Past Winners |
Bruce Reiff, OH
'92, '97-'99, '10
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Terry Coleman, BC
1993-94, 2008-09
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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, 2011
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Jerome Billones, VA
2006
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Derek Landel, NY
2007
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Thomas Browne, PA
2012
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Vassili Kyrkos takes on perennial
sports contender Harry Flawd. |
John - not the GM - Coussis can't
pull a Coussis vs Samantha Berk. |
The best defense is a Good Offense
...
After five years of increasing attendance, March Madness
had finally broken the 50-person ceiling in 2011. Like all
streaks, however, it's hard to grab the brass ring year after
year, and something had to eventually give. So, in 2012, we couldn't
break half a century again, and were forced to settle for only
our fifth-highest attendance ever.
Certainly there was nothing to complain about with the level
of competition. The West Regional kicked off in its traditional
Tuesday evening slot, with a healthy 27 teams ranging from the
1960s to 2009. Terry Coleman managed to draft top seed, UCLA
73. As usual, having the top team was more a curse than a blessing,
and Terry got through only two rounds before being dispatched
by Roger Taylor and his upset-minded Utah 98 team, who had also
knocked off Ken Gutermuth's Houston 82 team in the previous round.
In fact, the upsets outnumbered wins by the favorites so much
that you could easily imagine the criticism of the tournament
committee on sports talk radio the next morning. The closest
thing to a high seed that advanced deep into the event were Harry
Flawd's #6 UConn 09 team and Derek Landel's UCLA 70 squad, ranked
4th. When those two teams met in the semis, it meant that one
lower seed from the other bracket would, at the very least, make
the regional final.
While Derek was upholding the honor of UCLA by winning over
Harry, Tom Browne was moving through that other bracket - we
can't say quietly, because Tom was taking no prisoners. He had
selected the infamous UNLV 77 squad, which featured scorers at
virtually every position, along with the dreaded 'C' defense.
A typical score for one of Tom's games in this heat was 123-114,
but he outscored every team he came up against. After beating,
among others, Bruce Monnin - he of the multiple MMS titles online
as well as an over-the board championship - Tom then outlasted
Sean McCulloch's equally high-scoring New Mexico State 70 squad
to meet Derek in the regional final.
It looked as though Tom's momentum would finally fade away.
After all, there had never been a C-rated defensive team to make
a regional final, much less a Final Four. But despite every defensive
move Derek could attempt, Tom always seemed to have the answer,
and the bold UNLV hoopsters played their way effervescently into
the Final Four. You could almost see the old Shark chewing on
his towel in glee...
After the wildfire of upsets in the first heat, the second
heat, featuring teams from the Midwest, was almost rigidly predictable
by comparison. Jeff Mullet seemed to spit in the eye of the curse,
as he steered his top-seeded Cincinnati 61 stars all the way
to the regional final. Among his victims were Peter Stein (more
on Pete later), former champ John Coussis, and 5-time champ Bruce
Reiff; when the latter result was official, you could practically
hear the shouts of glee from the registration desk, since Don
Greenwood was unable to attend this heat in person.
Meanwhile, in the other bracket, Vassili Kyrkos became the
latest convert to MMS to make a big splash. While Vassili is
known to many for his Euro prowess - particularly for his two
championships in Alhambra - he is also an avid sports gamer.
By beating Harry and Bruce Monnin along the way to losing a close
semifinal versus Chris Bauch, it shows he is also a good sports
gamer (and a good sport, which I can personally attest to).
So, the second heat came down to a couple of literally old-school
teams: Mullet's Cincy from the 60s, and Bauch's Indiana 53. Ironically,
the IU 1953 team was one of the 'new' teams I had made for this
year's event. I had gone back and researched game-by-game to
come up with a revised rating for a team that, in the past, had
been typecast as an old, slow team from the prehistoric days
of peach baskets. In fact, IU 53 only lost a few games in real
life on last-second baskets, and it was one of the original fast-break
teams in college basketball, with an excellent, athletic defense
and decent size. It would be a good matchup for the team from
Ohio with the big scorers.
And as it turned out, the Hoosiers were able to maintain an
advantage on the key positions. Don Schlundt at Center was a
scoring machine for Indiana, and Charles Kraak kept Cincy's top
gun, Bob Wiesenhahn, in check just enough for Chris to steer
his 2nd-ranked squad to a berth in the Final Four.
Although Heat 3 is technically the South heat, it is affectionately
known as the Kentucky Regional, because of the vast number of
featured teams from UK and Louisville - nine teams out of 28.
Perhaps buoyed by the 'home field' advantage, the majority of
these won their opening round. None went farther than Louisville
2012, one of the many new teams featured this year. Coach Dave
Platnik's luck, however, finally ran out in the region final,
as his overachieving kids were no match for the balanced attack
of Paul Gaberson's 1983 NC State team. Paul had the lowest-ranked
team to make the Final Four with a 17th seed, more proof than
ever that the brackets are as balanced as one could ask for.
Attendance for the last heat invariably drops off a little,
as the number of events on Friday explodes, and the inevitable
conflicts for folks who've advanced to elimination rounds of
other events intrudes on the scene. Still, we had a respectable
field of 19 coaches looking for that last chance to make the
Final Four.
The competition was fierce. Of the seven former champs in the
heat, four didn't make it out of the second round. Marvin Birnbaum
managed to - almost - defend the honor of top-seeded teams everywhere
by taking his Maryland 74 team to the regional final, only to
lose to Pete Stein. Given how closely this mirrored the tourney
fortunes of the real-life Maryland team, maybe it's a blessing
that neither Don Greenwood nor Debbie Bell was around to see
it.
Now down to the money rounds, we were guaranteed to have a
new champion. Chris Bauch hadn't made a Final Four in years,
but he knew how to get the most out of his team. If anything,
you could say Chris was the favorite to win the whole thing.
But Tom, who had been an underdog in every single game thus far
in the tournament, was not intimidated. As soon as Tom got the
chance, out came the Run N' Gun strategy, and triple-digit scoring
wasn't far behind. Chris pulled out all of the defense cards
he could, but even the mighty Schlundt couldn't stem the tide
of double-digit scorers on every single position on Tom's roster,
and a few draws from the oxygen mask later, UNLV was in the title
game.
In the other national semifinal, Paul Gaberson put his talents
gleaned from card-driven strategy games to good use, but his
dice failed to keep pace. Pete was able to build up a lead by
halftime, and pulled away in the second period to place him in
his first Final since 1993, when he lost to Terry Coleman in
what both fondly recall as one of the best games they ever played.
Could Pete stop the UNLV juggernaut? Pete's Louisville 75
squad didn't feature big scorers. On the other hand, it had a
deep bench and by far the best defense that Tom had yet faced.
Still, Tom had also come close to a crown, losing in the final
of the 2011 PBeM March Madness event, and he was determined to
make the most of his chance. As the Final progressed, Tom scored
well, but not exponentially, and Pete's guards, particularly
Junior Bridgeman, tossed in enough buckets to keep it close.
In fact, the game actually came down to the last position. For
a brief moment, it looked like the game might go to overtime,
but when all of the timeouts were taken, Tom had won his first
MMS title. And with a 'C' defense, no less! Somewhere, John Thompson
is shedding more than a few tears.
As for me, this is one of the most fun tournaments I've ever
run, and the players seemed to agree. Most of the games were
close, the heats ran briskly, and everyone seemed to like the
new team cards. As always, I appreciate everyone's feedback and
sportsmanship. Regardless of whether we break 50 players next
year, I'm sure we'll have another good time - although for sheer
unpredictability, it will be hard to top MMS 2012. See
you next year!
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The Chairman draws Carrie Lewis still
looking for her return trip to the Final Four. |
Pete Stein and Tom Browne guarantee
a new champion in the title game. |
Play
By Email 2011-12
The largest ever field of 46 players signed up to contest
the Ninth Annual BPA March Madness PBeM tournament over
the course of 91 games. For the second year in a row, the title
game was a real nail biter.
Three-time champion Bruce Monnin's 8th seeded 2005 Washington
team reached the Final Four with 29- and 19- point wins in his
first two games. Then it got tougher. First came a 3-point win
over Bruno Passacantando's 2007 Pittsburgh, where Bruce outrolled
Bruno 6-2 on the decisive final die roll. Fate continued to smile
on our top-ranked laurelist in the all-important final die roll
in the next three games, as Bruce outrolled Kaarin Engelmann
5-2 for a 3-point win over BYU 2011, outrolled Debbie Gutermuth
6-2 for a 5-point win over 1986 LSU and outrolled Sean McCulloch
6-3 for a 4-point win over 1971 Villanova.
Runner-up Bill Edwards' 46th seeded 2006 Wichita State squad
had an easier go of it despite being one of the lowest seeds
in the tournament. He started with a 6-point win over Debbie
Gutermuth's 1974 Marquette, then an 18-point win over Chris Bauch's
1966 Utah, a 4-point win over Doug Galullo's 2003 Notre Dame
and a 21-point blowout of Jeff Finkeldey's 1987 Indiana. A 3-point
win in the Final Four over Robert Rund's 2011 Louisville landed
Edwards in the championship game.
The title game was a story of timeouts gone awry. In the first
half, Bill resolved the Left Guard position where he had a D
player with a Fast Break card against Bruce's C. Bill rolled
two 4's for himself and a 2 for Bruce. Bruce took the timeout,
but the reroll was two 6's for Bill and a 1 for Bruce, gaining
Bill an extra six points. With just three Positions left to resolve
in the game, Bruce resolved his A bench against Bill's C (with
a -1). The roll was a 6 for Bruce and a 4 for Bill, a 12-point
swing in Bruce's favor. Bill used his timeout and the new roll
was a 6 for Bruce and a 1 for Bill, costing Bill four more points
that would end up making the difference in the game, a 2-point
75-73 victory for Bruce.
On the luck front, Bill successfully rolled for four extra cards
in the game, while Bruce only got one, and it was too late to
get into play before the game ended. However, Bill also got stuck
doing the majority of resolutions, and, of course, Bruce hit
the set of lucky scoring rolls on the critical Bench position
near the end of the game.
Final Four Most Outstanding Player is given to champion Washington
2005's right guard Will Conroy. With only a D rating, he averaged
15.0 points per game in the Final Four. Conroy was the only player
(besides the bench) on the champions to outscore his competition
in the final game. Here is the rest of the All-Tournament Team
as chosen by a panel of eight of the tournament participants:
All Tournament First Team:
Center Don Schlundt (1953 Indiana) A Rating
33.0 ppg
Left Forward Howard Porter (1971 Villanova) A Rating
28.8 ppg
Right Forward Gerald Henderson (2009 Duke) C Rating
20.8 ppg
Left Guard Nate Robinson (2005 Washington) C Rating
17.3 ppg
Right Guard Billy Donovan (1987 Providence) B Rating
23.3 ppg
Bench 2009 Duke A Rating 35.0 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 Bruce Monnin
2nd Bill Edwards
3rd Sean McCulloch
4th Robert Rund
5th Debbie Gutermuth
6th Jeff Finkeldey
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