Standings after Elite 8

Potential Champ as seen on "Random Shot Monday"

I believe that's some sort of chocolate.


Well the Final Four has been set. I can’t say the same for this year’s ABC Invitational; there are only two people left standing. I’ll get into that a little bit later on. Earlier today, the number one overall seed in the tournament, Louisville, soiled themselves against Michigan State. For those of you who had Ville winning the title, you should have known better. Winning the conference tournament before the Big Dance is almost an automatic kiss of death. That’s not to say that a conference winning team can’t make the Final Four, but winning two tournaments in 4 weeks is a very tall order. There is so much that has to go right for a team to accomplish that feat. There are 3 conferences being represented in this year’s Final Four.

Big Ten – Michigan State
Big Ten Tournament Champ – Purdue

ACC – North Carolina
ACC Tournament Champ – Duke

Big East – Connecticut, Villanova
Big East Tournament Champ – Louisville

I don’t believe that we’ve discussed the payout amounts at this point. This year we have a total of 28 entries. The payout is going to work as follows:

1st Place - $220.00
2nd Place - $50.00
3rd Place - $10.00

Since the Atallian’s wont be taking home any money this year, I’ll get in contact with the winners at the completion of the tournament to figure out how you want to co-ordinate the exchange.

Here are the standings following the completion of the Elite 8:

Nico T 114
Jenna Lawall 101
Boy Pierce 100
Big Mike 99
Mike Smith 98
Jake Hoffman 98
EEB 94
Fritz Ablao 89
Phil Imbesi 89
Chris Woody 88
Shaun Askin 87
Uncle Kermit 87
Chris Fusco 86
Tony K 86
Sports Illustrated 85
Adam Tatz 84
Tom Moffa 83
Little Kermit 83
President Obama 82
Mike Lambros 82
Dosh Whye 81
Mike Y 81
Pat Shields 80
Matt Atallian 80
Brandon Gravett 79
Drew Smith 78
Michelle Folkerts 68
CRO 64
The Dennis 61
Justin Romano 51

Nico again finds himself a top the leader board. He virtually has this year’s invitational locked up. Here are the remaining 8 scenarios in the National Title Game and the resulting winners. You’ll see what I mean when I say Nico is almost unbeatable.

UConn beats UNC
1st - Nico
2nd - Mike Smith
3rd - Pat Shields

UConn beats Villanova
1st - Pat Shields
2nd - Nico
3rd - Mike Smith

Michigan State beats UNC
1st - Nico
2nd - Boy Pierce
3rd - Mike Smith/Jake Hoffman (tiebreaker)

Michigan State beats Villanova
1st - Nico
2nd - Jenna
3rd - Boy Pierce

Villanova beats UConn
1st - Nico
2nd - Mike Smith
3rd - Jenna/Tony K (tiebreaker)

Villanova beats Michigan State
1st - Nico
2nd - Jenna
3rd - Boy Pierce

UNC beats UConn
1st - Nico
2nd - Mike Smith
3rd - Boy Pierce

UNC beats Michigan State
1st - Nico
2nd - Boy Pierce
3rd - Mike Smith/Jake Hoffman (tiebreaker)

So basically, if UConn doesn’t beat Villanova in the Final, Nico wins. I hate this. Last years tournament had 4 people left at this juncture. The fact that nobody had the Final Four correct this year combined with 20 of 28 people have Pitt or UNC winning means that there is limited movement in the standings. The following people have been eliminated as of today.

Mike Lambros – eliminated by All Big East Final 4 – Finally, one of Dennis’ boys goes down. Your South bracket was going so well until you decided Gonzaga was gong to beat UNC and Syracuse was going to beat OU. Questionable calls. I saw a stat that Gonzaga had the 5th most wins without a Final Four appearance. #1? Dosh’s Boston College. Thanks for your entry and keep Dennis in check.

Tony K – eliminated by Pitt – You needed your bracket to go perfect from the Elite 8 on to have a shot at winning this bad boy. Unfortunately, Scottie Reynolds sealed your fate with a game winning lay-up with .5 seconds to go. I have to admit I was partially rooting for Pitt in this game. It always hurts to see your champ go down. Better luck next year Tony Head-of-Cabbage.

Chris Fusco – eliminated by EEB until Louisville lost – Oh yes. This was needed. Every year, you and Jenna have the same picks except for maybe 1 or 2. I think you copy off her. You know she doesn’t know what she’s doing and you roll with it because those people almost always win. I’m also glad you had Louisville winning. No Giants/Yankees fan should be allowed to win this tournament. I will say this; we need a Jews vs. Gents reunion as soon as possible. Please co-ordinate and get back to me. I hate Cutter.

Fritz Ableeblee – eliminated by Nico – Chalk up another loss for Fritz. I want to commend you for your efforts and for charging a pizza to Shaun’s room in Philly last weekend. Maybe one of the funniest things I’ve seen this year. He completely deserved that for bailing on the bar. Let me know when Timothy’s has the mechanical bull again. I’m trying to see Cro get thrown off.

EEB – eliminated by Goran Suton – This probably is the next best thing to Cro not winning. Have EEB as champion would be absolutely insufferable. Especially if Louisville would have won. You were all over T-Will’s junk that you came close to ruining him for me. I know you’re glad you beat Cro, but I am glad you didn’t win the title. I couldn’t take an entire off season of listening to EEB run his mouth. You know what they say when teams professional teams are eliminated from playoffs? Time to work on the golf game. Preferably outside. Golf clubs and chandeliers aren’t friends.

Jake Hoffman – eliminated by Nico – the last of the Hoffman’s has been eliminated! For a second there, I really thought we had another family conspiracy on our hands until I saw Little Kermit had Duke winning. You can take pride in knowing that you beat Chris, your Dad, and your brother. Family bragging rights are important. I have to listen to my brother all year, and I’m not too please about it. Thanks for entering. Hope to see you back next year.

Big Mike – eliminated by Scottie Reynolds – You also needed your bracket to go perfect from the Elite 8 forward to win. Unfortunately, Pitt losing eliminated you. To make matters worse, you were the only person in the field with Michigan State in the Final Four. Mad props for picking that one correctly. Also congrats on beating me and Dennis this year. The family belt belongs to you this year. Don’t worry; I’ll be back next year to claim what’s mine. I’m already removing Dennis from contention. See you downstairs Clown.

Jenna Lawall – eliminated by Pittsburgh – Once again the time has come to rip Jenna on the blog. Being afraid to pick any upsets this year has cost you. While you can still come in second in a few scenarios, you can’t take home the big prize. Your bracket had a grand total of 9 lower seeds winning in 63 games. Your biggest upset was 10 beating a 7 in the first round. Your final four consisted of all 1 seeds. While you may be high in the rankings, you don’t deserve to win if you let the NCAA committee pick your bracket. It wouldn’t be fair to have the ABC Champ win with such chalk picks. Maybe pick an upset or two next year.

This concludes the Elite 8. It’s almost a wrap that Nico will win, but I am making it clear that I am rooting for Shields to pull off the upset. I want this Final Four to be interesting, so go UConn and go Nova.

See you all next weekend.

Matt