The total number of entries in this year's Pool is 418, which is 40 more than last year and a new record. I have always thought we should be able to break the 400 mark and it would be nice to continue growing the size of the Pool in the years to come. The total pot will be $4,180.00 once all of this year's participants pay their entry fees - I am still waiting on around 22 or so of you to pony up - and I have sent a friendly reminder email to the stragglers.
I added some additional pages this year which some of you may enjoy reading regarding the history of the Pool and the challenges of AI and you can find them when you click the About tab on the menu bar above. As I say every year, the Pool remains a work in progress and I will continue to work on making it user friendly and easily accessible across multiple devices – it is still not where I want it to be but there are limitations to what I am able to make it do for this year. In case any of you have doubted what I have said about the programming challenges I have faced over the years, you are going to hear things straight from the horse's mouth this time around as I will be interviewing Drew Martin during the Sweet Sixteen and posting that interview for everyone's information. I know I am going to enjoy that interview and I hope that anyone who chooses to watch it will, too.
There are a number of participants with a chance to win a good bit of money and the standings page provides you with all the information you need to determine whether you are in the hunt and what you need to go your way to increase your chances of winning, including the ability to view participants' picks for each round by clicking their names. Use your mouse to click around (including at the tops of the columns) and use some of the sort and reveal features to do things like sorting yourself against others with the same National Champion picks and finding out who really has the most possible points heading into this week's games.
Congratulations to CoalMtnCal, who correctly picked 29 of 32 winners in the first two days and wins around $209.00 for his efforts. He bested a number of able challengers who were in the hunt and scored 28 Round of 64 points: (i) one of my favorite Dobbs Creek Champs, jgithu1, who once missed a game-clinching free throw that allowed Merek Moran and Sam Olivera to help the rest of our team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory but who later redeemed himself with clutch play on that magical Dobbs Creek run six years ago (as I told the boys then, that Dobbs Creek Champion shirt is something that no one can ever take away); (ii) Augie2024, a long time participant whose family is always good for a number of brackets; (iii) the first – and thus far only – WebDecoder Cup Champion, steve mathews, who golfed his way to Oldham Golf Group immortality at Hampton Golf Village back during the Covid-19 Pandemic; (iv) Mimi; one of the nicest ladies I know who also is a former Brook Drive neighbor and who brought both molar bear and got hozed into the world and raised them to be great kids and even better adults who are now bringing even more Hozas/Vernons into the world; (v) Edmonds, Allan – while not quite the same as docinabox, a computer medic, nonetheless; and (vi) my office mate and wings and beer buddy during the first two days of the Tourney, Cordon Olson, who rode BYU to early round glory but has since faded into oblivion and settled near the bottom of the standings.
Congratulations are also in order for long-time participant Drew Thomas 2, who was in first place all by himself after last weekend's games and earned around $209.00 for his efforts. Drew finished just ahead of Pool newcomer Angelia Dye who is running strong so far in the Sweet Sixteen and has shown herself to be a real contender rather than a pretender.
As in years past, thanks goes out to the Hansard Family for their generous donations to this year's pot, as well as to perennial participants the Gastons, the Raleys, the Scharbers, the Finleys, the Steinmans, the Hozas, the Kings, the Pollards, the Hepburns, the Beutasses, the Bornhorsts, the Hulseys (many of whom are missing this year), the Nevilles, the Oldhams, the Otwells, the Reeces, the Thomases, the Howards, the Olsons, the Weisbeckers (good to have you guys back the last few years) the Armbrusters (even though a number of them did not make it in this year allegedly due to more important and pressing matters than the little old Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament). Thanks also to the Contes (I met last year's rookie Champion in person when he came to pay his $40.00 for his entries and he also brought a number of his family members into the fold to see if lightning can strike twice), the Gessners and all of the other new blood that helped get us over the 400 mark this year, making the First Place prize money $2,131.80, which at 51% of the total Pool money is just $35.00 less than the record prize of $2,166.00 that Brett Garner won in 2020 (the First Place share of the money that year was 60%, which was before we implemented the Joe Dent Rule – now the Honorable Joseph W. Dent Rule – to pay 5% of the Pool money to the leader after the Sweet Sixteen games (unfortunately for Dent, who brought to light the injustice suffered by those poor souls who led after the Sweet Sixteen but flamed out in the Elite Eight, the rule was not implemented until the following year but I always appreciated him pointing it out).
I always enjoy the aliases that participants use each year and the first bracket we received was from PokeNeville, a kid I have known since birth and one of my favorite all time fellows. I noticed later in the week that he had changed his alias to his first name, which prompted the following exchange:
LO: What happened to PokeNeville?
PN: I was workshopping a few new aliases but the tried and true will be returning in time for the tourney. Also, I get paid next Friday, is it possible negotiate an IOU until then?
LO: How about I just advance your entry fee since you are a great kid and you pick me up on the buy-in the next time we play poker (you remember this, as I will forget)? We also can work something out if you enter more than one bracket. Out of curiosity, what were some of the workshopped aliases that did not make the cut?
PN: That sounds like a deal! As I anticipate winning it all this year, you can always take out the $10 from the grand prize. I only plan on doing that one bracket and will collab with Drew and Daniel for 2 others and will be able to fend for myself there. The workshopped aliases include: "Baracket Obama", "Will ‘Lord Bracket' Neville", "Lord Bracket Neville", and "whodunitthistime". Ultimately, PokeNeville prevails.
LO: I will fund Baracket Obama, so enter it and pick us a good one. We will split any winnings 60/40.
PN: I'm glad you like that one, I'll be working hard on creating that tonight.
LO: I find it curious that you said nothing about the 60/40 split – who do you think gets what?
PN:That is true, I was just grateful for the opportunity. I believe it would be fair for you to receive the 60 and I the 40. I can give you the login information if you strongly disagree with any of my picks.
LO: It is your world, Baracket Obama, and I am just living in it.
PN: Attaches a digitized portrait of former President Obama with the word "Hope" underneath it.
LO: LFG, PN. LFG! (LO to PN after Texas Tech's overtime win early Friday morning to make it to the Elite Eight)
I am pleased to say that with PokeNeville's college basketball knowledge and game picking prowess, I am involved in a bracket that has made it past the first weekend and it has been an month of Sundays since I last did that. If Texas Tech can get past Arkansas and keep going strong, me and my boy could be in the money and I have decided that if we get there, I am going to split the winnings with him 50/50 after all. The nickname PokeNeville has been so popular among his friends and family that I have not heard his given name uttered in years and do not even remember what it was. If we win the big bucks, I am going to pay the filing fees for his Name Change Petition to make it official and I am going to waive the legal fees to boot. We will be continuing to cheer for Baracket Obama and hope its good fortune continues even though we recognize our fates depend on a wing and a prayer.
While many of us took a bit of a beating in Week One, some fared much better than others and we have 47 who have the possibility of going 15 of 16 in the Sweet Sixteen with the chance to accumulate up to 62 additional points: Angelia Dye, Fuller, Drew Thomas 2, CoalMtnCal, Dmoney, Baracket Obama, Chandler Ray, BCN, Turtle 1, Zsims13, Big Tex, Pete Rose, res ipsa loquiter, Skinnah's Winnahs, Roberto, Dave W, Naismith 2, Landen Hattaway, Drew Thomas, Ella G., Adam Johnson, Josh Senese, Hayden King 4, Greg Conte, Joe Oliver, Naismith, Tori Oldham, winitall, BLT 95, GloboGymPurpleCobras, Sfuller91, Marcus Cox, Jacob Plunkett 2, RGV, Jdaone22, Andrew Leonard2, Keith Melvin, P Raley, Scott Schoenknechtt, josh senese 2, Todd Gessner, Kelsey Reed Armbruster, GAR1, Mo, DoublePortion, Austin Hansard and Duke Boy. Several others have the dubious distinction of having no possibility of reaching 62 points total and all I can say to them is better luck next year. My sister, Theresa, usually picks a bracket that finishes last or close to it and this year she experimented with AI in helping her. I added a webpage that discusses her adventure and based on how her two AI brackets performed, all we can figure is that the webcrawlers analyzed her dismal performance over the years and picked her a couple of real stinkers. With a number of possible combinations to occur in the Elite Eight and Final Four, it should be well into next week before the contenders are separated from the pretenders.
The aliases continue to be a source of amusement for me and some of them are quite clever. Since I have admin privileges and know who all of these people are and also have connections to many of them outside of the Pool, that makes what they choose even more amusing to me. I will spend some time in next week's results listing my favorites and providing some of the back stories that I know about them, so stay tuned.
One never knows where the Road to the Final Four might lead and a number of us, with the exception of most of the Oldhams, just might be a few dollars richer come April. Good luck to all of the contenders who have a chance to finish in the green and thanks to everyone else for their generous donations, which make all of this possible.
Thanks for participating this year and good luck in Week Two, where fortunes have been known to change drastically within stretches of no more than a few minutes. Remember, even if you are not doing as well as you had hoped, there are several categories you may still have a chance to win.