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MARCH MADNESS 2013 FINAL UPDATE
“Street Brawl in Atlanta”
Controlled Chaos brings the title to Louisville
UL 82 Michigan 76
Record Charity Money Raised in 2013!!
Monday night, April 8th,the Louisville Cardinals lived up to their #1 overall billing Monday night in a free for all, mind boggling, action packed, nothing shy of entertaining game by a combination of tenacious defense, and timely three pointers, and a few stop the show dunks. The pace was ABA (remember them?) but the defense was hard core NFL and NHL, but without the fights. Early on two new found cult heroes were lighting it up at 100% from the 3-point line. Michigan assumed early command with a double digit lead, thanks to the kid from nowhere, a true freshman, and small by standards, but with a big heart that every kid in America would say, hey, if he can do that, so can I. Itʼs what dreams are made of. Spike Albrecht scored 17 points in the first 17 minutes. The unheralded one pulled off Michael Jordan performance in the first half. All for a player who averaged only less than two points per game prior to Monday night. On the other side of things, for the Cardinals, Luke Hancock, Louisvilleʼs 6th man and a nonstarter, lit it up as well, four treys in three minutes, with a game high 22 points and was named the final fourʼs most outstanding player. The stars were fairly silent, until in the second half with the game on the line. Michiganʼs Trey Burke battled hard and led the Wolverines with 24 points despite missing a good deal of time due to foul trouble. The game may have been saved by Louisvilleʼs Peyton Siva (18 points) who showed hands of a magician, and the speed of a cheetah with multiple steals and forced late turnovers which sealed the deal. It was truly a chaotic street fight with no whistles in general. Big East and Big Ten basketball with body armor. Thereʼs no doubt the officiating was abysmal, although perhaps equally so on both sides of the ball, except for one bogus call on Trey Burke which probably changed the game. Canʼt say I ever saw anything like it, with the referees occasionally interrupting play with some seriously abominable calls and non calls. There were scrums befitting rugby, travels worldwide, face slaps, head slaps, and even a kicked ball with no call. Where was the pulling of the hair and biting? Yet on the offensive end, all the game needed was two trampolines to resemble Slamball. Finally, congratulations to Louisville coach, Rick Pitino who becomes the first to win NCAA titles with two separate schools (Kentucky in 1996).
Semifinals recap
April 6th, 2013
Louisville 72
Wichita State 68
A furious wake up call and defense reminiscent of full court high school presses by one dominating team with a play angry attitude, sent the Shockers home empty, when they actually controlled the entire game, and made it look easy. Nevertheless, a great finish for #9 seed Wichita State in heading back to Kansas with heads held high, no longer third string to Kansas and Kansas State. Sherri Daniels, aka sugamama, was the only participant to ride that final four pick and carries away a healthy 7th place finish in the pool. Steamrolling through the first four games as the top seed, Louisville, had won by an average of 22 points until reality set in. Out of sorts early on, Luke Hancock scored 20 off the bench, and walk on Tim Henderson rained 3-pointers. Multiple turnovers by the Shockers in the final minutes after playing largely an error free game, turned this one around. Ri5e to the Occasion #5 Kevin Ware served as motivation.
Michigan 65
Syracuse 61
Before a crowd of 75,350, Mitch McGary (who?) scored 10, rebounded 12, and contributed 6 assists, great stats for a 6ʼ10” center. Little known bench players LeVert, Albrecht, Morgan, and Hoffman scored 21, while previous stars Nick Strauskas was held scoreless, and Trey Burke held to 7 points. The offspring, Tim Hardaway Jr, and Glenn Robinson, big daddy the 3rd, combined for 23. Syracuse failed to make it an all Big East final and will now exit this premier conference.
Congratulations to Brad Smith, our 2013 March Madness Champion. Brad is finance director for the city of Baldwin, Kansas, west of Kansas City. Wildcat Brad is a major K State fan and one of our many, many supporters from the greater Kansas City area. In his spare time he cooks a mean Alaskan salmon on the grill and has been know to throw elaborate tailgate extravaganzas on Sunday afternoons in the fall while rooting on the Chiefs at Arrowhead.
Baldwin, Kansas evidently is the center of the universe for basketball predictions. Brad is due a big time raise as he introduced his boss, and our runner up this year, Chris Lowe, to the pool. Chris is a first time participant, and former star (?) for the Kansas Jayhawks, playing under the tutelage of one Roy Williams in years gone by. Think about the odds on that happening. At least for a short while, the Wildcat showed Lowman who the true boss is. Congratulations to you both.
Pisano, Chris Casaburo, takes home 3rd place, nearly matching his wife, Kim, our 2012 March Madness Champion. He lives in Louisville, but that school wasnʼt in his final four. What gives? Throw out Duke and sub Louisville, and we had a back to back husband and wife winner. Nevertheless, once again an impressive showing.
Brian Pyfferoen takes 4th place. Brian had the highest win percentage of all the games at an outstanding 71.4 %, and was odds on favorite to win it all a week earlier. took Syracuse in the final four. Good call. Had only the Buckeyes not fallen from the tree until the following week.
Austin Bullington commandeers 5th place. Impressive rise from 64th place.
Donna Preziotti, one of our long time Michigan faithful, delivers 6th place.
Sherri Daniels always in the hunt places 7th.
8th place goes to Ty Weber. Hey Ty, photo ID required, or at least an address or phone number. Your winnings, mystery man, will be held in escrow.
We have a tie for 9th place. Bill Vukovich, bowls them down, fades a bit at the end, but rides Louisville to the money. Perhaps a down payment on a computer. So happy we entered for you. Kevin Wagner, the g-man from Washington DC, once again has his name in lights. Crime doesnʼt pay, but tainted money, taint thereʼs no more.
Last place is awarded to Travis Farhar, taking 4% of the prize pool, Shocking that he actually was in first place early on. He actually should also win the Goat Award (new this year), as his last place picks were legitimate contenders. But weʼre not paying you twice for your folly. Despite having respectable picks of Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, and VCU in the final four, he couldnʼt beat anybody! But has the “last” laugh so to speak. Actually the truest loser was Ron Eaton, best of the attempted worst, but 18 entries had fewer points. Sorry Ron, you deserved better.
Goat Award (judges discretion) is given to Kay Flesch, and a hundred bucks
Bridesmaid this year (11th place and out of the money) was Alex Tullar. Hey at least you get
your name in lights!
The final score of the championship game totaled 158 points. As stated, an award will be given therefore to the one(s) who thus came in 158th place. Splitting $100 this year is Walt Prop and Justin Barker. Congratulations and lucky.
The Official Total paid pool entrees is 450. A new record!!! Your committee does their best to ensure integrity to the prize pool and covers several unpaid, or yet to be paid entries at this the time of final accounting, with additional personal donations to the two charities to more than compensate. Curses to the slackers, whose “checks are in the mail”. Fortunately, our deadbeat list is small each year. Prize winnings will be based on this number. 80% of the entry fees goes to the prize pool, in the breakdown as listed in the opening letter at the start of the tournament. See the website for original details.
WWW.GARYGURTCHEFF.COM
We pay out the top ten and last place in addition this year to the GOAT and 158th place.
Charity News
20% of the original fees go to the charities in addition to the benevolent donations. This year although not quite a record for number of additional donations, we had 118 generous participants giving additional money to the charities. I anticipate a few more before it is done.
We would like to again thank the following top dollar donors this year for their verygenerous additional contributions to the March Madness tournament: Big smileswhen these envelopes were opened!!
Lance & Stacy Payton (top donor and again our thanks as always)
Susanna Burkhead
Tom Waits Chris Casaburo Sammy Garau
Travis Farhar Jack Cleary Steve Carter Ross Whitacre
Mike Cleary Les Bumm Colleen Martin Greg Willming
Dan Brown Rae Higdon Dale Todd Keith Bratton
Jim Heinrich Jim Wilsbacher Joe Smith
Once again special thanks as well to your webmaster extraordinaire, Gary Gurtcheff, for his technical expertise, and large personal contribution to the charities! Gary overcame some significant web hosting difficulties this year and once again put it all together.
Further sizable donations were received from the following individuals:
Ron Bonger Chris Combs Doug Petitt Patty Dewey Rick Wepsic
Brian Schymik Karen Rush Eric Miller Tom Rose Dave Carson
Rick Zeiher John Radtke Randy Braun Dorothy Kaiser Kevin Wagner
Kenny Graves Steve Warren Danny Winn Amber Anslinger
Dee Sanders Chuck Oswald Shauluen Barker Donna Preziotti
And the following:
Alan Newman Gary North Keith Emge Rob Wathen
Judy McDonald Julia Leaf Patty Gowdy Amy Berkley Leibra Winiger
David Carlson Don Apple Chris Gilkey Jillian Brinkley Jim Norris
And thanks to all the rest of those listed below for your additional contributions:
Todd Herrenbruck Susan Sublett Jim Byers John McCartny Paul Kainrath
Chris McConnell Don Barry Corey Greening Joe C. Smith Pat Wempe
Larry Renschler Steve Ward Jeff Smith Eric Throop Chris Tilley
Mike Pyfferoen Bill Papineau Mark Vickers Bill Vukovich Matt Weitz
Bengal Dave Massengale Vince Prop Lois Davidson Tom Weber
Chad Crislip Skip Oliver Keith Miller
Joel Bowers Greg Meyer Gene Burnett Karen Embry Lee Wagmeister
Ashley Cissna John Lamb Kurt Tillman Ken Marshall Kevin Kalb
Tim Marx Steve Anderson Wayne Hoskins Randy Folz Tim Appell
Sam Forrest Don Willis Steve Mank Ervin Aeschliman
Brian Goffinet Michael Lightner Brian Wellman Terry Iafrate Drew Bender
Melissa Wideman Diane Krug Brandon Iafrate Ty Weber Jim Pearson
Terry Roudenbush
...... $1800 was garnished from the entry fees to devote to our charitable endeavors. $7200 goes to the prize pool, plus another $100 for the Goat and $100 for 158th place. Thanks to your outstanding generosity, and some help from your personal pool master of ceremonies..................... $6200 has been received in additional donations.
For March Madness 2013...... Our GRAND TOTAL of CHARITABLE GIVING is:
.................. $8000 to be donated this year. Another record!!!!
Thank you all for participating.
$5000 will be granted to the March Madness Endowment Fund administered through the Warrick County Community Foundation.
$1500 will go to Friends of Warrick CASA
$1500 will go to Dream Center of Evansville as a one time additional donation.
We have now completed our seventeenth year of March Madness. Over the years, we have generated over $72,000 in total giving. With this yearʼs donation, our endowment fund will hover around $30,000. Should you so desire sometime this year, drop us a line or perhaps consider our funds for your future gifting. I would like to emphasize the latter. For better, for life! We have made three small grants in the past few years from investments
Please keep us advised of any email changes. Email your comments and parting remarks...
JPMORGANMD@MAC.COM or GARYGURTCHEFF@MAC.COM
Winnersʼ checks will be sent out by mail within the next couple of weeks. Charity proceeds will also be forwarded within the next few weeks. Be advised your checks have not yet been cashed. It has been a challenging year for the technical aspects of the tournament on our end to say the least.
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Congratulations to our Winners.
THE FINAL TALLY
2013 Top Ten Winnings
1st place Brad Smith $ 2880
(Olathe, KS)
2nd place Chris Lowe $ 1440
(Baldwin City, KS)
3rd place Chris Casaburo $ 720
(Louisville, KY)
4th place Brian Pyfferoen $ 504
(Spring Hill, TN)
5th place Austen Bullington $ 360
(Newburgh, IN)
6th place Donna Preziotti $ 288
(Milan, MI)
7th place Sherri Daniels $ 216
(Evansville, IN)
8th place Ty Weber $ 216
(Whereabouts Unknown)
9th place Bill Vukovich $ 144
(Evansville, IN)
Tie Kevin Wagner $ 144
(Washington, DC)
LAST PLACE Travis Farhar $ 288
(Henderson, KY)
Goat Award Kay Flesch
(Newburgh, IN) $ 100
158th place Walt Prop
(Cincinnati, OH) $ 50
Tie Justin Barker
(Lenexa, KS) $ 50
450 Paid Entrees
“Every storm runs out of rain. Just like every dark night turns into day.
So hold your head up and tell yourself that there’s something more...And walk
out that door”
-Gary Allan