2010 HWCI NCAA Pool Update|
The 16th HWCI NCAA Tournament Pool |
|
2010 HWCI NCAA Pool Update |
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Issue # 8.2.4 "A Healthy Dose of Cinderellas" [ Home | Blog | Facebook | Updates ]Previous Sweet 16 Themes: [ 09 - American Cancer Society | 08 - Who Is The Mole? | 07 - TV Shows | 06 - Awards ]
EL SEGUNDO & CERRITOS, CA (smt) - Just eight high-seeded teams made the Sweet 16 (lowest since 2000 advanced just 7) in our Sweet 16th pool including three double-digit seeds vying to be this year's Cinderella (along with Northern Iowa). The 1st, 3rd, and 4th days of the tournament were some of the most exciting in recent memory. The Sweet 16 features the freshmen of 100-win Kentucky vs. the seniors of 2-win Cornell, the lone Elite 8 team from last year (Michigan St.) vs. never-made-the-Sweet 16 Northern Iowa, and two teams who hadn't won a tourney game since 1950 & 1959 (Baylor and St. Mary's (Ca.), respectively)).
With 72 entries without their champion, rooting for the next two rounds will be strategic. Only one person each has picked Michigan St. or N. Iowa so getting points is not an issue, but for those who lost Kansas in their Final Four, Michigan St. might have a better chance against Ohio St. in the Regional Final while those who have Ohio St. in their Final Four would rather them play ninth-seeded N. Iowa. Of course, Ohio St. has to beat Tennessee first.
With all the excitement and bracket busters, most of us need a health check-up. Here are 16 thoughts on the games played and our pool based on the health care debate (thank you, MSNBC for getting me ideas for the last few!):
THIS IS A BIG #@%! DEAL: As our eloquent Vice-President said, it is, but so was (since the field expanded to 64 (okay, 65) teams) Baylor, Cornell, Northern Iowa, and St. Mary's (Ca.) making the Sweet 16 for the first time...
HIGHS & LOWS: Two buzzer beaters and 14 games decided in overtime or 3 points or less have made this one of the most exciting weekends in recent memory... ....missed free throws extending games when teams should be closing the game out... Fernando B's Bix Pix went from 5th to 106th from Thursday to Friday... Jonna J's Jonna Rocks went from 11th to 90th to 37th over 3 days...
COMPETITIVE EXCHANGES: The last 39 seconds of the Michigan St.-Maryland game saw four lead changes and just one (one!) timeout that ended in a buzzer beater... the last 3:03 of the Kansas-Northern Iowa game? Kansas missed free throw, N. Iowa turnover on inbound pass, N. Iowa another turnover on inbound pass, N. Iowa foul, Kansas missed free throw on one-and-one, N. Iowa missed three-pointer, Kansas offensive foul, N. Iowa missed three-pointer, N. Iowa unnecessary foul, N. Iowa steps out of bounds, N. Iowa unnecessary foul, N. Iowa throws ball out of bounds -then, a dumb N. Iowa quick three-pointer with 30 seconds left on the shot clock (but GOOOOOD!!!), Kansas offense foul, and N. Iowa missed free throw...
HOW GOOD CAN IT BE?: Is Baylor the real deal? If they make the Elite 8, they would not have played a team from a major conference (Southland Conf., Colonial Athletic Assoc., and West Coast Conf.) and they would not have beaten a single-digit seed (#14-Sam Houston St., #11-Old Dominion, and #10-St. Mary's (Ca.))... Purdue and Duke are the only teams to face the best possible seed in all 3 rounds, and thus, they will play each other... Jon J's SilverSurfer has led (or tied for the lead) after the 1st and 2nd rounds for the second straight year; but last year, that entry ended up 26th and this year's entry has lost both finalists and a 3rd Final Four team...
RECONCILIATION: We've got a #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #9, #10, #11, and #12 seeds in the Sweet 16... Hopefully, Tennessee won't confuse their last opponent, Ohio, with their next opponent, Ohio St... 72 entries are between 66 and 76 points...
BIPARTISANSHIP: Nine who have submitted more than one entry have all in the running for money while four have both entries eliminated. There are eight in the middle who have split entries (either 1 of 2 or 2 of 3 still alive)...
DEEMED TO PASS: Kansas probably wishes they could've been deemed to pass straight to the Final Four like everyone expected (and 95 of our 117 entries predicted this) instead of actually playing the games...
PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Injuries have played a part of the tournament but so far the teams people were concerned about, Syracuse and Purdue (only 38 picked them), are in the Sweet 16...
FILIBUSTER: It may take 41 senators to block legislation, but in the pool a group of 45 entries (led by Kentucky's 22 and Syracuse's 8) have so far trumped the 64 who picked Kansas to win it all...
ZERO TO HERO: For some reason, I have never noticed the #0 on jerseys in college basketball. Now I see it on a lot of teams and they are usually key guys, too. Like Ohio's #0 Armon Bassett (32 pts vs G'Town) and Kansas St.'s #0 Jacob Pullen (34 pts vs BYU)... Ken B's Another Two-Peat (prematurely quoting "Why must the Gators taunt me so? Is this a new record, having a bracket mathematically eliminated after the conclusion of the very first game?") went from losing his champ in the very first game played (Florida) to in the hunt at 6th place...
ONE TRILLION DOLLAR$: Well, NCAA may not get that much, but they are looking at a big guaranteed payout for their television package if they opt out of the contract with CBS by July. Forgoing $6 billion, the NCAA is looking at expanding the bracket to as many as 96 teams to allow additional television partners in (e.g., ESPN), ignoring the will of the people who say this is a horrible idea. It seems the only people supporting this are elite coaches who thumb their nose at the fans and are only concerned about their jobs... the pool champ also won't get anything close to that, but $500 is not shabby...
DAMAGE CONTROL: After voting or picking, you must now defend what you did. With 95 picking Kansas and 49 picking Villanova in the Final Four, participants were scrambling to figure out how their bracket could possibly win. Now they aren't in control of their destiny and now need help (like Northern Iowa winning the title). This also resulted in a record 42 entries being eliminated after the 2nd round...
PAY-OR-PLAY REQUIREMENT: For the first time in six years, one person (Issac J's Troyboy4) had to be removed from our pool due to lack of response on how he was going to pay for his entry. And he would've had 6 of his Elite 8, 3 of his 4 Final Four, and both finalists still alive. Maybe I should have sold his entry to someone who's now eliminated ;-)...
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE: The NCAA selection committee, after getting 14 of 16 of their top seeds making the Sweet 16, did a poor job and got only 8 of them there this year. The committee also gave Duke a relatively easy ride. Eight Big East teams? Well, that worked well. At least the committee doubled the number of at-large bids this year...
SPREAD THE WEALTH: 11 conferences are represented including five mid-majors (is the Ivy League even considered a mid-major? A one bid league?)... Cornell used 15 (fifteen!) players in their win against Wisconsin; I didn't even know you could carry 15 (and the box score listed a total of 20 players)... 58 picked Georgia Tech and 59 picked Oklahoma St. in one first-round matchup...
SINGLE PAYER PLAN: A record 21 people opted to enter more than once including a record 3 who submitted the max three entries. If you count those who probably paid for their wives, husbands, sons or daughters, that means 30 people probably paid for more than one entry by my estimate...