Friday, March 18, 2016  [Posted 3/21]
Issue # 4.1.2 "The Return of the Buzzer Beater"
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SALT LAKE CITY, UT (smt)- Six double-digit seeds joined the four yesterday in a wild and crazy day.  In calmness, #10MW-Syracuse, #2S-Villanova, #10W-VCU, #13S-Hawaii, #2W-Oklahoma, #14E-Stephen F. Austin, #3W-Texas A&M, #1W-Oregon, and #2E-Xavier reached the 2nd Round.  In the biggest upset, especially considering most thought this was a #1 seed, #15MW-Middle Tennessee withstood a couple of #2MW-Michigan St. runs to become just the eighth #15 seed to win.  Middle Tennessee were 16 1/2 point underdogs, which doesn't seem that large considering MSU was #2 in the AP poll.  #7S-Iowa made a critical mistake of missing a free throw and then fouling on a 3-point attempt with 2 seconds left allowing #10S-Temple to tie and force overtime.  Iowa had the last possession in OT and with the game tied and a put back off an airball at the buzzer gave the Hawkeyes the win.  #6W-Texas just tied the game with #11W-Northern Iowa so UNI tried a half court shot at the buzzer that banked in.  Then the last game of the night,, #9W-Cincinnati had the ball and a pass under the basket resulted in a dunk at the buzzer for the win... but although the ball was above the basket, the hand was still on the ball and it didn't count.  #5S-Maryland, #7E-Wisconsin, and #6E-Notre Dame held off upset attempts.

Three went 13-3 today including Buccos 1 who now leads the pool with 54 pts.  The Resistance (3rd-Tied, 50) lost the first game (Syracuse) snapping the win streak at 16.  Bigtenfan and NormanDale's Playbook also went 13-3 and are both in a tie for 13th (48). BamaG 2 is alone in 2nd (52). TimW is alone in last by 4 pts (32).  Thai Spice (142nd-T, 36) went 6-10.  Most people picked Michigan St (53) to win it all and 31 more had them in the Final with a total of 112 having them in the Final Four.

We are now on Twitter (@HWCI_Pools).  Please follow!  I will post using #hwciNCAA mini-updates during the day so you can follow without being on Twitter (and if you are, please use #hwciNCAA).  Please join our Facebook HWCI NCAA Pool Group or post comments on our blog.  Here you can join the group and meet your competitors, make new friends, set up NCAA watching gatherings, and post stuff to the wall (pictures, witty comments, etc.). 

   Tids & Bits - SFA has now won 21 games in a row (#1S-Kansas next at 15)...  the 10 double-digit seeds winning is a record and add in the 3 #9 seeds winning, that's 13 upsets... first time a 10-11-13-14-15 seed won on the same day... first #15 seed winning since FGCU (aka, Dunk City) eliminated Georgetown in 2013... the ACC went 6-1 while Pac 12 went 2-5... 5 still have all their Elite 8 teams alive while 6 lost 4 of their 8... 28 have all four Final Four teams while 14 lost half... One and Won (119th-T, 40) is only entry to lose both finalists (Mich St, Arizona)... no one picked Middle Tennessee, 11 picked SFA, 31 picked Michigan and Little Rock, and 32 picked Hawaii and Yale, 46 picked Wichita St and Northern Iowa... the most popular upset picks were #11MW-Gonzaga (95 correct), #9S-UConn (96 correct), #10W-VCU (103 correct), #9MW-Butler (117 correct) -- all correct... the biggest upset miss was #9W-Cincy (67 incorrect)... a round of up the First Four for Charity will be early next week or you can find out who won now... 

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Cough, cough, cough, sick and back to reality...
Scott