We Have a Winnah!!!

Before we divulge the secret identity of the AABINPC Champion, we need to put something right. Back in the regional semifinals, we opined that Duke may have fallen due to bad karma. It wasn't bad karma...the credit should go to the Indiana Hoosiers. They did it again tonight versus an Oklahoma team we thought they couldn't beat. Congrats to Coach Knig, er Davis, and his team -- they deserve to be playing for the title.

The AABINPC champ this year joins Chuck and Doug as a multiple trophy winner. And the envelope says this year's champion is.... Jeff, Your Humble Commissioner, riding the ABINPC Stallion in that Steed's first year. Congratulations to the Commish and his stallion.



Now the consolation prizes will be distributed as follows. Place and Show will go to Chuck and Steve respectively in the event of an Indiana victory, but will go to Nat and Chuck respectively if the Maryland Terrapins win the final game of the year. A final bit of advice for Gary Williams: Before you start practicing your humble trophy acceptance speeches in front of adoring fans, remember you are playing the team that vanquished both Duke and Oklahoma, two of the teams responsible for your own losses this season.

Enjoy the finals, everybody! We'll try to get the final Leaderboard updated Monday night. And thanks again for playing.

While En Route to Atlanta...

The NIT semis are in the book, and South Carolina has prevailed over Syracuse, which eliminates both Joe and Rippie the RPI Clown from contention for the AABINPC Title. It was a valiant effort by the rookie Joe, and a surprising show of insight by Rippie. Rippie was gracious in defeat, stating only that, "as I clown, I was impressed by the orange jerseys and white shorts sported by Syracuse in the first half". Note that the NIT Goodies have not yet been awarded to Jeff, Chuck, Steve, and Doug, but they will each receive either the full 60 points or 15 points each depending whether or not South Carolina wins the NIT Title.

So, to sum up the situation one more time:

Steve prevails with an Indiana championship over Kansas.
Doug now wins all other scenarios involving Kansas' participation in the Championship game, and
Jeff owns any Championship game appearance by Maryland.

I'd like to solicit ideas for next year's BABINPC. While you're traveling to Atlanta for the Final Four, think about improvements you'd like to see for next year. We generally like to add a Goodie each year and I'd welcome input about an intriguing new Goodie or any other ideas you may have for improving this grand tradition. Thanks y'all.

Final Four

It's Final Four time once again. Technically, I guess it's Final Four and a clown. Jeff, Joe, Steve, and Doug are all still in the hunt, along with Rippie. That's right folks, it's a family affair with three brothers and a father-in-law mixing it up in the final week. Before I run through the scenarios, I want to acknowledge that Steve has grabbed the AABINPC lead away from your Commissioner for the first time in the tournament. However, things don't look too promising for our current leader (see below). Read 'em and weep... here's how the AABINPC shakes out.

If Maryland humbles Kansas: Jeff hoists the hardware. Otherwise...

If Indiana beats Kansas in the finals: Steve ends years of frustration with his first trophy. Otherwise...

If Oklahoma beats Kansas in the finals: it's between Doug and Rippie. Now we can't give the trophy to a celebrity, so Doug gets it either way. However, he will KO the clown and win it outright if South Carolina can earn him some Goodie points in the NIT. In this scenario, Doug will become the first big beneficiary of the Dark Horse Goodie, which is only in its second year.

Finally, if Kansas wins the National Title, and I think most of believe they will, then things get a bit interesting. In this situation, it's a three-horse race between Rippie, Joe, and Doug. Joe would grab the gold with a Syracuse Orangemen NIT Championship, Doug would be the top dog if South Carolina beats the Orangemen in the NIT semis (unless they go on to lose to Temple in the finals), and Rippie would be the Clown Supremo if Temple wins the NIT or if Memphis downs Syracuse in the finals.

Round 3

Whew! Some great games in Round 3 -- I had the feeling all along that it just wasn't the year for Duke. Bad karma, I think. Nevertheless, your humble commissioner continues to lead after three rounds, although the gap has been narrowed considerably by Rippie, Steve, and Doug. Chuck is also right up there with the leaders, but sadly he doesn't have the distinguishing picks left to take the lead.

At this point, it's looking like a number of factors will still come into play to determine the AABINPC winner. We still have three of the final four NIT teams in our collective baskets, and an Oklahoma trip to the final four will sweeten the outlook for Nat, Steve, and Joe.

Goodie Watch: Thirty points for Best Region will go to either Doug or Fred, for picking 13 out of 15. The winner will be determined by the winner of the Kansas - Oregon game on Sunday. Lowest seed in the final four will either be Oklahoma (see above), or will be split equally among all contestants who had a surviving #1 seed. Those pickers with either Oklahoma or Oregon as the Dark Horse National Champ still have hope as well. Hey folks, at the ABINPC, it ain't over till it's over.

Round 3 Preview

Hey gang, several errors were reported and verified, so some small changes have been made to the leaderboard -- nothing earthshattering. However, you might want to check over the picks pages to make sure none of our error-prone data entry staff screwed up your selections. We are investigating to discover who is responsible for these egregious errors and we will take steps to ensure that such problems do not occur again.

The Commissioner will be at an ABINPC Executive Committee event Thursday evening, so the leaderboard likely won't be updated till sometime on Friday. Good luck and enjoy the regional semis!

Round 2

Thanks to some low-seed help from the Salukis of Southern Illinois and the Missouri Tigers, Jeff has widened his lead. We did see an impressive 2nd Round performance by Rippie the RPI Clown, who was the only entrant to pick 10 of 16.

It's apparent that this thing won't be decided until the Final Four weekend with so many powerful teams left in the tournament. Also, the 60 NIT bonus points could become a factor as our pickers have claimed 7 of the remaining 16 teams. Half of those sixteen will be weeded out by Wednesday.

Our leaderboard is now pictorially represented over at the racetrack (click on link above).

2nd Round Goodies: The lowest seed in the Sweet 16 is #12 Missouri , and Jeff submitted the only sheet correctly picking them, so he collects the 36 Goodie Points.

Round 1 - Day 2

Just like last year, Commissioner Jeff has jumped out to the Round 1 Lead. Last year, he went on to finish among the bottom feeders. While it's nice to be riding the lead horse, that doesn't mean the view won't change abruptly. Interestingly, the top four spots on the Leader Board are occupied by our former ABINPC champs. The only other former champ, Wild Bill, is bringing up the rear. Don't fret, Wild Bill, because Jon isn't far ahead of you and his Gonzaga - Pepperdine final is looking a little shaky.

Round 1 Goodies are awarded as follows. All pickers who had Duke as the biggest first-round blowout are awarded the full 18 points as the Dookies managed to win by 46 points despite Coach K's uncharacteristic restraint. Nobody picked the biggest first-round upset as UNC-Wilmington held on for an overtime victory over Pac-10 power USC. Therefore, according to the Stroke Rule, we split the 30-point bonus among the nine correct picks for the 12-seed over 5-seed games. Kudos to former Champ Doug, who collected a hat trick with all three of these picks.

Round 1 - Day 1

Your humble Commissioner has jumped out to the early lead. Yeah, we've seen this little scenario play out before. That was a fun first day with some close games and upsets. Three cheers today for Wyoming, who gave Gonzaga a taste of their own medicine. And three more cheers for Coach Kzyzrewski (or however the hell he spells it) for actually substituting before the final two minutes. He did still have all five starters in with nearly a 50-point lead, though.

On the business side of things, former champ Wild Bill Murray got his picks in just before the opening tip. And Fred returned from The Mountain State and got his picks in as well. Have fun on Day 2 Everybody!

The Field

So far, we've collected papers from 13 entrants (click the Contestants link above to see the competition). We also have a commitment from ABINPC veteran Fred that he'll get us his picks tonight. Fred has been dealing with a family illness and is on the ABINPC Honor System. The ABINPC staff has been working around-the-clock to get all these picks into the system...we're still waiting on a few of the Goodie picks. Please be patient.

Our defending champ, Chessman Chuck, has his sights set on back-to-back championships. If he can pull it off, he'll join Doug as the only other participant to claim 3 ABINPC titles. These two join a set of eight veteran pickers plus four rookies and a single celebrity.

You may recall that Jerri rode the rocking horse last year. Sadly, that horse stumbled badly down the stretch, causing her to finish in last place. Unfortunately, the wooden animal suffered a broken leg and had to be put down. Rest in peace, Rocking Horse.



We were fortunate enough to have three celebrity pickers last year: Dick Vitale (guest analyst), Bob Knight (guest coach), and George W Bush (guest Compassionate Conservative). Well, the White House told us that W was a little too busy to play this year -- I think he just didn't like getting his butt kicked by the collective ABINPC Genius. Dick never returned our calls, but his office did call back and say something about his attorneys. And Bob told us that NCAA regulations precluded his participation this year, but sent us his picks to be kept in complete confidence. I can't divulge his picks but I'll give you a little hint: he has the Red Raiders penciled in as "one and done".

So our lone Celebrity Picker is new to the ABINPC this year. Please welcome Rippie the RPI Clown to the tournament. Rippie solemnly believes that you can take the record of each team and the combined records of its opponents, apply an arbitrary arithmetic weight to these two values and generate a statistic that is meaningful to selecting teams and picking winners. Unfortunately, Rippie has a lot of pull with the NCAA Selection committee. His picks are based entirely on the RPI calculation. Don't confuse Rippie with his cousin, Bobo the BCS Clown. Bobo is strictly a football fan.

Let the Games Begin!!!!!!!! Check back often for ABINPC Updates. Good Luck!