Glimm Memorial NCAA Tournament Pool
The only NCAA tourney pool named for Alma Glimm
Glimm Champions: Catalanato, Kimball win 2025 Glimm
Lauren Kimball never had to sweat. As UConn romped its way to the women's national championship, so too did Kimball to her first Glimm title.
In fact, just to erase any doubt, Kimball gave herself some insurance: She finished first and second in the women's Glimm.
Her LK1 bracket finished with 153 points, 6.5 points ahead of her second-place LK2 bracket. Jim Catapano's JimCat finished third with 145 points.
Three teams finished tied for fourth (including two brackets named after UConn stare Paige Buecker) with 144 points, just outside the money: Earl Campburn's Paige Buckets, Dan Stamm's Paige vs. Dawn and Pete Catapano's PCwomen2.
In the men's bracket, Francesca Catalano had a much tougher path. In the second straight must-win game for her Cesca bracket, her team had a win percentage below 5 at some point during the second half. But days after Houston pulled off a near-impossible comeback over Duke, Florida pulled off an improbable comeback over Houston -- leaving Cesca atop the standings.
Catalano finished with 159 points to win her first Glimm title. Nick Putnam's NPD1 finished in second (147), followed by Sean Ceglinsky (146.5). Jack Otter's OtterV 3.0 (146.5) and Carson Derosiers's Carson-Derosiers1 (146) rounded out the top five.
Some final Glimmbits:
- The only other prize that wasn't clinched before the championships was the Orlov, the prize going to the person who finished in the exact middle of the men's pool. This year, with 284 entries, that went the person who finished in 142nd place. In fact, five people finished in 139th place, so we have to go the tiebreaker -- looking for the person who finished in fourth place in the tiebreaker. That person? Jerry Kleinbaum's DoctorK bracket.
- Women's champ Lauren Kimball finished within striking distance of the rare double championship -- her LK1 bracket finished in sixth place.
- Your host had one of his best Glimms in years, but not good enough to finish in the money. My Pennypacker bracket finished in seventh place.
2025-04-08 12:18:56
Battle of the Otts
The first weekend of the Glimm Memorial came down to Otto versus Otter.
Otto Kern's Ottomatic 1 had a perfect first day to jump to the lead in the first round of the NCAA tournament -- but Otto couldn't hold off Jack Otter's OtterV 3.0 in the second round.
OtterV 3.0 correctly picked 13 of 16 games in the second round, including the big upset by Arkansas over St. John's, to blow past Otto and into first place after the second round.
TJ Berka's What Up Larsa Pippen? bracket nearly matched OtterV -- Berka picked 14 of 16 games correctly, but missed out on the Arkansas upset and its bonus points.
At the end of the first weekend of play, OtterV3.0 was in first place with 70.5 points, What Up Larsa Pippen? was in second with 70, and Ottomatic was in third with 64.5.
In the women's pool, Jeff Keating's jkedit5 and Earl Camburn's Paige Buckets (not to be confused with third-place Paige1) have both picked 89.6% of games correctly to jump to the lead, tied with 62 points. Paige Mordarski's Paige1 trails by half a point.
Some GlimmBits:
- There are a few cool new tools available: An End Game Scenario page, which looks at all 32K+ scenarios remaining and tells you how in how many you can win, and a What If? calculator, where you can simulate the rest of the tournament and see if you'll win. The tools are available for the men's pool here and the women's pool here.
- If anyone is in Sacramento, go and check on the Macht household and make sure Dan and Rosaleen are OK. Dan's Hoopskillet bracket is in last place, and Rosaleen's Harris Hoops is in second-to-last place. Something must be wrong with that Sac-town water.
- Clare Bear Kern's 63 points leads the Kids Championship, and is good enough for fourth place overall in the men's pool. In the women's pool, Eli Rosenberg's Eliskul32 holds a half-point lead over Sydney Kwarta's Sydney Hummingbirds .
- Are you sure you've paid? There are still a good amount of stragglers. Check out the men's and women's payment trackers -- if you're listed on the 'have not paid' list, please either venmo me your entry fee and let me know if it's a mistake.
- Enjoy this breather over the next few days, then buckle up: Games resume on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women.
2025-03-25 11:36:10