Which is made even more happier by the first day of the NCAA Tournament.    And wouldn’t you know it, the game goes down to the buzzer, as Mount St. Mary’s hangs on to win 67-66 against New Orleans to be the first team to win a tournament game in 2017.   Hope that is a sign of things to come for the tourney!!!

So, as I get ready to watch the Wake Forest / Kansas State game, a few random thoughts:

• As is custom, since the Lunatic knows so many people will beat him in the pool, he has to do something else to show he knows something about college basketball.   So, the Lunatic’s Insane Handicapping page is back to demonstrate why the experts in Vegas make so much money each year – I mean, to show he can predict against the lines and spreads.
• The Lunatic somehow got all 68 teams in the bracket right – that is a very rare event indeed for the Lunatic’s Insane Bracketology.   I do have some complaints about the seeding, but for the most part, I can not complain about what the Selection Committee did – I think they got the right 68 teams (obviously).
• Those seeding complaints are around some of the top mid majors.   I know that Wichita State didn’t have a lot of top 25 wins, but they are a very good team – they should not be a 10 seed.   Just to put this in perspective, the experts in Vegas have the 10 seed Shockers as a 6 point favorite over 7 seed Dayton.   That type of line is normally reserved for a team that is 4-6 seeds better, not 3 seeds worse.  Add in the fact that last year’s darling, Middle Tennessee State goes 30-4 (including a 23 point victory over 9 seed Vanderbilt) and can only get a 12 seed.    They (and the Minnesota team that drew them) both deserved better.
• You have to love the tenacity of the Illinois State coach.  Illinois State couldn’t get a home and home against one of the top 6 conferences – which led to the weak non-conference schedule for the Redbirds.   After the committee saying that it was that schedule that held them out, ISU coach Dan Muller went to Twitter and sent out a message to the top 6 conferences that he is still waiting to see if anyone wants to step up and get a chance to have a quality road victory against his RPI 33 Redbirds.   Even better, Ole Miss’ AD took him up on the offer and it looks like they are going to play next year.
• It has been a rough few days in Syracuse.   While I did not believe they should get in, it is heartbreaking when you are on the bubble and it gets burst.   But then, the NIT decided to troll the Orange.  Many know that Jim Boeheim made press headlines at the ACC Tournament by saying that he was so happy that the tournament was in New York and that they should not have it in Greensboro for recruiting reasons.   So, the NIT’s gift to Syracuse was their first round opponent would be Southern Conference regular season champion, UNC-Greensboro.   Then, the blizzard from the current storm forced the game to have to be postponed until tomorrow.   Maybe they should have played the game in Greensboro instead of Syracuse.