NCAA Tournament 2000 - Helgeson gets high-fives ... and proposals

Helgeson gets high-fives ... and proposals
Associated Press

ATLANTA -- Here's what Kristin Helgeson gets for predicting the Final Four field: high-fives from women for one-upping the guys and marriage proposals from men who love basketball.

The Atlanta graphics designer, 29, was the only person out of 590,000 to predict each of the Final Four teams in a contest by ESPN.com. She says she's not a huge sports fan and prefers football and hockey to basketball.

When the Web site identified her as the sole winner -- and posted a link to her e-mail address -- Helgeson received hundreds of messages. Some wanted help picking stocks or lottery numbers. One said, "You're a goddess."

"There were a few where the subject says, 'Will you marry me?' Some ask for a picture. ... A few women have written: `Who says women don't know anything about basketball? You show em! Way to go, girl!"' Helgeson said.

The contest winner gets a trip for two to next year's women's Final Four in St. Louis.

Helgeson entered the contest because five guys in her office were doing it. She rushed through her picks before leaving the country for two weeks. She didn't watch any tournament games until Saturday.

Helgeson says, "Mostly, people are just curious: `It's killing me. How did you do it?' "

She picked Florida because she's an alumna. Wisconsin was where her father went to school. She has a friend who went to North Carolina. She picked Michigan State out of sympathy, after watching them play Florida in the Citrus Bowl. The Spartans won 37-34.

"I thought we were bad sports against them," she said.


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