SAN DIEGO -- The NCAA tournament has a new darling after one of the most improbable finishes in the NCAA tournaments long bracket-busting history. Got Jacks? Pulling off a comeback for the ages, feisty Stephen F. Austin became the latest No. 12 seed to pull off an upset, tying the game on Desmond Haymons did-that-just-happen four-point play with 3.6 seconds left, and then holding on in overtime for a 77-75 win over Virginia Commonwealth on Friday night. "Well, miracles truly do happen," SFA coach Brad Underwood said. Pretty regularly these days. Its been a wild ride in the NCAA tournament already, a two-day run filled with upsets, buzzer-beaters and millions of crumpled brackets across the country. SFAs victory marked the fifth overtime game during the round of 64, a tournament record. SFA didnt have the biggest upset of the opening two rounds -- Mercer probably gets the nod there with its win over Duke -- but the Lumberjacks certainly had the most jaw-dropping finish. Heres how it went down: The South Regions No. 5 seed, VCU (23-10) was firmly in control after its swarming defence flustered SFA during a big second-half run. The scrappy Lumberjacks (32-2) kept hanging around and clawed their way back in the closing seconds. Two missed free throws by VCUs Jordan Burgess with 10 seconds left gave SFA a chance. The Lumberjacks worked the ball around to the wing, where Haymon launched a 3-pointer and was fouled by JeQuan Lewis just before the ball fell through the basket. "I just tried to get out and contest it," Lewis said. "(I) jumped to the side a little bit and kind of fell into him. The ref called a foul." Haymon still had some work to do, though. The crowd still buzzing, VCU coach Shaka Smart called a timeout, trying to ice Haymon. The senior didnt seem to mind, returning to the court to calmly knock the free throw down. "I was struggling shooting the ball and I knew to get it going, I was going to have to continue to try to find it (his touch)," Haymon said. "I guess I found that groove with the last shot." The tension still wasnt over. Following a missed desperation heave at the end of regulation, Haymon put the Jacks ahead in overtime on a 3-pointer with 2 minutes left. VCUs turn at glory came after SFAs Thomas Walkup made 1 of 2 free throws put the Lumberjacks up 2 with 14 seconds left. The Rams got a good look on the final possession, working the ball around to Lewis for an open 3-pointer on the wing. His shot went long, the Lumberjacks grabbed the rebound, then stormed the floor after improbably extending the nations second-longest winning streak to 29 games. Jacob Parker scored 22 points and Haymon had 17 for SFA, which moves into Sundays third-round game against the Tulsa-UCLA winner. Treveon Graham had 19 points, Burgess 14 and Lewis finished with 13 for the disappointed Rams, the third No. 5 seed to lose this tournament. "Honestly, I thought we had it," Burgess said. "We had them on the ropes, but they came back and made some tough shots and important shots to win the game." Every year, the NCAA tournament has a feel-good team fans lock onto, like Florida Gulf Coast and Dunk City last year. SFA certainly had qualifications to be this years darling: A fun-loving group of players led by a long-haired shooter they call Sunshine, a frenetic style -- at least when it comes to half-court defence -- and the nations second-longest winning streak at 29. But for Lumberjacks to become the latest lovable lower seed, they had to get past VCU, a team that had been-there, done-that with the whole underdog thing. The Rams had a magical run of their own, reaching the 2011 Final Four, and have been consistent winners since, reaching the NCAA tournament four straight years. Oh, yeah, VCU has that defence, too. Its called Havoc and it has created more turnovers and steals than any other team in the country the past two seasons. SFA plays a little D of its own -- more of the half-court variety than the Rams -- so naturally tipped passes, floor burns and scraps for loose balls filled the arena when they met on the court for the first time. The Lumberjacks picked their way through the havoc with pinpoint passing on backdoor cuts and the interior, taking a six-point lead into halftime on Parkers last-second 3-pointer. VCU made the game more chaotic -- Havotic? -- with its pressure to start the second half and started working the ball inside, racing through an 11-0 run to go up 52-43. The Rams stayed in control most of the half, but missed four free throws in the final 32 seconds to give the Lumberjacks a shot at victory. "I like the way we battled the majority of the second half, but we just didnt finish the game," Smart said. "We kind of gave them a glimmer of hope." The Jacks ran with it, earning their spot in NCAA tournament history with one improbable shot. Air Max Wholesale Uk . In five games last month, Billings led all scorers with 11 goals, 27 assists and 38 points as the Rock posted a 2-3 record. Air Max 90 Replica Uk . It was the start of one nice night for the goalie and the Minnesota Wild. Backstrom made 33 saves in his first win of the season and the Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Saturday in a rematch of their first-round playoff series. http://www.fakeairmaxukoutlet.com/best-m...s-cheap-uk.html. "Win basketball games," Collins said. He will get at least a few more chances. Collins played the final minutes of a winning home debut with the Brooklyn Nets, who cooled off the Chicago Bulls with a 96-80 victory Monday night. Cheap Air Max 95 Wholesale Uk . Louis, MO (SportsNetwork. Fake Air Max 97 For Sale . In sunny and almost windless conditions, the Swede shot four consecutive birdies on the front nine on his way to a 68 and went 9 under for a one-shot lead over Englands Lee Slattery and two over Paraguays Farbrizio Zanotti (68).It is not uncommon, when debating the merits of players or teams, that a hockey blogger might hear the cliched refrain that they need to "Watch the games!" Well, there is a one-man task force who, with spreadsheets open, has undertaken a project in which he is aiming to watch every single game of the 2013-2014 NHL season. Every. Single. Game. Thats 1,230 in total to cover the regular season. The man is Corey Sznajder, a soft-spoken 23-year-old Salisbury University grad who lives in Annapolis, Maryland and has been charting zone entries and zone exits throughout the NHL. "I love big projects," he said. No kidding. At the 2013 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I met Eric Tulsky, who presented research on the value of controlled zone entries (short answer: about twice as valuable to enter with control of the puck rather than dumping it in) and Sznajder had charted a couple hundred games that were included in that study. Sznajder said that he had seen Tulsky writing about zone entries on the Broadstreet Hockey blog and, during the NHL lockout in 2012-2013, Sznajder started charting games. Watching the games when no new ones were even being played. Born in Virginia and living in Maryland, Sznajder grew up around the Washington Capitals, but his hockey interests gravitated further south and his analysis has been focused on the Carolina Hurricanes, writing at Shutdown Line, a Hurricanes blog, where he goes in-depth in his analysis. This project is a deeper dive, however. What is Sznajder charting? Whether a team enters the zone under control of the puck or if it is dumped in and that is done for approximately 150 even-strength zone entries per game. As Sznajder says, "There is also an X category, for broken plays, like a puck deflecting off a player in the neutral zone that suddenly turns into a scoring chance." Thats a very small percentage, but Sznajder admits they drive him crazy. These micro events are valuable to interpreting strengths and weaknesses of players. Who is gaining the zone under control? Who is driving puck possession? This is how to find out, with measured results. Theres another aspect to the work that Sznajder is doing that may be even more intriguing to me and that is something that he adopted part-way through the project, tracking which defencemen were targeted, and how they fared, for attempted zone entries. The expectation from people involved in advanced stats, is that Sznajders work would help uncover some mysteries of the game, that it might help indicate why a player has excellent possession numbers and he has shared some partial-season data to whet the appetite and let online analysts dig into it a bit because, as Sznajder admits, he hasnt had the time to do deep analysis while tracking all these games. While he may not have been able to dig deep, Sznajder has seen a ton of hockey -- more than 800 games so far. When pressed a little, he shares a few insights that hes picked up. One of the surprises he has found is that there is a team that is a great possession team, the San Jose Sharks, that isnt particularly strong in the neutral zone. Thats somewhat unexpected. With the understanding that carrying the puck in carries more puck possession value than dumping the puck in, it also seems a little incongruous to have a team like the Los Angeles Kings -- no strangers to dumping and chasing the puck -- as the leagues best puck possession team, to say nothing of Stanley Cup champs. As Sznajder noted, though, "The Kings make it nearly impossible (for the opposition) to enter the zone under control." This is precisely why Im interested to see the individual defence data. The player that closes the defensive gap in the neutral zone better than others can drive possession numbers, yet might not get a whole lot of acclaim for that skill. Conversely, there may be players getting recognition (and big contracts) yet have trouble defending at their blueline. "Its really hard to carry the puck in on a regular basis," Sznajder said. "Virtually every team traps in the neutral zone. Maybe five or six teams have a carry-in rate over 50%, but good teams dump where they can retrieve it and the retrieving player has options." When asked about any specific players that might have exceeded his expectations from when he began the project, Sznajder didnt hesitate. "Tyler Seguin is incredible when it comes to making plays at the blueline, especially when it comes to making passes. I was tracking a Blues-Stars game and noticed that Blues tried to stand him up at the blueline annd he managed to dodge the pressure, and get it to (Jamie) Benn a couple of times to create scoring chances.dddddddddddd" I shared a story with Corey from the night before meeting Tulsky at the 2013 Sloan Conference about how I watched the Bruins game (vs. Ottawa) that night with a real focus on who was entering the zone with control -- knowing this data can change how one watches a game -- and said that I came away even more impressed with Patrice Bergeron than I was already. He drove everything that the Bruins were doing in that particular game. Sznajder picked right up and noted that Bergeron is a zone-entry ace that, when tracking zone entries in the 2013 playoffs, "Bergeron was incredible, especially in the Cup Final." Said Sznajder, "The Bruins dont get much credit for their skill -- its always about their toughness -- but Bergeron and Brad Marchand are two of the better players at generating zone entries under control. They have such a reputation as a defensive line, but the puck is never in their zone." This is a daunting task that Sznajder has undertaken though. When asked about whether he would get help to do it in the future, he responded, "I want to, but want to keep it consistent." Speaking of the future, now that hes found his groove, Sznajder does expect to keep doing this data project moving forward, with some new wrinkles, including full-season entry defence, dump-in and retrieval stats, scoring chances and how those chances are created. Hes also looking at power play tendencies, how shot attempts are created and setup locations, but acknowledges that tracking puck movement on such a large scale can be difficult. That might be one for digital tracking technology to handle in the not-too-distant future. This stuff is gold. Measurable data on team tendencies can be used to further inform (ie. in addition to) team tactics that are already being covered by video and advance scouting. Knowing which players are driving the bus, and which ones are passengers, will help for roster construction. In the summer of hockey analytics, with more and more hires joining NHL front offices, Sznajder will worry about any potential opportunities that may come later. "A couple teams have been in contact to find out more about what Im doing," he said. "But Im trying not to think about that so much. I have a commitment to get this project done." As someone who watches a ton of games, Sznajder has naturally heard a lot of announcing teams. His favourites? "Im a big homer on that. Fox Sports Carolinas John Forslund. I like both TSN crews. Im not sucking up to TSN either. Cuthbert, Miller, Ferraro especially, Mike Johnson are all good." When taking on this mountain of games, Sznajder has also had some fun tracking other parts of the game, including Pierre McGuire name-drops and arena music. Its one way to break up the tediousness of the chore. It may be lots of fun to watch hockey but, still, its a lot of games. When everything is running smoothly, Sznajder can get through a game in about 90 minutes and a standard day means completing six games. Thats nine hours of game-charting, so Sznajder has been treating this project like a full-time job. "The donation site certainly helped so that I could do it on a full-time basis. For a while I was doing it secretly, doing Hurricanes and Canucks games. Then something came up in late January and, once I got that squared away, I started tracking the whole league." When word got out about Sznajder taking on this challenge, the online hockey community started suggesting he use some crowd funding. "Im pretty humbled by the response to the fund raising page," Sznajder said. Its an indication how hungry people are for the data hes tracking. "Im hoping to have them ready by the time the season starts," Sznajder said. "I wanted to be done by now, but tracking over 1000 games in six months is a grueling task. Its more work than I thought." However, asked if he has any regrets about what hes doing, Sznajder isnt going to complain. "Not really. I enjoy watching hockey a lot and learning about the game and Im learning more things every day. Its been a pretty fun ride so far." If youd like to help fund Coreys efforts, and have access to full data when the project is completed, click here. He can followed on Twitter here. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. 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