Last year, it was Kansas. This year, UConn. Both times, Bohling.

For the second year in a row, Kelly Bohling made the Glimm look easy. She dominated the back half of the tournament — she was the only person in the pool to correctly pick the champion and another Final Four team. 

With 105.5 total points in her Bohling-3 bracket, she became the first back-to-back Glimm champion in 15 years, and only the second ever.

Otto Kern’s Ottomatic 2 finished second with 95.5 points, and Francesca Catalano’s Jessie Pinkman finished third with 94.5. Catalano became the first Glimmer to finish in the top three in both the men’s and women’s pool (her Walter White bracket finished second in the women’s competition).

There were tight competitions for other honors, too: 

In the Kid’s tournament, Rose Varley (68.5 points) held off Avery Sweet (67.5 points) to win the title. Avery lingered at the bottom of the bracket for much of the tournament but surged toward the top with SDSU and Miami picks. Had SDSU beaten UConn, Avery would have won the kid’s title. 

The race for the Orlov came down to the tie-breaker. The Orlov goes to whoever finishes in exactly the middle – in this case, 128th place. With a five-way tie for 125th place, that means the Orlov goes to whoever finishes fourth in the tiebreaker. That honor went to Evan Kwarta’s at least i have more hair than eck bracket. 

The Glimm Scholarship went to Eli Lester, whose 69 points beat out brother Owen by 3. Owen and Eli have alternated the price the last few years. 

The Pity Prize, going to the last-place finisher, also came down to the tie-breaker — both Diane Otter’s Olives and Doug Sweet’s PJS finished with 28 points, but Diane lost the tiebreaker, meaning she finished dead last and gets her $5 back.

Lots of final standings to peruse:

Men’s standings | Women’s standings | Kids tournament | Glimm Scholarship

Thanks for joining us these last few weeks, and see you next year! 

For the first weekend of the Glimm men’s NCAA tourney pool, defending champ Kelly Bohling struggled. She entered three brackets, and none cracked the top 50. The chances of a repeat champion seemed slim.

Then Bohling’s long-shot bet on Miami paid off: As the Hurricanes pulled off back-to-back upsets, Bohling’s Bohling-3 climbed through the standings.

Now, with three games remaining, Bohling is poised to become just the second back-to-back champion in Glimm history.  Her path to victory is straightforward: If UConn, the favorite of the remaining four teams, wins the championship, Bohling will win the Glimm.

But favorites haven’t faired very well in this tournament, and if UConn falters, two other women are waiting in the wings: Sylvia Horowitz and Nicole Kleinbaum.

99-year-old Sylvia Horowitz also bet on Miami – but she had more faith in the Hurricanes than Bohling. If Miami wins the championship (including an upset of UConn on Saturday), Horowitz’s bigmama bracket will finish first.

Nicole Kleinbaum also has a chance: If SDSU beats Miami in the championship game, her yamama bracket will finish first.

This sets up an intriguing possibility: A Miami-SDSU championship will pit Kleinbaum against Horowitz, her grandmother-in-law. And they will be together to watch the game — Kleinbaum and family will be visiting Horowitz for spring break. 

And that’s it. Bohling, Horowitz and Kleinbaum are the last three standings: Nobody else has a chance to win. That includes Arun Gopal’s Brandon Miller’s Alibi, which remains in first place but cannot fold onto it – best-case scenario, the Alibi will finish second (much better than Brandon Miller himself). It also includes Lauren Kimball, whose LK1 bracket is in second place – Kimball’s bracket is done, and she will not finish in the top three. 

The down-bracket competitions are also coming down to the wire: 

* The Kids Championship is a two-person race: Rose Varley and Avery Sweet. Rose’s rose.granger bracket leads the kids tournament right now with 68.5 points, but Avery could jump to first place if SDSU wins it all. Avery’s bugsy bracket was in 250th place — second-to-last — after the first round, but was the only person in the entire Glimm to pick two Final Four times (SDSU and Miami). 

* The battle for the pity money is tight: Diane Otter’s Olives and Doug Sweet’s PJS are tied for last place, with 28 points, which means it will come down to who loses the championship-game tiebreaker.

Overall, 11 Glimmers have a chance to finish in the money (top three). Check out the possible outcomes here, complete what if scenarios here, and the full standings here. 

The men’s tournament resumes on Saturday with the Final Four. In the women’s tournament, the Elite Eight wraps up tonight, and we’ll have a women’s update after that.

The 2023 Men’s Glimm Memorial is officially underway, and by the time I got a chance to write this, we’ve already had two major upsets: Arizona and Virginia are both out. That means 16 Glimmers lost their champion before sunset on the tourney’s first day.

If you’re one of those 16, fear not: You still have a chance at redemption. Enter the women’s pool by noon tomorrow to prove that this was a fluke. And if you’re not one of those 16? Enter the women’s pool anyway.

We officially have 258 entries in the men’s pool and 51 in the women’s pool – which means a lot of you have a bracket to fill out.

In the men’s pool, eight people picked the massive upset of Arizona by Princeton. That included Mike Kotowski and Liz Crago (RockyMtOysters), who are tied for first early in the tournament. But obviously, there is much more basketball to play.

And unlike most years, there is no heavy favorite pick: No team was picked by more than 20% of Glimmers to win the pool. Alabama (51) and Houston (49) were the most popular picks, but 28 different teams were picked to win the whole thing, including nine by at least 10 Glimmers.

As usual, theglimm.com will be your home for all things Glimm throughout the tournament – these periodic updates will go there, as well as updated standings and more. And while you’re there, fill out that women’s bracket!