2007 Recap: Gonzo's Glory

A dominating and consistent performance by the Florida Gators in the 2007 NCAA basketball tournament helped Bruce Sackmann's "Gonzo'" bracket claim our pool's championship. As a result of his performance, Bruce claimed the $920 first place prize.

Bruce's 105 points established a new record for our pool. The "Gonzo" bracket correctly predicted all the Elite 8 teams, all of the Final 4 teams, both of the teams that played in the national title game, and the eventual champion. No other bracket in our pool can boast such success. It was, without doubt, an impressive display!

Following close behind, Gene Peterson claimed 2nd place with 103 points. Similar to Bruce, Gene's bracket did quite well at the end, although Gene was "only" able to predict 7 of the Elite 8 teams. As a result of his performance, Gene lays claim to a prize of $460. Congrats!

At the same time, Matthew D'Angelo reclaimed bragging rights in his own household. In 2006, one of his wife's brackets finished in 6th place. This year, Matthew upped the ante and claimed 3rd place with 99 points. As a result, Matthew won a tidy $350.

Bob House and Mark Kochanski finished in a tie for 4th place with 97 points. However, as a result of correctly predicting all the Final 4 teams (Mark had 3 of them), Bob wins the tiebreaker and takes home the $280 4th place prize. Mark, meanwhile, still wins $180 for finishing in 5th place.

Sixth place (and $125) went to Rob Schlicht. He finished in a 3-way tie with Andy Peterson and Art Keup, but Rob claimed the tiebreaker edge. Rob made a late charge when he correctly predicted all of the Final 4 teams.

Andy Peterson, in particular, won our annual award for the "tough luck" bracket. Had Ohio State beaten Florida in the title game, Andy would have won our pool and claimed the $920 top prize. Instead, the Gators' victory meant that Andy won no money. Ouch!

All told, 96 of our brackets correctly predicted that the Gators would defend their title. If you owned one of those brackets, well done! As it turned out, all of our Top 6 brackets correctly predicted that Florida would cut down the nets in Atlanta.

I hope that everyone enjoyed this year's tournament and we look forward to running another pool next year. Hopefully, the Wisconsin-based teams find a bit more success in 2008.