It has been a crazy March for the Lunatic – to be honest, I have grown used to disappointment as my Boilers lose to a double digit seed. But I still can’t begin to tell you the amount of panic going through the Lunatic’s head as his entire website no longer existed. Every sensible part of me kept saying that I am sure there are backups, and once GoDaddy fixed their issue, the site would be back. But the Lunatic is typically sensible in March. Actually, the Lunatic is typically just not sensible (thus, the name of the Lunatic).

But the evening games really had a surprising set of 2nd halves. Tennessee was leading Florida Atlantic 27-22 in their style of defensive game. And UCLA led Gonzaga 46-33 in what looked like the Bruins were going to run away. And then March happened.

With 13 minutes left, the Owls from FAU were down 6 when Johnell Davis, who led the Owls with 15 points in the game, made a shot to cut the lead to 4, and then Michael Forrest scored the game’s next 8 points to give the Owls a 4 point lead. This was the start of an 18-2 run for the Owls that propelled the 9th seed Conference USA champions to the Elite 8. Florida Atlantic entered the Sweet 16 as the 2nd worst seed left in the tournament (with only 15 seed Princeton behind them). But they won 62-55 over Tennessee to advance to the East Regional Championship against Kansas State.

Then, there was the finale. While I was watching Florida Atlantic beat Tennessee, Gonzaga went on a huge run to take the lead. With about 1 minute left, Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther made two FTs to give the Zags an 8 point lead. Then, UCLA started to come back. David Singleton got to the line and hit both FTs to cut the lead to 6. Gonzaga’s Malachi Smith turns the ball over trying to break the UCLA press. The Bruin’s Jaime Jaquez Jr hits a layup and gets fouled. And after his FT, the Bruins are only down by 3. Gonzaga’s Anton Watson gets fouled to stop the clock and hits one of his two FTs. And Jaquez gets another layup to cut the lead to 2.

Then, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, who led the comeback as he scored 36 points on the night, gets fouled to stop the clock, and shockingly misses both FTs. UCLA would capitalize as Tyger Campbell passed the ball to Amari Bailey, who nails a three pointer to give the Bruins the lead with 13 seconds. Gonzaga’s Hunter Sallis brings the ball up, dribbles to the top of the 3 pt line, and turns to pass the ball back to Strawther. And Strawther with 7 second in the game hits a three pointer from the March Madness logo to give Gonzaga a 2 point lead.

Malachi Smith manages to steal the ball from Tyger Campbell, and the ball gets to Strawther, who gets fouled with just 1 second to play. But Strawther can’t ice the game – he only hits one of the free throws. Campbell would get off a last ditch half-court shot to try to tie the game, but it goes off the rim and Gonzaga hangs on for a 79-76 victory.

OK – we are caught up. Don’t look now – but both remaining #1 seeds are losing in their perspective games…… Could be a wild night.