Noe Body Wins Massive Staten Island NCAA Pool

The Advance follows up on the $1.5 million NCAA pool at Jody’s Club Forest in Staten Island:

So, who won the pool?

Noe Body, said bar owner Jody Haggerty.

That was the alias printed on the entry sheet, he said.

It likely belongs to a group of people splitting the bounty after having cut deals with each other as the number of teams reduced to last night’s Final Two.

The human urge to dream if only is the key to the pool’s outsized popularity, Haggerty explained after about 100 patrons abruptly emptied the place at the end of the game.

You know why the winners aren’t here? Haggerty said, leaping off his stool at the edge of the bar, tugging on his black T-shirt and pointing at a reporter. Because you’re here.

Although the pool is technically legal, according to the district’s attorney’s office, the bar management has long played a game of cat-and-mouse with the press, communicating in double speak, if at all.

. . .

To win the big moolah in the Jody’s pool, bettors must name the top team in each of the four brackets, pick the champion and divine the combined point score of the final game.

But in a twist this year, three out of four teams was good enough — after Cinderella entry George Mason stayed alive until Saturday.