This was supposed to be the Kansas Jayhawks party.   Kansas was the #1 seed, and they had averaged 96 points in the first three games of the tournament.  The Ducks had a great run so far, but without starting forward Chris Boucher, it was not viewed that they would be able to hang with the talented stars from Kansas.   And of course, the game was being held in Kansas City – making the Midwest Final a virtual home game for the Jayhawks.

Well, someone forgot to tell the Oregon Ducks – they were working under a different script.   That script had them jump out to a 44-33 lead at half-time, including a banked three pointer by Tyler Dorsey to end the half.   Then, Oregon held off any run that the Jayhawks tried.

Jordan Bell had 11 points, 13 rebounds and 8 blocked shots to control the paint and Tyler Dorsey shot 6-10 from three point range to lead the Ducks with 27 points.  And the Pac 12 regular season co-champions beat the powerful Jayhawks 74-60.

The Oregon Ducks are returning to the Final Four for the first time in 78 years – the Ducks were the 1939 National Champions.   Congratulations to the Oregon Ducks!!!!

Xavier and Gonzaga entered today’s West regional with an interesting record – they were tied for first with the most school victories (27) without making the Final Four.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 points and Johnathan Williams added 19 – as the Gonzaga Bulldogs dominated the 11 seed Xavier Musketeers.

Xavier tried to take the Gonzaga big guys away from them – and Gonzaga made them pay for it by hitting a bunch of threes – thr Musketeers simply did not have an answer.

There is always criticism of a small conference champion when they have such an amazing season – their schedule is too weak, they would not have that record if they played in a major conference like the ACC, Big 12 or Pac 12.   Well, the West Coast Conference champions became the first WCC team to make the Final Four since San Francisco did in 1957.   Congratulations to Gonzaga for becoming the first team to book their ticket to Arizona and the Final Four!!

Our new leader in the pool is Justin Peabody – at 710 points, he has a 10 point lead over Justin Peabody, Patricia Kirtz, Brad Harding and Mark Schumaker.  Bill Kahn and Cinde Johnson are in a tie for 5th – just 20 pts behind and Stephanie Palermo, Chris Kelly, Drew Bradley and Earl McKnight are tied for 7th with 680 pts.

Sadly, if someone just picked the team highest in the AP Poll, they would be tied with Justin for the lead – but fortunately, it looks like that type of laziness would have not been rewarded in the end as they would have picked Villanova to win it all.

In the Upset Pool, it is Kyle Kelly leading with 245 points thanks to his brave pick of Xavier to win the West Regional.  Ryan Zotti is second with 235 points – followed by Greg Williams at 231, Gabbi Ams at 229 and Earl McKnight at 225.  Pretty impressive – Greg and Gabbi also got Xavier right – their boldness of taking the 11 seed to the Final Four has placed them in contention for the Upset Pool.

In the second chance pool, Tony Bisese is the leader – getting 7 of 8 correct, as Florida’s last second shot stopped him from going perfect in the Sweet 16.  Then, there is 21 people tied for 240 pts.   So the Second Chance Pool is totally up for grabs.

The Lunatic is likely already done – in a tie for 128th place, he can only move up if UNC keeps winning – and there are likely too many people in the way to get too close to the leaders (but will have a clearer picture of the standings by the end of the weekend).   That being said, the Lunatic’s 10 year old son Charlie is doing well – as he is tied for 19th.   

Good luck to everyone over the weekend, whether your school is still in the games or you simply want to enjoy some great basketball.  The Elite 8 is here – and we have four great regional finals ahead!

What a way to end the Sweet 16.   In overtime, it was Wisconsin that took the lead.   But Canyon Barry came in off the bench to give the Gators a spark.   Barry hit a nice drive to the basket to start the comeback, two big FTs to cut the lead to 2, and a huge block on Iverson – which led to Chris Chiozza driving to the basket to tie the game.

Nigel Hayes made a nice drive to the basket which almost went in – but he got fouled.   The senior who had struggled from the line in the overtime period hit both free throws to give Wisconsin a 2 point lead.

That set the stage for Chiozza who got the inbounds, drove up the court as fast as possible and hit an impressive three pointer at the buzzer to give the Gators an 84-83 victory.

With Kentucky winning against UCLA and South Carolina’s big upset of Baylor in the last two games, the SEC showed their dominance of the night by sending all 3 of their teams to the Elite 8.   Pretty impressive showing by the SEC, and amazing way to end the Sweet 16.

Lets play 5 more minutes!!!   The Wisconsin Badgers scored the last 8 points of the half, including a miraculous three pointer with 2.5 seconds left by Zak Schowalter to tie the game at 72.   Why not – this has been a great Sweet 16 – why stop now….

Just got done with bedtime for the kids, and come to see that both games look like they are runaways (at least one is the underdog running away as South Carolina leads Baylor by 18).   And since I have been told by my father-in-law that I am not allowed to root for North Carolina because of the Lunatic Curse, this makes the early games kind of boring for me.   

I sure hope the evening games are closer – being sleep deprived and watching blowouts are not a good combination – they tend to involve me watching them through the back of my eyelids…

That is because we just watched the series finale of Liv and Maddie – no more new episodes of watching the Rooney family.  Whether it be Liv doing Voltage or Sing It Louder, Maddie winning basketball state championships, Parker building tunnels under their house that eventually forces them to move to California when their house collapses, Joey trying to avoid Willow or becoming the ever cool Falcon, or Artie and his minions doing what only Artie does, we will miss them – well, except in re-runs, we all know Disney will probably just keep showing this for years to come.   

How can you not love Liv and Maddie’s motto – sisters by chance, friends by choice.    How can you not smile everytime someone says something seemingly impossible and Parker says Challenge Accepted.   How can you not laugh watching the mom play that blue flute.

What – you thought it was about the Purdue game – fortunately only I was watching that game.   But the ending of a Disney series impacts us all.

It was a cute show – even enjoyable for the adults.   And so I will leave you to enjoy tonight’s Sweet 16 games with the only way that this post can end!!!

Bam!!!!!!! What!!!!!!!!!!!

11 seeded Xavier was down 8 with under 4 minutes to play.    Then, Trevon Bluett and Malcolm Bernard hit two three pointers to cut the lead to 4.  Then Bernard and Bluett got to the line and hit two free throws each to tie the game at 71.

That set the stage for Sean O’Mara – who made a big basket in the post to give the Musketeers the lead.  Arizona got two chances to tie the game, but both rattled in and out – and Xavier pulled the big time upset.   In a tournament that has seen the chalk be pretty dominant, who would have guessed that we would have an 11 seed in the Elite 8.   

That’s right, top seeds.  Cinderella is still at the dance – and she looks like she has plans to stick around a little longer.    Congratulations to Xavier – who will join Gonzaga in the West Regional finals on Saturday

That was a little heartbreaking to watch – Kansas just beat the team that won the Big 10 regular season champion by 32 points.   Frank Mason looked like the player of the year today.   And he isn’t the Jayhawks only weapon.   Purdue would miss a shot and if you blinked, you missed the Jayhawks scoring on the other end.

With about two minutes left, I thought to myself that I don’t remember a possession where they didn’t score.  So, I went to the play-by-play.   If I counted right, they shot 18-27 in the second half. They started 2-4, in a stretch where Purdue closed the gap to 2.   They finished 2-5 when they cleared their bench.   So, they shot 14-18 from the field the rest of the half – I actually think they missed more second half free throws than they did from the field.

If the Jayhawks play like this the rest of the tournament, they will be the national champions – you can’t beat a team that scores every time down the court.    Congratulations to the Jayhawks – the Big 12 champions will be playing the Ducks for the Midwest regional championship.

Thanks to my Boilers for a great season – I am so happy to get to see them win the Big 10 and win a couple tournament games – just wish they had not run into a brick wall tonight.  Because Kansas truly looked unstoppable tonight.

West Virginia was in position to pull the upset with a lead late against Gonzaga.  But the Bulldogs broke out of a double team in the backcourt, raced up the court and found Jordan Matthews in the corner for what would be the game-winning three pointer with about 50 seconds left.   The Mountaineers got three tries to tie the game but all three of their three pointers were wildly off – and while many thought Gonzaga might be vulnerable in this game, it is the West Coast Conference champions who will be playing in the West Regional final.   Congratulations to Gonzaga on making the Elite 8!!!

Now back to hoping the Boilers play the whole 20 minutes of the second half like they did the first 10 minutes of the game when they led by 8, and not the last part of the half where they let the Jayhawks go on a 22-7 run to take a 7 point lead into half.