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. 

Francesca Catalano’s Glimm outlook looked bleak late Saturday night. Yes, her Cesca bracket sat atop the Glimm standings with just two undecided games. But Duke held a commanding lead over Houston in the second Final Four game, and Cesca needed a Houston win to have a shot at not only winning the Glimm, but even finishing in the top three.

Then the unimaginable happened. 

My son is fascinated by the ESPN win probability calculator, so I looked this up: With 8:17 left in the game, Duke had a 98.5% chance of winning (and therefore Cesca’s odds of staying alive in the Glimm were 1.5%). With 2:30 left, Duke’s winning percentage was 97.1%. 

Yet Houston won, and now Cesca is in the driver’s seat.

Now, it’s down to two: If Florida beats Houston on Monday, Cesca will be your Glimm men’s champion. If Houston rides the momentum of this incredible win and beats Duke, Eric Jones will be your champion (his Jonesz02 currently is in second place, 2.5 points behind Cesca).

One champion has already been crowned in the men’s tournament: 7-year-old Sammy Eckerling has clinched the Kids Championship. His 116 points put him 1.5 points ahead of Kendal Gregor’s Kgregor and five points ahead of Nola Fowler. But all three picked Florida to win on Monday, so Kendal and Nola cannot catch Sammy. Henry Benham’s Henry B 3 is the closest kid to have picked Houston – but he trails Sammy by 18 points, an insurmountable deficit.

In the women’s tournament, we’re also down to two contenders: Michael Kern’s Mimi and Michael is in first place with 142 points, ahead of Lauren Kimball’s LK1 (136.5). Mimi and Michael picked South Carolina to win the championship, and LK1 picked UConn, so one of those two will be your women’s champion.

We also have a women’s champion already: Malcolm Stamm. Malcolm’s King bracket sits atop the kids standings, and he is the only kid to have picked either UConn or South Carolina to win.

Some GlimmBits:

* No matter what, we will have first-time champions in both the men’s and the women’s tournaments. None of the four Glimmers still fighting for a championship has won before.

* Eli Lester, Mrs. Glim’s grandson, has won the Glimm Scholarship — awarded to the top-finishing member of the Glim family. Eli entered five brackets this year, and all five are currently ahead of the other four members of the Glim family competing this year (his Eli 4 has clinched the Glimm Scholarship). This is Eli’s third Glimm Scholarship in the last five years.  

* Don’t forget: The Orlov is still up for grabs. The Orlov is awarded whoever finishes in the exact middle – this year, in 142nd place. Right now, five Glimmers are tied for 142nd, so it would come down to the tiebreak (whoever finished third in the tiebreak, not whoever finished first, because that’s the middle). But that’s likely to change once the championship results are factored in.

* The women’s championship is at 3 pm ET today, and the men’s championship is at 8:50 pm ET tomorrow. 

What makes the NCAA tournament so much fun each year is its unpredictability. Crazy upsets every round, a Cinderella making an unexpected run.

That unpredictability opens the door for the underdog — not just in the tournament itself, but in the Glimm. That’s how, back in 1995, Glimm namesake Marion Glim won the pool — the high school calculus teacher took advantage of Final Four runs by fourth-seeded Oklahoma State and second-seeded Arkansas (read more about Mrs. Glim’s run, and why the pools is named for her). 

Now, 30 years later, Mrs. Glim’s grandson did the opposite: Eli Lester rode the chalk to first place. Houston, Auburn, Florida and Duke, the four No. 1 seeds, all reached the Final Four. And Eli, one of several relatives of Mrs. Glim to compete in the Glimm each year, picked all four of them in his eli 4 bracket.

That gave Eli 119.5 points — half a point ahead of Francesca Catalano’s Cesca and Sean Ceglinsky‘s eponymous bracket.

The Ott’s didn’t fare so well. Jack Otter’s OtterV 3.0 picked just two of the Final Four right, and he fell to fourth place. Otto Kern’s Ottomatic 2 got three of the Final Four, but slipped all the way to 11th. 

In the women’s pool, it was much the same: Sure, one #1 seed lost, but is it really an upset when they were 14-point underdogs, or did the committee just get the seeds badly wrong? 

Yes, second-seeded UConn was the heavy favorite over top-seeded USC, and UConn won. And Paul (Mordyusa1) and Paige (Paige1) Mordarski rode that win to the top of the standings. Paul is in first place with 121.5 points, three points ahead of second-place Paige. Lauren Limball’s LK2 and Mike Kern’s Mimi and Michael are tied for third with 117.5.

Other Glimmbits:

* Seven-year-old Sammy Eckerling set his sites on the men’s Glimm Scholarship over the weekend. By going 7-for-8 in the Elite Eight then 3-for-4 in the Final Four, Sammy moved into first place in the Kids Championship with 104 points, 1.5 points ahead of Kendall Gregor’s kgregor. 

* Eli Rosenberg’s Eliskul32 remains in the lead in the women’s Kids Championship with 98 points. Sydney Kwarta’s Sydney Hummingbirds is in second with 90 points, and Malcolm Stamm’s King bracket is in third with 89. 

* The first Glimm prizes of 2025 were locked up: Both men’s and women’s Pity Prizes are done. In the men’s pool, Rosaleen Ortiz’s Harris Hoops finished with 28.5 points, clinching last place. In the women’s pool, Penny Kowitt’s PennyK3 finished with 40 points. Both Rosaleen and Penny will get their $5 back. 

* The women’s Final Four begins on Friday, and the men’s Final Four begins on Saturday.

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. 

We’re well into Day 1 of the 2025 Glimm Memorial men’s tournament, and we’ve got some interesting Glimmbits to share:

• We have 286 brackets from 155 people in the men’s pool this year.
  
• The standings are available here. The kids standings are here. The Glimm Family standings are here. 
  
• Twenty-two different teams were picked to win it all. The most popular was Duke (21.3%). Four teams were picked in just one bracket: Colorado State, Alabama St / St. Francis, Texas Tech and Purdue.
  
• Yes, that means the first person has lost their champion. Diane Davis Otter’s Olives 2 bracket is an early contender for the pity prize: Diane had Alabama St / St. Francis over Montana in the championship game. Both lost today.
  
• Don’t remember who you picked? Go to the standings page and find your bracket (or anyone else’s, for that matter). All of the entry names are clickabile, so you can check out brackets.
  
• We’ve got 19 entries in the Kids competition this year. We’ll also have a Kids competition in the women’s pool for the first time this year. 
  
• Speaking of the women’s competition, it’s not too late to get a bracket in! Games start at 11 a.m. tomorrow, so you have until then to get your bracket in. Right now, we have 62 brackets from 52 people in the women’s pool. That means more than 100 of you have NOT yet entered the women’s pool. It’s not too late!
  
• The new software seems to be working well so far, but there are definitely some bugs. The biggest I’ve found: The ‘Final Four’ teams on the standings page are not correct. The champion and finalists listed are right, but that last column that shows the teams you picked to lose in the Final Four is wrong. I may get around to fixing that this weekend, or it may just stay that way through the tournament. This is only on desktop – that column doesn’t show if you’re looking at your phone.
  
• And for the late games tonight … Go Blue!!!
  

OK boys and girls, it’s that time of the year: The Glimm is here!

It’s the NCAA tournament pool you know and love. We’ll have men’s and women’s pools. The men’s pool has the Orlov, the Kids Championship and the Glimm Family Scholarship. The entry fee is still $5, just like it was back in 1993 (take that, inflation!). We’ve got upset points, 70/20/10 winning split and last-place money back.

But there is something new this year. After YEARS of using the same software to power the Glimm, I’m migrating to a new system. This one is a bit of a Frankenstein: I found an old PHP/SQL bracket app online, and modified the code to make it work for the Glimm.

For the most part, I’ve worked to replicate the functionality we had on the old system, while adding a few things. So what’s new? It’s entirely web based, which makes the workflow a bit easier on my end (no more breaking out the 8-year-old Windows laptop that I use for the Glimm and nothing else). Most of the key reports (standings, etc.) are now responsive, so you can read them more easily on your phone. It has some cool simulations you can do once we get to the Sweet 16. And most importantly, because I control the code, I can build on what we have in future years – so give me your suggestions!

Here are the key Glimm details:

WHAT: The 33rd Annual Glimm Memorial NCAA Basketball Tournament Pool

HOW: Fill out a men’s bracket here, and/or a women’s bracket here (women’s bracket will be available later tonight), then send me $5 per bracket via venmo (username @Josh-Kleinbaum). IMPORTANT: When sending money, be sure to specify what bracket (entry name and men’s or women’s pool) you’re paying for. I’m also requesting your Venmo handle, so if you don’t pay by the end of the first weekend, I can send you a request.

HOW MUCH: Five bucks per entry for each pool. And yes, you can enter more than once (but no more than five times per pool, thanks to the Nevin Barich rule).

THE PAYOUT: In both pools, the winner gets 70% of the pot, runner-up 20% and third-place person 10%.  To give some context, the winner has taken home north of $1K in some years. There are a few other prizes in the men’s pool, too: The Orlov (whoever finishes exactly middle of the pack gets their $5 back, in cash, via snail mail), the Glimm Scholarship (the highest-finishing relative of Mrs. Glimm from the previous year gets a free entry), the Kids Champion (the top finisher under Bar Mitzvah age; details below) and the Pity Finisher (the last-place finisher gets his/her $5 back). On top of that, thirty bucks comes out of the pot to pay for Glimm infrastructure, and I give myself 2 free entries.

SCORING: For both pools, it’s a 1-2-4-8-12-16 scoring system with upset points. So that means that you get one point for picking a game correctly in the first round, two points in the second round, etc. And we use upset points – any time a lower-seeded team beats a higher-seeded team, you get half the difference between the seeds as bonus points. So if a 15 beats a 2, you get 6.5 bonus points. If a 9 beats an 8, you get half a point. The bottom line: It pays to take risks.

KIDS CHAMPION: Any kid under Bar Mitzvah age that enters the Glimm men’s pool (and makes their own picks – this isn’t about mommy or daddy submitting an entry under baby’s name) is also eligible to win the Kids Championship. Like the Glimm Scholarship (awarded to the top finisher related to Mrs. Glimm), the Kids Champion will receive a free entry to the next year’s Glimm. When filling out their bracket, kids should choose YES in the Kids Bracket drop-down. We’ll see how many kids enter to determine if there will be a kids championship in the women’s pool…

HOW TO PAY: Venmo (username @Josh-Kleinbaum). IMPORTANT: When sending money, be sure to specify which brackets in which pool you’re paying for. This year, I’m asking for your venmo handle in the bracket. If I don’t receive payment by the end of the first weekend of the tourney, I will send you a Venmo request.

In the early 2000s, the Daily News was LA’s little paper that could. Covering the San Fernando Valley under the shadow of the much larger LA Times, the DN thrived thanks to a talented staff that took pride in telling the story of the Valley.

Ramona Shelburne was a young sports writer on that staff. Brian Martin was a news editor. Your Glimm commissioner started as a crime reporter before becoming the paper’s first online editor.

In the decades since, as the paper’s staff shriveled with the newspaper industry, some stayed and some moved on. 

Shelburne moved on: She has emerged as one of the country’s preeminent basketball reporters. She’s an NBA Insider for ESPN. She hosts a radio show, has had her reporting turned into a movie, and (most importantly) is a member of the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. 

Martin took a different route, staying at the Daily News for the duration. He moved from the News to the sports department, and led the paper’s MMA coverage while serving as deputy sports editor.

But for many one-time DN staffers, as we scattered to different industries and different parts of the country, there was one constant: The Glimm.

And this year, Daily Newsers Shelburne and Martin dominated.

In the men’s pool, both correctly picked UConn over Purdue for the championship. Those picks gave Shelburne 138 points, just enough to hold off Martin’s 137.5 (Martin’s point total tied Jerry Kleinbaum’s doctork bracket, but took second place on the tie breaker).

Shelburne’s victory makes her the third two-time Glimm champion, joining Erik Boal (2007-08) and Kelly Bohling (2022-23).

Martin’s near miss robbed him of an unprecedented double: While he finished second in the men’s pool, he won the women’s title, correctly picking 82.5% of the games, including champion South Carolina and runner-up Iowa. His 149.5 points was well ahead of second-place Jon Lloyd (137) and Kelly Bohling (142). 

The Daily News Duo topped the list of Glimm winners:

KIDS CHAMPION: First-time Glimmer Nicholas Fabozzi finished in fourth place with his Nicky Fab bracket, just outside of the money. But that was good enough to clinch the Kids Championship, earning a scholarship to the 2025 Glimm.

The Orlov: An award named for another longtime Daily News staffer, the late great Rick Orlov, goes to Jack Otter, whose 86.5 points put him in 133rd place – dead middle. In honor of Rick Orlov, Jack will get his $5 back — sent as cash via snail mail, with a handwritten note.

The Glimm Family Scholarship: Richard Lester, son-in-law of Glimm namesake Marion Glim, finished in 51st place — but he was the top finisher of Glimm family members. He wins the Glimm Family Scholarship to the 2025 Glimm.

Final men’s standings are here, and final women’s standings are here. We’ll see you back here next year! 

A more complete update is coming, but is slowed down by an ill-timed nasty cold. Instead, a quick update on your winners:

Men’s Glimm: Ramona Shelburne
Women’s Glimm: Brian Martin
Kids Championship: Nicholas Fabozzi
The Orlov: Jack Otter
The Glimm Scholarship: Rich Lester

If you look at Jerry Kleinbaum’s performance in the Glimm the past few years, one thing jumps out: He’s never really been competitive. Since 2016 (which is as far back as Glimm archives go), he’s never cracked the top 25 — and his brackets were usually closer to the bottom three than the top three.

So what happened this year?

“I got lucky,” he said.

Jerry’s approach this year was to pick some crazy teams to reach the Final Four: NC State and Alabama. Somehow, they both did it. Add in UConn, and he was the only person in the Glimm to pick three of the Final Four teams correctly.

As a result, Jerry’s Doctork bracket sits atop the Glimm standings entering the Final Four.

Kleinbaum’s 109.5 points slipped ahead of Glimm newcomer Nicholas Fabozzi, aka Nicky Fab. But Nicky Fab and Doctor K have the same picks in the Final Four, which means Nicky can’t catch the doctor.

The Ferguson Toilet, thanks to that perfect second round, rounds out the top three.

In the women’s bracket, longtime Glimmers Brian Martin (BMart) and Rachel Barenbaum (TheRunningRachel) kept pace throughout the past weekend – both scored 29 points in the third round, and 25 in the Elite Eight. Brian holds a slim two-point lead over Rachel. They both picked South Carolina and Iowa to reach the championship game, so it could come down to that game: Brian went with South Carolina to win it all, while Rach picked Iowa.

But Diane Otter (Capers) and Lauren Kimball (LK1) lurk: If UConn reaches the championship game, they both have a chance.

Other Glimmbits:

• While Nicky Fab can’t win the overall championship, he’s still earned a title in his debut Glimm: The Kids Championship. His 107 points is enough to clinch the Kids title, and earn the prestigious Kids Scholarship.
  
  Maverick Messick currently sits in second place in the Kids Tournament with 88.5 points, and Clayton Fowler IV is in third with 79.5.
  
  
• Richard Lester, Mrs. Glimm’s son-in-law, and Eli Lester, her grandson, are in a close battle for the Glimm Family Scholarship. In this father-son matchup, dad has a 6.5-point lead over son, but son could pull ahead with if Purdue does better than UConn in the Final Four.
  
  
• Asa Kleinbaum spent most of the weekend celebrating his Glimm victory — his Skibidi bracket clinched last place in the women’s pool, so he’ll get the Pity Prize. He was ecstatic about this — frequently pointing out to his older sister’s that he’s the only one in the family to get any money out of the Glimm. Next year, he said, he might try to get them ALL wrong.
  
  
• With three games to play, nine people have a chance at finishing in the money in the men’s pool, and 12 in the women’s pool. Does that include you? Head over to theglimm.com to find out.
  
  If you click on the men’s or women’s standings, then choose ‘What If Scenarios’, you can see the standings for all eight possible outcomes – so you can figure out your best finish, and if you have a chance at finishing in the money.

• The Orlov is still wide open. As you should know, the Orlov goes to whoever finishes in exactly the middle of the standings – this year, that’s 133rd place. This is in honor of the late longtime Glimmer Rick Orlov. With three games remaining, 27 Glimmers still have a shot at the Orlov — it could very well come down to the tiebreaker.
  
  
• The women’s Final Four begins on Friday, with the championship game on Sunday, and the men’s Final Four begins on Saturday, with the championship game on Monday.
  
  
• A few of you still owe your Glimm entry fee – if that includes you, please send it to me ASAP.

In Mexico, the NCAA tournament doesn’t seem to be a big deal. Tennis and soccer were often on the television in the bars and restaurants we visited. College basketball? Not so much. Clearly, not enough people around here have been exposed to the Glimm.

Other than that, the past week has been just about paradise for your Glimm commissioner: Gorgeous beaches, amazing sunsets, delicious food, and terrific company. The Taco Tour of downtown Puerto Vallarta was a highlight (best birria tacos I’ve ever had), as was boogie boarding in the Pacific Ocean with the kids.

The point of all of this? You’re not getting a full-blown Glimm update. Just some bullet points to keep you engaged as we enter the Elite Eight:

• We have a new leader in the men’s pool. Nicholas Fabozzi’s Nicky Fab bracket picked five of the Elite Eight teams correctly, good enough to slip past the Ferguson Toilet by half a point. Nicky Fab sits at 87.5 points, and Jason Eckerling’s Ferguson Toilet is at 87.
  
• After a perfect Sweet 16, the Ferguson Toilet crashed back to Earth in the third round, missing five of the eight games. Penny Kowitt’s PK – 1 rounds out the top three with 85 points.

• In the women’s pool, Lauren Kimball continues to steamroll through the competition. Her LK3 bracket is in first place with 75 points, ahead of her LK 2 bracket (73.5). Brian Martin (BMart) and Gene Warnick (Gene W.) are tied for third with 72.5.
  
• The first prize of the Glimm has been claimed: Avery Sweet’s sussyimposter bracket won the Pity Prize in the men’s pool. Avery picked just 39% of the games right, and didn’t get a game beyond the second round. That was good enough to clinch last place.
  
• The Pity Prize in the women’s pool, however, is still up for grabs. Asa Kleinbaum was actively rooting against LSU, his last team alive, this morning. LSU won, but Asa’s bracket is done – which means, even though his skibidi bracket sits in 49th place out of 53, he still has a chance. In his mind, he’s already converted that $5 to Robux.
  
• One behind Asa in the women’s pool? His grandfather, Jerry Kleinbaum. But despite being in 50th place there, he’s surging in the men’s pool: His DoctorK bracket had the most impressive performance in the Sweet Sixteen. He picked six of the eight games correctly, including Alabama and NC State, good enough to jump to fourth place overall. He’s the only Glimmer with all four Final Four teams still alive.
  
• The third round of the women’s tournament is happening right now, and the men’s Elite Eight begins later tonight. As always, theglimm.com is your home for the latest updates.