It might not have been competitive on the court as the UConn Huskies destroyed everyone in their path. But it was certainly a very competitive Stomp the Lunatic contest – 39 entries correctly predicted before the tournament started that Connecticut would beat Purdue in the final. Considering last year, only 10 people correctly picked Connecticut to win, it is amazing that so many people got both final teams correct along with the correct champion.

All the pools were super close. Congratulations to Will Caldwell, who managed to win the Stomp the Lunatic contest by 10 points over David Ogle.

Congratulations to Ann Schumaker, who managed to win the Upset Pool by a single point over Gus Woodburn.

And congratulations to our co-champions in the second chance pool, as we had a 4 way tie between Jen Miller, Karl Knox, David Ogle and Will Richter.

In fact, congratulations should go out to all of our winners.

STANDARD POOL

1st) Will Caldwell (1230)

2nd) David Ogle (1220)

3rd tie) Kelly Woods and Scott Grimes (1210)

5th) Joseph Laucius (1200)

6th) Laura Carini (1190)

7th tie) Chris Franklin, Chris Peterson, Lainey Miller, Steve Glass, Dan Fischer, and Ann Schumaker (1180)

LAST) Ann Wilson (250) – sorry, but we need to say the standard line……you should not have challenged Will (since we know everyone should challenge the Lunatic)

UPSET POOL

1st) Ann Schumaker (310)

2nd) Gus Woodburn (309)

3rd) Taylor Early (293)

4th) Wil Austin (289)

5th) Elizabeth Betz (281)

SECOND CHANCE POOL

1st tie) Jen Miller (800)

1st tie) Karl Knox (800)

1st tie) David Ogle (800)

1st tie) Will Richter (800)

It isn’t much of a consolation for the Lunatic, as he would have happily been stomped by all of you if it meant that Purdue would have scored 16 more points tonight. But as far as the pool is concerned, the Lunatic put up a relatively strong showing. His sane picks finished in a tie for 17th, so if we account for the tie-breaker, only 17 people Stomped the Lunatic this year.

Purdue made it to the Championship game. Only 17 people Stomped the Lunatic. The Lunatic must still be dreaming. He actually probably desperately needs some good sleep. But I am sure that the Lunatic will wake up again next March, as he will recover from watching Purdue be so close to a title and yet so far from a title.

Thank you to all of you for helping make this such a fun tournament for me to run each year, and humoring me as I rant about my favorite time of year – March Madness! It makes me so happy to blog about the tournament, and that so many of you come back each year for another chance to Stomp the Lunatic – hopefully also enjoying the blog in the process!!!!

Congratulations again to our 2024 Stomp the Lunatic Champion – Will Caldwell, our Upset Pool Champion – Ann Schumaker, and our Second Chance Pool Champions – Jen Miller, Karl Knox, David Ogle and Will Richter. And of course, congratulations to our 2024 men’s national champions – the Connecticut Huskies!!!!

The UConn Huskies guards were just too much. Zach Edey scored 37 points for the Boilers but the Huskies defense shut everyone else for the Boilers down.

Tristen Newton had 20, Stephon Castle had 15 and Cam Spencer had 11 as the Huskies backcourt just dominated on both halves of the court. The game was never in doubt as the Huskies won 75-60.

Maybe the most impressive part was the Huskies out-rebounded the Boilers 35-28. Maybe the most impressive part was they held the 2nd best three-point shooting team in the country to 1-7 (14.3%). Maybe the most impressive part was how they would run their offensive sets for 25 seconds just to suddenly have a wide open shot.

The Huskies outscored their opponents this March by 140 points, the most dominant performance in NCAA tournament history. They entered the tournament as the prohibitive favorite and destroyed everyone in their path as they proved they were the best team in college basketball.

Congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies, the 2024 men’s national champions!

The Huskies matched my dunk as a pretty lob pass to Samson Johnson a couple times for two monster dunks. Dangerous time for my Boilers as the Huskies are up 13

We might be down 9, but that rebound/dunk by Camden Heide was one of the most awesome things that I have ever seen as he came out of nowhere while Edey and Clingan were fighting for the rebound to slam it.

Hoping that spurs the Boilers on – we need some type of momentum builder!

Zach Edey has shown why he is the AP Player of the Year as he has come out scoring 16 points in the first half. And I think that Purdue might have played one of the best defensive performances that I have ever seen against a team that shot 48% from the field.

Every time Purdue would look like they would get a stop after forcing Connecticut to a couple seconds in the shot clock, you would then realize the Huskies have you right where they want as they make the shot.

The Huskies also have taken advantage of their offensive rebounds as they seem to always score off of them. Tristen Newton led the Huskies with 11 points, as the Huskies guards are taking advantage of their height advantage on the Purdue guards to drive to the lane and shoot over them.

The other place that the Huskies are winning is on the perimeter defense. They are totally taking away Purdue’s outlet passes to the wings that would lead to three-point shots. The Boilers only took 2 three-pointers in the first half. The Huskies have been happy to let Smith and Loyer drive to the lane and take their chances on them scoring the floater or getting the ball to Edey.

It is clear of how good Connecticut is – I thought Purdue played pretty well and they still find themselves down 36-30 at the half. But I still have hope – you have to have hope.

On a side note – Charlie has said that this is nerve wracking. He has inherited rooting for Chicago teams since that is who I cheer for – and he has realized that this is really the first time he has gotten to see his team playing for a championship. It is maddening as you get caught up on every single play that doesn’t go your way. I guess it is good for him to learn this madness at some point.

20 minutes left in the 2024 season. 20 minutes left for my Boilers to try to come back from 6 down to win their first NCAA Tournament championship. 20 minutes more of intense desire to see every Purdue shot to in and every Huskies shot to miss – despite knowing how ridiculous either of those outcomes are. They are so close to a National championship. But frustratingly, Connecticut at the moment is closer.

Anything can happen in March!!! Please Boilers!!!! Please come back!!!! Here we go! BOILER UP!!!

I have to admit I am a little bit annoyed at the Hall of Fame. I was considering doing the second version of my expansion story. As Katie was at rugby practice, I sat outside with my computer getting all of my administrative work done (I hand check a few brackets to make sure the site is scoring correctly – this year I did it all in Python – I know, the things I do are kind of sad.). For those worried, I got a perfect match on all the brackets, so the standings have gone through the Lunatic’s audit.

But thanks to the Hall of Fame coach, instead of relaxing before the biggest game in the history of my school, I now need to decide if I simply ignore this huge story in college basketball, or spend the 45 minutes before the game blogging about someone not even involved in tonight’s game.

Oh who am I kidding – I am nervous as hell as I eat dinner wearing my lucky Purdue shirt and pullover. So, lets do this – probably not enough time to do it justice but that is what you get when you try to upstage the national championship game.

So, apparently, John Calipari will be spinning the coaching carousel so fast that no one now knows where the wheel will stop. Who would have expected that SMU luring Andy Enfield away from USC would eventually lead to the Kentucky coaching job opening up?

I suspect this will create a huge mess – Kentucky has the reputation and the money to lure one of the top coaches from a job you would expect them to never leave. And because they have created such a great program, that school will likely also have the ability to lure another high profile coach.

The media have been saying that this is good for both schools. I am not so sure.

This probably works out great for both Calipari and Arkansas. Calipari has been an amazing recruiter no matter where he goes, so he will be able to bring talent to Arkansas that they don’t typically get (and to be fair, the Razorbacks do pretty well). And while the Razorbacks want to win, their fan base are likely to not be as critical of a team capable of making the Final Four each year because of some early exits.

Kentucky fans might have destroyed themselves. Likelihood says they do lure an amazing coach like Nate Oats or Tommy Lloyd away from their school and they will stay relevant. But lets raise the possibility.

You are a multi-million dollar coach who is beloved at your school. They worship you and will love whatever you do for them. Sure – maybe Kentucky might pay you more – but when you have all the money you would ever need, is it worth the stress. The Kentucky fan base basically just chased away a coach who has 7 Elite 8 appearances which turned into 4 Final 4s, which turned into a national championship in the 14 years he coached where a tournament happened. Most teams are lucky to every once in a while make the Elite 8 – for Kentucky fans, 50 percent wasn’t good enough because it has been a 4 year drought.

Nate Oats just led a school like Alabama with tons of resources to its first Final Four. They will be thrilled to have him for years to come – even if it takes multiple years to get back to the Elite 8 or even the Sweet 16. Why leave for the expectation to meet this tough goal?

Someone will bite – the temptation of coaching at Kentucky is too great. But if Kentucky fans think it is going to be better than Calipari, they will likely end up sad.

But the part that really bothered me was one of the names constantly suggested by the media was UConn’s Dan Hurley. I know if I had Kentucky’s money, that is the first call I am making as their AD. But it is so ridiculous – he is getting ready to coach for a national championship into a program he is turning into a dynasty and there is now a remote chance he has to answer the stupid question of if he is interested in the Kentucky job. I guarantee you the only thing he is interested in tonight is winning one more game.

Speaking of which, they just announced the starting lineups. It is time for the men’s national championship to be decided!! And the Boilermakers are playing for it!!! So very nervous!!! So very excited!!! Edey wins the tip and we are off!!!! BOILER UP!!!

A total eclipse of the sun will happen this afternoon – in Virginia, the moon will cover 80 percent of the sun starting around 2 pm, hitting its peak around 3:20 pm and ending around 4:30 pm. Be safe as you view this amazing event as we should have clear skies for it!!!!

And then of course stay up late tonight to watch the stars from Purdue and Connecticut create their own eclipse of the college basketball world – as they will be shining brightly through the night in Arizona.

So, it only makes sense to talk about the elephant in the room. Over the last few years, there has been a push to increase the number of the teams in the NCAA tournament. In 2023, the NCAA created a committee called the Transformation Committee to lead their modernization efforts. Co-chaired by Greg Sankey (the SEC commissioner) and Julie Cromer (athletic director at Ohio University), they made multiple recommendations (the public version of this can be seen on the NCAA site here – DI board endorses modernization recommendations – NCAA.org.

But the one consequential one to the Lunatic was this under Championships. Expanding access to NCAA championships to include 25% of active Division I members in good standing in team sports sponsored by more than 200 schools.

This would mean that if the NCAA follows through with the recommendations from the committee, we will see an NCAA Tournament of 90+ teams in the future (personally, if you are going to do this, you need to go to 96 – have a 32 byes and their opponents are the winners of the other 64 teams).

Obviously, the Lunatic has lots of opinions about this. First of all, I have very selfish reasons that I don’t want expansion. How would this impact the Stomp the Lunatic Pool? It is fine to not pick 4 play-in games, but would it make sense to not pick 32 play-in games – that is an entire round. I am not sure I know enough JavaScript to modify the form to add another round to it (and account for the byes). And when would these games take place? If they started everything on Thursday and gave people 3-4 days to look at the bracket and make their picks, it would be fine. But there are always concerns about how long the season is – it is likely they would want to play those games on Tuesday and Wednesday like the current play-in games. Would people be able to make their picks in just 1 1/2 days? I am sure I would eventually come up with a plan – but I don’t want to have to make those types of decisions.

But there are also some really strong arguments against expansion. One of the statements by the committee is that there is access to the tournament. Well, everyone at the moment has access to the tournament – win your conference tournament. In all but a few conferences, everyone is invited. It doesn’t matter if you went 3-15 in the conference – if you can win 4-5 games in a row during the conference tournament, you get the automatic bid. At the moment, the NCAA tournament is really a 360 team tournament, that after the first 4 rounds, the NCAA decides to give 36 teams a second chance and have them play the 32 teams still remaining.

The second goes back in time to history. The lowest seed in history to win the NCAA championship is the 8 seed – when Villanova beat Georgetown in 1985. Since expanding to 64 teams, here are the seeds to win the tournament:

• 1 seed – 24 (63.2%)
• 2 seed – 5 (13.2%)
• 3 seed – 4 (10.5%)
• 4 seed – 2 (5.3%)
• 6 seed – 1 (2.6%)
• 7 seed – 1 (2.6%)
• 8 seed – 1 (2.6%)

Sure, there have been some great stories of 11 seeds making it to the Final Four – including the awesome run by the NC State Wolfpack this year. But in the last 40 years (since this year, Purdue and Connecticut are both 1 seeds), we could have made the tournament a 16 team tournament and included the actual champion 92.5% of the time.

Currently, we have 36 at large bids. The eventual champion has come from the top 32 teams seeded. Even if something crazy happens and none of the top 32 teams in the country win their conference tournament, we still have enough spots for all of those teams (plus 4 more).

Finally, there is the most important question. Do we really think these teams have a chance? If teams like Illinois and Alabama are losing by double digits to Connecticut, do I honestly think that 20-12 Oklahoma (the first team left out by the committee) that went 8-10 in their conference really has a chance. They couldn’t win 6 games in a row in their conference – but I somehow think that they can win 6 games in March when they are going to have to go through a lineup like Clemson, Baylor, Arizona, Alabama, Connecticut and then Purdue.

And more importantly, that was the 1st team out. If I don’t think that Oklahoma has a chance, do I think that the 82nd ranked team in the NET has a shot (by the way, that was 16-17 Maryland). So, more bluntly, do I really want a team that didn’t even win half their games during the season in the tournament. The goal of people like Greg Sankey is to get as many teams from his power conference in the tournament as possible. Maybe Julie Cromer as the athletic director of a school from the MAC was hoping that a few of those extra spots would fall to the mid-major teams, but lets face it – that is not how it would work.

Of course, I can also think of some reasons to expand. Lets say that they increased to 80 teams like Sankey suggested before this years tournament as a starting point. And lets look at the 12 highest teams in the NET that got left out. Those would be:

• Indiana State (28, 27-6)
• St John’s (32, 20-13)
• Cincinnati (37, 20-14)
• Pitt (40, 22-11)
• Villanova (41, 18-15)
• Wake Forest (43, 20-13)
• Oklahoma (46, 20-12)
• Utah (48, 19-14)
• Ohio State (49, 20-13)
• Princeton (55, 22-4)
• Bradley (57, 21-11)
• Providence (58, 21-13)

So, in theory, by expanding to 80, we would see 3 more mid-major schools (in this example, Indiana St, Princeton and Bradley) join some of the snubbed teams like Oklahoma, St. John’s and Pitt thanks to the expansion. Other than my outlier of Seton Hall (who is 67th in the NET – not sure how the 4th place team in the Big East finished 67th in the NET – might be an analysis for another evening when I have more time), all the teams (like Indiana State) that we have been complaining about being snubbed would now be in the tournament. Of course, we would always say a team was snubbed – this just moves the list down (now instead of Indiana State and St. John’s being snubbed we are talking about Virginia Tech and UCF being snubbed…)

There is also the reality that maybe expanding the tournament will make some of the first round games more competitive – to make an expanded tournament work, you would have to start having at large teams playing the small conference auto-bids. Providence probably has a better chance of giving Arizona a close game than Long Beach State. I would rather see Long Beach State get their chance, but I am not naive enough to believe that Providence has a better chance to keep the game close or even pull the upset.

In a way, that is a strength and a weakness. Those games might produce a few more upsets if teams like Providence are ending up as 14 or 15 seeds. But it is a single elimination tournament. Those upsets do ruin chances for legitimate tournament contenders to have an off-game and leave early. When it is Long Beach State, it seems exciting. I can’t get as excited about a struggling major conference team to pull that upset.

The last strength is that these things always work out. The first year that the tournament expanded from 65 to 68 teams was 2011. And I am sure there were lots of comments around we don’t need 3 more teams – those teams likely don’t have a chance to win the whole thing. And sure enough, that very year, 11 seed VCU went on a streak that took them all the way to the Final 4. If those 3 extra spots didn’t exist, VCU wouldn’t even be playing that year.

And of course, this year, NC State showed that an 11 seed is certainly capable of making a run to claim the title. If they got this far, there is certainly the possibility that they could have won 2 more games.

This year also had the worst-case scenario where so many of the teams that won the conference tournaments were teams that the Selection Committee was not planning on selecting. Those teams earned their bid by winning their conference tournament. But it did mean the pool of at-large teams then shrunk as teams like North Carolina and Arizona now needed an at-large spot to play.

Lets face it – expansion is probably inevitable. With all the buzz that Indiana State and Seton Hall shouldn’t have been playing in the NIT championship since they should have been in the NCAAs, and teams like NC State making the Final Four and other 11 seeds like Oregon winning a game in the tournament, there will be a desire to include more of those types of teams.

But if we are going to do it, I would include a few rules. If we go to 80, we now have 48 at large bids to give.

• The top 6 mid-major conference regular season champions (in the mind of the committee) that don’t win their conference tournament get an at-large bid. That would likely be some combination of Utah State, Indiana State, Princeton, South Florida, Richmond, Appalachian State (25-6), UC-Irvine (23-9), High Point (23-8).
• The top 4 teams in the major conferences (now just the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big 10 and SEC) based on the standings automatically get an at-large bid if they need it. This would mean that at least this year, Pitt and Seton Hall would have got a bid.
• In order for a team with a losing record in the conference to be considered, all the teams at least 2 games above them in the standings must be already in the field. This gives the chance for a team with a big non-conference win to get credit for it (since it doesn’t count in the conference standings). But it also places weight on the regular season.
• I am good with setting an expectation that the conference tournament can’t hurt you according to the above rule, but can help you get out of it. Basically, what this would do is allow a 9-9 team who gets beat by another 9-9 team to still be eligible and not caught by the losing record rule because they are now 9-10. But it would allow a school like NC State who was 9-11 in conference to make it to the championship game before losing and no longer worry about this rule (since they would be 13-12)

That being said, if we are really going to expand, I would try to solve multiple problems with what I think is a great plan.

Expand the tournament to 96 teams. 32 teams will get byes.

• Any regular season champion from the 5 power conferences are guaranteed a bye.
• Any team that wins both their regular season and conference tournament are guaranteed a bye.
• If there is room, any team winning the conference tournament of a power conference are guaranteed a bye.
• If there is still room, the committee will select the remaining best teams to get the remaining byes.

Any regular season champion that does not win their conference tournament is guaranteed one of the remaining 64 at-large bids. I can be persuaded to figure out a rule that a regular season champ must satisfy (such as having won 20 games or finishing in the top 150 in the NET) – but it needs to be inclusive. If we are talking about expanding to give more access, the teams that deserve that access the most are the ones who won their regular season title.

The 64 teams not getting a bye play each other – the winner obviously advances to play one of the teams that have a bye, the losers will play in the NIT tournament. A requirement to accept the bid into the tournament is being willing to continue to play if you lose your first round game.

By expanding to 80-96 teams, you are essentially eliminating the worthy pool of teams that go to the NIT. But the NIT is a worthy part of college basketball history that should continue in some format. This allows the teams that would traditionally go to the NIT to still participate. It will also make it so that teams can not decline the invitation.

It is too late at the moment to come up with what this would have looked like this year, but I might have to do that after the tournament is over (since my mind tomorrow will simply be on my Boilers). I might need to come up with a few more rules to create fairness.

But if we expanded in this way, we would do a few things:

• Save the NIT, which would probably die if the NCAA tournament is expanded to 80 teams. All the teams that are hosting first round games would now be in the NCAA, and it would leave only smaller schools, which will hurt any TV ratings.
• Guarantee access to regular season champions – there should be some reward for being the best team in your conference over 18 games.
• Possibly produce better matchups in the 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, and 3 vs 14 games. It is one thing for a 6th place team to win their conference tournament and end up as a 15 seed. But in this new expansion, they will have to beat someone else for the right to play against the 2 seed.

It is that time for the Lunatic to grade the conferences on how they did. I might be growing a little lenient as I do this. I try to account for a few things – how many games the conference is supposed to win, and how many Elite 8 teams you have. I gave grades to all the conferences with more than 1 team.

ACC – A+. The ACC was clearly the best conference of the tournament. NC State was the best story of the tournament making the Final 4. Clemson and Duke also made the Elite 8. They went 12-5 in the tournament – considering they only had 5 teams, it was amazing that they ended up with the most wins from any conference.

Big East – A. The Big East’s performance in the tournament shows they kind of were robbed by only getting 3 teams. They are 9-2 in the tournament, with Connecticut in the championship game and Marquette and Creighton both making the Sweet 16. They have the best record of the conferences – but this is also what the three teams were supposed to do, so I left them at an A.

Big 10 – A. The Big 10 had the second most wins – going 10-5 in the tournament. With Purdue in the championship and Illinois making the Elite 8, this has been one of the best showings for the conference. Other than the ACC (who were +5 vs. seed), the Big 10 (+1 vs. seed) was one of the only other major conferences above expectation.

Pac 12 – B+. In the final season of the conference, they went 6-4 (with all 4 teams winning their first round games). With Colorado and Oregon both winning in the first round, they finished +1 over seed expectation, but with Arizona getting upset in the Sweet 16, I could not give them an A without a team in the Elite 8.

Atlantic 10 – B. Both Dayton and Duquesne won their first round games (+1 vs seeds). Any time the Atlantic 10 gets multiple teams to the second round is a good year, but can’t be better than a B without a Sweet 16 team.

West Coast – B. This is where their seed expectation would put them. But they got there by Gonzaga winning both games for the conference – since St. Mary’s was upset by Grand Canyon.

Mountain West – B. San Diego State led this team to a B by making the Sweet 16. Utah State (first round) and Colorado State (play-in) won games. None of the others were supposed to win based on seed and they didn’t. So, they were +1 based on seed, but I had a hard time giving a conference anything better than a B for a 4-6 record.

SEC – B-. This was the conference I had the hardest time seeding. They were supposed to win 12 games in the tournament, and they only won 8. Kentucky and Auburn losing in the first round were two of the biggest upsets in the tournament. But Alabama made it to their first Final 4, and Tennessee made it to the Elite 8 and came close against Purdue. So, this felt the right place for an 8-8 conference that had a few pleasant surprises and a few disappointments.

MID-MAJORS – C. This is the most awkward group to grade, because any win is above expectations (other than the 2 guaranteed play-in wins). So, going 6-22 is actually 4 games above expectations. Oakland, Grand Canyon, Yale and James Madison were exciting wins giving us hope. But with none of the Cinderella teams making the Sweet 16 (which does tend to happen despite what the expectations are by seed), I decided simply a passing grade was enough.

Conference USA – C-. FAU gave Northwestern a battle into overtime and UAB only lost by 4 to a San Diego State team that made the Sweet 16. But that still means they went 0-2. It didn’t seem fair to give them a D for two close losses, but couldn’t really give them much more since as the 8 seed, FAU was supposed to win the close game.

Big 12 – F. The Big 12 was supposed to be the best conference in college basketball. They were expected to win 14 games in the tournament and have 4 teams in the Sweet 16. Instead, only Houston and Iowa State got to the Sweet 16 (and both then got upset). BYU, TCU and Texas Tech lost in the first round. The conference ended up only going 7-8. According to seed, they lost 7 more games than they were supposed to – add into it being the only major conference outside of the Pac 12 that did not have an Elite 8 team and this has to be considered a failed season that looked like it would be full of opportunity.

Sydney Affolter made a layup while getting fouled and hit the free throw to cut the lead to 5.

But the next few possessions showed the impact of Kamilla Cardoso and Raven Johnson.

Addison O’Grady drove the lane for the Hawkeyes, but the South Carolina center blocked the shot. Then, off a missed shot by Johnson, Cardoso got the rebound and laid it in.

While Johnson struggled on offense, she excelled on defense. Down 8, Caitlin Clark decided to shoot a deep three from almost the logo – which is a testament of how closely Johnson guarded her.

Clark then got forced into a wild running shot as South Carolina cut off the pass to the wing. And at that point, the time was basically up. The Gamecocks from the free throw line managed to score the last 7 points of the game and win 87-75.

As is often the case with championship games, while the stars tend to shine, there is always an unexpected hero. Today, that was South Carolina freshman Tessa Johnson. The freshman scored a career-high 19 points from the bench to lead all scorers for South Carolina. All in all, it was South Carolina’s depth that might have won this game as their bench outscored Iowa’s 37-0.

The South Carolina Gamecocks finished off the perfect season, getting their revenge against the Hawkeyes to go 38-0 for the season, becoming the 10th team in history to go undefeated on the way to winning the national championship.

Congratulations to the South Carolina Gamecocks, the 2024 women’s basketball national champions!!!!