Liberty is in with a dismal 15-20 record (but on a 5-game winning streak) which will put them in the First Four. Also, congrats to Fla Gulf Coast for their first tournament appearance. Hopefully they will avoid the First Four.
Our 19th HWCI NCAA Pool begins next week!
Congrats to Michael C who edged out Albert H on point differential, 15 to 25. Both got all 4 First Four games correct. Ron E and Fernando B (who decided to sit the pool out, maybe wisely so) both went 0-4 with the latter taking last with a 60 point differential.
Thanks to all who participated. A minimum of $67 will be donated ($52 for the pool, $17 by other generous folks) to the Rice Around the Clock team who are participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Alhambra.
Final standings below… eh, finishing 20th does not bode well for me in the pool… Continue reading
Michael C, Albert H, and JaMIe A lead the First Four For Charity contest with 3 wins with Michael, who exactly picked VT by 12, in first with a 10 point differential. But it’s a battle between only Michael and Jamie. If Cal wins, Bear alum Jamie will win the 2nd HWCI NCAA First Four For Chairty contest. If South Florida wins, Michael takes the crown. No tiebreaker involved here. This is after Vermont took down Lamar (only 10 picked VT). This is just the 2nd year, but if Cal wins, David A, who was the only one to a perfect 4-0 last year will go 0-4 this year. Currently 4 are tied at 0-3 including Jamie’s squeeze Fern (who wisely sided with her and did not pick against Cal).
Half the First Four done. So Western Kentucky rallies from 16 points with 4:52 left to beat Mississippi Valley St. Then BYU rallies from 25 points with 4 minutes left in the 1st half to beat Iona. Both games weren’t pretty to watch (lots of turnovers, lots of missed free throws, lots of bad decision-making), but crazy is good.
As for the First Four For Charity, 7 are 2-0 with Albert H. in the lead with a point differential of 10. Seven are 0-2 and would need lots of help. Standings below…
| FIRST | LI | Wins | Pts Diff |
| Albert | H | 2 | 10 |
| Eric | C | 2 | 18 |
| Ken | B | 2 | 18 |
| Michael | C | 2 | 22 |
| Tim | W | 2 | 24 |
| Chris | B | 2 | 26 |
| Jaime | A | 2 | 44 |
| Paul | T | 1 | 13 |
| Kevin | T | 1 | 16 |
| Darryn | B | 1 | 18 |
| Vi | N | 1 | 18 |
| Michael | G | 1 | 19 |
| Yoh | W | 1 | 19 |
| Craig | S | 1 | 20 |
| Yumi | S | 1 | 20 |
| Eric | F | 1 | 25 |
| Scott | T | 1 | 26 |
| Samer | S | 1 | 28 |
| Roy | W | 1 | 32 |
| Wendy | B | 0 | 23 |
| Ron | E | 0 | 30 |
| David | A | 0 | 32 |
| Fernando | B | 0 | 37 |
| Justin | P | 0 | 37 |
| Andy | F | 0 | 43 |
| Deven | K | 0 | 47 |
Wow… a 16-point lead with 4:52 left? Easy. Not so. 15-18 Western Kentucky just outscored Mississippi Valley St. 22-5 at the end to advance to lose to Kentucky. WKY has now won 7 straight after being 9-18. Two more wins and they’ll reach .500.
We got 26 (we had 30 last year) in the 2nd HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity meaning I happily get to donate $52 to Relay for Life Alhambra (American Cancer Society). And that number could grow as others have pledged money. Thanks, everyone! Here are the picks I got (and hopefully translated it correctly) — BTW, 12 picked WKY (BTW2, David A, who was the only person to pick all 4 games correctly last year, missed this one!): Continue reading
Thanks for the thirty who participated in our HWCI NCAA First Four for Charity and the others who helped contribute an extra $40 to make it an even $100 donation from HWCI NCAA Pool! Here’s the link to the receipt…
Five of the first 8 games were decided by 3 points or less but only UCLA nearly blowing a 23-point lead prevented the last 8 from being all victories by 5 or more. The Downtown Fiction leads getting 15 of 16 games correct with 4 others tied with 14. Five bring up the rear only getting half correct (8). Standings are posted every game night and if you want to see yours or someone else’s bracket, click on the Your Picks menu option.
BTW, we did have a winner of the First Four for Charity and that will be announced later this weekend though you could figure it out (only one person went 4-0).
We got a record 23 entries for a Tuesday and are at a record-setting pace with 41 entries overall – which is odd, since I thought with the First Four most people would enter later rather than earlier. But in any case, you can always edit your picks later (email is preferred if it is just a couple changes). Of the 34 people, only two are new which will make it hard to top our record of 117 entries last year without new blood. Remember the deadline is 9 am PDT Thursday.
As for the First Four for Charity contest,22 correctly picked Clemson over over-rated UAB. The 18-point margin of victory (70-52) was larger than most optimistic Tiger fan (12 pts). Halfway through the inaugural First Four, 13 people are 2-0. Cliff T was one of three who had Clemson by 12 and now leads with a +8-point differential. Vi N and Kevin T are tied for second with a +9. Van P and Doug H are tied for 4th with a +11. In the rear is Ford R with an 0-2 record and +42. Five are 0-2.
Four (Kevin T, Keith J, Y W, Sant C) correctly picked UNC-Asheville to win by 4 points and are off to a great start. Sixteen picked UNCA who rallied from an 11-point deficit to win in OT over UA-Little Rock, 81-77. Samer S and Ford R have a lot of ground to make up by not only being down 1 game, but off by 13 points.
Wow… UNC-Asheville rallies to tie up UALR and force OT in the first game of the tourney. Maybe expanding to 68 wasn’t a bad idea after all (though the crowd is DEAD).
Well, Ark-Little Rock has jumped to an 11-point lead midway in the first half over UNC-Asheville for the right to lose to Pitt. And with that, the First Four for Charity contest is closed. I got 30 entries in just over 24 hours, so thank you to all! And since it seems silly, that in my email, that if I only got 24 entries, I’d double it to $48 and if I got 26 entries, it would be only $26, I am doubling it anyway. So over the weekend I’ll donate $60 to the American Red Cross (despite what this bozo says) to help those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the Pacific on behalf of the HWCI NCAA Pool.
USC was the overwhelming favorite being picked 25 times. Clemson received 22 picks while there was a toss-up in the two 16v16 games: UNC-Asheville and Alabama St. both got just 16 of the 30 picks. The biggest margin of victory was Deven K picking USC by 16 (I have them winning by 15). 12 of the 16 possible combinations were picked with UNCA/CLEM/UTSA/USC being the most popular with 8 picking it. Six picked UALR/UAB/ALST/USC. 7 combinations have just one person picking it (so no tiebreaker in play if that person goes 4-0).
After the jump, here are all 30 picks:
Surprisingly, Verizon FIOS has just added TruTV in HD (I wish after the tournament, they axe this and put in Fox Soccer Channel in HD instead) so I could watch all games in HD, if I were home. And for once, iPhone has a leg up on Android as the March Madness on Demand app is only available for iPx products.
As for the pool, we have 15 entries from 12 people at the end of Monday, which is ahead of last year’s pace. But this year, the dour economy may be taking its toll as all 12 people are previous entrants. Keep spreading the word!
The First Four for Charity now has 17 entries, so thanks! The deadline is 3:30 PM PDT so if you haven’t had time to submit a simple email or comment on any of these posts, do so! Here are the entries thus far after the jump: Continue reading
13 entries received thus far, ahead of last year’s pace. In the free First Four for Charity contest, 7 have submitted thus far:
| # | FIRST | LI | UNCA>UALR | UAB>CLEM | UTSA>ALST | USC>VCU |
| 1 | Stewart | W | UALR by 1 | CLEM by 10 | ALST by 1 | USC by 6 |
| 2 | Samer | S | UALR by 9 | CLEM by 2 | ALST by 5 | USC by 5 |
| 3 | David | A | UNCA by 6 | CLEM by 1 | UTSA by 11 | VCU by 4 |
| 4 | Isma | S | UALR by 6 | CLEM by 1 | ALST by 2 | USC by 4 |
| 5 | Ford | R | UALR by 9 | UAB by 11 | UTSA by 5 | VCU by 3 |
| 6 | Eric | C | UALR by 3 | UAB by 2 | UTSA by 2 | USC by 7 |
| 7 | Scott | T | UNCA by 3 | CLEM by 7 | UTSA by 1 | USC by 15 |
I was thinking of doing a short contest for the First Four which starts 3:30 pm PDT tomorrow. Got a note from a friend that the best way to support the people of Japan is to send money to the American Red Cross (link: https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=0&5052.donation=form1&df_id=5052). If you could indulge me, please send your picks for the four First Four games and margin of victory for each (e.g., UNC-Asheville by 10 pts). Your entry is free and for every valid entry I get, I’ll donate $1 per entry (if under 25 entries, $2 per entry) on behalf of HWCI NCAA Pool (I’ll use this as my middle name and hopefully my credit card will still go through). Even if you don’t care about bball, just send in your picks anyway. Best of all… no nicknames to come up with! I probably won’t have time to figure out the winner til the weekend but it will help if you reply directly to this email or put in the subject line “First Four picks”. Deadline is 3:30 pm PDT Tuesday (tomorrow)! I’ll post my pick on the website (http://www.hwci.com/ncaa) later tonight.
———–FORM————-
NAME (First, Last):
WINNER & MARGIN OF VICTORY: UNC-Asheville vs Arkansas-Little Rock (UALR)
WINNER & MARGIN OF VICTORY: UAB vs Clemson
WINNER & MARGIN OF VICTORY: Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) vs Alabama St
WINNER & MARGIN OF VICTORY: USC vs Virginia Commonwealth (VCU)
———-END———-
Thanks! The winner gets bragging rights as the first HWCI NCAA First Four Champion. Winner is the most correct picks with the tiebreaker the lowest margin of victory difference (above or below).
Cheers,
Scott