1999 HWCI NCAA Pool Update

#1- West

#1-East

Saturday, March 27, 1999                      http://www.HWCI.com/ncaa

Issue # 14.5.2 "Just as planned..."



                     1999 HWCI NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL

                     ==============================



   TOP TWO TEAMS THAT BEGAN THE TOURNEY WILL MEET IN MONDAY'S FINAL

 Shary Bobbins takes the $180 top prize and Carseroni is in the money



     EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)-  The only two teams to hold the #1 spot

during the regular season will meet in Monday's NCAA Final in

Tampa.  #1W-UConn held off mistake-prone #4S-Ohio St., 64-58, to 

advance to its first-ever final while #1E-Duke kept its distance 

from #1MW-Michigan St., 68-62.  Duke held the #1 spot for all but

10 weeks during the regular season.  Ohio St. missed some key 

free throws, misplayed some key rebounds (including the "It's mine!"

incident, where two Buckeyes wrestled for the rebound and eventually

were called for traveling), and missed key baskets down the stretch

giving UConn the victory.  Despite the near no-shows of Scoonie

Penn (who misplaced his jersey) and Michael Redd, Ohio St. was in it

until the end.  The 2nd Big 10 team, Michigan St., also lost despite

playing well.  Duke is just near invincible, because they played

okay, missed a lot of free throws, and got into foul trouble... yet,

they still maintained their lead.  It seemed like for a stretch of 

ten minutes in the second half, Michigan St. was getting all the 

rebounds, making all the shots, forcing Duke turnovers, but Duke would

hit a 3-point shot and the lead always seemed to range from 7-10

points.  I would ALMOST bet the house that Duke will win its 3rd NCAA

title this decade.  I think the key is to get Duke behind early, but

that's hard to do.  



     This update is partly late because I was busy most of the 

weekend and partly late cause I'm depressed my chances to win money 

went from very good to almost nil.  Sigh.  But, the pool was to have

fun, right?  SHARY BOBBINS (1st, 134) will have fun spending her

$180 winnings (now the most successful predictor, taking over 

Anna's $150 win last year) as she clinched the top spot with UConn's

win.  UConn's victory sent THE FABONE V (9th, 113) home and Duke's

win sent LUIS ENRIQUE'S ARMADA (18th, 101) and CHRIS (16th, 103)

moneyless.  CARSERONI (3rd, 120) will now win either 2nd or 3rd

thanks to Duke's win.  Here are the final two scenarios, of which

Duke winning has a 90% chance of happening (then again, miracles do 

happen... I mean, if the Clippers can whallop the Utah Jazz, 

anything can happen):



 If Duke wins				If UConn wins (yeah, right)

 ------------				-------------

 1st- Shary Bobbins			1st- Shary Bobbins

 2nd- Carseroni				2nd- Free Fabone

 3rd- Big Game OR Max Power*		3rd- Carseroni

 4th- Big Game OR Max Power*		4th- Big Spider Beck

   * Tiebreaker: If total points is 142 or less, Big Game takes

 3rd and Max Power 4th; if 143 points, then there is a tie and

 Big Game and Max Power will split $90; if 144 or more, then Max Power

 takes 3rd and Big Game 4th.



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It was fun while it lasted...

Scott HW