By Jon Roe
It’s all over. After a month, March Madness is over and the championship team has been decided. The University of Florida Gators won their second championship in a row and became the first team to repeat as champions since Duke did it in 1992.
After all the champagne, “We’re the winners” t-shirts and hats, and trophies are doled out, all that really matters in the end is the brackets.
There’s going to be a lot of high bracket scores across the board, because of how predictable the tournament was. A lot of people had Florida as the team left standing at the end of the tourney, and a lot of people ended up being right. The easiest pick doesn’t always work, but the 2007 NCAA men’s basketball tournament helped any neophyte bracketologist.
Speaking of newbie pickers, our Gauntlet experts did fairly well for themselves by the Gauntlet point system. Ryan Pike and I both had Florida finishing on top–apparently we’re both fans of easy picks. Jeff Clemens had the Wisconsin Badgers, who were knocked out early, and Amanda Hu was way out in left field with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Wranglers. But that’s okay, because Wranglers are cool.
For some, the tournament is all encompassing. In 2005 it was estimated that March Madness cost employers almost $900 million in lost work. That number could have only increased with the games being available for free online for the first three rounds. For those whose life purpose of the last month has suddenly passed, shed a single tear.
The rest of us can wait the rest of the year, passively and without much anticipation.
Final Results:
[1] Jon Roe 139
[2] Ryan Pike 124
[3] Jeff Clemens101
[4] Amanda Hu 64