Tonight it ends. After three fun and exciting weeks of March Madness, a National Champion will be crowned this evening … and a few fortunate folks will walk away with some cash. So here are the scenarios.
North Carolina wins …
Rank
Name
Points
Champion
Winnings
1
Bill Waters (4)
154
North Carolina
$325
2
Larissa Casebolt
142
North Carolina
$150
3
Denny Gibson
129
North Carolina
$100
4
Pam Fitzgerald
127
North Carolina
$50
5
Aaron Thompson (2)
126
North Carolina
$25
Villanova wins …
Rank
Name
Points
Champion
Winnings
1
Bill Waters (4)
122
North Carolina
$325
2
Larissa Casebolt
110
North Carolina
$150
3
Cathy Matthews
98
Michigan St
$100
4
Denny Gibson
97
North Carolina
$50
5
Aaron Thompson (6)
96
Virginia
$25
So we know a few of the winners already. On the strength of correctly predicting both Villanova and North Carolina in the championship game, Bill Waters has clinched first place as surprisingly no one in this pool selected Villanova as their national champion. Additionally Larissa Casebolt has secured second place and Aaron Thompson has secured fifth place albeit with two different brackets. Congrats to those who have won and good luck to those sweating it out tonight.
Winners can email their payment preference: PayPal or money order. Hint: You will get your money faster with PayPal.
After an upset-filled first weekend to the tournament, a bit of normalcy has returned as the remaining higher seeds have advanced to the Elite 8 including all four 1 seeds. Thus the pool remains wide open to a majority of our entrants.
The payment deadline has come and gone and only 1 entry had to be DQ’d to be bring our total to 130 entries. However I need for Rick Branham to contact me ASAP. I have been unable to reach him via email.
Here’s the unofficial prize breakdown:
Rank
Winnings
1
$325
2
$150
3
$100
4
$50
5
$25
Also I have added a sign up to the HoopsHysteria Mailing List. If you receive emails from HoopsHysteria you are already on it. If not please sign up so you will not be missed on any updates or invites the following year.
Good luck to everyone. It looks to be a weekend of good basketball.
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) March 19, 2016
The day started strong with 13 seed Hawaii dispatching 4 seed Cal. However the biggest upset of this tournament (and possibly one of the biggest in tournament history) saw the Middle Tennessee State Raiders stun Michigan State (and thousands across the nation) and send countless brackets into disarray. Sparty was the second most popular National Champion pick (30) in this pool. Their ouster will surely add more intrigue. The upset also led to the revelation of one Giddy Potts, the nation’s leader in 3-point percentage. Also one cool name.
The upsets continued into the evening when 14 seed Stephen F. Austin (more like Stephen F’n Austin) sent the 3 seed Mountaineers back to West Virginia. Hello Thomas F’n Walkup!
However the night couldn’t end without one more moment that will live on in March Madness lure. However for fans of the Bearcats this one felt like a punch to the gut maybe even worse considering how their AAC tournament ended.
Literally a split second. March Madness can be cruel.
As for how these upsets affected this pool, 37 brackets have had their predicted champion ousted (MSU 30, WV 4, UC, 2, Arizona 1). That’s a whooping 28% of total entries!
It’s called March Madness for a reason. See Exhibit A – Purdue and Arkansas-Little Rock. The Boilermakers held a 14-point lead with less than 5 minutes to go. Time for the 12-seed Trojans (yes, I had to Google Arkansas-Little Rock’s mascot name) to start the buses. Even advanced analytics was prepared to call this game.
The Trojans battled back to take the Boilermakers to not one but two overtimes capping off an improbable comeback.
Need another example. Well see Exhibit B. The 12-seed Yale Bulldogs won their first tournament game in school history. It’s good to see something happen for these underdog Yale kids. I mean seriously nothing ever goes their way, right?
With Yale advancing, they will now square off against Duke. Yep. The internet wins.
Still not convinced? Leave it to the 11-seed (and First Four winner) Shockers then to sho … stun the Arizona Wildcats (and Lisa Burns 😥 – see below ) on Thursday night. It was a bad night for Sean Miller on two fronts: first his team was upset in the first round and second …
What’s the saying? Never let them see you sweat? At least he’ll probably get an endorsement deal out of it.
The last example of the day. Exhibit D the 11-seed Gonzaga Bulldogs made easy work of the Big East tournament champs Seton Hall Pirates. However the Bulldogs win isn’t as shocking considering their pedigree.
Let’s see what day two has on tap for more upsets.
As for our pool, we currently have 131 entries. I must receive payment by end of day on March 23rd so get those payments (or at least arrangements) in ASAP.
Before I present a quick breakdown of predicted champions a couple facts:
13 different schools selected
1 entry has had their champion eliminated (Arizona – Lisa Burns)
Just a refresher as we kick off our 2016 version of the Madness.
We use CBS Sports Bracket Manager. Our group is name is HoopsHysteria and can be found at http://hoops-hysteria.mayhem.cbssports.com/. You will need to register with CBSSports.com prior to joining the group. Returning users will not need to re-register.
Bracket picks must be submitted by 12:00 PM ET Thursday, March 17th. Payment deadline is Wednesday, March 23th.
Fee:
$5 per entry. The Bracket Manager caps users to 10 brackets. If you want to enter more than 10 brackets you will need to register an additional email address on CBSSports.com.
