MARCH MADNESS 2015 FINAL UPDATE
“Championship lands in Durham”
Coach K gains 5th national title Duke 68 Wisconsin 63
Monday night, April 6th,the Duke Blue Devils stormed back from a second half deficit to overtake and defeat the Wisconsin Badgers, in a very thrilling affair. Tied at half time at 31, the second
half took a more aggressive turn. Aided by some very questionable calls, hellʼs fire erupted and the final minutes left melted cheese. Nevertheless, the devil was in the detail, as Tyus Jones was nothing shy of sensational leading the way with 23 points, and a gutty bench performance by Grayson Allen with 16. Sam Dekker although hot early, lookied more like Sam Malone (cheers to you) and could not carry out the late game heroics this time, and despite a masterful effort by Frank Kaminsky (21 points and 12 rebounds), Bucky succumbed to his last breath and was left as roadkill by the fiendish devils. In the Annapolis has been kind to Coach K and Duke. Of course, Barles Charkley was the one of four pre game commentators to correctly call the game. I will admit a new found respect for the coach and team many had come to despise. Tobacco Road leads to another championship.
Congratulations to our 2015 March Madness Champion ***Jim McDaniel**
Jim McDaniel held on to victory despite the Kentucky demise. Buckeye faithful and trained in Cincinnati and Wisconsin, Jim is hardly in the dark when it comes to prognostication. Roentgen exposure not withstanding, our pool radiologist finally gets his due, zapping the demons but not the devils, as Dukeʼs victory secured your own. Total congratulations. Name in lights, place in Madness history secured!!
RunnerupisBrandonCrane,ohsowishfulforthatBadgervictory. Allfourteamsinfinalfour. Fortunately this shop dispatcher has a bit of cash to gamble on anything. Hoosiers in 2016? Will Crean be gone? Want an opinion? See Preston Hertelʼs entry name.
Third place to Joe Smith, our local Joe Smith. Sherwood Joe. The other guy named Smith, but not named Jay, John, Joe C, Jeff, or well, Brad. Well you totaled Brad. Nice payoff to help ease your back pain. And paid in full with an added donation.
Fourth place is Colleen Martin. Another one of our generous contributors, and community foundation faithful, she put her own pick in this year, and it reaps dividends. Highest finalist to pick Duke to win it all. And similar to BC, all 4 in final four
Fifth place is a tie. Nate Herman senior assistant superintendent at the Vic. Congratulations on your inaugural finish. Bring me a sack full of those golf balls littering what once was wilderness. Burn baby burn. Good to hit in the lake, the only place where balls are not retrieved.
And then we have the Golden Arm, the Golden Boy, Jake Schiff. What an honor. Outstanding finish young man. Going to give the props to Eric Miller this time. What took so long Jake? 3 years, are you serious? Easier than a 20 yard out against Memorial
Seventh place to Rick Wepsic. Hearts a plenty. Showing the love. Another generous contributor to the pool and our favorite March Madness cardiologist. Love you too Lee, but you be a surgeon. Rick is a graduate of THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. Need I say more? Nuf said. Refs spoiled your bid for second place and punitive damages to our urology friends from Madison. Dr. Gil, why this is Dr. Gil. Wild that the medical profession has dominated the tournament. But what did you expect? Obamacare? Obviously a manʼs got to do what a manʼs got to do to make da money.
Eighth place to Jim Wilsbacher. It was touch and go here. Another all final four teamer, but Michigan State was not made for the mile and a half. Kudos to Jim who took his donation one step further with a company match. Creative and generous. Thank you Jim.
Ninth place to Joe C. Smith. I am so pleased you are finally in the money. Smitty hails from Santa
Monica, California A loyal March Madness enthusiast but never in the money until now. Met him at Mortonʼs(?) in Beverly Hills, while on a golf excursion to Riviera and LA country club many years ago. On a whim, asked him to enter this crazy basketball pool in Indiana. A loyal supporter ever since. I always look for his entry. He never lets us down. Congratulations.
Tenth place to Scott Elliott. 2004 March Madness champion. Feared and revered. Had Duke over Wisconsin in the final game. As did you Uncle Jack, but only16th place while in Cozumel. Probably won more money than those Kansas boys in your sub pool.
Bridesmaid (eleventh place): Chad Oswald and Lana McConnell. Good show to the both of you. But, no money.
Goat Award goes to Skip Oliver. Yep, worst legitimate bracket in the field. Interesting strategy taken a bit too far. Judges discretion here.
131st place (Championship game score 68-63=131 points=131st place. A tie. Preston Hertel, huge fan of Tom Crean, and best entry name this year, splits the hundred bucks with Paul Perry
Last place: Dale Cardinal (Redbird rocks with his low total entry. Still the best odds in the tournament)
Semifinals recap
April 4th, 2015
Duke 81
Michigan State 61
Unlike last yearʼs #7 seed Connecticut who ousted Kentucky in an upset championship, this years; #7 Michigan State appeared to have little left after a barrage of three pointers opened a big lead, only to fall back and stay down to a precise Duke Blue Devil team who cruised to a twenty point win. Nobody thought much of Duke this year, or didnʼt, as they quietly regained another #1 seed, and made it look easy. No Kentucky this year to beat at the buzzer either. Indianapolis has been very good to Duke and Coach Mike Krzyzewski over the years with tournament wins in 1991 and 2010. The Big Ten-ACC challenge became a game for all the marbles come Monday, as two #1 seeds made it to the last dance.
Wisconsin 71 Kentucky 64
The train was derailed and Kentuckyʼs hopes for an undefeated and national championship season came to an end in this thrilling semifinal game before a very blue (literally and figuratively) crowd in Indianapolis. Seats to Mondayʼs championship were abundantly available after this one was over, much to the dismay of the partisan faithful. What was becoming a half centuryʼs storied record book etching, with a chance to
go 40-0, became but a footnote not only on this page, but before the final night of the tournament. Wisconsin sought and gained their revenge. Last year, Kentucky ended the semifinal hopes of the Badgers with a one point victory 74-73, on Aaron Harrisonʼs 3 point winning basket from 30 feet. This year his attempt to cut the lead to one in the waning seconds fell very short. Not so kind words for Frank Kaminsky at the post game conference. Really? Oh well. Good luck in the NBA, where the microphone is always on. Kaminisky lead the Badgers with a dominant and closing clutch performance, seconded by the amazing Sam Dekker whose own step back three pointer put the Badgers ahead to stay.
Administrative News
The Official Total paid pool entrees is 470. Your committee does their best to ensure integrity to the prize pool and covers several unpaid, or yet to be paid entries at this the time of final accounting, with additional personal donations to the charities to more than compensate. Curses to the slackers.
Prize winnings will be based on this number. 75% of the entry fees goes to the prize pool, in the breakdown as listed in the opening letter at the start of the tournament. See the website for original details. WWW.GARYGURTCHEFF.COM
We pay out the top ten and last place in addition this year to the GOAT and the place of finish of the total score of the championship game.
Charity News
25% of the original entry fees goes to the charities in addition to the benevolent donations. This year we had a 137 generous participants giving additional money to the charities!! A few late donations will trickle in, but another very good year via the percentages. This is a large percentage of the actual participants, considering many participants (and families) submit multiple entries. Thank you so much!! Last update we listed those of you who were kind enough to donate more than the allotted $ 20 and for each of you again we thank you. Additionally, since the publication of the Update II letter, we would like to recognize the following individuals not previously listed for your addition donations:
Travis Farhar Jim McDaniel Wayne Hentrup Dan Baumann Todd Lang
Chris McConnell Michael Morgan Mike OʼConner
Ron Hall
Jim Heinrich Danny Winn Clint Keown Mike Brown Paul Perry
Lana McConnell Chris Maynard
S Joe Smith Mark Logan
Joel Bowers Melissa Atwood Robert Merkle Jimmy King Chris Casaburo
Kevin Kalb Larry Renschler Brandon Iafrate Bobby Schoen Chris Casaburo Todd Lang
Billy Blake
...... $ 2350 was garnished from the entry fees to devote to our charitable endeavors. $ 7050 goes to the prize pool, plus another $ 100 for the Goat and $ 100 for the place of
the total score of the championship game, compliments of your poolmaster. Thanks to your outstanding
generosity, and some help from your administrators.................... $ 8150 has been or will be received in additional donations.
For March Madness 2015...... Our GRAND TOTAL of CHARITABLE GIVING is: ............... $ 10,500 to be donated this year.
We have broken 5 figures!!!!
$ 6000 will be granted to the March Madness Endowment Fund administered through the Warrick County Community Foundation.
$ 2000 will go to United Methodist Youth Home $ 2000 will go to Gildaʼs Club
$ 500 to ALS Association of Indiana (see below)
Personal checks written by our participants directly to the March Madness Endowment Fund will be given to the Warrick County Community Foundation this month. Your checks have yet to be cashed. The balance of the total (and any additional money received) will be via a direct check to the March Madness Endowment Fund from the Golf Gives Back Program and the PGA Tour sometime after the completion of the United Leasing Championship coming up soon. We purchased those golf passes some of you will be receiving, but 100% of the money and then some, will come back directly to the fund. Our total will actually be higher as we will receive a percentage of additional charity money based on our percentage of ticket sales. I will update you via email in the coming months.
Personal checks written to Gildaʼs Club and the United Methodist Youth Home and a check for the balance of the total of $ 2000 each, hopefully will be given to the appropriate people within the next few weeks. Again, your checks made out directly to one of those two charities have not been cashed yet.
We have now completed our nineteenth year of March Madness. Over the years, we have now generated over $ 90,000 in total giving to multiple charities in the area as well as to further bolster
your endowed fund. Should you so desire sometime this year, drop us a line or perhaps consider our funds for your future gifting. I would like to emphasize the latter. For better, for life! We have made three small grants in the past few years from investments. Additionally as mentioned in the welcome letter, the March Madness Endowment Fund has granted $ 1500 to Pillow Pals this year. That grant should be received by them soon. The endowed fund will always be there. The principal stays. The moneys granted come from the investments administered through the Warrick County Community Foundation and the surrounding nine county alliance.
Please keep us advised of any email changes. Email your comments and parting remarks... JPMORGANMD@MAC.COM or GARYGURTCHEFF@MAC.COM
Winnersʼ checks will be sent out by mail by this time next month if not sooner. As mentioned above, charity proceeds will also be forwarded within the next few weeks. Again, be advised that your individual charity directed checks have not yet been cashed to date. Golf passes will be sent to you within the next two weeks.
Congratulations to our Winners. THE FINAL TALLY
2015 Top Ten
1st Jim McDaniel (Evansville, IN) $2820
2nd Brandon Crane (Poseyville, IN) $1410
3rd Joe Smith (Evansville, IN) $705
4th Colleen Martin (Newburgh, IN) $494
5th Nate Herman (Newburgh, IN) $317
5th Jake Schiff (Evansville, IN) $317
7th Richard Wepsic (Newburgh, IN) $211
8th Jim Wilsbacher (Newburgh, IN) $211
9th Joe C. Smith (Santa Monica, CA) $141
10th Scott Elliott (Evansville, IN) $141
LAST Dale Cardinal (Newburgh, IN) $282
Goat Award Skip Oliver (Evansville, IN) $100
131st place Preston Hertel (Newburgh, IN) $50
Paul Perry (Newburgh, IN) $50
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470 Paid Entrees
“If what you did yesterday still looks big today, you havenʼt done much today” -Mike Krzyzewski
One Final Note: Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Patty K. Gowdy, who
succumbed this past week to ALS. You will live on in our hearts. Patty survived with wit and vigor despite battling the scourges of this illness for over 10 years. She was known to many of you, a former nurse of mine, and a supporter of the March Madness Pool since its inception. She was the eternal optimist, seeing the bright side in all things life. She was perhaps the biggest Kentucky fan I had ever known, and for that alone, a regret they didn’t win it all this year. Thank you Julie for all you did for Patty over the years with your support. For those wishing to do so, a charitable donation in memory of Patty may be made to Rowdy’s Gang of the ALS Association of Indiana, 6525 E. 82nd St. #115, Indianapolis, IN 46250 (www.alsindiana.org) We at March Madness Central have also decided to proceed with a $500 donation this year from all of you in her name.