Friends in Madness,
UConn basketball (both men's and women's): The most unheralded sports juggernaut in our lifetimes?
Recap of all 5 pools below.
If you cashed, you'll get an email from The GM this week confirming your haul and linking you to the payout form. You'll also see your placement on your Vault page soon. Congrats!
BIG MM BRACKET RECAP
UConn was our 9th most popular title pick (92 people), and of all the UConn-as-champ brackets, @jollytime16 had the best with 86 points.
The key to jolly's title was the South Region, where they posted a SZN-best 23 points, including a correct SDSU-over-Creighton pick in the Elite Eight.
Our average in the South was 8.7 points - one of our worst regions ever, and yet still somehow better than the 7.8 we averaged in the East.
@jollytime16 did post just 8 points in the East, but given how bad everyone else was, it didn't matter. 2/4 Final Four teams, 1/2 National Championship teams, and the champ was good enough in this upside-down year.
Even wilder: Had UConn lost, jolly would still be the champ. Not a single person in our Big Bracket picked SDSU to win it all.
BRACKET #2 RECAP
This one came down to the Natty, as an SDSU win meant @stdunnigan - our leader by a whopping EIGHT points heading into the final - would hang on, while a UConn win would give @rmm135 the title by 2 points.
We did have a lone SDSU champion picker in @joedad6452, but even an Aztecs 'ship would have left joedad 6 points short, in 2nd place.
BRACKET #3 RECAP
This was the lone bracket where an SDSU title would have delivered an SDSU champion picker the bacon.
@Kimbos_Krushers_, who has a great username and an even better feel about SDSU's potential, was slated to vault from T35 all the way to a SZN title - by a lone point - with an Aztecs win.
Alas, UConn did the expected, and that delivered @Leithal - who had only 1 Final Four team in UConn but outperformed in the South and West regionals - the title.
DANCE SURVIVOR RECAP
@jameschodgins has been in The SZN trenches since 2012. He's got the scars to show for it. He also has the wisdom.
That wisdom and savvy carried James to his first-ever SZN title, by making it through the Final Four without a loss. 11 picks. 11 wins.
Two other brave souls also survived the Final Four, but nobody had any teams available to pick in the National Championship. Thus, it came down to Championship Tiebreakers.
The first tiebreaker - sum of seeds picked - delivered James the title. @1769 and @corymatthews3 settled for T2.
PICK'EM RECAP
Overall standings | Interval 2 (rounds 2-6) standings | Your picks
@AdamAnt and @randipoli tied at 48 wins (out of 63 picks - a damn good rate for a tourney with as many upsets as this one). So we went to Championship Tiebreakers, where again, the first tiebreaker was sum of correct seeds picked.
In being the sole leader after Round 1 (and thus also the Interval 1 champ), @Randipoli's sum of correct seeds picked in that round alone was an astonishing 142. That proved insurmountable, and Randi claimed the title.
Shout-out to @panesh and @Loganward, who split the Interval 2 (rounds 2-6) win, at 24 correct (out of 31 picks).
Thanks for riding along. Hope you had a blast. Stay classy, stay Moxilicious, and stay SZN, y'all.
Yours in Hooptopia,
The Commish