Oh – and just in case you are wondering. Remember, the Lunatic picked Illinois, Gonzaga and Alabama to make the Final 4 in both his picks, with Baylor winning the South in his sane picks and Purdue winning the South in his insane picks.

So, in basically the first 2 days of the tournament (and 1 game into the third day), 2 of those 5 teams (including the sane pick for the national champion) are already eliminated.

This appears to be a real stomping this year. My apologies in advance to fans of Gonzaga, Baylor and Alabama. The Lunatic Curse appears to be coming out early this year. I feel additionally bad because Gonzaga so far has been undefeated this season – that would have been a nice story to see Gonzaga become the 8th undefeated national champion since 1939, and the first one since Indiana did it in 1976.

At least Baylor has the benefit that they are facing a Big 10 team right now. That probably makes them safer to make the second weekend. If that happens, I should probably make sure to take them in the Second Chance pool – they are already doomed. Why would I pick another team and then doom the chances of another team. The Lunatic Curse is real – with great power comes great responsibility.

Loyola-Chicago ran this play where they would get the ball to their center Cameron Krutwig at the top of the key, and one of their guards would come through a bunch of screens along the baseline, come around a final screen to get a hand-off pass from Krutwig, and then the guard would drive off the pass to the basket. Typically, the person guarding the guard would run into multiple screens – and so it would force Illinois to either switch to guard the person driving to the basket, or stay with their man defense. If they switch, the guard simply passed the ball back to Krutwig for a layup. It they don’t, the guard got a layup. And it seemed no matter which choice Illinois made, it was always the wrong one.

Loyola-Chicago jumped out to a 9 point half-time lead, and never looked back. They beat the #1 seed (3rd ranked team in the country) 71-58 and become the first team to make it to the Sweet 16. To be fair, maybe we should have all seen this coming – we all remember the Ramblers Cinderella run to the Final 4 in 2018. 5 of the top 7 players in minutes for the Ramblers are now seniors. And of course, they still have the 101 year old chaplain Sister Jean watching over them.

I am just so bummed because I fell for the hype. This was going to be the Big 10’s year. Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State are all ranked in the top 8 of the country. The entire tournament is happening in the heart of Big 10 country in Indianapolis. While the crowds would be small, it was clear every crowd would be rooting for the Big 10 team creating a home court advantage.

Illinois was supposed to be the best of the Big 10 teams (although I am sure Michigan would argue with that). And Loyola-Chicago basically dismantled them. This game wasn’t even close. Illinois kept trying to force the ball into Kofi Cockburn down low, and it was clear why. When he got the ball, he was impossible to stop. The problem was Loyola stopped most of the times they tried to force the ball into them and they would turn the ball over. Ayo Dosunmu is a first team All-American, and he was invisible – going 4 for 10 from the field with 9 points and 6 turnovers. The Illini had 17 turnovers as a team.

Illinois did not look like the #3 team in the country. Ohio State losing to Oral Roberts did not look like one of the top 8 teams in the country. Purdue losing to North Texas did not look like one of the top 16 teams in the country. The Big 10 was supposed to be the best in college basketball and was playing the NCAA tournament on basically their home court. And the Missouri Valley champion just took their best team out of the tournament.

Loyola-Chicago deserves so much credit – because the way they played today, they certainly looked like they are capable of going much farther than the Sweet 16. Congratulations to the Ramblers for being the first team to make the Sweet 16.

To:It was a crazy first round – and that makes what some of our leaders have done even more impressive.  We had two 13 seeds, a 14 seed, and a 15 seed win games – and yet our leaders still got so many games correct. 

In the Standard Pool, our leader is Joey Ams – who managed to correctly pick 26 winners.  But we have many who are within 20 points. Getting 25 correct was Will Caldwell, TJ Acuto, Lowell Isaacs, Kevin Busby, Ryan Callahan, and Sam Luy.  And getting 24 correct was both of Mark Walsh;s picks, Michael Cheung, both of Joseph Laucius’ picks, Nick Kindig, Adam Davis, and Ethan Busby 

In the Upset Pool, Ryan Callahan and Joey Ams are tied at top with 142 points.  They are followed by Sam Luy at 139, and Adam Davis and Kevin Busby at 135. 

As for the Lunatic, he only got 21 games right – so he is lurking in a tie for 76th place. So far, a pretty solid stomping. Of course, his daughter Katie who thought the games were football got 23 games right by just picking school names she liked. Meanwhile, apparently the Lunatic curse has been extended to Elizabeth – she is in last of the entries in the prize pool as she only got 11 games right. Charlie so badly wanted to do 2 picks this year thinking that will help him. He got 21 right in one pick and 20 in the other – so he is not happy that he is losing twice to his sister.

If you are not one of our leaders, don’t despair.  There is lots of opportunity to make up ground in the later rounds.  And if you have powers like the Lunatic to curse all your teams into early losses, the second chance pool will come out Monday night after the games.  Everyone likes having a second chance!!!! 

That was just crazy. Texas kept turning the ball over each time down the court. Then, they kept stopping Abilene Christian on the other side of the court.

So, with about a minute left in the game, Andrew Jones from Texas drives to the basket and gets fouled. Jones hit both free throws to make it 51-49.

Abilene Christian tried draining the clock – which led to Reggie Miller having to drive to the basket to try to beat the shot clock – instead, he loses control of the ball out-of-bounds and it is Texas ball.

Texas comes down the field, Matt Coleman III drives towards the basket, and passes the ball out to Jones on the wing, who hits a big-time three-pointer to give the Longhorns the lead with just 16 seconds.

Abilene Christian has one more chance – where Damian Daniels drives down the lane but with 2 seconds his shot gets blocked from behind by Kai Jones. Unfortunately, for Texas, the ball gets blocked hard off the backboard and into the hands of Abilene Christian’s Joe Pleasant – who gets fouled as he tried to go back up for the basket.

The junior normally shoots 58.8% from the free throw line, but with the game on the line, Pleasant calmly hits both free throws, Texas’s desparation in-bounds pass gets stolen, and Abilene Christian allows the 14 seeds to have someone to crash the second round party.

It wasn’t pretty. The Wildcats only hit 29.9% of their shots from the field. They were 3-18 from three-point range. They only scored 53 points. But they also forced Texas into committing 23 turnovers. That defense has sent Abilene Christian to the second round, and has finally delivered the first loss to the Big 12.

I am so sorry, BYU fans – but the Lunatic curse is complete. Sure, I was only picking you through one round. But everyone knows what happens when the Lunatic makes a late change to his picks and second guesses himself. That is a sure sign he is making a mistake.

And after a day of the chalk ruling the day, the evening has gone back to upsets. #11 UCLA joins #10 Maryland and #13 Ohio. And currently, with 8 minutes left, #14 seed Abilene Christian is up 43-40 on Texas. Maybe it isn’t too late for a 14 seed to join the second round. Will Abilene Christian be responsible for finally giving the Big 12 their first loss in the tournament. Only time will tell……

On Friday, I mentioned that I was changing my pick to BYU since UCLA star player Johnny Juzang went down with a pretty scary right ankle sprain – and it looked like there was a good chance that the Bruins leading scorer would not play.

I thought to myself that typically a First Four team wins – and UCLA was clearly the best of the 4 winners. I had originally assumed Michigan State would win that game and had picked them to beat BYU. After the upset, I thought to myself that UCLA played well enough that they could also beat BYU. And then the news came Friday morning that it was still unclear that Juzang would play.

Sometimes having all this information isn’t a good thing. I made the rational decision that without their top scorer, they would be a shell of their team. Of course, we have seen what has happened in the first half.

Johnny Juzang has played – and has scored 19 of the Bruins 38 points on way to a 38-27 halftime lead. I am sorry to all BYU fans out there. The Lunatic did not think about how his abilities could hurt a team’s chances.

As I was writing my last post about Ohio and Maryland, my phone buzzed with an alert. I glanced over to my phone on my desk to see this:

That is right – the March Madness App actually notified me that the Oregon vs VCU game was close at 1-0, and I should click to watch now.

Because hearing that the local team had to forfeit the game due to multiple positive COVID tests isn’t hard enough – we should ask their fans to open the app to watch the game that isn’t being played!!!!!

The first 8 games of the day have all gone to the favorites. And Iowa kicked off the evening games comfortably ahead of Grand Canyon. So, it was questionable if anyone would stop the chalk from advancing today.

Fortunately, the other double digit seeds playing tonight had other plans (well, at least for those of us rooting for the underdog to win). I hate to admit it, but after watching Purdue go down, I am kind of in the “misery loves company” phase of my recovery.

Ohio and Maryland were happy to help. First, Ohio managed to take the lead with about 7 minutes to play against Virginia as Ben Vander Plas hit two three pointers to put the Bobcats up 45-40. Virginia made a late run – as Jay Huff made a couple of baskets around the rim and Trey Murphy III hit a three to cut the lead late to 2. But Ohio stayed calm and Mark Sears and Lunden McDay hit both of their free throws to help keep Ohio ahead for a 62-58 win. It is a little a shame for Virginia – you have to wonder how much testing positive for COVID during the ACC Tournament and having to not arrive in Indy until Friday influenced them. That being said, you can’t take anything away from the MAC Tournament Champion – they played a strong game.

Maryland was more of a start-to-finish type thing. The Terrapins jumped out to a 33-22 lead at halftime against Connecticut and never really looked back. The Huskies did get the lead to as close as 5 with about 3 minutes to play, but Maryland hit 4 consecutive free throws to make sure Connecticut never got close – on way to the 63-54 victory.

So, Saturday finally saw an underdog win – #13 Ohio and #10 Maryland advance. UCLA has started off ahead of BYU – but it is early. That being said, I have completely jinxed the Cougars by changing my pick to them – so that probably bodes poorly for them.

But did it need to happen to the local team?

VCU becomes the first team to get eliminated from NCAA tournament due to COVID protocols.

The statement from the NCAA:

“The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has declared the VCU-Oregon game scheduled for Saturday night at Indiana Farmers Coliseum a no-contest because of COVID-19 protocols,” the NCAA’s statement read. “This decision was made in consultation with the Marion County Public Health Department.

“As a result, Oregon will advance to the next round of the tournament. The NCAA and the committee regret that VCU’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to play in a tournament in which they earned the right to participate. Because of privacy issues we cannot provide further details.”

Really sad to hear that the VCU Rams season ended this way. I keep looking to see if I can find out anything else – but I guess the only thing that matters is the season is over for the Rams.

UC Santa Barbara found themselves in the position you want to be. Amadou Sou had just hit two free throws and gave the Gauchos a 1 point lead. Creighton came down and missed the shot, but Christian Bishop got the offensive rebound for the Bluejays, and then as he tried to pass the ball outside to setup another chance, UCSB reached in and was called for a foul.

So, the 6-7 junior forward who has shot 57% from the line all season steps up to the line to shoot the one-and-one free throw that will determine his team’s season. And calmly drills the first free throw. And calmly drills the second free throw. The Blue Jays have re-taken the lead.

UCSB has one more chance – they come down the field and make a great pass into the lane to Sou, who goes up for the heavily guarded layup. He draws a little contact from the smaller defender as he steps to the basket (who to be fair, looked like he had position so a good no-call), shoots the ball, and watches as it hits the back of the rim and bounces out.

Creighton survives and advances on what appears to continue to be Chalk Day.