Pool of 42: 30th Anniversary Edition​

All,
The 2025 NCAA Tournament is finally underway. And while the level of drama was not quite what we've come to expect front he opening weekend (11 of 16 games decided by 10+ points), we were still treated to some upsets and close scares. The early darling was McNeese State who looked like they were going to demoralize Clemson, holding them to just 13 first-half points and opening up a 24 point lead. But the Tigers came storming back, cutting the lead to just 2 in the closing minute of the game. But the Cowboys were able to hold on earning the program its first-ever tournament win. Next up is a date with last year's tournament runner up, Purdue (who will have to find a way to unbreak my heart after ending the magical run of High Point in their first ever tournament appearance). Two other double digit seeds survived the opening day, with Drake making it look like it was God's plan to send Missouri home early and Kansas falling to their foil Ar-Kansas. This sets up a broadcaster's dream matchup with John Calipari taking on Rick Pitino with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line. 
Yesterday also marked the beginning of the 30th edition of the Pool of 42. This year we have 157 entrants consisting of our normal mix of stalwarts, rookies, and everything in between. All 64 teams are represented in our entrants selections, with Duke (55), Florida (44), North Carolina (42), and St. John's (41) leading the way. Troy, Mississippi, and Memphis were the least popular having each been selected by just 2 entrants. The most popular 1996 bonus selections were Unabomber (55) earning points for 3 pointers, Spice Girls (43) women's tourney bonus, and Dolly (replacement teams). Mission: Impossible (points in the paint) and Game of Thrones (points by very tall or very short players) were the least popular, showing up in just 6 entries. All possible bonus numbers were selected, with 72 being selected 31 times - 19 more than second place, 60. 
Here's how this year's $3,140 prize pool will be broken down: The players with the most total points and with the least total points at the end of the tourney will earn $1,140 each. As always, we have a number of secondary prizes to keep everyone's rooting interest alive as long as possible. The players with the following will each earn a $100 third place prize: most "regular" points (i.e. excluding all bonuses), most 1996 bonus points, total score closest to zero, most points if there were no negative points or bonus (i.e. most actual points scored by your 6 teams), and directly in the middle (i.e. 96th place). There will also be one additional mystery $100 prize that will be revealed at the end of the tournament - but everyone is in contention for that. Finally, we have our "category leaderboard". Typically this has groups of entrants like "family" or "friends and coworkers". Given this our 30th anniversary, we decided to change the groups up a bit. We have - entrants that have participated in at least 25 of the 30 pools, entrants who were born after the Pool of 42 began (March 1996), entrants who share a name with a character or actor from 1990's staples Seinfeld or Friends, entrants who share a name with a cast member of MTV's Real World or Road Rules, as well as entrants whose first, last, or full name (w or w/o a space) is either 9 or 6 or 15 (9+6) letters long.* Both the high and low scorers from each of these groups, as well as the person in the middle of our larger groups, will receive a refund of their entry fee.
After one day of action, Mark Gruber sits atop the leaderboard. Turns out it was having 5 of 6 teams play on day 1 - and not the special oil that gave him the early jump. On his heels are Denis "why use two Ns when one will do" McCarthy, Mike Vogel, and Kelly "why is that strange man on the other side of the fence" Hirano. No one in the top 50 highest scorers still has all of their 6 teams still remaining. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pool, Matt Henrikson has helped himself to the early lead thanks to high scoring outputs from St. John's, Creighton, and Gonzaga. Don't get too comfortable, though - as Matt's selection of the Spice Girls bonus has not yet given him any (positive) bonus points - with the women's tournament set to tip shortly.The Killer B's who, much like the Dread Pirate Roberts, have represented some different entrants over the years, are next - with the same teams paving their trail.  Sitting third from the bottom is newcomer Kerri Luftman who shows early promise of being a Phenomenon, having all 6 teams still remaining.
In all, 39 entrants had all 6 teams survive day one, 112 have 5 or more, and 5 had half their entry wiped out in the first 24 hours. Day 2 of the tournament is just starting, with the other half of teams in action. There is sure to be tremendous shakeup in the standings so no one is out. Also, keep in mind that anyone with either the Spice Girls or the Dolly bonus have yet to earn any points from those. Tomorrow's update will include the corresponding women's teams for those with the Spice Girls bonus as well as the "clone" teams for our Dolly selectors. 
Enjoy day two of the games and the rest of the Pool of 42! If you haven't paid yet, please do so:
Venmo: @jeremy-schreiber
PayPal: jschreiber@stanfordalumni.org
Zelle: 201-936-4870
For the old schoolers:
Jeremy Schreiber
39 Oxford Court
Ramsey, NJ 07446

Current scores are below, with the complete leaderboard attached.


Name TOTAL
POINTS
Mark Gruber 414.4
Denis McCarthy 1 352.15
Mike Vogel 348
Kelly Hirano 336.1
Charles Santanna 321.9
Seany Farrell 321.75
Mary Ellen DePaul 315.25
Lauren Schreiber 309.85
Dominic Sembello 301.9
Mike Negley 293.7
Michael Martin #2 292.65
Patrick Keisler 280.3
Mike Miniaci 270.6
Larry Kriz 270.5
Pete Bine 262.4
Mark Sanicki 261
Catherine Bopp 258.3
Alisha Schreiber 239.8
Sarah Ganton 238.6
Michael Schoendorf 234.8
Caroline Schreiber 234.05
Ethan Deckner 223.4
Don Chiossi 219.2
Thom Terrific 215.75
Chris Pierpont 212.7
Giuseppe Randazzo 211.8
Jim McCarthy 210.1
Will Sargisson 205.8
Steph Dowd 204
Pat Regan 203
Bobby Robertson 200
Lainie Gussman 198.5
Katie Schreiber 198
Matt Solow 194.2
Tom Groth 192.55
Nabeel Azar 189.35
Jaklyn Limoges 188.4
Molly Wagner 186.2
Mario DePollo 184
Bob Hopper 2 183.6
Rhonda Veugen 174
Uncle Jack McDonald 170.8
Ben Tobin 169.85
Ryan Heffernan 166.8
Jason Schreiber 165
Michael Martin #1 161.75
Michael Schreiber 139.5
Kyle Cassara 159.5
Kerry Farrell 156.8
Max Deckner 155
Mike Heffernan 153.55
Dave Luftman 151
Ean Steinberger 149.6
Leo Dorfman 147.6
Kim Huang 146.95
Omar Azar 145.4
Joan Ganton 145
Monica Heffernan 143.8
Philip R. DePaul 141.8
Pat Appello 140.4
Matthew Schreiber 118
Zac Favreau Smith 128.5
Kevin Schessler 127.05
Jeremy Schreiber 126.25
Natalie Luftman 125
Christopher Davis 124.75
Greg Nilles 118.7
Michael Patti 118.6
Corwin Rhyan 117.6
Laura Spiegelman 117.6
Kurt Thiemann 112
Bob Hopper 1 106.4
Nick Hurt 104.4
Tom Melton 101.6
Jose Alvarez 98.8
Robert Cappuzzo 97
Brian Pierpont 96
Funkle & Steph 93.7
Alina Svizzero 44.4
Shubhro Biswas 83.4
Josh Meyer 76.75
Aaron Gottesfeld 76.4
Jack Schreiber 75.5
Big Things Poppin Pohlen 75.2
Derek Landel 74.5
Mike Bopp 71.4
Bill Scarpinato 68.2
Manny Delarosa 64.2
Kyle "Kramer" Charters 62
Randy Rutherford 59
Brian Thiemann 57
Michael Boyan 52.2
Dave "Blue Anger" Pettit 1 51.5
Eryn Payne 49
Jakub Stosik 47.15
Ben Benoit 46.8
Sam Matthews 46.6
Charlie & Maeve Dowd 40.75
Lynn Delaney 39.4
Big Sean Farrell 38.8
Neal Griffin 36.4
Eric Fishman 35.65
Salina McLaughlin 32.6
Connor Gentile-DePaul 27.4
Mike Pinbell 26.5
Lauren Gentile 24.2
Bob Wagner 23.7
Kevin Park 23
Meri Schreiber 21
Patrick Steines 20
Michael Deckner 14.3
Massimo Randazzo 10.5
Ray Lacho 7.6
Philip G. DePaul 6.6
Mary Ellen Groth 5.55
Brian Leamy 3.6
Julia Ford 2.7
Paul Schreiber 0
Admiral Tom Pohlen 0
Victoria Keisler -2
Andrea Pellicciari -6.25
Luke Schreiber -11.5
Daniela Randazzo -13.4
Kevin Payne -16.6
John Englert -17.25
Eileen Rosa -60.4
Bill Lynch -21.4
Laurie Roche -24.55
Andrew Limoges -27
Brian Redington -29.2
Joshua Deckner -29.55
Denis McCarthy 2 -29.8
Dave Miller -39.4
Vin Hubner -39.5
Juliana Jackson -46
Dave "Blue Anger" Pettit 2 -53.8
Bob Corcoran -56
Molly Farrell -56.3
Mavis Mai -62.6
Jackie Farrell -65.25
Rodney Dopp -68.4
Lorenzo Quiogue -69
Jillian DePaul -76
Tony Miniaci -76.5
Lisa Ito -78
Ryan Flynn -83
Dan Voicescu -86.2
Adam Hudnut-Beumler -89
Jason Gaddy -89.3
Brian Ganton -95.5
Brian Bharwani -98.2
Dave Marchisin -100.9
Aunt Cathy McDonald -111.45
Donald DeCaro -113.4
Kerri Luftman -151
Killer B's -159.4
Matt Henrikson -239.3
Thanks,
Jeremy


* I mean cut me some slack - not everyone was on Seinfeld