It has certainly been a very interesting tournament thus far. Even though some of you were expecting perfection, given the odds of 1 in 1,470,925,948,011 (a special nod of thanks to Dan and Noah Rutman for calculating the odds leveraging their superhuman Excel skills), suffice to say you will need to try again next year! I'm talking to you Christian, Sean, Matthew and Lori Kelly, Uncle Dino’s immediate family, whom he expects nothing but perfection in all that they do, after all Uncle Dino sets the example each and every day…please pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!
Before Uncle Dino exalts the feats of the leaders, let us peruse the under dwellers and their less than spectacular performance thus far in the pool – Uncle Dino’s favorite part of “The Dish.” First, it goes without saying that Uncle Dino wants to build the self esteem of everyone else in the pool, and it is for this reason you do not see Uncle Dino leading the pool…true story! let’s start our journey at the depths of the standings. Uncle Dino will need to board the Dino Deep Sea Submersible to descend to the depths to find Andrew “Mariana Trench” Pate at the lowest level of the pool, closely followed by Chad “Humpback Anglerfish” Peterson who, like his picks, tends to inhabit the Abyssopelagic Zone. A place known for “marine snow” which is basically a continuous shower of organic detritus consisting of dying plankton, protists, and fecal matter – much like Chad’s picks, with an emphasis on fecal matter!! And in 3rd to last place is Fritz Nelson who obviously forgot to wear his water wings when he waded into the Pool this year! As the Dino Deep Sea Submersible ascends from the abyss we can see a little bit of light starting to shine down, but unfortunately not nearly enough to give Laura I-Was-Not-Maready-for-The-Pool or Joe Biden’s picks of malarky a chance for redemption. Next on the list is Lord Byron Kanaley who entered the Pool twice using some strategerey to ensure that one bracket performed better than other. And it is great to see that Lord Byron did not disappoint with one bracket in 42nd place with 255 points but the other bracket performing much better at 41st place with 256 points. Uncle Dino wants to commend Lord Byron on a job well done! Getting closer to the surface we arrive at Nothin-But-Net-Lenz in 17th place. Uncle Dino suggests a different name for next year’s Pool, something like Bricklane-Lenz? Now the Dino Deep Sea Submersible can see the light as he approaches the Top 10. In 10th place is Tom This-Pool-Gives-Me-The-Mills, the proprietor in Nickies, lower Haight’s neighborhood sports bar. I highly recommend you stop by if you find yourself in San Francisco for some fine food and perhaps conversation and insight that will get you to 10th place!! Michaela Are-You-Related-To-Peyton Manning in 9th, Jim I-Like-My-Internet-Brower in 8th, Noel Vierra in 7th, Janet Bloomin'-Loomis in 6th, Bruce The-Starnes-Will-Not-Align-This Year in 5th, Katelyn Uncle-Merendino in 4th, Christian Machine-Gun-Kelly in 3rd, Danielle I-Used-Quick-Pick Tarp in 2nd and last but not least, King Richard The Altschuler floating to the top! Now Uncle Dino has good news for three of you, but bad news for everyone else. There are only 3 remaining brackets that can finish first in order of probability:
If you want to get an idea of which team you should root for, for your best finish click on this LINK. For those of you who have not Donated please do. Thanks for being a part of this. Now off to the Elite 8. BRRRRUUUUUCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEE!! Leading the pool is Bruce The-Starnes-Have Aligned with 302 points, aided by savvy picks like Miami over USC and New Mexico State over UConn and a 10-point Uncle Dino Bonus bestowed upon him for picking all Round 1 Games in the South Region correctly – one can hear him belting out Glory Days around the house yesterday! Noel “No Look” Vierra is close behind in 2nd with 298 points just missing a bonus thanks to the Kentucky House Cats, um, I mean Wildcats! No Look simply entered a risk % of 12.19%, closed her eyes and hit “Quick Pick” and voilà! Noel applies the same strategy when choosing her stock portfolio…currently up 57% YTD! Andrew Hery-Go-Again rounds out the top three. He too was disappointed by the House Cats, but he might surprise with choosing Nova and da’ Badgers to make it to the Final Four. We shall see. What Uncle Dino never expected was to see the father son duo of Dan and Noah Rutman nowhere near the top – Noah in 37th place still has his Final Four intact but father Dan…in 49th place was not something Uncle Dino would have thought he would ever see. Following closely behind is Fritz “Fear the Turtle" Nelson in 50th place. His performance is obviously a result of his University of Maryland degree. First time pool participant The-First-Noel Vierra has risen to the top riding her upset pick of the Itsy Bitsy Richmond Spiders over Iowa and selecting Michigan over the Rams of Colorado State. After the first 16 games Donald J. Trump is almost in first place! When Uncle Dino called The Donald to let him know, the former president was quoted as saying “Throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. I am also a VERY successful businessman, top T.V. star, oh, and President of the United States (on my first try). This is good news Uncle Dino, I have accomplished many things but being first in your pool is perhaps one of the greatest, you know what, it is the greatest achievement I have ever made, and you know what, picking a bracket with anything less than a 100% risk rating is for losers and me, me, I’m a winner.” Wow, Uncle Dino is grateful for your praise sir? Andrew Hery-Go-Again and Bruce The-Starnes-Have-Aligned, round out the Top 3 with their shrewd upset pick of New Mexico State making Pistol Pete proud I reckon! Now Uncle Dino is on vacation, and yes this Dish is a bit weak, but frankly not nearly as weak and Kentucky’s performance last night! The Gods have spoken (PickHoops Best Results confirm it) and we have our King of the 2021 Uncle Dino's NCAA Pool. He came, he saw, he made some very good picks. and he conquered. He is none other than Dan (AKA Excel Man) Rutman. All hail King Dan!
It is an annual tradition for The Greatest NCAA Pool on Earth (trademarked) to highlight those participants whose heart was in the right place, but Uncle Dino must question where their heads were/are at!! Each year everyone assumes that they have a great NCAA basketball pool mind – but then reality sets in!! So here we go… Jack Gaylord, yes you are not even 3 years old yet, but that is no excuse for your current ranking, however there is some hope as you will not finish last like Donald J. Trump, who knows more than all of the people in the world who participate in an NCAA Basketball Pool!! We did love The Jack Gaylord NCAA Pool Pick Special where you selected Rutgerrrrrrs! That was awesome, but perhaps Mom should go easy on the red wine during next year’s special!! Next are those that entered more than one bracket, and none are even in the top ten. First is the 2017 champion Tim Davis – how the mighty have fallen. Tim, bless his heart, entered 3 brackets and currently occupies 24th, 45th and 49th place. Tim, Uncle Dino wants to tell you to just not listen to what everyone in the pool is saying, that you entered 3 brackets and the best you can do is 24th, there is always next year. Then there is Nate Mariner, a man who is loved by millions…and hated by even more! Nate’s 2 brackets sit at 11th (oooooh! just out of the top 10 so you qualify for this dissing) and 47th. Next is Fritz Nelson’s 2 brackets that sit at 26th and 32nd, Uncle Dino thinks Fritz is a traitor – he is a University of Maryland graduate. The Terrapins left the ACC to join the Big 14 (really, it’s the Big 10 but there are 14 teams in the Big 10), that sound you hear is Lefty turning in his grave – hey Fritz, how’s that “Fear the Turtle” battle cry working out for you? What Uncle Dino really wants to know is what the hell happened to Iron Byron Kanaley? Iron Byron is a 2-time past champion and he actually finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd one year! Well, even the greats can really screw things up, but we look forward to Iron Byron winning comeback player of the year in 2022!! So, let’s see, who else can we dish on? There is Hayley Null with the lowest upset risk percentage of 3%. A first-time participant with the possibility of finishing in the top 20 is not bad for your initial foray, but Hayley, as the saying goes with risk there is reward! Uncle Dino expects more from you in 2022. Michael Hines an Uncle Dino NCAA Pool veteran, fan favorite and Notre Dame graduate has placed well in the past but not so much this year. All Uncle Dino can say to ease your pain is that NC State has a winning record vs. Notre Dame in football – look it up! Uncle Dino wants to know what that smell is? It smells like something has died in here…oh, that’s just AJ Gard’s picks!! Uncle Dino would be remiss if he did not mention his curling friend from Canada, Gavin “Hurry Hard” Davidson. Gavin, thanks for playing, your donation to the cause and your current 48th place standing. And many of you have asked about Stevie Frisbie and if there is any relation between him and Frisbee The Dog from the movie Scrooged – let Uncle Dino lay any rumors to rest there is no relation between Frisbee The Dog and Stevie Frisbie. Frisbee The Dog would have made much better picks! ;-) Hey, wait a minute – I hear all of you saying, what about Uncle Dino who currently sits in 40th place? Well, you see, Uncle Dino is about doing things for the greater good. Yes, Uncle Dino could have a perfect bracket, really, he could, but he wants all those who participate in The Greatest NCAA Pool on Earth to feel good about themselves, the experience and to make sure that their self-esteem is lifted. That is why Uncle Dino is in 40th place, not because he does not have a great NCAA basketball mind, but because he cares deeply about all of you!! ;-)
Thanks again for participating and now it’s on to the Elite 8! Yes, this is real. Uncle Dino, a past employee of The Pepsi-Cola Company, has always thought that a liquid version of Peeps is what Easter has been missing.
All cynicism and kidding aside...Uncle Dino is so grateful to everyone for their generous donations to the V Foundation. We have exceeded the goal for this year! THANK YOU!!
PickHoops has a great feature that actually calculates the probability of who will win The Greatest NCAA Pool On Earth after the Sweet 16 is set. And now without further ado, our final four heros are: I am pretty sure that Dan Rutman AKA "Excel Man" probably already does this manually for the 249 NCAA pools that he enters, but for the rest of us mere mortals just go to the PickHoops website and choose "Best Results" from the menus on the left. To break it down for our own Final Four if multiple teams and rounds are listed, these teams must win all the games in the listed rounds for you to achieve your best finish. If the column is blank, you have no "Must Wins" for a particular round - yet. A blank column is good to see for the next round. But if you have a blank column listed for a later round, check back after today's round - there might be a "Must Win" due to results of today's games. So you have heard about Dan "Excel Man" Rutman and our reigning champion Matthew Kelly, but what about the other 2 potential winners for this year's competition - Dan Phillips and John Peterson? It is of no surprise to Uncle Dino that Dan selected Loyola to go far. You see Dan is a real fan of Sister Jean, and a little known fact about Dan, you see Dan is the President of the Minnesota chapter of the Flying Nun Fan Club. It's good to see Dan as a potential winner of this year's competition - Uncle Dino wonders if Dan is going to make this a habit!! ;-)
Uncle Dino wants to thank all of you for being a part of The Greatest NCAA Pool On Earth this year. We are off the the Sweet 16, there will be more dishing to come.
Illinois has made five appearances in the NCAA Final Four, finishing as the national runner-up in 2005, placing third in 1949, 1951 and 1952, and tying for third in 1989...but not this year. Loyola out played and REALLY outcoached Illinois. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Simmons with the upset picks - well done gentlemen.
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AuthorUncle Dino Is An NC State Alumnus Who Graduated From North Carolina State University In 1984 With A Degree In Accounting. Jim Valvano Made His 4 Years At NC State Memorable In Many Ways, Not To Mention The 1983 Wolfpack Victory Against The University Of Houston Or "Phi Slama Jamma" For The 1983 NCAA Championship. Uncle Dino Is Tom Kelly, A Cloud Computing Enthusiast (Twitter @TKcloud) Who Wants To Use The Cloud To Give To A Great Cause. Yes Office Pools Are Fun, But Doing So For The Greater Good Is More Than Fun...It's The Right Thing To Do. Archives
March 2023
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