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Friday, March 24, 2017 

CERRITOS APT/LONG BEACH, CA (smt)- Was just about to write all four teams winning by double-digits and then #4E-Florida decided to change things up.  Up by 12 with 4 and a half minutes left, #8E-Wisconsin battled back with some help from the Gators.  Florida missed four shots, two free throws, and committed two turnovers, and failed to foul while up by 3 leading to Zak Showalter’s off-balance running three-pointer to tie the game at 72 with 2 seconds left.  With our first overtime of the tourney, the momentum continued with the Badgers building a 5-point led with a minute left.  But it was the Badgers’ turn to help out, missing two free throws, committing a dumb early foul, Khalil Iverson mis-timing a breakaway dunk that was partially blocked, and inexplicably allowing Florida to run the down the court with four seconds to give Chris Chiozza an open look, albeit a stop-jump floater, buzzer-beating three-pointer to stun Wisconsin, 84-83.  Crazy.

#1S-North Carolina, #7E-South Carolina, and #2S-Kentucky easily won in double-digits.  In the latter, the most-annoying dad of Lonzo Ball must have been a distraction as #3S-UCLA’s Ball was held to 10 points and four turnovers while Kentucky freshman De’aaron Fox scored a tourney-record 39 points for a freshman.  In a touch of non-class, Ball actually declared for the NBA draft while in the locker room.

There is now a crazy five-way tie for first with King Kobra, Dboyz17, Hrosen2, Thai Spice, and SlumDawg at 108 points.  Alternative Picks (18th-Tied, 102), Biggie’s Back (12th-T, 103), ChasCroix1(78th-T, 92) and En Fuego (56th-T, 95) went 3-1 while 8 went 0-4.

16 lost UCLA as their champ and 27 more lost them in their Final Four.  Alley Loop (71st-T, 93) lost Baylor as their champ.  Alternative Picks is the only entry with all four Final Four teams alive (UNC, Gonzaga, Florida, Kansas) while 5 have lost all four teams.

There are still 58 entries that can finish in the top 7 and 19 can still win the pool.  Danny Taggart (6th, 106) has the best chance to win the pool (21.2%) with Hrosen2 (16.4%) and Dboyz17 right behind (15.6%).  chance to be champion.  Dboyz17 has more than a 50/50 chance at money (53.9%) while 5 others have a better than 30% chance at money.

Despite being 7th, Flying Ace (105) can’t finish higher than 3rd.  Despite being tied for 116th place (88), Yogi and Slamjam51-2 can still win something.  Despite being tied for 96th place (90), both Gators Resurgence and Little Luther can still win the pool.  Despite being tied for 8th place (104), 9ers in ’18 can’t win money.

As for the Bonus, the SEC getting all three teams in the Elite 8, and with South Carolina and Florida facing each other, that means the SEC will get at least 11 wins.  No other conference can get more than 11 wins meaning either the SEC will be the winningest conference or there will be a tie between conferences.  No one has the SEC with 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 wins and no one has the SEC and another conference with 11 wins, thus, no one will win Bonus1 and Bonus2 will be in effect.  The Bonus2 is the total points in final contest and if there is a tie, the higher placement entry will win (e.g., if two entries get the correct total of 144, the one who is 20th will win over the entry who is 45th).  Full possibilities will be posted after the semifinals next Saturday.

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 Groupor post comments on our blog. 

   Tids & Bits – Alyonushka (151st-T, 83) and Dagger (147th-T, 84) both got South Carolina but both were already eliminated… 10 picked Florida, 87 Kentucky, and 158 UNC correctly… Five entries can’t get any more points while Dboyz17 and Alternative Picks could reach a total of 154… Kona Coast Sliders 2 (86th-T, 86), Bigtenfan2 (104th-T, 89), and Pac Attack (22nd-T, 101) all lost 3 Final Four teams the past two days… everyone averaged just 3.37 wins for the round (much less than the 23-year average of 4.0 and lowest since ’14 (3.36))… the Gonzaga-Xavier Elite 8 matchup means that finally, one of these teams will be playing in the Final Four… Tom C’s (Tom (167th-T) African son’s Cal-Bakersfield has advanced to the Final Four in New York, facing ACC’s Georgia Tech in the first semifinal on March 28th…

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Great season finale of Star Wars Rebels…
Scott