It’s been at least 45 minutes and I still haven’t calmed down from Virginia’s win – and then I realized that while I was rooting for the Cavaliers, I am not a true UVa fan – was simply rooting for the team I liked better.

So just figured I should send out a reminder to all my friends and colleagues who are true Wahoo fans, take a second and breathe. You can celebrate and relax – you are in the championship.

If my heart-rate is up, I can’t even imagine where yours is right now – so remember to take a few deep breaths. You will need all that energy for Monday night.

Virginia had a comfortable 10 point lead with 5 minutes to play. Then, Ty Jerome – who was lighting up the court missed a shot and in frustration reached in for the rebound and committed his fourth foul of the game.

With Virginia’s leading scorer for the game on the bench, Auburn’s Bryce Brown came to life. Brown hit three three-pointers down the stretch leading the Tigers to a 12-0 run and a 2 point lead. And with 30 seconds in the game, Ty Jerome missed a three-pointer and Auburn got the rebound. After a few seconds, Virginia realized the shot clock was off and they had to foul. But they had only 4 fouls. Fortunately for them, they had time to do it. And they sent Anfernee McLemore – a 60% free throw shooter – to the line. And McLemore coolly drained both FTs to give Auburn a 4 point lead.

Virginia rushes the ball up the court and somehow in the corner, closely guarded, Kyle Guy hits an amazing three pointer from the corner to make it a one point lead with 9 seconds.

So, Virginia fouls again – this time sending Jared Harper – the Tigers best FT shooter at 83.1% – to the line. Harper hits the first FT but misses the second one. But before Ty Jerome could sprint down the court with the defensive rebound, Samir Doughty fouled him. Auburn still had 2 fouls to give before sending them to the line and so he stopped Virginia from setting up their offense.

Then, a combination of controversy and over-coaching happened. The Auburn players planned to use that other foul. They got exactly what they wanted in Virginia having to pass the ball backwards to Jerome. Then, as Jerome tried to drive quickly up the court, he dribbles the ball off the back of his foot. He went back to pick it up and started dribbling again up court – realizing that there was only 2 second left, he got ready to heave a half court desparation shot.

But before he could shoot it, Bryce Brown fouled him using up Auburn’s last foul. This is the over-coaching part. They totally bailed Jerome and Virginia out. That half court heave was not going to go in – play good defense and you win the game. Instead, Virginia gets the ball at half court with the chance to set up one more shot.

Now the controversy – when Jerome bounced the ball off his heel, it wasn’t touched by an Auburn defender. When Jerome picked up the ball with both hands and started to dribble, it should have been a double dribble and a turnover. To be fair, this also might have been set up by the overcoaching. In real time and all the excitement, it was hard to realize that Jerome double dribbled – but the referee also was probably paying closer attention to the Auburn player who was getting ready to intentional foul.

But if this isn’t crazy enough, it gets worse for Auburn. That is because Virginia inbounds the ball into the corner to Kyle Guy, he puts up a three pointer before the buzzer to try to win the game, and misses. But as the buzzer is going off and some of the Auburn players trailing the play started to celebrate, many people had not heard the whistle. And that whistle happened because when Samir Doughty jumped to contest Guy’s shot, he jumped into Guy’s body and fouled him.

Now, Kyle Guy has a chance with 0.6 seconds left to win the game from the free throw line. And Virginia’s first-team All-ACC player calmly hit the first two free throws, was unsuccessfully iced by Auburn calling a timeout, and came back out to calmly drain the game-winning free throw. Auburn’s desparation pass down field got caught by an Auburn player but he couldn’t do anything with it – and Virginia is heading to the championship game with an improbable 63-63 victory.

It is kind of crazy that Virginia has twice been down with under 5 seconds left, been intentionally fouled, and that foul led to them winning the game. Maybe it was simply college basketball karma for their role in the FBI recruiting scandal that this game was taken away from Auburn in such heart-wrenching fashion. Or maybe it was simply college basketball karma paying the Cavaliers back for the rough ending last year of being the first 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed. Or maybe it was simply March Madness!!!

Whatever it was, it was a totally crazy way for the first semi-final to end. The ACC regular season champions from Virginia are heading to the National Championship. And giving completely new definitions to survive and advance.

Virginia has the pace of the game that they want – the teams combined to only score 59 points. They also have shut down Auburn’s three point attack as the Tigers are 3-14 from beyond the arc.

But Virginia is only 3-9 from three point range themselves and are not getting the offensive rebounds that they got against Purdue (the Cavaliers had 17 offensive boards against the Boilers but they have only 3 in the first half against the Tigers).

The Tigers have to be thrilled – Harper and Brown only have 7 points. But they have 13 points from their bench and Anfernee McLemore has 7 (including a big 3 close to the end of the half) that have kept them in the game. The Tigers finished off the half on a 14-6 run – giving them a 3 point halftime lead.

The Cavaliers need someone to score other than Ty Jerome – who has 13 points. Their defense is doing exactly what is almost always does – but they will have to find a way to beat Auburn’s defense if they want to advance to the National Championship.

Will #5 Auburn knock off the last remaining #1 seed and make their first ever championship game in their first ever Final Four! They are 20 minutes away – but I am sure the Cavaliers will put up a fight!

As we get to 30 minutes away from the Final Four beginning, I was looking for something to blog about.  Was going to do my typical grading the conferences – but that will take too long – I won’t finish that in time.

And then it occurred to me – with all the negativity around the college basketball recruiting scandal and the dominance of the one-and-done players like Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett, I realized that there are a few really awesome things about this year’s Final Four.

First of all, each of the top 4 conferences are sending one of their regular-season or conference tournament champions.  How awesome is it that we have each of the conference’s best teams fighting for the national championship.  It is good for college basketball when we have representatives from all of the conferences.

But maybe more importantly, the four remaining teams are all pretty experienced teams – none of them have any of the obvious one-and-done players.  You always hear about the one-and-done player ruining college basketball – but none of those players are left.  These teams are led by outstanding coaches and experienced players.   I do have to admit that I would be a little happier if Auburn wasn’t there – since they are still so much of a part of the FBI recruiting sample (one of their assistant coaches was arrested by the FBI).  But other than that small detail, these teams are led by juniors and seniors.

It is good for college basketball when it will be the juniors and seniors leading their teams to the title.   You have to figure that some of these stars will still make the NBA – but all 4 of these teams are here because of how well their supporting casts have played.  And all of these teams have supporting casts that are truly student athletes – they are likely all going to play 4 years and graduate from their school.

And those student athletes having this type of success is good for college basketball.

Enjoy the games!!!!!!

You can go to any major sports website like ESPN or CBS Sports and get tons of in-depth analysis on the Final Four.  You can get player profiles, you can get cool stories about how awesome this player’s journey has been to make the team and then help lead them to the Final Four, you can get silly re-rankings of the Final Four teams,  If you go to ESPN’s website, you can even see Zion Williamson make his mark on the Final Four by giving “scouting reports” on each team – since Duke actually played all 4 of them this season.  (SPOILER ALERT – he doesn’t even predict who will win each game – BORING!!!!)

You can get so much more here at the Lunatic Blog – we have our own expert panel ready to give you analysis on the Final Four that you simply can not get anywhere else.   It has been difficult this year to get the expert panel together – between my travel for work and the rest of the panel’s complete disinterest in doing this, we decided to wait until the Final Four games.

As I asked if everyone would give me their picks this year, here were the reactions.  Elizabeth sighed and said, “I guess we can do that.”  Charlie didn’t even look up from his basketball game on his I-pad – guess I should be happy that he was at least interested in some type of basketball.  And Katie said, “I don’t want the Patriots to win – I don’t like them.”  Well, Katie will get her wish – the New England Patriots will not be winning the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this year.

So, without further ado (and before I lose my expert panel and can’t write this post), here are the Lunatic’s expert panel picks for the Final Four – you really can’t find this type of expert analysis anywhere else.

 

6:09 pm – #1 Virginia vs #5 Auburn

Charlie – Virginia – because my friend Nathan likes Virginia

Katie – Virginia – because we live in Virginia and I have no clue who Auburn is

Mrs. Lunatic – Auburn – everyone loves a Cinderella story

Crazed Lunatic – Virginia – everyone knows about Virginia’s incredible defense.  But this Virginia team also demonstrated that they have enough offense that they can keep pace with a team that has a hot shooter – as they did against Purdue’s Carsen Edwards.  Auburn also had a brilliant run to the Final Four – but their offense it very reliant on pushing the tempo and hitting three-pointers.  Virginia’s defense is very good at stopping this type of team – and so you have to go with the Cavaliers.

 

8:49 pm EST – #2 Michigan State vs #3 Texas Tech

Charlie – Michigan State – because Purdue is in the Big 10 – and MSU was able to beat Purdue – so they have to be good.

Katie – Texas Tech – because our friends Bridget and Alex live in Texas

Mrs. Lunatic – Texas Tech – everyone loves a Cinderella story – Part II.

Crazed Lunatic – Michigan State – Cassius Winston has just been amazing in this tournament for Michigan State – I did not think anyone would be able to beat Duke, but Winston led the Spartans past the Blue Devils.  Texas Tech has the best defense remaining in the tournament (which is saying something since Virginia is also in the Final Four) – but their style of play is the type of game Michigan State likes to play.  Not to mention, I have learned that you never bet against Tom Izzo in March.

So, there you have it, analysis from the Lunatic’s experts.  Enjoy tonight’s Final Four!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right!!!   Shaka Smart has led his Longhorns to a title – just probably not the title they were looking for.

That’s because the Texas Longhorns managed to win 5 straight games to take the NIT in New York tonight – they were able to beat Lipscomb 81-66.  I am sure that both teams would have preferred to make the NCAA Tournament – but they really both had a great postseason to get to the NIT Final.

Lipscomb really had an impressive run if you realize that just to get to New York, they had to win three road games against Davidson, UNC-Greensboro, North Carolina State, and then beat Wichita State in the semi-finals.  It is tough to win road games – especially in a post-season environment.

Texas’ path was a little easier – since they did get to play their games at home.  They were able to take down South Dakota State, Xavier and Colorado in front of their home fans before heading to Madison Square Garder to knock off fellow Big 12 team TCU.  In the Final, the Longhorns went on a 20-5 run to end the first half with a 14 point lead, and they never looked back.

As for Marshall, they won the CIT by beating Green Bay 90-70.  Green Bay had jumped out to an early 13 point lead in the first half, but Marshall had managed to take the lead by the end of the half – and then poured it on in the second half.

In the only other remaining tournament, the CBI will be decided in game three between South Florida and DePaul – that’s right.  The CBI finishes their championship at the campus sites – with a best of 3 series.   South Florida won on their home court 63-61 to take game 1, and DePaul needed overtime to pull out game 2 at home 100-96.  DePaul is lucky enough to be the team that gets to host game 3 on Friday night in the winner takes all game 3.

Saturday is almost here – can’t wait for what should be a fantastic final four!!!!!!

You can check out all the links in the Table of Contents – under Scenarios…..  As always, these results are un-official – the only standings that matter are the links at the top that I eventually do a validation audit.   But assuming I set up the scenarios datasets correctly, this will give you guidance of who you should be rooting for……

Assuming I recorded everything correctly, here are the people who have the most interest in the upcoming results – those who would potentially win…..

Good luck to all the leaders!!!!!!

STANDARD POOL WINNERS

• Auburn beats Michigan State – Ethan Busby and Kyle Kelly
• Auburn beats Texas Tech – Jim Carini
• Michigan State beats Auburn – Kyle Kelly
• Michigan State beats Virginia – Joe Chapman
• Texas Tech beats Auburn – Jim Carini
• Texas Tech beats Virginia – Jim Carini
• Virginia beats Michigan State – Brian Lawton
• Virginia beats Texas Tech – Jim Carini

 

UPSET POOL WINNERS

• Auburn beats Michigan State – Kyle Kelly
• Auburn beats Texas Tech – John Woodburn
• Michigan State beats Auburn – Kyle Kelly
• Michigan State beats Virginia – Kyle Kelly
• Texas Tech beats Auburn – John Woodburn
• Texas Tech beats Virginia – John Woodburn
• Virginia beats Michigan State – Brody Atkinson
• Virginia beats Texas Tech – Brody Atkinson

 

SECOND CHANCE POOL WINNERS

• Auburn beats Michigan State – Joshua Glass, Sam Luy and Christy Lindvall
• Auburn beats Texas Tech – Christy Lindvall
• Michigan State beats Auburn – Joshua Glass
• Michigan State beats Virginia – Joshua Glass
• Texas Tech beats Auburn – Wendy Joseph and Christy Lindvall
• Texas Tech beats Virginia – Sam Luy and Joshua Glass
• Virginia beats Michigan State – Sam Luy
• Virginia beats Texas Tech – Sam Luy

What a fantastic Elite 8 – well with the exception of my Boilermakers losing in overtime.  But alliances aside, as a college basketball fan, how could you have asked for a better Elite 8?  We had two games go to overtime, another game go to the buzzer ending as a one point upset victory, and the other game being a 2 point game with 12 seconds before free throws stretched the lead to a 6 point upset victory.  You really could not have asked for four better games if you were not a fan of one of the four losing teams.

And that fantastic four also left us with 4 champions.  The best 4 conferences all have sent one of their champions to Minneapolis.  The SEC Tournament Champion Auburn will try to upset the last remaining #1 seed – ACC Regular Season Co-Champion Virginia (ironically, Auburn was the team that took out the other ACC regular season co-champion).   And Big 12 regular season co-champion Texas Tech will try to take out the only remaining team that won a share of their regular season championship as well as their tournament championship – Big 10 champion Michigan State.

Once again, can’t ask for more – the four best conferences are sending their champions to the Final Four to battle for the NCAA Championship.  And if the Final Four and Championship are anything like the Elite 8, we are in for a treat.

This becomes a very important point in the standings – at this point, if you have Michigan State, Texas Tech, Virginia or Auburn, you are thrilled that you might still have a chance to win or place in the pool.  Or you could be like the Lunatic, where you have no more possible ways of scoring points and now are simply a spectator as you watch people continue to leap-frog you in the standings.

The person in the best position at the moment is our Standard Pool leader – Jim Carini.  Jim has been in this position before as he was our 2004 Champion.  But unlike in the actual games, experience doesn’t lead you to victory – your picks do.  And Jim had the foresight to predict Virginia to beat Texas Tech in the championship.  His 990 points not only has the lead – but he also has his champion and runner-up both alive.  But Jim is not running away with this.

John Woodburn and Ian Berglund are both tied for second at 950 points – but neither can catch Jim as John has Duke and Ian has Virginia.  Ethan Busby  (who had Duke beating Auburn) and Kyle Kelly (the top person in the standings with Michigan State) are tied at 4th with 940 points.  Brody Atkinson and Brian Lawton are tied at 6th with 930 points.  And Rosemary McKnight, Rich Napolitano, John Howarth and Lauren Martin are tied for 8th at 920.

In the Upset Pool, John Woodburn has a slim 1 point lead at 263 points.  Brody Atkinson is one point behind at 262 points, Lauren Martin is in 3rd and 260 points, Kyle Kelly is 4th at 256 points, and Michael Cheung and Murli Buluswar are in 5th at 255 points.  But it looks like we have a few people who are within striking distance that could make a move up the standings if one of the four remaining teams win.

In the Second Chance Pool, we have a tie at the top as Joshua Glass and Sam Luy are both at 520 points.  Wendy Joseph is clinging onto third all alone at 480 points, but is followed closely by Evan Goldstein at 440 points and 10 others at 400 points.

We do have one prize that is settled – as typically is by this point.  Wendy Joseph is unofficially the person who is in last place in the standings and in the money pool as her upset picks of Villanova, Belmont, Michigan and UNC did not do well – giving her a total of 290 points.  The normal tradition is to say that she should not have challenged the Lunatic, but with the Lunatic doing so poorly, we will just say that her upsets didn’t turn out well.

The Lunatic is going to get a thorough stomping.  He is in a large tie for 123rd place, and has no possible way of scoring any more points as Duke and UNC were eliminated over the last two rounds.  Yet that stomping is nothing compared to watching his Boilers lose that 3 point lead with 6 second left (and then living in Virginia so that every sports radio station can help him relive those 6 seconds over and over again).

Sometime this week, I will try to create the unofficial scenarios pages – that way, you can see what outcome in the Final Four is the best for you.  After two weeks of sleep deprivation, I am going to spread things out throughout the week instead of staying up until midnight each night.

Kenny Goins drilled a three pointer with 39 seconds left, and Michigan State took a 68-66 lead. RJ Barrett tried to give the Blue Devils back the lead with a three pointer but missed. In the scrum for the ball, Duke got it back for one more chance.

RJ Barrett drove to the basket and got fouled. But he missed the first free throw. Then two ironic moments happened. Barrett tried to intentionally miss the second free throw to give them one more chance with an offensive rebound. The ball went hard off the back of the rim, but bounced straight up high in the air and went in the basket.

But there was one more problem. Duke only had 3 fouls in the half – they couldn’t force MSU to the line. They were able to foul once but on the next in-bounce, MSU threw it downcourt and were able to run out the clock. This time, Duke’s luck at the buzzer ran out. And the Big 10 champion Michigan State Spartans are on the way to Minneapolis.

It took overtime. But the Auburn Tigers were able to rally in the second half after being down 11 early in the first half and still down 5 at halftime. Jared Harper was unbelievable – scoring 26 points and leading the Tigers to the 77-71 overtime victory.

It didn’t matter that they were playing a Wildcats team that had beaten them twice this season. It didn’t matter that they lost Chuma Okeke – who tore his ACL against UNC in the Sweet 16.

And so the last non-champion has been eliminated. It will be the SEC Tournament Champion Auburn taking on ACC regular season champion Virginia in one half of the Final Four. And then Big 12 regular season champion will await the winner of ACC Tournament Champion Duke and Big 10 regular season / tournament champion Michigan State.

Now the game many of us have been waiting for since the brackets were announced. Blue Devils and Spartans is coming!!!!