With the benefit of hindsight, I should have seen this coming.

Last month, I asked Saratoga County supervisors to fill out NCAA Tournament brackets.

I figured it'd be a fun way to foster some competition between the supervisors, who were vying for bragging rights. I used the bracket I'd done the day before as a barometer and gave an extra bracket to County Administrator Spencer Hellwig.

Wouldn't you know it? We, the only two entrants who weren't Saratoga County supervisors, finished 1-2. Actually, Hellwig beat me on the final day of the tournament because he selected Kentucky over Kansas in the National Championship. They just put the finishing touches on a 67-59 win.

I had KU over UK, which is just about as close as I could have gotten without actually winning.

The top finishers among supervisors were the three who picked Kentucky. They were Day's Mary Ann Johnson, Clifton Park's Anita Daly and Malta's Paul Sausville, who admitted he'd never filled out an NCAA bracket prior to last month. This calls for a celebratory anthem.



Here's the full order:

Scoring: 1st Round = 1 point; 2nd Round = 2 points; Sweet 16 = 4 points; Elite Eight = 8 points; Final Four = 16 points; National Championship = 32 points.

1. Spencer Hellwig, County Administrator
Score: 130 (First round 20, Second round 9, Sweet Sixteen 3, Elite Eight 2, Final Four 2, Championship 1)

2. Michael Cignoli, The Saratogian
Score: 122 (22, 10, 6, 3, 2, 0)

3. Mary Ann Johnson, Day
Score: 115 (19, 10, 5, 1, 1, 1)

4. Anita Daly, Clifton Park

Score: 106 (16, 9, 4, 2, 1, 1)

5. Paul Sausville, Malta

Score: 103 (17, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1)

6. Art Johnson, Wilton
Score: 93 (21, 10, 4, 1, 1, 0)

7. Jack Lawler, Waterford
Score: 85 (17, 10, 4, 1, 1, 0)

8. Thomas N. Wood III, Saratoga
Score: 62 (20, 13, 4, 0, 0, 0)

9. Alan Grattidge, Charlton
Score: 51 (21, 9, 3, 0, 0, 0)

10. Phil Barrett, Clifton Park
Score: 44 (20, 8, 2, 0, 0, 0)

11. Matthew Veitch, Saratoga Springs
Score: 39 (19, 6, 2, 0, 0, 0)

12. Jean Raymond, Edinburg
Score: 35 (19, 6, 1, 0, 0, 0)

I share a life philosophy with fictional race car driver Ricky Bobby – if you ain't first, you're last – so I'm a little disappointed with my late collapse. No worries, though. At least I beat the supervisors.

How'd you guys do? Let me know.

Until next time,
MC

The Kansas Jayhawks became the fourth – and final – team to punch their ticket to New Orleans on Sunday afternoon, turning on the afterburners to pull away from North Carolina in the game's waning moments. They'll join Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville in Saturday's National Semifinals.

That being said, it's time to update the inaugural Saratoga County Supervisors Bracket Challenge. There's been some shuffling, so here's where we started a week and a half ago and here's the update from earlier this week before the Sweet Sixteen.

Five supervisors – Thomas N. Wood III, Alan Grattidge, Phil Barrett, Matthew Veitch and Jean Raymond – have no teams left in the fight, so they're not moving up. Grattidge, Barrett, Veitch and Raymond are locked in spots nine through 12, respectively, and Wood may get bumped down from No. 6 depending on how things shape up.

I broke the rest of it down so you can see how things might change in the next round. Here we go:

Scoring: 1st Round = 1 point; 2nd Round = 2 points; Sweet 16 = 4 points; Elite Eight = 8 points; Final Four = 16 points; National Championship = 32 points; Red = Previously eliminated.

1. Michael Cignoli, The Saratogian
Score: 90 (First round 22, Second round 10, Sweet Sixteen 6, Elite Eight 3)
Maximum Possible Score: 154
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Marquette, Kansas over Ohio State, Kansas 

2. Art Johnson, Wilton
Score: 77 (21, 10, 4, 1)
Maximum Possible Score: 93
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Marquette, North Carolina over Ohio State, North Carolina.

3. Jack Lawler, Waterford
Score: 69 (17, 10, 4, 1)
Maximum Possible Score: 85
Picks remaining: UCONN over Louisville,  Kansas over Wisconsin, UCONN

4. Mary Ann Johnson, Day
Score: 67 (19, 10, 5, 1)
Maximum Possible Score: 115
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Syracuse over North Carolina, Kentucky

5. Spencer Hellwig, County Administrator
Score: 66 (20, 9, 3, 2)
Maximum Possible Score: 130 
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Kansas over Florida State, Kentucky

6. Thomas N. Wood III, Saratoga
Score: 62 (20, 13, 4, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 62 
Picks remaining: Duke over No selection*, Syracuse over Ohio, Syracuse

7. Anita Daly, Clifton Park
Score: 58 (16, 9, 4, 2)
Maximum Possible Score: 106
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Syracuse over Kansas, Kentucky

8. Paul Sausville, Malta
Score: 55 (17, 5, 3, 2)
Maximum Possible Score: 103 
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Syracuse over North Carolina, Kentucky

9. Alan Grattidge, Charlton
Score: 51 (21, 9, 3, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 51 
Picks remaining: Duke and Missouri, North Carolina over Syracuse, Syracuse**

10. Phil Barrett, Clifton Park
Score: 44 (20, 8, 2, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 44
Picks remaining: Duke over Michigan State, North Carolina over Florida State, Duke

11. Matthew Veitch, Saratoga Springs
Score: 39 (19, 6, 2, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 39
Picks remaining: UCONN over Marquette, Syracuse over Purdue, Syracuse

12. Jean Raymond, Edinburg
Score: 35 (19, 6, 1, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 35
Picks remaining: Duke and Florida, Alabama over Texas, Texas***

* Wood, inexplicably, left one of his Final Four selections blank. He had the correct match – Louisville vs. Florida – but he left one of the picks blank. He'd be doing better if he picked Louisville.
** Grattidge picked a National Championship match-up that couldn't actually happen. Those two teams would have met in the Final Four. As fate would have it, they both lost in the Elite Eight.
*** Raymond did the same thing as Grattidge, except her teams lost in the Round of 64. That really hurt.

How are your brackets shaping up? Leave a comment and let me know.

Until next time,
MC

Scroll down, or click here, if you missed my last post about asking Saratoga County supervisors to fill out a bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament. With the Sweet Sixteen set to tip off March 22, it's time for an update.

I thought it'd be a fun way to foster some friendly competition, but this undertaking is proving to be significantly more difficult than I anticipated.

Keeping track of a dozen brackets is challenging in itself, but it's even more challenging when the brackets just aren't filled out properly. I'll give you some examples.

One supervisor said the winner of the Round of 64 UNLV/Colorado game would be Baylor, which played South Darkota in the first round. That same supervisor picked South Dakota over Baylor, but then marked Baylor as beating South Dakota to advance into the Round of 32.

Another supervisor left some of his first round choices blank. One's Final Four contains three teams. Two picked National Championship match-ups that were impossible, as the teams that they picked for the championship game were on the same side of the bracket.

The most egregious error was a supervisor circling the names of the teams in the first round, then filling out the bracket one round in advance. I basically had to guess what that supervisor was trying to do.

Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville admitted that he'd never filled out a bracket prior to last week, but I'm slowly beginning to think that he's not the only one.

Those errors aside, some of the supervisors are actually doing quite well. After the jump, the complete list of standings, plus some highlights from each of bracket.


Read more »

UPDATE, 6:30 p.m. – I received five more submissions. I've included them in the list.

***

I've asked Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville a lot of tough questions over the past few months, so I figured asking him to fill out a NCAA tournament bracket would be comparatively easy.

Turns out, it may have been the toughest question I'll ever ask him.

Let me preface this a little bit. Remember when I asked the Saratoga Springs City Council members to give me their Super Bowl predictions? That wound up being a pretty popular post. Supervisors had some time to kill between their agenda meeting and the community forum, so I figured I'd hand them each a blank bracket and see what happened.

When I asked Sausville if he'd do one, he legitimately had no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he had ever done a bracket before. He honestly said he hadn't. I find that unbelievable.

I have no idea how old Sausville is — he left it out of the candidate questionnaire we sent him when he ran for re-election last November and when I called and asked him about it, he said it was irrelevant — but in all his years he'd never filled out one bracket? Not even for curiosity's sake?

Props to him for being a good sport about it, though, and filling one out on the spot. Five other supervisors did the same, others said they'd fax theirs in Thursday morning.

I'm going to go ahead and post the ones that I have here and let you guys analyze them. I'll update them as I receive them. Keep in mind, there's no cash involved here. It's simply for bragging rights.

The supervisors will get one point for a correct pick in the first round and those values with double through the championship, which is worth 24 points.

Click the supervisor's name to see his or her full bracket.

Alan Grattidge, Charlton
Final Four: Duke, Missouri, Syracuse, North Carolina
National Champion: Syracuse def. North Carolina*

Phil Barrett, Clifton Park
Final Four: Duke, Michigan State, Florida State, North Carolina
National Champion: Duke def. North Carolina

Anita Daly, Clifton Park
Final Four: Kentucky Michigan State, Syracuse, North Carolina
National Champion: Kentucky def. Syracuse

Mary Ann Johnson, Day
Final Four: Kentucky, Missouri, Syracuse, North Carolina
National Champion: Kentucky def. Syracuse

Jean Raymond, Edinburg
Final Four: Duke, Florida, Texas, Alabama
National Champion: Texas def. Alabama**

Paul Sausville, Malta
Final Four: Kentucky, Missouri, Syracuse, Kansas
National Champion: Kentucky def. Syracuse

Tom Wood, Saratoga
Final Four: Duke, ???, Syracuse, Ohio***
National Champion: Duke def. Syracuse

Matthew Veitch, Saratoga Springs
Final Four: Connecticut, Marquette, Syracuse, Purdue
National Champion: Syracuse def. Connecticut

Jack Lawler, Waterford
Final Four: Connecticut, Louisville, Wisconsin, Kansas
National Champion: Connecticut def. Kansas****

Art Johnson, Wilton
Final Four: Kentucky, Marquette, Ohio State, North Carolina
National Champion: North Carolina def. Kentucky

Spencer Hellwig, County Administrator
Final Four: Kentucky, Missouri, Florida State, Kansas
National Champion: Kentucky def. Kansas

And, as a benchmark, my selections:
Final Four: Kentucky, Marquette, Ohio State, Kansas
National Champion: Kansas def. Kentucky

My immediate supervisor, Betsy DeMars, is a Kansas State grad, so she's probably not going to like that too much. Oh, well. Rock chalk Jayhawk.

*Grattidge's championship match-up is actually impossible, since those two teams would meet in the Final Four. Now, watch him win the whole thing.
** Same deal.
*** Wood, inexplicably, had Louisville and Florida in an Elite Eight match-up, but didn't pick the winner of the game.
**** As a Connecticut native, I admire Lawler's choice, but I think it's a terrible selection. Lawler, though thinks the Huskies have a legitimate chance now that Syracuse's Fab Melo is out. I don't see them getting past the second round.

Until next time,
MC