| Walk a mile in Pitino's shoes, tough guy. |
| The Great American March Madness NCAA Basketball Pool |
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| Wow. What a weekend. |
| 6:07 pm 8:37 pm |
| (4) Louisville vs (1) Illinois (5) Michigan St vs (1) UNC |
| Typically, it's the beginning of the tournament that folks find to be the most exciting aspect of March Madness, with the wall to wall upsets, etc., but I don't think I've ever seen a more exciting weekend of basketball than this past one. Beginning Friday night with the so-called "traveling call" against Villanova (which I stayed up til 12:30 AM to see by the way!), to two of the most dramatic comebacks in recent tourney history on Saturday, to North Carolina struggling to survive against Wisconsin, to Michigan State's double OT victory over Kentucky � there were so many shocking thrills it made a day in Jack Bauer's life seem like a walk in the park. |
| Saturday which featured epic OT wins by Louisville and Illinois, both of which followed some of the most improbable comebacks I've seen in a long time, may stand as the single greatest day in NCAA history. It was a day for the ages. Louisville clawed their way back to overcome a 20 point deficit against a West Virginia team that made more "3's" than a Dale Earnhardt souvenir stand. The Cardinals then poured it on in the extra session to pull away despite losing star point guard Francisco Garcia. Rick Pitino now sets a record by taking his 3rd school to the Final Four. |
| And then when you thought that game couldn't possibly be topped, Illinois came back from a 15 point deficit with 4 minutes to play to defeat Arizona, even trailing by as much as 8 in the final minute. What a collapse by Arizona, who couldn't shoot their way out of a paper bag for the final 5 minutes of the game. They choked worse than Chris Rock hosting an Oscar show. |
| The reign of "The Villanova traveling call" as the "Most Controversial Play Of The Tournament" only lasted for about 43 hours, because that's about how many hours had elapsed until the Austin Regional when Kentucky's Patrick Sparks MAYBE stepped on the 3 point line, while MAYBE being fouled, while hitting a basket that bounced around more times than Bobby Fischer trying to seek asylum. Props to CBS for managing to get us a big ol' blowup shot of Sparks foot that seemed to indicate he was beyond the 3 point line. Kentucky fans are still crying about no foul being called. |
| 153 - Dave "wire to wire?" Allard 146 - Sheryl "Epstein never came this close" Hemphill 143 - Brian "The whole Suth and nothing but the" Suth |
| 137 - Dave Allard 130 - Sheryl Hemphill 127 - Brian Suth |
| Illinois defeats North Carolina |
| Illinois defeats Michigan State |
| 151 - Craig Antas "ipation is making me wait" - Don "Big Blue" Legere (1) 149 - Brian "no repeat" Farrelly |
| 145 - Acclaimed author Jon Harris 140 - Keith "Partridge" Daleb 135 - Antas/Legere tiebreaker winner |
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| North Carolina defeats Illinois |
| North Carolina defeats Louisville |
| 142 - Sebastian 140 - "Standing" Pat Sinnard 136 - "Today I am still just a" Bill Corcoran |
| 126 - Sebastian 124 - Pat Sinnard 120 - Bill Corcoran |
| Louisville defeats North Carolina |
| Louisville defeats Michigan State |
| 105 - Dave Allard 98 - Sheryl Hemphill 95 - Brian Suth |
| 97 - Jon Harris 94 - Sebastian 92 - Daleb / Sinnard tiebreaker |
| Michigan State defeats Illinois |
| Michigan State defeats Louisville |
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| *SPOILER ALERT* Skip over this next section if you don't want to know the outcome of all the different championship game scenarios. I've got the individual match-ups, projected point totals, and UNOFFICIAL projected winners: |
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| AUSTIN, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! |
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| Winner determined by total pts tiebreaker |
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| Michigan State coach Tom Izzo (right) shows his frustration as officials working Sunday's Austin Regional against Kentucky huddle around the monitor to catch the latest episode of "The O.C" |
| Start times for Saturday's games are as follows: |
| Cadek, Jason Cadek, Leah Cosgrove, Judy Dennehy, Toni Fardy, Dennis Fardy, Dennis Farrelly, Sean Hemphill, Sheryl Malachi, Antonio Marquart, Andy Martin, Screamer Poliquin, Deb Poliquin, Mike Reilly, Chris Reitzel, Dave Reitzel, Matt Sebastian Smoot, Steve Watson, Heidi Wirthlin, Lauresa |
| The following folks still owe money by the way: |
| Happy 11th birthday to Lauren "L Dog" Dennehy. The Commish |
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| Just send $5, Dennis. You "won" back the other $5. |
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| The 2004 Kroger NCAA champ. Welcome to "the big time" kid. |
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| I take it back. Those "Taste Loss" commercials are the worst on TV. |
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| I know, I know ... the check is in the mail |