‘If I wanted a team to win, they won.’ Golden Valley coach ran away with bracket pool.

Jerry Stillahn made it look easy.

The Golden Valley High boys assistant coach led wire to wire and he left all the other coaches and participants in the 17th annual Marci Stenberg Bracket Challenge in his wake. Stillahn is the winner of our local tournament pool of coaches and reporters for the second consecutive year.

Stillahn was one of four participants to pick Virginia to win it all. The others were El Capitan boys coach Adrian Hurtado (second), former Merced College coach Don Reid (third) and former Sun-Star reporter Jason Paha (fourth).

Stillahn says he’s never filled out a better bracket.

“It was so much fun watching the games,” Stillahn said. “It seemed like if I wanted a team to win, they won. It was amazing.”

Stillahn isn’t kidding.

The longtime Cougars assistant picked 27 of the 32 first-round games correctly. He followed that up by picking 14 of the Sweet 16 teams.

In a pool that saw 11 of the 23 participants fail to pick any of the Final Four, Stillahn picked three in Virginia, Michigan State and Texas Tech.

He didn’t shy away from the Cavaliers despite their shocking first-round exit last year.

“I thought what a great story that would be if they come back and win it after what they did last year,” Stillahn said. “That’s a Disney movie type scenario.”

Watching Texas Tech a couple times during the season impressed Stiillahn enough to pick them to reach the Final Four.

“I love teams that get into that defensive stance and stay in that stance the entire game,” he said. “They just make it miserable for the other team.

Stillahn also wanted to stay away from Duke and felt Michigan State had as good as chance as any team to knock off the Blue Devils.

Everything just fell in place for Stillahn as he becomes just the third coach to win in back-to-back years.

Not so much for my bracket. For the 17th straight year I did not win. I was one of the 11 people who didn’t pick any of the Final Four teams correctly.

At least I didn’t finish last.

That honor went to Sun-Star reporter Vikaas Shanker, who’s bracket was toast when he slotted UC Irvine in his Final Four. It was a tough year for Shanker, watched as his beloved Kansas saw its streak of Big 12 championships end at 14 consecutive titles.

It was another fun tournament with a lot of great games down the stretch.

Can’t wait to do it all again next year.

This story was originally published April 10, 2019 at 6:28 PM with the headline "‘If I wanted a team to win, they won.’ Golden Valley coach ran away with bracket pool.."