DUBOIS, Penn.–Shane Pentz, CFO at Timberland Federal Credit Union here, has won CUToday.info’s credit union-wide NCAA March Madness bracket-picking contest. Pentz finished with 102 points in CUToday.info’s “CU In The Tourney” pool, which was managed by CBS Sports. The second place finisher had 99 points.
For his skills in basketball prognostication, Pentz wins a $100 gift card from CUToday.info.
Pentz’s bracket and total points were helped by the fact he “bleeds Carolina blue.” A #1 seed, the North Carolina Tar Heels went all the way to the championship game where they lost on a buzzer-beater 77-74 to the Villanova Wildcats. Like nearly everyone else in the CUToday.info bracket, Pentz did not pick Villanova to go all the way to the championship, instead picking Kansas to not only make the title game, but to beat his Tar Heels for the championship.
“I'm a huge college basketball fan,” Pentz told CUToday.info, calling his victory in the pool “bittersweet” due to Carolina’s loss. “My ‘formula’ for picking the brackets is to pick a few upsets in the first few rounds but to make sure that most of the top seeds advance past the first weekend. I try to pick out teams from conferences that are stronger than others and advance them as well. Also, it usually works out that two teams from one conference make the Final Four, although I don't think Syracuse making the Final Four is anything that anyone saw coming.”
Pentz thanked Russell Evans of the Pennsylvania CU Association for making him aware of the CUToday.info pool.
In the spirit of sportsmanship, Frank J. Diekmann, CUToday.info’s Cooperator in Chief, said he finished far down in the pool standings this year in order to ensure the CU community knew there were no insider influences.