PHOENIX, AZ (smt)-  The first five games featured one buzzer beater, three additional late baskets in the final four seconds, and four games decided by three points or less.  Of course, this is when I was packing, heading to the airport making it by minutes, and flying to Phoenix.  #7SE-UCLA nearly blew a 23-point lead in the final nine minutes (missing 9 of 12 free throws at the end) in winning by two, the record fifth 2-point margin of victory in a day.  #5SE-Kansas St. nearly blew a late 13-point lead but held on.  But, #5E-West Virginia, #2W-SDSU (their 1st-ever win), #1SE-Pitt, #2SE-Florida, #3SE-BYU, #3W-UConn, #4SE-Wisconsin, and #6W-Cincy pulled away in the second half for easy victories. #11SE-Gonzaga won their 9th game as a double-digit seed and #12SW-Richmond won their fifth as a double-digit seed. 

#13SE-Morehead St. took an early 10-0 but needed a three with 4.2 seconds left to knock of #4SE-Louisville and have a good chance to advance to the Sweet Sixteen as they face Richmond.  #8SE-Butler scored the first buzzer-beater of the tourney while #4E-Kentucky got the game-winner with 2 seconds left and #7W-Temple got their game-winner with 0.4 seconds left. 

In our 17th Annual HWCI NCAA Pool, The Downtown Fiction has taken an early lead getting 15 games correct (missing just Morehead St., who was picked by Craig (2nd-Tied, 28 pts) and JD Salinger's Cats (21st-T, 24)).  Four are tied for 2nd with 14 correct (28 pts).  #5SW-Vandy's penchant for choking (losing as #4 seeds the past two years) was apparent as 43 picked Richmond. Five got only half correct (16).  Four lost Louisville in their Final Four but Pack Rat (114th-T, 18) and Crazy Lady (61st-T, 22) lost both Louisville and #6SE-St. John's in their Final Four.  In one of the oddest picks, Lucky Number Slevin (22) lost #13SE-Belmont as his champion. 

We have received a record 126 entries which will be unofficial until Monday.  You can now view the standings, team distribution, individual choice distribution, everybody's bracket, and who's who.  Mini updates will be on our homepage (blog) and discussion can occur on our Discussion Forum or Facebook.  A record 99 people entered the pool with 8 being new.  17 entered twice while five submitted the max three entries.

In the inaugural HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity contest, David A (Real Sporting FC) was the only one to pick all four games correctly as USC's choke (or was it the coach that choked someone?) prevented an 8-way tie.  Vi N (Little Miss Sunchips) had the lowest point differential (29) but the tiebreaker never came into play.  Three went 0-4 which doesn't bode well for the rest of the tournament with Roy W (Krispy Kremer) having the highest differential at +75.  Congrats to the winner and thank you all for raising $60 for the American Red Cross.