The entries are coming in at a slower pace than last year but something interesting is happening. At least seven people (Brett M, Mike S, Linh C T, Bing F, Craig S, Steve N, and JD G) who played in 2007 and didn’t participate in our-record breaking year (101 entries) last year have submitted entries. Also, of the 35 entries so far, just four people are new (so keep recruiting!).
Your Picks
If you want to edit your bracket, please re-submit your bracket and just put down as a nickname something like NICKNAME-REVISE, NICKNAME-UPDATE so we know you are updating and not submitting a new entry. If it’s a small or few changes (hey, change my champion to UConn instead of UNC), you can email us the changes.
Now, if you want to review your picks, you can go here. Or reprint it because you forgot to :-).
Remember the deadline is 9 am PDT Thursday! Submit early and then pray. Also, make sure you have let us know how you will get us your $10.
On the right light blue column, you will find the status of everyone’s picks (e.g., all paid up, in process of paying (e.g., eCheck), or we haven’t heard how you’ll pay. Also, it will tell you which brackets we have. So if you think you submitted a bracket (note the time listed, it’s updated every 4-6 hours) and you don’t see your nickname, email us.
Issue # 2.0.2 “NIT in the News”
It’s Over?
I take one trip to the emergency doctor for my son and the Play-In game is already over? 🙂 BTW, my 23-month old son is okay though he may have a scar. I actually thought since I had to leave early from work (as did my wife) that I would be able to catch the game but all that was on was NIT stuff. Did they play this early so those in Newfoundland can watch it at a decent hour? Well, no one else cares.
Well, I’ve gotten the bracket to work with Firefox and IE 7 but others haven’t been so lucky. One of these days we’ll transition to a better java applet but it works for most people.
Also, make your payment arrangements. We’re behind last year’s pace and are projecting around 80 entries so make sure to tell your friends to enter!
I guess people still use IE
Just got confirmation from THE RAT PACK that IE works with the web entry.
Issue # 1.0.1 “The HWCI Stimulus Plan”
Most unpredictable?
There doesn’t seem to be THE team that will win it all. At least that’s what I’ve been hearing, not having watched college basketball this year until this past week. We may have a great range of teams that we will pick to win it all. We had 14 different teams picked to win it all in 2004; will we have more this year?. In the spirit of this open tourney, I will be submitting the first bracket entry of 2009, almost an hour before the seeds are announced.
This means I don’t know which region which team will be in either. So, though, weighted random numbers using Excel, here is what the bracket will look like. Since we don’t know which region is which, it will go from top to bottom as it will be announced in an hour. Full disclosure below:
1st Round
Region1: 1, 9, 5, 4, 3, 6, 7, 2
Region2: 1, 8, 5, 4, 3, 6, 7, 2
Region3: 1, 8, 5, 4, 3, 6, 10 ,2
Region4: 1, 9, 5, 4, 3, 11, 10, 2
2nd Round
Region1: 1, 5, 6, 2
Region2: 1, 4, 3, 2
Region3: 1, 5, 6, 2
Region4: 1, 5, 3, 2
3rd Round
Region1: 1, 6
Region2: 1, 2
Region3: 1, 2
Region4: 1, 3
4th Round
Region1: 1
Region2: 2
Region3: 1
Region4: 3
5th Round
Region1&2: Region 2 # 2
Region3&4: Region 3 # 1
Winner
Region 3 # 1
Disappointed there’s no #12 seed advancing, but oh well. Ten bucks well spent? Haven’t decided a nickname yet, but maybe PRE-SELECTION PICKS.
Timeout! Timeout!
One thing I’ll miss from ABC/ESPN’s coverage is that they show how many timeouts each team has. I’m surprised CBS doesn’t pick it up. Right now, I’m watching the Miss St-Tenn game and with like 1:13 left, both teams had 4 (!) timeouts left. That’s 8 freakin’ timeouts. Why so many? This game may take forever. Now both teams have 7 timeouts left with 23.4 seconds left.
USC Wins Pac-10 Title
Whoa… now I gotta pick them to make the 2nd round. There’s one loss in my bracket already. This is probably the final nail in Arizona’s coffin in extending their steak of 24 straight tourneys. That gives the Pac 10 5 teams in the tourney, which is already one too many. No room for ‘Zona to sneak in this time. Barring some extreme generosity by the selection committee, Arizona and Kentucky failing to make the tourney will only leave Kansas as the lone team to be in every bracket since our pool started in 1995.
Only when it counts…
I see UCLA is following Pitt and UConn’s lead in losing early in the conference tourney in order to be rested for the REAL tournament. Unfortunately, it was to rival USC. Now, USC is just a win away from the tournament (and still has a slim shot even if they lose in the conference final to ASU). Yes, this pool will be very unpredictable. And Syracuse only needed ONE overtime tonight, and has played 115 minutes of bball in two days.
6 OTs?
And Syracuse and UConn had enough players at the end?
Almost here, Old technology
Just a couple of days until the brackets are released! Some updates are occurring, here’s a preview:
http://www.hwci.com/ncaa/2009/scott.html
Also, we have created a Facebook page for people to interact, plan gatherings, quick discussions, and post pictures/thoughts. It took me until two years ago to get a cell phone and just one IEEE meeting to sign up for Facebook late last year. Sigh. In addition, you now add as a friend “Hwci Ncaa” (search for this or the email address, ncaa –at-hwci.com).
I was hoping to have a more capable cell phone and a new laptop, but it looks like I’ll have neither. One more year.
Wow
Watched the most of the game at Sam Hughes’ Place in Tucson with about 16 co-workers and a surprisingly pro-Kansas crowd. So when Mario Chalmers hit the 3, the place went crazy as we headed to OT. OK. Cliff T (BELUCKY2) won $440 while Bob G (COBI’S DAD) won the tiebreaker against Doug H (JUNO INO) to win $220 (Doug won $150). Don C (DC944) won the tiebreaker against Jeff H (U BETTA BELIEVE IT) to win 4th ($100) while Jeff won our first 5th place prize ($60). The 143 total points and Kansas’ win meant the Big 12 won with 12 wins and the tiebreaker among 4 entries was won by Robby D (ARBEDYTHREE).
Had Kansas missed the 3 in regulation the total points would have been 123 with the Bonus2 in effect meaning 9ERS IN 09 and BLUESTARS1996 both missed splitting $40. So close.
Late Late
Too busy packing for Tucson so the update will be done tomorrow. However, all the stats/standings/poss/etc have been updated on my update page.
Memphis vs. Kansas?
(From the press box at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA) — Well, in our pool, these were the two most unlikely #1 seeds to make the final… did. Wow, Kansas nearly blew a 28-point lead but held on. Does Kansas have the monkey off their back? We shall see.
We will either have a 3-time champion in FLIP FIGHTERS (Robinson C) or a first time champion in 10-year pool veteran BELUCKY2 (Cliff T, my dad!). The former is guaranteed nothing while the latter is guaranteed $60. DC944 is guaranteed $60 as well. Current leader JUNO INO is guaranteed $150.
Only three people picked both teams and all 3 are in the running for money. BELUCKY2 is the only one to get all 4 Final Four teams plus both finalists.