march madness [updated October 2002]

MMS  3 prizes Mult Ent Sing Elim Continuous 
  Rnd1 Heat1  10
 Rnd1 Heat2  9  Rnd1 Heat3 9
  Rnd1 Heat4  9   Round 2  9  Semi

   Rnd1 Heat1  Rnd1 Heat4 Salon EF   Rnd1 Heat2 Club  Rnd1 Heat3 Round 2 Derby

Debbie Garver, TX

2002 Champion

2nd: Roger Taylor, VA

3rd: Chris Bauch, LA

4th: David Anderson, PA

5th: Dennis Nicholson, NY

6th: Carrie Lewis, DE

Event History
1992    Bruce Reiff      14
1993    Terry Coleman      18
1994    Terry Coleman      37
1995    Ken Gutermuth      46
1996    Jon Diminnie      41
1997    Bruce Reiff      47
1998    Bruce Reiff      44
1999    Bruce Reiff     49
2000    Bruce Monnin     44
2001    Dennis Nicholson     46
2002    Debbie Garver     39


AREA Ratings


GM: Ken Gutermuth

Past Winners

Bruce Reiff - OH
1992, 1997-1999

Terry Coleman - CA
1993-1994

Ken Gutermuth - TX
1995

Jon Diminnie - IN
1996

Bruce Monnin - OH
2000

Dennis Nicholson - NY
2001
 

March Madness in July ...

This year's March Madness tournament saw 39 different people vie to make it to the Big Dance and a showdown with destiny.

Eighteen players vied in the East Regional on Wednesday morning. Roger Taylor took Seton Hall '89, the #1 seed, with the first pick of the draft and managed wins over a pair of North Carolina teams (Derek Landel's #8 NC '98 and Jim Bell's #13 NC '77) to put him in the regional finals. Jim Bell got in the position to play the #1 seed by defeating the 4th and 5th seeds. Defending Champ Dennis Nicholson's 11th seeded Loyola Chicago '63 team was the Cinderella of the bracket, defeating Debbie Bell's #6 seed, Ken Gutermuth's #3 seed and Harry Flawd's #2 seed to advance to the regional final. Dennis's luck ran out, however, as Roger's powerful #1 seed ended the Cinderella upset run to advance to the Final Four. Overall, the bracket had seven upsets in the 17 games played.

On Thursday morning, 23 players answered the call for the Southeast Regional. Jeremy Billones tried to repeat Roger's feat by taking the #1 seed Duke '86 squad with the first pick. David Anderson was the first into the regional finals by taking the #3 seed Maryland '74 team past the likes of Mike Destro's #14 seed, Ken Gutermuth's #6, and Devin Flawd's #7. The #2 seed fell in the first round to Roger Taylor's #18. Debbie Bell had the Cinderella team in this regional as she took 16th seeded San Francisco '55 past Jim Gott's #17, Jeremy Billones' #1, Bruno Passacantando's #24, and Carrie Lewis' #5 seeds. David's #3 seed proved too much for the Cinderella team as David and his MD '74 team advanced to the Final Four. This bracket had nine upsets out of 22 games played.

On Friday morning, 19 players appeared for the Midwest regional. This round saw the first pick going to Debbie Garver who took the #1 seed Louisville '86 squad, a team who has won it all several times in the past. Debbie's #1 seed used wins over Mike Dwyer's #17, Ken Gutermuth's #9, and Carrie Lewis' #4 seed to advance to the regional finals. With no real Cinderella emerging from this group, Terry Coleman took the #7 seeded Minnesota '97 team past Mike Destro's #10, Marvin Birnbaum's #2, and Derek Landl's #11 team to face the #1 seed in the regional finals. The #1 seed proved too strong for Terry's #11 as Debbie advanced to the Final Four. There were only six upsets in 18 games in this round.

In the final regional, the West, on Saturday morning, 18 players ventured through the darkness of the power outage to vie for the final spot in the Final Four. Chris Bausch took the #2 seed Houston '83 team with the first pick of the draft while Ken Gutermuth got the #1 seed Duke '91 with the third pick. The brackets finally went to form as Chris took his #2 seed to the regional final by defeating Dennis Nicholson's #15, Mark Yoshikawa's #10, and Terry Coleman's #6 seed to advance to the regional final. Ken Gutermuth took the #1 seed to the regional final with wins over Debbie Bell's #9 and Jeremy Billones #12 seed. In the first 1-2 match-up of the weekend, Chris's #2 seed held off the traditional three rolls at the end of the game to upset Ken's #1 seed and advance to the Final Four. This upset guaranteed that MMS would have a new champion as four newcomers now entered the Final Four. There were eight upsets out of 17 games played.

In the first semi-final game, Roger Taylor's Seton Hall team built up a 6-point half time lead and then matched David Anderson's Maryland team in the second half to come up with a 72-67 win and a trip to the Big Dance. Debbie Garver's Louisville squad proved too much for Chris Bausch's Houston squad as Debbie became the third player to take this team to the final game.

In the finals, Roger's Seton Hall team came out strong to build up a 40-26 halftime lead. The second half, however, showed why Debbie's squad is so tough in the Final Four as she used balanced scoring and great defense to come from behind and earn her first WBC plaque with a dramatic 70-69 victory. Debbie became the third champion of MMS to take the Louisville '86 squad all the way.

This year's MMS tournament proved to be the year of the Debbie's as Debbie Garver managed the win while Debbie Bell racked up the most wins by any player. Debbie Bell earned seven wins while Debbie Garver, Roger Taylor, Terry Coleman and Ken Gutermuth had six each. Debbie Bell and Ken Gutermuth were the only players to win at least one game in each of the regions. There were a total of 77 games played with 30 upsets. Seven players played in all four heats, four in three, ten in two, and 18 played just once.

 GM      Ken Gutermuth [1st Year]   NA
    NA    NA 

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