AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > March > 28 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThis Fiasco winner’s for the Dogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Nobody picked the correct Final Four last year because George Mason messed everything up. Nearly everybody — actually, 225 of the 3,091 entrants in the 2007 Final Four Fiasco — picked it this time. Thus did we go to the tiebreakers, and thus, after two rounds of those, did Tim Vanderhoff of Loganville emerge victorious.
Vanderhoff, 32, is a Georgia grad. He played JV ball for South Gwinnett. (He’s 6-foot-4, which made him a center back then.) He works for a Snellville company that sells large-diameter steel pipes. He plays golf almost every day at Summit Chase Country Club. He watches basketball on a new Samsung HD TV, which sometimes displeases his wife Brandi, whom he met via the Internet.
“She was upset at me for watching that last game [Georgetown-North Carolina],” Vanderhoff said. “She gave me the silent treatment. She wanted me to turn the channel.”
March Madness in Atlanta:
Check out the AJC’s Final Four pageBut when you’re playing for such stakes — as ever, the Fiasco champ gets an official Final Four sweatshirt — you’ve got to monitor your investment. Vanderhoff won because he had the exact Elite Eight and nailed 13 of the Sweet 16. He did not, alas, submit his bracket in a big-money pool: “We’ve got a small little office, and everyone here is a football fan. They don’t even follow basketball.”
He picked UCLA to win the West Regional because “I’ve never been a big Kansas fan — they seem like perennial losers, even though they’re good at getting to the Elite Eight.” He picked Ohio State in the South because he likes Greg Oden: “The oldest-looking 18-year-old in the world.” He picked Georgetown over North Carolina in the East because “you’ve got to pick your upsets.”
And he picked Florida in the Midwest despite strong personal feelings to the contrary. “When they played Ohio State [for the BCS title], all my buddies rooted for Florida because they were from the SEC. I thought, ‘Gosh, no. That’s all we [Georgia fans] need is for a Florida coach to wave a national championship ring in recruits’ faces.’ “
He likes UCLA to beat Ohio State in the title game. “They play such great defense, and they have such a great coach.”
Were the quirky Fiasco judged like an ordinary office pool — on the total number of games gotten right — Vanderhoff wouldn’t have won. He missed 11 of 32 first-round games. Alice Hardin of Dahlonega, the runner-up, got 29 of 32 (but only 12 of the Sweet 16) and submitted what I consider to be the best overall bracket in the history of this contest. For her sterling effort, Hardin will also receive a sweatshirt.
She’d never entered before. “It was a fluke,” she said. “Someone was talking about it, and I thought about how well I used to do [in her office football pools]. … I would win every week.”
A 1968 graduate of Emory, Hardin is a life coach and counselor. She watches some basketball — “what I can” — and gets advice from her office colleague. If not for her affection for Georgia Tech, she might have gotten 13 of the Sweet 16 and therby won the Fiasco on the final tiebreaker. She likes Georgetown to beat Florida for the title “in a low-scoring game.”
This being the 20th Fiasco, I want to thank everyone who entered this or any year, and I want also to thank all the AJC technical folks for making things run so smoothly. And special mention must go to Elizabeth Bradley, who’s 9 and who filled out her first bracket. She picked three of the Final Four. Her dad, who’s somewhat older, got two.
She kept telling me the Buckeyes would make it, but I wouldn’t listen.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Comments
By James Adams
March 28, 2007 2:12 PM | Link to this
How many people had UNLV in the Sweet 16? Out of 20 in my pool, I was the only one to get that one. If not for some,ahem, spotty officiating I would have nailed Vandy in the Elite 8. Special thanks goes out to Texas, for the involuntary rectal exam they administered to me. Rick Barnes is a doofus.
By Fort Worth Dawg
March 28, 2007 2:59 PM | Link to this
UGA grad is the winner. Someone’s affection for Tech causes him or her to not win.
The more things change the more things stay the same.
By Me
March 28, 2007 3:53 PM | Link to this
Mark Bradley likes men.
By Forth Worth Dawgie
March 28, 2007 4:29 PM | Link to this
Well he couldn’t take his Dawgs because, as always, they were MIA.
By Akagi
March 28, 2007 4:57 PM | Link to this
I had UNLV in the Swwet 16. I had them in the Elite 8 in fact and if there had been 2 more minutes left in the Oregon game, UNLV would have made it to the Elite 8.
By Tim
March 28, 2007 6:33 PM | Link to this
Well I guess you learned a lesson… pick a college basketball game based on 40 minutes instead of 42 minutes. By the same token, if the UNC/Georgetown game was a minute shorter, UNC would still be playing. Wow, what a concept.
By GTFan
March 28, 2007 6:36 PM | Link to this
Anyone who followed GT basketball this season had UNLV in the 2nd round, and anyone who watched a single Wisconsion game had them out in round 2.
By Lindsey Haeger
March 28, 2007 6:38 PM | Link to this
Mom, I’m so proud of you!!! You Rock!!!! HOYA SAXA!!!!!! (Lisandro thinks you are cool too!)
By O. Verit
March 29, 2007 12:48 PM | Link to this
Mark: Unlike some AJC bloggers, I think you’re a great writer and I typically read and enjoy your columns first over anything else in the paper. Having said that, as an NCAA tourney prognosticator you stink, and this fact must be shared with the world. I’ve run an NCAA basketball pool for the past 10 years. For many of them I’ve submitted a pick based on your predictions (called “Bradley’s Bums”). Not only has it never won, check the stats for the last three years: in 2004 you got me third place (thanks); in 2005 you were 22nd out of 31 entries (ouch); and in 2006 you were DEAD LAST in my pool. This year, Bradley’s Bums is holding at 30th place out of 33 entries. My fervent hope is that you don’t ever set foot in a sports book!