Six contestants are still alive in the 15th annual Living Room Times women’s NCAA pool heading into the Final Four — a new LRT record for any pool, I believe, and just two shy of the theoretical maximum (barring ties) of eight — as all four #1 seeds have advanced to Denver, creating a wide variety of outcomes for a pool field whose picks vary substantially from this point forward.
Currently, Bethel College ’03 and Indiana ’10 alum Randy Styles of South Bend, IN has the lead. But he will win the pool only if UConn upsets hometown team Notre Dame and its South Bend-born star, Skylar Diggins, and plays Baylor in the title game. If that happens, it won’t matter if the Huskies win or lose against Baylor; Styles would clinch on Sunday. (He is the only contestant who can potentially clinch before the title game.) Other scenarios:
• If ND wins the championship (regardless of whether it’s over Baylor or over Stanford), Joe Hiegel of Greenfield, WI will win the pool.
• If Baylor beats ND in the title game, 2009 women’s pool champ Michael Holtsberg of Broomall, PA will win again.
• If Stanford beats ND in the title game, Amy Booth of San Diego, CA will win.
• If Stanford beats UConn in the title game, Yvette Webster of Round Hill, VA will win. Webster is also in contention for the men’s pool championship heading into the Final Four; she’ll win that pool if Louisville plays Kansas in the title game.
• Lastly, if UConn beats Stanford in the title game, Gary Kirby (gahrie) of San Bernardino, CA will win.
Meanwhile, in the 8th annual Living Room Times NIT pool, Stanford’s win over UMass last night in the semifinals kept USC & Stanford alum (and current Michigan State Ph.D. student) Mike Wiser alive, while Washington’s overtime loss to Minnesota eliminated previous leader Tommy Lemoine and elevated UConn senior (and Newington High alum) Daniel Dinunzio into first place.
Dinunzio will win the pool if Minnesota beats Stanford. Wiser will win if Stanford wins.
If Wiser wins, it would be his first-ever victory in an LRT basketball pool, after being a regular contestant for more than a decade. If Dinunzio wins, it would be the first win for someone from Newington, CT, where the pools originated 16 years ago, since Todd Stigliano won the women’s NCAA pool in 2005.