So .... yeah ... my not-yet-four-year-old continues to lead the OTP. In addition to having FGCU advance to the Sweet 16, he picked both Syracuse and Marquette to advance to the Elite Eight. I am not sure how to feel. Part of me wants to laugh ... this again just reinforces what a crap shoot this contest can be. Part of me is squirming uncomfortably though. If I were an OTP participant I would certainly be thinking, "Ok, seriously, the dude's 4 year old is winning this? Yeah, this is a total scam." This is the only proof I have to offer - well other than the picture from last week's blog of JJ making his picks - that this is all on the up-and-up. I took some screen-caps of the email receipt:
On the other hand, the offspring of other OTPers are doing well too. The young Dehner's are both within striking distance of the lead, Brendan in 2nd place and Patrick in 11th. But of course Indiana and Miami's losses crushed many a bracket. We shall see how the high seeds fair tonight. I actually have to do work - I know, right? - this "Good" Friday, but I will be back tomorrow with the updated scores heading into this weekend's Elite Eight, and the Annual OTP awards. Til then...
In the immortal words of the Notorious B.I.G., “Born sinner, the opposite of a winner
Breakfast of Champions.
Remember when I
used to eat sardines for dinner.” I’m sure there’s a Georgetown reference in
there somewhere, but mostly I was just inspired by my breakfast this morning.
So, the greatest two days of the year have passed us by once
again, but not before regaling us with some fantastic college hoops action. But
fear not good friends, as the greatest two days of the year are followed by the
second two greatest days of the year
as the 2nd round commences in an hour or so. A weekend of two 12 hour
hoops sessions awaits.
Before we get to a recap of yesterdays bedazzling treasure
trove of hoops rapture, a quick look at our OTP competition. Certainly the fall
of Georgetown ranks highest among the Tourney’s upsets thus far and has caused
turmoil amongst our collective brackets. "Did any in the OTP pick the FGCU Eagles over the Hoyas you
ask?" Yes! In fact two OTP competitors made the bold prediction. Adam Stutts
(son of Rae and Gud), and John Reklaitis (son of, well…*blushing*). Adam and John are preschoolers. I’m not sure
how young Adam made his pics, but JJ just thought the soaring eagle of the FGCU
was more impressive than the simple “G” of the Hoyas.
JJ goes with the Eagles.
Kelsey going with her future Alma Mater.
Oh, but it gets better
(or more embarrassing for us adults), Adam and JJ also correctly picked the
Harvard Crimson over New Mexico. This time at least, our young prognosticators
were joined by third-grader Kelsey Kovich, first grader Emily Reklaitis, and
Christie Tronick who, lets just say, has left her grade school days far behind.
Congrats to all our upset specialists. Sadly, Adam and our elementary schoolers
did not fare as well with the rest of their picks and are sitting near the
bottom of the standing at this point. Christie remains within striking distance
of the lead, and JJ Reklaitis, well, he’s actually tied for second. I’m both
proud and embarrassed, as it would be quite unseemly for the three year-old son
of the OTP’s manager to win the whole thing, but all I can do is assure you
that he made all his picks without any undue influence by his old man. In fact
all my kids did. Is it too crazy to think that two out of the three Reklaitis kids might
actually make a few correct picks? Yeah, probably is, but check out who’s our
biggest loser right now. In fact “Biggest Loser” is what the rest of the family
is calling Luke for the duration of the tournament. Hey, kid's gotta learn
sometime right?
Just one last familial comment, this in the category of
offspring showing up their parents. In addition to JJ leading all other
Reklaiti (plural for Reklaitis), Brendan Dehner is leading his pop George, and
Amy Hartzell is 20, count ‘em 20, spots above Papa Larry. Those damn kids!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to give props to our
current leader, if only by a slim 3 points, Dan Boulton. Not only did Dan take
the lead after the first round, but he did so by nailing 26 out of 32 first
round picks, tying the record set by Trudy McPhail two years ago. Dan’s first
round performance also ended Trudy’s reign as best first round performer for
four years running. Nice job Sparty Dan. If it’s any consolation Trude, your
25-7 record for the first round, was none too shabby. As we currently sit, 6
competitors are tied for second, just three points behind Dan, and 20
competitors are within twenty points. Considering that the points per pick
increase as we move deeper into the tourney, this show is far from over.
ND Coach Mike Brey...doing what?
As far as the actual games themselves were concerned, their
were a couple of surprises in addition to the FGCU victory. Ole Miss surprised
many by manhandling a solid Wisconsin club. Likewise, while a number of you
predicted that the Cyclones would take down the Irish, I don’t believe you saw an
18 point beat down happening.
And then there’s the matter of the LaSalle
Explorers upset of the K-State Wildcats. Unfortunately, young Emily grew
enamored with the K-State logo, as it was purple, and rode her love of purple
all the way to the championship. For this reason, and because of a certain affinity
I have for Coach Bruce Weber, this was one game where I was not pulling for the
upset. Considering the ‘Cats found themselves down 19 to LaSalle in the first
half (shooting 58% including 6 three pointers), for K-State to come back they
had to pull off a second half “upset.” And it almost came to pass, as the ‘Cats
found themselves down only one with 9 seconds to play. Call a time-out to set
up a final play Coach Webber? No? Excellent, you must have already drilled your
players in this very end-of-game scenario. Here we go, Angel Rodriguez brings
the ball up the court ready to kick and dish… and…he dribbles down the right
side…into the corner…where he inexplicably ends up shooting a last second
jumper … FROM BEHIND THE BACKBOARD!!!!
Just like you drew it up Coach? Here’s
Bruce Webber’s “WTF?” face…
A valiant K-State comeback nuked by a horrific bomb
of a shot at the buzzer, and a big coaching whiff by Bruce.
Finally, the biggest upset of the day. The Eagles drop the
Hoyas. A classic case of a poorly coached Georgetown team looking way past
their #15 seeded opponent. Just two things to add to the cacophony that erupted
after this game. First the dunk of the tourney so far, courtesy of FGCU’s Chase
Fieler, which sent the fans in Philly into a tizzy and caused Twitter to erupt:
Also, loved Sherwood (like the forest) Brown shaking hands
with the broadcasters even though there was still five seconds left to play.
“Act like you’ve been there Sherwood.” Eh, on second thought, enjoy the moment
dude.
Ok, that’s it for now. Enjoy the hoops everyone, I’ll check
back with you tomorrow! #OTPMadness
-gr
P.S. Here's Kelsy Kovich and I exchanging long-distance high fives, NJ to KY style.
We began our 2013 OTP competition yesterday with a record
number of 57 participants. Thanks to you all for joining in on the fun!
While many of you have already done the PayPal thing, and
some others have already handed your cash to me in person, while others are
literally dropping the check in the mail, just want to remind everyone to get
your $5 entry fee to me ASAP, so you have a shot at the prize.
Let me start by welcoming back a slew of former OTPers back
to the competition including former champions Jen Boulton, Nick Batta, CT Wood,
Rae Poteat, Kim Kicielinski, Paul Schultz, and our defending champ, Amy
Hartzell.
Our OTP family is also expanding. My NU buddy George Dehner
has decided to subject his sons to the malarkey that is the OTP, welcome
Brendan and Patrick. Likewise Gud and Rae had already forced son Ian to
participate in recent years, glad to see brother Adam joining in as well.
Curtis got his better half, Christie, to help represent the Tronicks in the
OTP. 4/5 of the Kovich family is participating this year, welcome all, and
soon-to-be-newlyweds Steve Stites and Angela Verardo have, rightfully, decided
to usher in their life of wedded bliss by OTPing together. Other new names this
year include Mike Cline, Joel Barz, and Zach Bohler. Welcome guys. And, to the many of you who have formed the
backbone of the OTP for its last 16 years, it is great to have you back!
Our first day of competition is in the books. The updated
scores are up (I’ll try to have them ready the morning after each day’s games).
For those of you new to the OTP (or for those of you who may have forgotten
since last year) the OTP scoring system is based on points possible, NOT points
scored. This means that instead of rewarding you for each of the picks you got
correct, you are assigned points for every INCORRECT pick you make. For example,
if you picked New Mexico to go to the Final Four, their loss last night means
that I’ve docked you points for each round you had that team advancing. So, for
instance, my 3 year old Luke picked UNM to go to the Championship Game (give
him a break he’s 3 and he likes wolves). This unfortunate pick has already cost
him a boat load of points. Simply put, think of this scoring system like golf.
The lower your score the better you’re doing.
As for yesterday’s games, it was a typical first day of the
tourney. A bunch of blowouts, 12 seeds beating 5 seeds, a couple of truly awful
games, and some absolutely riveting last minute dramas. In the first category
we had MSU crushing the Crusaders of Valpo. Dan and Jen Boulton got to relax
early in that one. Top seed L’ville cruised to an easy victory, as did VCU
against an Akron team that was already missing its starting point guard
(suspended for drug-dealing) and then showed up for Thursday night’s game with
two guys suffering from the flu (apparently one guy had spent the night in the
hospital and walked into the area hooked up to an IV), and another who couldn’t
play because of back spasms. The result: One of the worst shellacking’s not
administered by a 1 or 2 seed: 88-42. Ouch, very ouch. Not to be outdone,
Syracuse dropped Montana 81-34, and Arizona handled Belmont 81-64. St. Louis
overcame 7 foot 5, 360 pound New Mexico St. center Sim Bhullar to win by 20,
and Colorado State and Michigan cruised to relatively comfortable victories. (This is Sim Bhullar in high school...)
Once again the five seeds were vulnerable, and this time it
was two Pac-10 (or is it 12?) teams that played that role of 12 seed spoiler.
Most agreed that Oregon was woefully under-seeded at 12, and their victory over
Ok. St. was not overly surprising. Considering UNLV had easily handled Cal
during the regular season, perhaps it was surprising that Cal was able to pull
off the win, but for those of you who tuned into this game, you could easily see
the problem: UNLV could not a) shoot the ball anywhere near the basket (they
ended up shooting 31%) b) could not get the ball in to superstar Anthony
Bennett courtesy of the Cal zone (although he did end up with a 15 point, 11
rebound double-double) but considering the video of AB’s performance against
Cal earlier in the year (see below) this was a major factor in the Rebel’s loss
c) you knew all was lost for the Rebs when, in the closing seconds, Cal player
Allen Crabbe missed a free throw and got his own rebound IN SPITE OF THE FACT
THAT ALL OF THE OTHER CAL PLAYERS WERE PLAYING BACK BEHIND THE HALF COURT LINE.
Which meant that Crabbe single-handedly outrebounded 5 other UNLV players.
Stick a fork in them. This was got me excited about Bennett initially...
The other ugly game was the Wichita State-Pitt game. Wow, no
one could make a shot in that one. But, as always, there were a number of absolutely
stellar games to keep you on the edge of your seat. Marquette disrupted a
potentially super-scintillating upset by Davidson by bombing away from the
three point line at the end of the game, while poor Davidson fell apart,
missing free throws and losing the ball out of bounds at a critical juncture at
the very end. Speaking of falling apart, Memphis almost handed away the victory
to St. Mary’s, and the fun-to-pronounce Matt Dellavedova managed to blow an
open look at the winning three as time expired. Note both the dejected Dellavedova and the reaction of Coach Randy Bennett in the background.
And let’s not forget Southern University almost … almost pulling off the unthinkable and
dropping #1 seed Gonzaga. Though a Zags fan, I was pulling for the Jaguars if
only because it would get people to stop referencing, as TNT commentator Ernie
Johnson did yesterday, “the closest a #16 seed has come to beating a #1.” Since
the record owner for this distinction remains Western Carolina which was a
shot-off-the-rim away from defeating my #1 seeded Boilermakers in 1996. Nonetheless,
Cinderella did emerge out of the chaos yesterday in the form of the Harvard
Crimson who sent the three seeded New Mexico Lobos home, and thereby shredded a
number of the brackets of our OTPers.
But hey, that’s the joy of the madness eh!? Check out the photo of the Harvard pep band celebrating the win. Classic...
Enjoy another spectacular day of hoops my friends, and I’ll
update you again tomorrow.
In the words of the Cat in
the Hat, “I
know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that
is funny.”
It is once again that
enchanted time of year where Nature can’t figure out whether to snow or rain,
be sunny or gray, but also when the Men’s NCAA college basketball season
culminates in that wondrous event that’s come to be known as March Madness, The
Tourney, Encino Man, the Big Enchilada, your Grandmother’s Spatula, or
sometimes simply, The Dance. Sounds fun right?
“Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW! It is fun
to have fun But you have to know how.”
And you know how! By
joining the Online Tournament Pool of course. For the 16th
consecutive year the Online Tournament Pool, or OTP, is here to maximize your
March Madness enjoyment. The OTP is your way to join the excitement of not just
viewing all of the hoops action but seeing if you have the expertise (usually
little required) or the luck (most importantly) to successfully fill out the
best bracket and take home the coveted OTP trophy (and the cash prize too).
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in
your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your
own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who’ll decide where to
go…”
So steer your browser to
the following link and let the madness begin…
Still not convinced the
OTP is for you? Need a few more Dr. Seuss quips? Then read on… After all, “The more
that you read … the more that you’ll know. The more that you learn the more
places you’ll go.”
“Wherever you fly,
you'll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. Except when you don't. Because,
sometimes, you won't.”
Maybe
you’re concerned that you don’t know anything about college basketball so how
can you possibly win the OTP?!
You don’t know the
difference between the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Atlantic Sun
Conference?
Or how the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference is different from the Mid-Eastern Athletic
Conference?
Why there is a Big West
Conference, a Great West Conference, a Mountain West Conference, a West Coast
Conference AND a Western Athletic Conference?
Did the Patriot League
fight to gain its independence from the Colonial Athletic Conference?
Are the Sun Belt
Conference and the Horizon Conference always getting in each other’s way?
Why are there 15 teams
in the Atlantic 10 Conference, 10 teams in the Big 12 Conference but 12 teams
in the Big 10 Conference?
How one team from
Chicago is in the Big East (DePaul) and another (Chicago State) is in the Great
West?
Why Conference USA is
comprised of teams from Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica?
Well
guess what? It doesn’t matter. The OTP is a complete crapshoot that anyone can
win regardless of their knowledge of College Basketball. So you have as good of
a chance of being on top of the rest … or not.
“You do not like [the OTP]. So you say. Try it! Try
it! And you may! Try it and you may I say!”
Not
sure picking the victors of all the games of the NCAA Men’s Basketball
Tournament is that great? Here are some testimonials from previous OTP
competitors…
·“I am lucky to be what I am! Thank
goodness I’m not just a clam or a ham or a dusty old jar of sour gooseberry jam!
… Thanks OTP!”
·“I’m Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous
me! For I am the ruler of all that I see! And I couldn’t have gotten here
without the OTP!”
·“I meant no harm. I most truly did
not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got. And simply did it by dropping 5
dollars in the OTP pot.”
·“Playing in the OTP today was good.
Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”
· “Unless
someone like the OTP’s cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better
… it’s not.”
·“And the turtles, of course…all the
turtles are free. As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be. And this all
happened because … of the OTP.
·“We’ve GOT to make noises in greater
amounts! So, join the OTP, lad! For every voice counts!”
·“Today you are you! That is truer than
true! There is no one alive that is you-er than you. But without the OTP you’ll
just end up like Foo-Foo the Snoo.”
·“Maybe the OTP, doesn’t come from a
store. Maybe the OTP …perhaps…means a little bit more.”
That last one’s a bit of
tear jerker isn’t it? So listen, now that you’re convinced, head over to http://docgeorge.net/OTP. By Sunday night
the official tourney brackets will be released and I will post them to the web
site ASAP. Then you have until Thursday, noon, to submit your picks by simply
pointing and clicking on the teams you believe will prevail.
The rules are simple:
Full names (first and
last) are required for your entry to count.
Only ONE entry per
person.
All entries must be
in by noon on Thursday, March 21.
$5 entry is due by
Wednesday, March 27.
Entry can be paid
either via PayPal or be regular snail mail.
