1999 HWCI NCAA Pool Update

#1- West

#1-East

Saturday, March 27, 1999                      http://www.HWCI.com/ncaa
Issue # 14.5.2 "Just as planned..."

                     1999 HWCI NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL
                     ==============================

   TOP TWO TEAMS THAT BEGAN THE TOURNEY WILL MEET IN MONDAY'S FINAL
 Shary Bobbins takes the $180 top prize and Carseroni is in the money


         FINALLY, THE NICKNAMES MAKE SENSE (WELL, NOT REALLY)
    It's Duke's Final Four to lose as tournament resumes Saturday

     EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt)-  The only two teams to hold the #1 spot
during the regular season will meet in Monday's NCAA Final in
Tampa.  #1W-UConn held off mistake-prone #4S-Ohio St., 64-58, to 
advance to its first-ever final while #1E-Duke kept its distance 
from #1MW-Michigan St., 68-62.  Duke held the #1 spot for all but
10 weeks during the regular season.  Ohio St. missed some key 
free throws, misplayed some key rebounds (including the "It's mine!"
incident, where two Buckeyes wrestled for the rebound and eventually
were called for traveling), and missed key baskets down the stretch
giving UConn the victory.  Despite the near no-shows of Scoonie
Penn (who misplaced his jersey) and Michael Redd, Ohio St. was in it
until the end.  The 2nd Big 10 team, Michigan St., also lost despite
playing well.  Duke is just near invincible, because they played
okay, missed a lot of free throws, and got into foul trouble... yet,
they still maintained their lead.  It seemed like for a stretch of 
ten minutes in the second half, Michigan St. was getting all the 
rebounds, making all the shots, forcing Duke turnovers, but Duke would
hit a 3-point shot and the lead always seemed to range from 7-10
points.  I would ALMOST bet the house that Duke will win its 3rd NCAA
title this decade.  I think the key is to get Duke behind early, but
that's hard to do.  

     This update is partly late because I was busy most of the 
weekend and partly late cause I'm depressed my chances to win money 
went from very good to almost nil.  Sigh.  But, the pool was to have
fun, right?  SHARY BOBBINS (1st, 134) will have fun spending her
$180 winnings (now the most successful predictor, taking over 
Anna's $150 win last year) as she clinched the top spot with UConn's
win.  UConn's victory sent THE FABONE V (9th, 113) home and Duke's
win sent LUIS ENRIQUE'S ARMADA (18th, 101) and CHRIS (16th, 103)
moneyless.  CARSERONI (3rd, 120) will now win either 2nd or 3rd
thanks to Duke's win.  Here are the final two scenarios, of which
Duke winning has a 90% chance of happening (then again, miracles do 
happen... I mean, if the Clippers can whallop the Utah Jazz, 
anything can happen):

 If Duke wins				If UConn wins (yeah, right)
 ------------				-------------
 1st- Shary Bobbins			1st- Shary Bobbins
 2nd- Carseroni				2nd- Free Fabone
 3rd- Big Game OR Max Power*		3rd- Carseroni
 4th- Big Game OR Max Power*		4th- Big Spider Beck
   * Tiebreaker: If total points is 142 or less, Big Game takes
 3rd and Max Power 4th; if 143 points, then there is a tie and
 Big Game and Max Power will split $90; if 144 or more, then Max Power
 takes 3rd and Big Game 4th.

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It was fun while it lasted...
Scott HW