Sunday, March 23, 2025 (Updated Scoresheet)
Issue # 5.2.2 "Buzzer Beater!"
[   | | | | Updates | Standings | Possibilities ]

CYPRESS, CA (smt) - Wow, wow, wow.  Cinderellas and mid-majors are dead.  #12W-Colorado St had a chance to be both hitting a clutch three with six seconds left to go up by one only to have #4W-Maryland's Derik Green (travel or not, they all do it) bank the game-winner at the buzzer, our first true buzzer-beater since the 2023 Final Four when SDSU knocked off FAU.  Maryland was down by 12 early and nine early in the second half but neither team led by more than 4 in the final 15 minutes.

In a classic game between two former Pac 12 foes, #5E-Oregon jumped out to a 19-4 lead before #4E-Arizona started to chip away to lead 35-33.   Zona never trailed in the second half but nearly blew a 7-point lead with 2 1/2 minutes left and held on thanks to clutch free throws (6/6 in the final 10 seconds including hitting both front ends of a 1-and-1) and fouling instead of letting Oregon try for a game-tying three on their last two possessions.  Oregon was just 9/18 at the free throw line before the last few seconds (hit 3/4 but intentionally missed the last).

#1W-Florida didn't take a second half lead until 2:54 left (62-61) which was towards the beginning of a 14-3 run to eliminate the two-time defending champs, #8W-UConn, 77-75 (not close at the end, meaningless three at buzzer cut it to two).  UConn's 13-game tourney win streak was snapped (tied for 2nd longest with Duke '91-93 and far behind UCLA's 38), 12-game tourney streak of leading at the half was snapped (tied 31-31, the only tie this year), and 26-game tourney streak of winning with any 2nd half lead was snapped.

#1E-Duke never led by less than 13 in the second half, #3MW-Kentucky never led by less than 6 in the second half after an early 10-0 second-half run, and #2E-Alabama never led by less than 7 in the second half.  #6S-Ole Miss pulled off the day's only upset in knocking off #3S-Iowa St by building a 25-point lead and never having their lead cut to less than 7 in the second half.  #2S-Michigan St broke a 51-51 tie with 7:39 left by going on a 12-3 run to win by eight.

The SEC got a record 7 teams in the Sweet 16 going 4-0 today including Ole Miss's upset win.  Just three other conferences got teams in (previously, at least 7 different conferences got teams into the Sweet 16) with the Big 12 and Big Ten each with 4 and Duke being the lone ACC representative.  All four of these mega-conferences have at least 16 teams.  This is the first time no team seeded 11 or lower made the Sweet 16 since '07 (5th time ever, '95, '00, '04).

Slamjam 51-1 (6th, 91 pts; up from a tie for 30th), Slamjam 51-2 (3rd-Tied, 92; up from a tie for 20th), Slamjam 51-3 (12th-T, 89; up from a tie for 54th), and ZQUEEN A (138th-T, 74; up from a tie for 181st after going 4-4 yesterday) all went 8-0 today.  They are just the 18th, 19th, and 20th entries to ever go 8-0 on the second day of the 2nd round.  Slamjam 51-2 went 14-2 for the second round.  Alyonushka (174th-T, 67) and Notcraig (148th-T, 73) went 2-6 in this heavy favorite-weighted tournament.  Bang Bang Strike (187th (last), 55), Janicki Alex (184th-T, 61), and Buckeye23 (184th-T) all went 5-11 in the second round.

Arizona's win was the last game of the day and the win put DaBoyz25 in first (95) and Flip Fighter in second (93).  The trio (Billiam (3rd-T, 92), DaBoyz25, The Mighty Mobelfakta (3rd-T)) tied yesterday stayed that way all day until the Zona win. 

M&M (63rd-T, 82) lost Iowa St as their champ and Bulbagrrrl (155th-T, 71) lost Oregon.  23 entries still have all eight Elite 8 teams alive and not surprisingly, 114 still have all four Final Four teams alive.  Bang Bang Strike has just 2 of 8 Elite teams alive and Lady Chocoholic 170th-T, 68), Bulbagrrrl, Jonna (174th-T), and Sleepy (182nd, 63) have just one Final Four team alive.

With 32,768 possible outcomes now, we now know that just 45 entries have been eliminated from the top 7 prize spots, leaving 142 entries alive.  With most favorites alive, 78 entries can still win the pool.  The Gambler 1 (12th-T) has the best chance to win the pool (14.0%) with KevLo (18th-T, 88) (12.3%) and Paint Crew (7th-T, 90) (11.8%) the only other entries in double-digits.  DaBoyz25 has the best chance at money (40.5%) with six others with at least a 30% to finish in the top 7.  Of those who can't win the pool, Arigato Gozaimasu (7th-T) has the best chance at 2nd-7th at 10.8%.

The next update will be the prize distribution and how the Bonus prize works (spoiler, it hasn't changed). 

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 - is the most tone-deaf commercial the "I got high" from Puma?... there have been a ton of "who touched it last" reviews making games last longer than usual... the Midwest Region is the only one with all 4 top seeds alive... Duke is 15/15 in making the Sweet 16 as a #1 seed... Duke shot 64.4% from the field (29/45) with nearly half their shots from 3 point (12/22 54.5%)... after hitting 18/18 free throws in the first round, #6MW-Illinois missed 7 today... St. Mary's allowed 80+ points for the first time in 106 games... with St. Mary's loss, all 4 California teams are out... I don't know if I like or don't like the "Crab Five" nickname for Maryland's team (they scored 70 of the 72 points)..Maryland had just 1 turnover the second half and that was with 18:58 remaining... Arizona's 15-point comeback (though it was all in the first half) was the second biggest comeback in the 2nd round... of those who could get their teams into the Sweet 16 or alive for the Elite 8, Janicki Alex (184th-T, 61) lost 8 of the Sweet 16 games and All is Fine (162nd-T, 70) lost 5 of their Elite 8 games the past two days... 43 went 7-1 today... 185 picked Duke, 173 Florida, 168 Michigan St, 157 Alabama, 123 Kentucky, 114 Maryland, 110 Arizona, 25 Ole Miss... entries averaged 5.64 wins today and 10.10 wins for the 2nd round... 

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Funny that both my entries (7th, 39th) can't win the pool but my wife's (138th) could...
Scott