Friday, March 22, 2002       
Issue # 9.3.2 "Sloppy wins..."
http://www.HWCI.com/ncaa

CERRITOS, CA (smt)- Both #1 and #2 seeds advanced in the East and Midwest regions to keep bottom bracket intact. #2E-UConn bore down late in the second half to end #11E-S.Illinois' cinderella run. #2MW-Oregon, the lone Pac-10 team left, led by 13 in the second half but Texas' offensive rebounding kept them in the game. Tied at 70 after a Longhorn missed free throw (boy are those free throws huge!), Frederick Jones hit a jumper with 2.8 seconds left for the win. Oregon, 78% free throw shooting, missed 5 of their first 6 free throws and missed some one-and-ones to let Texas crawl back in the game. Both #1E-Maryland and #4E-Kentucky played sloppy, committing lots of turnovers and numerous bad shot selections, but Maryland survived, 78-68, thanks in part to Wildcat Keith Bogans missing consecutive front ends of one-and-one free throws late in the game. #1MW-Kansas, playing with foul trouble most of the second half, almost let a late 10-pt lead evaporate but got revenge from last year's tournament loss with #4MW-Illinois, winning 73-69. Illinois had several chances to tie the game thanks to, you guessed it, Kansas missing the front end of a one-and-one free throw with 19 seconds left. One of the keys to Maryland, Oregon, and Kansas winning was that they never let their oppponent take the lead late in the game.

All the favorites won giving 29 people perfect 4-0 records for the day. Fifteen people went 5-3 for the 3rd Round to close in on RANDOM PICKS (102 pts) who now only leads by a single point over THE FABON8ER (101). FREE JINX (100) is within 2 pts. Just 36 still have a chance for money and an unusually high 16 entries still have a chance for first. Again, the pool has shuffled a bit. TEN (14th-T, 93) has the best chance to win first place at 15.6%. RANDOM PICKS slips to second with CHENMAN (14th-T, 93) at 12.5%. Of the 8 people who submitted more than one entry, only Scott T. has both entries alive (THE FABON8ER 47.7%, FREE FABONE (19th-T, 92) 14.1%).

GOBAY went 0-8 for the 3rd Round, the first time someone has not picked at least one correct Elite 8 team. He will also finish tied with HENDO for worst entry ever at 45 points (35 people this year had 46 points or more after the 1st Round!). Two other people (DIE WITH GATORS (78th, 58) and NETFLOWER (76th, 66)) will also go 0-for-the-Final-Four. This should shape up to be an exciting and furious race to the finish. Six of the 8 teams (and all 4 in the bottom bracket) have been picked to go to the Final meaning a wide variety of entries could win.

If you missed it on the message board, the prize breakdown will be as follows:

  1st Place: $400
  2nd Place: $200
  3rd Place: $130
  4th Place: $70.