So, since there is a lot of time until Saturday, and I need to hide the fact that the pool is unofficially already won, it is time to bury the lead in blogs.

And the most obvious place is to catch up on the fact that the Lunatic did excellent predicting what the Selection Committee would do in who would make the tournament.  Now, if I can only get better at actually predicting the games vs. what the committee would do……I did great on both my bracketology and handicapping – all the stuff that is imaginary and not worth anything more than the amusement for your reading pleasure.

But the Lunatic managed to predict 67 of the 68 teams.  As many of you know, that is a meaningless number.  18 of the top 25 teams needed at large bids, and it is a rarity that a top 25 team in the polls does not get a bid. So, I already knew half the at large teams simply by looking at what the polls were.  At the end, it really comes down to making 6-10 hard choices, and apparently, I was right on all but one of them.

And I was never going to get a perfect 68 of 68.  I thought Rutgers was in the tournament.  Rutgers was 40th in the NET rankings and had victories against Purdue, Indiana, Maryland, Northwestern, Michigan State, and 2 against Penn State.  They lost enough games to be in the bubble conversation, but when you looked at the bubble, they had 7 wins against teams that eventually made the tournament.

The team I got wrong was Nevada.  Their NET was 37th, but they only had victories against San Diego State, Boise State and Utah State.  I figured the lack of victories against a tournament level team outside of the Mountain West would cost them.  To be fair, I didn’t want that – I like the non-power conferences getting in.  But regardless, I thought Nevada was in much worse condition than Rutgers – sure the Scarlet Knights might have had more opportunities playing in the Big 10, but they came through in 7 of them….  And if I compare them against a team like NC State (NET = 45, victories against Duke and Miami of teams in the field), I still wouldn’t have knocked out Rutgers to let Nevada in.

The amazing part is that I got 66 of the teams seed within 1 spot.  That never happens.  I normally get the teams right, but they are wildly placed into the bracket nowhere close to the true bracket.  But that actually made me competitive against the media experts as well.  I will use the Bracket Matrix entries and scoring.

I should mention – that the media does worse than a ton of the bracketologists on the Bracket Matrix – but lets face it, the people notice are the Joe Lunardi’s and Jerry Palm’s of the world.  My standing would have been tied for 120th of the 229 brackets.  But my imaginary competition is against the media.

Here is how I did – you get 3 points for getting a team correctly in the field, 2 points for getting a team correctly seeded, and 1 point for getting a team within 1 seed level.

• Jerry Palm (CBS) – 361 (67,47,66)
• Andy Katz (NCAA) – 360 (67,47,65)
• THE LUNATIC – 359 (67,46,66)
• Joe Lunardi (ESPN) – 359 (67,46,66)
• Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith, and Eddie Timanus (USA Today) – 355 (67,46,62)
• Kevin Sweeney (Sports Illustrated) – 354 (67,43,67)
• Mike Decourcy (FOX) – 349 (67,41,66)
• Bill Bender (The Sporting News) – 349 (67,41,66)
• Michael Lazurus (Yahoo) – 344 (67,39,65)

So, I tied for 3rd, only behind the CBS writer and NCAA.com writer.  And I tied the great Joe Lunardi from ESPN.

Not bad for a short amount of time of pouring through schedules and statistics.  Now, if that work could just pick the games better…..

 

 

This is normally the exciting time where I will post the 8 potential scenarios that exist, and you can look through them to see what teams you want to root for to do the best.  These are always unofficial – as I am not going to guarantee that I did not mistype something into the forms.  As always, the official standings are the main links at the top of the blog, and I will wait for the results to be final to award any prizes.

If I have done everything correctly, this year has a first (as far as I can remember).  Thanks to the fact that no one has chosen hardly any of the teams remaining, our current leader, Bill Craft can not be caught.  It looks like Bill will win both the Standard and Upset pool this year.  As I said, everything is unofficial – but congratulations go out to Bill for his amazing job of picking this very unusual tournament.  There is still some variation in the standings depending on who wins, but the top belongs to Bill.

The Second Chance Pool has more people who still have a chance to win (unofficially).

• Fla Atlantic beats Miami – Brent Peterson
• Fla Atlantic beats UConn – Brent Peterson and Kathleen Godwin
• Miami beats Fla Atlantic – Bruce Grosvenor and Troy Cole
• Miami beats SD State – Bruce Grosvenor, Troy Cole and Patrick Perkins
• SD State beats Miami – Patrick Perkins and Troy Cole
• SD State beats UConn – Kathleen Godwin
• UConn beats Fla Atlantic – Jeff Carpenter, Rich Napolitano, Patti Carini and Kathleen Godwin
• UConn beats SD State – Jeff Carpenter, Rich Napolitano, Patti Carini and Kathleen Godwin

All 8 scenario pages are in the links along the left side of the blog.  Although you can probably guess that your picks are done if you didn’t at least have UConn or Miami going to the Championship game, or if you were not already in the top 10.  I feel bad for everyone not mentioned above – as a person who is used to picking Purdue and watching them lose to a double digit seed, I can sympathize with those of you who know that you can not improve in the standings of the pool.

Good luck to all of you who still have a chance to win a prize, and for the rest of you, just enjoy the madness.  So many rare possibilities could happen by Monday!!!  We could see a non-power conference win the championship (San Diego State or Florida Atlantic).  We could see a team that did not win a conference regular season or tournament take the title (Connecticut).  We could see a 5 seed win the tournament for the first time (Miami or San Diego State).  We could have the lowest ever seed win the tournament (Florida Atlantic at 9).  There might not be a lot of excitement as far as the pool is concerned – but no matter what happens over the weekend, we will certainly be watching something historic happen.  Enjoy the games!!!

For those of you desperately looking for your college basketball fix, there is not much left for you. But the Lunatic will do his best to help you.

Obviously, the Lunatic will eventually get to previewing the games on Saturday in Houston. But there are three other tournaments if you need extra games to watch.

Starting tonight, is the semifinals of the men’s NIT in Las Vegas. At 7 pm, we have Wisconsin against North Texas and 9:30 pm, we have UAB against Utah Valley. Special props need to go to Conference USA. Not only did FAU get to the Final Four, but Charlotte won the CBI championship last week and both UAB and North Texas are still playing in the NIT. This conference probably deserved more bids in the dance – but they have shown how good they are in March. They will also have the stage to themselves on Thursday for the NIT championship.

Tomorrow night, the women’s NIT takes the stage. At 6 pm, Bowling Green will host Columbia, and at 7:30 pm, Kansas will host Washington. A little disappointing that you have to go to ESPN3 or the Big 12 network to find these games – you probably will have to stream them on ESPN+ to see them. I totally understand putting at home courts to get more fans, but couldn’t they move the Kansas game to 8:30 so that fans could watch both games – ridiculous. Also super disappointed in the placement of the final – it is Saturday at 5:30 pm on CBS Sports Network. For good reason, there are a lot of complaints against the NCAA for how they unequally market the men’s and women’s game. Whatever idiot thought it was a good idea to showcase that championship game at the same time that San Diego State and Florida Atlantic are playing in the Final Four should probably not be making any more decisions for the women’s game.

Of course, you shouldn’t miss the women’s NCAA Final Four!!!! On Friday night in Dallas, Texas, ESPN will show two great games! At 7 pm, local favorite and 1 seed Virginia Tech (31-4) will be playing 3 seed LSU (32-2). And at 9 pm (suspect closer to 9:30 pm since it will be 30 minutes after the first game), 1 seed South Carolina (36-0) continue their search not only to defend their championship from last year but do it with an undefeated season, as they will play 2 seed Iowa (30-6). There are great stories for all 4 teams – I probably owe them a separate blog post. If you want to watch some basketball, you should stay glued to your TV on Friday night and return to ABC on Sunday at 3:30 pm for the championship! Go Hokies!!!!

Or maybe this post should be why all the calls that are drawing attention from Sunday’s game were the correct calls. The truth is if the call went against your team, you won’t agree with this post no matter what I say. But the Lunatic thinks in the circumstance, the refs made the right calls.

We will switch back and forth between the games because I am going to knock off the easiest one first. At the end of the San Diego State vs Creighton game, Baylor Scheierman threw a baseball pass down the court, and Aztec’s Aguek Arop and Bluejay’s Arthur Kaluma tip the ball up in the air and it falls out of bounds.

One of the announcers mentioned Scheierman stepping on the line, but that didn’t matter – as long as his foot didn’t cross the line, he was still out of bounds and legally throwing the ball in.

You could ask who the ball went off – it looks to me that Arop touched the ball first, but depending on the angle, it looks like Kaluma actually touches the ball last. But regardless of that, it doesn’t matter.

I did the same thing the refs did and used a stopwatch to time from when it was touched to when it hit the floor multiple times, and each time I got somewhere between 1.2 and 1.3 seconds (and maybe most importantly, never less than 1.2). If the clock starts exactly when the ball is touched, the entire clock ran out – based on my timing reflexes, the officials got it right. And to be fair, even if my reflexes are slightly off, there would not be time to catch and shoot (and based on the middle point, it would have been San Diego State’s ball).

Lets move on to the Texas game with the loose ball foul on Texas’ Brock Cunningham. The Lunatic was wrong on Sunday’s post – there is a rule involving boxing out called displacement – basically, the rebounder has the right to their position and can use their body to stop the other rebounder from going through them to get the ball. But the rebounder can not move the other player.

When the shot goes up, you can see that Cunningham gets great position on Norchad Omier when he began to box out. But that position matters. When he started to box out, he was completely is the restricted zone and Omier was close to the baseline behind him. Omier started to move away from the basket and Cunningham held his position. But then Cunningham started backing Omier up. By the time Omier went in the air, both of them looked like they were in the middle of the lane – so a good 3-6 feet away from where they started. According to the rules, that is displacement – Cunningham moved Omier away from the basket (a significant amount).

This is my example of how much respect that officials should get. When I saw it live, because my eyes followed the shot, I thought it was a foul on Omier – Cunningham had position. But by the time my eye had moved to them, they were both in the middle of the lane – I had missed how far Cunningham had moved Omier. I needed to watch the replay on the March Madness app and force myself to watch them to see what really happened. During the game, one of the refs watched the rebounders the full time, saw what happened, managed to get the other officials to discuss it, and in a pressure-packed situation, agreed on what they felt was the right call. As a huge college basketball fan, I will complain from time to time about the officials – because that is what fans do. But I will always have tons of respect for what they do – it is a thankless job that quite frankly, they get right more often than they get credit for.

Now for the final call – and that is the foul on Darrion Trammell. With 3 seconds in the game, San Diego State’s guard desperately dribble towards the basket, and tried to put up a jumper before the buzzer. As the clock struck zero, the ball missed short on the rim and Trammell fell to the ground, but most importantly, a whistle blew for a foul on Bluejay’s Ryan Nembhard.

This to me is easy but to be fair, it isn’t where the debate is. Nembhard was beat, he chased Trammell from behind, pushed his left arm into Trammell as the Aztec guard shot the ball, and used that arm to push and try to block the shot. That push sent Trammell to the ground.

I heard an argument that the push didn’t impact the shot – that is ridiculous. Anyone who has shot a basketball knows it is a lot harder to hit the shot as you are being pushed from the side.

There are two other arguments – one is that the game was called so physical that you can’t make that call when you didn’t all game. The other is that you can’t make that call at the end of the game – you have to let the athletes win the game on their own.

But in both cases, there is a problem. Nembhard fouled Trammell from behind. Position matters. I might be willing to be swayed by this argument if Nembhard was playing great defensive position, jumped straight up to block the shot, and there was contact. But that is not what happened. Nembhard got beat, tried to block the shot from behind, and knocked Trammell over.

The let the athletes play is part of the issue. The refs allowed both teams to play very physical. I remember a few moments in the game where Creighton brought the ball up court, San Diego State got right in the player’s grill, and the Creighton player would use his arm to push the defender away. I don’t enjoy that type of basketball but that is what happens when you let the athletes play. But there is a point where you let them play and a point where you have to call something. If that same situation had happened, and instead of the defender being in front of him in his way, he came running from behind and tripped the ball handler, it would be called.

I also don’t like the argument at the end of the game. So you are basically saying that if there is 5 seconds left, I can make as much contact as I want to stop you from scoring. That just does not make sense. You can’t say it is a touch foul – Nembhard knocked Trammell to the ground. You can’t say it was physical defense because the player came from behind – he was out of position. At the end of the day, it is simply a foul, and it had to be called. Players sometimes get a physical play at the end of a game when they are in defensive position. But that was not the case here.

At the end of the day, I think the refs got all three of these plays right. I am sure Texas and Creighton fans will disagree. But I don’t think there should be any real controversy here.

Well, this is an unusual situation. After all the 1 seeds went down by the Sweet 16, Connecticut and Florida Atlantic knocked off the final 3 seeds, and the Hurricanes stormed back to take out the last 2 seed, there are not a lot of points left to be found. I might not figure it out tonight – we have a whole week to go through and determine what survived the rubble from the destruction of this year’s madness, but if you are on this list, you are probably in really good shape to win one of the final prizes!!!

Lets start with the main pool – our leader is Bill Craft with 720 points. His excellent early round picks combined with picking Connecticut to win the entire tournament has put him 10 points ahead of Brent Hassell, who correctly picked both Connecticut and Miami FL to the Final 4, and himself (since his second set of picks were also impressive). Cooper Ams and Noah Bradley are tied for 4th at 680 points, Cooper’s 2nd picks are alone in 6th at 670 points, Patti Carini is in 7th at 640 points, Rich Napolitano and Ethan Busby are tied for 8th at 620 points, and Rose Brunner rounds out the top 10 at 610 points.

Bill is also leading the Upset pool at 258 points. Brent and Cooper are tied for 2nd at 249 points, and Cooper’s second picks are tied for 4th with Noah at 242 points.

In the Second Chance Pool, Kathleen Godwin is winning with 440 points. She has a 40 point lead over Troy Cole and Patrick Perkins, who are tied for 2nd. Since it is funny, I have to mention that the Lunatic has learned his lesson not to give up and get silly. As he was so depressed by Purdue losing, he decided to pick his second chance picks based on closest team to the regional final site – and went 1 for 12 for 40 points and a tie for last place. Message received – don’t pick on geography.

We also had a fascinating battle for the last place prize. There is an upset pool rule that in order to be eligible for the prize for last in the standard pool, you have to have picked a top 4 seed and an additional top 6 seed, something that has happened every year since 1979 (including this year barely). It obviously also excludes the entries for fun like Hailey Peterson’s Virginia / VCU picks and Matt Agin’s coin flips. Jeff Carpenter, Kristian Schmidt and Michelle Ams also are low on the standings, but if I have looked correctly, they do not have two of their picks in the top 6 seeds. So, we head to those tied at 250 points – Sonny and Laura Hummel are not only on the wrong side of the standings, but they clearly have picks that qualify under the rules.

So, while unofficial, congratulations Sonny and Laura – this is the point in the blog where I state that you should not have challenged the Lunatic. But honestly, we know that isn’t true – everyone should challenge the Lunatic. But you shouldn’t have challenged Bill Craft – who knows how to pick the teams in the tournament.

Good luck to the few of you who can still get points from Connecticut, Miami, (and in case I did my research poorly) San Diego State or Florida Atlantic. And congratulations to those of you who have already wrapped up your places at the top of the standings!

Weather forecast alert – a Hurricane will be heading to Houston, Texas after causing havoc in Kansas City.

Texas was up 13 points with 14 1/2 minutes to play. With 11 minutes that lead was still 12 points when a pivotable moment happened. Just not pivotable in the way you would have expected. There was a battle for a loose ball, it got sent high in the error, and Norchad Omier and Marcus Carr went for the ball. Omier completely runs over Carr for his 4th foul, but Carr also had to leave the game for a few minutes later as he fell awkwardly on his leg. He would return to the game, but you could clearly see that he was hurting as he tried to play through the pain. Over the next 6 minutes, Miami would go on a 20-7 run and take a 73-72 lead.

The next 5 minutes would see a fun battle as Miami’s Jordan Miller kept getting to the free throw line and making his free throws, Miami’s Isaiah Wong would drive into the lane to score baskets, Texas’ Tyrese Hunter hit a three pointer to answer Miami’s run, and Texas’ Sir’Jabari Rice and Marcus Carr hit drives to the basket to tie the game.

Then, with 1 minute left, a critical foul called change the game. Miami’s Nijel Pack missed a three-point shot, and Omier jumped high for the rebound over Texas’ Brock Cunningham’s back and fell in a scary way as it almost looked like he flipped over Cunningham. The original call was going to be Omier’s 5th for going over the back, but the referees discussed it and change the call to be a loose ball foul on Cunningham.

When they replayed it, you could see Cunningham backing into Omier as he blocked out, and then when Omier jumped for the ball, Cunningham continued to go backwards and undercut Omier. To be honest, I think this call is more controversial than the one in the Creighton game. Cunningham had position for the rebound. Players are taught to box out, which is what Cunningham was doing. It looked a little bit like when Omier jumped, Cunningham partially went backwards simply because there was no longer a player behind him making contact with him. Omier certainly jumped over his back. I’d have to do a little bit of research into finding out when boxing out and moving backwards becomes a foul – it certainly could go either way (as it was called by two referees on the court differently).

Instead of Texas’ Cunningham heading to the free throw line, Omier made both free throws to give Miami a 2 point lead. But that might not be the most critical piece. The foul would have been Omier’s fifth if it had gone the other way. Instead, on the next possession, Marcus Carr dribbled into the lane to try to score, Omier double teamed him, reached in and cleanly stole the ball. Carr would eventually foul Miami’s Isaiah Wong to stop the clock, and Wong would extend the Hurricanes lead to 4 from the line.

Brock Cunningham would miss a couple of shots, and Miami’s Jordan Miller would hit 4 more free throws and ice the game for the Hurricanes. Miami would win 88-81 and knock off the Big 12 tournament champions.

The most impressive piece of this is that Miami did this from inside the arc. The Hurricanes are normally excellent at shooting the three, but Texas was extending their defense and held them from 2-8 from three. So, the Hurricanes realized what Texas was giving them and pushed the ball to the basket. All 5 Hurricanes’ starters scored double digits. Jordan Miller led the attack with a perfect 7-7 from the field and a perfect 13-13 from the field for 27 points. The announcers said that was the first time this happened since Christian Laettner. Miami shot 59.2% against Texas’s impressive defense. So, instead of Texas heading home to play the Final Four in their own state, the ACC Champion cut down the nets in Kansas City and will take their place.

This has truly been a historic tournament. No 1 seeds made it past the Sweet 16. No 1, 2 or 3 seeds made it to the Final Four. It is the first time in history that none of the top 12 seeded teams found their way to the Final 4. To make it crazier, 3 of the 4 seeds also were eliminated. So, it is really 15 of the top 16 teams that didn’t make it to the Final 4…..

I will have to do some verification, but this likely means that the standings are pretty locked. If you picked Connecticut or Miami, you were one of the few people who got a Final Four team correct. And that means you are already pretty close to the top of the standings.

Congratulations to the ACC co-regular season champions. In the eye of the Hurricane, there is quiet, for just a moment…… And then pure chaos!!!!

They say that defense wins championships. Well, that was clearly the case in the South Regional as Mountain West Champion San Diego State held on for a nail-biting, thrilling, crazy 57-56 victory to advance to the Final 4 for the first time in school history.

With 13 minutes, Creighton had a 41-34 lead. And even though the game was being played at the physical, defensive pace that San Diego State wanted, it was Bluejays’ big man Ryan Kalkbrenner who was dominating the game at this point with a dunk and free throw off the foul. But San Diego State kept coming back and with a little under 7 minutes, Darrion Trammell hit a jumper to give the Aztecs a 46-45 lead.

With the game tied at 4 minutes, the Aztec’s Aguek Arop made a jumper and a layup on their next two possessions, giving San Diego State a 4 point lead. But Creighton came back down to their big man on their next two possessions, and Kalkbrenner came up with two big layups (including a pretty one off a nice lob pass) to tie the game at 54 with just about 2 minutes to play.

Sometimes in March, it is the unexpected that come up big. With about 1:40, Nathan Mensah set up a pick and roll for Adam Seiko, and Seiko passed it right back to Mensah at the elbow of the free throw line. And then everyone probably was surprised when Mensah decided to take the shot. Mensah is known for his amazing defense and his blocked shots, but not really for his outside shooting. And maybe even more surprising, Nathan Mensah drilled that shot to give the Aztecs a 2 point lead.

Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard drove to the basket for a layup, and Mensah doesn’t get a hand on it, but certainly effected the shot as Creighton missed. San Diego State then tried to run the clock down, and settled for a three pointer by Darrion Trammell which also missed. With 40 second, Trey Alexander made a nice move to the lane, put up a shot and the ball hit the rim multiple times before falling into Mensah’s hands. But as he tries to get the ball to a guard, it gets stolen by Creighton but since they were so close to the end-line, Creighton’s player ended up throwing it out of bounds trying to save it before he fell out.

As the announcers talk about fouling strategy (since Creighton only had 5 fouls) with 34 seconds and it being a 2 point game, one of the wildest things happened. San Diego State couldn’t get the ball in so they called time out. When they came back to the court, they decided to try to lob the ball in to one of their big men. But Adam Seiko lobbed it too high, Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman steals the ball in the lane, and makes the layup to tie the game at 56.

With about 7 seconds left, Trammell started his drive to the basket to be fouled by Trey Alexander. With a foul to give, he decided it was better to stop the drive than let Trammell get loose in the lane. So, San Diego State has to inbound the ball again. They struggle to find someone but finally get the ball into Arop, he almost travels before passing the ball to Trammell, and then realizing the play the coach had called was broken, desperately dribbles to the lane to put up a last second jumper from the elbow of the lane. And as the clock struck 0, the shot missed to the side, Trammell fell to the ground, and the whistle blew. Ryan Nembhard had his left arm on Trammell and pushed him as he shot.

Afterwards, there was a debate with the announcers on whether a ref should make that call at that point in the game. And while I think the refs had let both teams be physical with their hands throughout the game, I think you have to call that. The defender clearly pushed the shooter and that clearly effected the shot as it missed to the side he was pushed. We could debate about whether or not you call that when you are letting the players manhandle each other throughout the game – but that is a different debate for a different day.

They put 1.2 seconds back on the clock, and Trammell goes to the line. And then misses the first free throw. And somehow, composed himself, and knowing that the entire season was on the line, hits nothing but net to give the Aztecs a 57-56 lead.

Creighton had one more last chance as they throw a baseball pass down the court, Amok goes up with one of the Creighton players and tips it out of bounds. The officials go back to review it, and they rule that even though the clock looked like it had 0.3 seconds when the ball hit the ground, they decided the clock didn’t start right when it touches Amok’s hands, and that the full 1.2 seconds should have run off the clock. The game is over and the Aztecs are heading to the Final Four.

And thanks to how the bracket has unfolded, we will have the #5 seeded Mountain West champions playing the #9 seeded Conference USA champions. No matter what, we will have one of the non-power conference teams playing for the National Championship on Monday. It has been truly a wild tournament – maybe this will be the season that a non-power conference team ends up cutting down the nets.

Congratulations to San Diego State on a thrilling 57-56 victory to claim the South Regional.

Other than Purdue and Alabama losing early, it has actually been a pretty good tournament for the Lunatic. I did well in predicting what the bracket would be. And the handicapping against the lines has been going well. OK – the handicapping against the over/under totals has been going well.

At this moment, the Lunatic is up $316 imaginary dollars on the totals (40-22), but has given $87 back on the lines (32-30). Still, if you told the Lunatic at this point, he would be $229 ahead, he would take it. He is basically playing with imaginary house money at this point – if he can just win 2 more bets of the last 10, he will end up ahead for the 2023 Tournament.

The Lunatic went back and forth multiple times on both games today – and shared some of that debate on his handicapping blog. But for those who want the summary to see how the Lunatic does, he is kind of hedging knowing he needs just 2 more wins. Creighton and Miami will be looking for fast-paced high scoring games. San Diego State and Texas will be the defensive teams looking to shut down those explosive offenses. So, since the Lunatic settled on San Diego State (+2.5) and Texas (-3.5), he then went and took both overs (134.5 for SD St / Creighton and 148 for Texas/Miami). In theory, if I am wrong on the defensive teams, I should at least cover the overs.

We shall see – it would be nice to be able to go into the final weekend knowing that I can’t lose my imaginary handicapping game. I have to have something that I can win – you all are too talented as you always manage to stomp me.

Enjoy the games today!!!

While Katie and I watched Les Miserables, the first two teams punched their ticket to Houston. Thanks to March Madness’s app Condensed Games video, I was able to catch up pretty quickly today – it is a nice feature for those of us who don’t want to miss a moment.

In the night cap, Gonzaga and Connecticut were tied at 25 with about 5 minutes in the first half. And then in a blink of an eye, it was over. The Huskies would finish the half on a 14-7 run to take a 7 point half-time lead. The Huskies then scored 12 of the first 14 points of the second half to extend the lead to 17, and never looked back. Jordan Hawkins led UConn with 20 points (including 6-10 from three point range). Andre Jackson Jr did a little of everything with 8 points, 10 assists and 9 rebounds. And the Huskies are heading to Houston for the Final Four.

But the bigger news of the night happened in the first game at Madison Square Garden. Florida Atlantic started off with a 42-38 lead at halftime. But Kansas State would start off the second half on a run. It looked like the Wildcats were well in control as Markquis Nowell hit a three pointer from deep and then had one of his trademark passes in the lane to Nae’Qwan Tomlin for a layup to get a 57-50 lead. With 8 1/2 minutes left, Kansas State had answered every FAU comeback – as Nowell hit another three pointer for a 63-57 lead.

And then, Kansas State lost their answers. FAU’s big man Vladislav Golden hit a layup in the lane, and Johnell Davis found Brandon Weatherspoon in the corner for a three pointer to cut the lead to 1. And then, Golden had a big dunk with about 6 minutes to give the Owls the lead. FAU would continue their run, including a three-pointer from Alijah Martin with about 3 minutes left. Martin would later hit two free throws to finish off their 15-1 run to take a 72-64 lead.

The Wildcats continued to fight back. Massoud hits two free throws and Nowell hit another deep three pointer to cut the lead to 3. With a little over 1 minute, Johnell Davis drove to the basket and made a nice lead to extend the lead back to 5. With 24 second left after some free throws for both teams, Cam Carter made a three pointer to cut the lead to 1 point.

But the Owl’s Michael Forrest would hit 4 huge free throws, and the FAU defense would play great defense on Ismael Massoud to prevent him from getting off a shot or sending the ball back to Nowell, and the Conference USA champion won the East Regional 79-76.

Congratulations to the Owls and Huskies!!! Creighton and San Diego State have started off – so in what will hopefully be a great afternoon of basketball, we will know the two teams that will join them in Houston.

I guess I should thank Purdue. We have tickets to see Les Miserables through the Richmond Broadway Under the Stars season tonight. Katie is super excited about getting to see the show.

If Purdue had done what they were supposed to, they would be getting ready to tip off against Kansas State, and I would likely have made the decision to skip the theater. And knowing that Purdue’s weakness is fast, athletic guards, I would probably not be happy watching them try to stop Markquis Nowell.

Instead, I can watch the first half of the game and then go enjoy the theater for the night. I might go tomorrow and watch the replays on the March Madness app if they games are close – I suspect that they will be. Gonzaga vs. Connecticut should be a fantastic game tonight. And Florida Atlantic has been amazing.

It is interesting – normally I talk about how impressive it is that all the conference champions are winning to this point. This year, with all the upsets there is a little bit of a twist.

Instead of the Big 10 champion, we have Florida Atlantic – the Conference USA champion. Instead of the SEC champion, we have San Diego State – the Mountain West champion. Instead of the Pac 12 champion, we have Gonzaga – the West Coast champion. We do still have a couple of the power conferences represented as Miami (the ACC co-champ) and Texas (the Big 12 tournament champ).

This might finally be the year that a non-champion makes it. Kansas State looks really good as a second representative from the Big 12, which was considered the best conference this year. And even though Marquette was upset, the Big East still has two teams left in Creighton and Connecticut (and I think Vegas has both of them as favorites).

But lets all admit it – if our team is eliminated, wouldn’t it be fun to watch Florida Atlantic, San Diego State or Gonzaga break through and have a non-power conference win it all.

Should be a fun weekend – I will do my best to update the standings during intermission. As Les Mis sings, I Dream a Dream – four teams this weekend will have that dream come true. Enjoy the games.