Uncle Sam laughing at the Blue Devils. Is this the most American picture ever?
Ah, yes, my favorite part of the NCAA tournament … when Duke gets eliminated. Yep, those upstarts from NC State, who needed an improbable run through the ACC tournament just to even make the field of 64, continued their Cinderella story as they ousted everyone’s favorite March Madness villain, the #4 Duke Blue Devils. Paced by star forward D.J. Burns’ 29 points, #11 NC State, after trailing by 6 at halftime, turned it on in the 2nd half to take down Duke by a score of 76-64. NC State moves on to their first appearance in the Final Four since Jim Valvano’s squad won the title in 1983.
America thanks you for your service, D. J.!
Waiting for them in Arizona will be #1 Purdue, who outlasted #2 Tennessee 72-66. Paving the way for the Boilermakers was superstar center Zach Edey who popped for 40 points and 16 boards, as Purdue makes its first appearance in the Final Four since 1980.
Here is the schedule for next Saturday’s games:
- 6:09 PM – #1 Purdue vs #11 NC State
- 8:49 PM – #4 Alabama vs #1 UConn
Heading into the Final Four, here’s how the standings shape up this morning. Vegas has installed longtime participant Emily Chapple as the favorite to win the pool by virtue of her UConn over Purdue scenario:
So, there’s a couple of breaking G.A.M.M. news items from over the weekend. First, all entry fees have been paid. And, second, I’ve banned one of this year’s participants for life.
Yes, you read that right. And, no, this is not an April Fool’s bit.
Every year, the matter of entry fee collections always causes a little extra legwork for the ol’ Commish. As we get down to the payment deadline, I usually get a few folks who had forgotten to pay, or think they already paid, or that somebody paid for them, yada, yada, all resulting in me having to follow up for their payments. The Commish, who many people point to as a shining example of extraordinary customer service, will reach out to anyone who hasn’t paid yet to give them a reminder. If they’re a friend or relative, I’ll text them. If it’s somebody from work, I’ll shoot them an email. If it’s someone who’s played before, but I don’t really know, I’ll go to our Venmo history and submit a payment request. Did that with several people this year and all of them immediately accepted the request and paid their money.
Well, almost all of them.
A participant, whose name I won’t reveal, entered 2 brackets this year but hadn’t paid their entry fee yet. So, being the people’s Commish, I sent him a Venmo request. Which he declined:
Well, I was a little confused to say the least. The person in question is a friend of a friend of my daughter, Assistant Commish Lauren. So, I texted Lauren and told her that this guy declined my Venmo request. She was, like, “That’s odd. I’ll send him a Venmo request too.” Which he also proceeded to decline.
So Lauren reaches out to her friend through whom this person had joined the pool last year. Lauren’s friend, in turn, reaches out to the guy and, get this … he claims he didn’t join my pool.
My understanding is he claims he joined a different pool and, since he played in mine last year, that CBS must have automatically entered those brackets into my pool.
Oh, and he also insisted he wasn’t going to pay for them.
It seems obvious that he meant to join another pool, but accidentally joined mine instead. Hey, mistakes happen … but ya still gotta do what’s right. Even after being presented with proof that he filled out 2 brackets, both of which were eliminated by now, he still insisted he wasn’t going to pay. Now, one can’t help but wonder if he’d have that same attitude if one of his brackets were still in contention.
In any event, it sounds like several behind the scenes conversations happened with the guy over the course of 24 hours, but still no Venmo payment. Finally, Lauren reached out again with a *3RD* Venmo request on Sunday morning, and he finally paid it, so crisis averted. I know that G.A.M.M.’s chief collections officer, Mike Bohlen, was just chomping at the bit to be turned loose on the case, but thankfully, it didn’t come to that.
Well, even though you finally paid, I’m afraid it’s too little, too late, bro. You can’t disrespect the Commish and the pool like that and expect to play again. So you have now joined Susan Mitchell and Loren Spears as only the 3rd ever participant to be banned for life and have now been inducted into the Hall of Shame.
However, if you’re reading this blog and would like to appeal your ban, you can apply for reinstatement by filling out an appeal request, which can be found by clicking … here.
On that note, I’m out.
The Commish