Wockey Pool X Day Three - When Wockey Stopped Being Weird

The first weekend of Wockey has ended (mercifully for some).  In all, we had four overtime games, two nearly epic comebacks, two 4 seeds beating 1 seeds, and this.  

 

Most of all, we had...normalcy.  In my ten years of doing Wockey, I can never remember a weekend where things went so according to plan.  Sure, two top seeds lost, but they were the only two lower seeds to fall.  Not a single 3 seed beat a 2 seed.  And the teams that made the Frozen Four?  North Dakota (7 titles), Denver (7 titles), Boston College (5 titles), and Quinnipiac (top seed in the tournament) all were obvious picks to do well.  In fact, 47 percent of Wockeyites still have their national champion pick intact.  In any scenario, someone who has picked the national champion correctly will finish out of the money.  This is most true in the case of North Dakota where 88 Wockeyites foresaw the Fighting Hawks taking the title.

 

What makes this so fascinating is that in Wockey the obvious pick usually isn’t the correct one.  In the last five years, four teams have won their school’s first title.  This is the first year since 2012 that a 3 or 4 seed didn’t make the Frozen Four.  In two of the last three years, the 15th seed, which happened to be the last at-large team to earn a berth into the tournament, ended up winning the title.  Last year only two out of 358 brackets accurately predicted the NCAA Champion.  Wockey usually gets so weird, it makes something like this seem normal.

 

What all of this predictability sets up are a series of scenarios where tiebreakers may do everything from determining the Wockey Champ to breaking some ridiculous deadlocks if North Dakota wins.  Here are those scenarios:

 

If Quinnipiac beats North Dakota

Ryan Bartlett and Andrew Slattengren tie for the Wockey title with 59 points.  Jeremy Lano finishes third.  A four-way tiebreak between Pete Lucs, Kevin Miller, Beau Bauer, and Marc Majerus would determine fourth through seventh places.  And four Wockeyites -- Austin Roberts, John Hendrickson, Ryan Graupmann, and Paul Sylvester -- would use a tiebreaker to determine the last place money-winner.

 

If Quinnipiac beats Denver

In this scenario, Peter Markham is your Wockey winner with 54 points.  Ryan Bartlett and Andrew Slattengren tie for second.  A five way tie between Jeremy Lano, Patrick Norman, Travis Hegland, Mike Stuedemann, and Michael Henke would be used to determine third through eighth places.

 

If Boston College beats North Dakota

Mike McGuire wins with 56 points if BC beats ND.  Matt Mathiasen (proud and disappointed father to both last year’s Wockey Champion and Puckhead) ties Erik Freeman for runner-up.

David Lutzka and 2015 fifth place finisher Ashley Walker tie for fourth.  Dustin Wasserman finishes sixth while Nick Johnson and Rick Mitchell draw for seventh.  

 

If Boston College beats Denver

Nick Johnson is your Wockey Champion with 59 points.  Troy Paulson finishes second and Nicholas Wenck lands in third.  First Woman of Wockey, Sarah Walker, puts her husband’s picks to shame with a fourth place finish.  Dustin Wasserman ends up fifth.  Tyler Zilka and Erin Appenzoller tie for seventh and Mike McGuire lands in eighth.

 

If North Dakota beats Quinnipiac

This is where things get cray cray.  Jon Brinckerhoff wins Wockey with 60 points (which is the highest remaining point total possible).  Then second through seventh places are determined by a tiebreaker between David McDonnell, Matt Kilby, Ron Goodman (father of Puckhead Chris Goodman, though he’ll claim no relation after Chris’s tiebreaker gaffe), Erik Pederson, Brad Zeimet, and Andy Brammer.  Finally, eighth place will be determined by a massive EIGHT-WAY tiebreak.  This will be between Brandon Nemec, Ryan Krajewski, Jilann Axt, Erik Pederson (again), Jeremy Meyer, Puckhead Chris Goodman, and not one, but TWO of 2015 eighth place finisher Thomas Nikula’s brackets.  Whew!

 

If North Dakota beats Boston College

This one is only slightly less crazy than the previous scenario.  Doan Worley and David LaVigne would tie for first.  Then third through eighth places would be determined by another eight-way tie, only in this scenario, only TWO of the following would not win some of that sweet Wockey money:  Daniel Haugen, Glenn Perez, Ben Tveitbakk, 2009 Puckhead Chris O’Connor, Justin Fryklund, Brent Bartholomew, Greg Dewey, and Dave Haugen.

 

If Denver beats Quinnipiac

In this scenario, Erik Pederson is your Wockey Champ.  In second is Brad Zeimet.  In third is Lowell Walker and in fourth is his grandpa, Terry Newton.  Peter Markham finishes fifth.  A four-way tie between Jon Brinckerhoff, Chad Felchle, Matt Dymus, and 2015 fourth place finisher Sam Buttweiler will determine sixth through eighth place.

 

If Denver beats Boston College

Our final scenario would see the youngest champion in Wockey’s history, as two-year-old Lowell Walker (son of 2011 Puckhead Zach Walker) would take the crown.  Erik Pederson would finish second.  Brad Zeimet and Nick Johnson would draw for third.  Troy Paulson gets fifth.  Terry Newton and Nicholas Wenck tie for sixth and Sarah Walker ends up eighth.

 

So there you go.  Regardless of what happens, we’ll have a first-time Wockey Champ.  Several former Puckheads are in the running for redemption.  We may have a Champion who can’t even spell Wockey.  And my wife may end up proving who wears the Wockey pants in this family.

 

The games will resume when Boston College takes on Quinnipiac on Thursday, April 7 at 4:00 CT.  Until then, we will be accepting and sharing Wockey Whimsies, any memories (made up or otherwise) that you’d like to share with the rest of the Wockey community, which you can email to [email protected].  We also ask that you take this important quiz that we'll use to determine how we can improve your Wockey experience.  

 

Enjoy your two weeks off and good luck to all who still have a chance at a Wockey prize!

 

Your Pathetic, Pedantic, Primitivistic Wockey Commish,

Alex

 

P.S.  What?  Did you think I'd leave you without a parting gift?