I managed to actually get almost 8 hours of sleep, so that was a nice change for the Lunatic.

I just managed to finish my ridiculously horrible handicapping that continues to get worse as I start to only bet $30 in a desperate attempt to make up some of the imaginary money that I have lost. My bets were so bad on Saturday that the Lunatic Casino’s host is starting to offer to comp me lunch in order to keep me in the sportsbook. But my bad handicapping is still available for anyone to see.

I am slowly finally getting to start to mark off payments on the registry. My goal is to have everything caught up by the end of the day – but I will likely be distracted for the next few hours.

I have my lucky Purdue T-shirt on as well as my lucky black socks. So, I am ready to go!!!! BOILER UP!!!!

Many fans have superstitions, and the Lunatic is no exception. He very typically always has a Purdue shirt on when his Boilers play. But after spending so much time trying to get rid of this superstition, it has managed to creep back into his head.

I have to start this story to mention how proud of both of my children – but for this story, my daughter Katie gets to take the stage. On Wednesday, Katie completed the drivers exam to get her drivers license. She is doing great as a driver, but any parent out there knows that with the pride of knowing that your child is growing up into adult comes the nervousness of what that also brings. But yesterday is what has brought back the Lunatic’s superstition.

This winter, Katie got the opportunity to be the student manager for the Glen Allen High School swim team. She helped the coaches with organizing and leading practices, and then of course, helped out with whatever was needed during the swim meets, whether it was making sure a swimmer was at the starting block or simply providing another person poolside cheering for the team. Last night was the swim team’s end-of-season banquet, and so Elizabeth and I got to go and beam in happiness as the coach thanked Katie for everything she did this season.

You might be thinking to yourself, that is super nice, but I am still not following why this has created a basketball superstition for the Lunatic. Well, the swim banquet went from 6 – 7:30 pm. At 6:30 pm, Purdue opened their Big 10 tournament against Northwestern, a team that I watched the Boilers struggle against just last week as they snuck out a last minute victory. After the banquet, I checked my phone to see how the Boilers were doing, and smiled as the Boilers were up at half-time 45-21.

And then the horrible thought came back into my mind. I have been watching the Boilers through February as they have had struggles. And now when I don’t watch them, they look like the incredible team that was expected to be a contender when the season started in November.

I have tried for years to get that horrible fear out of my head that my watching a game can be a jinx. And realistically, I know that can’t be true since I have seen the Boilers win more games than they have lost. I turned the game on in the second half and was lucky enough to watch Braden Smith break the Big 10 Tournament single game record as he got his 16th assist on a drive to the basket followed by a bounce pass to Oscar Cluff for a layup. Smith also moved to 2nd on the all-time list, now just 31 assists away from Bobby Hurley’s record of 1,076 assists in a college career.

So, I still got to see some of the game, and they did win by 13, but the nervousness is still there. If I knew that I could help my Boilers win a national championship by simply not watching the games, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I am also one of their biggest fans – I want to watch them and cheer them on.

So, the Lunatic doesn’t know what to do. I will probably watch them tonight at 6:30 pm as they play #11 Nebraska. But I am nervous that the best thing for me to do is find something else to do when they play.

Leaving the chaotic mind of the Lunatic and getting back to basketball, Thursday wasn’t kind to many of the bubble teams as some of the teams you hear talked about the most such as Miami(OH) and Auburn lost yesterday. But a few teams made statements to probably secure their status.

In the ACC, Clemson beat North Carolina and Miami beat Louisville. I think both teams were already in, but they probably finalized the deal by getting to the semi-finals along with Virginia and Duke (who was in a 1-point game against bubble team Florida State).

The Big 12 semi-finals today will be a huge preview of the tournament. We have #2 Arizona vs #7 Iowa State at 7 pm, and #5 Houston vs #14 Kansas at 9:30 pm. Could not ask for a better set of games!!!!!

The Big East has one of the biggest bubble games of the night as Seton Hall plays St. John’s at 5:30 pm. The nightcap features #6 UConn against Georgetown. If you are a fan of a bubble team outside of Seton Hall, you are rooting for UConn to play St. John’s one more time for the final, since it looks like both Seton Hall or Georgetown would be stealing a bid.

The favorites won in the Big 10, so we should have a great set of quarterfinal games. If there is one of these teams still on the fence, it would be Ohio State who gets the tough task of playing #3 Michigan at Noon or UCLA who gets the tough task of playing #8 Michigan State at 9 pm.

In the SEC, most of the favorites won leading to some great quarterfinals as well. But I have my attention on a surging Oklahoma team who now gets a chance to play #17 Arkansas after upsetting Texas A&M by 20 yesterday. There is also the bid-stealer Ole Miss (14-19), whose upset of Georgia yesterday has earned them a date at 7 pm with #15 Alabama.

The Mountain West always gets a few bids – but this year, it is less clear of how safe their teams are. So, if you want to stay up late to watch some teams playing with everything on the line, check them out at 9:30 pm when Utah State takes on Nevada, and midnight when San Diego State takes on New Mexico.

The Atlantic 10 also starts their games for their leaders who are still in contention for a bid – as St. Louis kicks off the action against George Washington at 11;30 am, and local VCU takes on Duquesne at 5 pm. With so many of the power conference bubble teams losing, there is certainly opportunity for the Rams and Billikens to make the tournament with a strong showing this weekend.

For the Lunatic, he needs to remind himself that turning on a television (or watching on his phone) can not impact whether or not the ball goes through the hoop for his beloved Boilermakers. For the rest of you, don’t let the Lunatic’s superstitions creep in, because if you do, you will miss so much great basketball!!!! We are fans – we need to watch the games!!!!!

Enjoy the games today!!!!

The Houston defense is relentless. The referees have put their whistles in their pockets, and so we have a rock fight!!!! The game has been physical and the teams are both playing some incredible defense.

Only 4 fouls have been called in a game that has had plenty of contact. I wouldn’t necessarily say all the contact should result to a foul – but you definitely can say that the referees are letting them play.

Houston jumped out to the early lead with about 10 minutes to play as Mylik Wilson stole the ball from Denzel Aberdeen and made the layup to give the Cougars a 16-10 lead.

But then Will Richard got hot. With 6 minutes left, he drilled a three-pointer to tie the game at 21.

Houston immediately had an answer. LJ Cryer hit a three-pointer. Ja’Vier Francis blocked a layup from Micah Handlogten. Mylik Wilson had a nice dunk off a pass from Emanuel Sharp. And then after Clayton missed a three-pointer for the Gators, Wilson hit a three-pointer to extend the lead back to 8 with 5 minutes in the half.

But Florida would keep fighting. And they got lucky that the referees had their whistles in their pockets. J’Wan Richards put up a shot in the lane and the ball hung on the rim until getting knocked to the corner by a Florida defender. After replays, it certainly looked like it should have been goaltending.

Instead, the Gators pushed the ball up the court, got the ball into Will Richard, and he drilled the three-pointer to cut the lead to 3. And that would eventually be the score that would end the half – the Cougars are up 31-28 at half-time.

Houston has 13 points off their bench as Wilson leads the Cougars with 7 points and Ja’Vier Francis has 6 points. But it is Houston’s defense that is the biggest story.

Walter Clayton Jr averages 18.5 points per game. The Cougars have him shut out – as he has gone 0-4 from the field and every one of those 4 shots has been heavily contested. Alijah Martin averages 14.6 points per game and the Cougars have held him 1-5 from the field for 2 points.

The Gators average 10.6 turnovers a game. Houston forced 9 from them in the first half. If it wasn’t for Will Richard getting hot and scoring half of the Gators points (14), this game would not be close.

The game is Houston’s pace. The game is Houston’s style. Everything favors the Cougars – but as is common in a defensive battle, it is a one-possession game.

The Cougars lead 31-28, with 20 minutes to hang on to win a national championship – should be an exciting finish to the season.

I am now wearing all 4 of my Purdue shirts in a desperate attempt to get any type of luck

Well – we just got home from dinner, and saw that Alabama was on a 22-6 run to finish the half. Alabama would obviously prefer the score of the game to be in the 80s / 90s / 100s – but at the end of the day, they still take a 35-32 lead into halftime.

Since I don’t have much knowledge of what happened. I basically saw Rylan Griffen hit a three pointer from the corner to give Alabama a 29-28 lead, and then it looks a minute later Mark Sears hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to 5.

So – since it is at half, lets talk about the rest of the day. I was stressed out about the games – and realizing that I was sitting a lot, so figured for some exercise, I would get a tee-time to go golfing.

Even in trying to get some mental and physical health, I can’t seem to do it in a sane way. Knowing that we were going to visit with Mary Kate and Kate this evening, I wanted to get an early time. So, with the reality that I am falling asleep at the end of two exciting games last night, I woke up at 6:45 am so that I could go golf. Because it makes sense when you are not getting any sleep and you finally have a day you could sleep in to get up before 7 am.

And of course, I chose to golf at Royal New Kent. I never remember breaking 100 at this course before and I was a better handicap than I am now. I realized how crazy I am as the starter really encourages us to play the white tees – instead of the black, gold or blue tees. He then mentions that the course was ranked as the 15th toughest course in the United States.

This might be the first time I have played the white tees here – it definitely made the course more playable. The Blue tees are 7440 yards, followed by Gold (7159), Black (6733) and White (6194). So, yeah – cutting almost 1000 yards off the course definitely helped make it playable.

I was playing really well – my putting was atrocious, but still shot 50 on the first 9. Then I went on a run. I got a par on 11, a par on 13 and a tap-in birdie on 14 to make a run. Even with a horrendous triple bogey / triple bogey finish, I still managed to sneak out a 96. Still a bunch of things to work on with my golf game – but it made me feel good to hit some good shots, be out on the golf course (which was beautiful except for the greens which had some patchy spots). And of course the adrenaline shots of knocking a blind approach right next to the hole definitely helped.

Well – looks like the Alabama / Clemson game has started back up. Maybe I will get a chance to enjoy some basketball tonight.

It took 10 extra minutes of basketball, but the Creighton Blue Jays finally knocked off the Oregon Ducks in a fantastic game.

In regulation, it looked like the Ducks were going to pull off the upset and join NC State as 11 seeds coming out of Pittsburgh. With about 1 1/2 minutes left, N’Faly Dante had a huge dunk to give the Ducks a 4 point lead. The score would stay that way until about 30 seconds left when Baylor Scheierman was fouled and hit both free throws to cut the lead to two.

Forced to foul, Creighton got a break that the only person that could get open was Dante, the Ducks’ worst free throw shooter. And he missed the front end of the one-and-one, giving Creighton the ball and a chance. Baylor Scheierman drove to the lane, and hit a fadeaway jumper to tie the game. Oregon would get one more chance, but Jermaine Couisnard’s shot from the corner hit the front of the rim.

In overtime, the tables were turned. This time, it would be Creighton’s big man Ryan Kalkbrenner who had the dunk to take the lead, and after a turnover, Trey Alexander hit a jumper to make it a 3 point lead. But this time, with 18 seconds left, Couisnard hit a three pointer with a defender right in his face to tie the game at 71. Alexander drove down the lane, got the ball poked away from him, but ended up with a clean look along the baseline, but he missed and the game went to double overtime.

And that was when Creighton really took over. Steven Ashworth drilled a three pointer to kick off the scoring. Kalkbrenner hit a 3 pointer. Jasen Green made a thunderous dunk off a rebound of Alexander’s miss. Ashworth and Alexander hit two free throws after getting fouled. And Alexander hit a three-pointer with 45 seconds left to end the 15-0 run and any doubt of who would be advancing. Congratulations to Creighton on their huge victory to return to the Sweet 16.

While we are at it, we should congratulate our leaders. After Saturday night’s games, the leaders at 390 points are Kennedy Urban and my son, Charlie Hodgson. Chris Franklin, both of Debbe Evans picks,, Carrie Viera, Adam Levine, Stacie Gilmore, Earl McKnight, Michael Swinson, Taylor Early, Ann Schumaker are just 10 points back in a tie for 3rd at 380 points.

Chris Franklin is leading the Upset Pool with 183 points – followed closely by Tyler Crabbe (178), Tom Forrest (177), Gus Woodburn (174) and Michael Swinson (174).

At one point after the Iowa State win, the Lunatic found himself in a tie for the lead. But to his chagrin, that was short-lived.

Well, it has been a very long day – I will have to hold off my handicapping of the Sunday games until tomorrow morning. I can hardly stay awake to type this post. I guess if I fall behind, I will pick Marquette over Colorado – but hopefully, I will get that done in the morning. Good luck to all your picks.

Well, so much for my simulator.  The only double digit seed it predicted would win was Nevada (52% chance) against Nevada, and Boise State (56% chance) against Northwestern.  With all the talented double digit seeds available (especially in the 5/12 games), the only teams it thinks can pull the upsets are from the Mountain West (including the team losing by 21 points at the moment to Arizona State – if you are wondering, if Arizona State plays TCU, TCU goes from a 48% chance to a 60% chance).  I guess one day is not enough time to build a simulator.

So, I am going to stick with what I had.  In my dream picks, I will change my final from what I said in the podcast.  It is ridiculous to think that Texas will lose a tournament game in Houston – but my dream pick would be to have to keep playing teams we already played.  So, Purdue will beat Gonzaga in the final.

In my sane picks, I keep the same final 4, but have Alabama beat Texas.  Here are links to the full set of picks.

CRAZED LUNATIC SANE

CRAZED LUNATIC DREAM

With the Kansas Jayhawk winning, Edward Zhang also came from behind – as both his entries edged out Ann Hawkins amazing picks to become the first person in Stomp the Lunatic history to win first and second place in the contest.

Ann Hawkins gets some consolation – without UNC helping Adrian Young to get an additional 48 points for an upset victory, Ann was able to hold on to win the Upset Pool.

Congratulations also goes to Kevin Busby – he did the best with his second chance, as he also correctly predicted Kansas to beat UNC in the championship.

Here is the list of all our prize winners – congratulations to all of them!!!!

STANDARD POOL

• 1) Edward Zhang – 1140 pts
• 2) Edward Zhang – 1040 pts
• 3) Ann Hawkins – 1010 pts
• 4 tie) Kevin Bostic and Tanmay Gautam – 980 pts
• 6) Kelly Woods – 960 pts
• 7 tie) Sam Brunner and Jim Sell – 930 pts
• 9 tie) Steve Manley and Laura Ahles – 910 pts
• LAST) Kristian Schmidt – 290 pts (you should not have challenged Edward and Ann)

UPSET POOL

• 1) Ann Hawkins – 306 pts
• 2) Tanmay Gautam – 293 pts
• 3) John Howarth – 282 pts
• 4) Adrian Young – 275 pts
• 5 tie) Christy Lindvall and Gregg Farber – 255 pts

SECOND CHANCE POOL

• 1) Kevin Busby – 760 pts
• 2 tie) William Panak, Karl Knox and Doug Brunner – 720 pts

As for the Lunatic, he gave it an impressive try this year. His second chance picks tied for 9th place. His Insane picks hung around to finish in 13th place in the Upset pool – just 20 pts behind the leaders (which symbolically would have been the points that Purdue would have gotten him if they made the Final Four). But in the end, 54 people if you count the tie-breakers ended up Stomping the Lunatic. A decent try, but at the end a pretty good stomping.

As always, thank you to all of you for making this such a fun tournament to run!!! I love getting to cheer on my Boilers and rant about the tournament, even if it means another stomping is inevitably coming. I hope that everyone enjoyed the great games and my sleep-deprived blog. I am sure the Lunatic will get over his wounds and be ready to do this all again next March – and I hope that you all come back to put the Lunatic in his place with a good stomping.

Congratulations again to the Kansas Jayhawks – for a tournament that had so many unique events, having it finish with a team come back from being down 16 seems to be a very fitting ending to produce a very deserving national champion.

And congratulations once again to Edward Zhang, Ann Hawkins and Kevin Busby – our three Stomp the Lunatic pool winners!!!!