2015 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament Pool Results

The results are in and after a day of ups and downs for everyone in the top 12, below is how the final standings broke down.

1.  Chris Galpin goes wire to wire for 1st place!

The Big 10 tiebreaker came into play to separate out the 4 players tied for 2nd with 18 points:

2.  Tim Husted went on a 2 day winning streak that sent him from being ranked outside the top 20 to 2nd place.

3.  I followed in Tim's footsteps, being ranked outside of the Top 15 the entire time and finishing in 3rd with a winning streak.

4.  Young, tied with Tim for the highest Win % came in 4th place and will have a free entry for next year.

The payouts are listed above, and are in the attached spreadsheet, but the rundown is below.  I will take the next few days to go through the scoring to ensure everything calculated accurately.

Final Standings

Early in the day starting in the Sun Belt, Georgia State beat Georgia Southern in a 38-36 game, nobody was interested in scoring.  The SEC game is what eliminated Iannuzzi from contention with his Arkansas pick, Kentucky dismantled Arkansas.

Wrapping up the early games was VCU/Dayton, this is where the pool was won and lost, depending how you look at it.  In a pretty exciting finish, VCU ended up winning this game and 9 players in the people split/won the lowest winning seed side pot.

The afternoon games started less exciting as SMU easily won against UConn, but Wisconsin vs. Michigan State was more exciting.  The game went into overtime, but Wisconsin ended up winning by 11.

I hope everyone had a good time playing and winners will be paid out as a see them over the next few weeks, I still have some more money to collect.  

I did send an invite for a simple, cheap bracket pool for anyone interested, now off to Vegas!

Update As We get Into Selection Sunday

So today is Selection Sunday, the last day of the conference tournament pool and we have 5 championship games left.  We have 12 people still left in this thing for the stretch run and we have had some major movements with the standings.

Additionally, 4 side pots are up for grabs and everyone is still in play for at least 1 side pot, so you all still have something to watch for.

The odd thing that happened Saturday was the players at the top really didn't score any points, while the mid pack players racked up points, so now we have a log jam at the top of the standings.  We should have a great finish today as a lot of picks are NOT the same!

• Fonferko moved up 6 places to take over 1st place all alone
• Aardvark Tina made the biggest move, going 6/6 last night and moving up 6 spots
• Jenn, John, and Fuss took the biggest hits, each dropping 10 spots, they may not have a shot for 1st at this point, but are still playing for 2nd - 4th and side pots
• Myself, Tim, Curt, and B.I. also made some major movement up in the standings last night
• And...Doug is on the board!

Looking at the side pots, if VCU wins, 9 of us will be splitting the $40 lowest seed pot, so don't go spending your $4 all in one place if VCU wins.

Galpin and Safka are leading the most bonus points side point, but that would be 2 people splitting $100 if they can hang on.

And B.I. is dominating the Power Conference wins, but nothing is locked up yet so everyone can catch up

Current Standings

Below is a review of the 5 conferences that are playing a championship game today and how it can impact the standings and side pots.

• Arkansas and Kentucky tip off at noon, and only Chris Iannuzzi has Arkansas so this is a huge game for him
• Just in case you need a reminder Chris, Kentucky has not a lost a game yet this year, so...

• VCU/Dayton tips off at noon as well, and a Dayton win should clinch this thing for Fonferko, while a VCU win will really start to make things muddy and tiebreakers will start to come in place
• Aardvark Tina already lost her pick, Davidson, so this will probably bring her down from her high, although a SMU win shouldn't destroy her hopes, but she'll need the tiebreaker to take 1st place
• In the battle for Georgia, Georgia Southern/Georgia State tips at noon, which will make 3 important games for us going on at the same time
• 10 of the top 12 players have Georgia State, while Rachel and B.I. already lost LA-Monroe previously, this is a no win for them and if I do the math it may keep the from getting into 1st place

• SMU and Uconn is an interesting game as again, Fonferko is the only one in the top 12 with Uconn and will get him a bonus point; this pool is Fonferko's to lose at this point
• Another interesting thing with Uconn is that Jenn has them and can launch her into a top 4 position if everything breaks right for her today
• And Finally, we wrap up with the B1G (Bucky vs. Sparty) and this should be a really good game to watch
• Everyone except B.I. is rolling with Bucky, he is going with Sparty and can throw a wrench in the standings really late
• Additionally, this game has side pot implications for the Power Conference points and the total score side pot

I also heard that Wattles got some sort of magic oil or something to use next year that helps him to make more accurate picks.

Although, this oil probably cost him more than he could win in this pool.

Happy Selection Sunday!

Everyone has been Wiped Out Over the Past Few Days

As expected, pretty much all of us have been wiped out over the past few days, which is why getting out to an early lead is so important.

We have 106 championship games being played today, so let's take a look at the ones that mean something in our pool.  But first, updated standings...

Current Standings

Galpin, Young, Iannuzzi, and Fonferko are best positioned to win this, or at least place in the money spots, as they all are towards the top of the standings AND have 20+ max points still remaining.

Jenn is mixed in towards the top, but her max points are below 20, so if I were betting I would fade Jenn.

The day has already tipped off with the America East Championship between 1 seed Albany and 3 seed Stony Brook.  This is a huge game to start off with because if Stony Brook ends up hanging on to the lead Aardvark, Sohler, and Jack are all back in the race for 1st place!  I'm still trying to figure out if a Seawolf (Stony Brook) is a real thing or not.

Stony Brook has never never been to the NCAA tournament before, so I would love for them to win so I can bet against them next week.

Then the next 214 championship games are played which will completely mess with our standings, and we'll end the night in California with the Big West championship.

The Big West game between Cinderella Hawaii, and 3 seed US Irvine, could prove to be a really important game to our pool since the mid pack guys all have UC Irvine.  This game will end well after midnight, but as always, I will continue to post standings throughout the day and tomorrow morning.  If I'm up to it, I may post an updated blog tonight, but that depends on how many messages Tim sends me throughout the day to distract me.

The Big West game is literally the Rainbows vs. the Anteaters #ZOT

Finally,  with all the 5+ seeds playing today (and possibly tomorrow), most of us are still in the running on multiple side pots.  

So, if you are towards the bottom of the standings you still have a shot over the next 2 days to win $240!

 

Patriot League Ticket Punched & No Championship Games for 2 Days!

I wanted to get the blog out earlier, but I got stuck behind this guy in a shiny coat at Chipotle who held up the whole line!  Wattles, I mean, the guy in the shiny coat had to start his order over at least 2 times (#foodwaster).  I would have figured Naomi had those instructions Steve-proof on your phone.

Tonight we only had 1 championship game played and that was in the Patriot League between 6 seed American University and 4 seed Lafayette.

This was one of the coolest championship games I watched so far, maybe because I didn't have a team to root for, but mostly because it was a close game and a long overdue win for Lafayette.

I saw the following costumes in the stands (Oscar the Grouch, Nemo, Dori, a piece of bacon, beach guy, the yellow M&M, a ninja head, and I am sure I missed some).

And congrats to Jack as he now leads the side pot for "Lowest Winning Seed" with that Lafayette win, which puts him all alone to date for the $40 side pot!

Current Standings

The next blog entry will likely be Saturday morning since we won't have any championship games played on Thursday or Friday, but the standings will stay updated.  

30+ games/day will be played over the next few days so I will dedicate my time to keeping the standings updated instead of updating a blog that 5 people read.

We now have 12 tickets punched!

Saturday and Sunday we'll have a flurry of 19 championship games played, so these standings have the potential to be turned upside down.

For those that are like Tim and getting depressed about losing all your picks, remember all the bonus opportunities that are still available!

1. Most Bonus Points:  The person with the most total bonus points will win $100

2. Most Power Conference Points:  The person with the most Power Conference points will win $80 (The Power Conferences are highlighted in red)

3. Lowest Winning Seed:  The person who has the lowest winning seed conference champion wins $40 (Go 6 seeds!)

4. Closest Big 10 Score:  The person with the closest Big 10 championship game score wins $20 (This is the last conference championship game, so even if you're in last place you have the opportunity to recoup $20!)

I can't figure out a clever way to work this in, so I'll just end it on this...

We Are Now 1/3 Complete with Conference Tournaments

So we are now at the 1/3 point of conference tournament completion and we only have 5 days left until Selection Sunday!

If you have not yet made arrangements to pay...

Below are the current standings and the contenders are really starting to rise to the top, we still have 2 players with 0 wins.

• Galpin, who I don't think has ever watched a college basketball game before, is DOMINATING this pool, I mean he is making history with some of his stats
• He has 8 wins already, 11 points, and a 61% winning percent
• Go Manchester United?  or Man City?
• Behind Galpin we have 11 players that are right in the thick of it, good to see lot's of people with a shot to win
• The bottom half is starting to get to the point where catching up is impossible, but with bonus points, upsets, and luck, anything can happen, and at least 23 people are in this until Saturday

Current Standings

In the afternoon we had 2 early round ACC games and only 1 impacted our pool. Wake Forest lost to Virginia Tech and resulted in another loss for Doug.

The important games today were all championships so let's look at what happened during these games and how it impacted the pool.

Early Games

• Green Bay went down in flames to Valparaiso after having the game in hand for pretty much the entire time
• Most of us had Green Bay so lot's of losses were handed out from this game 
• St Francis NY Brooklyn or whatever they are called lost to Robert Morris, similar to Green Bay, SFNYBU had the game in hand until the end and choked it away;  It even ended with a SFNYBU guy missing 3 free throws with 2 seconds left
• Galpin, Rachel, and Ron cleaned up with Valpo and Robert Morris!

 

Late Games

• South Dakota State lost to North Dakota State, and when I Google images for South Dakota State Basketball, chicks come up, that's how bad the men's team is!
• Even though they didn't look dominant, Gonzaga easily took care of BYU, which really made things bad for Aardvark Tina
• Mark Few does Cocaine 

 

Tomorrow, we only have 1 conference championship game, and 0 conference championship games Thursday and Friday.  Only the Patriot League will play a championship game tomorrow and the flurry of activity will come throughout the day on Saturday.  By Saturday evening we'll have a clear picture of who can win this pool.

The Patriot League championship should determine the winner of the bonus money for the lowest winning seed side pot.

• Safka has 6 seed American University, which would be next to impossible for anyone to top if they win
• Jack has 4 seed Lafayette, a win would put him in the lead and it's unlikely anyone would have a lower seed win over the next 5 days

Good Luck and Win Some Money!!

Only 13 Games Today, Most Were Meaningful to Our Pool

Today is the least amount of games we'll see played this week as the majority of the conferences now gear up for the 1st round of the tournament starting Tuesday/Wednesday.

However, we still had 3 more championship games played tonight and now have a total of 7 tickets punched to the NCAA tournament.

I'll keep the link to the standings and some reminders towards the beginning today for those with short attention spans.

We still have 4 people without a win and Galpin has charged into 1st place with a dominant night tonight!  Iannuzzi and "Conference Tournament Pool Playing Rob Lowe" are right behind him.

Current Standings

A Couple Reminders:

• Please keep checking your scores and make sure I have accurately calculated your totals, it's better to let me know now and get it fixed before catching it later and having to recalculate everything
• If you have not yet paid, you should do that within the next few days, ideally I would like to have all the money collected by Selection Sunday (3/15) so I can pay the winners right away

Let's rundown the action that occurred today!

We'll cover the 3 new champions first.

In the Colonial, Northeastern dismantled the 1 seed William and Mary.  Northeastern was a 3 seed, so that means bonus points for 6 players in the pool.

Th Southern Conference championship game between 10 seed Furman and 1 seed Wofford was actually an AWESOME game.  It came down to the last few seconds, but Wofford ended up pulling out the victory, snatching a guaranteed $40 from Doug.

I do have to say, I understand nothing about Furman's background.  They are the "Paladins" and after reading about what the hell a Paladin is, I still don't understand it.

Finally, in the MAAC, we saw another freaking upset bonus pick win the championship game, so this is starting to get crazy.  Not sure what Tim is going to do with Iona losing, he loves that team, I assume he doesn't show up to work tomorrow.

The night started off in the MEAC, and normally I would not provide a summary including opening round MEAC action that includes Delaware State taking on Savannah State, but this match up was important to our pool.  It's important because Iannuzzi has Delaware State, and being in first place, the other 24 of us are actively rooting against him.  Delaware State won.

MAC games tipped off tonight and, well, nobody cares about the MAC so I am moving on.  Look at the spreadsheet if you want to see those updates so I don't have to write up games that have players that look like this guy...

North Dakota State beat Oral Roberts in a very, very, close game that I watched on ESPN 3, but the Oral Roberts band played it's heart out!  I'm still not sure why all the band members look over 40 years old.

The last conference I'll cover tonight is the West Coast Conference, as both games were on ESPN and it's the Semifinals.  Lot's of cool shots showing the Vegas strip, but in the end Gonzaga is moving on to play the winner of BYU/Portland.

Here is a rundown of the current teams that have punched tickets to the tournament, this represents a little over 20% of the total teams, so we still have a long way to go.

We have 4 more conference champion games tomorrow, they are coming at us pretty fast at this point.

The West Coast Conference championship game is the 4th championship tomorrow night, but I am not staying up until 1:00 am to find out if BYU or Portland will be playing Gonzaga.  It's not that important at this point.

3 More Conference Champions and a Change to our SWAC Picks

A total of 4 teams have now won conference championships and move on to the NCAA tournament.

The afternoon started off with the Big South championship game that featured 3 seed Coastal Carolina vs. 5 seed Winthrop.  11 people had Coastal Carolina which got a lot of people in the win and bonus column.

The next championship game took place in the Atlantic Sun conference where the 1 seed, North Florida, easily defeated USC Upstate.  North Florida has NEVER been to the NCAA tournament so this was a really cool win and this is the type of stuff that makes the madness (especially in Vegas) so exciting.

Everyone should watch "Putnam, The North Florida Dancing Machine"

Finally, in the Missouri Valley conference, 4 seed Illinois State was leading Northern Iowa for the majority of the game, but in the end number 2 seed Northern Iowa pulled it out.

We also saw a bunch of meaningful games played today that impacted our overall standings:

• Stony Brook upset Vermont by 2 points in the America East conference, while Albany hung on to beat New Hampshire
• In the Patriot League, 1 seed Bucknell was upset by Lafayette and 2 seed Colgate was knocked off by American University, so the championship game is a 6 vs. 4 seed
• In the Colonial and MAAC, both 1 seeds moved on to the finals (William and Mary and Iona)

The regular season officially ended today, all conference tournaments have or will be starting in the next few days.  Seeding on our pool spreadsheet is now officially complete.

Looking over the standings 18 players have at least 1 point, while Iannuzzi is leading the way with 5 total points.  Iannuzzi and Young are winning at a 40% - 50% accuracy rate which is crazy since the next best person is at 33%

We still have a really long way to go with multiple conference championship games almost every single night tomorrow through Selection Sunday.

Tomorrow we have 3 more championship games that will start to separate out the real contenders in our pool.  Although we do have a long way to go, if you don't start racking up wins by tomorrow you will quickly be mathematically eliminated.

Colonial

• 24% of us thought UNC-Wilmington would have won this conference tournament, they are not even in the championship game
• 6 players chose Northeastern, which is a 3 seed so bonus points are on the line, while 4 players chose William and Mary, the 1 seed

MAAC

• 68% of us picked Iona to win this conference and they will play a 3 seed in Manhattan
• We do have 2 players with Manhattan, so this is a critical game to start out the week

Southern

• Similar to the MAAC, we're all on the same pick, the 1 seed Wofford, 72% of us are counting on Wofford to win this conference tomorrow night
• Again, similar to the MAAC, we do have 1 player on the 10 seed, Furman, yes, that is the 10 seed playing for a championship
• If the 10 seed, Furman, wins tomorrow night, then Doug clinches the $40 prize for lowest winning seed, no one else has a 10 seed or lower

A couple reminders for those that read all the way through this:

• The SWAC announced today that all teams in the conference can participate in the tournament, so teams that were listed as ineligible are now eligible.  If anyone would like to change their SWAC pick for any reason, you may do that by letting me know before the end of the day tomorrow (Monday, 3/9)
• Please check your scores and make sure I have accurately calculated your totals, it's better to let me know now and get it fixed before catching it later and having to recalculate everything
• If you have not yet paid, you should do that within the next few days, ideally I would like to have all the money collected by Selection Sunday so I can pay the winners right away

Also, to make Dan Donegan happy so he'll quit bitching about college basketball moving the Hawks games to different channels, I am including this picture.

Anyways, enjoy the upcoming week of games, it gets really hard to keep track of this stuff now!