Going into Saturday’s Final Four games, I had every reason to believe that the picks of Carolina Boy would hold up, setting up a championship game showdown between Carolina Boy and The Wife/Ethel.

And then the divine intervention happened.

As we all know by now, UNC got waxed by Kansas and UCLA was buried by Memphis, a turn that killed the championship games predicted by the three aformentioned contestants. The beneficiary? The Most Reverend Father Spoon, who has wrapped up the top spot in the Third Annual Uncle Crappy NCAA Final Four Challenge.

How did Spoon pull this off? It’s pretty simple: he was one of five entrants who had Kansas in the final game — the others are Carla, Kewyson, Mr. Burns and Large — and he had more points going in than any of the others. Regardless of what happens in tonight’s championship game, there isn’t anything anyone else can do to catch him, and the fabulous prize* will be his.

For the record, the other four tied for second place. They get nothing but bragging rights.

Some other quirks:

• As you might have figured, not one of us picked Memphis to make it to the title game.
• We had the most faith in UNC — eight of us picked them to make it to tonight’s championship. UCLA was next, with seven of us picking them to make the finals.
• Duke had three picks, followed by Stanford, Georgetown and Pitt with two each and Texas, Louisville, Tennessee and Butler — thanks once again to Juan and Phil’s Mom — with one apiece.

Thanks again to everyone who played, and congratulations to Father Spoon.

*Prizes not actually fabulous.