Past Winners
Bruce Reiff, OH '92, '97-'99, '10 Terry Coleman, BC 1993-94, 2008-09 Ken Gutermuth, TX 1995, 2003 Jon Diminnie, IN 1996 Bruce Monnin, OH 2000 Dennis Nicholson, NY 2001 Debbie Gutermuth, TX 2002 John Coussis, IL 2004 Marvin Birnbaum, NY 2005 Jerome Billones, VA 2006 Derek Landel, NY 2007

A couple sports gamer junkies, Max Jamelli vs Dave Denton, on Max's cool DTP produced boards.	Perennial contender Harry Flawd denies Carrie Lewis her second trip to the Final Four.

March Madness has been a fixture of WBC (and AvalonCon before that) for two decades. That the event's popularity is undiminished can be seen by the fact that, in its 19th year, MMS achieved an all-time high in attendance. This year's tournament got off to a rousing start, with 28 players in the first heat alone - which also tied for most players ever in a single heat.

Since MMS was his team game, Chris Bauch was quite pleased that he managed to draft UCLA 73, the highest-ranked team in the West Regional. Unfortunately for Bauch, a top-seeded team hasn't won this event in several years; Chris became the victim of an upset in his very first game, against newcomer Louise Strickland. Not satisfied with that result, Louise also knocked off veteran Roger Taylor before falling to perennial Final Four participant Harry Flawd.

Harry's opponent in the regional semis would be Jeremy Billones, who had survived the upset bug with wins over 2001 champ Dennis Nicholson and Samantha Berk. To her credit, Sam had knocked off Mark Yoshikawa and Sean McCulloch - not bad for her first time playing in the event! Having already swept aside the two-time defending champion, Terry Coleman, Harry was not to be denied, and used tough defense to overcome '06 champ Jeremy's 1948 UK Wildcats, the most vintage team in this year's event.

In the other half of the draw, most eyes were trained on the opening round matchup of Ken Gutermuth and Bruce Reiff, who between them had already won six titles. Bruce emerged triumphant, but his team must have been tired from the effort, because they fell immediately thereafter to David Stiffler's Louisville 1980 club. David's reward was that he faced Chad Gormly's UCLA 74 squad, who made enough baskets down the stretch to put themselves in the regional final. There Chad would match up with Harry in a match of classic vs. new UCLA teams. In an unbelievably tight affair that came down to the last position resolved, Harry had to roll a '6' twice in succession to win. And he did, making the Final Four for the second time in three years.

After the record attendance of the first heat, an attendance was anticipated for subsequent starts, but were again rewarded with 28 players, in heat #2. Mark Yoshikawa had aspirations of avoiding the top-seeded 'curse' as he beat Mike Dwyer in Round 1, but ran into Bruce Reiff's unstoppable Minnesota 97 team in the next round. Bruce also beat Steve Caler's '05 Spartans and Jim Bell, who had his favorite Cincy '59 squad.

In the semis, Bruce would score a double-digit win over Max Jamelli, who finally found his rhythm this year with three victories. In fact, Max's first victory in this heat was over youngster Danny Lewis. It was a real blast for the GM to see Danny playing in the tournament, since he was little more than a twinkle in his mother's eye the first time she made the Final Four. As luck would have it, Carrie Lewis played the GM in the first round of the same heat. Although Terry won, he then fell to Robert Rund immediately thereafter. Rob would employ his favorite Four Corners offense to good effect, with three wins over what had previously been high-scoring teams.

Meanwhile, '07 champ Derek Landel was scoring one upset after another with the 23rd-rated Michigan hoopsters. But after good wins over Dennis, Steve, and John Shaheen, he couldn't manage to stop Bruce's favorite Offensive Specialist play, and 'Mr. Plaque' was in the Final Four.

Only 16 coaches appeared for the southern regional on Thursday, but that only seemed to enhance the tough matchups. Pete Staab faced Terry in the first round, and Pete gained revenge for his Final Four loss the year before. Johnny Wilson, playing for the first time in five years, was unable to shake off the rust in his loss to Marvin Birnbaum. But the 2005 champ's reverie was short-lived, as Marvin's dice went cold vs. John Coussis. And that '04 winner himself couldn't stand against the seemingly inevitable NC 97 team of Dave Denton. Before this heat, Dave had never won more than two games in a row. But it all came together for him in the regional final, as he beat Sean McCulloch by more than 20 points. Sean could be consoled by the fact that he beat Pete, Jeremy, and online champ Aran Warszawski before falling to the Denton steamroller.

Friday's final heat is generally well-attended, and didn't disappoint with 25 players. Once again, high seeds dropped like free throws in a Big East game. Carrie led her Maryland 2001 team to wins over Harry and Stephen, while Roger shut down Peter Stein and Ken Gutermuth, along with Carrie. Chris Bauch found UConn 99 surprisingly to his liking with wins over Rob and Paul Gaberson, and he had Bruce Reiff on the ropes. But Chris couldn't make the dice rolls in the clutch, and Bruce looked as though he might qualify a second team to the Final Four. However, Roger's defense came up big at the end in the semis, and Roger found himself in the Final against Jeremy, who had quietly knocked off Mark and Terry, among others.

With Jeremy able to solve Roger's stifling defense, the stage was set for the Final Four.

Bruce Reiff, winner of four MMS titles, was the clear favorite, but he hadn't won this event since 1999. Harry Flawd was a fixture in regional finals and lately, the Final Four, but had never quite managed to win it all. Jeremy Billones was only four years removed from his own title. Dave Denton was the newcomer: How would he respond to the pressure of the Final Four?

As it turned out, Dave exceeded expectations, continuing his roll into the championship game. With balanced scoring and solid defense in a 102-58 win over Jeremy - NC 97 scored at least 50 in each half - the Denton Express looked good to take its first crown. But Reiff's mojo was not to be denied this year, and his Minnesota team won easily over Harry's squad. The problem wasn't so much offense for Harry -Kevin Love had 22 points - it was just that no one on the UCLA side wanted to play defense. Bruce had a 63-41 lead at half, and never looked back in a 108-71 victory. Unfortunately for Dave, the title game wasn't much different. Bruce's active bench scored a frantic 29 points to only six by Dave's subs, which made up most of the 94-62 margin.

In the end, Bruce Reiff reestablished his claim as the all-time MMS player, with an unprecedented fifth crown. Kudos to Bruce, to the other Final Four participants, and to the number of upset victors this year (of which there were many). As GM of this event for several years, I was very pleased to see the number of new players, as well as 'old-timers' such as Dave Denton, who improved greatly in the past year. Thanks to everyone for their continued support of March Madness. See you next year.

Harry Flawd vs 2006 champ Jeremy Billones.	Max Jamelli drops out of the big dance against the five-time champ.

 Play By Email 2009-10

The largest ever field of 42 players signed up to contest the seventh annual BPA March Madness PBeM tournament. For the second year in a row, the championship was won with a runaway victory in the title game.

Champion Dennis Nicholson's 5th seeded 1998 North Carolina team reached the Sweet 16 with nine-point wins over Bob Jamelli's St. Johns 1995, Thomas Browne's Michigan 1976 and Tom Dunning's Oklahoma 2002 squad. He then defeated Mark Yoshikawa's Pittsburgh 2009, Terry Coleman's Michigan 1989 and Harry Flawd's Memphis 2006 teams to reach the championship.

Runner-up Daniel Leader's 8th seeded Duke 2004 squad had a more tenuous run to the all-ACC championship game. He started with a one-point win over Nicole Reiff's NC State 1983, followed by a six-point win over Steve Caler's Memphis 2009 and a two-point win over Ken Gutermuth's Texas 2006. An easier win over Andy Maly's Minnesota 1997 was followed by a one-point win over Don Greenwood's Michigan State 2001 with a reroll of the last dieroll. A two-point Final Four victory over Mark Yoshikawa's Arizona 2001 squad landed Daniel in the championship matchup.

Nicholson's Tar Heels jumped out to an early lead in the championship game, taking a 51-33 halftime lead. Both Mike Krzyzewski and Bill Guthridge were kicked out of the game with two technical fouls apiece. Duke's vaunted defense (or as some would argue, flopping ability) caused North Carolina to suffer two charging fouls, but the Tar Heel express could not be stopped, as they earned a 96-75 victory.

Final Four Most Outstanding Player is given to champion North Carolina 1998's left forward Antawn Jamison. With his B rating, he averaged 20.1 points per game throughout the tournament, including 30 big points in the championship game. Here is the rest of the All Tournament Team:

All Tournament First Team:
Center ­ Paul Hogue (Cincinnati 1961) ­ C Rating ­ 21.3 ppg
Left Forward ­ Gene Banks (Duke 1978) ­ B Rating ­ 26.0 ppg
Right Forward ­ Glen Rice (Michigan 1989) ­ A Rating ­ 24.0 ppg
Left Guard ­ Shammond Williams (North Carolina 1998) ­ C Rating ­ 17.6 ppg
Right Guard ­ Louie Dampier (Kentucky 1966) ­ B Rating ­ 25.0 ppg
Bench ­ Michigan State 2001 ­ A Rating ­ 23.3 ppg

The tournament will be restarted this coming October. Come join us in determining next year's PBeM champion of the BPA March Madness world.

1st ­ Dennis Nicholson
2nd ­ Dan Leader
3rd ­ Harry Flawd
4th ­ Mark Yoshikawa
5th ­ Terry Coleman
6th ­ Don Greenwood