March Madness in July x 2 ...
The 1998 tournament began Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM with
18 players competing in the East regional. Several lesser seeds
made impressive runs with 12th seed Georgetown '85 (Ken Gutermuth)
making the fourth round and 26th seed North Carolina '82 (Terry
Coleman), 25th seed Duke '64 (Debbie Bell) and 22nd seed North
Carolina '91 (Ken Gutermuth) making the third round. In the end,
the final saw 1st seed Kentucky '54 (Ed Okimoto) and 2nd seed
North Carolina '57 (Dennis Nicholson) making the finals. Dennis
prevailed to advance to the Final Four.
The second heat started at 9:00 on Friday morning and was
only attended by 14 players. The southeast regional included
a couple of impressive performances by lower seeds with 14th
seed Illinois '89 (Derek Landell) making the fourth round and
21st seed Cincinnati '92 (Bruce Monin) making the third. The
final matched 2nd seeded Kentucky '48 (Terry Coleman) against
4th seeded UCLA '71 (Harry Flawd) with Harry advancing.
The third heat started Saturday morning at 9:00 and was attended
by 16 players. Although favorites did very well in this heat,
it had the most impressive underdog performance with Debbie Bell
winning two games with 31st seed Michigan '92. In the final,
1st seeded Kentucky '93 (defending champion Bruce Reiff) met
the lowest seed to make the regional finals, the 7th seeded Indiana
'76 (Chris Bauch). Bruce made the finals to continue his defense
of his title.
The fourth heat started Saturday afternoon at 3:00 and was
the best attended with 22 players. Again favorites dominated
but 21st seeded UNLV '77 (Dennis Nicholson) managed to reach
the fourth round. The final matched 1st seeded UCLA '68 (Steve
Caler) against 6th seeded Seton Hall '89 (John Coussis). John
won to qualify the lowest seeded finalist in a tough battle.
The Final Four went according to seeds as Dennis's 2nd seed
defeated Harry's 4th seed and Bruce's 1st seed defeated John's
6th seed. Bruce then won the final to successfully defend his
title. The best records for the tournament were Bruce Reiff 8-1
in one heat, Dennis Nicholson 10-3 in two heats, Ken Guttermuth
11-6 in three heats and Terry Coleman 10-8 in four heats. Ken
wins the title of upset king with eight upset victories against
only one upset defeat. Finally, Ken wins the title of best player
by virtue of his performance with lesser seeds. The title of
sportsman goes to Carrie Lewis, who after a Final Four appearance
last year, was one of my designated instructors and helped a
rookie achieve his first victory by defeating her on the last
die roll.
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