Where are all the west coast teams, especially the southwest? Maybe San Diego St. Maybe Arizona St. Maybe Santa Barbara. Maybe UNLV. St. Mary’s, Oakland, and Cal are in but they’re in northern California. For the first time since 2004, no USC or UCLA. How will that affect the number entries in our pool with no local team in it?
Edit: This Oakland’s in Michigan…
Congrats to Oakland for making their 2nd tourney appearance after winning the The Summit League’s tournament. But this time, they were the #1 seed and have a 26-8 record. The last time, they were 12-18 after somehow winning the then Mid-Continent Conference tourney and actually won the play-in game. So 14 teams are in, 51 to go.
Well, next Thursday at 9 am PDT will be the deadline for entries in possibly, the last 65-team bracket. Selection Sunday is four days away. If Arizona doesn’t win the Pac-10 tournament, that will leave only Kansas as the lone team to be in every one of our brackets since we started in 1995. We also may have as few as one newcomer to our bracket (Wofford) which would be the fewest since just four new (since 1995) teams made it in 2007. Let’s go Quinnipiac and Lehigh (which lost a play-in game in 2004 and thus didn’t make our bracket — see we treat the play-in game as not the REAL tournament)!
EDIT: Damn, Quinnipiac. Go Lehigh! Actually, if Wofford plays in the play-in game and loses, we could have no new teams!
Cornell becomes the first to make the field of 65. Northern Iowa, Winthrop, ETSU, and Murray St. soon followed (all relatively recent participants). Stony Brook missed out (I presented a tutorial there a couple years ago). Things are shaping up… Brackets come out Sunday night!
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. The final update of 2009. Thanks to everyone for playing! Hope you had fun even if your bracket didn’t. Feel free to visit the Facebook page or discussion board and post comments during the off-season. Also, for 2010, in addition to the 16th HWCI NCAA Pool, we’ll have our 4th HWCI World Cup Soccer Pool, one of the most unique pools out there. Be sure to add yourself as a friend to “Hwci Ncaa” or join the Facebook group page so you can stay updated.
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. Congrats to the six winners. Boy, UNC just couldn’t miss in that first half. One last update later this week and then checks will be mailed!
David put the standings up within minutes of the final whistle as we congratulate the following:
1st Place = $495.00 Lawrence M (Bizarro Larzby)
2nd Place = $250.00 Wendy B (Buckeye23)
3rd Place = $170.00 Adam C (AC)
4th Place = $115.00 Ford R (Rainman)
5th Place = $ 70.00 Mike B (Buckeye Mike)
Bonus Prize =$ 40.00 Kevin T (Shake N’ Bake)
A couple of late garbage baskets propelled Kevin T to win the $40 bonus, winning the 10-way battle. The high scoring first half allowed Adam to rest easier as he easily won the tiebreaker with Ford and the extra $55 to boot.
It was not as fun at Vi’s (Little Miss Sunshine) home as she needed Michigan St. to win to hold onto 2nd place. But it great to finally see a complete game (even though the Spartans didn’t play one) on TV, albeit in stretched 4:3 form. I blame Vi’s mom for not getting HD (on the LCD TV) to the Spartan’s loss 🙂
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. If you ever wanted to know how each of our 15 pools have done and how the United States Gross Domestic Product affects our pool, read this! From our humble beginnings of just 12 entries to 114 today. Interestingly, the $70 5th place prize this year matches the amount the first place person got in 1995.
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. Congrats to Lawrence M (Bizarro Larzby) and Wendy B (Buckeye23) for winning 1st and at least 4th. We will congratulate four more winners after Monday’s game.
Congrats to Lawrence M (Bizarro Larzby) for winning the 2009 HWCI NCAA Pool. With a 16 point lead, he is guaranteed to finish first after Michigan St. won. He’s our 42nd person to win money (44 including 2nd/3rd entries that have won). He’s also just the third person to ever win money on his/her 2nd or 3rd entry (his first entry was Larzby). Wendy B (Buckye23) will win at least 4th place and will be our 13th multiple-winner (having won the $40 Bonus in ’07). That leaves 3 spots with 6 people trying to get it. Bob G (Baba) after not winning anything the first nine years, has a chance for back-t0-back money spots (2nd in ’08). Vi N (Little Miss Sunchips) has also languished in her first eight years, many spent near the bottom, but will this be the year? Adam C (AC) will try to be just the 18th person (15th not including our first year) to win money on their first try. Steve N (The Rat Pack) went 0-for-2 today but can still hold on in his 4th year. Ford R (Rainman) is hoping his sophmore year in the pool is lucky. And Mike B (Buckeye Mike), who had the 22-0 start, will try to add to his $40 Bonus win in ’04, but even with the $70 5th place finish (if UNC wins), he’ll have earned just $110 in 14 years ($140).
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. The ever-tideous, somewhat popular annual nickname issue. 114 to go through this time. Lots of useless links but some are fun. If you have complaints, post them on our forum. Good luck to those still alive and those still in the Bonus race.
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool – Bonus1 Possibilities. There may only be 17 vying for the top 5 prizes, but there 51 (SilverSurfer and Bizarro Larzby aren’t eligible because they would finish in the top 5 if they are correct with the conference wins) still with a chance to take home $40. Check out which scenario and what tiebreaker you’d need to win $40. One notable possibility is that if UConn beats UNC or Villanova beats Michigan St. in the Final and the total points scored in that final is 134, there would be 5 people sharing $40, or $8 each!
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool – Final Four Report. There are only 8 possible outcomes left. Click the link to find out (if you’re on the lucky 17), which outcome(s) can win you money. Note that some are tied, and a tiebreaker could knock that person OUT of the money!
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool Update. 17 are still alive! Bizarro Larzby can win money in all, but not all — why? Will we have a 2-time champ? Find out in this update! The LA Sol women’s pro soccer team won 2-0 in a pretty good game. We couldn’t change the channels in the press box, so once again, I missed watching some live bball. This sucks…
2009 HWCI NCAA Pool. Can’t believe I missed the end (on radio) of the Pitt-Villanova game. Darn SFO parking garage.