LBU Bracket Challenge 2011: The WINNERS!

Tonight is the title game in Houston, but as is probably the case with 99 percent of the brackets out there this year, it's game over. For our 2011 LBU Bracket Challenge--yes, we will surely have another next year--prizes were to be awarded to the top three brackets in our challenge. And this morning, we're happy to announce our winners!

• Coming in at Number Three, we have the Jimbo Slice bracket, submitted by J. Owlett. He projected enough of the early winners to keep his head above water long enough, eventually waiting out the pack to surge ahead by picking UConn for the title game. Unfortunately, had he not been a total homer like the rest of us and picked Temple over Penn State, this bracket probably would have come in second place.The points breakdown:

RNK	ENTRY, OWNER	R64	R32	S16	E8	FF	NCG	CHAMPION	PPR	TOTAL	PCT
3	Jimbo Slice, J. Owlett	260	160	120	80	160	0	Kansas	0	780	97.0

• For bracket Number Two, we have a runner on our hands, folks, as the scxcrunner1 bracket, submitted by C. Baker is our appropriately-named "runner" up this year. The only region that really killed the scxcrunner1 bracket was the Southeast. But then again, who wasn't absolutely destroyed by VCU making its run? Baker correctly picked UConn for the title game, but the Huskies were his only correct Final Four pick. The points breakdown:

RNK	ENTRY, OWNER	R64	R32	S16	E8	FF	NCG	CHAMPION	PPR	TOTAL	PCT
2	scxcrunner1 1, C. Baker	240	200	120	80	160	0	Kansas	0	800	97.9

• And finally, resting atop the 2011 LBU Bracket Challenge at NUMBAH ONE is "The Voice," Beaver Stadium's very own public address announcer Dean DeVore. His bracket, DeanPSUpa1 was the only submission to correctly pick Kentucky for the Final Four, along with UConn. It was a wild rally in the waning rounds for Dean. It was just two rounds ago that his bracket was sitting way back tied for 15th place heading into the Elite Eight. But that Kentucky pick sustained the momentum right up through tonight's title matchup. The points breakdown:

RNK	ENTRY, OWNER	R64	R32	S16	E8	FF	NCG	CHAMPION	PPR	TOTAL	PCT
1	DeanPSUpa1, D. Otthofer	190	180	160	160	160	0	Kansas	0	850	99.2

For the winners:

Please send an email to Staff.LBU[at]gmail[dot]com so we can get your prizes ordered and to you ASAP.

For everyone else (us LBU guys included):

We hope everyone had fun in our inaugural LBU Bracket Challenge. It should be even more fun next year with even more people coming on board.

To check out where you're bracket ground to a halt, check out the FULL STANDINGS at ESPN.

See you all next year!

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