Just to put into how crazily different this side of the bracket is. If you take the 4 teams today and add up their seeds, you would get 7 – which is not only 4 lower than the first team that made the final four, it is also 2 lower than both teams that lost Saturday night.
Should be two great games – looking forward to Villanova / Texas Tech and Kansas / Duke.
It might not have been the prettiest of games. But 3 seed Michigan survived by beating Florida State 58-54.
The game was a back and forth game dominated by both teams defensive efforts. Michigan managed to take a 1 point lead going into halftime. But after Florida State hit the first basket of the second half, the Wolverines went on an 11-0 run to take control of the game.
The Seminoles would chip away at the lead, but any time they got close, Michigan would hit a shot to extend the lead. It looked like it was truly over when Duncan Robinson made a three pointer with just over 2 minutes to give Michigan a 54-44 lead. Florida State managed to cut the lead all the way to 2 points with 20 seconds left, thanks to some missed free throws by the Wolverines. But Robinson would hit the two free throws that Michigan needed at the end to give the Wolverines a 4 point victory and send the Big 10 Tourney Champion to San Antonio.
Michigan has now won 15 of their last 16 games – with their last loss coming in early February. They are peaking definitely at the right time, and are now just two victories away from a National Championship.
Two weeks ago, when the Selection Committee announced that the 11 seed Loyola-Chicago Ramblers from the Missouri Valley Conference at 28-5 would play 6 seed Miami, they were listed by experts as a potential good team to pick for an upset. The Ramblers had dominated a traditionally top mid-major, and had also upset Florida earlier in the season.
Then, Loyola hit a last second shot to beat the Hurricanes, and stories started coming out about their 98 year old nun Sister Jean, and they became one of those fun feel-good stories of March.
But then, Loyola knocked off Tennessee and Nevada on last second clutch shots, and suddenly, the feel-good Cinderella story became a lot more.
Tonight, the Ramblers didn’t need any last second heroics. Cinderella went and knocked off Kansas State 78-62, and the 11 seed that started as a trendy upset pick for a round is now heading to San Antonio as the first team to earn their way to the Final Four.
These Ramblers play incredible defense, are extremely unselfish and always make the extra pass, and have multiple players who have proven they can make a clutch shot. And now, Cinderella has a chance to rewrite the history of the Dance. Loyola-Chicago is still dancing, and don’t be surprised if they are still dancing after the Championship game. This Cinderella doesn’t appear to have a curfew at midnight.
The Aggies totally outran and outhustled the defending National Champions. Normally, it is UNC that creates havoc by speading up play. But today, it was Texas A&M who seemed to be the ones controlling the pace in an impressive 86-65 victory.
And so the Lunatic Curse has taken out both his South and West regional champions before the weekend even ended. That probably bodes poorly for Duke, Villanova and Purdue in the second weekend. I might have to think about what other teams I would like to take out by selecting them in my second chance picks.
There is always that team in the NCAA Tournament that proves all the critics, including myself, wrong. Everyone said that Syracuse didn’t deserve to be in the tournament. There were 187 people who projected the bracket before Selection Sunday for the Bracket Matrix project – only 23 (12.2%) had the Orange in the tournament.
So, the Orange head to Dayton – and they take out Arizona State. Then, they shock TCU to make it to the round of 32. But surely a team that is averaging 58.5 points in those two games isn’t going to beat #3 seed, Michigan State. After all, the Spartans were 29-4 and one of the top 5 teams in the polls.
But this is March – and when the Spartans went up 48-43 on a Cassius Winston jumper with 5:43 in the game, it looked like the Spartans would stay ahead – after all points were hard to find in this ugly game.
Then, Michigan State missed their last 13 shots from the field, Syracuse’s Tyus Battle hit a jumper on a nice drive with 49 seconds to give the Orange a 3 point lead, and then we watched as the Spartans got tons of tries to tie the game to no prevail.
The last team invited to dance is still dancing. And should any of us be surprised – these are the kinds of things that happen in March.
Our first day leader, Laura Carini went perfect on Thursday. Friday was unkind, however. Once her predicted upset of CSU Fullerton over Purdue went down to end her perfect bracket, she went 7-9 to fall to a tie for 75th place, 40 points out of the lead.
The Standard Pool leader is now Michael Cheung, he went 27-5. There is a group of 6 – Christy Lindvall, Peyton Hinton, Bob Degenhardt, Michelle Miller, and Craig Mize, who are just 10 points behind them. But Christy and Craig might be the real leaders from Round 1 – that is because neither of them had Virginia winning the South. Picking Cincinnati and Tennessee looks all of a sudden much better than it might have before the tournament began.
Christy’s upset picks have also put her in the lead of the Upset Pool – with 145 points. She is followed closely by Triona Weeks at 136, Michael Cheung at 133, Bob Degenhardt at 130, and Joe Chapman at 129.
For all of us Virginia fans, including myself, thankfully there is the Second Chance Pool. Normally, I am not thinking about that after the first round, but after last night’s historic upset, I think all of us might need a second chance.
Because it wasn’t enough that UNC-Greensboro almost took down Gonzaga.
Because it wasn’t enough for Buffalo to completely destroy Arizona.
It wasn’t even enough that Marshall took down Wichita State this afternoon.
Don’t look now – but Charleston, the Colonial Conference champion is tied with SEC co-champ Auburn.
The games have begun so it is time for the real fun to begin!!!!
Looks like we have 334 entries this year so it should be lots of fun – and lots of people Stomping the Lunatic!!!!
When I get home from work, I will check to verify number of entries and make sure there are not any emails in my mailbox about last second issues with getting in their picks.
Enjoy the Madness!!!!!! Should be a great tournament!!!!
Congratulations to Tuesday’s First Four winners. First, Radford won the first game of the tournament by beating LIU Brooklyn. Then, St. Bonaventure won a huge game for the mid-majors as the Bonnies knocked off the UCLA Bruins by playing suffocating defense. Not sure about Radford – but have heard multiple times at the end of the game – this was the first tournament win for the Bonnies in 48 years – that is awesome!
Totally forgot to mention. The Lunatic’s handicapping is back for another pummeling. The First 4 games have begun and so the Lunatic has even picked them. Those teams made the tournament – they deserve to have their game picked incorrectly by the Lunatic.
For those of you not familiar, the Lunatic picks every single one of the games against the spread as well as the over/under. Typically, I get very excited to do this at the start of the tournament, and then end up so far down in mythical money that I choose not to pick the last games to ensure that the Lunatic curse doesn’t impact the tournament any more than it already has.
I will add my disclosures – I only provide my picks for fun – they are not gambling advice. (Although I am starting to think a good strategy would be to pick against anyone I pick.). I also mention that my luck in Vegas Sportsbooks is as bad if not worse than how I have done the last few years.
Enjoy the picks and rambling with them – just be smart – they are done by a delusional crazy person.