March Madness 2019 - National Championship

No matter who emerged victorious on Monday night, one school was going home with their first ever national championship in men's basketball.  For Virginia, it would complete the storybook turnaround from their disastrous flameout in the first round last year when they were the overall #1 seed coming into the tournament.  For Texas Tech, it would be the cherry on the sundae for their coach, Chris Beard, who has jumped to the top of the wish list of nearly every major program in the country in need of a new coach.  Taking a small basketball program like Texas Tech to the title game was remarkable enough.  But if his team could cut down the nets, schools like UCLA would be Fedex-ing him a blank check on Tuesday morning to have him come lead their team next year.

If I could give this game a nickname, I would call it "The Learning Curve".  With both teams known for their defensive prowess, there was concern that this could be an ugly low-scoring game.  Vegas set the line for the total score at a mere 118 points (1st team to 60 wins!).  Many pundits couldn't even fathom that level of fireworks.  It might only take 50 points to claim the national championship.  And early on, those who believed we'd have an ultra low-scoring title game looked to be prophetic.  Five minutes into the game, the score was 3-2.  Texas Tech wouldn't actually make a shot from the field until more than 7 minutes had elapsed from the clock.  Both teams looked tentative, unable to figure out how to get a clean look at the basket.  With the Red Raiders struggling badly, Virginia grabbed an early 10 point lead.  Even though there was 30 minutes left in the game, that advantage seemed oddly imposing.  How long would it take for Texas Tech to overcome that big of a deficit if they couldn't hit a shot?

The surprising answer was not long.  One of my favorite sayings is "sometimes you just need to see the ball go through the hoop".  In general, that phrase means that if you have a little taste of success, you'll soon regain your confidence.  In basketball, the meaning is quite literal.  Even if you're not hitting anything from the field, if you can sink a free throw and see the ball go through the hoop, it will help you get your mind right.  It won't be long before those shots from the field will start dropping as well.  That seemed to be the case with Texas Tech as they erased that 10 point deficit over the next 2 and a half minutes.  Not only did we have a whole new ballgame, there was some offense being displayed on the court.  The dark cloud of "ugly basketball" hanging over this game had dissipated and it felt like we were going to get two evenly matched teams playing solid basketball for the title.  So evenly matched that it took a Ty Jerome 3-pointer with one second left in the half to break the tie as Virginia took a three point lead to intermission.

The Cavs came out in the second half making defensive adjustments just as they had against Auburn. Texas Tech was struggling again on offense, while Virginia went on their version of a run.  Most runs in basketball involve one team going on a scoring burst.  10 quick points in a minute and a half that gets the crowd going and wrests momentum away from their opponent.  A Virginia run is nothing like that.  When the Cavs are clicking, they are like an NFL team that has controlled the time of possession and is just punishing the other team with 4-5 yard runs on every play of the 4th quarter.  The Cavs were making stops on defense.  They would then come down on offense, use up 20-25 seconds off the clock, and score.  It didn't feel like a huge momentum shift had taken place, but then you look at the scoreboard and see that they had built a 10 point lead again with 10 minutes to go.

In moments of adversity like this, Texas Tech has turned to their star player, Jarrett Culver, to get them back in the game.  But he wasn't doing anything right in this game.  In the semis, it was Matt Mooney who got hot to propel the Red Raiders.  However, he couldn't duplicate that performance in the finals.  Instead, Texas Tech would need their bench to propel them late.  Brandone Francis and Kyler Edwards would combine for 29 crucial points in this game.  And even though Davide Moretti was a starter, who wasn't known for his scoring production until this game, in which he contributed 15 points.  His three pointer with a minute and a half left brought the Red Raiders within one.

Virginia ran down the clock on the next possession, but it ended with a blocked shot.  Texas Tech looked to take the lead with a three pointer, but it was no good.  The rebound resulted in a jump ball and the possession arrow pointed to the Red Raiders.  They quickly converted with a layup and now they had the lead with 36 seconds left.  The Cavs missed a jumper on the other end and had to foul Texas Tech with 22 seconds left.  Two made free throws later and Virginia trailed by three.  That is when a team known for its defense made a crucial mistake in the most inopportune moment.  Virginia's Ty Jerome drove to the hoop and several Red Raiders collapsed in on him.  Even if Jerome hit an uncontested layup, Texas Tech would still hold the lead with 15 seconds to go.  But by collapsing on Jerome, they left Virginia's best player, De'Andre Hunter, wide open for the game tying 3.  He nailed it and things were tied again with 12 seconds to go.  Texas Tech leaned on Culver again in the final seconds, but he missed two shots to win it, the second one being blocked.  We were headed to overtime.

Early on in the overtime, it looked like Virginia was losing focus.  They made two free throws, but they also had missed two shots and then had an uncharacteristically sloppy turnover.  Meanwhile, Matt Mooney was heating up, scoring the first 5 points of overtime for Texas Tech.  That was when the first major call of OT occurred.  As Kyle Guy went behind his teammate's screen and headed to the baseline, he fell.  Both he and the basketball slid out of bounds.  Looked like another sloppy turnover for the Cavs and maybe the point where Texas Tech could break things open with a dagger from Mooney.  But instead the refs called a foul on the Red Raiders.  Texas Tech complained briefly, but then Guy headed to the line and knocked down two free throws to bring Virginia within one.  On the replay, you can see that Guy clearly tripped over his teammate as the defenders legs are nowhere near him.  It was a momentum changing play that went in Virginia's favor and it wouldn't be the last one.

There wasn't much scoring over the next few minutes, but De'Andre Hunter hit another three to put the Cavs up 2.  With about a minute to go, Jerome missed a jumper for Virginia and there was a long rebound.  Texas Tech's Davide Moretti got to it first, but Hunter swiped it away as they rambled down the other end.  The call was that it was Texas Tech's ball, but Hunter immediately called for a replay review.  Over the next few minutes, the replay was shown ad nauseam, slowed down as much as possible.  There was no doubt that Hunter knocked the ball away.  But if you slowed the video down enough, it looked like the ball was still touching Moretti's pinky as Hunter's hand stopped touching the ball.  The long review ended and the call was overturned.  Virginia had the ball and a two point lead with a minute to go.

Was this the correct call?  In my opinion, no.  When a defensive player swats the ball away from someone dribbling, the ball is almost always going to linger on the fingertips of the dribbler as it is knocked away.  That's why every time there is a review with the ball being knocked out of bounds, they look at it a million times.  The person hitting the ball touches it for a split second while the person in possession of the ball usually has their entire hand on it.  If you slow the video down to nanoseconds, then you'll likely see what was seen on this play: that the ball was knocked free, but technically the offensive player touched it last.  But that's the case almost all the time.  A different standard was used in this instance (in my humble opinion) and it cost the Red Raiders.

There wasn't much excitement the rest of the way.  Virginia had their issues from the charity stripe in the semi against Auburn, but they had no problems in the final minute of overtime.  They weren't hot from the free throw line, they went full dracarys to close out this game.  The Cavs made all 8 of their free throws down the stretch, making them 12-for-12 from the line in the extra period.  Redemption, thy name is Virginia.  UMBC who?  The Cavaliers are your national champions after an 85-77 overtime victory over Texas Tech.

Virginia's title was well deserved, but it is a bit remarkable to look back and see how many dominoes had to fall their way to win it all:

• They trailed #16 seed Gardner-Webb at halftime and came back to win.
• They trailed #12 Oregon with 5 minutes left in the game and came back to win.
• They trailed #3 Purdue by 3 with 5 seconds left.  They made 1 free throw, missed the second, had the ball swatted all the way to the other end of the court, retrieved it, fired the ball back up court for a shot at the buzzer, made that shot, then won in overtime.
• They trailed #5 Auburn by 4 with 10 seconds left.  They hit a three pointer, fouled Auburn, saw them only make one free throw, double dribbled but weren't called for it, were fouled with 1.5 seconds left at half court, were fouled with 0.6 seconds left on a three pointer, made all three free throws, avoided a miracle attempt by Auburn to win it on a shot at the buzzer.
• They trailed #3 Texas Tech by 3 with 15 seconds left.  Hit a game tying three, dodged Texas Tech's two chances to win in regulation, got a phantom foul call when one of their players tripped on a teammate to halt Texas Tech's momentum, got a dubious call reversal on a play where Texas Tech would have had the ball down 2 with a minute to go, made all 12 of their free throws in overtime.

That is quite the list.  If I'm associated with Virginia basketball, I'm buying myself a Powerball ticket.  Just sayin.

Speaking of insanely lucky, I won both of this year's pools.  But the other places on the podium weren't locked into place until the buzzer sounded at the end of overtime on Monday night.  So here's how things shook out when all was said and done:

Safety School:

1. Dave Nichols - 90 points
2. John Baxindine - 88 points
3. Aiden Schweitzer - 85 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Dave Nichols - 90 points
2. Dave Henderson - 88 points
3. Nate Heffner - 85 points (won the tiebreaker over King James)

To see the complete final standings, click here.

That's all for the 2019 edition of March Madness.  As always, I'm grateful that you all participate.  And I'm grateful that you read my long recaps (or at least pretend to).  Go enjoy the Masters and the last season of Game of Thrones!  Take care everyone!

March Madness 2019 - Final Four

After four amazing regional finals and six days to recover, the Final Four convened in Minneapolis on Saturday night.  It was going to be hard to surpass what we had seen last weekend, but the first national semifinal provided us with an ending that will not be forgotten for a long, long time.

Virginia and Auburn were the participants in that game and both teams had incredible storylines coming into this battle.  Virginia's story was all about redemption.  They will forever be remembered as the first #1 seed in the men's tournament to fall to a #16 seed.  And they didn't just lose, they were clobbered, ending up on the wrong end of a 20 point beatdown.  Once again they were a #1 seed and once again they had trouble in the opening round.  But they gathered themselves and found a way to win four straight tournament games, landing them a spot in the Final Four that they expected to have a year ago.

For Auburn, this was the story of an unprecedented run through the NCAA Tournament, following an impressive run through the SEC Tournament.  They had won 12 in a row coming into the Final Four. They had to beat Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky just to get here, a murderer's row of opponents that we've never seen a team overcome during the first two weekends of play.  (Arizona did beat the same three teams en route to winning the 1997 title, but they only had to beat one of them to get to the Final Four.).  Not only was Auburn's route to Minneapolis daunting, but they had to overcome adversity too, losing their top rebounder and one of their best players in general late in the game against North Carolina.  They managed to win shorthanded against Kentucky.  Could they do it again vs Virginia?

From the start it was apparent that the game would be played at Virginia's pace.  Auburn was the only team left in the tournament that was known for their offense, but the Cavaliers have a way of imposing their will on you defensively.  That didn't necessarily mean they were in charge of the game though.  In fact, it was the Tigers that led the game by 3 at halftime.  But Virginia found a way to ratchet up their defensive intensity even more.  It took Auburn nearly 6 minutes before they made a basket in the second half.  Even when the Tigers made a hoop, it was almost always on a heavily contested shot.  Nothing was going to come easy for the rest of the game.  The Cavaliers would eventually open up a 10 point lead with 5 minutes left and it looked like Auburn's run was over.

That was when a couple of weird things happened:

1. Virginia's Ty Jerome committed his 4th foul.  Not especially weird, right?  Except that he had zero fouls with 12 minutes left in the game.  He committed all four of these fouls within a span of 8 minutes.  Also weird was the fact that Virginia only had 4 fouls in the second half, so Jerome was responsible for every foul the Cavs had called on them.  Jerome was their "glue guy" (translation: holds the team together), so when he had to go to the bench, it was a problem.
2. More importantly, CBS showed a graphic that said Auburn was 30-0 when they held the lead with 5 minutes left in the game and 0-9 when they did not.  Major graphics jinx alert!

With Jerome out of the game and with CBS hexing Virgnia, the game took a turn.  The Cavs wouldn't score another point until there was less than 10 seconds to go in the game.  Meanwhile, Auburn began finding their rhythm and started knocking down one shot after another.  With 10 seconds to go, they were up 4.  They were headed to their first national championship, right?

Virginia got the ball to Kyle Guy in the corner and he hit a desperation three to keep the Cavs alive.  A foul was called before the ball could be inbounded, sending Auburn down to the other end for free throws.  They could only knock down one of two, making it a two point game with 7 seconds left.  Virginia was facing a bigger problem than a two point deficit though.  Auburn had only committed 4 fouls in the second half, meaning they had fouls to give (teams don't shoot free throws until 7 fouls have been committed in the half unless the foul occurred in the act of shooting).  Virginia inbounded the ball, but within 2 seconds, the Tigers had fouled them.  Only 5 seconds left in the game.  The Cavs next made the strange decision to inbound the ball away from their hoop.  As Virginia's Ty Jerome rushed up the court, he dribbled the ball off of his foot, quickly regained possession and then was fouled right after he dribbled again.  (We'll come back to this.)  The foul occurred at half court with 1.5 seconds left.

Virginia used their final timeout to draw up a play.  They found Kyle Guy in the corner and he put up another desperation three from the corner (the opposite one he hit from to bring them within 1).  There was a whistle, a buzzer, and chaos after the shot did not go in.  Auburn celebrated.  Virginia pointed to the officials.  And the broadcasters had no idea what was going on.  After the referees huddled together, they announced that a foul had been called on the shot.  Virginia would get three free throws with 0.6 seconds put back on the clock.  The crowd booed as Guy would go to the line for the three most pressure-filled free throws of his life.  He made the first.  He made the second.  He made the third.  Virginia was dead for a moment, but they were now one play away from the national championship.  Auburn drew up about as good of a play as you could come up with in terms of going the length of the court and making a shot in 0.6 seconds, but their fling at the buzzer did not fall.  Virginia survives yet again, ending Auburn's magical run.

So a few things about that ending:

• After the game, it was brought up that a double dribble should have been called on the second-to-last play when Jerome dribbled the ball off his foot, picked it up, and dribbled again.  Totally correct.  It was a missed call that undoubtedly affected who won this game.  But blaming the refs for missing the call in that moment seems a bit harsh.  None of the players reacted to the play indicating that they knew it was a double dribble.  No one on the sidelines did either.  Did the broadcasters notice it?  Nope.  Virginia actually called a timeout, the broadcast went to commercial, and when they came back, there was still no mention of the missed call.  This wasn't an obvious call that everyone noticed and the refs missed.  It was a call that everyone missed because of the chaos of the situation.
• The reason that sequence was so chaotic is because everyone knew Auburn was trying to foul on purpose and there was precious little time on the clock.  So when the ball bounced away from Jerome, I'm sure the ref was doing what the rest of us were: seeing if time was going to run out, seeing if Auburn was still going to foul, and seeing if Jerome was going to heave it from half court in desperation.  The second dribble seemed like such a minor part of what was going on in that sequence that a game-changing call was missed.
• If you've seen the replay of the foul, I don't think there is much dispute over whether it was the right call.  The defender hit the shooter's lower body while he was in the air and still had the ball in his hands.  Go try and make a three-pointer while someone runs into your legs and let me know how that goes.  It was a call that is rarely made, especially given the importance of the moment, but it was the right call.
• Finally, I would argue that the foul on the three-pointer was not the worst foul made in the last 7 seconds.  The foul after the missed double dribble was.  I'm sure the player was told to foul, I get that.  But after the ball bounced away from Jerome, the defender had to know there was no time left for the Cavs to get down the court for a reasonable shot.  The play started with only 5 seconds to go.  If the dude makes a defended shot from half court to send you home, so be it.  Instead, Virginia had the clock stopped for them, got to use their timeout, and got to take the ball out from the sideline near the hoop they were shooting at.  The second to last foul saved Virginia's season as much as the missed double dribble call did.

(Sorry, I'm always amazed at the poor decisions made by athletes and coaches in late game situations.  We live in an era dominated by stats, yet no one seems to have any grasp of good strategy.)

Oh yeah, there was a second national semifinal to be played!  And the expectation was that it would be lower scoring than the 63-62 slugfest that began the evening.  Michigan State has the reputation of a gritty team that will wear you down, while Texas Tech's calling card was suffocating defense.  Therefore it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise to see a halftime score of 23-21, advantage Red Raiders.  Could either team find their offensive touch in the second half?  I'm not sure you could say one team did as much as one player did.  Texas Tech's Matt Mooney caught fire in the second half, launching one trey after another that sank through the net, helping the Red Raiders open up a 13 point lead.  But Michigan State's gritty reputation is well earned and they would prove it late.  A 16-4 run brought them within 1 with less than 3 minutes to play.  That would be as close as they would get though.  Texas Tech star Jarrett Culver was silent most of the game, but he scored 6 key points down the stretch to lead the Red Raiders to a spot in the title game.  Texas Tech will take on Virginia for the title after defeating the Spartans, 61-51.

They say a broken clock is right twice every 20 years.  (Is that not the saying?)  If my memory serves me right, I started this pool in 1999.  I won my own pool that year.  And I haven't won it since.  But this year's pools were a tribute to Aunt Becky and the story of those who rig the system to benefit themselves.  Did I send money to Yahoo to constantly change my bracket throughout the tournament, ensuring that I would emerge victorious?  Unknown.  Perhaps the more important question is whether any of you can prove that I did.  All I can tell you is that if I were going to hatch a plan like that, I wouldn't be as sloppy about it as Aunt Becky and Mrs. William H. Macy were.

Virginia's victory and Michigan State's defeat gave me the top spot in both pools this year.  You can rest easy knowing I won't be in contention again until 2039.  As for the other spots on the podium, you'll have to await the outcome of the national championship.  In the main pool, a Virginia victory would put John Baxindine second and Aiden Schweitzer third, while a Texas Tech victory keeps Aiden in second and Scott Brown in third.  As for the Pled Guilty In Court This Afternoon pool, Dave Henderson has second locked up, with a tiebreaker needed for third.  If the championship game total is under 131, 3rd goes to James Dematteo.  Over 131 and it goes to Nate Heffner.  If it lands on 131 exactly, I will quit gambling forever.  

(I'm kidding.  Obviously that would never happen.  They would split third place.)

Here are the top three in each pool with one game to go:

Safety School:

1. Dave Nichols - 90 points
2. Aiden Schweitzer - 85 points
3. Scott Brown - 84 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Dave Nichols - 90 points
2. Dave Henderson - 88 points
3. James Dematteo and Nate Heffner - 85 points

For the full standings, click here.

One more game, one shining moment, and one last recap.  The Madness comes to a close for another year after Virginia and Texas Tech meet for the title on Monday night.

March Madness 2019 - Final Four Scenarios

I didn't realize that the Final Four scenarios were not as complicated as I thought, so it didn't take me very long to jot down how this could play out.  Below are the 8 scenarios that could take place in the title game next weekend, followed by the top three for the main pool in each scenario.  The top three in the "Lori Loughlin Is Making It Rain" pool has already been decided no matter what happens next weekend because the top 4 brackets all have Virginia getting to the national championship game and nothing else.  So without further ado:

Safety School:

Virginia defeats Michigan State:

1. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
2. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
3. John Baxindine

Virginia defeats Texas Tech:

1. Dave Nichols
2. John Baxindine
3. Aiden Schweitzer

Auburn defeats Michigan State:

1. Aiden Schweitzer
2. Dave Nichols/Alex Peerenboom
3. Dave Nichols/Alex Peerenboom

Auburn defeats Texas Tech:

1. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
2. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
3. Will Peerenboom

Michigan State defeats Virginia:

1. Alex Peerenboom
2. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
3. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer

Michigan State defeats Auburn:

1. Alex Peerenboom
2. Aiden Schweitzer
3. Dave Nichols

Texas Tech defeats Virginia:

1. Dave Nichols
2. Aiden Schweitzer
3. Scott Brown

Texas Tech defeats Auburn:

1. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
2. Dave Nichols/Aiden Schweitzer
3. Will Peerenboom

Paid For My Kids SATs:

Basketball is played next weekend:

1. Dave Nichols
2. Dave Henderson
3. James Dematteo/Nate Heffner

March Madness 2019 - Day 8

A red-eye home.  A short nap that turned into a long nap.  Boom, I was ready to watch this weekend's final two games (parlay already dead because I took the Zags) and start catching up on recaps.  (Hopefully you've caught up on the recaps too!)

The SEC was going to have a representative at the Final Four.  Guaranteed.  It was just a matter of who it would be.  On one hand you had Kentucky, the most heralded team from the conference.  On the other hand, you had Auburn, the team that had recently won the conference tournament.  They didn't play Kentucky along the way because the Wildcats lost to Tennessee in the semifinals.  That was probably good news for the Tigers as they had already lost to Kentucky twice this season, with the most recent matchup being a 27 point spanking.  More bad news if you were an Auburn fan: their top rebounder, Chuma Okeke, was lost for the rest of the tournament with a torn ACL.  So Auburn would be short-handed vs. a team they had already lost to twice...not generally a recipe for success.  But perhaps they could be inspired by their fallen teammate.  Win one for Chuma!  (Or for Chuck.  Because Charles Barkley was confined within the creepiest Auburn shrine you have ever seen.)

Early on it looked like Kentucky would get the turkey.  They jumped out to an 11 point lead in the first 10 minutes of the game.  This might get ugly quick.  Kentucky was very fortunate to survive the first two rounds.  Perhaps they were going to finally run away with one of these games.  That's the outcome the residents of Lexington, Kentucky were hoping for, but Auburn wasn't having any of that.  They made a run at the end of the half to get within 5.  Two minutes into the second half, the game was tied.  Eleven minutes later, the Tigers were up six.  The tide had swung.

Kentucky would now have to find an answer and they found it on the defensive end.  Over the next six and a half minutes, the Wildcats would hold Auburn to just a single bucket.  They weren't doing a lot of scoring themselves, but once again we were tied.  Kentucky hit a jumper with less than a minute to go to reclaim the lead.  Auburn hit a layup to tie it once more.  The Wildcats took two shots in the final 10 seconds, but couldn't convert.  The Tigers put up a three to win it at the buzzer, but that was no good either.  For the second time in 24 hours, a trip to the Final Four would be decided in OT.

With Kentucky surviving two close calls already in the tournament, the edge seemed to go to them in the extra period, but it was Auburn who came out hot.  They scored 10 of the first 13 points to open a 7 point lead.  The look on the Kentucky players faces told you that they understood how much trouble they were in.  They caught a break when the Tigers fouled Kentucky on a made hoop.  The "and 1" brought them within 4.  Later on, Auburn would miss the front end of a 1-and-1.  The Wildcats took advantage of that opportunity, hitting a layup and then following two made free throws with a three pointer to get back within 3.  Kentucky needed a miracle and it looked like they might get it when Auburn missed another free throw.  But by this point, they were in the double bonus, so they'd get a second shot at extending it to a two-possession game.  The second free throw was good and Kentucky was down 4 with only 15 seconds left.  They hurried down the court to try and get a quick basket, but their shot was blocked.  Auburn got the ball, sank two more free throws, and the party was on.  Like Texas Tech, Auburn is headed to the program's first ever Final Four after taking out rival Kentucky by a score of 77-71.

Kentucky survived strikes one and two, but the third close call was their downfall.  Would the same be true for Duke?  Both UCF and Virginia Tech were one shot away from toppling the #1 overall seed in this tournament.  Michigan State appeared to be even tougher foe than either of them.  The Spartans are always known for being a rugged, tough team that loves to bang around in the low post.  They were not going to shy away from this big, athletic Duke team led by the most imposing figure in college hoops, Zion Williamson.  Duke was also getting back Cam Reddish.  He didn't play against Virginia Tech, but the Blue Devils would have all of their famous freshmen on the court for this one.

The first half featured one run after another.  Michigan State had an early 12-5 run.  Duke responded with a 21-5 run.  The Spartans closed the half on a 13-0 run to lead by 4.  The second half would be very different.  The two powerhouses traded the lead repeatedly with neither able to produce a major run like they had in the first half.  With 90 seconds to go, Duke led by 3.  The Spartans got the ball inside and converted on a layup, making it a 1 point game.  With their season on the line, you would have expected a heavy dose of Zion Williamson, but somehow it became the RJ Barrett show.  Inside of a minute, Barrett took a jumper that missed.  Michigan State came down court and called a timeout.  Out of the huddle, they found forward Kenny Goins open for a three-pointer that he nailed, giving the Spartans a two-point advantage.  Barrett once again got the ball and tried a three of his own to re-take the lead.  He missed again, but the ball touched Michigan State before going out of bounds.  One more chance for Duke.  Barrett drove the lane and was fouled.  First free throw: yet another miss.  Then maybe the most devastating miss of all.  With only 6 seconds left, Barrett decided the best play was to miss the free throw and try to get the rebound for a tying basket.  He hurled the ball at the back of the rim, but it bounced very high and came straight down through the net.  Duke was still down 1.

The Blue Devils had a serious problem on their hands at this point.  They had only committed 3 fouls in the second half.  The other team does not shooting free throws until the 7th foul of the half.  So with 6 seconds to go, Duke needed to foul 4 times.  And after all that, they would need to find a way to get down the court for a potential game-tying/game-winning shot (that would probably be taken by RJ Barrett).  The Blue Devils quickly fouled on the first inbounds play that Michigan State ran, but the Spartans got savvy on the next attempt.  The Spartans were inbounding the ball from the sideline on their end of the court.  They knew Duke had to foul almost immediately.  So they had a guard run right up towards the inbounded, then had him cut towards the other end.  The ball was thrown in front of the guard so that he could catch it in motion, cutting away from Duke's defense.  He immediately began dribbling towards the other end as the seconds ticked away.  Duke scrambled to catch him, but time ran out.  Michigan State had pulled off the upset, destroying many brackets in the process with a 68-67 win over Duke.

So next week's Final Four will feature Virginia vs. Auburn in the first national semifinal, followed by Michigan State vs. Texas Tech in the second national semifinal.  Should be about as wide open of a Final Four as we've seen in a long time.

When I watched Gonzaga lose while sitting in the Orleans casino in Vegas, I figured my chances of winning my own pool were kaput.  But Sunday's results were the best case scenario for me.  It was also good news for Aiden Schweitzer, Alex Peerenboom, and John Baxindine.  Good for me and Aiden because we are at the top of the main pool and only two other brackets are alive to a national champion (Alex picked Michigan State, John picked Virginia).  I'll send out the Final Four scenarios later in the week, but those four names will be prominent in the main pool.  As for the "Sephora dropped me and you ruined my life, Mommy!" pool, only 4 names are in contention for 3 spots due to the fact that there are no brackets alive to a national champion.  Those 4 are me, Dave Henderson, James Dematteo, and Nate Heffner.  Here's what the standings look like going into the Final Four:

Safety School:

1. Dave Nichols and Aiden Schweitzer - 85 points
2. Will Peerenboom - 82 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Dave Nichols - 85 points
2. Dave Henderson - 83 points
3. James Dematteo and Nate Heffner - 80 points

Take a gander at the full standings here.

That's it for now.  The Final Four begins on Saturday.  Enjoy the upcoming week!

March Madness 2019 - Day 7

Saturday marked the end of the contest I was playing in Vegas.  I was too far back to actually win, but I made a decent run at cashing.  And if two horses didn't get scratched at the gate in the final race, I would have had a chance at bringing home some money from the contest.  Alas, things did not go my way.  But if you are a college basketball fan, things did go your way as you were treated to two solid games that determined half of the field for next weekend's Final Four.

The West region would send the first representative to Minneapolis as Gonzaga and Texas Tech clashed in a true offense vs. defense matchup.  Gonzaga had the most efficient offense in the country, while no one played better defense than Texas Tech, a truth that Michigan learned the hard way on Thursday night.  The game would turn out to be a nice blend of both offense and defense, finding a middle ground between the never stop offense in the Auburn-North Carolina affair and the defensive standoff that was Michigan-Texas Tech.  The first half was a see-saw battle that tilted slightly in Gonzaga's direction when they scored just before the break to go up 2.  The two teams remained evenly matched for most of the second half and, with 5 minutes to go, the score was tied.  The Red Raiders might be known for their defense, but it was their offense that came through down the stretch, as they would go on an 11-4 run to take a 7 point lead with a minute to go.  The Zags were in deep trouble, but they cut the margin to 2 with 12 seconds to play.  And then Josh Perkins made a mistake that would effectively end Gonzaga's season.  As Texas Tech went to inbound the ball, Perkins reached over the line and knocked the ball away from the Red Raiders player.  That's a no-no.   Such a big no-no that you get a technical foul.  Texas Tech's ticket was punched.  After sinking the two free throws for the technical foul and two more for a foul when the ball was actually inbounded, the Red Raiders were up 6 and headed to Minneapolis.  Texas Tech goes to their first Final Four with a 75-69 victory over #1 seed Gonzaga.

Did you like that close offense-defense matchup?  Well, there's more where that came from.  Virginia isn't quite as good defensively as Texas Tech is, but they're pretty darn close.  And Purdue put up 99 in their Sweet 16 win over Tennessee.  Offense vs. defense, round two.  Let's get it on!

Early on it was the Ryan Cline and Carsen Edwards show again as they combined for 5 three-pointers in the first 12 minutes to help Purdue grab an early 9 point lead.  Cline would tail off in this one.  Edwards?  He was just getting started.  He'd score 16 points by halftime, but the Boilermakers lead would only be 1.  In the second half, the Cavs took control, maintaining the momentum they had built up during the final few minutes of the first half.  When Virginia's Ty Jerome knocked down a trey to give 48-40 lead, it was the culmination of a 26-10 run by the Cavs.  But Carsen Edwards was not going to let Purdue leave quietly.  He put the Boilermakers on his back and tried to lead them to the promised land.  16 points in the first half was impressive, but putting up 24 more in the second half is an NCAA performance that will be remembered for years to come.  Edwards had not only dug Purdue out of an 8 point hole, he had put them up three with less than 10 seconds separating them from a berth in the Final Four.

Virginia would need a three to tie, but Purdue smartly fouled them with just under 6 seconds to go, not giving the Cavs an opportunity to tie it from deep.  Ty Jerome made the first free throw to bring Virginia within 2, but he missed the second.  It didn't really look like he missed on purpose, but his errant free throw was a blessing in disguise.  Virginia's Mamadi Diakite was able to slap the missed free throw into the back court.  The Cavs ran down the ball and then threw it back to Diakite as the clock neared zero.  He instantly shot it, just getting it out of his hands before the buzzer.  His shot was pure and Purdue headed to overtime for the second straight game.

There wasn't much scoring in the extra session, so we were headed for some nail-biting moments late again.  Edwards hit his only basket of the OT with 43 seconds left to give Purdue a 1 point edge.  15 seconds later, De'Andre Hunter made a layup to give the lead back to the Cavs.  Everyone on the court knew that the ball would be back in Edwards' hands for the potential game winner, but after making nearly everything all day, his last three pointer would not fall.  Virginia made two free throws on the other end to go up 3.  After a Purdue turnover, the Cavs would sink two more free throws for one of the crazier back door covers of all time.  The Virginia redemption story is still alive as they head to Minneapolis following a remarkable 80-75 victory over Purdue.

I mentioned that I was surprised that my name was amongst the leaders in this year's pools.  I was even more surprised to see it was still up there after my national champion pick (Gonzaga) was eliminated in the Elite Eight.  Not sure how I can win from here, but I'm happy that I was still around this late in the contest.  We have a new leader in the Safety School pool as Will Peerenboom has emerged with a 1 point lead, while I am clinging to a 1 point edge in the other pool.  Here are you leaders with just 5 games to go:

Safety School:

1. Will Peerenboom - 82 points
2. Dave Nichols and Aiden Schweitzer - 81 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Dave Nichols - 81 points
2. Nate Heffner and James Dematteo - 80 points

For the full standings, click here.

The last two tickets to the Final Four were punched on Sunday.  One more update to go for this weekend!

March Madness 2019 - Day 6

My Vegas trip consisted of the following itinerary:

• Wednesday night - take a late flight to Vegas
• Thursday - get up early, register for the handicapping contest, play handicapping contest, bet various parlays for myself and others, watch NCAA games
• Friday - get up early to handicap whatever races I hadn't handicapped yet for the contest, play contest, make more parlays, watch more NCAA games
• Saturday - get up even earlier because there was definitely not enough time to handicap Saturday's races on Friday, play contest, make more parlays, watch the NCAA games, catch a red-eye home

That was the plan and <spoiler> that is pretty much how it played out.  As is custom for me, I had a horrific Day 1 in the handicapping contest.  Hitting my parlay would have made me feel better, but after Gonzaga, Purdue, and Texas Tech all won (I played them on the money line), Virginia was not able to cover because they somehow missed 24 three-pointers in their game.  I needed them to win by 9, they only won by 4.  Bye bye parlay.

Friday went considerably better at the handicapping contest, but it still would have been nice to hit a parlay.  As much as I pride myself in knowing the horses, I've never been much of a sports bettor.  I watch a decent amount of college basketball, so I'd like to think I could do well at it, but the results say otherwise.  Hence, even though sports betting is now legal in several states, I'll be sticking with the ponies.

[If you did want to know my parlay for Friday, it was: Michigan State (money line), Auburn (money line), Duke -7.5, and Houston (money line)]

That's right, I liked the Spartans, but I didn't trust them to cover against an inconsistent LSU team that looked like they could beat anyone in the nation one day and might not beat some of the remaining squads in the NIT on other days.  They were a very tough read for me, so I went with the safe play.  I was kicking myself when bad LSU showed up in the first half.  The Tigers fell behind by 17 and I was wishing I had laid the points.  But good LSU would eventually make an appearance, trimming the lead to 4 just a few minutes into the second half.  However, just as Tennessee and LSU had similar experiences in round two victories, they would share similar fates in their round three losses.  They both left themselves way too much to do and had nothing left in the tank once they got within range of winning.  Michigan State would soon pull away from the Tigers and advance by the score of 80-63.

Need more SEC?  We got more SEC for you!  Auburn was taking on North Carolina in the first game from the Midwest region.  Auburn was arguably the hottest team in the tournament, running wild through the SEC tournament before nearly blowing their 1st round game to New Mexico State and then demolishing perennial national championship contender Kansas in round two.  North Carolina would be much tougher competition though.  As great as Kansas usually is, it was an off year for them in 2019.  North Carolina, on the other hand, was already being slotted into the national championship game for a battle with their arch-nemesis Duke.  The Midwest was loaded, but they were considered the clear favorites.

The reason I picked Auburn in this game was because I knew North Carolina's Achilles Tar Heel was turnovers.  They were a team that loved to run and gun and sometimes they didn't take care of the basketball.  If a team was going to beat them, it would need to be a squad that caused a lot of turnovers and that was something the Tigers did very well.  This was going to be a fun game with the potential to be even higher scoring than the Purdue-Tennessee tilt from the night before.  Neither team could establish a large lead in the first half, trading the lead several times back and forth.  It looked like they might head to the break deadlocked, but Auburn made a layup right before the buzzer to snatch a 2 point lead at the half.

The second half was completely different.  The Tigers made a 3 to start the half, a prelude to what was in store for the next 20 minutes.  Auburn got very hot from beyond the arc and the Tar Heels were suddenly on the ropes.  North Carolina was down 19 and we were on the verge of seeing a #1 seed getting knocked out of the tournament.  The Tar Heels were not going to go away easily though. They got within 10 and when Auburn lost one of their best players to a freak leg injury, it seemed like the Tigers might be in some trouble.  But they knocked down a few more 3 pointers and North Carolina could not get within single digits.  So much for Duke-North Carolina part four.  Auburn would move on to the Midwest regional final after a 97-80 victory.

My parlay was 2 for 2!  And surely Duke would come out wanting to prove that their near loss to UCF was a fluke.  They were going to spank Virginia Tech, right?  (That was my line of thinking anyways.)  The last time these 2 teams met, the Hokies came out on top, but Duke didn't have Zion Williamson.  Could Virginia Tech beat Duke when they were at full strength?  It sure looked that way in the first half.  The Hokies weren't intimidated in the least by Duke and outplayed them for the first 20 minutes, which saw them lead by 4.  Things remained tight in the second half until Duke went on a 9-0 run.  Momentum was on their side and they were finally going to put Virginia Tech away...or not.

While Duke has been touted as the most dominant team in the country, that really hasn't played out during the season.  Undoubtedly they have the most dominant player in Zion, but they weren't blowing out teams throughout the year.  They started off the season by embarrassing Kentucky by 34 and that image stayed in everyone's heads.  The truth is that they played a lot of close games and came out on top of most of them because they're so talented.  But dominant?  Not really.  That was proven out again at the end of this game.  Virginia Tech stuck around even when it looked like Duke was going to pull away.  They stayed within reach and as the clock ticked down, they had a real chance to win, just as UCF had the week before.  Down 2, the Hokies had the ball and went for the win.  Their first three-pointer was blocked out of bounds.  A second one missed and was called out of bounds off of Duke, even though replay showed Zion Williamson never went out while saving the ball.  With 1 second to go, it was desperation time for Virginia Tech.  Amazingly, they got the best look they could have asked for.  Virginia Tech's Ahmed Hill curled around a screen and headed to the hoop.  The inbounds pass was thrown his way and he caught it about a foot from the hoop.  All he had to do was lay it in.  But his momentum carried him away from the basket and as he went to lay the ball in, the ball drifted to the side of the rim.  Duke watched an opponent's short range shot roll off the rim at the buzzer for the second straight game.  The Blue Devils survive again with a 75-73 win.  My parlay was toast.

There was one game left to complete the Sweet 16 and it was an interesting matchup between Kentucky and Houston.  Kentucky had advanced in a low-scoring affair against Wofford in round two and they were probably going to get more of the same here as Houston employed the same defense-first philosophy as Texas Tech and Virginia.  The Cougars had a very tough time stopping Kentucky early on as the Wildcats shot 61% from the field, putting up 37 points in the process.  They had an 11 point lead at intermission and if Houston didn't find a way to stop the hot-shooting Wildcats, they were going to be headed home.  The defensive intensity was raised a notch in the second half and Kentucky's field goal percentage came back to earth.  As a result, Houston drew closer.  With 4 minutes to go, the Cougars finally tied the game.  Kentucky only scored 12 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half.  We were ready for yet another tight finish.

The key sequence would go down with about a minute remaining.  Houston was up three, but Kentucky made a basket and was fouled giving them a chance to tie.  They missed the free throw, with the Cougars grabbing the rebound.  They came down the court looking to run some clock, clinging to their one point lead.  After taking 20 seconds off the clock, Houston took a tough jumper that would get blocked.  Kentucky grabbed the loose ball and headed the other way.  The Cougars couldn't find Kentucky guard Tyler Herro in transition and he drained a three to take the lead.  Houston would get one more chance to tie it, but they missed and the Wildcats sank two free throws to ice the game.  Kentucky (like Duke) survives late again and will face a conference foe in Auburn in the Midwest regional final after beating Houston by a score of 62-58.

While my parlay may not have been successful, my bracket did alright and I have somehow made my way up to the top of the "My baby wants to go to USC" pool.  (RIGGED!)  Fred is still on top of the main pool, where I've crept into a tie for second.  Here's how things look going into the Elite Eight:

Safety School:

1. Fred Alcaro - 80 points
2. Dave Nichols, Will Peerenboom, and Aiden Schweitzer - 77 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Dave Nichols - 77 points
2. Nate Heffner and James Dematteo - 76 points

Check out the full standings here.

Down to the Elite Eight!  Time to send out some Save The Dates for the Final Four with regional final action on Saturday.

March Madness 2019 - Day 5

Vegas: Great place to watch March Madness games.  Not so great place to track a March Madness pool and write recaps.  My apologies!

With very few upsets in the first 2 rounds, we wound up with one of the most loaded Sweet 16's in recent memory.  We'd start things off with the top seed in the West, Gonzaga, taking on what I would call the "wise guy" team in the region, Florida State.  Much of the focus throughout the year in the ACC was on Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia, but the 4th place team out of that conference wasn't too shabby either.  They had already beaten 4 of the other teams playing in the Sweet 16 (LSU, Purdue, Virginia Tech, and Virginia) and lost by two to Duke.  This was a serious team.  People started to take notice after they throttled Murray State in round two.  And because Gonzaga wasn't getting the respect of the other 1 seeds, there were many experts on TV choosing the Seminoles to be the first team in this year's tournament to take out a #1 seed.

On the other side of the court were the Zags.  Year in and year out, they put together great seasons, testing themselves early on by playing the best of the best before heading into a weak conference schedule that always causes people to doubt how good they are.  But this team was well deserving of a #1 seed, having beaten Duke despite being without one of their key players, Killian Tillie.  Tillie would be available off the bench in this game, but he wouldn't have much of an impact as the starters would carry the Zags.  Gonzaga got off to a good start and methodically increased their lead over the Seminoles, getting to 14 at one stage of the first half.  The Zags would head to the locker room up 11.  Florida State was unable to make much of a run for most of the second half, but with about 4 minutes remaining, they were able to creep within 4.  Gonzaga immediately answered with a 3-pointer and it became clear that the Seminoles were never going to get over the hump.  Gonzaga moves on to the West regional final with a 72-58 victory.

It will be very hard for any game to be as entertaining as the Purdue-Tennessee battle that took place in the South Region.  Big leads, furious comebacks, clutch shots...this game had it all.  If you watched the first 30 minutes of this game, you wouldn't have thought it would be a classic.  Purdue dominated the action, leading by as many as 18 points early in the second half.  We've seen teams have a really hard time holding on to huge leads in this tournament though, so it wasn't shocking to see the Volunteers claw their way back into it.  What was startling was how quickly it happened.  The Boilermaker rout vanished and we had a tie game with 7 minutes to go.  From there it was a game of "Can you top this?".  Tennessee would string together a few baskets on their end, trying to crack Purdue once and for all.  On the other end, there was Ryan Cline.  The Boilermaker guard would scramble around screen after screen, catch the ball outside the arc, and swish one clutch three after another, the last one tying the game at 80 with 38 seconds to go.  The Volunteers went back ahead on a dunk with 10 seconds left.  Purdue tried to tie it with a layup, but the shot was blocked out of bounds with 4 seconds on the clock.  The Boilermakers went for the win as they inbounded the ball to star player Carsen Edwards in the corner and he put up a three.  It didn't fall, but he did.  The refs blew the whistle and he had a chance to win the game at the line with three free throws.  He missed the first.  Made the second.  Made the third.  Tennessee made the odd decision to try and advance the ball past half court and call timeout even though they had less than 2 seconds to do so.  The timeout came with 0.1 remaining, so after the timeout, all they could do was try and deflect the ball into the hoop.  That didn't happen and we headed to overtime.

In the overtime, it looked like Tennessee was a tired team.  They had made a valiant comeback and were 2 seconds away from the regional final before that last foul forced 5 more minutes of play.  Purdue took the lead early on in the extra period, scoring 9 of the first 11 points.  That would build them a 7 point margin, the same advantage they would hold when the final buzzer sounded.  Purdue moves on with a 99-92 win over Tennessee.

Purdue and Tennessee combined for 201 points in that game.  Michigan, Texas Tech, Virginia, and Oregon would combine for 209 points in the two late games.  They were not pretty, folks.  Both Texas Tech and Virginia are known for their shut down defense and it was very much on display in the nightcaps.  Texas Tech only scored 24 points in the first half, but that was good enough to hold an 8 point lead at halftime.  That lead would balloon to 25 as the Wolverines could not get into any offensive flow due to the suffocating Red Raider D.  Texas Tech will have their top-rated defense tested when they take on the top-rated offense of Gonzaga in the West Region final.  The Red Raiders advance with a 63-44 victory.

As for Virginia and Oregon, their game was more about bad offense than great defense.  Both teams seemed determined to shoot threes and neither one was very good at it.  Combined, they made 18 out of 58 tries from beyond the arc.  As Charles Barkley would say, turrible.  Because neither team could hit much at all, the game remained close throughout.  The Ducks even held a three-point lead with just under 6 minutes to go.  Then they went scoreless for 5:29.  The Cavs took advantage, scoring just enough to eek out a 4 point win, 53-49.

On to the standings, where one of the greatest upsets of all time could be taking place.  Despite running these pools for many, many years, I have not seen my name near the top of the standings all that often.  But after going 4 for 4 on Thursday, I have crept within striking range.  Not in the top three yet, but lurking.  Here are your leaders after Day 5:

Safety School:

1. Will Peerenboom and Fred Alcaro - 71 points
2. Vince Berarducci and Aiden Schweitzer - 68 points (Blogger won't let me change the 2 to a 3.  Or maybe I don't know how to do it.  Either way, these guys are tied for third.)

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. James Dematteo - 70 points
2. Vince Berarducci - 68 points
3. Nate Heffner - 67 points

To see the full standings, click here.

Friday's recap will be right behind this one.  Stay tuned!

March Madness 2019 - Day 4

Just 8 chances left for a Cinderella to emerge, but with three number one seeds taking the floor on Sunday, it was looking less and less likely that we would have any Sister Jean-inspired squads going on a magical run to the Final Four.

The action started off the same way on Sunday as it did on Saturday.  A favored SEC team would jump out to a huge lead on their opponent from the Big 10.  The Big 10 team would stage a comeback late in the second half.  And the SEC team would have the ball for the last shot in the final seconds of the game.  A few key differences though:

• Instead of LSU-Maryland, this was Tennessee-Iowa
• Instead of a 15 point advantage, the Volunteers led the Hawkeyes by 25 at one stage
• Yes, Tennessee found a way to blow a 25 point lead!
• And unlike at the end of the LSU-Maryland game, there was no dramatic game-winning layup right before the buzzer.  It was more of a brick off the side of the rim that sent the game to overtime.

Luckily for Volunteers fans, they found their mojo again in the extra session, scoring the first 7 points.  Iowa didn't have anything left in the tank to stage another comeback.  Tennessee moves on with a 6 point win in the first overtime game of this year's tournament.

The next two games featured #1 seeds Duke and North Carolina.  The Tar Heels had very little trouble dispatching Washington in a 22 point romp, but the Blue Devils game was a smidge tighter than that.  Duke was facing UCF and although the Blue Devils feature the most prominent big man in college basketball (6'7", 284 pound Zion Williamson), they would not be trotting out the biggest fella on the court this day.  That honor would go to UCF's Tacko Fall.  Tacko is not only the tallest player in college basketball, he is one of the tallest people in the entire world at 7'6".  Better put some arc on that shot if you want to get it over Tacko's wingspan.

To be fair, the Knights are more than just four role players and a giant in the middle and they would prove that against Duke.  You have to wonder whether the fear factor is gone with the Blue Devils, since neither North Dakota State nor UCF seemed intimidated in the least when they took the floor with them.  The first 10 minutes of the game saw the underdog jump out to the lead as Duke faced an early eight point deficit.  They would reverse that by halftime though, heading to the break with an 8 point advantage.  Could UCF hang with the top team in the land in half #2 or would this be another blowout?  The Knights started the second half with a 21-10 run to serve notice that they were in this for the long haul.  Even when Duke would build another 7 point cushion, UCF found a way to respond with an 11-2 run to regain the lead.

With the game knotted at 70, an insane sequence of events unfolded over the last 3 and a half minutes.  It all started off innocently enough with UCF knocking down a jumper to go up 2.  After forcing a Duke turnover, UCF tossed up an off-balance shot with 1 second to go on the shot clock.  The ball's trajectory definitely changed after it passed the rim, which led the clock operator to reset the shot clock.  Tacko grabbed the rebound and dunked the ball without jumping (think about that for a second!).  Duke was furious and a long review ensued, but it was impossible to tell whether the ball had hit the part of the rim that connects to the backboard (not a shot clock violation) or whether it had hit the backboard (a shot clock violation that would wipe out the basket).  Without conclusive evidence to overturn, the dunk counted and it was 74-70 for UCF.

Perhaps the most important sequence took place next.  Duke missed a three pointer and the long rebound led to a breakaway for UCF.  They tried to rush the fast break and instead of converting an alley-oop for a 6 point lead with 2 minutes to play, the missed dunk led to a Blue Devils 3-pointed on the other end.  That 5 point swing brought the margin down to 1.  UCF made 2 free throws with less than a minute left to go up 3 again and Duke strangely seemed to be in no hurry at the other end even though the clock was running out on them.  After a missed three, Zion got the ball back, drove into the lane, rid himself of his defender, and clashed with the giant known as Tacko.  The ref blew the whistle and Zion's shot fell through the hoop.  Tacko had fouled out and the Blue Devils had a chance to tie the game.  UCF went from being assured of still being up 1 to now looking at a tie game.  Or looking at a deficit.  Zion missed the free throw, but RJ Barrett grabbed the rebound and scored to put Duke up one.

(Note: With my Twitter feed mostly consisting of horse racing fans, I see a lot of pro-Kentucky tweets.  It was amazing to see all of "Duke gets all of the calls" posts from them, a day after a late foul call helped UK hold off Wofford.  It's like Yankee fans complaining that the Red Sox are spending too much on payroll.  Give me a break already.  Could Zion have been called for a charge?  Sure.  Did RJ Barrett shove the guy blocking him out on the free throw?  Pretty clearly.  I don't think that guy dove to the other side of the basket on his own.  But Kentucky fans don't get to complain about Duke getting all of the calls.  That's absurd.)

UCF still had 7 seconds to find a game-winning basket, but it was hard to believe Duke was going to lose after the missed UCF alley-oop, the Zion bucket, Tacko fouling out, and the missed free throw being converted into a go-ahead basket.  The Knights ran a play that was very similar to what LSU ran to win their game vs Maryland.  They inbounded the ball to a guard who drove right and slipped underneath his defender.  Rather than go underhand, UCF's BJ Taylor floated a runner off the glass.  It looked like it might go in, but it caromed off the rim.  And then for all the world, it looked like Duke was headed home.  UCF's Aubrey Dawkins had timed the rebound perfectly.  He reached up with his right arm, caught the ball, and gently tipped it back towards the basket.  It glanced off the backboard, rolled all the way around the rim...and off.  Duke was simply not meant to lose.  The Blue Devils survive with a 1 point win over UCF.

There wasn't too much drama in the next 4 games.  Liberty looked like they might be this year's Cinderella when they went to the half with a 3 point edge on Virginia Tech, but they were flat in the second half as the Hokies gradually took control and extinguished the Flames.  Buffalo was one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, at least until they met the best defensive team in the country in Texas Tech.  The Red Raiders held the Bulls to a mere 58 points, 20 less than they would need to stay with Texas Tech.  Virginia didn't blow out Oklahoma, but after the first basket of the second half, the Sooners never got the gap under 10 as the Cavaliers moved on.  The story was essentially the same in the Houston-Ohio State tilt.  The Cougars didn't maintain as large of a lead as the Cavaliers did in their game, but for the majority of the second half, the Buckeyes couldn't get within two possessions of Houston.  They'll move on to face Kentucky in the Sweet 16.

The late game of the night featured two West Coast teams appropriately enough and the winner would be our only double-digit seed getting an invite to next weekend's fun.  Oregon was the 12 seed and UC Irvine was the 13 seed.  Despite having similar seeds, one side was being heavily favored in this affair.  Oregon was a team from a major conference that had "finally put it together" and won their conference tournament.  UC Irvine was simply a mid-major with an awesomely unique mascot.  (Fear the Anteater!)  I hadn't heard a single "expert" on TV make a case for UC Irvine winning this game.  Early on, it looked like the talking heads were right.  The Ducks were up 14 late in the first half and running on all cylinders.  But then their engines stalled.  Over the next 10:19 of game action, Oregon scored zero points.  That is really hard to do, but they pulled it off.  Meanwhile, the Anteaters had scored 16 points.  That wasn't exactly offensive efficiency at its finest, but it gave them the lead.  When Oregon's Ehab Amin finally hit a three-pointer to end the dry spell, it not only put the Ducks back on top, it completely re-energized them.  Sometimes you just need to see the ball go through the hoop.  Oregon went on a 30-10 run that put the game out of reach.  We say goodbye to the Anteaters as Oregon moves on to play Virginia next weekend.

In all the years that I have done this pool, I can't remember having a second round where no bonus points were given out, but that was the case this year.  The higher seeded team won 15 out of the 16 games, with Auburn being the lone lower seeded team to advance.  Even that wasn't a surprise as they were favored in Vegas, making faves 16 for 16 on Saturday and Sunday.  Very chalky.  So while there are no Cinderellas left to root for (unless you consider Oregon a Cinderella), this year's national champion will have to go through a gauntlet of 4 tough opponents to win the title, no matter where they are in the bracket.

As for the pool standings, things tightened up in the Safety School division as Fred's lead has decreased to 2 points.  King James has opened up a larger lead than that in the Purchased SATs division, now leading by 3 points after the first weekend.  Here are your leaders:

Safety School:

1. Fred Alcaro - 65 points
2. Alex Peerenboom - 63 points
3. Will Peerenboom and Aiden Schweitzer - 62 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. James Dematteo - 64 points
2. Nate Heffner - 61 points
3. Aiden Schweitzer - 60 points

For the full standings, click here.

I am off to Vegas to play in the Horseplayer World Series this weekend, so wish me luck.  Lord knows I can't pick college basketball.  Maybe the horses will be friendlier to me!  

The Sweet 16 begins on Thursday night with the West and South regions.  Enjoy the games everyone!

March Madness 2019 - Day 3

Everyone loves when some small school knocks off one of the big guys in round 1.  But we don't know who the true Cinderellas are until round 2.  When teams have a week to prepare for their opponent and come in completely fresh, they can fire their best bullet.  But turning around in 2 days and taking on another major team is a whole different animal.  Not only has the round 1 game taken a physical toll on the underdog, it likely has (more importantly) an effect on their emotional states as well.  It can't be easy going from the euphoria of an upset to practice to game time again all within a span of 48 hours.  Many of these teams likely played round 1 with a chip on their shoulders, but after that initial victory, they probably feel pretty good about themselves.  Their edge is gone.  So even if the team they play in round 2 isn't much different in terms of skill level, the mountain they must climb has gotten quite a bit higher.

As a result, we say goodbye to many of our round 1 heroes in round 2.  And usually, that exit isn't pretty.  A flat performance from an underdog can mean blowout city.  What we saw on Day 3 was that mid-majors aren't the only ones who can fall prey to losing their edge when they need it the most.  6 of the 8 games played on Saturday wound up being snoozers with 5 of those games essentially over at halftime.  So let's focus on the two early games that were worth watching for the entire 40 minutes.

Maryland and LSU kicked things off and this game looked like it would fall into the category of "favorite beats up on flat team" as LSU held a 15 point lead with 16 minutes to go.  But the Terrapins dominated the next 10 minutes with a 26-9 run that put them ahead by a bucket.  The last 6 minutes were very entertaining as the two teams traded the lead back and forth.  The game was tied in the waning seconds as LSU held the ball for a shot to send them to the Sweet Sixteen.  As the seconds ticked down, guard Tremont Waters drove to the hoop.  He glided past a couple of big men and put up an underhand scoop as the Terrapins' defenders desperately tried to block his shot.  The ball went underneath their arms, off the backboard and in.  The Tigers had the lead with only a second to go.  Maryland inbounded the ball and heaved a shot down to the other end, but the prayer was not answered.  LSU is the first team headed to the second weekend of the tournament.

The most anticipated little school/big school matchup of the day was Wofford vs Kentucky.  Wofford was a polarizing team in this tournament.  The claim was that they hadn't played anybody, so they shouldn't have been ranked in the Top 25.  They definitely weren't going to be able to hang with a national championship contender like Kentucky.  The Wildcats were about to expose how overrated the Terriers were, even though they were down a man as starter PJ Washington was out with an injury.  Wofford made it clear early on that they were not intimidated by Kentucky as they held the lead for most of the first half.  Kentucky made a small run before the intermission to hold a 2 point edge.  Still the Terriers had to feel good about where they stood.  Their best player, Fletcher Magee, had missed every 3-pointer he took in the first half and he was the all-time NCAA leader in 3-pointers made.  Their big man, Cameron Jackson, also sat out much of the first half due to foul trouble.  Kentucky should have been way ahead, yet they were only up by a deuce.  The game continued to be tight for the 1st 5 minutes of the second half, but a quick 8-0 spurt by the Wildcats left Wofford looking deflated.  This was probably the moment when Kentucky's athleticism was going to prove to be too much.  But the Terriers were a gritty bunch.  They would not let the Wildcats pull away.  In fact, they grinded away, pulling within 2 again with about 40 seconds to play.  Rather than foul, they decided to rely on their defense for a stop.  It looked like they might have done that, but a whistle came in on a missed shot by Kentucky with 18 seconds to go.  Replays showed it was a very borderline call.  The Wildcats took advantage of the opportunity, knocking down two free throws to extend their lead to 4.  Fittingly, the Terriers last stand would come on Fletcher Magee's 12th consecutive missed 3-pointer.  The NCAA record holder picked the wrong day to go ice cold.  Kentucky would hold off their scrappy challenger, moving on to the Sweet 16 after a 6 point victory.

As for the other 6 games...well...you didn't miss much:

• Florida was only down by 4 at halftime against Michigan, but they never got closer than that as the Wolverines went on to win by 15.
• Florida State let Ja Morant get his, but they put the clamps on his teammates.  The Seminoles extinguished Murray State's hopes of being a Cinderella, winning by 28.
• Gonzaga led by 16 at halftime and held Baylor at bay while winning by a comfortable 12 point margin.
• Michigan State showed no mercy to fellow Big 10 member Minnesota, romping by 20.
• Purdue left no doubt that there would be a new champion this year, leading Villanova by as many as 35 before taking their foot off the gas and only winning by 26.
• 26 was the margin at halftime of the Auburn-Kansas game as the Tigers were hitting everything against the Jayhawks.  Kansas found their scoring touch in the second half, but it wasn't enough as Auburn would coast to a 14 point victory.

On to the standings, where the Safety School standings didn't change much and the Pay For Play standings remained fairly bunched:

Safety School:

1. Fred Alcaro - 55 points
2. Alex Peerenboom - 49 points
3. Aiden Schweitzer - 48 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. James Dematteo - 50 points
2. Nate Heffner - 49 points
3. Aiden Schweitzer and Chris Belden - 46 points

For full standings, click here.

That's it for now.  Enjoy the last games of the weekend as the Sweet 16's final spots are determined!

March Madness 2019 - Day 2

Day 1 only provided us with a few upsets.  Minnesota and Florida were teams from major conferences who weren't huge underdogs in winning 7-10 games, but Murray State was definitely a surprise.  Other than that, things went as you might expect.  Would Day 2 provide us with the level of Madness we've come to know and love?

We'd start with another 7-10 matchup as Cincinnati, fresh off winning the American conference tournament, was taking an Iowa team that began the season hot, but stumbled down the stretch.  The Hawkeyes did just enough to get into the tournament and they were looking to take advantage of the new opportunity they had been given.  For most of the game, it looked like the Bearcats were the superior team.  Despite never building a huge lead over Iowa, Cincy maintained a small lead on the Hawkeyes for the first 28 minutes of action.  But a 13-5 run turned things around for Iowa and suddenly we had a nail-biter on our hands.  The two teams traded the lead back and forth before the Hawkeyes put together one last 12-5 run in the closing minutes.  The Big 10 remained dominant in this year's tournament as Iowa moves on to round 2.

That game was followed by two blowouts (Texas Tech by 15 and Oklahoma by 23), but we'd have our first upset alert in the last game of the early afternoon session.  Kansas State won a share of the Big 12 regular season title, but they had a formidable for facing them in round 1.  The Anteaters from UC Irvine had 30 wins on the season, including 16 in a row coming into the tourney.  There weren't many teams who came in as hot as them.  Kansas State tried to hit them with a knockout blow early, jumping out to a 10 point lead in the first half.  But UC Irvine held steady and by halftime, they were even with the Wildcats.  Kansas State was able to get ahead by 5 in the second half, but the Anteaters caught fire, going on a 15-2 run to take control of the game.  The Wildcats were able to close within a bucket a few times late, but that was the best they could do.  UC Irvine would be the first #13 seed to advance to round two with a 6 point win over Kansas State.

UMBC was the first #16 seed to ever defeat a top seed when they took down Virginia last year.  The Cavs were a #1 seed again this year and most believed that they would use last year's humiliation as inspiration to clobber their 16th-seeded opponent this year, Gardner Webb.  Or history could repeat itself.  It certainly looked that way when the unheralded Bulldogs jumped out to a 10 point lead late in the 1st half.  Virginia trimmed the lead to 6 by halftime, but everyone watching had to wonder whether the pressure would be too much for them yet again.  The Cavs turned to what they do best in the second half, playing suffocating defense.  Gardner Webb only managed 5 points in the first 10 minutes after intermission and by that point, Virginia had the game in hand.  The Cavs would cruise from there to a 15 point victory.

Another highly touted team dressed in orange also encountered some unexpected trouble in round 1.  Tennessee was the #1 team in the nation for a portion of the season, so you wouldn't think Colgate would pose much of a problem, especially when they lost their top scorer and rebounder to an eye injury in the first half.  But wacky things happen in March and the Vols found themselves down 2 with 11 minutes to play.  Michigan State fought off a feisty 15 seed on Thursday, could Tennessee do the same?  They could.  The Vols simply had too much firepower late for a valiant Colgate squad.  Tennessee would move on after a 7 point win.

Arizona State did not look good on Wednesday night, but luckily for them, St. John's looked even worse.  They were not as fortunate on Friday as they got pummeled by Buffalo.  That left Wisconsin and Oregon as the final game of the afternoon.  Who would win?  The Big 10 was undefeated so far in the tournament, so 1 vote Wisconsin.  Oregon started the season 15-12, but they were a completely different squad down the stretch, winning 8 in a row, capped off by a 20 point victory in the Pac 12 Championship game.  1 vote Oregon.  We have a tie!  No really, after 20 minutes of basketball, we had a tie, each team putting up 25 points before the break.  In the second half, one team asserted themselves and that team has a Duck for a mascot.  While there wasn't much scoring in the first half, Oregon went wild in the final 20 minutes, scoring 47 points.  That was 18 more than Wisconsin could muster as the Big 10 suffered their first defeat of the tournament.  Another 12 seed would be moving on to round 2.

Only one game in the early evening session worth noting.  Washington beat Utah State by 17.  Houston beat Georgia State by 29.  And even though North Dakota State led for most of the first half against Duke (see, it's not just a Virginia thing!), the Blue Devils would eventually prevail by 23.  It would be the final 5-12 matchup of round 1 that would provide some excitement.  Mississippi State was the 5 seed, but they couldn't shake 12 seed Liberty.  This game was super tight for 30 minutes.  That's what made the Bulldogs 10-0 run look like a game breaker.  The Flames were forced to call a timeout to halt Mississippi State's momentum.  Right when it looked as though Liberty might be headed home, Caleb Homesley took over.  He was fouled on a three-pointer and then sank all three free throws.  He followed that with two threes and a dunk, and suddenly Liberty had reclaimed the lead from the favored Bulldogs.  It became a free throw shooting contest in the final minute and 8 out of 10 would prove to be good enough for the Flames.  Liberty would get their 1st tournament win ever, taking out Mississippi State.

The last set of games were eerily likes the set that preceded them.  Was there a 9 seed blowing out an 8 seed?  UCF checked that box with a 15 point win over VCU.  Was there a game where the last 15 minutes were never in doubt?  Virginia Tech checked that box with a 14 point victory over Saint Louis that was much more of a rout than the final score indicated.  Was there a 1 seed from the ACC asleep at the wheel in the first half?  UNC trailed Iona by 5 at the break, but they woke up in the second half, pulling away to win by 15.  The final game of round one would be Iowa State and Ohio State.  Iowa State won the Big 12 conference tournament, while Ohio State snagged one of the final at-large bids in the field.  This was another one of those games that was tight, but every time you looked at the scoreboard, it seemed that one team always held a small lead.  The Cyclones were able to grab a one point lead here and there, but Ohio State held the advantage for most of this game.  The Buckeyes were up three late and had a chance to put the game away on the free throw line, but they missed the front end of a 1-and-1.  That gave Iowa State a final chance to send the game to overtime. The Cyclones got a clean look at a tying three, but the shot was off.  Another Big 10 team heads to round two as Ohio State will face Houston for a spot in the Sweet 16.

Quick round 1 recap:

• #1 seeds in first-half trouble: 3
• #4 seeds eliminated: 1
• #5 seeds eliminated: 3 (although Auburn tried to make it 4)
• #6 seeds eliminated: 1
• #7 seeds eliminated: 3
• #8 seeds eliminated: 4 (which is why you never get bonus points for a 9 beating an 8)

On to the standings, where a long time participant had a very good day to take control of the Safety School pool.  Fred Alcaro selected Iowa, Liberty, Oregon, and UC Irvine to win and he was rewarded handsomely, taking an 8 point lead on the field.  Things are tighter in the other pool, but once again a long time participant has ascended to the top spot with Nate Heffner leading by 2.  Here are your leaders after round one:

Safety School:

1. Fred - 45 points
2. Alex Peerenboom - 37 points
3. Mark Grimes and Will Peerenboom - 36 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Nate Heffner - 39 points
2. Dwight Crowley - 37 points
3. James Dematteo - 36 points

For full standings, click here.

We're down to 32!  (Ok, we're down to 24, but the Day 3 recap still needs to be written up.)  Check in tomorrow to see how the first 8 games of the weekend affected the standings.

March Madness 2019 - Day 1

The brackets have been entered in the spreadsheet, so the fun can officially begin!  At the bottom of this post, you'll find a link to the master spreadsheet that shows you where you stand at the end of each day.

Time for the Day 1 recap!  It's only fitting that the Madness began with an upset as Minnesota took down Louisville in a 7-10 matchup.  The Golden Gophers hit a three right before the half to increase their lead to 5.  Even though both teams went to the locker room for intermission, that shot would provide momentum for Minnesota during the first 10 minutes of the second half, as their lead would balloon to 19 points.  The final margin would be 10 as the Cardinals became the first team to pack their bags.  Yale tried to top that upset by taking down 3rd-seeded LSU, but they missed 29 three-pointers.  A few of those would have come in handy as they stayed close despite being awful from long range.  But it would be the Tigers moving on after a 5 point victory.

The zaniest game of the day was up next.  Auburn seemed to have their game in hand against New Mexico State, up 7 with less than a minute to go and headed to the free throw line.  Then they missed the front end of a 1-and-1, gave up a layup, turned the ball over, and fouled immediately.  You would have thought they were behind.  The Aggies made 1 out of 2 to trim the lead to 4.  Another Tigers turnover led to a made 3 and suddenly it was a 1 point game.  The free throw game began from there and Auburn made 4 from the line with 1 from New Mexico State sandwiched in between.  The Tigers were up 4 with 12 seconds left.  Safe again, right?  Not remotely.  The Aggies came down and hit a 3 to draw within a single point again.  Auburn only made 1 of 2, so New Mexico State had six seconds to get a final shot to tie (or win!).  Their guard drove the lane and had a wide open layup, but he opted to throw the ball to his teammate on the wing for a game-winning shot.  He didn't make it, but he was fouled on the play.  If New Mexico State could drain these three free throws, they were moving on.  Missed the first, made the second, missed the third.  But Auburn knocked it out of bounds with 1 second left.  The Aggies somehow got a player open in the corner and he had a wide open 3 for the win, but he threw up an airball.  Auburn did everything they could in the final minute to lose, but somehow they advanced.  A short time later, they were joined in round 2 by Florida State, who overcame an early deficit to overwhelm Vermont.

The next two games featured huge upset bids that came up short in the end.  Michigan State has already suffered the indignity of losing in the first round as a 2 seed and they found themselves down at the half to Missouri Valley champ Bradley.  The Spartans still hadn't erased that 1 point deficit with 7 minutes remaining and it looked like history might repeat itself.  But the Braves couldn't hold on as Michigan State ended the game on a 22-10 run to ensure an all Big 10 matchup with Minnesota in round two.  Speaking of the Big 10, Maryland had their hands full with Belmont, fresh off their win in the First Four on Tuesday night.  The Bruins held a 6 point lead at the half, but it was back and forth for most of the final 20 minutes.  The Terps led by 1 in the waning seconds, but Belmont possessed the ball.  They tried to hit a back door cut to their star Dylan Windler, who had already scored 35 points in the game.  The pass was deflected though and when Maryland grabbed the ball with 2 seconds left, it was going to take a miracle for Belmont to move on.  The Terps hit the first free throw and missed the second, but Windler couldn't hit from beyond half court at the buzzer.  A strong day for the Big 10 continued as Maryland moves on.

The Kansas-Northeastern game was not must see TV (the Jayhawks won by 34), but the Marquette-Murray State battle sure was.  Marquette was the 6 seed, coming into the tournament as the regular season runner-up in the Big East.  You might be more familiar with them than Murray State, but there is one special player on the Racers roster that you will definitely know after today if you hadn't heard of him already.  Ja Morant may not be the imposing physical specimen that Zion Williamson is, but there is no one in college basketball who plays the same game he does.  Right from the start, it seemed like Marquette was the underdog as Morant was clearly the best player on the court.  Dazzling passes, a pure shot, and he even crashed the boards.  Early on in the second half, he had the highlight of the tournament so far.  His teammate hit him with a pass as he cut to the hoop.  Between Ja and the bucket was a very tall Golden Eagle.  Ja rose up and dunked over the big man like he wasn't even there.  Nas-tee.  With just under 5 minutes left in the game and the outcome no longer in doubt, Morant grabbed a rebound to finish off a rare triple-double in an NCAA Tournament game.  He finished with 17 points (on 9 shots!), 11 rebounds, and 16 assists.  He completely dominated the game and the Racers pulled off the 12-5 upset with a 19 point victory.

The evening games started out with a couple of blowouts (Gonzaga by 38, Kentucky by 35), but there were also two interesting games with teams that did well in last year's tournament.  Nevada was a 7 seed for the second year in a row, but that was fine by them.  In the 2018 tournament, they made it to the Sweet 16, where they came up 1 point short in their quest for the regional finals.  Most of the players from that squad returned this year and, as a result, the Wolf Pack found themselves ranked in the Top 10 for most of 2019.  They started to lose their swagger towards the end of the year, which is why they were ranked so low.  You could see that this was no longer that Top 10 for most of their game vs Florida, as the Gators opened up a 17 point margin with 11 minutes to go.  Nevada would find their pride though and with 2 minutes to play, they were only down a bucket.  Try as they might, they couldn't get over the hump and reclaim the lead.  In fact, they wouldn't score at all in the last 2 minutes, falling to Florida by a score of 70-61.

The other team featured in the early evening block did slightly better than Nevada last year.  Villanova crushed everyone they faced in last year's tourney, cutting down the nets for the 2nd time in 3 years.  It's been much more of a struggle this year.  They lost to Furman.  They lost to Penn.  Late in the season, they lost 4 out of 5 games.  But they found a way to end up both regular season and conference tournament champs of the Big East.  That only got them a 6 seed though, so they will have a much tougher road to the title this year.  Their first test was against St. Mary's, who got in the tournament after shutting down high-powered Gonzaga in the WCC championship.  This would not be the prettiest game to watch.  It was low-scoring and neither team could put together much of a run.  But the Wildcats kept the Gaels at bay for most of the second half, consistently holding an 8 point lead for much of the final 20 minutes.  St. Mary's would trim it to 4 late, but that's as close as they would get.  The champs are still alive as Villanova moves on.

The late evening session followed the same format as the early evening session, with two winners (Michigan and Purdue) never having to break much of a sweat.  Like Villanova, Syracuse is another dangerous tournament team as no one ever seems to know how to handle their zone defense even though they play the same defense every game, every season.  Is there no film of Syracuse anywhere?  I've never understood why this is so confusing to their opponents.  It wasn't all that confusing to Baylor.  They knew how important it was to hit 3-pointers against the 2-3 zone and they were very efficient from downtown.  The Bears hit 16 of 34 from beyond the arc.  The Orange never backed down despite Baylor's long range barrage, but Syracuse didn't have enough firepower to hang with the Bears late.  There would be no deep run for the Orange in 2019 after a 9 point loss to Baylor in round one.

There were several nominees for game of the afternoon, but the game of the night pitted Wofford against Seton Hall.  You might not know the Terriers very well or the conference they come from (the Southern Conference), but that league was very solid this year.  Remember how Villanova lost to a team called Furman?  They're from the Southern Conference.  If it wasn't for some conference tournament upsets, UNC Greensboro (from the Southern Conference) would have gotten an at-large bid.  Instead, they're a #1 seed in the NIT.  Despite the depth of that conference, Wofford went 18-0 in league play and won the conference tournament.  They were ranked 19th in the country before the tournament.  Yet they were given a 7 seed because mid-majors continue to get no respect.  That respect has to be earned by beating teams like Seton Hall.  The Pirates lost the Big East Championship game by 2 to Villanova and were getting better as the season went along.  This game would be a shootout.  Wofford's Fletcher Magee has some Steph Curry in him, willing to shoot from just about anywhere without even being fully set.  That is how he's made 509 three-pointers in his career, an NCAA record.  The Terriers were hot early, leading to a 10 point halftime advantage.  In the second half, Seton Hall's Myles Powell showed he was no slouch with the rock.  He took the game over after the intermission, single-handedly bringing the Pirates back into the game.  It was 67-66 with just over 4 minutes left when Wofford kicked it into another gear.  Before Seton Hall knew what hit them, the Terriers had scored 17 in a row and the outcome had been decided.  After a 16-point victory over one of the Big East's best, Wofford will continue their quest for respect on Saturday afternoon when they meet Kentucky.

That wraps up Day 1.  In terms of the pool standings, we have mirror images in the two pools, as the 1-2-3 players sit with 20 points, 19 points, and 18 points, respectively.  Here are the top three:

Safety School:

1. Mark Grimes - 20 points
2. John Baxindine - 19 points
3. Paulie - 18 points

Paid For My Kids SATs:

1. Belden - 20 points
2. Chubbs - 19 points
3. John Falco - 18 points

Not in the top 3?  Well you can see where you stand after Day 1 by clicking here.

Day 2 is nearly complete.  There will be an update available early tomorrow afternoon.  Till then, get some sleep!