CERRITOS, CA (smt)- Here's one upset.  #65-Morehead St. Eagles beat #64-Alabama St., 58-43, and will face #1MW-Louisville Cardinals- for their last game of the season.    But no one cares about the NCAA's Opening Round/Play-In game and the more interesting stuff happened in the NIT.  Jilted St. Mary's once again showed Patty Mills (27 pts) was healthy in winning their opening round game and made their case they should've been in the NCAA tourney.  Even more interesting is their next opponent will be Davidson with leading scorer Stephen Curry, a highlight in last year's NCAA tourney.  This may be the one NIT game I actually watch.

Entries are very slowly trickling in with 25 entries thus far, a far cry from the 39 at this point last year.  The 25 is the lowest since 2004, when 20 were entered at the end of Tuesday (we ended with 79).  Well, there is no dominant team this year and many will be doing more research than usual or could be disinterested because they can't foresee the future as clearly as past years.  Or it could be the economy is coming back around, mimicking the 2001-2003 pattern.  Or it could be the buggy nature of java creating havoc with Internet Explorer and Safari.  Hope the luck of the Irish are with you (they were for Notre Dame who won their opening round NIT game on St. Patty's Day).

How to follow the HWCI NCAA Pool?  The easiest and accessible to all is to go to the blog (now our homepage).  Standings, player's picks, stats, and updates will be posted there.  If you're on Facebook, if you friend "Hwci Ncaa", his profile automatically picks up all blog entries plus you can meet other players and make connections.  The HWCI NCAA Facebook Group is a meeting place for anyone who wants to join and post pictures, comments, and links related to the pool or tourney.  The Discussion Forum is for those who want to make their opinions known.  As always, feel free to post or write your own recaps on the Blog (via comments), Facebook group, and Forum.

Regardless, you can mail your entry fee (email me for snail mail) or give your $10 (per entry) to someone who will give the money to David or Scott. We are accepting PayPal (check or PayPal funds only) to "hwci<at>hotmail.com" or credit card PayPal payments to "smt0222<at>yahoo.com" (but the entry fee is $10.59 (59 cents in PayPal fees... damn them!)).

Enter online now! You can also fax your entry to me at (720) 368-0816 or email us for a snail mail address (postmarked by Thursday AM). Make arrangements (such as PayPal) to send in your $10 entry fee(s) by March 19th. Complete rules and daily pool information can be found on the official site: http://www.HWCI.com/ncaa.

    Tids & Bits:  Will the 3-point line being moved back one foot affect any tournament games?  Less buzzer beaters or comebacks?... Memphis has won 30+ games for a record 4th straight year but they're usually the only team to make it out of Conference USA... Welcome to North Dakota, as NDSU is the state's first tourney team... thank you CBS for getting rid of Billy Packer ("The Duke University"), who can only now resort to do some obscure Vegas TV show with Bob Knight; we'll see how the new guy does... Dayton, OH is hosting both the play-in game & 1st/2nd round games which seems odd, as Morehead St. doesn't have to travel... the 1st/2nd round games seem to now assume 2 hour-long games whereas in past years, it was 1 hour, 50 minutes (e.g., 30 minutes in-between games mean start times are now 9:20 am/11:50 am instead of 9:20 am/11:40 am)... those with iPhones (or other AT&T capable phone) can watch live coverage of all games for free (2 month trial)... you can reiew your picks by going here (note this is unofficial) -- see it pays to read the whole update!...