Would Scott Robertson — the creator of this bracket, currently in third place in my men’s pool — please contact me ASAP at bloy [at] nd.edu? I just noticed that I don’t have an e-mail address for him, I think due to a technical error when he was signing up.

An unusually predictable NCAA Tournament has created an unprecedentedly wide-open Living Room Times NCAA pool.

With just five games remaining, a record 13 contestants still have a chance to win the 12th annual men’s pool. At least four, and possibly as many as six, will still be alive heading into the Final Four. Yet no one is safe tomorrow; any of the 13, including leader A.J. St. John, could be mathematically eliminated, depending on who wins the Oregon-Florida and UNC-Georgetown games.

St. John wrested first place from Ginny Zak tonight when UCLA beat Kansas. His time at the top could be short-lived, however. If St. John’s predicted champion, North Carolina, loses to Georgetown tomorrow, he will be mathematically eliminated from winning the pool.

Zak, who had led since the second round, picked the Jayhawks as her national runner-up, so she fell to second place and saw her chances of winning the pool plummet as a result of the Bruins’ win. She’ll be eliminated if North Carolina wins tomorrow.

St. John has 326 out of a possible 382 points. Zak has 321. By way of comparison, at this point last year, the top two contestants had 301 and 289 points. The high point totals are indicative of the tournament’s overall predictability.

There’s an excellent chance that the pool champion — whoever he or she is — will break the all-time record for most points scored in a Times men’s pool (362 out of 477, set by Brian Kiolbasa in 2005). In fact, if Florida wins tomorrow, that will become guaranteed. The only way Kiolbasa’s record won’t fall is if Oregon wins the championship over someone other than Georgetown, or else loses in the Final Four to UCLA, which then proceeds to win the championship over North Carolina. The record would be merely tied if the latter scenario happens but the Bruins’ title-game victim is Ohio State instead of UNC. Otherwise, it will be broken.

Anyway, Scott Robertson is currently in third place with 319 points, followed by John McBride with 315, Sports Illustrated writer Arash Markazi with 314 and Karin Back — Kiolbasa’s girlfriend — with 311.

All of those top 6 contestants still have a chance to win the pool. Also still alive: Scott Loomer (T-8th), Eli Styles (T-8th), Michael Walsh (11th), Jon Sandlin (16th), Rick Boeckler (19th), Soren Hammerschmidt (23rd) and Ryan Dalidowitz (61st).

The number of contestants still alive is a stark contrast to last year, when just six contestants were still alive after the first day of the Elite Eight, and Mike Tran clinched the pool on the second day of the Elite Eight. (Tran was mathematically eliminated from successfully defending his pool championship this year when Memphis beat Texas A&M in the Sweet Sixteen.)

Full standings are here and after the jump. Possible outcomes — including the best possible finish for all 264 contestants — are here.

Here are the scenarios for who will be mathematically eliminated tomorrow:

(more…)

Is there anything that could possibly make USC’s choke job against North Carolina last night more painful? How about UCLA going to the Final Four less than 24 hours later? Yup, that did the trick.

Well, on the bright side, now there’s a chance the Pac-10 will send two teams to the Final Four. Becky and I will be rooting for that outcome tomorrow at the Edward Jones Dome when we watch Oregon take on Florida. Go Ducks!

Will the first “upset” of the 2007 regionals be #2 UCLA winning in San Jose over #1 Kansas? That’d be just my luck. Bruins lead by 6 with 10 minutes left.

It's a beautiful day in St. Louis, and we're at the zoo. In other news, Rutgers upset Duke in the women's tournament. They'll play ASU in the Elite Eight. And in the men's South Regional Final, Ohio State leads Memphis by 3 at halftime.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts a draft resolution to impose sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Visit CNN for the latest.

I’m far too exhausted from a long, fun, frustrating day of basketball-watching to write up a full pool update. But I just updated the standings and other associated pages. Enjoy.

P.S. Congrats to Brian Paine, John McBride, Arash Markazi, Tom Greca, P.J. Wanecski, Kurt Osterlitz and Gerry deSimas, Jr., all of whom got all of the Elite Eight teams right.

“There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures, sets its will against us.” –Aragorn

I first mentioned that quote from The Two Towers in reference to this year’s NCAA Tournament this morning, as a joke. I was talking with Becky during our drive to St. Louis about the seeming inability of any true underdog to pull off a major upset in this tournament. Watching last night’s games on TV, I said, it almost seemed like there was some evil, supernatural force oppressing the tourney, “giving speed to” the favorites and “setting its will against” the underdogs.

Well, forget “as a joke,” and forget “almost seemed.” Four more underdog heartbreakers later, I’m now absolutely convinced. The “chalk” in this tournament has become completely invincible. It doesn’t matter what the underdogs do, how well they play, how impeccable their game plans are, how seemingly insurmountable their leads get. None of it matters. Somehow, some way, the favorite will win. Such is the nature of the 2007 NCAA Tournament.

At this point, I will be absolutely shocked if all four #1 seeds don’t make the Final Four. I know it’s never happened before, but this is clearly the year. And I don’t care if, say, Memphis gets a 30-point lead on Ohio State tomorrow. Doesn’t matter. The Buckeyes will still win.

Along those lines, I actually never truly believed USC was going to win tonight. Honest. Yeah, we were celebrating in our Edward Jones Dome seats as we listened to awesome play after awesome play on the radio, and watched the Trojan lead on the out-of-town scoreboard grow to 16 points. But I had a strong feeling North Carolina was going to come back and break my heart. I learned my lesson last night, when I watched Southern Illinois, Texas A&M and (especially) Tennessee lose games they should have won, and the lesson was reinforced in today’s first two games, as Vanderbilt blew a big lead and Butler couldn’t catch a damn break and (much like SIU) lost to a better team that it had outplayed. The lesson: no underdog is safe, not this year.

It all started with Xavier. The Musketeers had Ohio State by the balls, and — thanks to the combination of a missed call, a missed free throw, and a missed strategic opportunity to foul instead of allowing the tying 3 — let them escape. That would have been the tournament’s first big upset. Instead, it was the first truly gut-wrenching case of underdog heartbreak. And I think maybe it jinxed the whole tourney.

Anyway, I’m so done with this NCAA Tournament. Yes, there have been awesome, thrilling games. But when the underdog never wins those games, it gets old. Great escapes by favored teams is always part of the tourney, but this year, especially these last two days, it’s just gotten ridiculous. Throw the underdog a freakin’ bone! Can’t at least one of ‘em win?? I realize for some people, an Elite Eight consisting of three 1-vs.-2 games and a 1-vs.-3 sounds totally ideal. Marquee matchups, showdowns between powerhouses and all that sort of thing. To which I say, humbug. I don’t care who wins Kansas vs. UCLA. I really don’t. I know they’re two legendary programs, two great teams, blah blah blah. But no, I don’t care. Sorry. USC trying to pull off its third straight upset en route to the Final Four, or Butler and Southern Illinois playing each other in Atlanta, now that would have been something. But this? This is lame. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the games will be fantastic, just as seven of the last eight have been. But an NCAA Tournament without even a single halfway-decent underdog story (that doesn’t end in soul-crushing heartbreak)? Lame.

Oh, well. 358 days until Selection Sunday 2008.

And USC joins the parade of underdogs to find an unbelievably painful way to lose after appearing to have the game won. Incredible.

USC leads North Carolina at halftime, 42-33. WOOOO! Go ‘SC! … Here, Oregon leads UNLV 37-33. Very entertaining game; lots of threes.

Listening to the USC-UNC game on the radio while watching the Oregon-UNLV game in person. Trojans lead, 15-7! And the Ducks are up 20-18.

In the audio posts below, I left my thoughts on the frustrating ending to that otherwise awesome game. In other news, Georgetown wins.

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I’m sorry but I can’t describe that any other way than the refs handed it to Florida. Can someone who watched on TV tell me if I’m nuts?