| Past Winners |
Bruce Reiff, OH
'92, '97-'99
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Terry Coleman, BC
1993-1994
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Ken Gutermuth, TX
1995, 2003
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Jon Diminnie, IN
1996
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Bruce Monnin, OH
2000
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Dennis Nicholson, NY
2001
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Debbie Gutermuth, TX
2002
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John Coussis, IL
2004
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Marvin Birnbaum, NY
2005
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Sean McCulloch and Ken Gutermuth among
the hopefuls in the opening round of a heat. |
Peter Staab drops those fickle dice
against Ken gutermuth as daughter Lisa watches. |
Jeremy Billones and Jim Bell battling
for their first championship in the Final. |
Jeremy Joins the Wood Club
March Madness has always held a special place in my
heart. Part of the reason is that it debuted as a tournament
during 1992, my first time attending the old Avaloncon, starting
a streak of 15 years for it, and for me. Moreover, I maintain
that it is in many ways the ultimate WBC experience: Keep winning,
and make the Final Four; lose, and you're out but you can
try your luck in multiple heats. In the end, however, what keeps
me running this event, and keeps others coming back, is the high
level of competition for a supposedly simple sports game
something that is matched only by the level of sportsmanship
and camaraderie.
Many veteran gamers, masters of their genres, have tried to
succeed at March Madness, only to find that the game has
more subtleties than they realized. Some, like 2005 winner Marvin
Birnbaum, finally break through after years of trying. Others
mumble about it being a 'dice game' and wander off, somewhat
dazed by the experience, to the more comfortable surroundings
of hexgrids or 'Euro' tiles.
Most, however, of the 32 coaches in this year's event turned
out to be true enthusiasts. More than 80% of the field played
in multiple heats. Our total attendance was down from the last
two years, which can be largely attributed to the debut of new
WBC events. In particular, the very popular Twilight Struggle
seemed to draw away from Friday's heat, which in previous
years was the most highly attended of the four.
In recent years, the March Madness format has been
modified, where we moved away from pre-generated brackets for
each of the four heats. Traditional Pacific Rim powers such as
UCLA were still placed in the West regional, UMass in the East,
and so forth. Anyone who pulled an upset was still rewarded by
their section of the draw opening up. This system has proved
popular, mainly because it gets everyone playing immediately,
with very few byes needed.
Tuesday evening's West Regional featured a number of West
Coast teams, but only a couple of them fared well. Former champ
Dennis Nicholson employed his favorite hurry-up offense with
UCLA 70 to prevail over Sean McCulloch 102-91. Another wild melee
ended with Carrie Lewis and her New Mexico State 70 team outscoring
Roger Taylor 99-87. And while it wasn't a traditionally western
team, Mark Yoshikowa beat Bruce Monnin, fresh off his PBeM chmpionship,
in a similarly high-scoring game, 95-90 on the last die roll.
The other side of the draw featured lower-scoring games, as
Debbie Bell defeated former Consul Devin Flawd 61-55. Your friendly
GM continued a trend on opening night by losing the first round
to Doug Galullo, 72-68, who then lost to Carrie Lewis. Meanwhile,
Jeremy Billones was quietly moving through the draw, defeating
Paul Risner, Mark Yoshikowa, and Jeff Finkeldey to reach the
regional final. His opponent was veteran sports gamer Harry Flawd,
who had beaten Mark Giddings, survived Dennis' highscoring onslaught,
and then triumphed over Carrie, to place his Louisville 75 team
in the regional final. In the end, Harry's balanced team was
unable to score enough, and Jeremy made his first Final Four.
The second heat had a healthy 19 players, including a dozen
who had not played the previous heat. Harry Flawd, undeterred
by his loss, was back for more, but lost to an inspired Andy
Lewis. Andy and his Georgetown 86 team became the story of the
tournament, with one triumph over another Flawd (Devin) and Chris
Bauch, on his seemingly inevitable march to the final with the
lowest seed.
Meanwhile, Pete Staab beat past champ John Coussis. Roger
Taylor ran into another red-hot player in Derek Landel, and Terry
Coleman squeaked by Mark Yoshikowa in overtime - the third consecutive
nail biter that these friends have played. Terry then steered
his Providence 73 team to a victory over Pete, to meet Andy in
the regional final. It looked like Terry would run away with
it, as he built to an early 21-point lead. But Andy never gave
up, and fell just short in a furious comeback, as Terry survived
to make the Final Four.
There were a healthy 16 entries in heat 3. Among the 'fresh'
entrants were some heavy hitters: defending champ Marvin Birnbaum,
Debbie Gutermuth, Ken Gutermuth, and Bruce Reiff, who between
them, have won seven of the last 11 events. Champs fell like
rain, however, as Debbie lost to Devin Flawd, Bruce to Chris
Bauch, and Marvin to Roger Taylor (whose luck finally seemed
to balance out). Ken, however, fared better with the top seed
and led it to wins over Dave Denton and Sean McCulloch, until
he ran into Jim Bell's Cincinnati '59 team, a defensive powerhouse.
Meanwhile, Terry Coleman defeated Carrie Lewis in a close
game with IU '81, while Peter Stein did the same to Harry Flawd
with Louisville '83. Although contested in an early round, this
game brought back memories of the first time these rivals had
faced off, in the 1993 MMS Final. Fouls, key steals, three pointers
galore, but nothing was sufficient to end the game in regulation.
By the time the game was finished, with Peter avenging his earlier
loss with a satisfying double-overtime victory, the game had
drawn quite a crowd. It was easily the game of the tournament.
Perhaps Pete's guys were tired after their previous-round
epic, as his guys seemed to run out of gas versus Chris Bauch's
very similar Louisville '80 team. In the regional Final, however,
the 'doctors of dunk' came up short versus the stifling defense
of Jim Bell's Cincy crew. Jim, who has won other sports titles,
looked hungrily towards his first Madness plaque.
While a group of 16 contested the last heat on Friday, the
numbers were somewhat deceiving. Only two of these players had
not played in a previous heat. The first, Andy Maly, beat Peter
Stein, and Debbie Bell, before falling to Pete Staab in the semis.
Jon Lockwood managed a win over Dave Denton before falling to
Ken Gutermuth's 6th-seeded North Carolina team. Ken continued
his steamroll run through the draw, beating not only Carrie,
Jon and Bruce, but also Pete in the regional final. How would
the former champ fare against the newcomer to the Final Four?
As subsequent events would prove, Ken's offense was just as
stymied as everyone else, and Jim seemed determined to show that
players from the 50's could be competitive in today's game. Jim's
opponent was in doubt for much of the game, but Jeremy managed
to slow down Terry's high-flying Providence scorers just enough
to win, placing Jeremy in his first-ever Final.
In the Final, Jim's Cincinnati lads once again played tough
defense. Jeremy, however, was content to grind it out as well,
and his hard-working Kansas '71 team prevailed in a surprisingly
low-scoring game. Congratulations to Jeremy on his first title,
to Andy Lewis for his fabulous performance with the lowest seed,
and to the other Final Four participants. In the end, however,
my greatest thanks go to everyone involved in the tournament,
for making March Madness the most fun event to run, each
and every year.
 Play
By Email 2005-06
Bruce Monnin emerged victorious over a 32 player field in
the third annual BPA March Madness PBeM Championship. Bruce
becomes the first player to win both the BPA's March Madness
championship at the World Boardgaming Championships as well as
the PBeM title.
Bruce's 1975Louisvillesquad jumped out to a 13 point halftime
lead and felt good with five quality offensive cards tucked in
his hand. But the dice were not so obviously favorable in
the second half, and Gene's 1956San Franciscosquad played tight
defense and slowly bridged the gap, with the last play of the
game being Bill Russell scoring 11 second half points, three
points short of what was needed to force overtime. Thus,
Bruce won the title by a 83-80 score.
All
Tournament First Team:
Center - Bill Russell (San Francisco1956) - B Rating - 22.0 ppg
Left Forward - Larry Bird (IndianaState1979) - AA Rating - 31.3
ppg
Right Forward - Al Wood (North Carolina1981) - B Rating - 22.0
ppg
Left Guard - Jimmy Collins (New Mexico State 1970) - A Rating
- 29.0 ppg
Right Guard - Carl Nicks (IndianaState1979) - B Rating - 23.3
ppg
Bench -nMinnesota1997 - B Rating - 28.0 ppg
All Tournament Second Team:
Center - Bill Walton (UCLA 1973) - B Rating - 16.0 ppg
Left Forward - Dave Robisch (Kansas1971) - B Rating -16.8 ppg
Right Forward - Kelenna Azubuike (Kentucky 2005) - C Rating -
20.5 ppg
Left Guard - Milt Wagner (Louisville1983) - C Rating - 25.0 ppg
Right Guard - Frank Williams (Illinois 2001) - C Rating - 23.0
ppg
Bench - Illinois 2001 - A Rating - 27.0 ppg
All Final Four Team:
Center - Bill Russell (San Francisco1956) - B Rating - 22.0 ppg
Left Forward - Edgar Lacey (UCLA 1995) - D Rating - 15.8 ppg
Right Forward - Keith Erickson (UCLA 1995) C Rating- 18.5
ppg
Left Guard - Junior Bridgeman (Louisville1975) - C Rating -14.0
ppg
Right Guard - Chris Duhon (Duke 2004) - D Rating - 12.3 ppg
Bench - Louisville1975 - B Rating -19.8 ppg
Larry Bird took advantage of his AA rating to average 31.3 points
per game and become our tournament MVP while leading his team
to the Eilite Eight.
Final Four MVP is given to championLouisville1975's right forward
Allen Murphy. With his C rating, he averaged 17.0 points
a game in the Final Four and outscored his similarly rated adversaries
in both games.
Of the 62 games played in the tournament, over half were decided
by a margin of victory of 9 points or less, with 17 games being
decided by four points or less.
The tournament will be renewed October 15th. Come join us
in determining next year's champion of the BPA March Madness
world.
1st - Bruce Monnin
2nd - Gene Gibson
3rd - John Coussis
4th -Jeffrey Martin
5th - Peter Staab
6th - Derek Landel
32 Entrants
62 Games Played
MARCH MADNESS: The fourth annual BPA March Madness PBeM Tournament
began Oct. 15, 2006 with a team draft. At last report
there was still a vacancy for the last pick. All games will
be played using the ACTS March Madness module. ACTS (http://acts.warhorsesim.com/index.asp)
is free to join. Please familiarize yourself with the
ACTS March Madness module before starting tournament play.
All entrants in this event will receive two teams, one in each
bracket. That
ensures that each player gets to play at least two games. The
brackets are set up so a player who drafts low in one bracket
gets to draft high in the other bracket. The brackets
are currently set up to handle 40 entrants, but will be adjusted
to handle however many enter. As always, we are indebted to
Stuart Tucker for his efforts in adding last year's Sweet Sixteen
teams to the collection, allowing me to include more teams
in the event which are close to each other in rating. For details,
see the event webpage at: http://www.bright.net/~monninb/mms_home_page.html
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Terry
Coleman [4th year]
NA
NA