NCAA Tournament Pool--We Have a Winnah

Here's what basketball geniuses we and our 7502 friends are:

25 of our closest and dearest basketball fan friends entered the Mike Story Memorial NCAA Tournament Pool.

Out of those 25, only one--a NOVELIST--managed to accurately pick one of the teams that will make it into the championship game. Kudos to Pauls Toutonghi (whose novel, Red Weather, will be published by Random House in the spring), for picking UCLA, who could still get there with a win on Saturday.

But, thanks to his dismal performance in picking who'd make the Sweet 16, this budding Norman Mailer did not win our pool. Maybe next year, have a little more faith in the Huskies, Pauls, and a little less in Bucknell.

Since Pauls is too far behind, and no one else can get any points, the current leader, our house's own David Swidler is the pool winner. David correctly picked 7 of the Elite 8, enough to win among the sorry bunch of losers we call our friends.

Seth finished 14th, extending his streak of losing NCAA tournament pools to 17 years in a row. But he did meet his personal goal of besting David's mother, Brenda.

Jason's appropriately named entry "I Hope I Beat Brenda" did just that, and was good enough for 6th place.

Mike finished 21st, but is sure to demolish us in the NBA playoff pool.

Time to pay up. $5, payable to Mr. Swidler, who nets a cool $120 for his efforts.