OTP Awards

Welcome folks. With a heavy heart after Purdue's almost win against the Jayhawks last night, and the high-blood pressure associated with getting back to all the "I'll take care of this after Spring Break," stuff I've put off for a week, I bring you the 15th Annual OTP Awards. Without further ado...

Best First Round Performance:

Unbelievable, but Trudy McPhail has won this award for the FOURTH STRAIGHT YEAR! Good Lord Trude, if you could keep this going beyond round one we might have to test you for psychic abilities. Last year she rocked the boat with only 6 of 32 incorrect picks. This year she dropped to seven misses, but great job again Mrs. McPhail!

As for best NCAA Tourney first round performer, can you spell D-R-A-Y-M-O-N-D!? Draymond Green’s triple-double against LIU-Brooklyn (Sorry John Avitto, your prediction of a Blackbird run to the Championship was thwarted) was only the third such feat in NCAA Tourney history. Care to guess the other two (no googling)? The Sparty candidate for the Naismith Award put up a 24-12-10 Friday. Interestingly, Mr. Green (how could he NOT play for MSU with that last name?) would have been a classmate of OTP competitor Dan Boulton – had Mr. Boulton been born 20 years ago. Whoops…

Best Second Round Performance:

Is shared by three: Nikki Batta, Patrick Lynch, and Alex Gallegos.  Alas, Nikki spoiled her stellar 2^nd round predictions by picking Duke (horror!) as champion, and Patrick did the same by going with (at least the more noble pick of) Purdue as his champ (joining the three Reklaitis children as the only others to pick the Boilers to win it all).  Alex, is still going strong.

Worst First Round Performance:

Alas (I’m liking this word so deal with it) goes to my youngest, John. He’s 2 years old. Considering that his twin brother and older sister came in second in this category I’m starting to rethink having them enter this competition considering I’m just donating $15 to the kitty every year. Add to the fact that my picks always suck (“they can’t accuse you of cheating if you always lose” is my buddy Paul’s line), and that Mrs. Reklaitis (both of them actually) rarely does well, this family is contributing a cool $35 every year to the OTP fund. Where does the other $5 come from? Check out the guy in last place. Anyway, John missed 15, his twin brother Luke and older sister Emily missed 14. I forced them to participate in a silly game they didn’t’ understand so they’re forgiven.  So let’s ridicule the adults shall we?! Steve Stites, Meg Avitto, Gregg Colonna, and Jamie Vergona each performed as well as 2 year olds. Mr. Stites it must be said (cus if I don’t he will) did manage to keep all of his final eight and after teams intact, so he still remains in the hunt in this competition. The rest of you …? Thanks for also contributing your $5.

Worst first round performance in the tourney? You mean other than Duke?!?!! (Wait Missouri lost too … don’t remember that.) How about the dopes who reffed the Syracuse/UNC-Asheville game? A series of calls at the end of the game were dubious at best. The explanation by the head of officiating on the CBS set after the game was even more inexplicable. Syracuse demonstrated in their second round win over Kansas State that they are a force in this tourney, but I feel they got some help in getting to that game.

Worst Second Round Performance:

George “Flatlander” Dehner – he of Wichita, Kansas fame – honked on 12 of 16 picks. He finished with a two pick “lead” over 5 Reklaitises who missed on 10. Eric Korchnak and John Avitto also missed ten. Ok, so I will continue to have my kids make their picks so that I can ridicule my friends who then perform worse then them. Having kids has finally found a purpose. Who knew?

Worst second round performance in the Tourney goes to Karma. Seriously Karma? Robbie Hummel suffers setback after setback yet sticks with his team, puts them on his back against 2 seeded Kansas, and you won’t let him hit the game winning three?! Karma, you have some bad sh*t headed your way.

Last thoughts:

Please, PLEASE get your $5 in. Deadline is the 21^st.

Thank you all for joining the OTP this year. Enjoy the rest of the tourney everyone. Be back with you Thursday.