UCF provided the excitement of the day.  And Liberty tried to make it interesting for a while against Virginia Tech.  But at the end of the day, it was the favorites who one by one ended up winning their games.  Even in the final game of the weekend, where we guaranteed a double digit seed in the Sweet 16, it was Oregon knocking off Cinderella UC Irvine.

So, this year, will be the favorites – the only non-protected seeds left are #5 Auburn and #12 Oregon – and they will need to knock off #1 North Carolina and #1 Virginia to keep going.

Sometimes, that is what happens in March – most of the time there are a few upsets – but every once in a while, it is the favorites that rise to the occasion.

Duke might have just provided a new definition to survive and advance.

UCF took a 4 point lead on a dunk by Tacko Fall – which was questionable of whether or not it should have been a shot clock violation before Fall got the ball.

Cam Reddish cut the lead quickly to one with a clutch three-pointer.  Then, UCF’s BJ Taylor made a great drive to the basket to draw a foul on Zion Williamson and hit the 2 FTs to give the Knights a 3 point lead.

Williamson missed a three-pointer to tie the game, but Javin DeLaurier had a huge rebound to keep the possession alive.  But Duke was using a lot of time as they were having trouble getting into an offensive set.  That’s when Zion decided to do what he only manages to do.

Williamson drove hard to the basket, right at the 7’6″ Fall, floated the ball over the tallest player in college basketball, and scored a basket and drew the fifth foul on the UCF center.  Then, Zion showed he was human.  With a chance to tie the game with 14 seconds, Zion Williamson missed the rebound.

There was only one problem for the Knights.  With Fall fouled out of the game, no one appeared to block out Duke’s RJ Barrett, who grabbed the offensive rebound and immediately went back up and scored the layup to give the Blue Devils a one point lead.

UCF had one last chance – and it was heart-breaking close.  BJ Taylor made a nice drive to the basket and took a tough jumper along the lane.  The ball went hard of the backboard and just off the front rim.  Then, came Aubrey Dawkins.

Aubrey Dawkins is the son of UCF’s coach Johnny Dawkins – that’s right, the same Johnny Dawkins  who played for Duke in the 80s and is second all-time in scoring for Duke.  Well, his son was having a game to be remembered as he scored 32 points – hitting 12 of 18 shots, including 5 three-pointers.

Dawkins came flying into the lane and tried to tip the ball in – but his tip hit the back-board just a little too hard, hit the front of the rim, and unlike almost every other shot he took tonight, this one rolled harmlessly out.  And Duke survives with a 77-76 victory.  And all of us who have the Blue Devils going to the Final Four take a deep breath and exhale.

Duke has survived and advanced.  By literally inches – both Taylor’s shot and Dawkins’ tip-in were so close to going in.  What an amazing ending to such a great game!

UCF has just gone on a 11-2 run as Aubrey Dawkins, Dayon Griffin, and BJ Taylor have all nailed three pointers to give the Knights the 70-68 lead.  And half of the Lunatic Pool stares in disbelief at the possibility of their bracket being destroyed (including the Lunatic).

Pretty exciting!

SEC Player of the Year Grant Williams would not let the Volunteers go home.  Williams scored 6 big points in overtime and Iowa could not answer back – and the Volunteers hang on to win 83-77.  This one almost slipped away from Tennessee, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter by how many points you win by – simply that you are leading when the scoreboard hits zero.  All you need to do is survive and advance…..

The Tennessee Volunteers owned the first half – going up by as many as 25 points, and took a 21 point lead into halftime.   The Iowa Hawkeyes owned the second half – as they managed to come all the way back to tie the game.  Tennessee’s three pointer from Jordan Bone with 5 seconds missed – and we are going to play five more minutes.

Who will own the overtime?

Iowa has charged back – cutting the Vols lead from 25 down to 5.

I get it – the media needs to write articles that assess the teams.  And one of the easiest things to do is “reseeding the teams” and have tons of over-reactions.  I remember reading this and thinking that some of these assessments were insane but I guess they do it to provoke comments / get more readers.

At least I hope so, or otherwise Myron Medcalf’s analysis for ESPN is worse than mine…..  So, some of the massively incorrect assessments (including the one that irritated me the most because of my biases).

All 4 of the 1 seeds are still 1 seeds – boring, but at least a fair assessment.

At the 2 and 3 line, he switched Tennessee and Texas Tech.  I totally understand that Tennessee did poorly against Colgate, but they did win.  Considering that many thought they would have been a #1 seed had they beaten Auburn in the SEC championship, this is a little crazy.

He moved Kansas and Auburn up to a 3 seed.  I guess I can understand giving Kansas some praise after their 34 point win over Northeastern.  But Auburn should have lost to 12 seed New Mexico State – they barely survived based on the strangest of endings.  They did impressively beat Kansas in Saturday’s game – but here is my point.  None of the 3 seeds lost in the first round.  In fact, other than LSU who was almost shocked by Yale, the other three teams won by double digits.  So, why is a team winning by 1 in shocking fashion jumping teams winning by double digits…..

As we move to the 4 seeds, you would expect to see LSU and Purdue.  You would be mistaken.  Virginia Tech still was a 4 seed – but #6 Buffalo, #6 Villanova and #12 Murray State are now 4 seeds.  Lets make sure I understand – Villanova beating St. Mary’s by 4 points is enough to move them over two 3 seeds and a 4 seed.  I like the sentiment of saying Buffalo was mis-seeded as a 6 seed – and they really destroyed Arizona State, but I don’t think it is realistic to say that they would have been seeded that way.  Murray State is simply ridiculous.  Their dismantling of Marquette was impressive, and they have a start player.  But are you really telling me that they are going to jump 30 or so teams to be ranked in the Top 16.  Including over teams that also won their games.

So, this is obviously where LSU and Purdue will be right.  Nope.  Now we have Florida State, Wofford, Washington and Oregon.  I get that Florida State played a close game with Vermont.  Why can’t that be because Vermont is a pretty good team.  Ask Murray State (who Medcalf put ahead of them) if they think Florida State is pretty darn good…. I can see the commentary that we would finally give the Pac 12 the credit they were due – but it also should mention this is saying that they would both be in the Top 20 (which none of the polls have).

OK – we finally get to the place where Purdue is – they are now a 6 seed (ironically, behind Minnesota).  He commented that Purdue played an ugly affair against Old Dominion (one of the top 40 defensive teams according to KenPom), but considering that Purdue only registered 0.94 points per possession against Conference USA’s top team, they should be lower than their 3 seed.  So, because Purdue didn’t score very well against a team considered one of the better defensive teams in the country, that should knock them down from a 3 to a 6 seed.  Lets ignore the fact that they played the entire first half without their starting point guard, and still managed to win by double digits (and cover the Vegas spread).

That’s OK – at least that is better than the fate that LSU took – falling all the way to the 7th seed line.- that’s right, Medcalf took a team ranked in the top 12, and has them ranked as 26th out of the 32 remaining teams.  So, I am all for knocking on LSU for allegedly paying their players, but at the end of the day, if we are re-ranking teams, that is an insane penalty for winning your game.  LSU is clearly a top 16 team (and is heading to the Sweet 16 with their victory over Maryland).  Saying that controversy moves them back a couple teams to make a point I can understand – but it gets silly when you knock them out of the Top 25 – I mean they were the SEC regular season conference champion and Medcalf puts the 3 teams that came in below them all in the top 12.

I get it – we want to rank teams – I won’t be surprised that they do this exercise each round.  But lets not over-react over one game.  How a team plays against a mid-major conference champion (who is likely a really good team if they won both their regular season and conference tournament) does not replace what a team has done throughout the season in their other 30+ games that got them their initial seeding.  That is simply not how this works.

Well, I might need to find something else to rant about – Tennessee is up 21 against Iowa, which is not that interesting to watch….  although pretty impressive by the Volunteers…..

 

The Lunatic was so excited that his handicapping went 8-0 yesterday.  And he is continuing with his trend from last year of doing outstanding on picking if the game will be under or over the totals.   So, this is probably right around the time that the picks go poorly.

That was much better than my bracketology that missed 3 teams.  But according to the evaluation process from the Bracket Matrix project, while getting crushed badly by most of the media bracketologists, I did somehow beat the Fox Sports one.  To be fair, I think that said more about how poorly the Fox Sports bracketologist did vs. how well I did – because I did awful.

Need something to be excited (other than the games that are about to start) if I am going to get stomped…..

Sam Brunner continues to hang onto the lead of the Standard Pool, but he now has company, as Brody Atkinson has tied him at 430 points.  And they have lots of folks close on their tails.  David Link is all alone in 3rd place at 420 points – just 10 points back.  And Ethan Busby, Brad Harding, Jocelyn Knox, Michael Urban, and Alan Miller are in a tie for 4th – just 20 points behind.

In the Upset Pool, Sam Brunner has claimed the lead of that as well – with 197 points.  Brody Atkinson has moved into 2nd at 183 points, Tanmay Gautam is in 3rd at 181 points, Murli Buluswar is in 4th at 180 points, and Jocelyn Knox is in 5th at 178 points.

The Lunatic has a good day on Saturday, as his picks have moved out of the far bottom of the pool – as his insane picks are now in a tie for 84th and his sane picks are in a tie for 127th – considering that I think at one point the sane picks were in the 300s on the standings, I will take moving up to respectability.

Should be a fun day of basketball on Sunday – 3 of the top 4 seeds are in play as Duke, Virginia and North Carolina will try to advance to the Sweet 16.  With so many upsets on Friday, many believe that you should see a lot of the favorites win today.  It’s a fair assumption – I would expect teams like Duke, Virginia, UNC, and Tennessee to be able to win today as well.  But if you are a top seed – you should beware.  These teams pulled upsets on Friday for a reason – they are dangerous.  If you come out thinking you will easily beat these teams, you might find yourself going home early.  And if you don’t believe that, the last game of the day should remind you – as #12 seed Oregon will play #13 seed UC-Irvine for a chance at the Sweet 16.  At this point in March, the numbers are meaningless – you are playing talented teams, and have to bring your best game if you want to make it to the Sweet 16.

Enjoy today’s games!!!!

I totally understand – especially since I was rooting for a blow-out so that I didn’t need to worry about Purdue.  But I have to admit, when it is not my team playing, and it is the only game left, and it is after 11 pm at night, I was really hoping that the game would be a little closer than 51-25 at halftime.

Not sure that I will be able to hang for the last 20 minutes – most of my energy has been spent happily cheering for my Boilers!!!!!