With the completion of Round 2 here are your current standings:
1. Tonsmeire 399 points, 6 players left
2. Gannon 390 points, 11 players left
3. Lampazzi 375 points, 9 players left
4. Zucker 329 points, 7 players left
5. Knight 245 points, 8 players left
The course of this year’s contest and the likely champion became much clearer during yesterday’s games.
At this point, Team Gannon is in the strongest position to advance to a championship, though I won’t officially anoint him yet.
Looking ahead to the Sweet 16:
Team Tonsmeire began Round 2 with 12 players, he ended round 2 with 6. The games he needed to go his way didn’t (Baylor, SMC, Wisconsin & Creighton). The good news is that of his six players, none square off in the S16 so he could move all of them thru to the E8 which would certainly keep him in the running.
Team Gannon began Round 2 with 14 players and and only lost 3. Losing Baylor and Tennessee hurt but losing Richmond was more of a luxury loss. Just like Tonsmeire, Gannnon has no guaranteed knock outs in the S16 which seems amazing having 11 players spread across 16 teams. He has three sets of teammates across Gonzaga, Villanova, and Kansas with single representation on Tx Tech, UCLA, AZ, Purdue and ISU. So, if one or more of those double downs should lose, then Ter comes back to the pack but if he should get them all thru to the E8, then he is potentially going to run away with this.
Team Lampazzi began Round 2 with 12 players, and ended with 9. The first 3/4 of Round 2 was absolutely going his way with wins by UCLA, Tex Tech, Michigan, Houston and UNC but it was too much to ask for a clean sweep as he lost key swing games in Auburn, Wisconsin and Texas. He needed to run the table to stay in contention and that didn’t happen. Of his 9 remaining players, he is guaranteed to lose a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 in the Sweet 16.
Team Zucker began Round 2 with 9 players and really only lost 2 since Kalkbrenner theoretically was already out. He lost Iowa and Murray St. He is only guaranteed to lose either UCLA or UNC in the S16 so has the potential to advance 6 of his 7 remaining players. His long shot route to the title would probably be a Villanova vs UCLA or Purdue title game but Team Gannon has him covered on all those matchups so not likely to gain ground.
Team Knight began Round 2 with 11 players and ended with 7 players. Of his 7 remaining players, the only guaranteed knock out is in the AZ / Hou game which he will lose either one Cougar or two Wildcats. Unfortunately for Team Knight, being 154 points out of 1st place with limited firepower that is generally covered by the other franchises, I see no path whereby they can make a run. Team Knight started behind everyone else with two injured players in his starting 14 and then really took a gut punch with the Kentucky loss whereby he dropped 3 players in the opening round who only provided 21 points combined.
That’s your Round 2 recap and quick look ahead.