With the NCAA tournament starting back up tonight, it is time for the biggest event of this season since last week, and that is the second week of bracket pools.

In our own BG News Bracket Pool, there are some doing good but, just like in the teams we are watching, there are a few that are standing above the rest. With the brunt of those involved in this year standing in the middle of the pack — 30 of the 56 contestants are between 39 and 43 points — it is just Andrew Manzone (52 points), Doug Borger (48) and Joe Akosi (46) that have separated themselves from the rest of the contestants.

But worry not everyone else, there are chinks in their armor.

Manzone, who has been wrong on just nine games thus far, has taken his chances in the Final Four, taking North Carolina as his only number one seed going to Indianapolis.

Akosi is still going strong after losing one Final Four team, Syracuse, in the first round. But that could be what hurts him in the end.

And Borger appears to be going strong thanks to faith in taking minor upsets and is sitting pretty because he chose Texas Tech to go to the Elite Eight — a feat that seems more likely with Wake Forest out of the way.

So what is it that has set the rest of us (I would have a meager 43 points right now) apart this year? That’s easy, a lot of luck and a few surprises.

Here are a few things that are killing those taking part in this year’s pool.

Syracuse

If you’re like me, you know Hakim Warrick (10 turnovers in the Orangemen’s loss) isn’t a good basketball player — at least not yet.

A whopping 34 percent of those taking part in the pool this year had Boehim’s team making a run for the Final Four, and three had his team winning. But not all the Gerry McNamara threes in the world can bring ‘Cuse back now.

If only everyone knew of the powers of T.J. Sorrentine and Taylor Coppenrath.

The ACC

If you told me last week that North Carolina State was going to make the Sweet 16, I would’ve told you the ACC would have four, maybe five teams still standing at this point.

I would’ve been a liar.

Thanks to a surprising — and entertaining — West Virginia upset of Wake Forest and an unsettling disposal of Georgia Tech by Louisville, the ACC appears to be just another conference.

This year, no conference is dominating in the tournament and that has hurt just about everyone in the pool this year.

Over half of the contestants in this year’s pool had Wake going to the Final Four while over 40 percent of the contestants had Georgia Tech pulling out a win against fourth ranked Louisville this past weekend.

So get your flaming bag of crap and collectively drop it at the doors of the ACC and show your appreciation for their early exits this year.

The lower half of the Syracuse Region

Congratulations N.C. State and Wisconsin, you’ve made it to the Sweet 16.

But more importantly, you’ve angered 80 percent of the constituency of the BG News readership that is in our pool this year.

That is because 80 percent of us (and me) had Connecticut and Kansas meeting for a dream matchup tomorrow.

Thanks to Connecticut’s lack of patience, and everyone’s lack of acknowledging just how bad Kansas had gotten, most of us completely screwed up that part of our brackets. So this bag is for you, Kansas and Connecticut, for ruining our aging childhoods.

Gonzaga

The days are gone when powerhouses overlooked Gonzaga.

Now it is time for Gonzaga to be a powerhouse and overlook the little man.

This year, not only did the Bulldogs pay for their lack of preparation, so did Brackateers. Four of every five contestants had Gonzaga surviving until today and four of every five contestants are kicking themselves.

And losing to Winthrop makes things worse.

That is all I can say about the Zags, anything more will result in cuss words.

So for all the Jason Lozers (43 points), Chris Pittmans (40) and Jon Robertsons (41) of the world, here is to hoping the ACC, Syracuse and Gonzaga stop haunting you through the rest of March and the early part of next April.