Stomp The Lunatic

When looking at the brackets, I still see relatively easier paths for Florida and Arizona.  Not to diminish the talents of UCLA, Dayton, Stanford, San Diego State, Wisconsin, and Baylor.   But I would probably rather see them in my way than Michigan State or Louisville.

So – I figured I would continue them to the championship – and take the very logical approach.  I have Florida in my main picks, so I picked Arizona in the second chance.

Then, at that point, I though it would be fun to damage the chances of more teams.  So, I picked Virginia and Michigan to join the Gators and Wildcats in the Final Four.

Sorry, Cavalier and Wolverine fans.   And congratulations especially to UCLA, Dayton, Connecticut, San Diego State, Baylor, Kentucky and Tennessee – you guys are the only remaining teams that have no piece of the Lunatic Curse left – so you probably have the best chances to keep winning.

I feel really bad for Wichita State.   My understanding is they are the first team to go 35-0.  But the Selection Committee did them absolutely no favors in their road to the Final Four.

And that bumpy road came to an end as a pesky Kentucky team, who was too young to realize they weren’t supposed to win this game stuck with them the whole game and eventually held on to a two point victory as Wichita State’s three pointer at the buzzer fell short.

And so the upsets continue – this time they claimed a #1 seed.   And sadly, it ended the chance of a perfect season for the Shockers.  Congratulations to the Wildcats – they have made their way to the Sweet 16.  And you can imagine their next game will be crazy.  Indianapolis will be rocking as Kentucky and Louisville come to town and continue their amazing rivalry.

The Dayton Flyers would just not go away – even when they made mistakes to give Syracuse another chance, they quickly took that chance away with a defensive stop.

I do find fantastic irony in this event.  Some of you might have noted some of the posturing by Coach K from Duke around it was silly that the Atlantic 10 was getting 6 teams into the tournament when a stronger conference like the ACC might only get 5.

The posturing might have even worked – as North Carolina State got a surprising 6th bid for the ACC (and they demonstrated that they belonged as they won their play-in game and almost upset St. Louis – the A-10 regular season champion in the second round).

Bur here is the bigger irony.  Dayton was the 6th team from the A-10.  And so after mighty Duke lost to Atlantic Sun champion Mercer, the 6th best team from the A-10 ended the tourney early for a second protected seed ACC team.  The funniest part to me about this is the Flyers are the only one left from the A-10.  That’s right, the only Atlantic 10 team that is still playing is the one Coach K said it was silly that they should be getting in.  And meanwhile, the only ACC teams left do not include Duke or Syracuse – it is just conference champion Virginia and the UNC Tar Heels left to carry the ACC banner.

I guess there is a reason they play the games.  Regardless, congratulations to the 6th best team from the Atlantic 10 – the Flyers have shown through their upsets of Ohio State and Syracuse that regardless of some opinions of one of the best minds in college basketball, they belonged in the Dance – and are the ones who will be hoping to continue to write their Cinderella story.

Meanwhile – I have to chuckle.  The whole day has spent watching defensive battle after defensive battle.   So far, 4 of the 5 games that have gone final have ended with the losing team not getting past 53 points (and Texas only got to 65).   And while I know Oregon likes to run up and down, it makes me chuckle that Wisconsin – a team known for slowing down the game to a crawl is winning 67-63 with a full 10 minutes left to play.   Of course, it would be the Badgers game that turns into a shootout.

First, Florida earns the first trip to the Sweet 16 while holding Pitt to 45 points (a team that averaged 72.5 points during the season and scored 77 in their opener against Colorado).

Then, watched an ugly first half as Louisville holds St. Louis to just 16 points in the first half (a team that averages 70 points during the season).  Whats more amazing is that after holding the Billikens to 16, they are still only up by 9.

I love to see good defense – but it would be fantastic if people at least made some of their more open shots.  For example, St. Louis and Louisville is 8-14 from the line.  They might be playing some great defense, but no one is guarding you when you are shooting from the line – and they are still missing them.  Maybe the basket will open up a little bit in the second half.

Well, after a wild start of the day, the upsets slowed down in the late games.  Sadly, home town heros VCU went down – but Stephen F Austin was the only upset of the evening games.   Although have to admit that Coastal Carolina giving Virginia a scare in the first half would have thrown more brackets into chaos.

Congratulations to our first round leaders – Michael Strange and Kevin Flippen.  Both our leaders were able to get 28 of 32 games correct – really amazing job of picking the games.   They are closely followed by Jack White, Jared Wall, Mike Wassmer, Dooomps, Steve ONeill, James Franklin, Justin Gorman, and the Lunatic’s 7 year old son, Charlie Hodgson – all who are 10 points behind.  Charlie is going to be very excited to find out how well he is doing.

As you can imagine, the Upset standings are pretty similar – with Michael Strange, Kevin Flippen and Justin Gorman all leading at 151 points.  Charlie Hodgson is in 4th at 144 points – followed by Dooomps at 139 points.

Surprisingly, the Lunatic is having a relatively good showing – as he is lurking in the group at 250 pts – tied for 27th place.   But don’t worry, the Lunatic curse has already taken out Duke – so it probably won’t be long until he is back in his normal place in the standings.

Congratulations to all our first round leaders!!!!!

 

And so in honor of my children’s picks and my father-in-law.

I’m a Tar Heel Born

I’m a Tar Heel Bred

and when I die, I will be Tar Heel Dead

So it’s Rah! Rah! Carolina-lina

Rah! Rah! Carolina-lina

Rah! Rah! Carolina-lina

Rah! Rah! Rah!

 

While it sure looked like it when Providence had a decent size lead, the Tar Heels are not dead yet – as many teams have had to do in this first round – style points don’t count, all you have to do is survive.

Survive – and advance!