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Thursday, March 21, 2024 

THREE #11 SEEDS JOIN #14 OAKLAND INTO 2ND ROUND
A record 195 entries from 124 people with 20 teams picked to be champion

RECOERING FROM HONOLULU (smt) – #3S-Kentucky was the best 3-point shooting team in the nation but it was#14S-Oakland with 15 threes (10 (!) from Jake Gohlke, who came off the bench) to stun the Wildcats (who were 9/28 from three) 80-76.  Three 11 seeds advanced with #11E-Duquesne, #11MW-Oregon, and #11S-NC State pulling off upsets.  #9W-Michigan St pulled off the small upset (there were highly favored to win) but #10W-Nevada blew a 56-39 lead (getting outscored 24-4 the rest of the way) to #7W-Dayton and #10E-Drake blew a late 8-point lead to #7E-Washington St or it could’ve been worse. 

A lot worse, as #4MW-Kansas nearly blew all of a 20-point second half lead (#13MW-Samford came with one with 5 minutes left) and needed a bad call to put away Samford.  While the Kansas player fell on a dunk attempt, replays showed a clean block but a foul was called.  That changed momentum and Kansas survived 93-89.  #3MW-Creighton, #2W-Arizona, #1W-UNC, #3E-Illinois, #7MW-Texas (holding #10MW-Colorado St to just 11 points in the 1st half), #5MW-Gonzaga, #2E-Iowa St, and #2MW-Tennessee picked up double-digit victories.

It was a good day for the last of the Pac 12 glory, going 3-0 (4-0 with First Four) while the SEC was 1-3 with all four the better seed.  While the Big 10 and ACC played just two games, they won both.  Winning the conference tournament as your only sure way into the Big Dance played out with continued momentum as Pac 12 champ Oregon, Atlantic 10 champ Duquesne, and ACC champ NC State living to play another day, all as #11 seeds.  There’s a reason why the First Four featured 10 seed matchups, as they needed room to accommodate the bid stealers. 

Unofficially, we have a record 195 entries, one more than last year.   We had to wade through a few people using the same nickname for multiple entries (and the only reason I knew was because they paid $20 instead of 10).  And for whatever reason, people like paying via credit card or as if purchasing something, so the PayPal (and now Venmo) fees add up, but it’s okay.  This is the 5th straight year the number of entries increased.  UConn was the overwhelming choice to win it all with 71 picking the Huskies.  32 did pick Purdue, 25 Houston, and 14 UNC.  Unfortunately, 3 picked Kentucky. A total of 20 teams were picked to be champions.

While six started the day 9-0 (all foiled by Oakland), only Indy Kid and Charlie Hustle 1 remained on top going 15-1 (30 pts).  In fact, Eric P has the top and bottom spot with his Charlie Hustle 2 going 5-11 (10 pts).  Four are tied for second with 28 pts.  Three did pick Oakland (NKG23 (33rd-Tied, 24), MylesRicesNurse (33rd-T), MizzouTgr11 3 (7th-T, 26)) while 52 picked Duquesne and 81 NC State.

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   Tids & Bits – Boy, #10bMW-Virginia (NET54) was a joke, scoring just 14 points in the first half; so maybe Indiana St (NET29) should’ve been given the chance… my game watching (after printing out the brackets for the first time) was the overtime thriller seeing #16MWa-Grambling St pull off a win, making it 3 new teams in our proper 64 this year… Eileen E won the 14th HWCI First Four for Charity and more details will come later in the tournament… Go Pac 12 as #10aS-Colorado won their First Four game and Arizona and Oregon cruised to victories and Washington St pulling one out late… #10aS-Boise St’s First Four loss means they are now 0-10… with 3:53 left, Kansas was shooting 60% but only led by 4… Gohlke is the 5th player with 10+ threes (record is 11) and finished with 32 pts… hard to get rid of head coaches — Duquesne’s coach announced retirement and then team won the Atlantic 10 tourney and will play one more game, Long Beach St’s coach was fired but won the conference tourney with their Athletic Director giving the most selfish reason ever… Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard, who transferred from South Carolina, scored 40 pts, interestingly just the 5th 40+ game in the past 20 years… Coach Izzo and Michigan St have won 6 straight first round games and 14 of the past 17… Gonzaga won a game for the 15th straight tournament… Nevada was leading 56-39 before being outscored 24-4 to end the game… BYU lost for the second straight time to a #11 seed… Kentucky led the nation at 41.2% shooting from three but were just 32.1% (9/28)… #14MW-Akron finished the game 1/19 from three-point land… Kansas shot 60.3% from the field but was just 33.3% from the free throw line (6/18); however, Samford wasn’t better at 43.2% from a whopping 37 attempts (16/37)… Illinois’ Marcus Domask picked up a rare college thriple-double (12 pts/11 reb/10 asts)… AAC champ #12E-UAB and MWC champ #11W-New Mexico are considered the other bid stealers… we had a record 82 entries on Wednesday (was 79 last year) and 162 after Wednesday (was 157 last year)… entries averaged 10.7 wins…

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Great weather in Seattle and Honolulu… missed all the gale force winds, thunderstorms, rain, and hail in LA…
Scott

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