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.

Jordan Bell had two big offensive rebounds – one that he followed up with a big basket to make it a one point lead, and one to force Michigan to foul to stop the clock.  Tyler Dorsey had just hit a big shot the last possession to give the Ducks a one point lead with a minute to play, and unlike other times in the game, Michigan didn’t come back with an answer.

But the Ducks missed the free throw giving the Wolverines one last chance.   And they got the ball in the hands of their senior leader, Derrick Walton, Jr.   He made a nice step back to get off a shot before the buzzer and I thought to myself – this has to go in, right.

The Wolverines story the last few weeks have been like a fairy tale, with lots of happy endings. But many times in March as we see with these great underdog stories, the clock eventually strikes midnight on Cinderella.

Walton’s jumper fell short, and the Oregon players celebrated as the buzzer sounded.  The Ducks will be playing in the Midwest Regional final.   Congratulations to Oregon for being the first team to the Elite 8, and thank you to the Michigan Wolverines for giving all of us such a wonderful and uplifting story for the last two weeks – we are all winners for getting to watch their magical run in March.

And as you would expect with games at this level, they are both close (both are one point games as I type this).

But to add some humor, Katie had to pick her second chance picks – she puts up with this time of year but she really would rather do something else.  So, we decided a fun way to do the picks – by random chance.

Katie grabbed a die from our Yahtzee game, and picked the favorite when she rolled a 1,2 or 3 and the upset when she rolled the higher numbers.   

I could also see it totally happening, she took the dice all the way to the championship game – Arizona beating Florida and UNC beating Purdue.  Then, she rolled the die and it was a 5 – Arizona wins the championship.   And she said, I don’t want to pick against North Carolina – that’s grandpa’s school (I thought it was funny the random dice picked UNC and Purdue in the first place).

So, I said – well lets do 2 out of 3 for the championship – she rolled a 6.  And she looked at me with a frown.  I said, “Do you just want to pick UNC – that is OK – you can do what you want!”.    Katie nodded and thus, picks UNC to beat Arizona for the championship.   Because that is how we roll at the Lunatic’s house.

The games have started!!!!!  So let our game begin as well!!!!!    Hopefully, we will have lots of exciting games for the next 3 weeks!!!!

I will give more updates when I get home from work – maybe late since the Purdue game is one of the 7 pm games.   But at this point, the entries are locked, we already have Notre Dame and Princeton in a close game at halftime, and lots of fun ready to be had.

Good luck to everyone in stomping the Lunatic!!!