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2018 NCAA Champions
#1-East Boston, MA Hosted by Boston College (ACC) TD Garden	Villanova University Wildcats (36-4) 3rd Title: ’85, ’16
2018 Winningest Conference
	The Big 12 Conference (12-7) 4th Time: ’03, ’08, ’10

GOODLAND HOTEL IN GOLETA, CA (smt)- Nine minutes into Monday’s game, #3W-Michigan actually had more three-pointers than #1E-Villanova (2 to 1) and built a 21-14 lead but then couldn’t hit a shot.  Villanova found their rhythm, hitting 3 of their next 4 three-point attempts and went on a 23-7 run to close the half en route to another double-digit win, 79-62.  After allowing Michigan to get a quick basket after the break, Villanova scored the next 7 points and never looked back.  The Wolverines tried to get back, cutting the lead to 12 but consecutive threes by Donte DiVencenzo (who had a record 31 points off the bench which was 24 more than Michigan’s whole bench) had the Wildcats back up by 18 with 7:55 left.  In the end, Villanova won their 3rd title and second in three years, hitting 10 more threes to extend their record of 28 threes in the Final Four and 76 in the tournament.

Villanova’s rout moved Billy T (Billiam), Greg J (BamaG 2), and Chuck D (ChasCroix-1) into the 4th, 5th, and 6th money spots.  The garbage time scoring in the end pushed the total points to 141 which gave Greg J 5th place over Chuck D.  Last year, Chuck D won the tiebreaker to win 6th place instead of 7th.  Bob G (Philly Eagles Again) clinched 1st on Saturday and Ron E (Slamjam51-3) and Janette H (SacKings4Ever) kept their 2nd and 3rd place finish, respectively.  Billy T and Janette H become the 7th and 8th persons to win in their first pool since 2009.  Ron E finally picks up a win in his 11th year.  Sam S (SamerTime) had already clinched the $40 bonus on Saturday.

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   Tids & Bits – In the proper 64, the SEC finished 8-8, the Big East finished 9-5, the Big 12 finished 12-7 , the ACC finished 11-9, the Big Ten finished 9-4, the Missouri Valley finished 4-1, and the Mountain West and WCC each finished 2-1 and 2-2, respectively… Villanova extended their record for most 3-pointers in NCAA history (464)… Villanova won all 6 games by double-digits (17.7 average)… Villanova led by as many as 22 (74-52)… 42 picked Villanova… for the 20th straight season, someone picked the correct champion (only misses were ’97 Arizona (#4SE) and ’98 Kentucky (#2S))… Villanova finished a perfect 19-0 against non-conference opponents… the 36 wins were a Nova team record (as was Michigan’s 33)… five entries correctly picked 141 points in the final… Balls Dropped! won the tie breaker to finish 155th, leaving Paint Crew in last (60 pts)… Wildcard finished 74th, the lowest of the 42 who picked Villanova as their champ… 46 reached the century mark (100+ pts)… Larzby (10th) was the highest placed entry who did not pick Villanova… there was actually a 3-way tie for 47th as Team TED, Sisyphus13, and Mr Wizard each had 99 pts and were off in the tiebreaker by 4… Ron E had all three of his entries in the top 23 (Slamjam51-1 8th (116) and Slamjam51-2 23rd (108))… the 26.9% picking Villanova was the highest since ’12 (38.8% picked Kentucky)… the 91.9 pt average was the lowest since ’11 (84.2)… entries were eliminated with an average of 2.81 (2=end of 2nd round, 6=won money), the lowest ever (previous low was 2.91 in ’11); only the 3rd time it was below 3.0… entries only averaged 34.2 wins, the lowest ever (previous low was 24.5 in ’11)… Villanova is the 16th #1 seed to win the championship in our pool era (24 years)…

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The following takes place between 9 am Monday and 9 am Tuesday.  Events occur in real time.

Hotel didn’t have TBS so had to watch Michigan TeamCast on TNT and they were not a happy bunch to listen to…
Scott