CERRITOS, CA (smt)- With work, a new baby on the way, IEEE, and being eliminated, it was nice to take a break.  Veteran poolsters will know there usually is three updates between the Regional Finals and the Final Four, but this year just one, with the Final Four Possibilities and Bonus1 (Bonus2, if necessary) information in Sunday's issue and the Final Four preview --- right now.

Two teams return to the Final Four in a rematch of last year's championship, but only one, either Florida or UCLA, will make it back to the Final.  The other semifinal features a battle of centers between Georgetown and Ohio St.  I haven't decided which I will be tired of hearing over and over again first:  1)  Oden, Oden, Oden, 2) The Thompson/Ewing family lovefest, or 3) Florida going for back-to-back-to-back (cause somehow football is a part of basketball?!) championships.  Either way, unless UCLA wins it all, it'll be a bleh final for me.  Okay, now for the fun part.

The HWCI NCAA Pool is now a teenager, and our 13th year features an all-time high 98 entries from 83 people.  Seventy-two (72) of those entries are return entries and forty (40) of those participating in at least five years!  And for the first time, out of 199 different people, we have the same name and last initial (Linh T - related but with different last names) so references to my wife is just Linh T while her cousin in Austin is Linh C T - of course both are eliminated so it won't matter now.  We had a close one before with one year having a Rob C, Robinson C, and Robert C.  Of course, with more entries, you tend to get more boring nicknames such as FARBER82, MARINOMAC2, ARPS2, BRETT M, XK2XBOILX, DC944, DAVYESPY, CARSERONI, SHRINER, DINGUS and SOURCE (a 6-timer!).  Now, time to decipher everyone's nickname, and if I get it completely wrong, be sure to explain yourself in the Discussion Board.  No promises on using all 98 nicknames, but I'll try.

We have more team pride this year with supporters of Long Beach St. (GO 9ERS! and 49ER TIME, both not daring enough to pick them to reach the Sweet 16), UCLA (TROUBLE BRUIN, IN BRUINS WE TRUST, and BLUE AND GOLD), USC (THE RED DRAGON (according to the Discussion Board comments) and CARDINAL & GOLD, both picking USC over Texas), Maryland (GO TERPS), Ohio St. (BUCKEYE23 and BUCKEYE MIKE (though I doubt he has any allegiance to Ohio St but he did pick them to win it all), and our dedicated lone Florida fan (DON'T PICK MY GATORS).  We had dedications to teams not good enough to make the tourney such as Cal (BEARALUM and THE MISSING OSKI), Kansas St. (KSU-SHAFTED), Illinois (ILLINIWEK POSSE), Alabama (BAMA-G) and ... Nebraska (HICKORYHUSKERS).

We had some YOUNG BLOOD and the return of MAD MAN.  We had mythological references (JASON'S ARGONAUTS and MARTY THE GREEK), movie references (LITTLE MISS SUNCHIPS and LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN), artist references (SNOOP'S DOGS), and astrological references (NOSTRADAMUS and HALEY'S COMETS).  With Andy F turning away from a Simpsons-related name (instead referencing The Colbert Report's FILLIAM H. MUFFMAN), the lone Simpsons reference now belongs to Jon J's SLACKJAW.

We had sport references to soccer (CLAP OR CRAP F.C. and POSH SPICE'S GIGOLO), football & baseball (MARINO-MAC) and horse racing (TRIFECTA).  There were tributes to people's kids (MARISSA&MATTHEW (our first entry this year!), KOBERAJ, and BABY SPENCER) and people's locations (MILE HIGH and TEXAS GIRL).  Contradictions?  Q-MAN is a female while EE-CHICK is a male (though the real story is "chick" refers to Hainan chicken) and WEST COAST BI[L]AS picked east coast teams in the final.

There were the Oh's (HENDO, BINGO, FABIO, YO-BLING), the Why's (INDY, ZIPPY, TRENDY, and AHAESY (which would have been cooler as "Ah-easy")), and Bigs (BIG DAWG, BIG HURT, BIG LUTHER, and BIG NADS).  We had military/patriotic sounding names (SARGE, WOODEN_SOLDIER, FLIP FIGHTERS,  YANKEEAGLE, WNB, and RECON) and NCAA-influenced nicknames (NEED CASH AID AMIGOS, THE TOURNAMATER, POOLRAIDER, and BUZZER BEATER).  We have names we can do without (ARPS, C STONE, KRISPY KREMER, KRISPY SECONDS, CHUMBALLS, CHUMBALLS2, and SCRIMSHAWORGY) and names of names (SUZNANA and THE RAT PACK).  Who is the MOUTH OF THE SOUTH or MIZER WIZARD and is there a picture of this KRISTY IMAHOOCHIE?