CARSON & CERRITOS, CA (smt) - Some of the best games of the tournament were played today with one buzzer beater and couple other near buzzer beaters.  #5MW-Michigan St. exchanged leads with #4MW-Maryland four times in the last 39 seconds but in the end, Draymond Green's pass to Korie Lucious nearly beheaded teammate Delvon Roe as Lucious dribbled once and nailed the 3-point buzzer beater to send the Spartans, the lone Final Four team from last year, into the Sweet 16.  Neither #4S-Purdue and #5S-Texas A&M could take a lead larger than 5 in the last 14 1/2 minutes but it was Texas A&M who failed to nail a buzzer beater at the end of regulation and overtime as the the Boilermakers advanced to the Sweet 16 without Robbie Hummel.   #3W-Pitt had two chances to send the game into OT but #6W-Xavier prevailed after nearly blowing a 13-point lead and missing 2 free throws with seven seconds left.  A pair of 2 seeds, MW-Ohio St. and E-West Virginia held off late rallies by their opponents to advance.  A pair of 1 seeds, W-Syracuse and S-Duke had easy victories.  A 3rd double-digit seed, #12E-Cornell won easily over #4E-Wisconsin.

Despite Wisconsin's loss, the Big 10 still sent 3 teams into the Sweet 16.  The mighty Big East is down to just two teams (from 8), the same as teh Big 12 and SEC.  A total of 11 conferences are represented in the Sweet 16 including mid-major conferences Atlantic 10 (Xavier), Horizon League (#5W-Butler), West Coast Conference (#10S-St. Mary's (Ca.)), Missouri Valley Conference (#9MW-Northern Iowa) and the Ivy League (Cornell).  This will affect the Bonus Prize, which will be announced in detail Monday or Tuesday night.

The Pride of Troy! (2nd-Tied, 82 pts), Another Two-Peat (6th, 81), and Sexual Napalm (7th-T, 80) all went 7-1 for the day while #1 (113th-T, 59) and HowardZinn (117th, 48) went just 2-6.  Eleven actually picked Cornell and 20 picked Xavier.  Only 38 picked injured Purdue while 52 picked Michigan St.  For the second round, Another Two-Peat, who on the very first game of the tournament lost his champion (Florida), went 11-5 and is one of four entries with at least an 11% chance for 1st.  HowardZinn went just 4-12 for the round and is one of 42 entries with no chance at the top 5 prizes.  Of the 75 entries remaining, 42 still can win the 1st Place prize of... well, you have to wait til tomorrow (or find it now on the update page somewhere).

So even though SilverSurfer remains in first with 84 points, he has just a 2.1% chance for first and 24.9% chance for money with just one Final Four team left.  Five entries have a better chance at money than him.  You're My Boy Blue (2nd-T) has the best chance at 1st (15.1%) and money (55.9%).  Bracket Boy and Jonna Rocks, despite being in a tie for 35th (72), can't win money (poor Jonna Rocks, and she picked Northern Iowa!).  ChasCroix, despite being in a tie for 110th (61), can still win 1st.

You can now view the OFFICIAL list of people in our pool and you can find out who Jonna Rocks or Buckeye23 are.  Please explain your nickname or discuss which nicknames you like, don't like, or don't understand in our discussion forum (thanks to those who have posted their stories!).

   Tids & Bits - With big boys Kansas, Villanova, and Pitt falling, this limited the opportunities to move up in the pool, resulting in a record 42 entries eliminated... the previous high was 23 in 2005 but the 35.9% of entries eliminated is just shy of the record of 36.1% eliminated entries in 2000... the 8.1 average wins by all entries is the fourth lowest and the lowest since 2000 when just 6.9 wins were earned... Mainomac was the only one to pick Gonzaga... the Pac 10 did well, but Cal couldn't match Washington's run, despite being picked by 6 entries... Purdue-Texas A&M played the fourth overtime of this tourney thus far (only 2 last year)... 13 had Pitt in their Final Four... Sisyphus is the only entry that lost all 4 Final Four teams, all in the 2nd round... five entries still have their Final Four intact... GoTerpsForReal was true to her heart, but lost Maryland as her champ... 7 still have 7 of their Elite 8 intact, HowardZinn has 1... just 8 top four seeds advanced after 14 did so last year... Sweet Fabone barely survived again (0.3% chance for money), meaning he has not been eliminated after the 2nd round in all 16 years...