from nyt.
Oops. A Few End Up Afloat in the Pool.
by MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: March 28, 2006
Know anyone who has the Final Four intact in the office pool? No way.
After all, not one top-seeded team made it. The last time that happened was 1980. Who could have picked the Patriots — not Tom Brady & Company, but the ones from George Mason?
Was there a secret to making sense of possibly the most unpredictable N.C.A.A. tournament? For Russell Pleasant, a 46-year-old software engineer from Omaha, it took a lucky mistake.
When he filled out his bracket earlier this month, he thought George Washington would reach this weekend's Final Four. Instead, he ended up picking George Mason, round after round after round, all the way to Indianapolis.
Now, he finds himself a rare survivor among millions of broken hearts with busted brackets across the nation. In ESPN.com's 2006 Men's College Basketball Tournament Challenge, Pleasant had one of the four entries among three million with U.C.L.A., Louisiana State, Florida and George Mason in the Final Four.
Last season, 4,172 people picked all four teams in ESPN.com's pool. But last year's Final Four featured a more predictable lineup: two top-seeded teams, North Carolina and Illinois; a fourth-seeded team, Louisville; and a fifth-seeded team, Michigan State.
At cbs.sportsline.com, none of the two million brackets submitted this year had all four teams. In the Yahoo Sports pool, just one of more than a million entered had all four. That entry was submitted by a contestant named Tim McKenna.
"One night I was watching some of the games, and I saw George Washington," Pleasant said last night in a telephone interview. "I said that team is good; I like them."
Same first name, different last name. Oh, well.
"Man, all those Georges." he said. "I knew they were all from D.C. I like Georgetown, too."
In November, Pleasant watched George Mason take on Creighton on television. Even though Creighton won, 72-52, Pleasant said he remembered thinking that George Mason was pretty good.
"I thought I had George Mason in the Sweet 16," he said.
But it was the other way around: he had eighth-seeded George Washington in the Round of 16 and 11th-seeded George Mason in the Final Four. George Washington lost to Duke in the second round.
By the way, Pleasant picked Florida to defeat U.C.L.A. in the championship game. He remains in contention to win the top prize, $10,000.
Mike Breen, a mathematician at the American Mathematical Society in Providence, R.I., said the chances of being one of the people who correctly picked the Final Four in ESPN.com's contest this year were about 1 in 750,000. Last year, he said, roughly 1 in 700 brackets included the correct four teams.
Pleasant said he had never entered a pool until last year, when his wife, Valerie, persuaded him to join one at work. After picking the eventual national champion, North Carolina, and nearly winning it all, Pleasant could not wait for this year. He said he began to pay closer attention to the games, and he kept some favorites in mind.
"I knew I needed a Cinderella, a good Cinderella," he said. "And I needed a good mixture." |
