Rosalie and A-Rod

All,

OK, so I just read that A-Rod is going to make $32M this year, and the Kansas City Royals will make $36M. That's a little like Rosalie and the rest of us. Rosalie got the only points last Sunday (for her correct Kentucky pick). Besides the fact that Rosalie is running away with the pool, she's also done something I've never seen in all the years we've been doing this. She's picked 2 of the Final Four correctly (UConn and Kentucky), and the rest of us together got none. None. Think that over for a minute. Nil. Bupkus. Nada. Rien a declarer. In short, we suck and she doesn't.

CONGRATS TO YOU, ROSALIE!!! How big do you want your trophy to be?

So, in the Final Four, only you-know-who has the chance to score any more points (and that only if Kentucky wins tonight), so essentially she's given all of us our Saturday and Monday nights back, since there's really no point in watching games now, right?

What a bruiser of a tournament, eh? Here are the standings, if you can bear to look. Remember that if KY wins tonight, Rosalie will have 5 more points, but the rest of us are stuck right where we are.

Sheesh. We'll get 'em next year, eh?

Poolmeister

Wait, VCU? What the what?

People,

Well, now I've seen everything. If my picks weren't already lousy, this certainly wouldn't have helped. Condolences to all you Jayhawks out there.

Sheesh,

C

Sunday picks

Guys and Dolls,

Last two regional finals tomorrow, 4 points each. Not that it'd help me much, standings-wise, but others among you must be hoping against hope. In order to add that tiny soupcon of stress and pressure to your hoop-watching sabbath, here's a list of who's picked whom. Enjoy.

4. KY - Rosalie (what does this girl know?)
2. UNC - Knott, Maggi, Acy, Alexander, Bill, John, Sophie
------------------------------------------------------------
1. Ohio State - Everybody else (you forgot to bet against the Big 10)
3. Syracuse - Dana
9. Nova - Liz


1. Kansas - Everybody else
11. VCU - Nobody at all, not even Rosalie
-------------------------------------------------------------
6. Georgetown - Acy
4. Louisville - Alexander, Steve, Jonathan
2. Notre Dame - Calvino, Tim, Kate
3. Purdue - Matt

And that's that. Have lovely Sundays wherever you are, and I'll see you at the Final Four.

C

Rosalie! Rosalie! Rosalie!

Friends,

Geez Louise, Rosalie has sprung into the lead! John, Sarah, aside from being proud parents, what advice can you give the rest of us about raising hoop-picking offspring? No? Nothing? Oh well.

So, only 5 games left, but plenty of pool action yet to go. I'm particularly interested in the intra-family struggles. Maggi is pummeling me, as is Acy, but I'm starting to pull away from Alexander. (I know he's only 5, but I'll take whatever I can get.) Dana is beating Steve, Kate and Scott are tied. Sarah B is whupping Tim. Big Cal leads all Dewitts. Sophie, who already has one championship under her belt, is pounding on the rest of the Rambeau-Petersons. Finally, and really, sweetest of all, I'm slightly ahead of my similarly pick-challenged brother. I'm confident in my ability to screw that one up, too, but for the moment it satisfies.

I've included the standings through today's (that's Saturday's) games. The math today was easy, as Rosalie got the 4 point UConn win right, and nobody else got either game right. That might be a first in the history of the pool. Congrats Rosie, but what the hell's wrong with the rest of us. Picking UConn seems obvious now, like the murderer at the end of a mystery novel, but it didn't occur to me earlier. Nor did it seem to occur to any of you, either, except Good Old Rosalie, that is. And Butler? Forget it. [insert Butler/mystery novel/murderer joke here. I'm too tired to do it.]

Here, then, are the standings through today's games. Tomorrow's picks in a moment.

Chriskin

If I have to look at Leslie Visser one more time

I will throw up.

Seriously, does it make any sense that women in sports broadcasting are supposed to starve themselves or do whatever Leslie Visser has done to herself while Vern Lundquist is allowed to take up 3/4 of the television screen? He looks like he could eat Raftery at any moment.

More bad news

Poolies,

OK, maybe it's the same bad news, only more so. Maggi's still winning, which makes life a little rough on me. Dig it? Good Old Rosalie seems to be my best hope for not have my wife singing, "I am the Champion, no time for LOSERS" and pointing at me all damn year. C'mon, Good Old Rosalie.

All right, I don't mean to be churlish. I'd be happy for Maggi if she hung on to win here. Not real happy, mind you, just happy.

With Kansas pounding Richmond and UNC thumping Marquette (sorry Kate and Scott, hometown fans, no doubt) there isn't much excitement so far.

Below are the standings after last night's games.

Hope you're all watching tonight.

C

Where we are now

All,

I realized with some horror that I haven't sent out a standings listing after Round Two. My apologies. Maybe I was just avoiding the awful reality, which will become clear to you once you note who is on top of the pool, and who is scraping his bottom along the bottom. Sigh.

This is the last email I'll send out. I'm going to start posting at the blog, which you can find here:

http://hoopkids.blogspot.com/

If you need a login or an invitation or what have you, write to blogmaster Mike Winkler at winkler4@gmail.com. He'll hook you up.

Without further ado, then, here are the gory results after Round Two:



Good luck out there in Round Three, which begins tonight.

Love and kisses,

Your (co-)Poolmeister

paging valerie solanas...

Pittsburgh is out? What the heck!! I want a do-over.

S.

Bad Omen

If I'm the one who has to start this thing off....well, it's got to be some kind of a bad sign for someone.

We are all champions

Or so I am telling myself as I ended up pretty much at the bottom of the only pool I entered this year. On the other hand, I went to both the semifinal games and the final game on Monday night thanks to one of my college roommates who works at the NCAA. I tried my best to cheer Butler on to their first championship to no avail, but had fun nonetheless.

Congrats to the pool winners!

P.S. I am Chris and Jonathan's cousin wearing my team colors on the left.

This is the end. My little friend, the end...

Have I ever mentioned that I hate, hate, hate The Doors? (My otherwise sensible brother Jonathan loves them. He's just wrong. The Doors story: I'm drunk, I'm nobody. I'm drunk, I'm famous. I'm drunk, I'm dead. Yawn.) Anyway, on to the hoop...

Sad, now, that the tourney is over, it's time to wrap up. First, big congrats go to Matthew Peterson, The (New) Sage of Ithaca and Soon To Be Sage of Pittsburgh. That's some title, man, but you've earned it. Matt more or less lapped the field, with the rest of us straggling behind. And who, you ask, are those stragglers? Well, tied for second place are England Bill (and John Ford Coley, 'member those weasels, oldsters?) and Her Grace, Agnes Coyla Jackson. Bill is a past champ, so ending up at or near the top is nothing new for him, but this is Acy's best showing ever, I think. She's busy tonight, as it's the opening night of Romeo and Juliet (where Acy is the Nurse and Tybalt - I'm not kidding here). We'll celebrate her house championship (she killed Maggi, Alexander and me) in some appropriate way. What are the Rambeau Petersons planning to celebrate their Duke-like dynasty? And across the pond, will Bill be wearing ermine and carrying a scepter for his second place finish? Stay tuned to find out.

Now on to the accounting. Below is the final chart, filled with numbers that might or might not be accurate. Below that find a chart showing, well, nothing really, but does demonstrate my ability to make a chart in Excel.

Congrats to the top of the pile, and for the rest of us, a renewed vow to get them next year, eh?

with thoughts turning to baseball,

I remain,

Yours

Who has picked whom?

Gang,

We're winding it up here. Not many of us have any picks left at all. I don't mean to throw spoilers at you all, but Our Own Matt Peterson, The JFK of the Pool, has already clinched the victory. Congrats to you, Matthew. The championship is therefore going to the Rambeau/Peterson home for the second straight year; you'll recall that Sophie Mac walked away with it last year. These people are pushing the Prown/Coleman clan for the right to be considered the best family of pickers. Maybe that's a good side bet, who gets to wear the Von Trapp Family crown. The Jackson/Knotts are waaaayyy down the list.

Going into the last three games, I thought you might like to see who has picked whom in the Final Four and Championship games. Live picks are in red. Note, by the way, that Acy is the one one of us who has a Champion pick left standing, Duke. Out of 27 Poolies, 26 of us have no chance of getting the champ right. I can't ever remember that happening before, but I also can't remember where I left my shoes, so maybe that's not such a big deal.

Here's the chart, for those playing along at home. [cricket sounds here].

Later, dudes and dudettes.

xoxoxoxoxox,

C

With the Final Four all set...

Volks,

So, we've played 60 of our 63 games. I'm out, as are a bunch of us, but it's still Matt Peterson who leads, despite his grieving over the Cornell exit. Matt, Bill, Ruth, that's the Big Three. Dutch DeWitt and I will be out over the next few days with some fascinating info (like who has chosen whom in the Final Four) but until then, here are the standings:



Talk to you all soonish.

Cheers,

Co-M

Sunday's picks

Well, I have no more teams in the tournament, so from this point forward, I am performing services pro bono. You're welcome.

Here are tomorrow's picks:


5. Michigan State - Nobody [cricket sounds here]
6. Tennessee - My boy, Alexander, the budding hoop genius
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Kansas - thousands of us
3. Georgetown - Acy, Harry, Rosalie, Matt
2. Ohio State - Jonathan, Dana
4. Maryland - Liz


1. Duke - Acy, Bill, Steve, Dykes, Willow, Sarah P, Rosalie, John, Matt, Gena
3. Baylor - Tim, Dana, Cal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Villanova - Knott, Maggi, Sarah B, Ruth, Harry, Mike, Scott, Dutch, Kate
5. Texas A&M - Alexander
4. Purdue - Dayle, Jonathan, Liz
7. Richmond - Henry


Safe pooling tomorrow.

G'night.

C

OK, now where are we?

Gang,

So, only my brother got the 4 points for the Butler win, and only Maggi (boo, hiss), Ruth, Dykes, Cal, Rosalie and Matt picked the West Virginia game correctly. I would've bet a lot that Kentucky was going to win that game, but that just shows you how little I know. About everything.

Here's where we stand:



Good luck tomorrow, everyone.

Sleepily,

CAK

Is it just me...

or does Huggins look like he's one of the lesser known Baldwin Brothers? You know, like, Zeppo.

Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan!

All of you out there without a brother who was the only one in the pool to pick the Butler win right, well, you can go pound sand. I have one, my bro, Jonathan, who got Butler right. So, J, dish, man, what did you see? What led you to make this gutsy choice? Surely it couldn't be hurried indifference and distracted guesswork...could it? Nah. We're all waiting to hear the secret.

Congrats, mein bruder.

Getting tired...

of seeing all those overweight baggage handlers. Not a good advertisement for the Southwest Airlines wellness program.

Saturday picks

Folks,

Only two games today. Feels like it's all winding down too soon. I don't see any way I can win, so my attention has already drifted to something else. I'm like that, I guess. Still, I'll be watching every second of televised hoop today I can get away with. We'll see how much that amounts to.

Here are today's picks:


5. Butler - Jonathan
2. K. St. - Knott, Dayle, Bill, Sarah B., Mike, Cal, John, Gena
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Syracuse - Maggi, Alexander, Ruth, Steve, Scott, Henry, Dutch, Kate, Willow, Sarah P.
8. Gonzaga - Acy
3. Pitt - Tim, Dana, Liz
7. BYU - Harry, Dykes, Matt
4. Vandy - Rosalie


1. Kentucky - everybody else
2. WVU* - Maggi, Ruth, Dykes, Cal, Rosalie, Matt
-------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Wake Forest - Acy
5. Temple - Dana
4. Wisconsin - Steve
6. Marquette - Harry
3. New Mexico** - Liz, Sarah P


Good luck out there.

CoMeister


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* People who picked West Virginia should expect a phone call from Steve, in which he will explain Bob Huggins's ability to coach teams to wins in the big games.
** People who picked New Mexico should expect a phone call from me, in which I will explain what a no-talent greasy weasel Steve Alford is.

Round 3, Day 2 results and standings

Various and Sundry,

Gee, what a wild Friday night. Maggi and I missed the games, because we were out seeing the Punch Brothers. If you've never seen them or heard them, they're awesome. More to the point, though, is that the two of us went somewhere together, and without offspring, for the first time in two or three centuries. Anyway, all we got were the final scores, really. It could've gone better for me and for the Big 10, but what else is new?

Well over half of us picked Duke to beat Purdue, although most of us were holding our collective noses. Only Bill, Tim, Dana, Cal, Sarah P. and Matt got the Baylor game right. Nobody picked Michigan State to win last night. And in the really kooky game, only Liz and Alexander picked Tennessee to get this far. I know why Alexander picked them; he thought the word "Tennessee" is funny, and likes saying it out loud. And Liz? Well, I'm not sure. What's the thought process, Ms. Rambeau? Care to let us in on your secret?

Below are the standings. Matt continues to leave, with Bill nipping at his heels. Lots of us are down to only a couple of teams left in, so there may not be a ton of movement out there. Here's where we stand:



Saturday picks coming soon.

xoxox,

C