Stomp The Lunatic

With about 16 minutes, the Cardinals and the Blue Devils were tied at 42.  And then Louisville went into ultimate defensive shutdown.  The Cardinals kept driving into the lane and getting layups – and no matter where Duke shot the ball from, they missed.  For the next 10 minutes, Duke only scored 1 FG.  And Louisville cruised to a 22 point victory.

At this point in the game, Rick Flynn is dominating the field – as he has the lead in both pools.  He has a 110 point lead in the standard pool over Kyle Kelly, with Adam Davis in 3rd, Pete Schmitke in 4th, and Matt Agin in 5th.   While Rick’s lead is pretty significant, the fact that he has Michigan winning (and many people have Louisville winning) means that people still have a chance.

However, Rick might have wrapped up the Upset pool.  Right now, he has a 25 point lead over Adam Davis, 48 points over David Gatewood, 56 over Mark Horgan, and 57 over Rohit Kapoor.  While it is un-official (since I am just judging by what I see on the top of the standings page), I don’t think anyone can catch Rick in the Upset pool – no matter who wins.

Rich Feyerabend is the king of the Second Chance Pool – as he picked all but the Wichita State / Ohio State game correctly to lead by 40 points over Kyle Kelly.  Nick Kindig rounds out the top 3 – just 80 points behind.

As for the Lunatic, his tournament is over with.  The Lunatic was hanging onto hope that the Blue Devils would win – since he was the highest person on the standings who picked Duke to win the tourney.  But after the Cardinals’ awesome 2nd half, the Lunatic curse strikes again to knock off the Blue Devils as well as any hope of respectability for the Lunatic’s picks.   This loss shoved the Lunatic all the way down to a tie for 105th.  And with no correct Final Four teams, there will be more time for people to Stomp the Lunatic!!!!

Congratulations to all the leaders – as well as Louisville, Wichita State, Michigan and Syracuse – the teams that will be playing in Atlanta for the National Championship!!!!

 

No matter who you are rooting for, you hate to see something like this.  In what looked like a routine play, Tyler Thornton went up to shoot a three point shot.   Kevin Ware tried to block the shot and when he landed, his leg looked like it just shattered.

Hate to see someone have to get taken off the court on a stretcher – hope that Ware is doing alright and that he recovers quickly from the injury.

Sympathies go out to him – this is what all these kids dream of.  To have something like this happen is just horrible.

Michigan jumped out and score the first 13 points and never looked back.  Nik Stauskas hits 6-6 from three point range to score 22 and leads the Wolverines to a very easy 79-59 victory over the Florida Gators.

And so for the third straight year, the Gators dominated their way to the Elite 8 just to find the region final to be the end of their season.  In those 9 games, the Gators average victory was 19 points – with no game being closer than 8.  Unfortunately, that dominance has not meant success in the region final.  Unlike the last two years where the Gators watched leads slip away at the worst time, this year, the Gators never were really in the game.  Every time the Gators mounted any kind of charge – the Wolverines just would hit another three pointer or get a fast break for a dunk.

The Michigan Wolverines made sure that the Big 10 will be represented in Atlanta.  While many gave Indiana, Ohio State or Michigan State better odds, it is the Wolverines who are the last ones standing.  And if they shoot the way they did today (which by the way was against a very talented defensive team), it is going to be tough to stop them.

Congratulations to the Michigan Wolverines on advancing to Atlanta.

Oh – and a simple piece of advice for the final teams playing – Louisville and Duke.  Might be a good idea not leading the other get out to an early double digit lead – that has not worked out well for Marquette, Ohio State and Florida.  Maybe a little simple – but more often than not, it is hard to come back at that point…  🙂

 

Cinderella has a name – and while everyone might have thought that name was Florida Gulf Coast (which was a wonderful story), her real name is WICHITA STATE!!!!!!

With 11 minutes left in the game, the Shockers had a 20 point lead and looked like it would just be watching the seconds count down until the coronation party would begin.  And then a strange thing happened in Los Angeles.  The Buckeyes started to cut into the lead.  By the 8 minute mark, the lead was down to 13.  By the 4 minute timeout, it was down to 8.  The Shockers hit 2 FTs to extend the lead to 10, just to watch the Buckeyes to score 7 points in the next minute.  And suddenly, with 2:49 left in the game, it was suddenly 62-59.  All the momentum was looking like another classic collapse where a large run happens and the clock strikes midnight for Cinderella.

But Tekele Cotton had other plans.  With the shot clock running down and Fred Vanvleet driving to get an open shot, he kicked it out to a wide-open Cotton – who calmly nailed the three-point jumper.  Ohio State quickly cut the lead back to 4 and the Shockers took things all the way down again.  Vanvleet missed the three-pointer before the shock clock expired – but there was Cotton – who fought to get the offensive rebound.   After taking the shot clock down to the end again, this time Vanvleet’s wild drive to the basket ended up in an amazing lay-up to give the Shockers a 6 point lead with 1 minute left.

Aaron Craft tried to hit a 3 pointer to cut the lead – but this time, Craft was unable to create some heroics.  The Shockers hit their FTs at the end of the game, and Wichita State has advanced to the Final Four in Atlanta.

The Shockers win was the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams that a 9 seed has made the Final Four.  And it was the first time since 1979 that a team from the Missouri Valley has made it to the Final Four – that was the year Larry Bird led Indiana State to the championship game.  Ironically, 1979 – the first year the committee seeded the teams – also was the only other time a 9 seed (Penn) made the Final Four.

Congratulations to the Wichita State Shockers – Atlanta will be happy to welcome Cinderella to the dance.  We’ll see if Prince Charming matches the other glass slipper to the Shockers’ feet…..

The Syracuse zone defense does it again – holding Marquette to 39 points – a record low for an Elite 8 tournament game.  The Orange stopped basically any penetration that Marquette tried to create and the Golden Eagles couldn’t hit a three-point shot today – even when they were wide open.

So, the Orange win the battle of the Big East teams – and become the first team to make their way to Atlanta and the Final Four.

Congratulations to the Syracuse Orange!

No last run for Cinderella – and that is it for the Sweet 16.  Louisville and Duke in the Midwest, Ohio State and Wichita State out West, Florida and Michigan in the South, and Marquette and Syracuse in the East.  Should be some solid games over the weekend!

At this very critical stage of the pool, we have a new set of leaders.  Congratulations to Tonya Cole and Rick Flynn – our leaders at 690 points.  Mike Wassmer is just 10 points behind in 3rd, and Heath Lindvall, Michael Yuen, and Kyle Kelly are just 30 points behind in a tie for 4th.  The Lunatic is still trying to hang on – as his insane picks have snuck into a tie for 14th.

In the Upset pool, Rick Flynn has a 9 point lead over Adam Davis, a 21 point lead over Rohit Kapoor and a 28 point lead over David Gatewood.

In the Second Chance pool, Rich Feyerabend was an incredible 8 for 8 – leading the way.   Dana Miller, Ken Zhang, Kyle Kelly and Joe Vellozzi are close behind after missing just 1 of the Sweet 16 games.

Also, it is time for the dubious honor – we have our first locked prize of the contest.  “Congratulations” to Clay Holloway – at 250 points and no Final Four teams left, Clay has clinched his spot on the bottom of the standings sheet.  While I am sure that it is not the prize that Clay was looking for, it is still something.  And as is customary tradition, it is time to say those disappointing words – “Sorry Clay – but you should not have challenged the Lunatic!”

This is a good time to be at the top of the board – but there is still time to move up the standings.  At this point, each win creates a large amount of points – and so having picks still alive to make the Final Four can make all the difference.

Good luck to everyone over the weekend!!!!

 

Really very impressed with how calmly Duke slowly built a lead against a very talented Michigan State team and then hold off any late rallies from the Spartans.  They totally dominated the second half in a very physical game.  Would have expected that to play in the Spartans favor – but the Blue Devils handled it very well.

So, that just leaves us with the Florida / FGCU game.  After an amazing start, it looks like the clock is getting ready to strike midnight on Cinderella.  I am going to hope the Eagles come up with a rally in the last 6 minutes but it is not looking good.

Hope you allow me to break from basketball for a moment as I just was thinking back to a very important moment in my life.  10 years ago, I found myself sitting at a Starbucks Coffee shop waiting for a blind date that had been set up by mutual friends.  I met this wonderful woman named Elizabeth Yost, shared a very nice dinner at Pasta Luna, and then went out for an after-dinner drink at the Capital Ale House.  She was beautiful, funny and we had so much in common.  And while it was a perfect evening, at the time I didn’t realize how perfect it truly was.

Ten years after that perfect evening, and my life has changed in ways I never could have imagined.   I was extremely lucky to marry that beautiful, funny woman.  We were extremely lucky to have such great friends who cared enough about us to make sure that we met each other.  And we have been blessed with two incredible children, Charlie and Katie.

In a funny twist, one of the reasons our friends told us they thought we would hit it off was because both of us ran a college basketball pool for our companies – and so obviously, we would be able to at least enjoy and share stories about that.   🙂

I am very lucky for such great family and friends.  And thank you, Elizabeth, for making these the happiest 10 years of my life.  I love you more than any words could ever express.

 

 

Down 2 points with 9 seconds as Elijah Johnson sprints down the floor.  He uses the screen to get what appears to be an open lane straight to the basket.  And then Elijah Johnson throws a wild pass out all the way back to the three point line where Naadir Thorpe has to chase the pass down and throw up a wild three-point shot which misses.  It looked like Johnson went from a relatively open lay-up to tie the game and traded it so Kansas could ridiculously low percentage shot to win.

And the comeback is complete.  Trey Burke and Mitch McGary will their Michigan Wolverines back into this game.  Down 11 points with 3:47 left in the game – after being down double digits for the majority of the game, the Wolverines come all the way back on Burke’s heroics to tie the game in regulation and McGary’s rebounding and scoring in OT to make their way to the Elite 8.

Amazing finish by the Wolverines!!!!!!!!!  Go Big 10!!!!!!!!!!  Really excited about the Duke – Michigan State game.  Expect this one to be a classic!

I was totally sure as the Wolverines let the clock role down without fouling at 1 minute was going to be their undoing.  Figured they would not have enough time.  But Kansas didn’t score with 40 seconds.   And after some back and forth scoring, Elijah Johnson missed a FT and the stage is set.

And as Trey Burke shoots the ball with 4 seconds left from 30 feet out, I shouted at the TV – “really, that’s the best shot you could have come up!!!!”  And then of course, the ball went in to tie the game.

Shows what I know.  After watching a few Big 10 games, I should have known – any shot that has Trey Burke putting it up is a good shot.  And we get to watch a fun overtime.