Golden Valley’s Thissen in dead last heading into Final Four

Matt Thissen loved his bracket on the first day of the NCAA tournament. The Golden Valley athletic director and former girls basketball coach went 14-2 to open the tournament.

It quickly unraveled from there.

Thissen missed five games on day two and in the second round his bracket completely fell apart. He watched as his beloved Duke Blue Devils were upset by South Carolina. Not only is Duke his favorite team, but it was also his pick to win it all.

Fast forward to the Final Four and Thissen has already clinched last place in the 2017 Marci Stenberg Bracket Challenge. It’s not just that Thissen is at the bottom of the standings, but it’s how far he’s behind everybody else that is so astonishing.

“I really didn’t feel I took a lot of risks with my bracket,” Thissen said. “My two biggest risks were picking Butler to beat North Carolina in the second round and Wichita State to beat Kentucky. Both didn’t happen.”

Thissen’s bracket is so bad he had no Final Four picks and only one of the Elite Eight picked in Kansas.

“I’ve received a few texts and some phone calls the last couple days since the tournament standings came out,” Thissen said. “Some of my closest friends have called to let me know I’m at the bottom of the standings.”

How crazy has this tournament been?

Both Thissen and former Merced College women’s coach Don Reid picked Duke to win it all. Thissen is predictably on the bottom of the standings, but Reid is sitting on top.

That’s because almost half (13) of our 27 participants didn’t pick a single Final Four team correctly. Only four people picked two of the Final Four teams.

Le Grand boys coach Adrian Sanchez was the only person to pick Oregon to reach the Final Four and nobody picked South Carolina.

So at the top, it’s a three-person race between Reid, Sanchez and Los Banos football coach Dustin Caropreso to take home this year’s title.

Reid needs South Carolina to win it all to hold off Sanchez and Caropreso. Sanchez would win if North Carolina defeats South Carolina in the championship game. Caropreso is the only one that still has his two championship game teams alive. He picked North Carolina to defeat Gonzaga in the finals, which means if Gonzaga reaches the finals, Caropreso wins.

It’s been quite a showing for the Los Banos crew with Tigers girls coach Danny Crosby currently sitting in third place and LB athletic director Joe Barcellos and Caropreso tied for fourth.

“I didn’t get a chance to see their brackets,” Crosby said. “I was going to give Barcellos some grief when he was sitting in 12th place, but he’s still got a chance to beat me.”

While most of us don’t have a rooting interest in the four teams remaining in the field, some of us can find a reason to root against certain teams.

“I’d like nothing more than to see North Carolina to lose in the finals for the second year in a row,” Thissen said. “I never liked to see anything good happen to Carolina.”

Spoke like a true, deranged Duke fan.

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Golden Valley’s Thissen in dead last heading into Final Four."