Heading into the Sweet Sixteen, Yvette Webster of Round Hill, VA, who entered using the “mascot bracket” and stated, “I do not know a thing about basketball & I select by mascots – prefer birds & animals to anything,” leads the 17th annual Living Room Times NCAA Men’s Tournament Pool by a point over long-time blog reader and pool contestant Elizabeth Styles of South Bend, IN. (Until recently, Styles’s husband Randy was winning the women’s pool, leading to talk of “Styles family dominance.” Randy has since fallen to 7th place.)
Jen Deschenes of Newington, CT, Steve Vivier of Meriden, CT, and Chris Palmer of Long Valley, NJ round out the top 5 in the men’s pool. But they are among 78 contestants (33.5% of the field) who are still mathematically alive to win the contest.
The women’s pool is even more competitive heading into the Sweet 16 of that tournament, with 40 of the 78 contestants (51.3% of the field) still mathematically alive to win. The current leader is Michael Holtsberg of Broomall, PA, the 2009 women’s pool champ, looking to become the sixth two-time winner in the LRT pools’ history.
Four points behind Holtsberg are Dan Dinunzio of Newington and Notre Dame alum Kevin Curran (kcatnd) of Austin, TX, tied for second place. Carol LaPlante of Cheektowaga, NY and Karen Torgersen of Raleigh, NC round out the top five of the women’s pool standings. Here is the scenarios page showing who can win and everyone’s best possible finish.
Last but not least, in the NIT pool, we’re down to a Final Four: Tommy Lemoine of Manchester, NH; Jeff Poor of Washington, DC; Dan Dinunzio of Newington (again), and Mike Wiser of Lansing, MI. That pool could be decided tonight, with the last two quarterfinals: if Middle Tennessee beat Minnesota and Stanford beats Nevada, Lemoine (@hoopthink on Twitter) will clinch the championship.
If Minnesota wins, Dinunzio, who is aiming to join Matt Kagan as the only contestant to win two LRT pools in a single year, stays alive. If Nevada wins, Poor, the Auburn fan, avowed mid-major hater, and recently Limbaugh-lanched Daily Caller columnist, stays alive. And if Minnesota and Stanford both win, Wiser — the USC and Stanford alum and current MSU grad student, who has the Cardinal winning the NIT championship — stays alive. So, at the end of the night, there will either be 3 contestants (if Minnesota beats MTSU), 2 contestants (if MTSU & Nevada win), or just 1 contestant (if MTSU & Stanford win, so Lemoine clinches) left standing.