CERRITOS, CA (smt)- #8W-Alabama continued to disrupt brackets by pulling away from the defending champion #5W-Syracuse Orangemen, 80-71. They'll get to face #2W-UConn, who earlier used a 21-8 to close out #6W-Vanderbilt, 73-53. #2E-Oklahoma St. and #3E-Pitt battled a tug-and-war game until OK St. blew open a 42-all tie with a 17-5 run to win 61-51. And in the only bracket where all the top seeds have won, #1E-St. Joseph's, who many thought would be the first #1 seed to lose, became the first #1 seed to advance to the Elite 8 by outlasting #4E-Wake Forest, 84-80. Wake Forest had three major lapses in the game and St. Joe's took advantage of them and shut up Billy Packer.

UConn won with a huge rebounding advantage and OK St. won by shooting nearly 60% in the 2nd half. Vandy shooting star Matt Freije shot just 3/18 for 8 pts (after 31 pts vs NC St.) while Syracuse's Gerry McNamara (56 pts in 1st 2 gm; 24 today) didn't get started until it was too late (starting just 1/6 FG).

BINGO and PINKBUBBLES are tied atop the leaderboard with 98 pts but BINGO has his champion alive (for now) and has a 84.1% chance of winning money and 36.5% chance of winning first. DC994 (96 pts) is in third but can't finish higher than 2nd (forever behind BINGO). Twenty more entries were eliminated (leaving just 28) and only 14 can win first place.

UConn's win sent 2 entries home, OK St's win eliminated 11, Alabama's win sent EVIL MONKEY (60th-Tied, 77) (who was the only person to pick Syracuse to win it all) packing, and the most split game of the day saw St. Joe's win put six entries to bed. 42 had St. Joe's while 30 had Wake Forest. UConn's win knocked THE FAB X (Scott T) (30th, 85) out of a chance for first, leaving Rob C (with 1 of his 3 entries, JEDI MASTER ROB (6th-T, 92) as the only person left who could win the HWCI NCAA Pool title twice. JODON007 (41st-T, 83), who led after one round, was eliminated with St. Joe's win, becoming the second straight person (BLUEBERRY last year) to crash-and-burn so quickly after winning the first round.

ELDO (49th-T, 80) is the only person left who could get all four Final Four teams correct. This has only happened twice (both in 2001) in 355 entries. He needs Duke and Georgia Tech to win, which seems very likely. Six others, however, join the list of 52 other entries who have gone 0-for-the-Final-Four. Twenty-four (24) entries went 3-1 while KRISPY KREMER (55th-T, 78) was the only person to go 0-4.

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Wake up Wake Forest, Wake up...
Scott