Apparently, according to a Sports Illustrated article, 2021 has hit a historic record – the sum of the 16 remaining seeds is the highest total that the tournament has seen.  Guess that shouldn’t be a surprise with Oral Roberts, Oregon State, UCLA and Syracuse playing on the second weekend. Considering the chaos of the first weekend of games, the people on the top of the leaderboard deserve tons of praise. 

Right now, our leaders are T.J. Acuto and Ryan Callahan at 430 points.  TJ and Ryan are closely followed by 4 entries at 420 points (two by Michael Cheung, Adam Davis, and Mark Walsh).  We then have an 8 way tie for 7th place as Kelly Woods, Will Caldwell, Kayla Lindvall, Lowell Isaacs, Kevin Busby, Cal Lindvall, Sam Luy, and Debbe Evans at 410 points. 

In the upset pool, Ryan Callahan has the lead alone at 210 poitns.  Ryan is followed closely by Amy Hattaway (207), Adam Davis (203), Michael Cheung (200), and Mark Walsh (195). 

Of course, we have 107 entrants who are within one Elite 8 winner (80 points) of the leaders.  So, there is still plenty of chance to catch up.  Well, unless you picked Big 10 teams to the Elite 8 – then you are probably struggling. Good thing there is a Second Chance Pool!!!!   Don’t forget to login sometime this week and make your picks for the Sweet 16 – it is a chance for you to get another chance to win!!!!

Oregon knocked off another Big 10 top seed by 15 points.

Top seed Gonzaga beats Oklahoma by 16.

UCLA beats Cinderella Abilene Christian by 20.

Creighton beats Cinderella Ohio by 14.

Michigan and LSU play the only close game of the day – the top seeded Wolverines manage to win by 8 in a game of runs where the teams would score 7-10 uncontested points. The Wolverines just had one more run than the Tigers.

Florida State gives the Pac 12 their first loss – as they beat Colorado by 18.

Alabama blows out Maryland by 19.

In the final game, 6 seed USC is up 40-21 at halftime over 3 seed Kansas. If it wasn’t for the Second Chance Pool needing to be released, I wouldn’t even bother staying up to watch the second half. Maybe I can re-watch an episode from Lucifer – I have started to re-binge watch the show as I anticipate new episodes getting released soon. I am almost through Season 2 again.

So – the only upsets by seeds are the two Pac 12 schools. But was it really an upset watching Oregon beat up on another over-rated Big 10 team. It certainly isn’t an upset if USC wins – Vegas actually set the line as USC as the favorite.

Boring. I so badly want Kansas to have a massive comeback to at least have something interesting happen. It really isn’t fun watching teams getting blown out. I don’t care that the favorites keep winning – but watching them jump out to an early 15-20 point lead and never get challenged is not good TV.

Nothing to rant about. Probably good – maybe this half can go fast and the Lunatic can try to get a little bit of sleep tonight. Since I said that – let me use this as a chance to remind you about the Second Chance Pool. Go to the login page and fill out your Second Chance picks (well, sometime tomorrow. You don’t need to stay up to watch USC win – everything should be set up in the morning….).

Would we expect anything less of this side of the bracket? The Oregon State Beavers jumped out to a crazy 18 point lead, watched 4 seed Oklahoma State cut that lead all the way down to 2, and then ran away to win 80-70.

So, the Midwest Region will be #8 Loyola-Chicago against #12 Oregon State, while #11 Syracuse battles #2 Houston. And if it weren’t for a 14-2 run at the end of the Houston / Rutgers game – that would have been a 10 seed.

Add #15 Oral Roberts in the South, and it has been a totally wild day.

Cinderella has a name – and it is Oral Roberts!!!!! That’s right, Oral Roberts has become just the second 15 seed to make it to the Sweet 16, as they upset Florida 81-78.

Oral Roberts came back from being down double-digits early in the second half. ORU’s Kevin Obanor hit a jumper to give them a 77-76 lead. Florida’s Noah Locke gave the lead back to the Gators, but ORU came back down the court, and DeShang Weaver hit a three pointer from the wing to give the Golden Eagles a 2 point lead.

Then, both teams played good defense holding each other from scoring. With 17 seconds, Obanor hit one of his two free throws to extend the lead to 3. The Gators had a frantic sequence where Tre Mann missed a three-pointer to tie, Scottie Lewis tracked the offensive rebound down in the corner and threw up a desperation three-pointer as he faded out-of-bounds. But the shot was short, the rebound got slapped around, and time ran out.

Cinderella has found a way to stop the clock. She is still dancing, and will be getting to play #3 Arkansas in the Sweet 16. Congratulations to the Golden Eagles!!!!

Rutgers was pulling the big-time upset of #2 Houston. They were up 58-49 with 5 minutes to play.

Then, Houston went on a 14-2 run to finish the game and come back for a 63-60 win. Down 2, Houston’s DeJon Jarreau missed his shot, but Tramon Mark rebounded the ball, went back up strong, gets fouled and still makes the basket. Then, Mark hits the free throw to take a 1 point lead.

Rutgers had a couple chances to tie – but Geo Baker lost the ball on the first drive. And then after Marcus Sasser hit two free throws to extend the lead to 3 with 9 seconds, Rutgers last ditch three-point shot missed.

Houston survived and advanced. And heartbreak for Rutgers – this is one of the best seasons they have had in a very long time – so hate to see it end like that.

ESPN wrote an article titled “Reseeding the men’s March Madness 2021 field for the round of 32”. So – I was curious who they thought were the teams that should be reseeded.

You ready for this.

The one seeds should be Gonzaga, Illinois, Baylor and Michigan (the current 4 one seeds)

The two seeds should be Alabama, Houston, Iowa and Arkansas (since Ohio St lost – they moved up one of the 3 seeds)

The three seeds should be Kansas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Florida State. They corrected their perceived slight of Oklahoma State by switching the order of West Virginia and the Cowboys.

The four seeds are Villanova, Creighton, Colorado and Texas Tech. Basically, all the 5 seeds and the top 6 seed move up in order to fill gaps of teams that have lost.

The five seeds are USC, Florida, LSU, and Oregon. So, the 8 seed LSU jumps 7 seed Oregon.

The six seeds are Loyola-Chicago, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Maryland – teams just moving up to fill gaps

The seven seeds are Rutgers, Syracuse, UCLA and Oregon State – teams just moving up

The eight seeds are Ohio, Abilene Christian, Oral Roberts, and North Texas – so they moved both the 14 seed Abilene Christian and 15 seed Oral Roberts over 13 seed North Texas.

So, they flip-flop Oklahoma State and West Virginia. They flip-flop LSU and Oregon. And they move Abilene Christian and Oral Roberts pass North Texas. Which if they left them in their seeded order, they would have been the same seed.

If you are going to write an article reseeding the 32 teams – how about actually reseeding the teams.

Arkansas led for the entire game – sometimes by double digits. But in a game defined by a bunch of runs, it was finished by a lack of a run.

Texas Tech hit a couple free throws to get the game to a 1 point game with 2 minutes to play. Arkansas did a good job of taking some time off the clock, but missed their drive to the basket, so Texas Tech had a chance to take the lead. And then they walk the ball up the court.

With 1:15, Mac McClung draws a foul dribbling outside trying to get open, but the 82% FT shooter missed the free throw.

Arkansas takes another 20 seconds off the clock, but misses a long three-pointer, and Texas Tech starts walking the ball up the court. There is 50 seconds in the game, you are down 1 point, and you are helping the other team take time off the clock. Terrance Shannon Jr drives to the basket but missed the layup.

Then, it gets stranger. Because there is only 34 seconds left – if they miss, you are going to get the ball with 3-4 seconds, so you should foul. But Texas Tech lets Arkansas walk the ball up the court, and then finally, reach in on Arkansas’ JD Notae to stop the clock with 19 seconds. That’s right, down 1 point, they let 15 seconds drop off the clock without trying to trap the ball and steal it. They simply let Notae unguarded dribble 15 seconds off the clock.

Notae makes the first free throw and misses the second one to give Texas Tech one more chance with 19 seconds. And Texas Tech WALKS the ball up the court. It was like they thought there was still 15 minutes in the game instead of 15 seconds. Arkansas pressures them to the point that there is only 6 seconds left to where the announcers even say that they need to do something soon because they are running out of time. Kyler Edwards drives to the basket for a well-guarded contested layup, the ball harmlessly falls off the rim, and Notae gets the rebound to end the game.

Notice I said gets the rebound to end the game – because by the time Notae got the rebound, Texas Tech didn’t have any more time on the clock to foul him. The game was over. It is one thing when the team with the lead successfully plays keepaway to drain the clock. But it is amazing to me that a team losing by 1 to 2 points would take close to 35 seconds off the clock because they have no urgency for the need to tie the game.

Arkansas played better basketball for 38 minutes – and so not trying to take anything away from their victory. But Texas Tech played with no urgency to try to tie or win the game in the final 2 minutes – and then with 6 seconds left in the game were forced into a desperate drive that failed and ended their season. If they had simply rushed the ball up the court, they would have had a good 14-15 seconds to set up their offense and possibly get a much better shot. Not to mention the 20 seconds they let go off the clock by not fouling fast enough or bringing the ball up slowly on other drives.

I get that if you tie the game with too much time in the game, then you have to play defense to stop the other team from taking the lead back. But isn’t it a better situation to be playing defense for 15 seconds where if you succeed, you go to overtime. It makes no sense to me to not give yourselves another chance if you miss because you are afraid they might score afterwards.

Should we be surprised. Tell me if you have heard this story before.

Syracuse struggles through the first half of the season. They start winning big games late in the season to get in the bubble discussion. They get in as one of the last at-large teams in the field – with experts questioning the decision that the Selection Committee made. And then, Syracuse starts playing to prove the experts wrong.

Syracuse jumped out to a double digit lead early in the first half, and then held off every comeback bid that West Virginia tried. It seemed every time they would make a run, Buddy Boeheim would be there to hit a big three-pointer to regain the lead. Boeheim finished the game with 25 points to lead the Orange.

It wasn’t pretty at the end, with getting trapped in the corner and missing free throws. But they did just enough to hang on for a 75-72 victory to become the first double digit seed to make it to the Sweet 16.

I thought to myself that instead of watching Wisconsin get hammered by Baylor, or diving through statistics to try to handicap Monday’s games, I would take a break to do something other than sit around my house.

So, I thought, why not go out and shoot some free throws. I could come up with some fun blog about how many I could make.

That was sadly the most exercise I probably have had in months. It has been so easy to just settle into your house. I love video games. There are so many fun TV shows to binge watch. I shot my first shot up and felt a pain in my shoulder. It was asking me why I was torturing it.

But I was determined, so I shot a few layup to hopefully make my shoulder remember how to work, and got started. And I started well. I made 7 of my first 10. I was pleased.

I stayed relatively consistent for a while – I made 17 of my first 25. 68% was pretty good for someone who hadn’t shot a basketball in several months. It was all down hill from there. I was tired – if my form was off, my shoulder would twinge. It was bad, Still, I finished making 28 of 50 free throws….. So, 56%. Maybe in an attempt to make myself healthier, I should plan to go out and do that each day to see if I get better or worse.

Still – that still baffles me that some of the players are only making 50-60% of their free throws. Sure, there is the pressure of a game. And they are not just standing there and getting in a rhythm. But to be fair – they are also not 47 years old, 5’7″, significantly overweight, and haven’t picked up a basketball in months. And I can make 50-60% of my free throws.

Hopefully, the next time in the tournament you hear the announcer mention that the player is a 50% free throw shooter, you get the image of this old, out of shape Lunatic shooting free throws in his court. And hopefully, the free throw the goes in for the player. If he doesn’t, then you can see this tired old man slowly jogging after the ball rolling away from him.

As I was finishing up my blog on the Lunatic curse, a commercial came on that gives some perfect – and very timely – advice. Corona’s hotline operator Kenny Smith picks up the phone and says:

“OK! Listen closely! Take your bracket, ball it up, and throw it in the trash. Grab yourself a Corona, and enjoy the rest of the games. Are you crying? There’s no crying on the Corona hotline!”

Well, I am not crying (at least not yet). And I am not much of a beer drinker – so probably not going to grab a Corona. But the rest of the advice is good. I am going to throw out my bracket and simply enjoy the rest of the games.