LONG BEACH/CERRITOS, CA (smt)- #64-Monmouth easily took care of #65-Hampton to enter the "real" portion of the tournament with only embarrassment to look forward to as they'll face #1E-Villanova. Or will they? They are only a 19-20 point underdog and we will have to see if 'Nova's Allan Ray has recovered from his eye injury.

With UCLA getting a #2 seed, it's going to make it more difficult for those Bruin fans to pick their bracket and keep their loyalties. Solution? Enter twice. Result? Lose twice. But it's for the fun of it, right? And most of us should know about Ken B and his Florida allegiance but will the Gators once again choke...er, I mean, fail to reach the Sweet 16. And how many people are still looking the the 'Zags from 1999-2001 and putting them far in their bracket? And who will prove people wrong? The Big East with 8 teams sans Cincy or the Missouri Valley Conference with a generous four? Tipoff is less than 24 hours away.

Just watched the CBS Selection Show (yeah, I'm a little behind) and my ears are still ringing from Jim Nance and Billy Packard's drilling of the Selection Committee chairman and then ignoring he was there as they chatted with each other.

Jim: "In 1955 and 1956, San Francisco won back-to-back NCAA championships... why aren't they in the tourney but Washington, who has never won it, is in?"

Outmatched Chairman: "But SF finished 11-17 and..."

Billy: "Shouldn't past history count, hey Jim, want to get a taco and get away from this bozo?"

Chairman: "I'm still here"

Jim: "What an idiot, what about Greek?"

Chairman: "Hello?".

With no one able to enter for the first 20 hours or so, we had a record 21 entries on Tuesday, pushing our total to 30 (subject to verification & payment).

Enter online at http://www.HWCI.com/ncaa/2006/entry.html. You can also fax your entry to me at (720) 368-0816 or email us for a snail mail address (postmarked by Thurs AM). Make arrangements (such as PayPal) to send in your $10 entry fee(s) by March 17th. Complete rules and daily pool information can be found on the official site: http://www.HWCI.com/ncaa.