Report from your office pool: Your bracket looks like a Mafia hit. Red slash marks, chalk outlines on the floor where Louisville and Syracuse let you down. Where did it all go so wrong? Your one consolation is that everyone picked Purdue to beat Virginia Commonwealth. Well, not everyone, exactly. Here’s one man who didn’t. He owns the first-place entry in the NBCSports Madness Pool, and not only did he go with VCU to reach the Sweet 16, but he also tabbed both Richmond over Vanderbilt and Morehead State over Louisville in the first round. Rzenick74 — Rich Z has 55 points to lead the field, besting 34,220 other registered NBCSports.com participants.
Rzenick74 would have done even better, except for his brainstorm of going with Akron over Notre Dame in Round One. “ZIPS!” (Shakes fist). Although, Rzenick74 was most likely working on the knowledge that ND was bounced from the tourney in the first round last year (51-5o loss to Old Dominion). So the man does his homework.
Here’s the first-place bracket in its entirety.
Over at ESPN they have a different scoring system, but here’s who’s leading their bracket game.
Meanwhile, my own annual NCAA pool, which includes a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Hollywood writer, several sports journalists and a guy who played the kid in Lassie, is led by Off the Bench frequent commenter and sometimes contributor Lew Patton. In fact, his three entries are all in the top six. Drop by the comments below and I’m sure he’ll reveal his secret.
In other news, Rick Pitino “guaranteed” a Notre Dame victory over Florida State on Sunday during a debate on the Big East with Charles Barkley. How did that turn out? Pitino, rumored to be considering a switch from coaching to broadcasting, didn’t do himself any favors with that one. He got shown up by Barkley, the only man I know whose bracket is worse than mine.
-
- lewp - Mar 21, 2011 at 5:50 PM
-
Thanks Rick, but let me begin by saying the reason I have 3 entries to your NCAA Pool is because I didn’t know the first 2 were accepted. My 3 brackets are almost identical because I kept trying to submit 1 bracket, so I’m not as crafty as it appears.
Most of my selections were just pure luck as Iknow very little about these teams. But I’m an old codger and I do have some history on my side. For example, Texas ALWAYS chokes in the 2nd game of the tournament. Do any of you rmember Butler from a year ago? Of course you do. That’s why I picked them to beat Pittsburgh. I have been fortunate to pick 13 of the Sweet 16 teams in this torunament. Have I kicked myself at some of my picks? Yes. And what about this Virginia Commonwealth?? Where did they come from?
This has been a blast for me so far. I’m now scared when the teams play again cause there is no way in Hades I can keep this trend going. Or can I?
