Thursday, March 20, 2025 
Issue # 2.1.1 "Third time the charm for Drake"
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HOME, CA (smt) - Not too much drama as nearly all comebacks fell short but there were a few upsets.  #11W-Drake finally fulfilled their trendy upset destiny holding off #6W-Missouri.  Drake were trendy upset picks the past two years but failed to deliver as a #10 and #12 seed.  #12MW-McNeese led #5MW-Clemson 31-13 at the half and held on to win by two.  In the marquee game, John Calipari's #10W-Arkansas finished on a 15-5 run to beat #7W-Kansas by seven.  Kansas had won 17 straight first round games (lost in 2006).  The opening game saw a mild upset as #9S-Creighton beat #8S-Louisville in Kentucky (Lexington), negating the perceived home-field advantage.

#4MW-Purdue, #1S-Auburn, #6E-BYU, #4S-Texas A&M, #3W-Texas Tech (with their ugly 46 three-point attempts, making just 13 (28.3%)), and #2MW-Tennessee pulled away in the second half while #3E-Wisconsin, #1MW-Houston, #8MW-Gonzaga,  #7MW-UCLA, and #2W-St. John's (after a slow start) never were challenged in the second half.  Trendy #12 pick S-UCSD, in their first tournament in their first year of eligibility, fell behind 10-0, cut a 15-point second half deficit to 1 in just over 4 1/2 minutes, eventually led by two with 2:29 left, and had a chance to tie at the buzzer but fell short 68-65 to #5S-Michigan.

Unofficially, we received 187 entries from 114 people with a record 26 folks entering three times.  With four strong #1 seeds, people seemed to be hedging their bets as each of the #1 seeds were picked by at least 24 entries with Florida edging Duke in popularity, 51-48.  Ultimately, 19 teams were picked to win this year.  The 187 entries means we will have 7 money spots (plus the Bonus) instead of the 8 we had the past two years (>=190 entries).

KevLo started the day 12-0 but UCLA messed him up and ends the day in a 12-way tie for first with 28 pts (14-2).   The twelve tied beats the 11-way tie after Day 1 in 2008.  Go Beach!, The Mighty Mobelfakta, Indy Jr, CherryChipper, Martlets2, Sandra-1, The Gambler 1, CanUBeatA12Grader, Bucketsandbeets, Notcraig, and Crash Out Crew hope the good start continues.  Mythical SeaBeasts (great name) got just 7 correct to sit last with 14 pts.

We are now on Twitter (@HWCI_Pools) and Discord.  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.  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 - Congrats to Billy T who won the 15th HWCI First Four for Charity going 4-0 with a low 32 point differential (more details in a couple weeks)... so far, we have raised $550  for the LA Fire Department Foundation thanks a few generous folks and hope it will grow over the next month... the most exciting game was the First Four (which I could have been at (in Dayton) if I had planned better) with #16aS-Alabama St inexplicitly throwing a baseball pass with more than 5 seconds left that somehow found its way to the game-winning basket with one second left to beat #16bS-St Francis, who would've made our pool for the first time (their last appearance was in 1991, four years before we started)... #11bS-UNC shutting up critics with a 27-point blowout was disappointing although having the SEC get nicked right away with #11aMW-Texas losing was sweet to see... who will keep their Sweet 16 streak alive - Zags have made it 9 straight years and Houston 5 in a row and will face each other in the 2nd round... twelve entries have gone 16-0 on day 1 (6 in 2017)... we had a record 90 entries on Wednesday (previous was 82 last year)... not including the 2021 post-pandemic year (where Friday was the deadline), the 31 entries received on Thursday was the lowest since 28 in 2014... with Hostek mucking up our Wordpress site and not having a backup, we were still able to get the 3rd highest entry total ever - I think the Wordpress site helped those who don't know us very well so maybe why we fell short... but there is Wayback Time Machine!... it's odd to find how the other post-season tourneys are just not organized as UC Riverside was invited (and assumed accepted) to two different tourneys (CBI, NIT) and South Alabama had their NIT invite rescinded due to this... McNeese was the least popular #12 pick with just 24 picking them (#12W-Colorado St was the most popular with 81 hoping they'll win tomorrow)... Houston won by 38 points (78-40) and led by 28 at halftime... the SEC went 4-2 (down to 11 teams now) while the Big Ten went 4-0 and Big East 3-0... for the first time, I think, we have duplicate entries - My Favorite (47th-Tie, 24 pts) and Sisyphus 13 have the exact same picks but differ on total points tiebreaker; both did all favorites and interestingly enough, both didn't go with #1 overall seed Auburn but with Florida to win it all once it reached all #1 seeds... just four teams weren't picked to win one game by any one (#15MW-Wofford, #16MW-SIU Edwardsville, #16E-Mt St Mary's, and #16W-Norfolk St)... of those not picked to win it all, Texas Tech was picked by 13 to reach the Final Four... Shake & Bake (152nd-T, 20) was the only person to lose their champ (Kansas)...

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Pretty cool seeing the first day of auditions yesterday for AGT judging with Simon, Mel, Sofia, and Howie in the house...
Scott