Category Archives: HWNCAA Pool 19

Issue # 4.2.1 “Chalk + Auburn”

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Saturday, March 23, 2019 

FAVORITES ADVANCE ALONG WITH RED HOT AUBURN
Slamjam51 3 takes over 1st place as 8 are perfect today

LSU's Waters for the win

CYRPESS COSTCO/CERRITOS, CA (smt)- Surprising SEC tournament champion #5MW-Auburn continued its hot run in routing #4MW-Kansas to advance to the Sweet 16 with 7 favorites.  #3E-LSU blew a 15-point second half lead and trailed by 3 before Tremont Waters drove for a layup with 1.6 seconds left to break a 67-67 tie.  #2MW-Kentucky struggled against #7MW-Wofford in winning by six but the other six (#2W-Michigan, #4W-Florida St, #1W-Gonzaga, #2E-Michigan St, and #3S-Purdue) all won by at least 12 points.  That means 26 of 40 games were blowouts and just 4 of 40 were one possession games.  Yawn. 

There were great performances, more than I remember from another tournament with #12W-Murray St’s Ja Morant excelling with 28 points in the loss, Purdue’s Carsen Edwards scoring an absurd 42 points, and the Zags’ Brandon Clarke scoring 36 points and blocking 5 shots.  One star who failed to produce was Wofford’s Fletcher Magee who after setting the career record for 3s with 509 in the last game, just needed four to tie Steph Curry’s single-season record of 162.  But he instead set the record for most missed threes without a make, going 0-for-12.  And his demeanor is the same as Curry’s, arrogant and just putting up 3s late despite teammate Nathan Hoover hitting 4-of-5 threes (Curry’s selfish and dumb threes (which of course he missed) late against Cleveland is the only reason Lebron has a ring in Cleveland)).

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Issue # 3.1.2 “ZOT! ZOT! ZOT!”

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Friday, March 22, 2019 
Issue # 3.1.2 “ZOT! ZOT! ZOT!“

ANTEATERS SHOCK AMONGST 8 UPSETS
5 tied for first as three go 15-1 despite 8 upsets

UC Irvine Anteaters

GOLETA/CERRITOS, CA (smt)- The lone local team, #13S-UC Irvine, rallied with a 17-4 run to put away #4S-Kansas St to reach the Round of 32.  UCI was just one of 8 upsets on the day with #12S-Oregon, #9S-Oklahoma, #9MW-Washington (and their relentless defense), and #9E-Central Florida (with great name and player Tacko Fall) winning comfortably and #10S-Iowa (over hometown crowd #7S-Ciincy), #12E-Liberty, and #11MW-Ohio St pulled out close wins.  #1 seeds struggled with infamous #1S-Viriginia going down 30-16 to #16S-Gardner-Webb, but the difference from last year to this year is that De’Anndre Hunter wasn’t injured and scored 23 points in helping rally from a 5-point halftime deficit with a 25-5 run to start the 2nd half.  #1MW-UNC also was down 5 at the half to #16MW-Iona but broke from halftime on a 25-7 run to win easily.  #1E-Duke fell behind by 7 early to #16E-North Dakota St before scoring 54 points in the 2nd half.  #3W-Texas Tech, #6W-Buffalo, #3MW-Houston, and #4E-Virginia Tech won easily but #2S-Tennessee trailed 52-50 but held on to win by 7. 

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Issue # 2.1.1 “Darlings Mostly Disappoint”

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Thursday, March 21, 2019 
A BIG TEN GOES 5-0 WHILE BIG EAST DOWN TO ONE
Our 25th year saw an increase to 162 entries from 1l3 people

GOLETA, CA (smt)- Potential Cinderella darlings #14E-Yale, #12MW-New Mexico St, #11E-Belmont, and #11S-St. Mary’s all faltered leaving head coachless #3E-LSU, #5MW-Auburn, #6E-Maryland, and the defending champ #6S-Villanova heading into the 2nd Round.  Yale sure did look like they were looking forward to Belmont in the next round and forgot they had to win the first one.  New Mexico St bypassed an easy layup to tie the match, missed 2 of 3 free throws with 1.7 seconds left when down by 2, and the airballed a wide open three at the buzzer in losing by one.  Auburn was tying to give the game away blowing a late 13 point lead and committing six turnovers in the last nine minutes or so and missing front ends of one-and-one free throws.  The only team that fulfilled people’s upset brackets was #12W-Murray St led by Ja Morant’s triple double (17 pts-16 ast-12 reb), the first in tournament play since ’12 in a rout of #5W-Marquette.  There were a few other upsets as #10E-Minnesota, #10W-Florida, and #9W-Baylor picked up wins.  Still upset at their placement, #2E-Michigan St trailed #15E-Bradley by one at halftime before pulling away.  #4W-Florida St, #7MW-Wofford, and #3S-Purdue ended strong while #4MW-Kansas, #2MW-Kentucky (winning the Wildcats vs Wildcats battle), #1W-Gonzaga, and #2W-Michgan rolled to easy victories. 

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Admin Picks!

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Well, here we go. We have 143 entries thus far with less than 5 hours to go. Below are the admin picks, and yes, we pay our own $10 per entry. Note, the links will eventually have the time/date stamp removed when I have time but I was working until 1 am today. BTW, this link also will allow you to view your own bracket if you forgot who you picked.

David F: The Mighty Mobelfakta (http://www.hwci.com/ncaa/2019/picks.asp?entries=The+Mighty+Mobelfakta+-+3-21-2019+2-23)

Scott T (1st): Silver Fabone (http://www.hwci.com/ncaa/2019/picks.asp?entries=Silver+Fabone+-+3-21-2019+5-45)

Scott T (2nd): Gekijou no Walkure (http://www.hwci.com/ncaa/2019/picks.asp?entries=Gekijou+no+Walkure+-+3-21-2019+6-23)

Issue # 1.0.1 “The Silver Age of Brackets”

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Monday, March 18, 2019  **HELP support Boys & Girls Clubs of America (deadline Tue 3:40 pm PDT **

ACC NABS 3 #1 SEEDS, DUKE #1 OVERALL
Our 25th year offers a consistent experience, unlike the new NCAA Evaluation Tool

Seed List

CERRITOS/SANTA BARBARA, CA (smt)- The Big Ten got 8 teams in but it was the ACC who was king as #1E-Duke (with sensation Zion (Williamson)), #1S-Virginia, and #1MW-North Carolina (record 17th #1 seed) got the top three #1 seeds.  #1W-Gonzaga, despite losing to #11S-St. Mary’s in the WCC final, got the last #1 seed.  The Cavs are back as a #1 seed a year after becoming the first team to lose to a #16 seed (no UMBC in sight this year).  The top 32 ranked teams in the new NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) made the tourney but so did NET73 St. John’s while NET33 NC State did not.  #12S-Oregon’s upset of #9MW-Washington in the Pac 12 final likely sent UNC Greensboro (60NET) home.  The ACC and SEC got 7 teams in with the Big 12 (6), AAC (4), Big East (4), and Pac 12 (3) getting at least three teams.  The mid-majors managed to snag seven at-large bids (including the AAC’s 3) and almost a eighth (the aforementioned UNCG) in a nice change of pace.  Somehow #9S-Oklahoma (7-12) and #11MW-Ohio St. (9-13) made the tourney with horrible losing conference records.  No sign of UCLA or USC but the #13S-Anteaters of UC-Irvine made it to be our only local team, their 2nd appearance after making it in 2015 also as a 13 seed and nearly knocking off Louisville.  #2E-Michigan St and #2W-Michigan (with the Spartans beating the Wolverines 3 times in 15 days) were both shipped to Hartford but Michigan St got Duke’s region due to the fact the regional (Washington DC) is much closer than their normal position as 5th seed in the West (Anaheim).  #7S-Cincy gets to play in the same state (Columbus) with #4MW-Kansas hoping to make the regional in Kansas City.  Streaking MW-Auburn who beat #2S-Tennessee for their first SEC title in 34 years only earned a 5 seed.

Wow, the Selection show brought back memories of a simpler time when all picks were done in just over a half-hour, none of this NBA analyst nonsense of last year,  none of the leaked brackets of the past, none of the dragging out the picks over an hour.   And back on CBS where it belongs.

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9th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity (Due 3:40 pm PDT Tuesday)

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Support the Boys & Girls Clubs of America

While you decide who will win the tourney, for the 9th year I’m doing the HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity, where I will donate $2 per entry to a charity, this year to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which helps enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.  This is one of the highest rated charities and since I have a son and daughter, this seems to fit.  This First Four for Charity is free and you just have to submit (you can comment on this post to enter, email, post to Facebook, tweet @HWCI_Pools) who the four First Four winners will be and by what point margin. For example: Prairie View by 8, Belmont by 12, NC Central by 1, and Arizona St by 2.   The four games are Fairleigh Dickinson vs Prairie View A&M, Belmont vs Temple, North Carolina Central vs North Dakota St, and Arizona St vs St. John’s.  Get your entry by 3:40 pm PDT Tuesday.  As a bonus, in the end, if we top our record of 178 entries this year, I’ll donate an additional $25.  Also, invite your friends and people can enter (since it’s free) this charity contest but not our main pool.

Our Silver Anniversary!

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Our 25th HWCI NCAA pool is almost here.  Haven’t followed anything but I’m sure USC and UCLA are the teams to beat!  Art and detailed pool stats may be delayed as I lost a USB drive in June which means most of the past 2 year pool stats are gone and I have to re-create.  But it doesn’t affect this year’s pool, just my obsession with pool stats.  So, who will join the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs (Big South champs) into making their 1st tourney?  Abilene Christian (Southland) and Grand Canyon (WAC) will try to win their tournament final today.