The Pool

Monday, February 27, 2006

Pool - 2005

Last year was a heart breaker. Over 100 entries. Heads of state are begging to enter the pool. I was all set up for my 3rd win. I had the money spent. I wass buying golf clubs. New Pings. Then James Augustine decide to score approximately zero points with allowing Sean May to score at will as North Carolina beat Illinois in the final to bring Steve Hemming his second victory. I was crushed. I still bear the scars.

Pool - 2004

After 13 years of faithful pooling in 2004 Gus finally broke through with a win. At this point the pool is pretty much self sustaining. Theres people from all over the country entering via the net and paying by paypal. Entries came from Tennessee, Colorado, California, a bunch from Minnesota, even Mukwonago. Its just crazy.

Pool - 2003

Im happily in Hartland in 2003. My cable modem connection is humming as I only have to 2 entries by hand, my mom and Whip. We almost had a player under the age of 1 win (Blake and Marys daughter) but she came second to Keith Rettler. Blake and Mary were going to use that money for college instead she'll just have to sell plasma. Thanks Keith.

Pool - 2002

2002, husband and wife go back to back! Amy Kishter (wife of 2001 champ Duke (who's last name is Kishter)) won by the slimmest of margins over Stacy Foslein (another Hemming connection) and Mary. That marked the first all-female top 3 if you don't count the time Blake won.

Pool - 2001

2001 and Im happily married in Hartland. By this time pretty much everyone is entering via the Internet which makes things much easier for me. The web allows me to do way more analysis and data manipulation that is necessary. I couldn't three-peat (finished second and I owe Pat Riley like 54 cents) and Duke took the pool with a new record 188 points. 4 people had the last 4 rounds perfect. Never happened before. Not once.

Pool - 2000

So the year started with a 2. There was like a gazillion entries. For the first time we didn't have a crear cut winner. 4 players tied for the championship. All were allowed to claim a full victory. Mary won for the first time and Scot, Mike Wood and I all notched our second victories. My win was the first time someone won in consecutive years.

Pool - 1999

1999 still had me in Madison but my future was set to change as I met my future wife in the previous October. She proved my lucky charm as I won for the first time. It took me 11 years to perfect my system and it finally paid off.

Pool - 1998

1998 saw a big jump in participation. But this point I no longer had to make any calls reminding people to enter. People knew it was March and knew there was a pool around. Mike Wood from the DOT won with a slim 2 point margin over Jeter.

Pool - 1997

1997 saw me in my condo. I think I had the scoring on line for the first time. The entry was still by hand but Im pretty sure I began posting scores on the net and sending them via email. DaveB, also known ad Old Man who worked with Scot won in the first of 4 winners from Dept of Transportaiton winners in the next 4 years

Pool - 1996

We were still holding steady at about 40 entries in 1996. At this point all the pools were pretty much melding together in my mind. I was still at Brody but planning on making the move to my condo on Grand Canyon. I was going to use pool winnings as a downpayment but I came in 10th. Dan Kohl won with a record tying 184 points.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Pool - 1995

1995 saw an upswing again. I was still on Brody and still entering the brackets by hand.

The husband/wife team of Blake and Mary came in second and third with Sue Leisses winning carding a record score of 184.

Sue later did admit that she had help with her picks. But I insisted that the championship was hers alone as she paid the entry fee.

Pool - 1994

In 1994 I moved to Brody court. This was the year that a lot of college friends moved away from Madison.

Since email was not nearly ubiquitous as it is now the entries fell to about 25. Stevie Hemming was around 15 in 1994. I had to write him a check for like $200. I wasn't really upset that a 15 year old won, I was upset because he couldn't buy me a beer in celebration.

Pool - 1993

I think 1993 was the year the entry fee was upped to $10. But the increase didn't effect entries as we had over 30 for the first time. Ron Olsen (who works with me at DoIT) scored a record 176 points on his way to victory.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Pool - 1992

There was an explosion of entries in 1992 as people began to get friends and family members that I didn't know involved.

Troy Norman came out on top as the Hemming family placed 4 in the top 9.

1992 was also interesting because 2 former champs, Blake and Scot, finished in last and second last.

Pool - 1991

Starting in 1991 I moved into Camelot on Madison's near east side. This was the year I moved into the 21 st century well ahead of all those other pools that came later when I kept all the picks on computer.

Since Al Gore had yet to invent the Internet, I had to enter all the picks on my computer from the brackets people mailed to me. Lots of clicking by me but in the long run it was worth it. Nobody got any picks in the final 4 correct.

In what was probably the greatest upset in Pool history, Blake Anson routed the competition in his 12 point victory

Monday, February 13, 2006

4 Weeks to Go!

Ok now that all this NFL nonsense is done we all have 4 weeks to concentrate on getting prepared for this years Pool.

During week 1 pre-pool its best to start narrowing down the field so you can figure out which teams to concentrate on. No use trying to watch the 4th place team in ConfUSA. They have no chance to make it.

Week 2 pre-pool should be spent trying to watch games where 2 potential tourney teams are playing each other. This way you cvan maximize the amount of info you have access to. Besides watching the last place SEC team play Tenessee (Bruce Pearl!!!) isnt going to tell you much because the game will be over by halftime. Just not enough payoff to watch this game. But if you can find something like a West Virginia-Villanova, you should be glued to the set and also be TiVoing it just in case you need to go back and reference it.

Week 3 pre-pool should be spend watching the conference regular season wrap up. This is a good time to watch the top teams in the conf. The atmoshpere here is very tourney-like. The top teams are playing for the Conf title. This actually means more than the conf tourney title. The tourney title only means something to bubble teams so the top teams tend to tank after beating up on the bad teams. This is where you'll find your final 8 and final 4 teams. Very important to a winning pool effort.

Week 4 per pool is for the conf tourneys. Since the top teams already have their seed pretty sewn up by now youre looking for some middling teams that have a chance to pull off a 1st or 2nd round upset. In the mid-majors look for teams that won their regular season title but also had to win their conf tourney to make the tourney. These teams are on a roll at the end of the season and are good bets to be under seeded in the dance and have great chances to pull upsets (UWM last year for example)

Then on sunday the 12th the brackets come out. You will promptly forget everything you've worked on in the last 4 weeks and really believe that #14 Birmingham Southern has a chance against #3 NC State