CERRITOS, CA (smt)- #1MW-Illinois played a near perfect second half, rallying from another 15-point deficit to tie the game at 70 with 2:32 left. At one point, they hit seven straight field goals, made 5 of 6 from 3-point range, and had no turnovers. Then things started to go bad. They missed their last five 3-pt attempts after tying the game and in one unlucky possession, they missed two good looks from 3-pt range and then Luther Head's kickout pass was intercepted, the Illini's first turnover in the half and the momentum killer. #1-UNC coach Roy Williams was going to get that elusive championship after 17 years. Three free throws later and UNC held on to win, 75-70, in front of a surprising (to me at least) pro-UNC crowd.

It was nice to see Roy Williams, whose teams are infamous for choking, finally get that victory. It was also nice to see the two coaches color coordinated with their teams- Williams in a very nice light blue blazer and Illini coach Bruce Weber in some... god-awful bright orange jacket. Sean May (26 pts, 10/11 shooting) was unstoppable for UNC, but like all unstoppable men, the team forgot about him as Illinois was on a 33-18 run in the second half. What happens? Was UNC afraid May would get all the limelight? But it allowed Illinois to come back and make for an exciting ending.

UNC's win gave FLIP FIGHTERS (140 pts) the HWCI NCAA Pool title. Robinson C becomes the first person to win the title twice (albeit with his second, not first entry). His $400 take ties for the highest ever and gives him a career total of $680, tops in the pool (6 yrs, 16 entries). Online entrant Paul T took the second place prize of $195 with HOOPGURU (134). Roy W (KRISPY KREMER, 132) takes $135 for 3rd place in his 4th year (5 entries).

In the tiebreaker for 4th place, the 145 total points scored gave Patrick N (KING KLITSCHKO, 127) 4th Place ($90) with a tiebreaker differential of 20. Like a gambling bet, those last three free throws pushed the tiebreaker in Patrick's favor and ruined a chance for the biggest comeback in pool history, as BIRD LEGS (5th, differential of 24) lost the 4th place tiebreaker by just two points. She almost made a 4 in 32,768 (1 in 8,192) chance into a winning combination. From the third round on, everything went right for Jane D except for those last two free throws by Raymond Felton with 9 seconds left. Was it worth that torture? Or you could be ACE OF SPADES (Chuck H) (6th, differential of 45) who was the only person with a chance to win money in either scenario, yet lost on the 4th place tiebreaker. Five actually picked 145 as their tiebreaker, matching last year's total (and brings the grand total to just 13 who have picked the tiebreaker exactly).

In the end, 19 picked UNC to win it all and 44 finished with 100 or more points. Despite all the upsets, the 103.3 point average was the best since 2001 (109.7). This is only the second time that the top 2 predicted champions met in the Final ('99: Duke vs UConn) and allowed a record nine entries to remain alive to win money.

An exciting game matched by a nail biter of a pool. What a combination.