Have to take a moment to recognize a special day. 18 years ago, on this day, my friends helped set up a blind date for me. They thought we had so much in common that we would be perfect for each other. We met at a Starbucks, had a nice dinner at Pasta Luna, the Italian restaurant next door, and then stopped for a drink at the Capital Ale House.

That wonderful night was when I met Elizabeth – and little did I know how much my life would change for the better that evening. And as I sit here for the second weekend in a row watching several basketball games all day and blogging about them, I know that I am extremely lucky to have found such a wonderful woman to be my wife.

I am so blessed to have such great friends and family. Elizabeth – I’ve found all I’ve waited for, and I could not ask for more.

Barring any massive surprise, the #1 team in the country will be heading to the Elite 8. Gonzaga is up 21 points with 2:43 left in the game.

They make it look effortless as they score points in runs. Creighton is certainly not a bad team – they made it to the Sweet 16. And yet, they are down 20+ points. It almost looked like whenever Gonzaga wanted to get a layup they could do it. Whenever they wanted a three-pointer, they would get a wide open one.

The Bulldogs clearly showed today why they are currently undefeated on the season – and it was done so effortlessly, it didn’t even look like they were playing their best basketball. They look extremely good – not sure who has the talent or firepower to stop them.

The tournament has amazing things happen – anything can happen in March. But right now, Gonzaga looks really good as they advance to the Elite 8 with an 83-65 victory.

There really isn’t much interesting to say on this game. Syracuse had just tied the game at 20 with about 5 minutes left in the first half. And then Houston finished the half scoring the last 10 points to take a 30-20 halftime lead.

And then, the Cougars never looked back. Much is made about how difficult it is to score against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense. But it was Houston’s man defense that was the story in this one. Syracuse had scored 70 or more points in 7 of their last 9 games, including both of their tournament games against San Diego State and West Virginia. But tonight, Syracuse scored 46 points. They shot only 28% from the field. There have been some good defensive performances tonight, but Houston shut down everyone on the Syracuse team.

So Houston advances to the Elite 8 to play #12 seed Oregon State. While I did not do any fact checking, I heard on the broadcast, that Houston will become the first team in tournament history to play 4 double digit seeds (#15 Cleveland State, #10 Rutgers, #11 Syracuse and now #12 Oregon State).

Congratulations to Baylor, Arkansas, Oregon State and Houston. 4 more teams will join them in the Elite 8 tomorrow!!!! Can’t wait for the next set of games.

It was so close. The 15 seed has expanded their lead all the way to 12 points with 15 minutes to play. But we all knew that Arkansas wasn’t going away. In almost a complete copy from their regular season game, Arkansas came back. Just this time, the Razorbacks weren’t able to break free.

By the 8 minute mark, the Golden Eagles lead was down to 3. And at the 7 minute mark, Davante Davis made a jumper to tie the game at 58 for Arkansas. Both teams would come back and forth scoring and matching. And with 1:48 in the game, Oral Robert’s Max Abmas found Kevin Obanor under the basket for a layup and a foul. Obanor’s free throw gave the Golden Eagles a 1 point lead.

It wouldn’t last long, Jalen Tate, the Razorback’s leading scorer with 22 points in the game, drove to the basket on the next possession for the Razorbacks and hit his jumper to give Arkansas the lead back. Oral Roberts turned the ball over. But they played good defense and forced a missed shot by Arkansas’ Moses Moody. And then off a missed three by ORU’s Obanor, Francis Lacis pulled down the offensive rebound, got fouled as he went back up, and hit one of the two free throws to tie the game with 32 seconds.

Arkansas held for the equivalent of the last shot. Jalen Tate drove to the lane with the clock running down and passed the ball to Davante Davis. Davis made a move to the basket, and hit the jumper over the Golden Eagles’ defender with just 3 seconds left for a 72-70 lead.

So the stage was set. 3 seconds left for the Golden Eagles’ season. Everyone knew that they would want to get the ball into Max Abmas, who was their leading scorer for the season, and had already scored 25 points in the game. Oral Roberts had a nice in-bounds play that managed to get Abmas the ball as he was already moving to the basket. Abmas drove down the sideline, managed to get to the three-point line with still time in the game, and was able to get some space to get an open three-point shot at the buzzer.

Time seemed to stand still as the ball left Abmas’ hand, the buzzer sounded, and everyone held their breath watching the shot head to the basket. The game-winner hit the front of the rim, bounced harmlessly off the backboard and missed. The clock had struck midnight for Cinderella – the dance was over.

Arkansas survived the scare and advanced to the Elite 8 to play Big 12 regular season champion Baylor. And while it is over, Oral Roberts certainly had an unforgettable March – they were literally inches away from becoming the first 15 seed to play in the Elite 8.

It wasn’t necessarily looking good for the Baylor Bears. They are playing on the side of the bracket where upsets are running rampant. They are one of the remaining teams that the Lunatic has picked to one of his Final Fours – and so the Lunatic curse is watching over them.

And then they fell behind Big East regular season champion Villanova had jumped out to a 30-23 halftime lead. The Bears could not hit a three-pointer to save their lives. It looked bad.

Then, the second half came, and Baylor showed why they have been ranked in the top 3 teams in the country for the entire season. Baylor’s defense was smothering – as Villanova would only score 21 points in the second half. And the Bears went from being down 7 at halftime to winning 62-51.

So, the Bears await the winner of the Arkansas / Oral Roberts game going on right now. And if you are not watching, the 15th seeded Golden Eagles are trying to become the first 15 seed to ever make the Elite 8. They are leading 35-28 at halftime over the Razorbacks.

Lets take a little bit of a step back. To start the season, the press picked Oregon State to finish dead last in the Pac 12. I am not sure the start of the season suggested any different. Sure, they opened up with a win against Cal and a loss at Washington State. But then they lost to Wyoming (the 6th place team in the Mountain West Conference) and Portland (the last place team from the West Coast Conference).

The Beavers did start to win a few more games – certainly an improvement over a team expected to be last in the conference, but nothing that screamed a team that would make the NCAA Tournament. As of February 20th, after a close loss to Colorado, the Beavers were 11-11 for the season and 7-9 in the Pac 12. Oregon State won three road games against Cal, Stanford, and Utah before losing at home to Oregon to finish the regular season. At 14-12 with a 10-10 record in conference, Oregon State was not on anyone’s radar for the NCAA Tournament. Their NET ranking wasn’t in the top 80 – they were not even on the board to get consideration as an at large.

Then, the Pac 12 tournament started – they started by upsetting UCLA in overtime. Many thought that loss to a non-tournament team might even knock UCLA out of the tournament. But no one really expected that the game was anything other than a shocking conference tournament early round upset. Then, the Beavers beat Oregon by 11 points. Suddenly, they were one victory away from the Pac 12 Tournament Championship and an automatic bid to the Big Dance.

Then, Oregon State jumped out to an early lead in the Pac 12 championship against Colorado, and managed to hang on for 70-68 victory. The Beavers have now won 6 of 7 games – all away from home – and have earned an improbable trip to the NCAA Tournament.

But the Beavers were not done – they knocked off the Midwest 5 seed Tennessee 70-56, and they shocked the 4 seed Oklahoma State 80-70. And this afternoon, the Beavers played stifling defense against Missouri Valley champion Loyola-Chicago. The Ramblers only shot 33.3% from the field (including 21.7% from three-point range). The Beavers held the Ramblers to just 16 points in the first half to get an 8 point lead. They extended that lead to as many as 13 early in the second half. It looked like the Ramblers would make a run – and they managed to cut the lead to as little as 4 points when Marquise Kennedy made a lay-up with 92 seconds left in the game.

But on the next possession, Oregon State ran the clock down, and Ethan Thompson found Jarod Lucas open for a three-point shot that would give the Beavers a 7 point lead. Loyola kept trying to chip away at the lead, but the Beavers hit their free throws, and held on for a 65-58 victory. And with that victory, the 12 seed Oregon State Beavers became the first team to earn their way to the Elite 8.

It has been an amazing March for the Beavers. On February 20th, the Beavers looked like they were one of the many teams simply finishing out their season – where they would be watching the NCAA Tournament from home in Corvallis, Oregon. 10 games later, they are waiting to see whether they will be playing Houston or Syracuse for a spot in the Final Four.

You can’t make this stuff up – March Madness is truly incredible.

It is pretty clear that the Lunatic is out of practice with the sleep-deprivation of March. As I watched the start of the game between Loyola-Chicago and Oregon State, I felt happy as I made the last couple of updates to the website on payments.

Happily, I got myself a snack and continued to happily enjoy the game. Then, I made a realization. I never revealed my second chance picks. Shame on the Lunatic. So, without any further delays, I will take advantage of halftime to reveal my picks.

At first, I thought with all the upsets, I should go crazy with my upset picks. I was ready to have some teams make some unexpected runs. And then, I had a realization. With great power comes great responsibility. I have already ended Purdue’s and Illinois’ seasons. How can I ruin a double-digit team’s chance to because this year’s darling of the tournament? Lets face it – if our bracket is destroyed, we all want Cinderella to keep dancing.

So, I changed my mind. I have already ruined the lives of fans from Gonzaga, Alabama and Baylor. So – I should only use my powers on the Midwest region, where I have already taken out Illinois. Unfortunately, if I pick the second chance, I have to ruin someone’s chances anyways.

In the West, Gonzaga will advance by beating USC. Figured USC beat Oregon in the regular season, that was the more likely event.

In the East, I hedged a little. I still have Alabama winning the region, but this time, I took Michigan to make it to the Elite 8 instead of Florida State. I took out the rest of the Big 10, might as well finish the job.

In the South, I have Baylor beating Arkansas to get to the Final Four. As in the West, Arkansas beat Oral Roberts in the regular season – not to mention I couldn’t bear to take out a 15 seed.

The Midwest was the most difficult for me. I was so impressed with Loyola-Chicago, and remember their Final 4 run in 2018 – and so I took the Ramblers to advance over Oregon State. On the other Sweet 16 game, I took Syracuse to beat Houston – I have seen Syracuse do this so many times, just figured I had to pick at least one upset.

Then, I had my longest debate. I am not a fan of Syracuse – Jim Boeheim is an amazing coach, but he has said so many things to bother me that I can’t support them. I thought very seriously about picking Syracuse to apply the Lunatic curse to them. But unfortunately for me, the Lunatic Curse is too smart for that. It knows that I would be picking them to knock them out. So, as much as I hated to do it, I picked the team I thought would win the Midwest – Loyola-Chicago.

In the Final Four, I have Gonzaga beating Alabama, Baylor beating Loyola-Chicago, and Gonzaga beating Baylor. I had Gonzaga, Alabama and Baylor in my initial sane picks – if I thought they were 3 of the best 4 teams in the country before the tournament, I don’t know what should change that opinion. And this way, I have only jinxed Loyola-Chicago.

Of course, as I look up at the game that has started its second half, I see Oregon State up 33-22 on the Ramblers. It is powerful – the Lunatic Curse. I am sorry to any fans of the Missouri Valley champions.

Hi everyone – I think that I have updated the website for all the payments that have been received. Also pretty happy that we have already collected over half the prize fund. That seems ahead of the normal Lunatic Collection Agency collection schedule.

Inevitably, I almost always make a mistake and miss an entry on the site. If you have sent your payment and notice the site not reflecting it, please send me an email. It is more likely that I have just missed your name on the registry.

• You no longer have a final four team available after picking the relatively conservative Final Four of strong Big 10 and Big 12 teams of #1 Illinois, #3 Kansas, #2 Ohio State, and #3 Texas
• You want another chance to say that you had a perfect bracket after your billion dollar picks were ruined in the fifth game when Oral Roberts beat Ohio State in overtime.
• Now that your school has been eliminated from the tournament, you can pick teams intelligently and really show off you basketball knowledge instead of blindly picking Purdue – whoops, I mean your school’s team.
• Your daughter who picked teams based on cities she likes (go Loyola-Chicago) and your son who picked teams based on almost all favorites are both beating you in the pool and you want another chance to redeem yourself
• Because there is not a pool that allows you to pick who gets eliminated each week from the Masked Singer.
• You have decided that all the teams you pick are jinxed, and since there are still schools out there that you don’t like, you want to test the theory by picking them. If you have that power (like the Lunatic does), you might as well use that power for good
• You want to be able to say that you legitimately correctly picked in a bracket that a double-digit seed would make the Final 4 – and just to be on the safe side, picked #11 UCLA, #12 Oregon State, and #15 Oral Roberts to give yourself three tries at it.
• You want to be able to pick all the remaining top teams in Gonzaga, Michigan, Baylor, and Houston and then scream at your television the remainder of the tournament as Pac 12 schools start knocking them off one by one.
• It is another – and more importantly, last chance in 2021 to STOMP THE LUNATIC!
• 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. So don’t forget to get you second chance picks in before Saturday’s 2:40 pm EST game between #8 Loyola-Chicago and #12 Oregon State kick off the Sweet 16.

I will start this off with a quick apology. The recent week has been crazy busy for me, and I have fallen behind in some of my responsibilities with the basketball pool.

Obviously, the standings are updated. And the Second Chance entry form is up and available for all of us – especially those like the Lunatic who picked Illinois to win it all. It is a second chance to win!!!!!

But I imagine that many of you are logging in to fill out your Second Chance pool and seeing the login page say that you have not paid. Due to everything else going on, I have not had a chance to update the site with all the entry fees that I received (especially those that happened before the tournament started).

I want to try to find some time this week where I am not as sleep-deprived so that I can make sure I get everyone correctly accounted for.

I should have the Lunatic Collection Agency back on track by the end of the week before the Sweet 16 games start. So, if you already paid your entry fee, do not worry. I just haven’t had the time to update the system yet.