Finals!

It's OVER!  Congrats to Queen Bean, this year's big winner!  Jeannie absolutely throttled all of us, beating her next closest competition by 82 points 😬 She'll be taking home around slightly over $1000, or 40% of the roughly $2700 pot after the various bonuses (more on that below).  Nice work to the rest of you in the top 10 as well -- here are the folks that ended up in the money for the right reasons!

Looking at the standings, it's pretty fitting that "I Think I Pooped My Pants" appears right next to "I Smell Dookies 2." 

Also in the money?  Mr. Twiggs takes home the $100 bonus for the best score at the end of the opening round, and Picks of a Three Year takes the $20 "prize" for turning in the most utterly pathetic bracket in the field.

But we can't forget the $20 Best Bracket Name!  Some were self-deprecating...


As always, numerous Mizzou-themed entries (which were largely likewise self-deprecating after the year the Tigers had)


Some pretty good UConn puns...



A Handful of Kate Middleton-themed brackets that probably seemed a lot funnier before we realized she had cancer...



Frankly, but for the sharp reversal in course on her situation, that last one would have won.  Instead, the winning entry goes to the super deep cut, blast from the past reference incorporating the current champ:


Don't Hurley, Be Happy


Kids, ask your parents what that's referring to!


So back to the bracket itself, how did most of us do?  As usual, poorly.  Jeannie absolutely obliterated all of us, and nearly 5/6 of us failed to outperform the Mascot Bracket, a common barometer for picking futility.  On the upside, only 1/6 of you were beaten by pure dumb luck as represented by the coin flip bracket, so you can feel good about that, I guess?  Of the celeb brackets, Bijan Robinson took home the top prize, largely because of his perfect Day 1 and overall strong start.  Snoop Doog, on the other hand, tied actual basketball player and analyst Charles Barkley for the worst celeb bracket, narrowly beating the coin flip bracket.  Big yikes, guys.


And in closing, as always, the ALL CHALK bracket did ok, but was not close to the money, underscoring that just picking the favorites is not a winning strategy in this pool


Thanks as always for playing!  I'll be in touch with the winners directly about payout. 

Jamie