When UNC’s Marcus Paige hit an improbable off-balance 3-pointer with five seconds left in the NCAA championship game, Kate Lord had to be torn. The shot tied the game and kept alive national title hopes for Lord’s beloved Tar Heels. But it hurt Lord’s chances of winning the Glimm Memorial NCAA Tournament Pool.

Lord’s emotional roller coaster continue seconds later, when Villanova’s Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beater 3-pointer to win the game. The Tar Heels lost the national championship, but Lord won the Glimm.

The irony: The Glimmer who named all five of her entries for the Tar Heels benefited the most from her team’s crushing loss.

In the first days of this tournament, it seemed unlikely that Lord’s GoHeelsGo2 bracket could win the Glimm. After all, her champion, Michigan State, lost in the first round to Middle Tennessee State in one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history. But Lord thrived everywhere else: Overall, she picked 71% of the games correctly. She got 25.5 upset points, and correctly picked Villanova to reach the championship game and UNC and Oklahoma to reach the Final Four.

Lord finished with 132.5 points, ahead of Adam Rubinfeld (128.5) and Rich Lester (125), who both picked Villanova to win the national title.

And sitting in fourth place, just outside the money, is Mrs. Glim(m). The pool’s namesake made a tremendous run, but fell short when Villanova beat Oklahoma in the semi-final.

The most competitive match of the tournament was determining The Orlov, the prize that goes to the person who finishes in 103rd place, exactly in the middle of the pack. Mike Lazarus, Brent Hopkins and Darren Price all tied for 101st place with 78.5 points – which means the loser of a three-way tiebreak wins The Orlov. And it came down to a single point: Lazarus predicted 137 points in the final game, Hopkins 131 and Price 130. With 151 points actually scored in the game, Price was off by the most, so he wins The Orlov. In memory of Rick Orlov, Price will get his $5 entry fee back, via snail-mail, with a hand-written note of congratulations.

And with that, Glimm XXV is officially done. See you all next year!

UPDATE: A diligent Glimmer, Scott Gregor, noticed a mistake in the scoring: While the first three rounds were scored correctly, there was a mistake in the software for how the fourth round was scored (and subsequent rounds projected). I’ve fixed it, and updated standings/possibilities are now on the site.

What it means: Very little. The current standings are different, but the same four people who were in contention for the Glimm Championship remain in contention. Ten of the 11 people who had a shot at finishing in the money still have a shot at finishing in the money. The only difference: Jen Millman’s Chessmaster 2 bracket, who led for most of the Glimm and could have finished third if Syracuse beat Villanova in the championship game AND she won the tie-break, is officially eliminated from the money. Sorry Jen, and sorry for the confusion!

NEW updated leaderboard (and new updated standings are here):

In case you weren’t sure, let me make it clear: Kate Lord loves the Tar Heels. Her five entries into the Glimm Memorial NCAA Tournament Pool were all named after her alma mater: GoHeelsGo1, GoHeelsGo2, GoHeelsGo3, TAR!, and HEELS! But when she filled out her brackets, Lord didn’t let her emotions get the best of her: She only picked UNC to win the whole thing in two of the five brackets. And those are the worst two of her five.

With just three games remaining in the Glimm, Lord’s GoHeelsGo2 bracket is in first place. But she’s in a delicate position: She must choose between the Tar Heels and the Glimm. If the Tar Heels win the championship, Kate Lord does not win the Glimm. In fact, she can only win if Syracuse or Villanova win the whole thing.

Lord is one of just four Glimmers that still have championship hopes: Kevin Benham, Mrs. Glimm and Nevin Barich are also still alive. Benham or Barich win of UNC wins the championship, and Mrs. Glimm, the pool’s namesake, will win if Oklahoma wins the title.

And what of Chessmaster 2, the Jen Millman bracket that had been leading the Glimm nearly wire-to-wire? Like many Glimmers, the Chessmaster collapsed in spectacular fashion on Saturday when both Kansas and Oregon lost. She has been eliminated from contention for the Glimm title, and is clinging to slim hopes for a third-place finish (Syracuse would have to beat Villanova in the championship game, then she’d have to win a tie-break).

One title has been decided: The Battle for Last Place. When Kansas lost, Jess Glazer clinched that indignity. She picked just 36.7% of the games correctly, to finish with 33.5, 9.5 points behind second-to-last JonesMo1. Jess gets her $5 back, and all of our pity.

The Leaderboard (full standings here):

After three rounds of the NCAA tournament, Jen Millman’s Chessmaster 2 still sits atop the Glimm Memorial NCAA Tournament Pool standings. But a closer look at the leaderboard shows an even more familiar name in the running: Mrs. Glimm herself.

The Grandma G bracket is in 13th place, 14 points behind Millman. But with just seven games remaining in the tournament, Grandma G has a chance: If Oklahoma, UNC and Villanova all win this weekend, then Oklahoma beats UNC in the championship game, Grandma G will win the Glimm for the first time since 1995.

Grandma G, of course, is Alma Glimm, aka Marion Glim, the namesake of the Glimm Memorial NCAA Tourney Pool. Most of you are already familiar with the legend: In 1995, Mrs. Glimm was my 11th grade calculus teacher. As I was passing out brackets for my pool before class one day, she chastised me, saying gambling wasn’t allowed. After I assured her that there was no money involved – a little white lie – she asked if she could play, even though she professed knowing nothing about college basketball. She played, and she won.

Years later, I decided the pool needed a name, and Mrs. Glimm was the perfect person to honor: Her story exemplifies what is great about the NCAA tourney – that anything can happen, and you don’t need to be an expert to win. I fictionalized the story a bit – changing Marion Glim to Alma Glimm – and the pool has been the Glimm Memorial ever since.

Through the magic of the internet, Mrs. Glimm got wind of this pool a few years ago. She told her family about it, and they reached out to me, and some of them joined. Last year, Mrs. Glimm herself joined. And now, once again, she’s in the thick of the race to the pool.

In 1995, because she thought there was no money involved, the first-place prize went to the runner-up.This time, she’s operating under no such illusions: If she wins, the pot is hers. To pull it off, though, she’ll have to leapfrog 12 others, including Millman and Kate Lord, whose GoHeelsGo2 and GoHeelsGo1 brackets sit in second and third place (incidentally, neither of Lord’s GoHeelsGo brackets have the Heels winning it all).

We’re all pulling for you, Mrs. Glimm.

The Leaderboard (full standings here):

Don’t be mistaken: Monique Jones is not doing well in the Glimm Memorial NCAA Tourney Pool. In her JonesMo2 bracket, she missed 15 of the 32 first-round games and 8 of the 16 second-round games. She’s got 39.5 points, good enough for 175th place out of 206.

MacKenzie Hinton, Child Actor

About two months ago, the post appeared on Facebook: MacKenzie Abigail Hinton, daughter of Jen Millman, was born. Over the ensuing weeks, the cute photos followed: MacKenzie with mommy, MacKenzie with daddy, MacKenzie in a bunny suit, even MacKenzie in a Jets sweatshirt.

Now, an exclusive report by the Glimm Investigative Team reveals the truth: MacKenzie is actually a child actor hired by Millman to pose for photos on Facebook, an elaborate cover story to allow Millman to take a ‘maternity leave’ from her job as Managing Editor of NBCNewYork.com so she could spend the last two months preparing for The Glimm.

How else to explain Millman’s stunning run to the top of the Glimm standings? In her Chessmaster 2 bracket, she picked 26 of 32 games correctly in the first round, including upsets by Hawaii, Wichita State, Yale, Northern Iowa, VCU, Stephan F Austin, Arkansas Little Rock, Gonzaga and Syracuse. She has 55 total points – 29 of them on upset points.

She holds a 1.5-point lead over Donald Drumpf (Evan Kwarta), and a 3.5-point lead over Ezra Kleinbaum and defending champ Sophia Ceglinsky.

But Chessmaster 2 and Drumpf are vulnerable: Both picked Michigan State to reach the championship game.

It could be worse: Michigan State’s stunning loss to Middle Tennessee State wrecked many Glimm brackets. The Spartans were the most popular pick to win the whole thing. When they lost, 54 Glimmers (26% of the whole pool) lost their champion.

Games resume at Noon today, so be sure to check theglimm.com to see if Millman can continue her Glimm mastery.

Leaderboard (click here for full standings):

Welcome to the Glimm!

We celebrate our silver anniversary with the largest Glimm field ever: 206 entries. And it’s an interesting group: We’ve got Donald Trump and Donald Drumpf and Ben Carson. We’re considering Supreme Court nominees (ConsiderMerrickGarland) and we’ve already given up on them (Ghost of Garland). We’ve got a Leaked Bracket, A Very Good Bracket and Another Very Good Bracket.

Check out a summary of picks to see that the most popular championship pick isn’t even a top seed: No. 2 Michigan State was picked to win the Glimm by 54 people, edging out Kansas (53). You’d can also see the crazy picks: Yale, Stony Brook and Gonzaga each had one championship pick.

Standings will be updated throughout the day and throughout the next three weeks, so check back early and often. And good luck!

Welcome to the 25th Annual Glimm Memorial NCAA Basketball Pool! The brackets are out, which means it’s time to enter the Glimm Memorial, the premiere NCAA Tournament Pool and the only pool named for Alma Glimm. For $5, the Glimm Memorial guarantees three weeks of entertainment. Click here to fill out your bracket.

More details on The Glimm:

WHAT: The 25th Annual Glimm Memorial NCAA Basketball Tournament

HOW: Come back here and fill out a bracket, then either give me $5 cash, or send me the money by your banks online payment system

HOW MUCH: Five bucks per entry. I just said that. Pay attention. And yes, you can enter more than once (but no more than five times, thanks to the Nevin Barich rule).

THE PAYOUT: The winner gets 70% of the pot, runner-up 20% and third-place person 10%.  And if you finish dead last, you get your five bucks back.  Twenty bucks is coming out of the pot to pay for the software that I use (it’s worth it, trust me), and I give myself 2 free entries.

SCORING: 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.

WHY GLIMM? The pool is named for Alma Glimm, my 11th grade math teacher.

AGAIN, WHY GLIMM? Because Mrs. Glimm represents all that is good about an NCAA tournament pool – she proved that anybody can win these office pools. Knowledge of college basketball is irrelevant, and we all have a chance.

When I was in 11th grade, this pool was in its fifth year. In math class one day, I was passing out brackets, getting people to sign up, when Mrs. Glimm swooped in. “Gambling in school?” she said incredulously. “You can’t gamble in school!”  Undeterred, I explained to her that no money was changing hands, and it was just for fun – yes, I lied.  All of the sudden, Mrs.Glimm perked up. “Really?” she said. “Can I try?” So I handed her a bracket.

Mrs. Glimm, who had no knowledge of college basketball and had never participated in a pool before, finished in first place. Of course, because she didn’t think there was money involved, she got a nice pat on the back, and the runner-up took the cash.

WHY MEMORIAL? WHEN DID ALMA DIE? Well, thankfully, Mrs. Glimm is still alive and kicking. But when I decided to name the pool for her, I decided that Glimm Memorial had a good ring to it. So for the sake of marketing, I killed her off. I also changed her name from Marion to Alma, as Greg Wilson exposed in the Wilson Report.

WHAT DOES MRS. GLIMM THINK OF ALL THIS? Mrs. Glimm is a good sport. In fact, 20 years after that 11th grade math class, Mrs. Glimm and other Glimm family members have discovered our pool and now participate with us.

HOW TO PAY: You have 2 options: Give me cash in person, or sen $5 via your bank’s online payment system.