CERRITOS, CA (smt)- Four teams tried to give the ticket to the Elite 8 away and two took advantage of it.  #1W-Kansas missed five of their last six free throws but #4W-Southern Illinois still came up short, 61-58.  #3S-Texas A&M had their best player, Acie Law IV, miss a layup with less than half a minute left (to put them up by 3), forget to rebound (3 times) in the final sequence, and tried to throw the ball away with 3.1 seconds left, and yet, #2S-Memphis barely found a way to win, 65-64, in the first one-point contest of the tourney.  #3W-Pitt missed about a half dozen layups in one span of the second half en route to a long scoring drought yet #1W-UCLA could not put them away until the final minute, 64-55.  #1S-Ohio St. allowed #5S-Tennessee to build a 49-29 lead but the Vols came out flat in the second half allowing the Buckeyes to once again rally to victory, 85-84.

Memphis had everything I love about a team... playing well and ignoring the pro-Aggie crowd, a higher seed getting some respect, their best player injured yet playing (Chris Douglas-Roberts), and overcoming their Achilles heal, free throw shooting, by having Antonio Anderson (1-4 FT earlier) hit two clutch free throws with 3.1 seconds left.  The problem?  I didn't pick them and that really sucks.  And I was all about to go on a tirade on the "1.1 second slap" the refs allowed, but on my MMOD and the clueless announcers, didn't see the ball bounce IN-BOUNDS before hitting out-of-bounds.  But it still shouldn't have taken 7 minutes to decide that. 

What's with UCLA hitting their free throws all of a sudden?  And what's with both UCLA and Pitt with no timeouts with a minute left in a close game?  Did Ben Howland (UCLA) and Jamie Dixon (Pitt) have an agreement beforehand?  Very odd. 

Momentum?  Ohio St.'s David Lighty's near uncontested layup plus foul with no time remaining cut the deficit going into halftime from 20 to 17.  Once again, Ohio St. outscored their opponents without Greg Oden.  In foul trouble, Oden played just 18 minutes (most in the first half) and scored just nine points but did make four clutch free throws late and put an exclamation point on the last play with a monster block.  It took the Buckeyes 10:26 to go from down 20 to a tie and the Vols did get some life by hitting four straight 3-pointers but they couldn't stop Ohio St.

Twenty-six tied a record set by just 29 others by going 4-0 for the day.  This also left the top three the same as THAI SPICE & DC944 lead with 113 points with VAN&SAM at 110.  DC944 now has now led (or tied for the lead) all five days, tying a record.  He'll have a tough time setting the record as two of the four teams are already gone for tomorrow.  BIG HURT (104 pts) got the big hurt by losing his champion, Texas A&M which is worse than falling from 3rd to 6th.  Four had Texas A&M as their champ and BIG HURT is the only one with a chance to win money.  KRISPY SECONDS (9th-Tied, 101) lost champ Pitt but still has a chance for 2nd place. 

BUCKEYE23 (73rd-T, 86) and SCHADENFREUDE (92nd-T, 78) (go ahead and enjoy that) each went just 1-3 (Ohio St., Kansas, respectively) and both are now eliminated.  SOURCE is still last with 67 points.  Three just have one of their Final Four teams left.  HENDO (86th-T, 81) is only entry to lose both finalists.

Kansas' win eliminated three, Memphis (picked by just 42) eliminated eight, UCLA eliminated another six, and Ohio St. (picked by 95 of 98) knocked off two more, leaving 66 in the running for money.  More than half the entries lost their chance for first as only 28 (was 57) can claim the $450 top prize.  CHUMBALLS (79) sits in 91st place but still has a chance for 4th place, believe it or not.

THAI SPICE has a 23.6% chance for first followed closely by VAN&SAM at 19.9%.  BLUE AND GOLD (7th-T, 102) with his UCLA pick is the only other entry with greater than 10% for the top prize (11.0%).  THAI SPICE also leads with a 53.6% chance for any money spot and five others have more than a quarter chance to finish in the top four.