After Butler held off Texas and UCLA stole the game from SMU with a goaltending call on a three point shot with 10 seconds left, not even Laura and Donna could stay perfect with their picks
That adds the Bruins to the list of Cinderella double digit teams moving on. How awesome that so many of the games are going down to the wire. We have upsets, heroic shots, controversial calls – and we are only 6 games into the tournament!!!
It is what makes the tournament special – the stars that are made.
Down 2 points with just 11 seconds, Georgia State rebounded a missed free throw and RJ Hunter puts a dagger into the Big 12 from really deep to give Georgia State an improbable 1 point victory.
Congrats to Laura Carini and Donna Woodburn for having the foresight and the courage to pick both upsets!!!
Of our 360 entries, 358 of us have already lost their chance for a perfect bracket – thanks to #14 UAB’s 60-59 upset of Iowa State.
So welcome to our first Cinderella who has stormed the dance.
As I watch Dayton finish off a nail-biter to come from behind to upset Boise State, the Lunatic realizes that he should create his own picks. So, without further ado.
In my sane picks, I have Kentucky doing what Vegas says is even-odds (which is one of the first times I remember seeing that) – beating Notre Dame to win the Midwest and going on to win the entire tournament. In the west, Arizona will knock off Wisconsin. In the Midwest, Virginia will take out Villanova. And then in the South, Duke will beat Iowa State. This will lead to Kentucky beating Duke for the title.
In my insane picks, I still have Duke and Kentucky getting to the championship game. But I have Wisconsin winning the west over Arizona. And I have the Midwest completely blowing up, as Michigan State upsets Virginia and Louisville on their way to the Final Four. This will lead to Duke upseting Kentucky’s perfect season and creating a new reason for Kentucky fans to hate Duke.
We currently have 263 entries – and it is not unheard of for us to get tons of entries on Thursday – don’t miss your chance to join the fun!!!!! I am sure that all of you will have great odds of Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!!
So, maybe the question about adjustments wasn’t a bad one after all. That is because Ole Miss took advantage of the fast pace of game and scored 62 points in the second half to steal the game from the Cougars.
It is kind of crazy – there are teams who are going to win games in the next three weeks without getting 62 points in the whole game. So was a little sad to watch BYU’s 17 point quickly disappear.
Congratulations to Ole Miss – for once again reminding us why they call this March Madness
It is a horrible job to be that poor soul that has to pull aside one of the head coaches at halftime and interview one of the coaches.
In the BYU – Ole Miss game, the reporter started off with a great question. One of BYU’s stars, Kyle Collinsworth, left the court late in the first question favoring the knee he had ACL surgery on last year. BYU’s Dave Rose answered well also – letting everyone know that Collinsworth looked like he would be alright and play in the second half.
Then, the low. The reported asked Rose what type of adjustments they were going to make in the second half. For those not watching, BYU is currently leading at halftime, 49-32. When you are up 17 points, you likely don’t make a lot of adjustments. I even think I heard a little chuckle from Rose as he composed himself to answer. He answered the stupid question nicely – but I am sure if he wasn’t being so nice, he could have easily answered – “In all my years of coaching, I have learned one thing. When you are winning by 17 points at halftime, you don’t make adjustments – you keep attacking with the game plan that has gotten you a huge lead!”
Great first half by the Cougars – hopefully, Collinsworth really is OK. Would love to see this team at full strength keep knocking down shots from everywhere.
That’s right, the only team entering the tournament with a losing record managed to get to .500 tonight, as they jumped out to an early lead on Manhattan, and held on through the second half for a 74-64 victory!!!!!
Tourney basketball is here – the Madness has officially begun – and it starts with an upset! The beauty of the dance – all you need is an invitation, then anything can happen.
Don’t believe that they stand much of a chance against Kentucky, but it is still a big deal for Hampton to have won an NCAA Tournament game!
So, I have already demonstrated that I can’t seed teams through my bracketology – although to be fair, in just studying resumes over a Sunday afternoon, I managed to do better than the Yahoo and Sports Illustrated bracketologists. And the CBS bracketologist and I were the only ones able to get 67 of the 68 teams (although apparently that is because I was the only person crazy enough to think that UCLA belonged in the pool).
But that madness isn’t enough for the Lunatic. I have gotten quite a complex caused by the fact that all of you stomp me every year. And so in a sad attempt to demonstrate that I really do know something about college basketball, I handicap all 67 of the games (assuming I don’t run out of time – 32 games in 2 days is tough).
To get a jump on things, I have predicted the First Four games – picking BYU to win and Hampton to cover the spread on Tuesday, and picking North Florida and Dayton (seriously, the Flyers are playing on their home court) to win on Wednesday. And thus, fans from Ole Miss, Manhattan, Robert Morris and Boise State have now cheered out – we have a fighting chance now that the Lunatic has picked against us!
Enjoy the handicapping!!!!!!
At this point, you now should have most of everything that you might need to make your picks.
First – most importantly, you can enter your picks – just register and then click on the link to enter. Reminder that I don’t maintain the database from year to year – you will have to register again, even if you have been doing the pool for years. By the way, I love the fact that we have 7 entries already – and I haven’t even sent out the rules email. You all know the drill – you don’t need my emails….
Second – for those of you who are crazy statistical modelers like myself, the data is updated to include Sunday’s five games. Whether you want RPI, Adjusted Scoring Margin, or simply want to see what teams played each other, all the games are there in the Schedule file.
Third – for those of you who don’t want to do all that work, I have placed the cheat sheet out there – I went for substance – not style. Not the prettiest web-page ever, but on that web-page, you can see side by side each game – with generic information (records, adjusted scoring margin, RPI, top wins, bad losses, etc.)
Of course, I have not started my Handicapping page – but I do hope to do that as well. So for those of you waiting to see who I pick against the spread so you can pick the other team, you will have to wait a few days.
So – other than picking contrarian to the Lunatic (which probably is a good strategy), you should have lots of information at your fingertips to do your “analysis”.
Good luck to everyone!!
The Brackets have been released – and 68 NCAA teams have their invitation to the big dance. And that means we are ready to go!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will send out the traditional rules email sometime tonight – but you don’t need to wait for me. The site is ready for you to enter your picks into the Stomp the Lunatic contest!!!
There will be plenty more from me – but after all the watching of basketball today (as well as getting the schedules and bracketology ready), I am going to take a short break – the kids are watching Big Hero 6 – seems like a nice relaxing change from trying to type as fast as CBS displays the names of the teams.
Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!!!!