Birds on Fire

Louisville withstands intense Michigan pressure to eek out a national championship.

Monday, April 8

You just can't sit the national Player of the Year for 12 minutes after two fouls from bad calls and expect to beat a team like Louisville.  The birds took advantage of zebra generosity and key treys late in the first half to erase a commanding 12 point lead and dominating board work by the Blue. Then McGary had to sit with another bad call to start the second half, and the rest is history;  Louisville pushed the lead to a dozen and held off a couple of small Michigan rallies to give the Cardinals their first national title since '86 and bring their coach back down from the three week steroid rage he's been on.

Pizza Time

Pay Day is coming soon at Pool headquarters.  Triple Threat 3 - spouse of last year's winner - takes first place after a wire-to-wire showing at the very top of the pool.  Fields of Athenry comes out of his multi-year famine to own second place.   Third place is a three-way tie, and five tied for fourth place.   The payout schedule at right is an estimate at this point - we have to net out the deadbeats and PayPal fees before publishing final amounts.  All payments will be sent to the PayPal account the winners paid from, but if you want the payment sent elsewhere, write to hooppool@hotmail.com with instructions.   Unofficially, the prize money is going to the top 20 winners this year - a new record.

Fashion Crisis: What to Wear?

Wednesday, April 3

Say My Name! Oh never mind, just remember that I went 6/6 from Trey Land and then mopped the floor with Billy Donovan's buzz cut.

Well that was fun.  Can't wait to snack on some ACC next year.

Pool Action Heats Up

Michigan Rises From The Dead; Jesus Christ Also Favored To Repeat on Sunday

Friday Night, March 30th

You pucker, you lose. Bill Self and KU learn the hard way that it's a 40 minute game.

The Maize and Blue came back from a dozen down with minutes to play to tie Kansas with 3 seconds left in regulation, and then routed the genetically altered Jayhawks in OT behind lights-out shooting by Trey Burke (23/10) and general board domination and all around play by Mitch McGary (25/14).  Look for Michigan to deny pleasure to Florida this Sunday.

Louisville also moved to the Elight Eight as expected, and in Thursday play, the 'Cuse continued their domination with an expected victory over the frauds of Indiana.  Cody Zeller was a no-show for Indiana and can now rejoin Jeff Withey of KU at their regular jobs as really tall over-rated white guys who don't know what hit them.

Marquette #3 knocked out Miami #2 who never deserved that seed, Ohio State #2 had trouble but dispatched Arizona #6.   In the game that no one cared about, Wichita State #9 beat up on La Salle #13.  Yawn.

In Pool Action

Sure, we care about the games at least a little bit.  But the real action is happening in the Pool.   Triple Threat 3 maintains a lock on first place, hovering at the top from the start by living off of key upset picks in the first round (Harvard, Butler, Oregon).  Slick Rick still has his final pair of teams in play to hold onto second place, and Buck Eye is a solid third even though he will have to live with the stench of wanting Ohio State to win it all.  Everyone else in the top 15 are cooked except for LizzyRu and Gatorgate who still have live teams in the final game.  About the only hope for most of the top 20 is for FGCU to continue their cinderalla run and ruin the South bracket for everyone.  But the basic guideline is that if you have two #1 seeds in the final, you're pretty much done unless a low seed ends up in the final game.  Click Standings for latest results.

Popular Question - My Name Shows in RED but I Paid My Money!

• Don't Panic.  Did you give your money to a Bag Man?  Well the Bag Man hasn't yet entered your payments into PayPal so your sheet shows as unpaid.  Send your Bag Man an email, and threaten to use harsh language if he doesn't contact the Pool Administrator to settle your account.
• Did you pay with PayPal but still show in red?  Simple - send your PayPal transaction ID number to hooppool@hotmail.com.  Keep in mind that we have had ZERO cases where a legitimate PayPal transaction wasn't automatically credited to the sheet if you followed the instructions on the website.  If you didn't follow the instructions, then you failed to get your 7-year-old daughter to show you how to use PayPal, but we can get your account settled when you send in your transaction number.  Repeat: SEND YOUR PAYPAL TRANSACTION ID TO hooppool@hotmail.com.  It's also helpful if you name the sheets you played because in some cases some of you managed to outwit yourselves entirely and have left us more confused than Rick Pitino recruiting at the Louisvile Correction Facility.
• If your name shows in red, and if you haven't made your case to help rectify your account, and if you aren't personally known to an official MMIOP Bag Man, then keep your $10 because you're not eligible for cash prizes.  Worse, if you end up in the money position, you will spend the next year knowing you missed out on a big pay day because you didn't get your $10 into the pool.   Be aware that while your Pool Administrators and Bag Men are all AARP-Eligible, none of us is retired, and most of us work a full 18-hour day.  We instituted the PayPal system to make OUR lives easier - it's by coincidence and a little hard work that it's easier for you too if you followed the simple instructions.  There was a time when we would keypunch 200 sheets from actual paper.  We solved that, and now we're solving the problem of chasing you all over New England for your $10 bills.   Your cooperation is genuinely appreciated.

RULES

How to play

1. First step is to fill out your picks.  Click on the "Enter Picks" button at the left and go to the Picks Sheet.  Fill in the form entirely and completely.  If you need help with this concept, go practice over at SI or someplace else, come back here when you've mastered the art.  You need to make your picks BEFORE NOON on Thursday AFTER SELECTION SUNDAY.  No exceptions - the "Enter Picks" button will be deactivated at that time!
   
2. Be sure to enter your REAL name and your SHEET name.  Your SHEET name is the name you would like to see in the Standings report which is published here on the site.  This is the name that could win you a small prize for creativity.  Your REAL name is important so that we can credit your payment.
3. AFTER YOU FILL IN YOUR PICKS - BE SURE TO CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SHEET.
4. CHOOSE YOUR BAG MAN.  Click on PAY NOW to make your payments.  All MMIOP Bag Men are officially in semi-retirement, so if you're going to deal in cash you should have a really good reason.
   
5. And finally BE SURE to enter the SAME email address on all of your sheets (if you play more than one) -- this address will be used to send you a copy of your picks and consolidate all of your payments in one place.
   
6. CHECK YOUR PICKS BEFORE YOU CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON!  If you determine that you made a mistake after submitting your picks - and this is also NEW FOR 2013 -  there's a link at the bottom of the email confirmation which will let you delete the sheet and credit your account.  Be aware - we will not issue a refund; the credit is only good for another sheet.
7. If you insist on mailing a check, it had better arrive before the deadline.  With PayPal, there is no longer any excuse for collection delays, and your sheet will be dealt with harshly if your payment isn't received by the deadline.  So if you must, mail your payment to:
   

R MOONEY
101 North Shore Rd. 
Derry, NH 03038

IF YOU ARE WRITING A CHECK FOR MULTIPLE ENTRIES -- INCLUDE A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER WITH THE NAMES OF THE PICKS THAT GO WITH THE CHECK!

IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING ONE $10 CHECK FOR ONE PICK PUT THE NAME OF YOUR PICK IN THE MEMO OF THE CHECK.

The envelope must be postmarked on or before Thursday AFTER SELECTION SUNDAY or else you are not eligible for cash prizes.  And your bragging rights will also be tainted with the foul smell of impropriety.

Then What?

Scoring

Authentication & Integrity