Our 2024 Conference Tournament Champion: Balls Boy (Pool Closing & Payouts)

What a great B1G game to cap off conference tournament season as (2) Illinois beat (5) Wisconsin, and a great battle between (Basket) Balls Boy and Sully. Congratulations to (Basket) Balls Boy for winning the 2024 conference tournament pool, without needing to use any tiebreakers! His final tally was 19 points and a 43.8% accuracy. These conference tournaments were more unpredictable than any other year, not one person was over a 44% accuracy. 🏆

Below are the final 2024 conference tournament championship standings:

1. Balls Boy (19 points)
2. Sully (18 points)
3. Sohler (15 Points with 13 wins)
4. Napervillains (15 points with 11 wins)

Now for the fun part, the payouts. The screenshot below shows how much money everyone is owed, and you can open the final standings via that link (or use the attached spreadsheets if you're reading the e-mail) to see the detailed breakdown. All winners, please reach out to me and confirm how you would like to be paid out. I'm happy to see so many people with some sort of payout coming to them. Hoping everyone had fun and can't wait to do it again next season! 💰

If you are interested in a bracket pool, you can join via this link, and the details are below. For those that have money coming, I can hold $20 if you'd like for the bracket pool.

Happy St Patr...Selection Sunday!

Selection Sunday is here, and we have a battle for 1st place in our pool. 24 hours ago it was Sohler, TJH, and Matthew fighting for 1st place, but I called out a few dark horses sitting in the middle of the standings. Fast forward to Sunday morning, and those three guys are out of the 1st place battle, and it is now between Balls Boy and Sully. Both of these guys made an improbably run to the top of the standings yesterday. Balls Boy is currently in the lead by 1 point, but Sully has enough points remaining to get to 20, while Balls Boy can only get to 19 points. 

For this 1st battle only 3 conference tournament championships being played today matter: Ivy League, SEC, and the B1G. The winner may be decided in the final conference tournament championship game. 😬

Her are the updated standings as we prepare for a Selection Sunday battle!

Ivy League Championship Game (11:00 AM CST)

(2) Yale will take on (4) Brown in our first meaningful conference tournament championship game of the day. We have 6 people on Yale, including Balls Boy, but Sully is already out of this conference. If Yale wins, Balls Boy will go out to a 2-point lead, making it harder for Sully to catch him. Yale is favored by 8-points, it's hard seeing Yale lose in this scenario.

SEC Championship Game (12:00 PM CST)

In a battle of lower seed teams, (4) Auburn plays (6) Florida in our second meaningful conference tournament championship game today. We do have 5 people on Auburn, including Sully. Assuming Yale wins, and Auburn wins, Sully and Balls Boy would be tied for 1st place at 18 points heading into the final meaningful game of the day. If Auburn loses, Sully is not out of the running for 1st place, it all may really come down to the B1G game. Auburn is favored by 5.5-points, and they have been playing really well, I don't see Auburn losing.

B1G Championship Game (2:30 PM CST)

Our entire pool likely all comes down to (2) Illinois vs. (5) Wisconsin in this final conference tournament championship game. Balls Boy is on the Illini, while Sully is rolling with Bucky. We have a few different scenarios where Balls Boy could win outright, Sully could win outright, both can be tied with Sully winning the wins and accuracy tiebreaker, or it could come down to the SEC game score tiebreaker. What a fantastic way to finish this pool.

          

The 3rd and 4th place battle is between 6 other people, with Whit having an outside shot of taking 2nd place from Sully, if every game goes perfect for him, and also wins the tiebreakers. This will likely be the last blog entry before the winners and payouts are announced. As always, I will post the winners and payouts blog entry late Sunday night, or even Monday, to allow me time to go through and error check everything. Happy St. Patrick's Day & Selection Sunday!

          

Upset City: Iowa State, NC State, Saint Peter's, Oregon, and Long Beach State All Win

We're still waiting for the WAC championship game to finish, but what a day of conference tournament championship games. We saw (2) Iowa State knock off one of the best teams in the country in (1) Houston, (5) Saint Peter's is back in the NCAA tournament after knocking off (2) Fairfield, and (10) NC State stunned (1) North Carolina. We also watched (4) Oregon beat (3) Colorado in the final PAC 12 conference tournament championship game ever, and (4) Long Beach State knocked off (2) UC Davis.

          

          

The standings are updated with every result except for the WAC championship, game and Balls Boy is alone in 1st place with 17 points, leading by 2 points. However, Sully is right on his tail, with opposite picks the rest of the way, so he can easily pass Balls Boy. We still have 12 people fighting for the top 4 spots, it should be an exciting finish! 😵

Howard is Dancing and Major Standings Movement

This blog entry will be quick, I wanted to get something out before the onslaught of championship games starting in a few hours throws things into chaos. Although the score looked competitive, (4) Howard easily beat (7) Delaware State to win the MEAC conference tournament championship, and sent the standings into shock. 

We also saw a few more big upsets in non-championship games. In the Big 10, (1) Purdue went down to (4) Wisconsin in overtime, and in the American Athletic, yet another top seed in (1) South Florida lost to (4) UAB. This pool has been around 14 years, 13 of those years Fuss picked Wisconsin, can you guess which year he didn't go with Bucky? 😑

                    

The standings are updated with the afternoon results, and Dan Sohler (AKA Sohler Flares 🔥), is alone in 1st place with 12 points, leading by two points. We have a 5-way tie for 2nd place at 10 points, and another 7 tied for 3rd place. It's not over for most people yet, looking at the standings I see so many unique pick combinations, which is great to ensure everyone keeps jockeying around the standings. Watch out for Balls Boy, 24 max points are possible for him, more than anyone else.

Vermont win the America East and Princeton Gets Waxed

In the America East conference championship game, (2) Umass Lowell gave it a good run against (1) Vermont, even having a half time lead, but the 1-seed ended up being too good down the stretch. Umass Lowell could not make free throws during the last minute of the game, missing 4 in a row, and Vermont took advantage of that opportunity. In our pool standings, this dropped Tina 8 spots, and we still have a 3-way tie for first between Sohler, TJH, and Matthew. We also have 26 people within 4 points, which is only 2 wins by a bonus team, so things are still really competitive. 🐱

Over in the Ivy League we had a shocker as (1) Princeton was absolutely waxed by (4) Brown, handing out a loss to 63% of the pool. The final score looked closer than this game actually was. This now gives Fuss the upper hand in this conference as he is sitting on the 2-seed, Yale. The standings are updated with both of these results, look at your own risk. 😱

Selection Sunday Eve: 13 Conference Tournament Championship Games Today

By this time tomorrow we'll know which 3-5 people, maybe a few more, will have an actual shot at winning the pool. But first, Saturday brings us 13 conference tournament championship games, almost the same number we have had over the last 11 days. The current standings are updated through all of Friday's games, even the ones that finished at 1:00 AM CST, and below I'll preview a few of the key conference tournament championships that matter the most to our pool. 

Going into Saturday, we have a 3-way tie for 1st place between Sohler, TJH, and Matthew, but 12 people are within 2 points of them. That's only a 3 or lower seed winner needed to catch them, or less for those sitting there with 8 points. Further down in the standings we have a few dark horses that could skyrocket to the top of the standings, Balls Boy with 24 max points, Sully with 23 max points, and me with 23 max points. Those 3, plus a few more, have a ton of teams/points remaining compared to the rest of the field.

America East Conference Championship (10:00 AM CST)

I was not planning on previewing this conference as a "key" championship for our pool, but because it tips off so early in the morning, and it having a minor impact to our pool, we're starting here. (1) Vermont plays (2) UMass Lowell and although 83% of our pool picks are on Vermont, Tina is on UMass Lowell. A UMass Lowell win would cause a 4-way tie for 1st place first thing Saturday morning. Vermont is only a 7.5-point favorite, so this could be a good game, and UMass Lowell has a real chance to win.

MEAC Championship Game (12:00 PM CST)

This conference was an absolute nightmare to pick, the only team left in our pool is Howard, and we have 6 people on Howard. (5) Howard will play (6) Delaware State, with a Howard win resulting in bonus points, and a log jam for the Lowest Winning Seed pot, while a Delaware State win gives nobody points. Howard is a 3.5-point favorite.

Mountain West Conference Championship Game (5:00 PM CST)

In a battle of bonus points (5) San Diego State takes on (6) New Mexico, with San Diego State accounting for 60% of our pool picks. If San Diego State wins, we are going to have a 20 way tie for a $150 Lowest Winning Seed bonus pot. With a New Mexico win, TJH catapults into 1st place alone, avoids the 20-way bonus pot tie, and becomes really hard to catch. New Mexico is only a 2-point dog, this is expected to be a close battle. All the Pitino's have been dominating this week. 

MAAC Championship Game (6:30 PM CST)

I didn't think I would be previewing a battle between (2) Fairfield and (5) Saint Peter's, but here we are. 5-seeds are dominating champ week by either already winning a conference tournament, or playing in a final today, this could be the most 5-seeds we've ever seen win/compete. With a Fairfield win, TJH increases his lead, and I suspect becomes very hard to catch. If Saint Peter's pulls out the win, Whit jumps to the very top of the standings either tied for 1st, or right on the heels of TJH, Sohler, and Matthew. The spreads on these games are so tight, they don't even matter, Fairfield is only a 2.5-point favorite.

MAC Championship Game (6:30 PM CST)

The only reason to preview this matchup of (2) Akron vs. (8) Kent State is we have 6 of the current top 10 in the pool eliminated from this conference. With a win by 4.5-point favorite Akron, this could help level the playing field in the pool. Nobody picked 8-seeded Kent State. By the time this championship game is over we could have 7-10 people tied for 1st place, and I would love that! 💖

Conference USA Championship Game (7:30 PM CST)

3.5-point favorite (3) Western Kentucky takes on yet another 5-seed in (5) UTEP for this important pool battle. The only person in the top 10 on Western Kentucky is Novakiii. A few others, a bit lower down in the standings, are also on Western Kentucky. If the Hilltoppers win, along with some of these other lower seeded teams, I may need to revise my last prediction, and we'll have 12-15 people tied for 1st place.

That is just a sample of what we have going on today, I could have previewed all 13 conferences, that is how important each final is today. I will attempt to post a few short blog entries throughout the day Saturday in an effort to keep everyone updated, but if I fail at that I will at least post multiple updates to the standings, so keep that link bookmarked. Worst case scenario, I'll post a blog entry Sunday morning with a preview of the Selection Sunday/St. Patrick's Day games. 🏀🍀

5-Seed Montana State Shocks Montana in the Big Sky Championship

In a wild game of runs Wednesday night, (5) Montana State wrecked (3) Montana in the Big Sky conference championship game that finished well after midnight central time. BI was our only person on Montana State, giving him a nice win, a bonus point, and is now tied with Matthew for the Lowest Winning Seed bonus pot. The tops of the standings remain the same with TJH, Sohler, and Matthew all tied for first place with 9 points. These are some of the righter standings we have had for a while in this pool, almost every single person has a path to victory.

Unless I get really bored, this will be last blog entry until Saturday morning as we don't have any conference tournament championship games over the next 48 hours. The standings will not change too much, but I will continue to post regular updates to the standings because Max Points, Accuracy, and Projected Totals are going to plummet over the next few days as good teams get eliminated. By Saturday morning, we'll have a good idea on where everyone in the pool stands, and who still has a path to victory.

The only conference that has not yet started is the Ivy League. Those nerds are efficient with having a 4-team tournament that starts Saturday afternoon and is complete by Sunday morning. With that, 44% of the conference tournaments are complete, which means plenty of wins and points are still out there. It will be a bloodbath over the next few days with only losses, but it should be some great basketball to watch. 🏀

I'll end this blog entry with the teams that have punched tickets over the last week, and we're only a few days away from one of the greatest days of the year, Selection Sunday! 😍