Arizona jumped out to a 26-15 lead on Arkansas early and never looked back as they cruised to a 109-88 victory. I have to admit that watching Arizona dismantle a very good Arkansas team does not make me as excited as I was two hours ago. I still think Purdue has a chance because they play a completely different style of basketball from Arkansas. But it certainly doesn’t make you feel good when you know that defense is your team’s biggest weakness and your upcoming opponent just scored 109 points.
So, I switched over to the Illinois vs. Houston game. With it being 24-22 at halftime, I figured it had to be a better game than watching Arizona stomp all over Arkansas. And then laughed as Illinois went on a 17-0 run early in the second half and then hold on to beat Houston by 10. Still, the Big 10 has to be thrilled with its performance, as it won 3 of the 4 games today. Sure – they were guaranteed to win at least one game with Iowa and Nebraska playing, but after Illinois’ victory over Houston in the Cougars’ backyard means that the Big 10 will now be guaranteed at least one team in the Final Four – as the Fighting Illini will play the Hawkeyes for the opportunity to head to Indianapolis.
Congratulations to Illinois, Arizona, Iowa and Purdue on advancing to Saturday’s Elite 8 games.
As for the Stomp the Lunatic Pool, Matt Reilly has been tied up by Bo Luy at 650 points – they have a small 10 point lead over Matt’s second bracket, Heath Lindvall and Dan Fischer. Ryan Hilton is in 6th place – just 20 points behind. And Brian Betz, Mark Walsh, Will Richter and Mike Wyatt round out the top 10 at 620 points in a tie for 7th.
In the Upset Pool, Matt Reilly leads at 243 points, and has a 3 point lead over Shirli Zelcer. Lochlan Middlebrook is in 3rd place at 222 points, followed by Tony Wilson in 4th place at 220 points, and Matt Reilly’s second bracket along with Bo Luy being tied in 5th place at 218 points.
As for the second chance pool, 10 entries were able to pick all 4 games correctly tonight. Those 10 perfect brackets are owned by Lauren Martin, William Craft, Michael Cheung, Karen Barton, Jim Wambach, Audra Chamowitz, Jerry Caldwell, Steve Thornton, Wendy Joseph and my wonderful wife, Elizabeth Hodgson!!!
Congratulations to all our leaders. We also unofficially can congratulate Brent Hassell, although he has won the prize no one wants. With Houston’s loss to Illinois, Brent’s last team alive has fallen. So he is locked in at 190 points to clinch last of the eligible entries in the Standard Pool. This is normally where we say the classic trash talk, “You shouldn’t have challenged the Lunatic!” – but we all know that is not true. The Lunatic is lingering in a tie for 95th place so everyone should have challenged him. With Matt Reilly having two of the top 5 entries, the more appropriate statement is “You shouldn’t have challenged Matt!”.
Four more exciting games tomorrow. Duke and St. John’s kick us off in Washington, DC at 7:10 pm, with Michigan and Alabama kicking off in Chicago at 7:35 pm. And then, in the late games, we have an outstanding matchup between UConn and Michigan State at 9:45 pm with the finale being Iowa State and Tennessee at 10:10 pm.
Should be some fantastic basketball as we will lose 4 more teams to get down to the Elite 8 this weekend!