Tag Archives: Charity

Madness Begins

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For the win… just short. #11aW-Wichita St’s buzzer beater shot hit the front of the rim (but why a 3 point if down by 1?) giving #11bW-Drake its 26th win, tying #1W-Gonzaga. Wichita St blew a second-half 12 point lead, a theme for the night. #16bE-Texas Southern rallied from a second-half 10 point deficit to win by 8. #11bE-UCLA rallied from a second-half 11 point deficit (down by 14 in the first half and by 6 with under 4 minutes left) to shock #11aE-Michigan St in overtime. #16aW-Norfolk St blew a second half 19-point lead but… rallied from their own 6-point deficit to squeak out a one-point win over #16bW-Appalachian St (who missed their first 19 3-point attempts (0/18 3PT but 8/8 FT in first half)). Norfolk St snapped a 3-game MEAC losing streak in the First Four (previous 3 lost by NC A&T) as the MEAC improves to 4-7. UCLA escaped from losing back-to-back First Four games. A great way to start after not having a March Madness game in the past 710 days.

We have 129 entries thus far which is close to our record-breaking pace in 2017 (178) but will likely fall between 155 and 170 entries. We typically have around 100 people and we are at 77, so hopefully at least 23 more before the 9 am PDT deadline.

In the 11th HWCI First Four for Charity contest (17 entries), Mike M anticipated close games for each (by 1 point) to win with a 3-1 record and low 14 point differential. Four were 3-1 and four were 0-4 (Eric F last with 50 pt diff). This was the third time no one went 4-0 (10 contests, last year was just pick the champ). Mike W actually picked two game exactly (Norfolk St by 1 and UCLA by 6) to finish 2nd (20 pt diff). 6 picked Texas Southern, 5 picked Drake, 7 picked Norfolk St, and 6 picked UCLA. All underdogs (by our picks) won.

11th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity (Due 4 pm PDT Thursday)

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Support the Center for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund

While you decide who will win the tourney, for the 11th year I’m doing the HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity, where I will donate $2 per entry to a charity (and if we get more than 25 responses, I’ll chip in an additional $25), this year to the Center for Disaster (CDP) Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund, which supports preparedness, containment efforts, response and recovery activities for those affected by COVID-19 and for the responders and has already distributed more than $21 million to 137 organizations in the U.S. and abroad.  With the virus still roaring across the world with different variants, this will be the 2nd straight year donating to a COVID-19 fund. 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 (played Thursday this year) will be and by what point margin. For example: Norfolk by 3, Drake by 2, Mt St Mary’s by 9, and UCLA by 1. The four games are Appalachian St vs Norfolk St, Drake vs Wichita St, Texas Southern vs Mt St Mary’s, and UCLA vs Michigan St.  Get your entry by 4 pm PDT Thursday.  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. Last year, we set a record with $325 donated to Direct Relief COVID-19 Response Fund.

My picks: Norfolk St by 5, Wichita St by 7, Texas Southern by 3, and UCLA by 2.

Issue # 25.4 “25 Years: The Charities”

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Thursday, April 16, 2020  ***HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON!!!***
[ 1-Entries | 2-Teams  | 3-Confs ]

25 YEARS:  10 DIVERSE CHARITIES
A total of $325 this year donated to Direct Relief – COVID-19 Fund

SAFER-AT-HOME, CA (smt)- Well, they cancelled the tournament.  But they can’t cancel our good will.  For the 10th straight year, the HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity asked pool friends to reply back with quick answers to enter this free contest where I would donate $2 per entry to a worthy charity or cause.  This year, due to the extreme times we live in, was coronavirus-related and picked Direct Relief since they had a dedicated COVID-19 fund to donate directly to.  Direct Relief is coordinating with public health authorities, nonprofit organizations and businesses in the U.S. and globally to provide personal protective equipment and essential medical items to health workers responding to coronavirus.

1st First Four for Charity Email

Because there was no tournament, this year the question was “Who would you have picked to win the tournament?” instead of the usual First Four winners and margin of victory.  We did get 20 responses back and although we didn’t hit my stated target goal of 25 entries, I still will add in $25 for a total of $65.  Michael W and a very kind-hearted friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) will separately donate (since there is no pool, no sense for me to be the middle-man to collect funds) and add a combined $260 for a grand total of $325, our second highest donation-ever, after last year’s $460 to the Boys and Girls Club of America.  How did we get here?  Here is another 25 Year retrospective, this time on our HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity contest.

Curse the NCAA and their greed!  In ’11, there were going to be 68 teams (instead of 65) but instead of the worst 8 conferences playing for the four games, it would be just four, and the other four would be the last four at-large berths.  This meant that we went from a “don’t care” for Tuesday (didn’t matter who won #64/#65 Opening Round, every sane person would pick them to lose) to how do we deal with the 2 games featuring at-large teams on Tuesday/Wednesday?  Surely, #11-#13 teams have won before and people could pick them depending which team won.  Do we make them pick these First Four games by Tuesday?  No, not feasible.  We would just allow people to change their picks if they wanted after the First Four games.  Luckily, not many people did so it wasn’t a big logistical nightmare we thought (100 people suddenly changing their picks Wed night/Thu morning).

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10th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity

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Direct Relief
COVID-19 Response Fund

Wow, in a span of a couple days, dominos fell and hit every corner of the sport world, with the NCAA cancelling March Madness on March 12.  Today was supposed to be Selection Sunday and the kickoff for our 26th HWCI NCAA Pool.  So the 26th will have to wait until March 18, 2021.  BUT, I have decided to continue with the free 10th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity where we have raised $1,158.08 to 9 different charities including a record-breaking $460 last year to the Boys & Girls Club of America.  

So I want every one of you to reply (Comment, Email,
post to Facebook, tweet @HWCI_Pools) with the TEAM you were going to pick to win the tournament (Kansas #1 AP, Gonzaga #1 NET, Dayton the darling fav).  Deadline will be the 9 am PDT Thursday.  Goal is 25+ replies!

For every reply back (anyone can reply, friends, family, etc), I will donate $2 to Direct Relief’s COVID-19 campaign where they are coordinating with public health authorities, nonprofit organizations and businesses in the U.S., China and globally to provide personal protective equipment and essential medical items to health workers responding to coronavirus (COVID-19). This is one of the highest rated charities that has a way to direct the donation directly to the response to the coronovirus.

Also, I don’t want to be the middle man with no pool, so if you donate to Direct Relief yourself, please email me the amount (up to $10) and I will include the numbers in the final total.

As a bonus, in the end, if we top 25 replies 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. Last year, we not only set a record of $230 in donations from myself and fellow pool players, my company was able to match (such a painful process and never did see the final confirmation) making the donation total $460!

#NotMe! See you in 2021!

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Less than a day after announcing going ahead with the tournament without fans, the NCAA decided to pull the plug and cancelled March Madness. After the NBA had suspended play due to a Utah player testing positive for the coronavirus, Duke and Kansas strongly hinting they wouldn’t travel for the NCAA tournament, and after major leagues such as MLS and NHL paused their regular seasons (even minor ones like XFL), it was only a matter of time before everyone else followed suit. No one wants to be the “one” league that was defiant and then had an incident where players, coaches, and fans were exposed to the coronavirus. Better to be safe than sorry. Whether you agree or disagree, having a united front makes these decisions easier and will help slow the spread of the coronavirus. For some reason the USA cases went down 44 to 1,268 now (was 1,312). The USA only has 0.9% of all confirmed cases but that is likely to go up as more people get tested.

Despite California Governor’s call for no mass gatherings, after filling up gas I walked into Costco in Hawthorne, and they are definitely not following the rules! More than 150+ people packed like sardines, most standing in line all the way to the back of the store, everyone less than 6 feet from each other!

I am impressed with both the NCAA (all sport tournaments in Winter/Spring were cancelled as well) cancelling their big moneymaker (though the cynical side says it would have cost them more headaches and money holding games in empty arenas) and the lowly XFL which says they will still pay players and allow them to sign early with the NFL. Very classy.

Of course, thousands of athlete’s dreams (especially those who weren’t going to go pro) were crushed (#1 Kansas might get the title?), lots of Average Joes/Janes are now out of a job, and coaches may not get their postseason bonus money. Okay, that last one I don’t feel too sorry for.

As for our 26th HWCI NCAA Pool, the 26th will now be in 2021. At least the cancellation came before Selection Sunday so I don’t have to refund payments. Turning lemons into lemonade, this will give me a stress-free opportunity to reflect on the 25 years of the pool and will post periodically throughout March.

Also, while there is no First Four, there will still be the 10th HWCI NCAA First Four For Charity and an email will go out on no-longer-Selection Sunday on details on the charity and how I/you could donate to it.

Record Donation!

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Thanks to the generosity of some winners of this year’s 2019 HWCI NCAA Pool, a record $230.00 was made to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America last month (April 27). While I donated $50 thanks to 25 entries in our 9th HWCI First Four for Charity, Charles D, John S, Robert S, Andy F, Vi P, and Carl S contributed another $180! And if I can get through the paperwork, I am hoping that my company will match this amount. I’ll keep you up to date if that gets approved.

That means in the 9 years of doing the First Four for Charity, $928.08 have been donated to nine different charities. Thank you for your support and we’ll do it again next year! If you have an idea for a charity next year, let me know!

Issue # 11.4.3 “Certified Fresh*” *-Once we deleted all the negative comments

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To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
2019 NCAA FINAL FOUR @ Minneapolis, MN
4th Final Four (’51 (Williams Arena), ’92 & ’01 (Metrodome))
Hosted by U. of Minnesota (Big Ten)U.S. Bank Stadium
Second SemifinalFirst Semifinal
#2-East
Washington, DC
Hosted by Georgetown U. (Big East)
Capital One Arena		#3-West
Anaheim, CA
Hosted by Big West Conference
Honda Center		#1-South
Louisville, KY
Hosted by U. of Louisville (ACC)
KFC Yum! Center		#5-Midwest
Kansas City, MO
Hosted by Missouri Valley Conference
Sprint Center
Michigan State University Spartans (32-6)Texas Tech University Red Raiders (30-6)University of Virginia Cavaliers (33-3)Auburn University Tigers 
(30-9)
Big Ten Conference – Reg. Season Co-Champs & Tourney Champs
East Lansing, Michigan
10th Final Four (’57, ’79, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’05, ’09, ’10, ’15)
2-time champions
def #15 Bradford 76-65
#10 Minnesota 70-50
#3 LSU 80-63
#1 Duke 68-67		Big 12 Conference – Regular Season Co-Champs
Lubbock, Texas
1st Final Four
def #14 Northern Kentucky 72-57
#6 Buffalo 78-58
#2 Michigan 63-44
#1 Gonzaga 75-69

Atlantic Coast Conference – Regular Season Co-Champs
Charlottesville, Virginia
3rd Final Four (’81, ’84)
def #16 Gardiner-Webb 71-56
#9 Oklahoma 63-51
#12 Oregon 53-49
#3 Purdue 80-75 (OT)

Southeastern Conference – Tournament Champs
Auburn, Alabama
1st Final Four
def #12 New Mexico St 78-77
#4 Kansas 89-75
#1 North Carolina 97-80
#2 Kentucky 77-71 (OT)

Thursday, April 4, 2019  

TWO NEWBIES AND VIRGINIA JOIN MICHIGAN ST IN FINAL FOUR
At least $85 will be donated to Boys & Girls Clubs of America; over $783 donated in 9 years

SANTA BARBARA, CA (smt)- It is so nice that if you don’t like how something is being viewed, you canjust force a company like Rotten Tomatoes to change their scoring methods or delete a bunch of data until it comes out positive.  Luckily, the HWCI NCAA Pool will not bow to trolls and will continue to press on, year after year, this being our 25th silver anniversary.  Considering we have had at least 125 entries the past 9 years with 89.5% of the entries returning players this year, I say we are Certified Fresh! 

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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.

Issue # 11.4.3 “First Four Unkind to Pac 12” (First Four Recap) (3/27)

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We are a Christian organization working to help communities lift themselves out of poverty. For good.

RECAP OF FIRST FOUR, THE GREATEST UPSET, AND SISTER JEAN
At least $56 will be donated to World Vision; over $705 donated in 8 years

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)- Apparently the Selection Committee did watch Pac 12 basketball because they shafted one of the big 5 conferences for a good reason — they suck.  With any respect, USC would be easily in, UCLA and Arizona St would be 8/9 seeds, and Arizona, as the conference and tournament champ, would be at least a 3 seed.  Nope.  No USC, UCLA and Arizona St relegated to the First Four games, and champ Arizona dropped to a 4 seed and not in the West.  Well, the committee knew what it was doing as #11bE-UCLA choked down the stretch against #11aE-St. Bonaventure, 65-58, and #11aMW-Arizona St lost a close one to #11bMW-Syracuse, 60-56.  This was the first time a conference had two teams in the First Four and now have the distinction as the only conference to have two losers in the First Four in the same year.  UCLA’s Aaron Holiday was a turnover machine (10 of UCLA’s 20 total) including three in the last 30 seconds after the Bruins had rallied to tie the game at 58.  Arizona St had a 7 point lead with 7 minutes left before Syracuse, the last team in, went on an 8-0 run.  Certainly, the Pac 12 basketball teams matched the horrible post-season Pac 12 football had.

#16bE-Radford slowly outscored #16aE-LIU Brooklyn 12-3 in the final five minutes to get their first tournament win, 71-61.  There were 42 fouls and 30 turnovers in this grudge fest.  #16bW-Texas Southern broke open a 10-10 game and never looked back in routing #16aW-NC Central, 64-46.  Like a few of the Southwestern Athletic (SWA) Conference teams, Texas Southern played their first 13 games on the road against top teams and went 0-13 to start but won when it mattered, in the SWAC championship game and in the First Four game, their first ever tournament win.  Texas Southern’s 0-13 start was the worst ever for a tournament team and they became the first sub .500 team (15-19) to win a tournament game.  NC Central lost their second straight First Four game (last year).

The greatest upset is one of those “where were you when it happened” and I’ll always remember being at the Black Angus in Buena Park with my family and watching the game on the NCAA March Madness app on my iPad Air 2.  Stunned.  I even tweeted a cryptic message:  Watch TV now.  History in making? for anyone who didn’t bother to watch another #1 seed trash a #16 seed.  The way #16S-UMBC played was fun to watch, they never took the gas off the accelerator that most big programs do when they have a double-digit lead with 10 minutes left.  Kept the pressure and #1S-Virigina never responded.  Virginia wasn’t a #1 seed, they were the #1 overall seed, and despite losing a bench player who was just 4th on the team in scoring, were still heavily favored to make the Sweet 16 before they had to worry about not having De’Andre Hunter on the bench.  In fact, I compiled a few of the predictions below from all over the spectrum, post-Hunter injury.  The most interesting was the swarm concept as a bunch of people individually moved a token toward the most likely scenario, in this case Virginia – High Confidence. The concept here as that as everyone is moving their token to that spot, some will Continue reading »

8th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity (Due 3:40 pm PDT Tuesday)

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While you decide who will win the tourney, for the 8th year I’m doing the HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity, where I will donate $2 per entry to a charity, this year to World Vision, which is a non-government organisation (NGO) that works with people around the world to help eliminate poverty and its causes. It is working with the United Nations and other NGOs to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. World Vision was founded in the USA during the Korean War in the 1950s.  This was a recommendation from one of our players and if you have an idea, please let me know for next year.  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: LIU by 3, UCLA by 25, Tx-Southern by 1, Syracuse by 8.   The four games are LIU-Brooklyn vs Radford, St. Bonaventure vs UCLA, NC Central vs Texas Southern, and Arizona St vs Syracuse.  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.

Beginner Patron Paid!

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Earlier this year, the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) was selected as the beneficiary of our HWCI First Four for Charity contest.  This conference is a global humanitarian technology conference focused on bringing together people to address the critical issues for the benefit of the resource-constrained and vulnerable populations in the world and starts in two weeks, October 19-22 in San Jose, California.

Thanks to additional generous donations by Charles D, Bob S, and Jeff2 H the final total was $85.10 (including my contribution) and I just donated that amount to the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference as a Beginner Patron.  In total, the 7 years has raised $593.98 $649.08.  The receipt is here:  GHTC_BeginnerPatron_171004_$85.10.  With the recent natural disasters in recent weeks in the southern U.S. and Caribbean (including complete loss of power for Puerto Rico), this will be a hot topic at GHTC and money raised will help provide an interactive forum to bring graduate students, professors, business people, and innovators together for a common cause.

Issue # 11.4.3 “Carolinas vs Pacific Northwest”

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2017 NCAA Final Four @ PHOENIX, AZ
First Semifinal Second Semifinal
#7-East
New York, NY
2017 New York		 #1-West
San Jose, CA
2017 San Jose		 #3-Midwest
Kansas City, MO
2017 Kansas City		 #1-South
Memphis, TN
2017 Memphis
University of South Caroina Gamecocks Gonzaga University Bulldogs University of Oregon Ducks University of North Carolina Tar Heels
University of South Carolina
Gamecocks (26-10) 		 Gonzaga University
Bulldogs (36-1) 		 University of Oregon
Ducks (33-5)		 University of North Carolina
Tar Heels (31-7)
Southeastern Conference
Columbia, SC
First Final Four (est. 1908)
def. #10 Marquette 93-73
#2 Duke 88-81
#3 Baylor 70-50
#4 Florida 77-70		 West Coast Conference
Spokane, WA
First Final Four (est. 1958)
def. #16 South Dakota St. 66-46
#8 Northwestern 79-73
#4 West Virginia 61-58
#11 Xavier 83-59		 Pac-12 Conference
Eugene, OR
2nd Final Four (’39)
1-time champion
def. #14 Iona 93-77
#11 Rhode Island 75-72
#7 Michigan 69-68
#1 Kansas 74-60		 Atlantic Coast Conference
Chapel Hill, NC
20th Final Four (’46, ’57, ’67’ 68, ’69, ’72, ’77, ’81, ‘82, ’91, ’93, ’95, ’97, ’98, 00, ’05, ’08, ’09, ’16)
5-time champions
def. #16 Texas So. 103-64
#8 Arkansas 72-65
#4 Butler 92-80
#2 Kentucky 75-73

Thursday, March 30, 2017 

UNC BACK IN FINAL FOUR WHILE OTHER THREE TEAMS IT’S A NEW EXPERIENCE
21 battle for 7 spots; More than $85 raised for GHTC

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)- North Carolina is making its record 20th appearance in the NCAA Final Four which is 18 more than the other three schools combined.  Both Gonzaga and South Carolina are making their first Final Four appearance and Oregon is making its first since the very first year the NCAA tournament was held, 1939.  Each team has had a close call while each team has had a double-digit win in the Regional semifinal or final.  South Carolina and Gonzaga have had a pair of 20+ point wins while UNC has broken 90 points twice.  South Carolina, a 7 seed is representing the strength of the SEC who have the most wins in the tournament while North Carolina is representing the last vestige of the powerful ACC which had 9 teams to start and are down to one.

Twenty-one entries still have a chance to finish in the top 7 money spots and we won’t know who the pool champion is unless Oregon and South Carolina win.  After the semifinals, the Bonus scenarios will be listed for the total points in final tiebreaker.

Craig H (who didn’t participate in the main pool) was the only person to get all four First Four games correct (Mt. St. Mary’s, Kansas St, UC Davis, USC) to win the 7th HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity.  With 16 entries I will donate $32 and since we got more than 161 entries (new record 178), I will donate another $25.  Generous donations by Charles D, Bob S, and Jeff2 H has brought the total to $85.10 that I will donate to the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference as a Beginner Patron.  More money could still trickle in and the donation will be made when registration opens in June.  In total, the 7 years has raised $593.98.

[Twitter]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 – South Carolina has set a school record with 26 wins and won their first tourney game since ’73… This is the first time Continue reading »

First Four Tipoff

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It’s 3:40 pm and the first First Four match has tipped off, more than 42 hours after the earliest we have ever got the web entry up (9 pm Sunday).  At this time, we have 54 entries, which is 17 more than our previous best, 37 in 2014.  In our record-setting year of 2016 (161 entries), we had just 27 so we’ve doubled that.   The graph is time-based so, for example, you can see most people are sleeping between hours 25 and 33 (10 pm – 6 am).  The biggest increase in entries will be tomorrow from 9 am until 3 am Thursday (Hours 60 to 78) so that will be a better indication if we will top the 161 entries we had in 2016.

Speaking of topping the record number of entries, if we do that, I’ll donate another $25 to the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, this year’s HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity choice (charity meaning any non-profit).  We did get 16 entries so that’s at least $32 that will go to the conference.  I already got a good lead from Neil O (Dagger) for next year’s charity of choice so I can’t wait.

Also, if you want to see your bracket, you can click on “Your Picks” in the top menu.  These are all unofficial.

Record Monday

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The online web entry was delayed until Monday morning but that hasn’t stopped people from entering in record numbers.  A total of 26 entries was received today breaking the record of 20 set in 2013 and 2016.  26 also breaks the record of 21 combined for Sunday-Monday.  On the flip side, all 18 people have entered have participated before (so no new players… yet).

Not sure what has prompted the revival but we have some people back after a long hiatus.  Eric P (last participated in 2002), Jake P (2008), Robert E (2009), and Corey S (2011) are hoping 2017 is their triumphant return.

Don’t forget to send a quick email to ncaa<at>hwci.com with your First Four winners (and margin of victory) and I’ll donate $2/entry.  Deadline is Tuesday 3:40 pm PDT!