The Drake Bulldogs jumped out to a 7 point half-time lead, and continued to pull ahead of 6 seed Missouri, finding themselves up 13 points with about 10 minutes to play.

At this point, Charlie comes home from hanging out with friends and told me that he hates Kansas and they stink for messing up his bracket (maybe a little bit more colorfully than that – but it is a family blog). So, he asks me what happened and as I was explaining watching Dickinson and the Jayhawks turn the ball over again and again, he says, by the way, thanks for telling me to take Drake – my friend Nathan also thanks you for your opinion.

Basically, I had told him that Drake is the type of team to take for an upset. Every time I watch Missouri, one of two things happen. Missouri is unstoppable offensively and scores 100 points. Missouri goes crazy cold and watch helplessly as the other team beats them. I am sure that the games were not always like that – but almost every game I watched seem that way. Anyways, I told Charlie that Drake is a really good defensive team, and that could rattle Missouri. So he and his friend apparently took the Bulldogs in an upset.

Well, as we are talking about other things going on, Missouri mounted a comeback. I am not really sure what happened, all I knew was over the next 6 minutes, the Tigers cut the lead to 1 point – and I told Charlie – this is all his fault, games are never over in March.

Drake would right the ship and score on their next two possessions to stretch the lead back to 5 with about 3 minutes left. Charlie and I continue to talk and it seems like the Bulldogs and Tigers were trading free throws to keep the lead between 4-6 points.

This continued to about 1 minute left in the game when Missouri tried to pass the ball to the corner for a three and Kael Combs was Drake steals the ball. As Missouri pressed to try to get the ball back, Drake finally got free and went on a fast break with a pretty pass into the frontcourt to Bennett Stirtz who lobbed the ball up to the basket for a pretty dunk by Tavion Banks.

And with that, the game was over – Missouri would never get closer than that 8 point lead and the Drake Bulldogs become another potential Cinderella team who has made it to the second round.

Arkansas looked like they had the game against Kansas under control building out an 8 point lead.

But with Hunter Dickinson on the bench, the Jayhawks made a run hitting some three pointer. The Jayhawks came back to take the lead 65-64 with about 5 minutes to play. Then, the Jayhawks leading scorer came back into the game. KJ Adams Jr extended their lead to 3, and then the wheels came off the bus.

Their next 9 possessions would be 6 turnovers, typically involving either a really sloppy pass by their senior leader Dickinson or a sloppy pass trying to get the ball to Dickinson, 2 missed shots (one being a horrible three-point shot by Dickinson), and 2 made free throws by A.J. Storr.

Meanwhile, Boogie Fland made a field goal, Jonas Aidoo hit two free throws to take the lead, and then Johnny Davis hit a huge three-point shot with about 2 minutes to play to give the Razorbacks a 4 point lead.

After DJ Wagner extended the lead to 6 from the free throw line with 20 seconds, Rylan Griffen hit a three pointer to keep Kansas in the game. But Johnny Davis would hit two free throws to ice the game. The Razorbacks would finish on a 15-5 run and set up a potential matchup between John Calipari and Rick Pitino’s St. John’s team. Of course, Omaha started off strong, so you never know….

I just wanted to give all of you a huge thank you. I am still kind of trying to do all my typical Thursday administrative tasks for the pool such as getting the e-mail list set up while watching some of the games. Not to mention having to still pick all of Friday’s games against the spread – still not sure what I was thinking when I introduced that segment…..

But barring any weird database timing issues (such as someone submitting their bracket at the exact time I was locking down the contest), we have 334 entries (322 in the money pool) from 194 people.

The fact that so many of you come join my crazy contest and hopefully, enjoy the blog in the process, makes me tremendously happy.

Good luck to all of you in Stomping the Lunatic!!!

One of the biggest stories in my mind of this year’s tournament is the fact that 14 of the 16 SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament. The SEC has certainly had a historic season this year, and there were so many great games from the conference.

That being said, I have to go on record that I wish the committee had not done that. I understand why they did based on all the statistics, but this is one of those cases where I feel like we are missing a key statistic.

Auburn, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee have kind of been in a league of their own. But I feel that their dominance has carried the rest of the SEC into the tournament by boosting their league’s statistics.

I hate the idea of 8-10 (or even worse 6-12) teams making the tournament. I get that those teams might have gone undefeated in the non-conference but they are struggling when it matters the most.

We saw Texas get out to a double digit lead against Xavier on Wednesday night just to throw the lead away. I was excited to see what Georgia might do – but they are down 18 in the second half to Gonzaga.

We still have Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and of course 6-12 Oklahoma to go. They certainly have the talent to win some games, but it makes me wonder what is the clear criteria for deserving. Mississippi State will even be considered the favorite against Baylor. But I hope we can relook at things if they all lose (I suspect at least one of them will come through and win).

I also understand that top teams like Louisville and Clemson can lose just as easily in the tournament. But wouldn’t we want to see a mid-major team like McNeese play in these games.

It simply sends the wrong message. There are certainly worthy mid-majors. You could even consider 10-10 Indiana or West Virginia. But right now we are saying that 9 seed Oklahoma going 6-12 in the SEC is better than 11 seed Xavier going 13-7 in the Big East (the conference with the two time defending national champion) and UC-Irvine who went 17-3 in the Big West is just wasting everyone’s time to talk about. Let that sink in for a second – totally get the competition level is different, but we think a team went 29-6 isn’t worth talking about and could not figure out how to win 6 games in the SEC with 9 of those games at home.

I am certainly not trying to say that UCI or Indiana or WV would do better – we just don’t know. But as Georgia loses by 25 to Gonzaga, it is pretty easy to question whether we would be better off giving someone else a chance. At the moment, it couldn’t be much worse. And if it couldn’t be much worse, shouldn’t we give the opportunity to the 29-6 team we know nothing about. They might not be better, but I do feel they are more deserving.

I think I am dreaming – after being up until 3 am, I am pretty sure I am asleep – happily enjoying Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith combine for 41 points of the Boilermakers 75 points, as Purdue holds off a pesky #13 seed High Point 75-63.

I know – my dreams get awfully specific this time of year. Maybe I am awake after all. Here is hoping that I am awake and that my Boilermakers have advanced to the weekend!

BOILER UP!!!!

Having a little bit of a problem with internet access to my e-mail, but this is my quick reminder that the tournament has started!!! Please look at the standings page (or login) to make sure you can see your entry in the contest!!

Good luck to everyone!!!

It might be 3 am – but I managed to get all 16 games picked. Let the sleep deprivation begin!!!!

Well, as usual, the Lunatic has run out of time to do his analysis. It is almost 1:20 pm, and I am fading fast. I need to have my picks. While I have struggled with having too much chalk, I can’t stop myself from thinking that Duke and Florida are the best two teams in the country. So, I will take the Blue Devils in my sane picks and the Gators in my insane picks.

In my sane picks, I will have Michigan State upset Auburn in the South, Florida beating Texas Tech in the West, Duke over Wisconsin in the East, and Tennessee over Houston in the Midwest – with Duke beating Florida in the championship.

In my insane picks, I have Auburn beating Marquette in the South, Florida beating St. John’s in the West, Duke beating Alabama in the East, and Purdue beating Kentucky in the Midwest – with Florida beating Duke in the championship.

So, sleep-deprivation leads to hope. Hope leads to believing that Purdue will get to go to Indianapolis for the Sweet 16, and then ride the home crowds to a Final 4. Remember that fan is short for fanatic – which is how I feel at the moment. But hope is what makes March so wonderful.

We currently have 242 entries in the contest, and we typically get a ton of last minute brackets. So, don’t miss out on your chance to Stomp the Lunatic, you have just about 10 1/2 hours to make your picks before the Madness begins!!!!!

Down 10 point with 13 minutes to play, the Xavier Musketeers started a charge to fire up the crowd in Dayton, which might as well be a home game for the Cincinnati school. Marcus Foster and Jerome Hunter led them all the way back with a few three pointers.

With under 2 minutes to play, Zach Freemantle made a pretty fade away to give Xavier a 2 point lead. They built the lead to 3 from the free throw line, and as they let the clock roll down, Freemantle threw up a wide open three pointer that was so far off that it missed the rim, hit softly off the backboard and into the hands of Dailyn Swain, who hit the follow-up layout with 20 seconds to put the Musketeers up 5 points.

Texas’ Chendall Weaver got fouled driving to the basket and hit the first free throw to cut the lead to 4. But he would miss the second free throw, Xavier got the rebound and played keepaway from Texas who was desperately trying to foul. Instead, Freemantle would get the ball under the basket and ended the game with a dunk.

Congratulations to Xavier on their comeback victory so they could keep dancing.

There are so many things that I would like to write about, ranging from the mess that the NIT has become, the horrible leaking that Will Wade will become the next coach at North Carolina State a day before his current team McNeese plays Clemson in the tournament, the ridiculousness that the Transfer Window opens up during the tournament, the crazy choices Indiana has made in their coaching search, to how I did on my bracketology and how I think the Selection Committee did on their choices.

And yet, it is almost 9 pm and I still have to figure out who I am actually going to take in the tournament. I was so bored and annoyed with myself of how much chalk I picked last night that I didn’t even finish my bracket. I have so much work to do while I watch Xavier and Texas play.

I hated seeing American’s senior and leading scorer, Matt Rogers go down with an injury in the early game between the Eagles and the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers, but I am not sure it would have mattered – the Mountaineers looked like the better team tonight. Congratulations to Mount St. Mary’s on winning tonight and advancing to play Duke on Friday.

Back to trying to figure out how I am going to handicap 16 games and pick both my brackets without picking all 4 #1 seeds.