The second half of the sweet sixteen brought 4 good games, 2 of which were tight to the buzzer. Duke, well known for falling to the Jason Kidd (he of the ‘pretzel shot’ heard round the world) led Golden Bears of California in 1992, held on to beat St. Johns 80-75, while the UConn Huskies were in a dog fight with Michigan State, eking out a 4 point win. The other two games were relative blowout affairs with margins of victory of 13 and 14 points.
8 teams remain in contention for the NCAA tournament crown, but more importantly 65 pool entries are still in the mix. Left active in the tournament are 3 number 1 seeds, two number 2 seeds, a #3 seed and Iowarella, a number 9 seed. With only one team seeded higher than 8 it’s not surprising to see so many entries still in the mix, but there are only 24 of those with a chance of winning it all. 3 entries (Shizcity (currently 5th), Sold my soul to the Blue Devils (currently 1st), and IGotThis (currently 2nd)) look strong, each winning it all in roughly 15% of the remaining outcomes.
While you are perusing the reports we remind you that as long as you don’t have a dreaded * as your rank in the standings you are still in the running for finishing in the money. With more exciting basketball to come, including the return of the Boilermakers of Purdue, we are happy to report that our pool leadership team has largely regained their composure and are well positioned to lose it again tomorrow at / around 5:49 PM PDT.