CERRITOS, CA (smt)- Well, it's amazing what commitment can do for a team.  The Florida five all stayed one more year just so Duke will not longer be mentioned as the last team to win back-to-back championships, a noble cause, I admit.  Of course, Billy Packard will just now say that did you know the second to last team to win back-to-back was Duke?  So it's a partial win, but a win nonetheless.  With Florida coach Billy Donovan returning but with none of his starters (rumored), how will the Gators do next year?

Congrats to sister-in-law Van P ($450), Ann B ($230), Troy B ($155), Don C ($105), and Wendy B ($40) for winning the top 4 spots and the Bonus.  That's 3 "B"'s, a "C", and a passing grade (P).

Would we ever go to a 5th place prize now that our pool has grown?  Here is how ethics screwed 5th place finisher Jon J (SLACKJAW).  After getting almost 100 entries, David and I discussed how to divide up the money.  We have always had four prizes.  The Bonus Prize is kind of a token for hope for those who get eliminated.  No one won the Bonus Prize the last two years (no one picked the winningest conference with exact number of wins) so we had to revise it.  One option was if no one won the Bonus, we would add a 5th place prize.  Well, in addition to causing some headaches in determining who is actually eliminated or not (with 4 or 5 prizes), I (BAKER'S FABONE) was currently sitting pretty in 14th place (and moving up quite nicely, I might add, eventually hitting 6th before falling).  David was 84th (THE MIGHTY MOBELFAKTA).  For the past nine years we have had a top 4 prize distribution so I didn't want to add a 5th, so as to make it look like I would have more opportunities to finish in the money.  It didn't feel right to do.  And had UNC and Texas A&M not choked?  Fifth... let the conspiracy theories begin (okay, 4th, and the Bonus was won so there would be no 5th place prize anyway). 

So David and I will announce next year, probably if we hit 100 or more entries, that there will be a 5th place spot (not dependent on the Bonus) in advance.  Of course, the more prizes we give, the less the top people get, so think about that.

Some final thoughts...

WHAT IFS: Xavier... Tennessee... USC... North Carolina.  Sigh.

OVERRATED?:  Freshman Greg Oden probably has a minus point differential (like in hockey, where they track goals scored for/against while you're on the ice) when he's on the floor as Ohio St. seemed to shine when he fouled out vs. Xavier and sat out most of the comeback vs. Tennessee.  He played 38 of 40 minutes vs. Florida and the Buckeyes got whipped by 10.... Freshman Kevin Durant can't do it by himself as a determined USC team whipped his Longhorns in the only game of eight that day that was out of reach for all the second half.

LAYUP DRILLS:  This tourney has been characterized by all the missed layups, most notably Texas A&M's Acie Law IV's missed layup that changed the game in the last minute vs Memphis to Pittsburgh continuously blowing open put-backs and layups vs UCLA to Kansas missing 14 layups also against UCLA.  I thought players who can't shoot free throws was a problem...

MADE FREEBIES:  Who would have thought I'd be praising good free throw shooting from Memphis' Chris Douglas-Roberts, 1-for-4 earlier, making two clutch free throws in the win vs. Texas A&M to Ohio St. hitting 18 straight free throws in the final minutes vs Memphis (ah, the symmetry).  Yes, there was Xavier's Justin Cage missing one of two free throws that would have sealed a win vs. Ohio St. with nine seconds left but not as many chokes as in prior tourneys.

THAT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED:  Where were the mid-majors this year?  None in the Elite 8 and only UNLV and Southern Illinois (a stretch, at that) made the Sweet 16.  Last year, the mid-majors shook up the tourney, but things have returned to normal.

THE TRUE PREDICTORS:  The NCAA committee somehow got their top 7 seeds to make the Elite 8 (Oregon was the loner at # 9) and with the heavy emphasis on winning your conference tournament, 7 of 8 were conference champs (UCLA won the regular season title but lost in the Pac 10 tourney).  They also got their controversial #1 ranked #1 seed to win it all.

WHERE'S THE BUZZER:  After getting one last year, once again we've gone a tourney without that exciting shot at the buzzer to win the game.  In fact, the first 32 games featured just nine games within 10 points.

THE 34TH BEST TEAM:  Shut up, Syracuse, about your complaining about not getting one of the 34 at-large bids.  Sounds like West "Virgina", who won the NIT title, deserves to complain about that 34th bid as well as getting respect in someone spelling their name correctly.

THE RISE AND FALL:  Florida, after missing the Sweet 16 for five straight years, has now won back-to-back championships.... Texas A&M (the last time they were ranked was in 1980 and never finished the year in the top 25 before this year), just making their second tourney in our pool (2006), made the Sweet 16... Gonzaga - those poor Zags have lost their luster as for the sixth time in 7 seasons, no Sweet 16... Ah, Duke, for the fifth time in the last six years, upset in the tourney by a lower seed.... Where's our lapdog Cincy?  Here boy, where are you?  BTW, Bob Huggins, who had led the Bearcats to choke 8 of the 9 years (1997-2005) and failed to get Kansas St. (2007) into the tourney and, you guessed it, choked and lost to the lower seeded team in 2nd Round of the NIT this year, will now take down, I mean, on, fan favorite and defending NIT champ West Virginia (<-spelled correctly) as their head coach for next season.  Bye, bye Mountaineers!

TIME SLOWS DOWN:  It took about 7 minutes to determine that 1.1 seconds should run off the clock in the Texas A&M-Memphis game...  It took 10 minutes to fix a broken string in the net in the Florida-Oregon game.  What they needed was Fernando B (POSH SPICE'S GIGOLO) to go on Robinson C's (TEAM SAMURAI) shoulders just like we did in the old days when we replaced the torn up nets at our regular Saturday basketball games at the local middle school (before they got metal nets).  Would've been done in 5 minutes flat.

RECORDS GALORE:  Of the twenty records kept for "best" after each day and round, 17 were either tied or broken, including 11 by VAN&SAM... the only "best" records not tied or broken?  Most wins Day 1 (Round 1, Thu), most wins Round 1, and most wins Day 4 (Round 2, Sun), each falling one win shy of tying the record.

HARD LESSONS AT A YOUNG AGE:  Well, one of Troy B's entries was picked by his 4-year old daughter (HALEY'S COMETS) and although she survived the initial elimination (after the 2nd round), she was quickly brought down to earth and ended in 96th place.  Consolation?  Her daddy (SNOOP'S DOGS) won 3rd Place.