It is not an uncommon event in the tournament. On one day, everyone is excited about the tournament, while favorites go into game and don’t expect that the Summit League champion is going to knock them off – they are used to playing against top 10 teams, so they certainly won’t lose to a team like Oral Roberts. And then, the first Cinderella team wins. And the next – and soon there is carnage everywhere in the bracket.

Then the next day comes, and every protected seed comes out determined to not be the next Ohio State. And the chalk starts winning and winning and winning.

Colorado crushes Georgetown

Florida State lets UNC-Greensboro hang around, but eventually wins by 10.

Kansas lets Eastern Washington jump out to a double digit lead before storming back in the second half.

Michigan isn’t winning by 25 points like the spread – but Texas Southern really hasn’t been close enough to make the Wolverines concerned.

Even the 8 seed got into the action as LSU dominated St. Bonaventure.

There is still opportunity for upsets, Alabama / Iona, Creighton / UCSB and USC / Drake all find themselves in games within 1 point. So – should at least be a little more exciting than the first 4 games. But it seems like the chalk is trying to not allow the Madness to escape today.

Remember how I mentioned that only the 14 seed and 16 seed didn’t get a win on Friday. Eastern Washington is trying to remedy that situation.

The 14-seeded Eagles have a 46-38 lead at halftime over the Kansas Jayhawks. There is obviously a lot of basketball still to be played – but Saturday’s first upset alert is here.

I am also having a little bit of deja-vu. They just mentioned as talking about the possible upset that Eastern Washington has never won a NCAA Tournament game. So, a team that has never won a tournament game has taken an 8 point halftime lead against a heavily favored team. I am sure that it is just coincidental that North Texas had never won a tournament game before last night, and that they started off with an 8 point lead against the Boilers.

It could be that I just can’t erase that game from my mind…… Maybe this just is creating unnecessary fear for Kansas Jayhawks’ fans. But at the end of the day, being down 8 should probably create some fear!!!!

Colorado and Georgetown are about to tip-off in a classic 5/12 seed game. What a great way to start Saturday.

Saturday will have a tough expectations to hold up thanks to Friday’s games. From what I heard, Friday was the first time that 14 of the 16 seeds had at least one winner in a single day.

We had upsets by #9 Wisconsin, #10 Rutgers, #11 Syracuse, #12 Oregon State, #13 North Texas and #15 Oral Roberts!!!! That’s right – only 10 of the 16 favorites won their games on Friday – and if you remove the top 3 seeds, the favorites were successful at a true coin flip.

We had 3 games go to overtime! We had other double digit seeds like Winthrop, Liberty, Cleveland State and Morehead State all keep the games close for a while.

If your team is an underdog – keep the faith!!!! It appears anything can happen. If your team is a favorite – fear everyone!!!!! Everything looks like it will be a battle!!!!

But should we expect anything less – we are playing for a national championship!!!! So, the expectations for today are high! And yet, whatever happens – we can probably count on one thing. March Madness will be AWESOME!!!!!! Enjoy the games!

Joseph Laucius, Nap, Mark Walsh, and Joey Ams managed to do the best today – getting 13 of 16 games right. They have the early lead over everyone – including 15 people just 10 points behind.

Meanwhile, Michael Perry stands alone in the Upset Pool – thanks to bravely picking both Oral Roberts and North Texas to win.

If you are not one of our leaders, don’t despair – there is a lot of basketball to be played!!!!!!!

Sure, you took away my beloved Boilermakers from me. But how can you stay mad at March Madness when it just continues to deliver.

Congratulations to #10 Rutgers, who just won their first NCAA Tournament game in 38 years as they hit a late layup to take a surmountable 4 point lead (Clemson probably should have fouled instead of playing it out). But hind-sight is 20/20. Not to mention that I think I had Clemson upsetting Houston – so it is probably my fault they lost anyways.

#11 Syracuse is crushing #6 San Diego State by 20 points with only 4 minutes left. Of course, that makes sense for the ACC – since Clemson, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech all lost, so of course, their 7th team into the tournament will be the one that wins in dominating fashion.

#12 Winthrop is only down 3 against Villanova with about 14 minutes to play. If Winthrop wins, they will guarantee a double digit seed makes the second weekend since they would play #13 North Texas.

#14 Morehead State is only down 7 at halftime to West Virginia – since Syracuse is awaiting the winner, a comeback from them would also guarantee a double-digit seed making it to the Sweet 16.

Close games. Lots of drama. Overtimes. The Lunatic can’t stay mad at March Madness!!!! Despite my team’s loss, it is still so much fun to watch the NCAA tournament.

After waiting an extra year for the tournament. After getting the tournament to happen in Purdue’s backyard. After getting a decent draw considering that Villanova was having injury issues. After finally not having to play a top Big 10 game where your star centers were supposed to shine.

Someone forgot to tell Cinderella not to crash the party. #13 North Texas took my Boilers down in overtime to win their first ever NCAA tournament game. The Boilers managed to fight their way to tie the game, but one of their biggest problems hit them hard during that comeback. Williams missed a FT that could have made it a one point game, Ivey made a great play to tie the game and get to the line, but couldn’t hit the FT to take the lead. And the next time down the court, Thompson missed his FT to take the lead. You can’t keep giving teams extra chances.

I still have to handicap all Saturday’s games – but it is going to be tough to keep watching after that heartbreak. Hope all the underdogs keep winning. If Cinderella is going to knock out my Boilers, she might as well get some more friends to join her at the dance.

But after #15 Oral Roberts beat Ohio State, and #12 Oregon State beat Tennessee, #13 Liberty has jumped out to a 6 point lead against Oklahoma State.

I am suddenly feeling extremely nervous about my Boilermakers playing #13 seed North Texas.

Oral Roberts tied the game in regulation to send it to overtime. And then Oral Roberts just became the 9th ever 15 seed to knock off a 2 seed.

Purdue’s home court, Mackey Court, is apparently a graveyard for the Big 10 schools. First, Michigan State last night and now Ohio State.

I just wish this game had happened later today so I could have truly blogged on it. That being said, it was still fun to watch the last 2-3 minutes and see Oral Roberts pull off the upset – even if it destroys my Big 10 heavy picks.

Congratulations to Cinderella – Oral Roberts somehow managed to wind the clock back. It is not midnight yet.

A lot was made out of the fact that Michigan State had beaten 3 teams that were in the top 5 at the time of the victory (Illinois, Michigan and Ohio State). There were also many that questioned whether UCLA should have been one of the teams in the field.

And that is what likely makes the UCLA Bruins dangerous!!!!! Michigan State had another one of their inconsistency streaks – where they jumped out to a double digit lead, and then let the Bruins come back to tie the game in regulation, before losing in overtime.

So we had a close game between Texas Southern and Mt. St. Mary’s, a come from behind win by Drake by 1 point when Wichita State missed their buzzer-beating 3 pointer, Norfolk State winning by 1 point when Appalachian State’s last two shots in the final 5 seconds missed, and UCLA coming back to win in overtime.

March is back!!!!! AND IT IS MADNESS!!!!!! Hope the entire tournament is like this!!! It should be fun!

I have been really struggling with this. Might partially be because it is late. Might partially because I don’t like certain matchups. But at some point, you just have to make the picks – even if you don’t think you have picked enough upsets.

I really like Gonzaga, Illinois and Alabama to make the Final 4. In my sane picks, I have Baylor joining them – with Illinois beating Gonzaga in the championship.

In my insane picks, I have to support my Boilermakers. I actually think this is one of the best draws that they have received. While North Texas is certainly no push-over, they are still a 13 seed. The classic smaller conference champion who can beat anyone on any given night, but theoretically, you evaluate the 4 seed’s draw based on the later rounds. Villanova is dealing with injuries. The 1 seed Baylor is going to be tough (as would any of them), but if Baylor has a weakness, it would be in the paint – which is Purdue’s strength. And the #2 seed is Ohio State – a team they have beaten this season (although the games are always close). It probably doesn’t happen – but how could I live with myself without picking them.

Since it is late, I figured this year, I would simply post the link to the printout of my picks.

Click on this line to see my sane picks

Click on this line to see my insane picks

Considering I don’t have a lot of confidence (could simply be that I am tired, could be that I am watching UCLA come back against Michigan State), it should be relatively easy this year to Stomp the Lunatic! Good luck to everyone!!!!!

EDITOR’S NOTE – In light of the ankle injury to UCLA’s Johnny Juzang at the end of the Michigan State / UCLA game last night, I decided to switch my pick from what would have been UCLA to BYU. It might be a mistake – Lunatic curse for second guessing himself and going away from the tendency of one first four team winning their next game, especially if Juzang is able to play. But I thought this was a coin-flip game against a really good BYU team to begin with – I don’t feel good that the Bruins can pull off the upset without their leading scorer. And we all don’t get the luxury of waiting and finding out if he is going to be able to play…. So, I will pick BYU instead – I can already hear Chris Peterson screaming “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” loudly at this news that the Lunatic is now backing his Cougars.