April 4, 2017 -- The Pool is over!!  Three picked North Carolina to win it all.    

Correct ORIGINAL teams in Sweet Sixteen:      Tiebreaker will be 1) correct champ, then 2) most in top 2, then 3) most in top 4, then 4) split.   Pahic and Bealke had 12 teams correct, but both failed to have any of their Final Four teams make it.  So they tie and each earns $110. Nine people tied for third with 11 teams.  Lowenbaum had UNC as his champion and wins tiebreaker for third place and earns $60.

Most Correct ORIGINAL Teams in the Final Four:  Pays first only of $130.   Tiebreaker is 1. Correct Champ, 2. Correct runner-up, and then split.  22 people had one team correct in Final Four.  (29 people tied for 23^rd with 0 teams correct!)  Of those 22 people, three players had UNC as champion – Goggin-Balsley, Chris Durkin, and Lowenbaum.  They tie for first place and split the $130 prize, or $43.33 each.

Eventual Champ pays first only of $130.  Goes to person who put the most points per game on the champion.  Goggin-Balsley, Chris Durkin, and Lowenbaum had UNC as champion.  Goggin-Balsley had 3 points on Gonzaga while the other two both had only 2 points.  Goggin-Balsley claims the 130.

Four Division Champions. Rowe, Brungardt, Larry&Pete, and Lowenbaum claim $50 each. 

Prior money winners this year:   

First Pacesetter:    Jeff Reilly $35  

Second Pacesetter: Rich Eijima $35

Most Correct Teams as of Seedings:    Bealke $50

Weighted Points as of Seedings:    Lawrence $100, Reilly $70 and Thiemann $40

 2017 Winners –  3 first time winners;  20 different winners (16 make money);

35 year summary Top 40 (plus 2):  Hayashi passes Kraft for #1 spot! Lawrence passes $2500 mark

Tom anticipatea doing this again next year.  If your address changes or email address changes, let me know. Email address is jtkutz51@yahoo.com.     The primary premise of the pool is to go on record in December with who you think will win in March.

In the preseason pools as of November 10, North Carolinaa was in 12 of 13 Elite Eights, but highest pick was 5^th by USA Today and Sagarin, and Sports Illustrated 6^th.  Gonzaga was in 2 of 13 Top 12s, with highest begin Sports Illustrated at 9^th and Sagarin at 16^th.

Oregon was preseason #1 in Lindy’s Magazine and in two other Final Fours.  Sport Illustrated had them 4^th and Sagarin 16^th.

Oregon lost to Baylor and Georgetown in early December and that scared people off.  And toward Baylor – how’d that work out?

South Carolina was not mentioned in any Top 40 in preseason.  Sagarin had them 70^th. 

I felt increasing the number of 0 taxi squad teams from 4 to 8 worked well.  I had both South Carolinaa and Oregon as 0’s.  Too bad I did not use either one of those teams in my regroup!!!