Last week, Duquesne upset Dayton and VCU to claim the Atlantic 10 automatic bid into the tournament. And apparently, the Dukes don’t want to leave the dance any time soon.
The A-10 champion jumped out to a 14 point lead on BYU and then hung on for dear life as the Big 12 team came storming back. The Cougars tied it with 1:47 at 60 with a big dunk by Fousseyni Traore. But the Dukes responded with a beautiful back door play that sent Jimmy Clark III to the free throw line where he put them ahead with 2 free throws.
And then, with 26 seconds left Clark drove to the basket again and scored to give them a 65-60 point lead. Dallin Hall tried to create some late game heroics for the Cougars with a deep three pointer that cut the lead to 2. But Duquesne’s Dae Dae Grant hit his free throws and iced the game for a 71-67 victory for the first big upset of the tournament in just the second game. Although I guess you could call Michigan State’s win an upset (but even Vegas had the 9 seed as a 1.5 point favorite).
I am excited to announce that it looks like we will have 312 entries for this year’s contest. When I get home from work tonight, I will do some checks on the system to make sure there are no errors or last second brackets in limbo on my database.
In the meantime, you should be able to see your picks both in the standings or by logging in.
Make sure Charlie and Katie have entered their picks so they can participate in the fun (I would have included Elizabeth – but does it surprise anyone here that my wonderful wife was the first to enter) – check
Reveal my horrible picks that everyone will stomp – check
Send a reminder email to people to please come to the website and enter picks that will be better than mine – check
Edit the handicapping page to have all 16 games today with poorly rushed analysis and commentary that probably only makes sense to a crazy person – check
Get ridiculously small amounts of sleep so that I will be watching the games ending around midnight in a dream-like state – check
The Lunatic is old so he might be forgetting something – but all in all, I think I have done everything on my check list. The Lunatic is ready!
The Round of 64 is set as the tournament has already provided 4 awesome game including an overtime victory and a game decided in the last minute (well 3 awesome games and a Colorado State blowout) – check! The tournament is ready!
There is less than 2 1/2 hours left before the madness begins. This is your final reminder to enter your picks! The Lunatic is ready!!! The tournament is ready! March is ready! So there is only one last question to answer on the check list.
This hasn’t been the best start for the Lunatic. 0-3 for his handicapping against the spread. Missing 2 teams in his bracketology. Already struggling to stay awake and there is still one more half in the Colorado vs. Boise State game. But March brings that treacherous emotion – hope….. I desperately want these picks to go well – because it will mean that I can finally cheer for my Boilers in the Final Four. They have been to the Final Four before – but the last time that happened, I was 7 years old and I am not sure I even knew that Purdue existed. With Zach Edey and Braden Smith, I really like their chances.
There are also the moments of de-ja-vu that keep coming. Losing to the 16 seed (like Virginia did). Coming back to be ranked in the top 5 for most of the season(like Virginia did). Winning the regular season conference championship just to lose in their conference tournament semi-finals (just like Virginia did). It creates a level of hope that is dangerous. But I am still going to go with the hope.
In my Insane picks, I will go all the way with that hope. I have Purdue winning the championship against North Carolina, with Auburn and Marquette joining them in the Final 4. And as I type this, I hear the Taylor Swift song that went through my head a couple years ago.
This hope is treacherous. This daydream is dangerous. This hope is treacherous. I, I, I…….
In my Sane picks, I will still take my Boilers to the Final, but they will get beat by the team that I think has been the best all season, the Connecticut Huskies. Lets face it, a defending champion hasn’t repeated since Florida in 2007. The #1 team in the tournament hasn’t won since Louisville in 2013. (But the first one that did it was that 2007 Florida team). So, in the same sense of de-ja-vu, it is time for those streaks to end. The Huskies are an amazingly complete team that can beat you so many ways – and they tend to take big leads and not let up. 23 of the 31 wins they have this year have been by double digits. In my sane picks, they will be joined by Arizona and Marquette in the Final Four.
And as I think about all these streaks coming to an end, Taylor’s voice returns to my head
This slope is treacherous. This path is reckless. This slope is treacherous. And I, I, I like it.
So, there you go. Will this be the year that the Boilermakers break through? The Lunatic certainly can not pick against his team – no real fan can. It might not be the expert picks that the Lunatic claims to have – but maybe this year, the Lunatic will be served better by picking with his heart.
It might be two 16 seeds but it has certainly been entertaining. Grambling State came back from 14 down to send the game to overtime. They stayed super hot in overtime Jourdan Smith and Antwan Burnett both scored 18 points to lead the Tigers to an 88-81 victory.
Just one more play-in left between Colorado and Boise State and then it will be a short 13 hours until the true madness starts.
The first is the biggest news on the injury front. Kansas’ leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr will miss the rest of the NCAA Season Tournament with a knee injury that has plagued him through February and March. It looks like they will at least get big man Hunter Dickinson back from his dislocated shoulder injury, but losing your leading scorer is not news that Jayhawks’ fans wanted to hear. My apologies to the loyal Jayhawks’ fans out there for bringing bad news (although I am just the messenger – and they probably already heard it when the news broke yesterday).
So the Lunatic will end with a more fun story. It started bad and has led to one last good moment. On Monday, March 11th, Dan Monson, who had coached for 17 years at Long Beach State, was fired after a 5 game losing streak had them drop to 18-14 on the season. They mutually agreed to have Monson finish out the season at the Big West Tournament before he left campus for good.
All LBSU has done since is beat UC-Riverside, regular season champs UC-Irvine and regular season runner ups UC-Davis to win the Big West Tournament and its automatic bid. In a nice, maybe appropriate send-off, they will play Arizona – who is coached by Tommy Lloyd. Lloyd was a long time assistant at Gonzaga, who was hired by Monson when he was still the head coach of the Zags. It should be an emotional game!!!
OK – I really probably should get back to handicapping. So many games – so little time.
It took some effort this morning, but the Lunatic is happy to report that the Handicapping page has all 4 games (his two losses from yesterday thanks to Wagner and Colorado State) and his hopefully two big comeback victories today (Go Montana State and Colorado).
This means as I go through the craziness of handicapping the upcoming 32 games on Thursday and Friday, I can simply put my information on a form on my laptop and then update the page through a code (well and an FTP when I am at home).
The Lunatic is very thankful – just putting the 4 games into the blog from his phone took more effort than he wanted – and certainly going back and editing the results would have been a nightmare. I can go back to simply ranting about the games.
And I am sure all my readers are thankful that the blog will return into reactions to plays in the games, commentary about the tournament and of course the random craziness we have all come to expect from the Lunatic.
Enjoy tonight’s games – and don’t forget to enter the pool!!! We already have 123 entries and I know the majority of you all wait until the last minute to enter. It should be a fun tournament – don’t miss your chance to Stomp the Lunatic
Well – I have done horrible on the first two games, so lets keep this up while I work on the code that will track my imaginary losses.
6:40 pm – Montana St (-3.5) vs Grambling O/U: 134.5
Don‘t know much about either team but Montana St has a NET of 208 while Grambling is 279 – so the statistics say Montana St is the better team. If I figure they will control the game, have to figure they will also control the pace and the score will go over.
Picks – Montana St (30), Over (20)
9:10 pm – Colorado (-2.5) vs Boise State O/U: 140.5
So if I exclude San Diego State’s magical run last year (and Tuesday night’s debacle by Virginia), the Mountain West is 0-11 since 2019. Colorado had won their last 8 before losing in the Pac 12 final, and I think the Pac 12 is better than what the stats made them. I am going to go aggressive and pick the Buffalos and pick the over in a fast paced high scoring game.
Picks – Colorado (30), Over (30)
Hopefully, I will get my code done – I don’t think I have the patience to put 16 games into the blog (and while I know people love reading the blog, that might be too much for all of us).
After 19 misses, the Cavaliers finally got a runner in the lane to bounce off the rim and fall in to end the brutality.
The TV broadcast put up the stat – first points since 9:48 pm. That is right – there was the 15 minute halftime in between to add to the margin, and obviously all the normal time-outs and stoppages, but the Cavaliers went for 52 minutes without scoring a point.
Guess when I said I would lock UVa in my handicapping with the exception that sometimes they can go cold was prophetic. I did not realize anyone could go cold for 52 minutes.
