Red, White and CAROLINA Blue
Yes They Can!!!
North Carolina has just won its 5th National Championship, but for Sinead Murphy, it’s the first NCAA 2k* championship, and with that goes the prestigious 1st place prize of 10,000. Let’s congratulate Sinead and all the winners of this year’s tournament (each of you will receive an email from us shortly to get your address and to make plans for payment over the next few week or so).
1st – Sinead Murphy - (10,000)
2nd – David Schrader - (4,000)
3rd – Javier Oreamuno - (2,000)
4th – Katie Albanese - (1,500)
5th – J Schafroth - (1,000)
6th – Katie Foss - (500)
7th (tied) – Clayton Crum - (350)
7th (tied) – Jeff Quinn #2 - (350)
9th – Bryan McGowan - (250)
10th –Charlie Gambino (1) - (200)
11th – Kurt Savallo - (100)
12th – Motorboater - (100)
13th – Hawk Gannon - (100)
14th (tied) – Kendra Adey - (88)
14th (tied) – Ryan Napp - (88)
14th (tied) – Skittle Nuts - (88)
14th (tied) – Thompson/Kizer 6 - (88)
18th – Kevin Route - (75)
19th (tied) – Alfonso Barros - (37.50)
19th (tied) – Cathy Sullivan - (37.50)
19th (tied) – Jaison Rechter - (37.50)
19th (tied) – Kevin Spinelli #1 - (37.50)
Last – Audrey Chan - (25)
Box 1 – Brian McGuire #1 - (100)
Box 2 – lukasz atlasik - (100)
Box 3 – John Vanderpool #3 - (100)
Box 4 – Jack Rader - (100)
Box 5 – Jason Tyska - (100)
Box 6 – Michael Hadley 2 - (100)
Box 7 – Jim Martin - (100)
Box 8 – Sayid Jarrah - (100)
Box 9 – Nick VanDerlyke - 1 - (100)
Box 10 – Matt Pemberton - (100)
First Weekend Leaders – Aaron Leitch, Jessica Offer, Michael Cavalano - (85.33 each)
Second Weekend Leaders – Back Row 5 and Cathy Napp - (223 each)
We hope that everyone enjoyed NCAA 2k9 and will be back next year, for an even bigger and better tournament.
Tournament Committee
Monday Night
It's what every player looks forward to once the season begins. Yet how many people thought Michigan State and North Carolina would square off in this year's final - well, 16 people in ncaa2k9 did - congratulations to you all. But, Monday night will take on a new meaning for one of two people - the newest Spartan (Eric Rhinesmith) and Tar Heel (Sinead Murphy) fans. (Although Sinead will finish second if Michigan State wins, so that’s not too shabby…)
While only two people can win the top prize, ALL 948 sheets are still able to win 100 from the "boxes" tournament, which is based on the final score of each team in the championship game.
We are still waiting for over 100 donations to come in, so in order to allow us to make timely payouts to all the final winners this year, please make sure to send in your 25 donation (per sheet), if you have not already done so, to the below address:
(make your checks payable to T Thompson)
T Thompson
PO Box 385
Wysox, PA 18854
Also, continue to visit this website (hit refresh in your browser to make sure you can access the latest file) in order to follow along with everyone's picks and how you rank vs. the field.
Once again, thank you for helping make this year's tourney such a success. Next year's website, <ncaa2k10.info> will be ready soon and we're hoping that the economy gets better for everyone, so we can be over 1,200 entries next year!!! As always, feel free to contact us with ways we can improve our setup for next year.
Good luck to all those that still have an opportunity to place in the top 20 and to everyone in the Boxes tournament.
Tournament Committee
Deeeetroit Bound
It appears we've all taken a front seat, and Back Row allowed Cathy Napp to sit down. After two great weekends of basketball, two participants have led the way to Detroit. Back Row 5 and Cathy Napp are our 2nd weekend winners, and are our leaders heading into the Final Four. Although, much is to be determined, congrats are due to these two wiley competitors. Good luck to all and remember, even if your bracket doesn't look like a winner, you still have the box competition. Good luck.
Reminder: On Wednesday, a list of the non-donating participants will be uploaded to the site, and available for all to see. Please send your donation as soon as possible. Thank you.
(checks payable to T Thompson)
T Thompson
PO Box 385
Wysox, PA 18854
And if you don't know, Tiger Woods is pretty good.
Tournament Committee
Calcium Carbonate (aka "Chalk")
Calcium Carbonate, otherwise known as “Chalk,” is what the first weekend of this year’s tournament has produced. Only two teams (Arizona and Purdue) were not favored to reach this point.
Well, that didn’t seem to surprise the three people that were atop the NCAA 2k9 leaderboard after the first weekend, and therefore they will split the first weekend leader prize of 256 - congratulations to Aaron Leitch, Jessica Offer, and Michael Calavano (please note that all prizes will be audited and sent after the tournament is complete).
The fun part about this pool is the ability to view everyone's selections and play out potential matchups in the tournament to see how well your sheets can do vs. the rest of the field. Once again, to view the leaderboard or everybody else’s selections, select the toolbar option (at the top of the webpage) "Leaderboard and Selections File" which will allow you to Open or Save the file to your desktop (it may take 30 seconds to a minute to load, it's a large file). To use the file, simply fill out the "Bracket" tab with the correct winners (or forecast future game outcomes) and click the blue square at the top the "Leaderboard" tab to sort the leaderboard and see where your sheet ranks. And if you want to pull up your bracket, or the bracket of someone else, just type in a sheet’s name in the “Your Picks” tab and you can follow along that way.
And please, (we cannot emphasize this enough), but if you have not already, please send your donation to the following address immediately:
(checks payable to T Thompson)T Thompson
PO Box 385
Wysox, PA 18854
We thank you again for your participation in our event and wish everyone the best of luck!
Tournament Committee
Mission (Almost) Accomplished
Despite the terrible economic conditions we are facing as a country, we were almost able to reach the same # of entries as last year. We didn't quite make it, but with more unique entrants this year than ever before we were able to receive 940 entries into NCAA 2k9, and we thank each and every one of you very much. Now, let the games begin!!!
The fun part about this pool is the ability to view everyone's selections and play out potential matchups in the tournament to see how well your sheets can do vs the rest of the field.
To view everybody's selections, please select the toolbar option (at the top of the webpage) "Leaderboard and Selections File" which will allow you to Open or Save the file to your desktop (it may take 30 seconds to a minute to load, it's a large file). To use the file, simply fill out the "Bracket" tab with the correct winners (or forecast future game outcomes) and click the blue square at the top of the "Leaderboard" tab to sort the leaderboard and see where your sheet ranks (unfortunately the macro does not work for some versions of Excel, so just sort by the total points column).
Please check your selections carefully and submit any concerns to the Committee for review. In case we missed anything, we have kept all emails and A FINAL file will be uploaded following this weekends games.
Also, if you have not already, please send your donation this weekend to the following address:
(checks payable to T Thompson)
T Thompson
PO Box 385
Wysox, PA 18854
We thank you again for your participation in our event and wish everyone the best of luck (unless you are a Dook fan, in which case we were rooting for the Binghamton upset)!
Tournament Committee
Yes We Can
After ten great NCAA 2k* tournaments, with winners from every age group and background, we have amassed one of the largest followings that has been seen in a long, long time.
And in a few weeks, only a few short weeks, everyone in this great nation of ours will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of all #1 seeds reaching the Final Four. We are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again in Cinderella.
But if there's anything, that we have been reminded of since last year, it's that the kind of change we seek will not come easy. There is Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Connecticut. Partly because we have fine teams at the top of the polls, fierce competitors who are worthy of our respect and our admiration. But they will face difficult oppostion this March.
And as contentious as this tournament may get, we have to remember that this is a contest for the National Championship. And that all of us share an abiding desire to end the 1 year reign of Harvey Smith, Sr. (congratulations to last year's winner) and win NCAA 2k9.
So this will not be easy. Make no mistake about what you're up against. Last year there were over 1,000 entries for the first time on record and we thank every last person who participated.
But let me say this, what we've all seen in the past year is that we're also up against forces that are not the fault of any one person, but forces that could prevent us from entering as many sheets into NCAA 2k9 as we want to, in order to win.
We are here today to say that this is not the vision we see. We have seen what March Madness is and We believe in what this Tournament can be. A Tournament with over 1,111 entries in 2009. That is the tournament We see. That is the tournament you see. But now it is up to us, all of us, to help the entire NCAA 2k9 world embrace this vision.
So let me remind you today that picking every game right will not be easy. There will be setbacks and false starts and sometimes you're 5/12 pick will be a mistake. But as hard as it may seem, you cannot lose hope, because there are people all across this great nation who will themselves pick a 4/13 game incorrectly, or at least surely split the 8/9s.
There will be people across this great nation, just like yourself, that are counting on this tournament, who can't wait for another opportunity to finish in the top 20 (and therefore "in the money"), that can't wait for another opportunity to win a Box (in the ever so popular boxes tournament that every entry is entered for), and that can't wait for another opportunity to correctly pick that #14 seed to make the Sweet 16...
So understand this. There are those who will continue to tell us that we can't do this, that we can't have what we're looking for, that we can't have what we want, that we're peddling false hopes. But here is what We know. We know that when people consider entering another sheet this year, that they should think of that person who finished 21st last year and if they had just put in one more entry, it could have been the difference between finishing out of the money and finishing #1. So, don't tell us that more entries this year isn't possible. That entrant knows one more entry is possible. You know one more entry for you is possible. We all know one more entry each is possible.
And so we stand here before you and say. 1,111, yes 1,111 entries in 2009.
Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
Thank you, NCAA 2k9 entrants.