CERRITOS, CA (smt) - #5W-Butler's Gordon Howard heaved a half-court shot at the buzzer and it nearly banked in for a win, but alas, the miss gave #1S-Duke a hard-fought 61-59 victory.  What could've been a David beating Goliath story, a Hoosiers remake with the game-winning basket at the buzzer, ended up being a surprisingly competitive yet sloppy game.  Once again, the Bulldogs had an embarrassing field goal drought (from 9:31 to 1:42 left) and shot just 34.5% but their opponent's inability to capitalize kept them in the game.  I was reading before the game how the Bulldogs make the other team play their game.  And credit to Butler, that's what happened.  And it was ugly.  Duke seemed to lose its will in the second half playing a half-court game that suited Butler and for the game, uncharacteristically hit only 5 threes, missed 6 free throws, and were outrebounded on the offensive glass (12-11).  Butler's Matt Howard might've been suffering from the mild concussion he suffered in the last game because he committed several silly fouls that put him in foul trouble and missed 3 of his first 4 free throws. 

I thought I would get sick of the pro-Duke CBS telecast but the network did a switcheroo and became a pro-Butler telecast.   One of the greatest games ever?  Did anyone watch Kansas miraculously coming back against Memphis just two years ago?  If Butler is a great team, then going 7+ minutes without a field goal in consecutive games, getting outblocked 7-0, and shooting poorly is the new standard I didn't know about.  It was a fun game to watch and it was one good (it coulda been great!) ending, but the Butler love was annoying.  Butler was in it because Duke stunk it up.

Duke's win gave Blue Devil Blues the pool title and Kim B becomes our 15th different champion and the fourth female to hold the title.  You're My Boy Blue (Joe D) got pushed to second and Hummeless (Kevin J) down to fourth.  Eros (Cynthia S) took third and FOMI (Sam N) won the tiebreaker with Deemed to Win (Scott T) to take 5th.  The top four are all first-time winners (our 46th-49th people to win in our pools) and Sam N's second win (1st '00) gives him a lifetime total of $260.  The Pride of Troy!, Another Two-Peat, and Jinx were all eliminated, but they've all won something before (just like Deemed to Win).

In the Bonus race, Has No Idea (Van P), who finished in 107th place, was the only one to correctly pick 120 total points, and thus, won the $40 pot, her second win (1st '07) to give her $490 lifetime.  Four entries picked Duke and only Deemed to Win failed to win money (lucky me).  All winners except for FOMI submitted just one entry and he won on his first entry, not his second.

Prize	Winner	Nickname	Money Won	Years in Pool	# Times Won
1st	Kim B	Blue Devil Blues	$ 500	9	1
2nd	Joe D	You're My Boy Blue	$ 255	7	1
3rd	Cynthia S	Eros	$ 175	3	1
4th	Kevin J	Hummeless	$ 120	8	1
5th	Sam N	FOMI	$  80	11	2
Bonus	Van P	Has No Idea	$  40	8	2

   Tids & Bits - Butler's 25-game winning streak was snapped... Duke won its 4th title, all under Coach K... Butler actually had 6 offensive rebounds to just 3 for Duke in the first half... Duke started off hitting just 3 of their first 8 free throws... no team lead by more than 6... Has No Idea is only the 19th entry to ever pick the exact total points in final since we started that tiebreaker in 1996... Duke's Brian Zoubek intentionally missing the free throw cost MileHighChargers (he had 121) from winning the Bonus and had the 3-pointer at the buzzer gone in, SpermacidalJellyDonut (he had 123) would have won the Bonus... the 120 total points was the 2nd lowest ever (116 in 2002)... Duke's win ensured at least one entry has picked the correct champion since 1998... Zippy won a 9-way tiebreaker for 49th place, tying for the largest tie ever broken (2008)... this pool set a record low for elimination average (the point where an entry gets eliminated, with 2 being lowest (end of 2nd round) and 6 highest (winning)) at 2.92 (previous low was 3.04 in 2006)... the pool also set record lows for win average (35.1) and point average (89.3) (previous lows 35.4 and 90.8 in 2006)... this is the 2nd straight year the NCAA champ has come from the South Region after three straight from the Midwest... as much as it pains me to miss out on the money via tiebreaker, I'm glad we get to spread the wealth around to four new people and to five people who have been with us at least 7 years...

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Deemed to Win gets its last 10 must-win games correct but loses on tiebreaker... sigh...
Scott