Drake

BUTLER TWP - Playing a couple of office March Madness pools, David Drake managed to finish as high as second.

He finally got over the top in the Butler Eagle's March Madness Contest against 1,445 other entries.

"I'd never played the newspaper's contest before," said Drake, 34, of Butler Township. "My dad's done it a couple of times and he told me about it."

Drake is a 1992 Slippery Rock High graduate and was the starting point guard on the Rockets' basketball team his senior year.

"I'm a pretty big college basketball fan," Drake said. "Pitt is my favorite team."

Yet, he couldn't bring himself to pick the Panthers as a Final Four team. He had them losing to Villanova in the Elite Eight, which is what happened.

"Villanova beat them during the regular season ... and Pitt never gets to the Final Four," Drake said. "I kept wavering back and forth on that one."

Drake missed nine games in the tournament's first round, "but I had all nine of those teams losing in the second round anyway," he said.

He wound up correctly predicting 15 of the Sweet 16 and seven of the Elite Eight. The only Elite Eight team he missed was Connecticut.

"I had UConn losing to Purdue," he said. "I had the other three Final Four teams correct."

He had the championship game North Carolina defeating Michigan State correct as well. That gave him 118 points in the March Madness Contest, one point better than runner-up Pam Steighner.

"I'm sure Michigan State was worth a lot of points for me in this thing," Drake said.

Drake's wife, Kristie, participated in the contest as well and finished 698th. Like her husband, she was a first-time participant.

"I don't really follow basketball, but I get forced into watching it," she said.

Memphis State, Louisville and Pitt were three of her Final Four selections.

"She picked decent teams. They just lost," Drake said.

But his didn't.

"This is the first time he's ever played this contest and he wins it. I'm very proud of him," his wife said.