Round 2 Update:

 
round_2_leaders.png

  • With 312 points Austin Evans is our leader after 48 games. He has a 2.5% chance to win it all.

  • No one in the top 50 standings has an unsullied Final Four.
  • 7 contestants still have their Final Four unblemished.
    • Each of them can win $334 dollars with aggregate seeds of 9 or greater (e.g.- 3+2+3+1= 9) to the Final Four.
      • Caleb Mospan, Micah LeViere, Matt Hoffman, Mark Frenette, Ben Anderson, Jesse Goins, Ricaye Harris
  • 141 (22%) contestants still have a chance at 1st place and two tickets to the NCAA Finals. See Possible Outcomes.
  • The top four Pct. First are women. Veronica Martin 8.5%; Jaclyn Adams 8.3%; Melanie Schoeffler 7.5%; Karen Wright 4.6%. Congrats ladies!
  • Sitting in 508th place, James Kopco, still has a 0.2% chance to win the PYO Challenge.

Champion picks

Getting to Know the Leaders:

  1. Who is your favorite NCAA basketball team?
  2. Where were you born & where do you currently live?
  3. Family?
  4. What is your occupation?
  5. Of all the people alive in the world today- who would you want to have lunch with and why?
  6. Advice you’d give to those contestants you’re beating? What was your strategy?

1st place- Austin Evans

  1. Villanova
  2. I was born in Reading PA. Currently live in Collegeville, PA
  3. I am the youngest of three brothers 
  4. I am currently in school as a 12th grade student, but work as a landscaper during the summer 
  5. I would love to go out to lunch with my girlfriend. We always enjoy our time going out to eat together. 
  6. Listen to your gut and never let someone influence your picks because they know just as much about the outcomes as you do. Also I refer to a quote from my history teacher when choosing my teams she always says , “Always go with your first choice unless you know for sure that it is wrong.”

2nd place- Jacyln Adams

      Profiled in previous round (1st place in round 1)

3rd place- Ian Taylor

  1. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
  2. Brevard, North Carolina.
  3. I have 2 older brothers (Braden-9, Bryce-6), Mommy & Daddy
  4. I play a lot
  5. Grandma & Grandpa
  6. I just picked who I thought would win. I picked Buffalo because I thought their name was funny. I picked Marshall because that is a pup from Paw Patrol.

4th place- Owen Bush

      Profiled in previous round (2nd place in round 1)

t-5th place- Marissa Streff

  1. My favorite team is Michigan State University. 
  2. I was born in Scottsdale Arizona and I currently live with my husband in Holly Michigan.
  3. My family consists of my husband and our two cats, Minty and Steve.
  4. I'm a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and I work with children with Autism for Genesee Health System.
  5. I would want to have lunch with Dr. Greg Hanley because I'm a huge fan of his research and I'd love to learn as much as I could from him. 
  6. I went for the under dogs pretty often in my picks because I think there are always some amazing upsets every year. I wish everyone the best of luck!!.

t-5th place- Nick Banaszak

  1. Even though they didn't make the tournament, the Western Michigan Broncos.
  2. Born in Detroit, MI, and reside in Farmington, MI.
  3. Married, and we have a great cat!
  4. I'm a Program Manager for an advertising agency, in charge of all images/videos seen on the website for one of the Big 3 companies in the automotive field.
  5. David Lee Roth...the stories he could tell (if he remembers any) from the 80s would be incredible to hear! 
  6. I had Virginia winning the tournament, so I don't know if I'm the right person to be giving advice, but after years of filling out brackets, I'd say always go with your gut...any time I've gone back and changed a pick, I've regretted it.

t-7th place- Rachel McConnell

  1. Nova Nation! {solid crew of Nova students worship with me on Sunday mornings!} but UConn has a spot in my heart too—first team I ever cheered for.
  2. I was born in Hartford, CT and currently live in Philadelphia, PA more specifically University City in West Philly.
  3. I’m married to the super-competitive, bearded-awesomeness Philly man Ian McConnell.  We have 3 kids who constantly amaze me—Payson the engineer {15yrs}, Piper Joy the artist {13yrs} and Silas the athlete {11yrs}. 
  4. I work at a Christian school in Philly where our youngest 2 attend & where the student body is 85% minorities. My contract title is secretary but I also assume roles of nurse, life counselor, problem solver & finder of all manner of lost items. I have at least one wild story a day dealing with these crazy precious kids...and their parents who sacrifice a lot to get their kids a decent education in the inner city.
  5. This is a hard question for me—I love biographies & lives that finish well...so everyone I’d like to have a meal with really are dead guys or ladies. Katie Luther—did you really dress in mourning clothes to get Martin to stop doubting God? Susannah Wesley—was your house really haunted?! Sarah Edwards—did chocolate really make nearly every shopping list?! Plus real heart questions too. As far as alive, Nick Foles & Carson Wentz—because that would be too cool for Ian & I— “Fly Eagles Fly”—we WON THE SUPER BOWL!! 😂😂
  6. My basic philosophy is “Hey, somebody’s gotta win” *shrugs & grins* My strategy was entering to compete with my men. I nearly missed the deadline. I ran thru my early morning school responsibilities & had about 10 mins to mark my entry while answering phone  calls...I think I hit enter at 9:58a of the deadline day!