Mayhem of March Madness

the final four

I am back from my 5th Final Four. The biggest impression for me this past weekend was that I think the entire state of Illinois drove across the state to be at the game. I had never seen the losing teams on Saturday disappear so quickly and sell their tickets to the hungry Illini fans. North Carolina won their first basketball title since 1993 and left crowd in orange last night very sad.

I had my normal celebrity sightings over the weekend. Bill Murray was sitting in the Illinois section. Michael Jordan and Dean Smith were sitting together in a luxury box. I also saw Vince Vaughn walking around in the concourse. One night while eating at Ozzie Smith’s sports bar, I saw Duke’s JJ Reddick eating with his family. On my flight home, I had the 1995 Champion UCLA head coach Jim Harrick sitting in front of me.

Going into the Championship game only 3 people were guaranteed money (Jeff Niragas, Buckeye Jane and Bill Self). While 34 other people had to wait to the end of the game on Monday to see if they could add their names to the top 20.

With North Carolina winning the championship Jeff Niragas adds his name to the Mayhem of March Madness Hall of Fame. Afi just edges Dave Lewis out for 2^nd place with the tie-breaker. Kahuna, Sweet Hog #1, Geaux Tigers and Laurie Casaus round out the next 4 spots.

Thanks to all that participated and once again made the pool a success. Congratulations once again to the 20 winners and hope to see all of you and some of your friends next year. Check back in September when the 4^th Annual Deathpool will begin.

I will finish by saying “One Shining Moment”.