Morgan William  hit the shot that created a roar in Dallas, Texas that might have been heard across the entire country.   Because that shot has changed the face of women’s basketball.    With 5 seconds left in overtime, William drove towards the basket, pulled up near the free throw line, and hit a jumper that gave the Bulldogs a 66-64 victory over the mighty UConn Huskies.

The last time the Huskies lost was in November 17, 2014 – an overtime lost to Stanford.    They had won 33 of their 36 games this year by double digits – which had extended their unbeaten streak to 111 games.

The last time the Huskies played Mississippi State was last year’s Sweet 16, where the Huskies ended their season with a 98-38 pounding.   Mississippi State kept a reminder of that game – they hung the number 60 in their weight room as a reminder.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 29-13 lead, but the Huskies chipped away at that lead to reduce it to 8 by halftime.   That 8 points was still the largest halftime deficit the Huskies had faced during their 111 game winning streak.  UConn kept chipping away at the lead and took a 3 point lead of their own with 2 1/2 minutes off a Gabby Williams jumper.  But Victoria Vivians, who led the Bulldogs with 19 points, hit a free throw and a big three pointer with a minute left to give MSU a 1 point lead.  Connecticut tied the game at the free throw line, but that gave the Bulldogs a chance to win the game in regulation.   Morgan William drove to the basket to try to win the game but her layup was blocked by Gabby Williams and we headed to overtime.

The Bulldogs had a 64-62 lead late in overtime and looked like they had made a big defensive stop – but a flagrant foul was called away from the ball on Dominique Dillingham who had knocked down Katie Lou Samuelson.   Samuelson hit both free throws to tie the game, and the flagrant foul gave the Huskies the ball.  Saniya Chong drove toward the basket to try to win the game, but Morgan William played great defense and forced Chong to lose the ball out of bounds.

William’s great defense then set the stage, where she pulled up and hit a high-arching jumper over the same person who blocked her shot in regulation, and all the Huskies could do is watch as the ball floated into the basket as the buzzer rang.

You have to give a lot of credit to the UConn Huskies – their streak of 111 wins might not ever be matched again.  But Friday night belonged to the Mississippi State Bulldogs – they have advanced to the Women’s Championship game on Sunday.   There, they will face a re-match of the SEC championship – as South Carolina had made their way to the championship earlier by beating Stanford 62-53.    South Carolina has beaten MSU twice this season (by 10 in the SEC championship and at home in late January by 3).   But after knocking off a team that had won 111 straight, anything is possible for this Mississippi State team.

Sadly, there are only 3 more basketball games left of the madness.   But there is still over 2 days until we get back to watching the National Semifinals.   So, the Lunatic is restless – he wants basketball to rant about – he needs basketball to rant about.   And time is running out.   So here is an extremely random rant.

There is still basketball being played – but to be honest I haven’t been as interested in it.   But these teams do deserve a lot of honor for what they have accomplished in March.    So – here is their brief moment.

• Congratulations to TCU – the winner of the NIT tournament.   The Horned Frogs headed to Madison Square Garden, beat Central Florida in the semi-finals on Tuesday, and finished off Georgia Tech tonight in the Finals.     Congratulations also go out to Georgia Tech, UCF, and CSU-Bakersfield (as an 8 seed) for making the NIT Final Four!
• The CBI finishes off its final on Friday – it has a unique best 2 out of 3 final.   Coastal Carolina won at home on Monday by 10, but Wyoming won at home on Wednesday by 24 – so Friday’s game in Laramie, Wyoming between the Chanticleers and Cowboys will be for all the marbles.
• Friday will also be the final for the CIT – which will be between Texas A&M – Corpus Christi and Saint Peter’s

I noticed on ESPN’s site, that Mississippi State’s women’s team – who beat Baylor in overtime to make it to the Women’s Final Four have a cool tidbit.   They will boast the first ever father – daughter combo at the Final Four – as coach Vic Shaefer will lead the Bulldogs, including his daughter Blair.    There reward is unfortunately a date with Connecticut – so they have the daunting task of trying to do what 111 teams prior to them have not been able to do – beat the Huskies.

South Carolina’s men’s team is not the only team still dancing – the Gamecocks are sending both their men’s and women’s team to the Final Four.   And while the men’s might have been a little bit of a surprise, the women’s definitely was not as they were their region’s #1 seed.   They will go against #2 Stanford to see if they can get the right to lose in the championship to UConn.    This is nothing against them – they are a great team.   But the Huskies are so dominant right now, it is hard to imagine them losing at this point.

Back to the NIT for a second – how much does this say about the bubble teams that missed the tournament.   They were given home field advantage to make it to the semi-finals in New York – and none of them could get there.   Cal lost their first round game to CSU-Bakersfield, Syracuse lost their second round game to Ole Miss, Iowa lost their second round game to TCU, and Illinois State lost their second round game to UCF.   Just another reminder of the fact that the Selection Committee got it right.   While I understand that it has to be heartbreaking to just miss the tournament, and some teams were dealing with injuries, it is hard to believe these bubble teams would have gone far if they couldn’t win three home games against other teams who just missed the tournament.

Have to give my quick reaction / comments to the insanity of LaVar Ball – many have been commenting about how it is ridiculous about how much pressure he is putting on his sons.   I even heard on the radio today that they think more parents should be like this and push their children hard to be winners.   But he has crossed the line with his comments.  Lonzo Ball might be a great NBA player – but saying that he will be better than Steph Curry is just ludicrous – if he is that good, why wasn’t he able to lead UCLA to the Final Four (heck, even the Elite 8 – Kentucky knocked them out in the Sweet 16).   Then saying he is looking to get a $1 billion dollar shoe deal over 10 years for his sons – to put into perspective, LeBron’s deal is worth $1 billion for a lifetime.   Two of his sons are not even out of high school yet.   But then he talked about how his kids are riding around in $100K BMWs since he saved so much money on not having to pay tuition.   It is one thing to think your child will be great – it is another to be saying he deserves to be compared to Steph Curry and LeBron James.   You have to earn your accolades – so far, Ball couldn’t even lead his team out of the Final Four or get player of the year honors.   But then to ask for money for your high school sons and talk about how your kids are rolling around in BMWs is above stupid.   So are you saying that UCLA has paid Lonzo Ball to play this season, and that they will pay for the younger brothers when it is their turn.   He is basically asking the NCAA to investigate them for improper benefits – which isn’t smart.    I love being supportive of your child, but lets stay in reality.

Many of you might have heard that Indiana has hired Dayton’s Archie Miller as their new coach.   To be honest, all things considered, I think this is maybe the best possible hire that they could have done.   While they might have thought they could, they were never going to get Steve Alford (UCLA), Scott Drew (Baylor), Chris Mack (Xavier) or Chris Holtmann (Butler) to leave their programs from other Power 6 conferences to take the Hoosiers’ job.  So, you had to figure it would come down to Miller – who is an excellent young coach, or Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall (who probably would have been harder to convince with all the talent Marshall has coming back next season for the Shockers).   So, you have to consider that a success for the Hoosiers.   But as good of a coach that Miller is, he has not had to get the level of recruits at Dayton that he will need to meet Indiana’s requirements.   So, you are counting on the Hoosier’s brand.    In an article on ESPN, they talked about how Miller will focus recruiting from an “inside-out” approach, making sure they get the best talent from Indiana.   So, lets look at the recruiting rankings.  This year, getting the top Indiana seniors would be pretty awesome, as you could get Kris Wilkes (13th), Jaren Jackson (16th), Paul Scruggs (28th) and Malik Williams (29th).   But unfortunately, all of them have already done early commitments.  So, we have to go to 2018 – there is Romeo Lankford, the 3rd ranked junior in ESPN’s Top 60.   Well, Miller better get him – because if his focus is on the top Indiana talent and he loses Lankford, there are no more Indiana players in the top 60 – you are not likely going to win National Championships without top 60 players.    So, now you see what the expectations of Archie Miller are – I hope he is able to succeed where Tom Crean did not, but as talented as Miller is, the odds are not in his favor when his success might lie on a recruit that is likely to get offers from Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Louisville and UCLA.

OK – enough ranting for tonight.   The Final Four is almost here…..

The unofficial scenario files are up!    These have been done quickly and not validated – so these exist with the typical Lunatic disclaimer that the only official results are from the standings page (since that is the page I validate).  So, enjoy going out there and figuring out which of the final 8 scenarios give your bracket the best chance of winning (or at least the best possible standings).

Good luck to everyone!!!!!

What an incredible battle to finish off the Elite 8.   The Tar Heels led for most of the game, but Kentucky went on a 17-6 run led by Isaac Humphries, who scored 8 of his 12 points, including a jumper that gave the Wildcats a 5 point lead with just 5 minutes left.   And Elizabeth and I could hear her father screaming all the way from North Carolina, “Call Time Out, Roy!”   And shockingly, a time out was actually called.

But just like in the Arkansas game, UNC went on a 12-0 run, led by Theo Pinson, who scored 6 of his 9 points and pulled down 3 critical defensive rebounds to give the Tar Heels a 71-64 lead with 54 seconds left.   You would figure that this was the end.

But De’Aaron Fox drilled a three pointer from the corner to reduce the lead to 4.   And then, Kentucky’s press forced a five second violation – which led to the Wildcats getting the ball to Malik Monk at the top of the key, where he hit an impressive three pointer to cut the lead to 1.

UNC managed to catch Kentucky over-defending with a baseball pass down the court to Justin Jackson, leading to a breakaway layup to extend the lead to 3.   Then, with 17 seconds left, UNC forced a jump ball to get the chance to ice the game.  UNC inbounded to Justin Jackson, but Jackson missed the front end of the one-and-one – giving Kentucky new life.

The Wildcats took advantage as they got the ball quickly to Malik Monk, who dribbled to the top of the key and hit the game tying three pointer with 10 seconds.   Most teams at this point would call timeout and try to set up a game winning play.   But not the Tar Heels – they inbounded the ball to Theo Pinson, who quickly dribbled up the court, into the lane, got the defense to collapse on him as he drove along the lane, and then kicked the ball out to a wide-open Luke Maye – who hit the jumper to give the Tar Heels a 75-73 victory.

And the Tar Heels survived an amazing comeback from the Kentucky Wildcats, and hit a buzzer-beater to punch their ticket to Phoenix.   The ACC champions North Carolina become the last team in the Final Four!!!!!!

That’s right – it is time to bring to you expert advice on the Elite 8 in the way that only the Lunatic can – by polling the amazing basketball knowledge of the Lunatic Expert Panel.

West Region – #1 Gonzaga vs #11 Xavier

• Crazed Lunatic – Gonzaga – this is normally the time of year that the regular season and tournament champions keep winning games – not to mention that Gonzaga has only lost one game all season
  
• Mrs. Lunatic – Gonzaga – I always have like this team when they were consistently a favorite to be Cinderella – they are now the big dog – Go Zags!
  
• Charlie – Xavier – I might be able to get in the top 10 and win money if Xavier wins – have to pick Xavier
  
• Katie – Gonzaga – would it irritate Charlie if Gonzaga won – I will pick them.   Plus, their mascot is a Bulldog – I would like a dog!
  

Midwest Region – #1 Kansas vs #3 Oregon

• Crazed Lunatic – Kansas – did you see how badly the Jayhawks beat up my Boilers!    I am not sure anyone can beat them.
  
• Mrs. Lunatic – Oregon – I don’t know that they will beat the Jayhawks, but I would rather root for the Ducks!  Quack!  Quack!!!
  
• Charlie – Oregon – I think it is in my best monetary interest if Kansas doesn’t win since lots of people picked Kansas.  Quack!   Quack!
  
• Katie – Oregon – I like ducks – they are cute!    Can we get a cat?   How about any pet?   We keep talk about animals – lets get a pet!
  

East Region – #4 Florida vs #7 South Carolina

• Crazed Lunatic – Florida – I think this is going to be a great game – these two teams split in the regular season, but I think Florida has been slightly better, so I will take the Gators.
  
• Mrs. Lunatic – South Carolina – my rule still stands – never pick a school from Florida.   Plus, I don’t like Gators – *** shudder ***
  
• Charlie – South Carolina – they are a 7 seed, most likely no one has the 7 seed – more chances for me to win if South Carolina does
  
• Katie – South Carolina – we go to South Carolina every summer with Nanny and Grandpa!!!   I like them – Nanny and Grandpa that is.
  

South Region – #1 North Carolina vs #2 Kentucky

• Crazed Lunatic – Kentucky – I am not allowed to root for North Carolina – my father-in-law has forbid it.   Plus, they are the only team left alive in my bracket, so you know that has to favor Kentucky.
  
• Mrs. Lunatic – North Carolina – a girl has to respect their Carolina roots
  
• Charlie – North Carolina – all the other three games don’t matter if UNC doesn’t win.   So, obviously this has to happen
  
• Katie – North Carolina – Do you want to hear me sing the fight song – Grandpa taught it to me – I’m a Tar Heel Born!  I’m a Tar Heel Bred!  And when I die, I’ll be Tar Heel Dead!   Then there’s some Rah Rah stuff!
  

Katie is now asking me that since we have done this, does that mean we no longer have to watch the basketball games.   Charlie is asking why the games have to be so late – he can’t watch them if it is after bedtime.    Elizabeth is happy because there is only four more nights of basketball games blocking her from watching her favorite true crime shows like Dateline and 48 Hours Mystery.   And I am making sure that I have options to watch the games online when I lose the TV.   Just a couple hours until the Elite 8!!!!!

• Your All ACC Final Four of North Carolina, Duke, Louisville and Florida State doesn’t look so good now that the Tar Heels are the only ones left
• After watching our leader go 31 for 32 in the first round, you are sure you can go perfect for just 15 games
• Now that your school has been eliminated from the tournament, you can pick teams intelligently and really show off your basketball knowledge – I can not use this reason since my Boilers are still alive
• Your children are both beating you in the pool even though they don’t even know Gonzaga is a #1 seed, and thus, you want to see if you can beat them at their own game by picking the rest of the games based on which mascot would win in a fight – I would suggest going with Wolverines, Bears or Gators simply so you don’t have to break ties between Wildcats and Bulldogs
• You just learned that Wisconsin has 4 senior starters who have played in two Final Fours (they have won 115 games in their career) and want to say that you picked them to finally win that championship that has eluded them
• You just realized that 12 of the last 13 champions had blue as one of their school colors and you picked Baylor in the main pool because you liked their fluorescent neon green uniforms
• You want to be able to say that you legitimately picked in a bracket for a double digit seed to make the Elite 8 – go Xavier!!!!!
• You are ready to get on the Michigan Wolverine bandwagon, knowing that any team that survives a plane crash right before the post-season probably is destined for greatness.
• With the Championship Game being in Glendale, Arizona, you think it would be cool if you picked all three of the remaining Pac 12 teams (Arizona, UCLA and Oregon) – don’t worry about the East Regional Champion – as last weekend showed, no one is going to predict that region right anyways
• It is another – and more importantly, last chance in 2017 to STOMP THE LUNATIC!

OK – one bonus reason.    It’s absolutely free!!!  That’s right – your entry fee already covers your Second Chance Pool entry – and so there is absolutely no good reason not to do the Second Chance Pool. You even have all Thursday afternoon to do them, since the games don’t start until 7:15 pm.

The Lunatic is going with the what he wants to see approach – I found myself this weekend conflicted about rooting for my Big 10 because I picked Villanova and Louisville.   So, my second chance bracket might go down, but I will at least be rooting for what I want to see – which in this case is Purdue cutting down the nets after beating the Pac 12 champions Arizona in the championship, with Wisconsin and UNC joining them in Glendale!!!

No matter how you pick your second chances, good luck to all of you!!

By the way, I can’t let this go during the tournament.   Did you notice how careful Indiana was to fire their head coach minutes into the NCAA tournament on Thursday to ensure that it would not get lots of press?   Then again, Indiana cares about those optics – they turned down a home NIT game this year (which is what would have given the Hoosiers the best chance to win and keep their season alive) in order make sure television cameras didn’t catch a half-empty Assembly Hall – since it was Spring Break, and Indiana fans don’t normally get excited about NIT games.

But I just want to put this in perspective.   Tom Crean was the coach to lift Indiana out of the hell that Kelvin Sampson left them in.   When Crean took over for the Hoosiers, he inherited a program that had three years of sanctions – because of those, IU’s star player left early for the NBA draft, there were graduations, and 5 left either by transfer or being kicked off for disciplinary reason – so he started with 2 walk-ons who had a career 36 points between them.  That first year was a disaster, but Crean managed to get recruiting to get some more talented players, and sure enough, made the tournament in his 4th season (the first one after sanctions were lifted), where they made it to the Sweet 16.

If you look at the last 6 years (the ones where they didn’t have sanctions), Tom Crean has coached the Hoosiers to 3 Sweet 16s, 2 regular season Big Ten championships, and a record of 138-69 (66.7%).   To put into perspective how successful that he has been, here are the list of schools that were able to go to more Sweet 16s in the last 6 years – Wisconsin had 5, Kentucky, Michigan State, Louisville, Florida, North Carolina, Kansas and Arizona had 4.  He has been to the same number of Sweet 16s in the last 6 years as Hall of Famers Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.   So, only 8 programs have done better from the perspective of making the second weekend of the tournament, and the two coaches that have won the most games in NCAA history only were able to go 3 of 6.   I don’t see Duke fans and Syracuse fans screaming for their head coaches to be fired for that level of success.

But this is Indiana basketball – they are supposed to do better.  So, lets look at their history.   In the 14 years before Tom Crean took over this storied program that was left for dead because of sanctions, the Hoosiers had made 1 Sweet 16 (the 2002 season when they made it all the way to the finals), they won the Big 10 once (co-champs in that same 2002 season) and the best record of any of those teams was 25-8 (the 2008 team that was the last season Kelvin Sampson coached).   In the three seasons, Tom Crean led the Hoosiers to the Sweet 16, his teams also won 27+ games (going as good as 29-7 in 2013).   Tom Crean’s last 6 seasons were even better record-wise than the last 6 that Hall of Famer Bobby Knight coached.   You had to go back to 1991-1996 to find the last time the Hoosiers had a better winning percentage and three Sweet 16 appearances.   Obviously, Bobby Knight had more success before those years – but that is the point.   No one since a Hall of Famer from the 1990s had done as well at Indiana as Tom Crean has done.

Tom Crean made Indiana basketball relevant again.   And they looked like they were going to have a great year – knocking off both Kansas and North Carolina.   Then injuries killed this team and they went into a free-fall during the conference season.  I don’t see how that becomes the coaches fault (maybe you could argue that they don’t have enough depth – but I guarantee you that similar things would happen to a lot of teams if they lost one of their stars).  And because fans stopped showing up and started complaining for the coach to be fired, that is exactly what happened.

You could argue that he didn’t win enough National Titles – but the last time the Hoosiers won the whole thing was 1987.  You could argue that he was losing the recruiting battle in-state – yet, I never remember hearing the press mention that he had a bad recruiting class.  You could argue that he missed the tournament 2 of those 6 years, which doesn’t happen at Indiana.   You could argue that he couldn’t beat Purdue enough – since the Boilers had a winning record against the Hoosiers during Crean’s tenure.  But I can tell you that somewhere in the United States, there is going to be a college basketball program who is going to be thrilled to death that Tom Crean is available to be their coach – and he will win games the way he did at Indiana and Marquette.

Indiana might get lucky and find someone who can finally lead them to the promised land of college hoops.  Maybe Indiana can convince someone big to join them.   Smaller programs like Wichita State, Xavier, Dayton and Butler all have outstanding coaches that might be finally willing to jump for a chance to coach the Hoosiers.   Maybe they will steal Steve Alford away from UCLA to bring us back to the days when he played for the Hoosiers.   But if you base success on having teams that can make the Sweet 16, there are only 17 programs that have made 3 or more like Crean.   And likelihood says those coaches are staying with the program they lead to Sweet 16 every other year.

When Tom Crean took the job 9 years ago, Indiana fans should have been forever grateful for him to come and try to clean up their program and get them winning again.  And he did exactly that – and won more than any of the coaches after Bobby Knight.   But because he was not winning national championships, Indiana boosters and fans complained loudly enough to get rid of the person who brought them back to being a team that was feared.   Sometimes, sports fans don’t realize when they have a good thing – only time will tell if Indiana fans get what they believe they deserve or fall to being a mediocre team constantly firing their coach every few years as they search for the next Hall of Famer.

First, VCU loses their head coach after only 2 years – as Will Wade has decided to become the LSU Tigers new coach.   Then, Richmond’s Spiders season ended in the NIT quarterfinals tonight as they lost to TCU.

Congratulations are due to both VCU and Richmond since both had fantastic seasons.   But the last couple of days haven’t really been the best for the local teams.

After the first weekend, Ryan Zotti has continued to hold onto the lead for both the standard and upset pools.

In the standard pool, Ryan has 530 points, giving him a 10 point lead over Earl McKnight.  Charles Flynn and Chris Peterson are tied for 3rd at 510 points, and there are 7 tied for 5th place – just 30 points behind.

In the upset pool, Ryan has 223 points, followed by Kyle Kelly and 212, Dan Wells and Earl McKnight at 210 and Bill Kahn at 208.

The Lunatic is being crushed – as his insane picks are in a tie for 64th place, while his sane picks are all the way back in a tie for 161st place.   Not looking good for the Lunatic – he could be thoroughly stomped this year.

But that is why we do a Second Chance Pool – if you picked Villanova, Duke or Louisville to win it all, unlike those teams, you get a second chance to redeem yourself.   Just login and put in your picks for one chance at a do-over.