MICHELLE TEMPLE is the winner of the 2002 Pac-10 Hoop-Pundits Pool. For the second straight year, the contest was decided by a two point margin. Despite having only one correct prediction on the conference leaders portion of the contest, Michelle, who was 15th last year, held off J.M. Trancos, who tied for the best winning percentage and Steve Steinhart, who won last year.

Michelle is a legal assistant in Seattle who entered the contest to try to beat her boyfriend. Not only did she beat him, but all of us as well. Her performance was definitely not a fluke. Here is her own description of her contest methodology:

"For this particular contest I developed a beginning power rating for each of the PAC10 schools using Sagarin and RPI as well as several other rating services - I used a sliding point system for home court advantage - I adjusted for traditional rivalries - I predicted who I thought would improve and who I thought would regress during the course of the conference schedule and adjusted accordingly. Apparently my system worked well enough although I did overestimate USC and underestimate Oregon (however, I think coaching was a factor in both cases and next year I may make slight adjustments for that factor as well as the others that I presently take into consideration)."

CONTEST FACTS AND FIGURES:

As usual, the bonus point categories were hard to predict. Four entrants, Bill Shadle, Steve Moore, Greg (UO), and Michael Bartlett had five of the ten categories correct. To see how our picks compared with the actual category winners, go to Summary of Picks . The only one to predict that Oregon would be the regular season champion was Greg (UO). Mazzela and John Dmohowski tabbed Maryland as the national champ. (bruab foli had Memphis as the NCAA champion but got no credit for getting the NIT champion).

Team Standings - total of top three from each school(best individual)

  • (1)California 3193 (Michelle Temple)
  • (2)Stanford 3102 (J.M. Trancos)
  • (3)UCLA 3051 (Ken Tomlinson)
  • (4)USC 3035 (Tommy Wren)
  • (5)Oregon 3025 (Mike Magee)
  • (6)Oregon St 2875 (Scott Morrison)
  • (7)Arizona 2691 (Steve McCanse)
  • (8)WSU 2655 (Jason Hickman)
  • (9)ASU 1815 (Al Laube)
  • (10)Washington 1790 (Brian Smith)

    Most exact margin picks: 8 (Michelle Temple)

    Fewest exact margin picks: 0 (Bryan Butcher, Scott Morrison, Mark Backstrom, Kev Hayashida, Eric Shultz, Mark Zappaterreno)

    Best winning percentage: 77.3% (68-20) (J.M. Trancos, Ken Tomlinson)

    Previous winners:

  • 1997 Dale Wheatley 14th
  • 1999 Eric Yabu 19th
  • 2001 Steve Steinhart 3rd

    First ten to send in entries averaged 898. Last ten to send in their entries averaged 948.

    Last year/This year: Steve Steinhart #1/#3, Larry Harris #12/#11, Ken Tomlinson #14/#6, Michelle Temple #15/#1, J.M. Trancos #17/#2

    Most consistent: Julie Yabu finished 13th, 13th, 15th the last three years.

    Football/Basketball experts: J.M. Trancos #7/#2 Charles DeMartini #4/#4 in the two pools this year.

    FINAL STANDINGS: all ties broken by (1) winning pct; (2) exact picks

    # NAME W-L (E) TOTAL
    1 Michelle Temple (Go Bears) 65-23 8 1076
    2 J.M. Trancos (Stanford '83) 68-20 3 1074
    3 Steve Steinhart (Stanford Indians) 66-22 6 1065
    4 Charles DeMartini (California) 67-21 3 1060
    5 Steve Moore (Cal Alum) 66-22 5 1057
    6 Ken Tomlinson (UCLA) 68-20 2 1050
    7 Mike Magee (Oregon Ducks) 66-22 5 1046
    8 Sam Kerr (cal'79) 66-22 5 1042
    9 Tommy Wren (USC) 63-25 7 1030
    10 CONSENSUS 66-22 2 1027
    11 Larry Harris (USC) 63-25 2 1015
    12 bruab foli 63-25 5 1014
    13 Howie Ludwig (Cal '69) 64-24 1 1004
    14 Dale Wheatley (UCLA Alum) 62-26 3 1004
    15 Julie Yabu (Cal '90) 67-21 4 1002
    16 Matt Broback (Cal 92) 64-24 1 1001
    17 Jared Leighton (UBD) 63-25 5 1001
    18 John Poprac (UCLA '88) 61-27 3 997
    19 Eric Yabu (Cal '89) 63-25 3 996
    20 Steven Butler (Go Ducks) 63-25 2 996
    21 Brett Padelford (USC TMB embowafa) 61-27 6 990
    22 Steve McCanse (Cats) 61-27 3 990
    23 Walid (Cal86) 64-24 6 988
    24 John Brizendine (UCLA) 66-22 5 986
    25 John Dmohowski (USC) 58-30 5 986
    26 Kevin Yin (California) 63-25 3 985
    27 Scott Rothstein (UCLA '91) 63-25 2 984
    28 Sergio Tapia (Cal90) 60-28 4 983
    29 Bryan Butcher (Oregon '87) 60-28 0 983
    30 Scott Morrison (OSU Beavers) 62-26 0 978
    31 Ben Browdy (UCLA) 63-25 2 972
    32 Alex Hall (UCLA '94) 63-25 7 970
    33 Bill Shadle (Stanford 84) 62-26 4 963
    34 Mark Backstrom (USC 1992) 64-24 0 962
    35 Richard Meyer (UCLA) 63-25 3 961
    36 Cory Hibbert (OSU) 62-26 4 959
    37 Kehinde Madison (USC/Track) 60-28 3 956
    38 tpope (cccard) 63-25 1 955
    39 Barry Beck (UCLA) 62-26 3 952
    40 Michael Bartlett (UCLA '90) 60-28 1 949
    41 TVofTroy (USC) 64-24 3 947
    42 Mark Brown (USC '05) 62-26 5 944
    43 AL Laube (ASU) 61-27 1 944
    44 Raghava Kondepudy (UCI) 60-28 3 941
    45 Jeff Schloss (OSU '94) 62-26 2 938
    46 Peter Symonds (Cal Band) 60-28 3 937
    47 Phil Dorland (UCLA) 60-28 3 936
    48 Mazzela (uschoops.com) 58-30 3 936
    49 Autzen1 (Ducks) 62-26 2 930
    50 Josh Siefried (UCLA) 59-29 7 924
    51 kev hayashida (UCLA '87) 64-24 0 923
    52 M. Piekarski (UCI) 56-32 3 923
    53 Brian Smith (UW) 62-26 2 921
    54 Ted Lin (Stanford '94) 59-29 3 920
    55 Darrin Banks (CAL 89) 61-26 3 919
    56 Paul Maslin (Berkeley Resident) 61-27 1 916
    57 Jason Hickman (WSU) 62-26 3 915
    58 Edmund Johnson (UC Berkeley) 62-26 2 914
    59 Mick (Santa Clara) 61-27 4 914
    60 Scott Reiter (Bruin Friend) 60-28 2 914
    61 Chygga Chang (USC) 60-28 1 914
    62 Richard Lee (Cal) 59-29 3 911
    63 Big Al (UCLA) 60-28 4 904
    64 Michael Piken (Cal) 61-27 1 902
    65 Barry Abel (Ucla/GoBruins) 61-27 4 901
    66 Michael Conkey (Oregon Ducks) 55-33 3 895
    67 jake sharff (san manuel) 56-31 1 892
    68 tony kraft (WSU 89) 58-30 4 885
    69 Richard Brisacher (UCLA '88) 59-29 2 881
    70 Jeffrey Olen (ASU '96) 56-32 2 871
    71 Brad Moore (UW 74/UW 77) 58-30 1 869
    72 les pearlman (usc fan) 57-31 3 868
    73 Eric Schultz (Oregon State) 57-31 0 867
    74 Patrick Puhl (USC) 60-28 3 866
    75 Bill Allen (UCLA '60) 57-31 2 865
    76 Nick Gregor (UC Berkeley) 56-32 3 864
    77 Devon Allgower (UCLA) 59-29 2 861
    78 Les Canterbury (Arizona) 61-27 2 858
    79 James C. Duncan 62-26 4 856
    80 Korri Anderson (WSU Class of 2009) 55-33 4 855
    81 Ty Gonrowski (University of Oregon) 56-32 1 853
    82 Gary Cowham (Fresno State/IAC) 57-31 2 846
    83 Tim O. (U of A) 58-30 2 843
    84 Bobby Toda (Stanford) 56-32 3 841
    85 Darrell Forman (USC) 56-32 3 820
    86 Mark Zappaterreno (UCLA Alumnus/Staff) 55-33 0 815
    87 Greg (UO) 56-32 1 813
    88 Jeff Creighton (UCLA 2002) 52-36 2 778
    89 Corey Crowley-Hall (WSU) 55-33 2 769
    90 Bill Dandridge (UCLA) 56-32 2 763
    91 Phil (Oregon) 52-36 2 761
    92 Mitchell Brisacher (UCLA Class of 2016) 50-38 5 754
    93 Paul Baisted (OSU '02) 53-35 1 732