It might not be the star teams like Michigan, Duke or Arizona, but the last 30 minutes have produced some incredible drama that has distracted me from my bracketology and box scores.
We will go based on the chronological order of the results. First, we head Lake Charles, Louisiana and the first semi-final of the Southland Conference Tournament. And regular season champs Stephen F Austin are on the ropes in a tie game as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. And with 15 seconds left in the game, the Lumberjacks’ Keon Thompson steals the ball and drives all the way down the court for a game-winning lay-up.
The Lunatic then headed to Indianapolis, IN (on his television) for the end of the Horizon Championship. Detroit Mercy has a double digit lead with less than 10 minutes to play when the regular season champs from Wright State started coming back. With a tie game and about two minutes left, the Raiders’ Logan Woods hit two three-pointers to lead the champs to a 6 point lead. But the Titans would fight back to a 2 point game with 9 seconds, when Wright State missed both free throws, Detroit charged down the field and Orlando Lovejoy drove to the basket to try to tie the game only to be denied at the rim with a great block by Kellen Pickett.
On a side note before continuing, I have to give tons of credit to Mark Montgomery, the coach of Detroit Mercy. He took over the program two years ago after the Titans went 1-31, and in just two seasons, he had them with a winning record, a tie for third in the conference, and in the conference championship title game. What an incredible turnaround.
But the excitement isn’t over in March. Next, we head to Washington, D.C. and the Coastal Conference championship game where Hofstra and Monmouth are playing a tight game. With a little over 1 minute to play, Monmouth’s Justin Ray hit a three-pointer to cut the Hofstra lead to 1 point. But the Pride’s German Plotnikov had the answer on the next possession with a three-pointer of his own to lead Hofstra to an eventual 75-69 victory.
Then, we headed over to Charlotte where the ACC first round is wrapping up. With the game tied and under 30 seconds, Wake Forest’s Mekhi Mason gets the ball in the corner and makes a nice move to get an open chance at a three-pointer, but his shot misses the mark. With time running out, Virginia Tech’s Ben Hammond misses a shot to try to win it, Jailen Bedford beats everyone to the board and tries to tip it in at the buzzer, but the tip-in also rolls off the rim to send us to overtime.
Starting off the overtime, ex-Purdue player Myles Colvin hit a floating jump shot and a three-pointer to quickly give the Demon Deacons a 5 point lead. The Hokies’ Tobi Lawal got the ball in the lane for a dunk to cut the lead to 1 with about a minute to play, but Sebastian Akins would drive into the lane to take a jumper, and he would hit the basket and get fouled to extend the lead back to 4. Wake Forest would hit their free throws down the stretch, and create a huge blow to Virginia Tech’s bubble chances to make the tournament.
As I finish typing this blog, hoping that my current attempt to pull box scores have finished, I head to Las Vegas and the West Coast Conference championship to notice that Santa Clara has a 33-29 lead over #12 Gonzaga as the Broncos try to get themselves off the bubble and earn their conference’s automatic bid. And then I notice that over in Atlantic City, Siena has scored the first 6 points of the second half to jump out to a 9 point lead over MAAC regular season champion Merrimack.
How can I get my bracketology and analysis done when there is so much great basketball to actually watch!!!! I don’t care – the Lunatic is so happy! It is his favorite time of year – March Madness is incredible!!!