Championship Weekend At US Bank Stadium

This is my 23rd year of hosting this Bracket Contest, and for the first time, I was able to attend a Final Four Weekend. My seats were in the second level, not the greatest, but being there in that atmosphere was undescribable. Especially when the Auburn Player fouled the Virginia player behind the three point line to end the game. The mood inside the stadium when we all finally realized what was happening....wow!

The games were so good and so fun to witness with the passionate fans that were there for each of the four schools. The Texas Tech fans were the loudest, or at least in my section they were the loudest. I knew all of their cheers by the end of the Saturday games.

We do have a winner in the 2019 OfficePool64 Bracket Contest. Congratulations goes out to Tom Johnson of Forest Park, Illinois. His first round wasn't that great as he correctly picked 20 of 32 teams, but when eight teams remain, correctly picking seven of the schools was the difference maker, plus correctly picking the Virginia as the champion.

Here are the top five brackets

Tom Johnson - 167 Points
Chris Charters - 166 Points
Jamie Kritischenko - 165 Points
Cory Vogel - 162 Points
Blake Pierre - 160 Points

We will see you again in 2020!!

What A Difference A Week Makes

What a difference a week makes for the tournament results. First weekend, it was clear the top seeds were ranked correctly by the powers that be with 12 of the top 16 teams advancing. And my though last weekend was, if this trend keeps going, the top seeded teams will again advance keeping a lot of bracket sheets in play. Well, that trend did not continue as we ended up a #1, #2, #3, and a #5 advancing to the championship weekend in Minneapolis.

We have #1 seed Virginia advancing this year. In my bracket, since they lost as a #1 seed to #16 seed UMBC last year, naturally I was scared to pick them to go far. 186 of the 367 brackets correctly selected them.

Then we have #2 Michigan St, in a very exciting game beating the favorite Duke team. 72 of you got this one correct. As I look at the one bracket I did on paper, I have Michigan St as my champion, except when I filled it in online, I picked Gonzaga as my champion. Why did I change? I pick Michigan St as my Champion, a lot, and get burned year after year as they always lose to Duke. Izzo was 1-11 versus Coach K. So I went with Gonzaga, and they are out with Mich St advancing.

Only 28 pick sheets correctly picked Texas Tech to beat Gonzaga. Goodbye to my champion team, but thankfully it wasn't after round one like last year.

Lastly is Auburn, the #5 seeded team. Just 12 of you brave soles correctly picked them. They were not on my radar this year, but they have been fun to watch.

We have exactly one bracket correctly picking all four remaining teams. Congratulations! They can win this bracket contest of Auburn or Texas Tech wins the championship.

That's all I have for today, the last three games start back up in Minneapolis, Saturday evening, which I will be attending and finish up on Monday.

Top Seeds Are Still In It

Well, that was an uneventful weekend of games. Of the top four seeded teams in each region, 14 of those 16 teams advanced to the next weekend of games. Last year, only 7 of those 16 teams advanced, so quite a difference. No buzzer beaters, only one overtime game that I was aware of. There were a couple of close calls for some of the tops teams, Tennessee, Duke, but for the excitement factor, it was pretty tame.

On the bracket side, we totaled 367 submitted brackets, which was up from last year's 320 brackets. So thank you to all of you returning players, and there are a ton of you that come back year after year.

I'm going to keep it short this week. Now that two rounds are over and sixteen teams remain, the player scenarios have calculated. To see what your best place finish can be, as well as your worst place finish, head to the player scenarios to see who you need to root for.

2019 OfficePool64 Bracket Challenge Begins

Entries are now being accepted into the 23rd OfficePool64 Bracket Challenge. If you would like to participate in this year's contest, kindly have your pick sheets submitted by tip-off of the first game on Thursday.

Deadline: Tip-Off, March 21 @ 12:30 PM [EST]
Entry Fee: None

Enter Your Picks Here

Make sure you hit the SUBMIT PICKS button at the bottom of the page or your picks will not be entered into the pool.

NOTE: When entering multiple times, please place a number after your name to make it unique [or it will over write you last submitted picks] For example: Timmy 1, Timmy 2, Timmy 3