Wire-to-Wire: Coyne on Fire

by: The Cold Hard Truth

As I was sitting here watching the final round of the Masters, two things struck me. First, I forgot to write the final CBCC story...and secondly, it is hard to go wire-to-wire in anything. Mike Coyne of Mansfield, Texas has accomplished something unheard of in Dirty-Dawg CBCC history - he successfully capped off an incredible wire-to-wire championship. As Villanova was draining the final three to sink the Tar Heels in one of the best championship games we've seen in three decades, Mike was defeating Gregory Forrester of Glasgow, Montana by a mere 24 points.

It was like Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths. It was like Edwin Moses winning 122 straight races in the 400m hurdles. It was like Jordan Spieth - last year - winning the Masters. It was wire-to-wire and except for a few moments when Syracuse was pretending to play basketball, Mike had this thing wrapped up.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Jimmy Orsag from Rochester, PA for being the only person in this contest to pick Villanova to win it all. Still, Jimmy was only able attain 13th place, 131 points behind our chsmpion. The moral of the story - you have to be able to pick winners throughout the tournament to do well. It takes both skill and a little luck. I will remember this as the year that Gonzaga had Syracuse on the ropes and couldn't finish the job. This will be the year we talk about OU "sort of" making it to the Final 4; the year that Northern Iowa won on a miracle shot, then returned that miracle a game later to Texas A&M. Go back and take a look at that three point shot by Marcus Paige that looked like it would send the championship game into overtime. The still image of that shot is fantastic. Paige is probably 40 inches off the ground as he released the ball. It is a reminder that there are much better athletes in this world than we have ever dreamed of being. We are all given our special gifts. Until the CBCC, I thought that my gift was predicting basketball games. Unfortunately, I am re-evaluating this believe. Data can only take you so far. To win the CBCC takes some more. Mike Coyne, you were like Steph Curry - on fire! So we salute you on your fine performance.