EL SEGUNDO/CERRITOS, CA (smt)-  Third time's the charm as freshmen and sophomores finally pushed Kentucky over the hump to get their 8th national championship.  With up to five players declaring for the NBA draft, coach John Calipari will once again rebuild from the ground up -- an annual ritual since he joined the team in 2009 and had five players selected in the NBA's first round after the 2009-2010 season.  Or maybe the players stay and build a true dynasty.  Yeah, right.  There's no glory in repeating when there is a level higher than you're at.  To be at the top and to get better you have to play against the best and that's in the NBA.  But not all 5 eligible players are ready so we shall see.

Our youngest pool winner ever, Quinn D, is now our 4th highest money winner ($540) behind Scott T ($630), Roy W ($650), and our only two-time champion, Robinson C ($680). Quinn believed in himself and was active on Facebook extolling his high ranking and it paid off.  So the rest of you, next year participate on Facebook or our blog!  With only one person winning money in their first try, the average number of years playing for our winners was 9.25 years, which is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears before hitting paydirt.  Just two people won for at least the second time but both have played at least 14 of the 18 years.   Taking that into account means our winners have played an average of 6.7 years per win.  So checks have been mailed (except for the one who hasn't contacted me --- looking at you Jon J) and checks have been cashed (except for the one that couldn't be direct deposited by my phone -- looking at you Byron W -- now I have to actually physically go to an ATM).

Based on our popular HWCI World Cup Pool, we will be doing the Euro 2012 soccer pool where you don't have to worry about teams like Ghana or South Africa or New Zealand or even, the USA.  Just the good teams (get it while it lasts because in 2016 there will be 24 teams instead of 16).  Save your $10 now.

So do you have a better chance now that our pool has grown from 12 to 134 entries?  Well, with inflation, the $10 you paid back in 1995 in now worth $14.94 today which means you are effectively paying just $6.69 per entry vs. the $10 back in 1995, or the same amount gives you 3 entries today vs. 2 entries of yesteryear.  So your costs to enter are cheaper.   In raw terms, you had a 25% chance to win money (3 of 12) back in our first year compared to 5.2% (7 of 134) today.  But the chance for winning bigger money is far greater ($40 average per winning slot ($120/3) in 1995 vs. $191.43 ($1340/7) today).  What that means is that back in 1995, your chance to win was $13.33 on the $10 fee (percentage to win times average per winning slot).  Despite the larger number of entries, your chance to win today is $27.35 on the $10 fee, or with inflation factored in, $40.86 on the $10 fee.  Meaning the reward is well worth the risk (about 3 times better than in 1995).  Or winning just once is all you likely need to pay back years of pool play. 

Does that mean entering three times means your chances are 9 times better (3x3)?  No, since your picks aren't independent of each other, meaning your picks are likely highly correlated at the beginning (picking more upsets in 2nd/3rd round but keeping favorites toward the end) or the end (picking more/less the same 2nd/3rd round but different Final Four teams).  Over the years, however, while you were pretty much even on single vs. dual entries (7.0% won vs. 9.2% won), you were almost three times more likely to win with 3 entries (6/30 = 20%).  Just something to think about for next year.

This is the second year where I had no desire to try to mention every nickname used in the pool as just thinking of the task was tiring.  Plus, it's hard to be clever with SpAva (our kids Spencer & Ava) keeping you busy the time you aren't working or sleeping (oh, wait, I'm not sleeping). Plus, what is with only one color reference (BigRedMessi)?

There were the backers who won (Coach Cal) but most fizzled out in the Final Four (Bigtenfan, Buckeye23, TheBuckeye23), in the Elite 8 (Gator Glory), the second or third rounds (local teams 49er Time, Go Beach!, & Marching Sp-Aztecs, Bamag & Bamag 2, The Paint Crew), or did not even have a chance to fizzle in not making the tourney (Illinois' Weber Memorial Picks & Zook Memorial Picks, UW's WhoLeftTheDawgOut, USC's PRIDE OF TROY).  And were these Clemson (SoCalTiger) or Seton Hall (Buccos 1-3) fans?

I always loved the nods to mythology (Unicorns, Sisyphus 13/69/86, King Triton) and ones that would make great sport team names (Frye Island Knights, Frye Island Thunder, Kona Coast Sliders, SC Algonquin, Delcroix Angles, Delcroix Demon's, MB Camel Jokies). 

We had suggestive nicknames (Spermicidals, Legally Fabone, Sexual Napalm, Nailed It!!!, Slamjam51, Vodka2-Its Not Real, Vodka2-It's Real) and political nicknames (Frumunda Mybalz, Shut Your Occupy Hole, Noam Chomsky, Shibai44), or are they one in the same?

Have to love the Star Wars reference (Ana2Vader), Christmas reference (AsherPrancerVixen), and reference the cool movie I haven't seen yet (John Galt). Can't help but think of Jeremy Lin with Quinnsanity and In It To Nguyen It or food with Craft Mac n Cheese (my son's fav), DoughBoy,  RunsWithCrackers, TacoLover, Krispy Kremer, and Thai Spice.

Trying to figure out exactly what March Matness means but a lot of references to the tournament.  Missouri was a Big Bust while Ohio BallBuststers1-3'd to the Sweet 16. The Source of many a Bracket Buster was the second day of Rounds 2 and 3 where upsets ruled making points SlimPickins.  There were Lots of Losers but most games were Not Even Close.  Although there were teams like Kansas who could be known as TheComeBacker, only one game went to overtime and there were no buzzer beaters or even last second makes.  Just about every last second shot was a Ka-Chow.  CBS's (with No Gus Johnson) One Shining Moment montage was basically a Craft-o-Matic of a bunch of exciting last second misses.  The Freakshow of key injuries and loss of eligible players surely stymied many a Pool Raider who hoped to Belucky2.

Women were represented (among them The Wife's Picks, Badzy, H. Protagonist, Jane Says, Suznana, Dancemom), and after being blanked last year for the first time in three years, two of our eight winners were female.