Category Archives: HWNCAA Pool 21

Easy Two

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Well, the 128 of you who picked #7W-Oregon just got an easy two points, as their game against #10W-VCU tonight (the last of the evening) was cancelled (declared a “no contest”) due to multiple positives on the VCU contingent of players, coaches, and staff. The Ducks advance and become the 4th Pac 12 team to reach the 2nd Round (UCLA plays tonight). Apparently, there was too much uncertainty how much of the spread there was to declare five players healthy enough to play. Local health authorities drive the decision.

On the NCAA site it shows as 2-0 win by Oregon while ESPN shows “Uncontested” with no score.

Well, after the early 8 games today, License to ILL, Mr Wizard, and Dagger are tied for first with 40 pts (20-4) while Go Beach! is last with 20 pts (10-16). All 8 favorites have won today.

Issue # 2.1.1 “Oral Robs Buckeyes” (3/19)

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SIX UPSETS, THREE OVERTIMES, MADNESS IS BACK!
After a long 2-years, pool back with 2nd most entries ever

15 seed Oral Roberts shocks 2 seed Ohio St

WORK FROM HOME, CA (smt)- #2S-Ohio St was playing one of the best free-throw shooting teams in #15S-Oral Roberts and that was the difference.  Up by two with a one-and-one, the Buckeyes missed (9/18 for the game) allowing Oral Roberts to tie with a couple of free throws (at the time 9/10) to send the game to overtime.  The Golden Eagles jumped to a six-point and lead and held on as Ohio St had a great open look to tie but missed.  Oral Roberts is just the 9th #15 seed to beat a #2, the first since ’16 when Middle Tenn beat Michigan St.  It was not the only upset as #13S-North Texas beat (essentially) host #4S-Purdue in overtime, #12MW-Oregon St, #9S-Wisconsin, and #11MW-Syracuse breezed to victories over #5MW-Tenn, #8-UNC (giving coach Roy Williams his first 1st Round loss ever (29-1); UNC’s last 1st Round loss was in ’99 (17 in a row)), and #6MW-San Diego St, respectively.  #10MW-Rutgers held on in their first appearance since ’91 (and first win since ’83).

UNC had won 17 straight 1st Round games

#7S-Florida blew a late six-point lead, missed 2 free throws to seal the game and had to instead battle and win in overtime.  #3S-Arkansas (though #14S-Colgate did jump to a 33-19 lead but allowed the next 19 points), #1MW-Illinois, #1S-Baylor, #2MW-Houston, and #3MW-West Virginia won easily.  #6S-Texas Tech,  #8MW-Loyola Chicago (welcome back 101-year old Sister Jean!), and #5S-Villanova posted double-digit wins.  #4MW-Oklahoma St held off #13MW-Liberty.

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Admin Picks!

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Laugh or cry, we have submitted and paid for our picks. Below are my two entries. The first in reference to the 26.2 mile marathon as this is our 26th year. And my second is in awe of the incredible The Mandalorian Star Wars show gave us Baby Yoda… but where did he go to?

The Fabone Marathon

Where is Grogu

(Update 3/19/21 7:51 am PDT): David’s picks, his nickname of 26 years:

The Mighty Mobelfakta

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.

First Tourney Game in 710 Days

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Tipoff! The First Four has tipped off with #16bE-Mount St. Mary’s taking a 10 point halftime lead over #16aE-Texas Southern in front of around 500 fans (and no fake piped in noise on truTV) in Bloomington (the first Opening Round or First Four game not played in Dayton). I like the truTV (lower quality but you can take screenshots, unlike the March Madness app) and their break message – “truTV will return… unless the world ends or something” is hilarious!

We got 17 entries for our free 11th HWCI First Four for Charity contest, the 4th lowest total, but will still raise at least $54 towards the Center for Disaster (CDP) Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund thanks other fellow pool entrants who chipped in.

We got just 15 entries for the 24-hour period between Wed 9 am to Thu 9 am PDT so I have scrunched that period of time so that it can sync back up to what would be the final 24 hour push before the deadline. Below shows the 92 entries we have received thus far at Hour 66 and it is the 2nd highest total behind our record-breaking year in 2017. We’ll see if that trend holds up though.

At Hour 66, 2nd Most Entries Received Thus Far

Outta Here!

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We got the first COVID-19 casualty but it wasn’t a team (who all reported they were good Saturday night to be selected for the tournament and for the tourney teams, all reported good by the 4 pm PDT deadline today) who will go home, but six referees. So, sorry Louisville who was the first on the waiting list. #6E-BYU also won’t go home as the NCAA will swap the Midwest and East Sweet 16 dates so that BYU won’t have to play on Sunday, as per their religious principles. But first, BYU has to win 2 games this weekend. This will reduce the East rest period to just 4 days which is tenuous since a positive COVID-19 can play havoc on the 7 days of negative testing requirement for contact traced players.

We have 35 entries thus far (Enter Now!), which is our 4th highest at this point in time (55 in 2017) and we do get one extra day (deadline 9 am PDT Friday, instead of Thursday). It’ll be interesting to see if people modify their picks based on Thursday’s First Four results or who #3W-Kansas or #4W-Virginia, both who withdrew from their conference tournament due to COVID-19, bring to their first game (Virginia won’t fly in until Friday and then quickly need Friday & Saturday negative tests in Indianapolis). Can you imagine if those teams both get a COVID-19 hiccup, that would mean #1W-Gonzaga’s biggest challenge could be just #5W-Creigton in the Sweet 16.

Issue # 1.0.1 “The Indy 68”

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Sunday, March 14, 2021  **HELP support Center for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Fund (deadline Thu 4:00 pm PDT **)

BIG TEN GETS 4 OF TOP 8 SPOTS, ZAGS #1 OVERALL
After a long year, our 26th year hopes to offer a distraction

CAL POLY POMONA VAC SHOT #1, CA (smt)- After the March Sadness of 2020, where the NCAA along with all the sports leagues cancelled their seasons abruptly due to the rising COVID-19 pandemic, March Madness will try again this year, with health protocols and tournament procedures in place to enable completion of the tournament.  Soccer showed with the successful summer completions of  NWSL’s Challenge Cup and the MLS is Back tournament (which was the basis of our 11th HWCI soccer pool) in a location bubble that sports and the COVID-19 can coexist.  Going outside a bubble can lead to issues but the NCAA completed more than 80% of their scheduled games (the NFL 100%) and now all teams will descend into the Indianapolis greater area bubble. 

The Big Ten got a conference record 9 teams in, including 4 of the top 8 spots but unbeaten Gonzaga (26-0) got the #1 overall seed in the West.  Yes, the region names remain the same even though all games will be played in the greater Indianapolis area.  Tip times and locations were not announced during the selection show (which started ten minutes late as the Big Ten final went into overtime but took just 27 minutes to reveal the entire bracket) as those came out later.  Baylor got the #1 seed in the South while Illinois and Michigan got #1s in the Midwest and East.  The other Big Ten teams in the top 8 were #2S-Ohio St and #2W-Iowa.  SEC tourney winner #2E-Alabama and AAC tourney winner #2MW-Houston were the other #2 seeds. 

The top 41 ranked teams in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) made the tourney but so did NET70 #11bE-Michigan St while NET42 Penn St did not.  #11bW-Drake, as the final team in, has the Ivy League to thank, as with them not playing this year due to COVID-19, that allowed one more at-large bid (37) than usual.  Saturday’s upsets with #12E-Georgetown winning the Big East (were just 9-12 going into the tourney) and #12MW-Oregon St winning the Pac 12 (14-12 going into the tourney) knocked out Louisville and Colorado St, who along with St. Louis and Ole Miss, become the four alternates (in that order) if any tournament team has to withdraw by Tuesday evening.  #14S-Colgate played just 15 games but are 14-1 with a 13-game win streak.  Three teams played 30 games. 

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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.

Uncontested

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ESPN will display “Uncontested” for games won by forfeit, giving us a possible sign of things to come in the tournament if teams can’t field five (yes, just 5) healthy players. Kansas, Virginia, and NC A&T had to withdraw from their conference tournaments due to positive test(s) just as Duke did earlier. The opponent advances (no word on if both teams have to withdraw) to the next round as usual. The First Four starts Thursday (rather than Tuesday) to allow for any positive test to work through its cycle (minimum 7 days of negative testing) which may allow Kansas, et al to field full strength teams by the time they play Friday or Saturday. NC A&T comes from the MEAC (one-bid league typically in the First Four) so despite being ranked #1 in the tournament, they won’t get an at-large bid like Kansas and Virginia. Even worse, with the NIT going from 32 to 16 teams for this year, there is no guarantee NC A&T will get an at-large invite to the tournament (normally they would’ve as regular season champ if they didn’t win the tourney).

So, write letters to your champion pick to stay safe, follow protocols, and be smart to avoid any chance of a positive test. Because if #1 Gonzaga tests positive next week, the #16 seed will get to play a #11/#12 seed alternate team in their first round game.

IEEE & Rutgers Again (Duke Out?)

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So more than a year ago, I was excited that Rutgers was slated to be making the tournament for the first time in our pool era (ensuring at least one new team has appeared every year of our pool). Not only that, but it’s walking distance from the hotel we stay when we visit IEEE headquarters (the largest professional engineering society with over 400,000 members) in Piscataway, NJ. So, today, it seems Rutgers’ final conference win (after an embarrassing loss to Nebraska) has punched them through as one of at least 9 teams from the Big Ten.

Yes, so after a year of COVID-19 disruptions, loss of life (we hope everyone is doing okay and condolences for any loss), and coping, the NCAA tournament is back… moved to Indiana (Bloomington, West Lafayette, and Final Four host Indianapolis) for travel and safety concerns. And fans will be able to attend, at no more than 25% capacity. And our pool, the 26th (again), will be back. The NCAA has outlined that the bracket won’t be re-seeded or changed 48 hours after Selection Sunday, which means if your team can’t play due to COVID-19, they forfeit that game and the opponent advances to the next round (no-contest rule). We also get an extra day, as the proper 64 won’t start until Friday morning (First Four is Thursday). Now if both teams can’t play, don’t know… best mascot?

While several teams and the entire Ivy League canceled their seasons due to COVID-19, COVID-19 may just have knocked Duke out of the tourney for the first time since 1995, our first year of the pool. After getting above .500, they needed a strong run in the ACC tournament to secure an at-large bid. That won’t happen after withdrawing from the ACC tournament due a positive test (conspiracy theorists will say Duke will be an alternate team, then one tourney team will withdraw within 48 hours of the bracket and Duke will be back in…).

More to come!