten finish of Kyle Bower's record 5 Top Ten Hopski finishes:

2014 Hopski Champion: The Law Firm of Revis, Browner & Chambo; Congrats Jeff Chamberlin!

Congratulations to the U Conn Huskies - 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions (thank goodness - anyone but UK and Calipari!!).

The suspense was ended on Saturday when Florida was eliminated, making The Law Firm of Revis, Browner & Chambo the 2014 Hopski International March Madness Pool Champion!  Jeff Chamberlin was close before as back in 2012 his Respect the Drag Bunt entry led the Hopski until the final game when KU let him down and Kentucky snatched the Hopski Championship away from him.  Now in 2014, Jeff Chamberlin wears the Hopski crown!  Jeff now lives/works in the DC area for the US Department of Energy (Nuclear Nonproliferation) after growing up near Boston, going to Boston College and spending his formative Hopski years on the hoops court in Warsaw, Poland in the last 90s.

When contacted, he commented that "I owe it all to my close Indiana U ties - with his mom, aunt and cousins all being Indiana grads.  He wanted to thank 2010 Hopski Champion Mark Noferi for his unending support through this years Hopski rollercoaster and for "Nofeing" it this year as well as 2-time Hopski Champion Kyle Bowers for teaching him what is means to be a true Hickory Husker as the Law Firm of Revis, Browner & Chambo was all about the fundamentals.

Well done Jeff - the 2014 Hopski Title is yours!

Florida's loss ended the Hopski title hopes of the Godfather of Green Bay, Mike Dorsey.  Mike has recently returned to Wisconsin after an 8 year stint in Denver.  When contacted, he said "I owe this year's Hopski success to a lack of hoops watching this year due to fatherhood, as Mike and his wife had twins in August last year."  His Hopski winnings will of course be going towards shoes, as in "babies needs new pairs of shoes"!  Here's Mike on the slopes (pre-fatherhood of course):

Grabbing the last of the 2014 Hopski medals is Attack of the Clones and John Springer!  His Cyclones let him down this year, but his picks did not.  Big John will of course be spending his Hopski winnings on chew!

The Hopski 2nd Chance Dance Championship came down to the tiebreaker and luckily, I noticed over the weekend that both "finalists" had the same tiebreaker, so that was modified and by virtue of picking 133 points in the final game (vs 139 by the tough luck runner-up Charles Peligro's THIRD Chance from Richard Yunis), Going for Three became Champion!  Bill Carey was also the 2007 Hopski Champion and this year's 4th place finish gave him a 4th all-time Hopski Top Ten.  Bill knows how to pick 'em (then again, he has benefitted greatly from his "homer" picks of the Florida Gators too!!).

Best Entry Name for 2014 is…………………………

When I Think of You, I Touch Bill Self, from THE Matthew P Powell!  Matt resides now outside of Cincinnati, but his heart and home is Kokomo, Indiana!  Matt is one of my best friend's from my IU college days and after 14 years of futility in the Hopski Pool, he at least gets free entry in next year's pool with this year's entry name winner!

And so ends another Hopski pool with my new mantra of "never again".  Yet, check back at this blog site or the standard pool internet site next March and yep, it will probably be going yet again.

Please do once again consider a donation for the Great Lakes Outreach effort in Burundi for whatever reason best moves you to action!!!  Click here:  BURUNDI DONATION  I managed to ride 191 miles in the past few weeks of the tournament in preparing for my fundraising ride in May, so not all time was spent managing the Hopski!  Donations of the same $25 for the Hopski would be well used and greatly appreciated, so do not overlook what might be considered a small token donation!

As always, March Madness and the Hopski are great opportunities to get in touch with many of you that unfortunately we are not able to be in as regular contact these days.  It is also a great opportunity to introduce many of you and to meet new entrants as well.  Take care.

The Commish

Post - Elite 8 Letdown

FIRST OFF - BEST ENTRY NAME - PLEASE DROP A QUICK EMAIL ASAP WITH YOUR VOTE!!  1 VOTE PER ENTRY AND NOT FOR YOURSELF!  I AM BEHIND ON THIS AND POWELL IS NOT AROUND THIS YEAR TO GIVE US HIS ENTRY NAME ANALYSIS, THERE ARE SOME GOOD ONES.  PLEASE VOTE!!!

Sorry for the radio silence, but the week turned busy (with work - shocker eh?!) and a Hopski update was unfortunately low on the totem pole of priorities.  On the bright side, I did hit the road for two 2 hour + training rides, including one today inland to the local mountain range.  My legs burned and screamed on a 30 minute / 4 mile climb, but all is well that ends well….right?  Burundi will unfortunately have a few climbs way more than double that as well as 4-6 hours of riding time per day, but I figure if I can train on 1/2 of it, I can survive…right?

Back to the Hopski and yep, as much as it pains me to do so, this update is in Kentucky Blue!!!  On that note, kudos to my all-time favorite Wildcat, Kyle Macy from my hometown of Peru, IN:
  

Gotta give credit where credit is due and those Wildcat freshman stepped up to the plate last weekend and delivered back to back impressive wins over Louisville and Michigan.  Not only were they impressive victories, but they knocked out 20 entries' champion picks and 98 entries' Final Four picks!!  Only 2 entries in the Hopski picked the Wildcats into the final four:  Its Marty's Time (Marty not Mickey Koehler, an Andersen colleague and mentor, now a VP at Mid-American Group near Chicago) and Kreativhead (the Croatian Creative Sensation, Damir Brajdic, in Warsaw for nearly 12 years I think and now out of Atlanta, but working in DC for Capital One).

I have re-set the "mover/loser" figures on the website so as to show changed from the pre-Sweet 16 standings and will report against that since this is my first real update since then…..

Surging into the Hopski top spot is The Law Firm of Revis, Browner and Chambo (Jeff Chamberlin, a BCU grad is about all I can confirm at this point - though he may be a Nuclear Game Theory Specialist from all I can find on the web…Jeff??

Chambo managed to pick 5 of the Elite 8 teams and 2 of the Final Four team (tied best of any entries in the Hopski this year).  Jeff has been in 8 previous Hopski, with just 1 Top Ten finish, so this is nosebleed territory for him.  That said, provided that Florida DOES NOT win the tournament, his entry will take the 2014 Hopski (not a bad time to consider a hedge bet on Florida Jeff!!).

Checking into 2nd place, an 8 spot leap from pre-16, is the Godfather of Green Bay entry from Mike Dorsey of Milwaukee who is a Domer (e.g. ND grad) and works now for Northwestern Mutual.  Certainly he's looking at some alternative outcome bets to hedge his Hopski championship winnings IF Florida wins it all.  On a side note - Mike is leading the 2nd Chance Dance as well, but no chance to pull a double and win both!

Holding on to third place is Attack of the Clones from John Springer, our previous number 1.  Arizona's loss to Wisconsin ended Springer's Hopski title hopes (along with quite a few others), though he could still get some money out of the Hopski for the first time in 15 years!!!! 

We have a New Toilet Bowl Champion (this section in brown….for obvious reasons) Champion.  The 2014 Hopski Toilet Bowl goes to Spartacus Rules from Kamran Koochekzadeh.  Kamran managed to go 0 for the Elite 8, locking up early the Toilet Bowl title over a strong attempt from A Year Without Santa Clause (Julie Grundberg, a 7 time Hopski participant out of Chicago)

Looking into this weekend, aside from the 82 entries that have predicted a Florida presence in the Championship Game, there are a few entries with a lot to gain in the standings.  7 entries have Wisconsin making it to the final, including:

• Docent Darling (Terry Kenney of SF, CA, from "that" Kenney USC group that has someone contending each year!)
• Donovan for President (Bill Carey, UF grad, zero handicapper and permanent Warsaw expat)
• Dunkin Blumpkin (Don Lubreski, the rebounding monster, at least in his Warsaw days in the early 90s!, now out of DC)
• Its Marty's Time
• Not Comin' In Last Again This Year! (none other than Vicki Maloney, indeed last year's Toilet Bowl winner with a Hopski all-time low point score.  Vicki was in Budapest back in 1992 when I left the US as well and now is in DC)
• TennisTime? (yet another ex-Budapest expat AND 2008 Hopski Toilet Bowl winner, Linda Genty now out of Tokyo and living in Kenilworth in suburban Chicago)
• The Law Firm of Revis, Browner and Chambo

The four which I have highlighted in Orange even have a Florida/Wisconsin final predicted (well done!!)!!  Not to be overlooked is the Kreativhead prediction of a Kentucky presence in the final game - the ONLY entry to pick UK there, while no one predicted UConn in the Final.

OK - gotta cut this short.  Kids are almost home from school and it is sunny - so I have zero chance of getting away with typing on my computer.  Enjoy the games and VOTE for the best entry names.  Adios until Monday's pre-Final Update.

**My Finals Picks:  Florida vs Kentucky (UGHHHHHHH - an ALL-SEC FINAL!!)

Click, Click, Welcome to Your Kodak Moment!

That was my favorite quote of the tournament so far, from Reggie Miller after one of the UCLA players threw down on Florida's center.  Reggie was a great trash talker and certainly has not lost his flair for it as an announcer!  I am pretty sure I will never be able to use this in the future (or the past for that matter as this was a posterizing dunk!), but I can pass it on to some of the Spaniards here and localize it.

4 of the Elite 8 teams are set now, with Wisconsin delivering an impressive blow for the Big 10, Arizona and Florida moving on without too much flash (I especially thought Florida was sloppy) and Dayton officially is crowned this year's Cinderella!  On Sparty On! from Richard Rykhus (MSU grad living now in Chicago - obviously going with the hometown pick of the Spartans to win it all!) picked Dayton, but he was unable to come up with the other 3 winners on Thursday.  This correct pick though pushed the Sparty On! entry up 30 spots in the standings to 11th place.

60 other entries picked 3 of the 4 Thursday winners and were rewarded with jumps in the standings from 10 to 15 places in general.  Attack of the Clones from John Springer has moved into the to spot, while 7 other of the top ten spots also had 3 winners on the day and are contending.

6 entries, including #2 overall South Beach Wannabee by Joey Wagoner, pulled Blutarsky's on the day, getting zero.zero points!  This gives the pool a new Toilet Bowl leader, Spartacus Rules from Kamran Koochekzadeh of Washington DC (great profile photo on Facebook by the way, though judging from your picks, you may have wanted to jump the fire a 2nd time!!).  Spartacus Rules' Toilet Bowl "hopes" come down to tonights Virginia vs Michigan State game with a Spartan victory delivering the knock-out blow to this entry (ironic given the entry name!) and locking up the 2014 Hopski Toilet Bowl Championship for Kamran.

Deadbeats:  We are down to just two deadbeats, Leapin' Larry Corrigan of Peru, IN (now in Chicago) and the man formerly known as the King, Darin Townsend of A-Town, IN!!!  PAY UP!!

As for tonight's match-ups, a whopping 124 entries have Michigan State picked to knock off the #1 seeded Virginia Caveliers.  A Sparty loss will certainly end the Hopski title hopes for quite a few of those 124 entries.  I like Sparty to continue their healthy late season surge.

Just 3 entries have UConn picked over the Cyclones, including the Commish.  I gotta have this one to have any shot at a 3rd Hopski title (heck, I will settle with a 1st page finish given the past few years results).  UConn in MSG is a tough team to pick against.

Another 3 entries have some BIG points riding on Tennessee over Michigan.  Sorry, not happening.  Cinderella Vols are going home and yes - the BIG 10 RULES!!

The State of Kentucky Championship will be played out in Indianapolis and just 6 entries have Kentucky winning this one, with 109 rooting on UL.  UL will get some revenge for its defeat earlier this year I believe.

96 entries this year in the 2nd Chance Dance!  16 went 4 for 4 on the first night of their 2nd chance!


ADIOS!!

Sweet 16 Preview

Let's get into it quickly as I have hoops practice in 30 minutes!

Game 1 today is the Cinderella match-up, guaranteeing a double digit seed in the Elite 8 for just the 14th time in March Madness since 1985!  Basically it happens just about every other year, though certainly sounds better as previously written.  In terms of the Hopski, 41st place Sparty On! from Richard Rykhus is the only entry with Dayton and 65th place The Polar Vortex, from ex-Warsaw expat Bill Lyon is the only entry with Stanford.  The Polar Vortex could use this one to stay on the 2nd page but Sparty On! still has a shot at Hopski Champion, so a big one for Richard!

Game 2 tips off 30 minutes later and it should be a good one, Baylor vs Wisconsin.  14 entries have Baylor winning and 81 have Wisconsin - so a LOT to gain for those backing the underdog, including 4 dawg bonus points IF you picked both teams into this game.  I gotta support the Big 10 and indeed expect a Badger victory.

Florida is our "pool pick" for champion, leading the way with 57 entries having tabbed the Gators to win it all.  A Bruin upset here would boost greatly the chances of the 8 having picked UCLA, but this is just not gonna happen, in fact, I expect a double digit win by the Gators.

The lat game of the night pits another pool favorite, Arizona (picked by 19 entries to take the title) against San Diego State.  A whopping 119 have Arizona picked in this game, with 20 picking SD State.  I am not expecting an upset in this one either.

In terms of the unpaid - we are down to 5 entries and 3 families!  The Fazios are still waiting to hedge something, while Larry Corrigan and Darin Townsend just flat out have no excuse but to pay the fiddler!

A historical stats review puts the 2014 1st and 2nd rounds as above average in terms of correct picks and WAY above average in terms of Dawg Bonus Points!!  This year's Hopski may break the all-time average of 136 set back in 2001 at this pace (and presuming Genty actually picks a winning underdog at some point!).

Presuming the final unpaid entries pay up - the Prize Pool looks like this:

155 entries @ $25 per, less last year's free best name and toilet bowl ($50), less software ($39), less paypal fees for non-personal payments ($15) = $3,771.

1st Place:  60% - $2,262.60
2nd Place:  25% - $942.75
3rd Place:  10% - $377.1
2nd Chance Dance:  5% - $188.50

Good Luck!!

Pre-Sweet 16 Post Tomorrow!! Check out my ride today and BUY A COW!!

My legs have been just achy and somewhat tingly now for about 4 hours after knocking off a 60km ride today (that's about 37 miles), my longest yet in training for Burundi.  More so, the elevation change was a nearly staggering (for me) 761 meters (just under 1/2 mile).  Not sure how many of you know about strava, but it is a great training/tracking tool.  You can check out my ride statistics at:   Today's Ride

The challenge in Burundi is great (heck, it is pretty big everywhere these days).  Yes, my bike challenge, but more so the challenge for Great Lakes Outreach and the people there.  I continue to strongly urge you to consider a donation.  Let's say just another $25 or $50 and with my matching, the Hopski will have a herd of cows producing milk in Burundi!!

WHY DONATE??  

1. This is a good cause;
2. The people are personally known to me;
3. The money gets to the projects (their admin costs are single digits!);

Those are 3 tick the boxes for me when making donations, so please give this more thought as we can certainly bump $375 total to date (though this may overlook your big checks sent directly to GLO!! :)  

My Razoo page:  http://www.razoo.com/story/May-2014-Tour-Du-Burundi-Hopper

Better still, send a check to GLO and avoid Razoo's 4.5% fees!!

Back to the brackets and madness tomorrow.  I gotta go lay down!

Speaking of which - 6pm EST deadline for your free entry into the 2nd chance dance!!  2nd Chance Dance Entry

Deadbeat Time

Ok, it is now time for some collection assistance from the field!!

Two rookie entrants have yet to pay and I have little idea where they have come from (presumably from one of you!).

Hayden Dudley (OJ Simpson), hiepduc2@yahoo.com and Matthew Powell (Dancing with the Starters), powell.mcp@gmail.com have yet to pay up.  Please do put a bit of pressure on them to do so as I have little patience for excuses such as "I am busy" or "I will find the time soon" to pay!!

Other Hopski returnees still yet to pay include Larry Corrigan, Pat Libby, John Springer, Michael Fazio and Darin Townsend.   Tidy this up ASAP and do not waste my time - seriously!!

The Hopski is a "public service" operation and chasing slow to pay entrants reduces my motivation to do this in the future - trust me!!