With only three games left to be played here’s the current standings:
1. Gannon 675 points. South Carolina (1)
2. Zucker 567 points. UNC (1), Oregon (1), Gonzaga (1)
3. Lampazzi 550 points. Oregon (1), Gonzaga (1)
4. Tonsmeire 506 points. UNC (1), Oregon (1), Gonzaga (1)
5. Knight 489 points. UNC (1), Gonzaga (2)
6. Poli 426 points. UNC (1), Gonzaga (1)
Zucker nearly got everything he wanted in the E8. He got UNC, Oregon and Gonzaga thru and got Kansas and Kentucky knocked out. He would have preferred Florida to have beaten South Carolina and at worst for Thornwell to cool off but you can’t get everything you want.
So where we stand right now is as follows:
Lampazzi, Tonsmeire, Knight and Poli are all eliminated from winning.
Gannon at 675 points is 71points short of the all time scoring record and 108 points ahead of Zucker.
At this point I think its fair to say that Ter won’t get the scoring record. Even if SC makes the title game, at his current tournament average 25.8 ppg from Thornwell, he would finish about 20 points short. But if he did get two more games at that average, Juan Dixon’s all time scoring record would be in play.
As far as the Cup championship goes, Ter is up 108 points on Zucker. Zucker has 3 guys vs. Ter’s 1 guy, but unfortunately for Team Zucker the top two scorers of his will have to matchup in the final four with Dorsey and Berry. His Gonzaga guy has the chance to take out Thornwell in the F4, which if that happened would give Zuck 2 guys going uncontested on Championship Monday, but at that point, Thornwell has already added to Ter’s total most likely and has probably offset one of Zucker’s 3 guys final four output. For simplicity’s sake lets assume the Zag and SC game is a draw on points and the Zags win. So Ter’s lead stays at 108, Zuck gets Dorsey/Berry tourney average of 37 points in their F4 game and since Dorsey is the higher scorer so far, let’s assume Oregon wins. That gives Zuck Dorsey and Williams on Monday who chip away at Gannon with every point they put up which on average would be 36 more points. That means Ter’s 108 lead has been trimmed by 37 and 36 points and so Ter still wins by 35 points.
So the way I see it, this thing is all but over at this point. There’s always a chance Zuck’s guys light it up and Thornwell has a bad game which then gives him a real shot to shrink that 35 point final margin. That’s best case for Zucker, worst case is South Carolina beats Gonzaga which then puts the final nail in his coffin.
The 74 points that Fox and Allen put up in the S16 for Gannon seemed gratuitous at the time but in reality it may wind up being the reason Gannon is able to hold of Zucker.
It’s not 100% in the bag for Gannon at this point but its pretty damn close. Of course this is just my opinion. No jinx to anyone.
Also, in less interesting news, I managed to win the bracket. The last time I looked I thought Zuck could catch me with NC in the title game but I must have looked before CBS finalized the latest points.