Our 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Tip Off Tournament: Dan Sohler (Pool Closing & Payouts)

Congratulation again to Dan Sohler for winning the inaugural 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Tip Off Tournament, without needing to use any tiebreakers! Dan had a comfortable 2 point win, racking up 19 points, and a 55.0% accuracy. The top 3 were all at, or above, a 50% accuracy. 🏆

We did have some late movement in standings as Tim predicted the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship game score to the exact total at 136 points. Congratulations to Tim for jumping over me into 2nd place as Nevada knocked of Georgia Tech 72-64 in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. 🥈

Additionally, this unprobable Nevada upset paid out $50 each to Jenn, Tina & Zack, and B.I. I'm glad to see this paid out a meaningful amount of money to a few people, as opposed to a few dollars to all of those that were on tournament favorite TCU. 💰

Below you will find the final standings and payouts. 6 out of the 17 entries have payouts coming! Please reach out to me to confirm how you would like to be paid out any money that you won. I'm hoping everyone had fun with this pool as a break between football, and we'll do it again next year.

We Only Have 2 Early Season Tournaments Left - But we do Have a Pool Winner

We flew through 32 early season college basketball tournaments over the last 3 weeks, but we still have 2 more tournaments remaining. However, the standings don't have much more movement left, only 3 people remain, and Dan Sohler has already clinched 1st place. Congrats to Dan Sohler for his dominant run, going wire to wire, and winning 60% of his picks. The only battle remaining is for 2nd and 3rd place, which will be decided between myself and Tim based on the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship game total. At one point before Thanksgiving, we had 12 people fighting for the top 3 spots, it was great to see over half the pool involved so late. Finally, special shoutout to The Beag for only getting 5 correct, that seems as hard as winning. 🏀

For all those eliminated, you still have a chance to win money later in December with the  Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic bonus pots. Evan and The Beag can win $150 without splitting if their respective teams win, Sam I Am and Jack would split $150 with a Georgia win, and Tina, B.I., and Jenn would split $150 with a Nevada win. A TCU win really dilutes the payout. Additionally, 15 of the 17 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship game score picks are unique, which means we could have a single winner for that $50 bonus pot. 💰

The Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship game is on December 25, which means I'll send out one last update, and start the payouts shortly afterwards. Hopefully everyone had fun with this pool, got your mind off the terrible NFL games, forced you to watch some extra college basketball in November, and now feel better prepared for the Conference Tournament pool! 🎉

Thanks!

Rick

Baylor and BYU are Champions

The Baylor Bears won the NIT Season Tip Off 75-69, giving 77% of our pool a win, resulting in not much movement at the top of the standings. However, this did cause the official elimination of Tina & Zack. In our late night championship game, BYU came back in the second half to beat NC State 96-86 in the Vegas Showdown, giving critical wins to myself and Sohler. 🏀 🎰

          

The current standings can be found here, with a battle taking place between myself, Sohler and Tim. Sohler is now in the driver seat as he has sole possession of 1st place, most max points available, and distanced himself from Tim. It's his to lose at this point. The only other battle going on is Heffron has enough unique picks left, plus the tie breaker, to be able to come in 3rd. Other than that, everyone else has officially been eliminated. 😿

For those eliminated, you still have a chance to win money later in December with the  Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic bonus pots. Evan and The Beag can win $150 without splitting if their respective teams win, Sam I Am and Jack would split $150 with a Georgia win, and Tina, B.I. and Jenn would split $150 with a Nevada win. A TCU win dilutes the payout. Additionally, 15 of the 17 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship game score picks are unique, which means we could have a single winner for that $50 bonus pot. 💰

With so many people now out, I'll post less blogs and focus more on updating the standings. Look for 1-2 wrap up blogs over the next few days and then we'll fire it back up in December for the last 2 tournaments.

Villanova Wins Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis

In the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis today, Villanova destroyed Memphis to crown our first champion on this Friday after Thanksgiving. Tina, Andrew, and B.I. all earned a victory, bringing them closer to the Top 5. Those 3 need to be perfect to have a shot at the Top 3. Tonight brings us 2 more tournament championship games that don't help Andrew or B.I., but a Florida win in the NIT Season Tip Off could make things interesting for Tina.

The current standings can be found here, with a fierce battle taking place between myself, Dan and Tim. Although Dan is in first place by 1 point, I have more points available to me, and we know from past pools we can't count out Tim. Heffron, Ryan, and Whit are hanging on, but need to be almost perfect to get back into the Top 3. Unfortunately, we're up to 7 people that have no been eliminated from being able to finish in the Top 3.

Purdue Wins the Maui Jim Invitational and More Results from Wednesday

If you are a college basketball fan, today was a great day of basketball. In addition to all the regular season games starting at 10am CST we had some big-time teams playing important semifinal and final tournament basketball games. One of those matchups was (2) Purdue vs. (4) Marquette playing for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational championship. Purdue got off to a big lead early, but Marquette came back to make it a game, ultimately Purdue pulled off the victory. Only 2 people were on Purdue, me and Andrew, resulting in an important tournament win.

Other team to win championships today include Radford in the Cancun Challenge Mayan Division, James Madison in the Cancun Challenge Riviera Division, Tarleton State in the SoCal Challenge Sand Division, Bradley in the SoCal Challenge Surf Division, Wisconsin in the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off, and  Hofstra in the Gulf Coast Showcase. 🏅 

The current standings can be found here, with some new blood in the top 5 now contending for the title. Sohler is still the man to beat, but Tim and I are right on his tail. Unfortunately, The Beag, Jack, and Evan have all been eliminated from finishing in the money (top 3), but can still win bonus money later in the pool. I will continue to post updated standings throughout the Holiday weekend, but can't guarantee any blog entries. Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

Thanksgiving Eve: 7 Championship Game Madness

We have 7 championship games today, coming to us from the Cancun Challenge (Mayan and Riviera Divisions), Gulf Coast Showcase, Maui Jim Maui Invitational, Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off (Beach Division), and SoCal Challenge (Sand & Surf Divisions). After today, 24 of the 34 early season tournaments will be complete, which means we'll have a good understanding of who has a chance to win the pool along with who is eliminated. As it stands this morning, 12 people can pull off 1st place and no one is eliminated from coming in worse than 3rd place. However, many people need to be perfect from here on out. I will preview a few of the championship games below. 👀

Both divisions of the Cancun Challenge feature pool favorites, so I would not call these pivotal to our pool. In the Mayan Division, 4.5 favorite, and popular pool pick Radford takes on Northern Colorado at 2p CST.   A Northern Colorado win is critical for B.I., Jenn, and Matthew if they want to stay in this pool. Over in the Riviera Division, surprisingly ranked James Madison, and the pool favorite, are favored by 4.5 points against Fresno State. A Fresno State win is critical for B.I., Novak, and Sam I Am. If B.I. can pull off these 2 upsets he jumps into a 1st place tie with Sohler! 🐶

The Gulf Coast Showcase is an interesting championship game that features 5.5 favorite Hofstra vs. High Point. Our only pool Hofstra picks come from our current 1st place, and 5th-7th place players. Nobody has High Point. If Hofstra wins, we will have a serious log jam 2nd-7th place. 

The Maui Jim Maui Invitational gives us both a significant big time basketball game and a pivotal tournament champion for our pool. The favorite, Kansas, was obliterated by Marquette last night, which now gives us a matchup of Marquette vs. Purdue. Purdue is only favored by 3.5 points, giving us hopefully an incredible championship game to watch. From a pool perspective, a Marquette win bumps B.I. higher in the standings, while a Purdue win sends me into 2nd place. Everyone else in the current top 10 has been eliminated from the tournament.

The current standings can be found here, with some minor updates from the late games last night. I plan on posting an update, blog and standings, before the SoCal Challenge champion games take place. We'll know where everyone stands going into the late championship games.

Stetson, Florida State, and Utah State Win

The Sunshine Slam (Beach & Ocean Bracket) gave us 2 champions this afternoon. Stetson won the Ocean Bracket, while Florida State won the Beach Bracket. Stetson won easily, knocking off Central Michigan by 10, but it wasn't even that close of a game. Colorado and Florida State went to overtime, with Florida State dominating the extra period. That was a great game to watch. 🏀

Over in the Cayman Islands Classic, Utah State absolutely destroyed Stephen F. Austin 79-49 in Thomas Walkup's last game as a Lumberjack. This gives Tim, B.I., and Heffron key wins, creating a log jam at the top of the standings. This wraps up the championship games today, but we still have many leagues in the quarterfinals or semifinals tonight.

The current standings can be found here, with some new blood in the top 5 now contending for the title. We do need to expand the view below to the top 8 with all the ties we have. I love having so many people in contention, but Sohler is still the man to beat. I will post updated standings tomorrow morning along with a short preview of the next set of games.