march madness [updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report    

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Ken Gutermuth, TX

2003 Champion

2nd: Sean McCulloch, OH

3rd: Gordon Elgert, CA

4th: Harry Flawd, PA

5th: Ananda Gupta, MD

6th: Derek Landel, NJ

Event History
1992    Bruce Reiff      14
1993    Terry Coleman      18
1994    Terry Coleman      37
1995    Ken Gutermuth      46
1996    Jon Diminnie      41
1997    Bruce Reiff      47
1998    Bruce Reiff      44
1999    Bruce Reiff     49
2000    Bruce Monnin     44
2001    Dennis Nicholson     46
2002    Debbie Gutermuth     39
2003    Ken Gutermuth     45


Offsite links:

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 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Dennis Nicholson

NY

02
66
 2. Bruce Monnin

OH

00
40
 3. Bruce Reiff

OH

01
32
 4. Ken Gutermuth

TX

03
30
 5. Debbie Gutermuth

TX

02
30
 6. Harry Flawd

PA

03
21
 7. Roger Taylor

VA

02
21
 8. Derek Landel

NY

03
19
 9. Sean McCulloch

OH

03
18
10. Michael Destro

NJ

01
18
11. Gordon Elgert

CA

03
12
12. Chris Bauch

LA

02
12
13. Terry Coleman

BC

00
12
14. David Anderson

PA

02
  9
15. John Ellmann

MD

01
  9
16. John Coussis

IL

00
  8
17. Stuart Tucker

MD

99
  8
18. Ananda Gupta

MD

03
  6
19. Paul Risner

TN

01
  6
20. Peter Stein

NY

00
  4
21. Chris Palermo

NY

99
  4
22. Carrie Lewis

DE

02
  3
23. Keith Hunsinger

OH

99
  2

Past Winners

Bruce Reiff - OH
1992, 1997-1999

Terry Coleman - BC
1993-1994

Ken Gutermuth - TX
1995

Jon Diminnie - IN
1996

Bruce Monnin - OH
2000

Dennis Nicholson - NY
2001

Debbie Gutermuth - TX
2002
 


March Madness in July ...

The 2003 March Madness Tournament got underway with a new sheriff in charge taking over from last year's GM Ken Gutermuth. Ken was kind enough to supply laminated cards for each team and plenty of score sheets to go around. Thanks Ken! Also, original MMS GM John Ellman was spotted on Sunday at the convention. Hopefully this means John will be back next year as he's sorely missed, plus no one runs March Madness the way John does.

Anyway, the first heat started on Wednesday morning with yours truly getting his Florida 2000 team and promptly losing his first game. It was Ken Gutermuth's Cincinnati '59 team with the big 'O' Oscar Robertson who ran the table including a 108-80 regional final win over Georgetown '84.

In the Thursday heat Gordon Elgart took U Conn '99 to the Final Four with victories over St. Fohn's '85, Rutgers '76, Georgetown '85 (and Patrick Ewing), and Seton Hall '53. I believe this was Gordon's first trip to the Final four and he did a good job with the #2 seed.

Friday's heat was well attended with a perfect field of 16. Sean "Puffy Hammer" McCulloch ... a fellow CABS member ... remembered my sage advice I'd given him in our practice sessions the months before. "A double A bench is a good thing, plus it will annoy Dennis Nicholson to no end". So he picked another of my favorite teams ... two hours of hell Arkansas Razorbacks of 1994. Good pick. He survived close matches against veterans Harry Flawd (Kansas '71) and Terry Coleman (UCLA '73) to meet Derek Lendel in the regional final. Derek brought his defensive minded Utah '98 team in - no contest as Arkansas carried the day 113-97. That put two CABBIES in the Final Four.

Saturday's last heat had 22 people vying for the last ticket to the Final Four. A lot of old faces showed up with a few new ones like Ric Manns all the way from Southern Indiana. Ric is famous for being one of a handful of people who actually BUY season tickets to watch Indiana and the fighting DiNardo's play football. Ric's team Indiana '53 didn't fare any better than the fighting DiNardos do. He lost in the first round to "Caesar" Marvin Birnbaum's Magic Johnson led '79 Michigan St Spartans. The heat was won by Harry Flawd's Louisville '80 team who punked defending champ Debbie (Garver then, Gutermuth now) #1 seed (and first pick) Louisville '86 team sending the former champ home. Jeremy Billones led my beloved Buckeye '60 team to the regionals only to lose to Harry 88-83.

This set up a semi-final of Sean McColloch vs perennial Final Four participant Harry Flawd. They played their game right next to my Football Strategy final and it was close throughout, coming down to a last die roll with Sean and Arkansas winning 85-81 to uphold the honor of CABS and Ohio while advancing to the finals.

In the other semi-final, Golden Elgart ran into the convention juggernaught of "no team points" Ken Gutermuth. Did you know that until two years ago this was Ken's team event every year? Then he switched and guess what? He beat Gordon 100-93 to advance to an all CABBIE final.

Sean had no chance, as it was pre-ordained that Ken would win since it WASN'T his team event. Final score Ken 107, Sean 104 in a surprisingly close game. Sean was a three pointer away from his first wood, but wood hog Ken captures his third plaque of the convention. The only bright spot for this reporter is that the rest of Ken's teammates managed to win their events and carry - literally - Ken to the team championship as well.

We are looking to tweak a few things next year. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please email me and we will take them under advisement. I have a fond personal place for this event in my heart. The success of this tournament mirrors somewhat the success of the entire convention. I can still remember the day in 1992 that I wandered into a hotel room at the old Penn Harris to play a heat of this game (believe it or not several events took place in hotel rooms back then). It was that day I met John Ellman, made a lifelong friend and played him to advance to the Final Four. There I got to play one of the Legends of gaming in the final - one Don Greenwood. A large crowd gathered around to watch that final - no one having a clue to who I was, everyone coming to watch the big man from Avalon Hill they had read so many articles from and played so many games designed by. There were only 14 people in the tournament that year. But the event, like the con, has grown over the years. There are so many people I look forward to playing every year and some years I get to play a lot of them. Other years, like this one, some upstart like Chris Palermo beats me in the first round and I only get to play one. But we return every year. I hope that one day I'll get the chance to play my two daughters here as well. I will look forward to seeing many friends again next year and hope to get to play a few more of you! This 'game convention' is a precious thing we have. We all need to do our part to nurture it and keep it alive for the future generations.

 GM      Bruce Reiff [1st Year]   NA
    bdreiff@aol.com    NA 

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