Sunday, March 30, 2003Issue # 12.4.2 
"Home Court Cooking"
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CERRITOS, CA (smt)- #3E-Syracuse played two hours away from campus and used the pro-Orangemen crowd in Albany, NY to zone out #1E-Oklahoma, 63-47. Syracuse had a 10-pt lead at halftime and never let the momentum get away by scoring the first 8 points of the second half in the rout. Oklahoma had gone 1-for-17 (at that basket on a fast break layup) in going from up 17-16 to down 38-20 with 14:53 left.

#1S-Texas, playing a half hour away from campus, used a consistent offense and defense (just four turnovers) in holding back a tough #7S-Michigan St. team, 85-76. The game basically bounced from a Texas lead ranging from 5 to 11 points. Whereas the calls seemed to go against the home Syracuse team (but Oklahoma didn't know how to convert), Texas seemed to get a lot of the close calls and made 11 more free throws than the Spartans.

With 3 #1 seeds going out in the Elite 8, Texas made sure that at least one #1 seed made the Final Four ever since the field expanded to 64 teams.

Just six people went 2-0 but only SEANITO'S WAY (4th-T, 116) still has a chance for money. Although at least 11 people picked Kansas, Syracuse, or Texas, no one got more than 2 right in the 4th Round (10 went 2-2). GALAXY (32nd-T, 97) was ecstatic went his pick for champion Syracuse won, but was bummed when Texas won, as he fell further behind and now can't finish higher than fourth, and that is only if Syracuse beats Marquette in the Final.

Texas' win assured MR. WIZARD (1st, 123 pts) of at least fourth place ($60) and left just him andBIG LUTHER (2nd-Tied, 118) for a chance of first ($280). BINGO (2nd-T, 118) has 7 of 8 chances to win money andBIG LUTHER has 6 of 8 chances. Just 8 entries are alive and 3 of the four who chose Kansas to win it all are still alive. The reason the field narrowed in half is that no one has the possibility of winning both Saturday semifinal games.

An astounding 26 entries went 0-4 in the 4th Round. Only 26 entries previously (out of 292 entries in the past eight years) have ever done that before. However, this will not be the lowest scoring pool ever, but could become just the 3rd pool to fail to average 100 points per entry (currently 98.2 p/e). This was the lowest scoring 4th Round ever (0.75 wins per entry).

As for the Bonus Prize, 21 are still in the running. Here is the latest winningest conference standings. Texas picked up the BIG 12's 13th win.

      Teams Curr Max Poss
Conf.  Left Wins   Wins
------ ---- ---- -------
Big 12    2  13     16   
(KAN, TEX)

# people who have BIG 12 with:
13 wins:  6
14 wins:  8
15 wins:  4
16 wins:  3