Stomp The Lunatic

Looks like it has been a game of runs. The women’s game between UCLA and LSU had gotten interesting. LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson hit a layup to cut the UCLA lead to 3. But UCLA’s Gabriela Jacquez hit two free throws and a three-pointer with about 1:30 to play to lead the Bruins to victory.

I had thought the men’s game had only been going for a short amount of time – so was surprised to turn on the game and the first thing I see is Bruce Pearl being interviewed and asked about what they are doing right on this 17-0 run.

Michigan State would score the next 7 points to chip the lead away, and so at halftime they are only down 9. Johni Broome from Auburn is a beast – with 17 points and 11 rebounds and it is only halftime!

Can Auburn hang on to give us 4 number 1 seeds for the first time since 2008?

So the Houston game was so exciting that Charlie and I went outside to play some HORSE. For those who need to know, I won the first game and Charlie won the second game. It was so hot out that we decided to just call it a good game after that.

Elizabeth tried switching to the women’s tournament but UCLA is now up double digits on LSU.

Looks like we didn’t miss much in the men’s game. With 7 seconds left, Houston is up 69-50.

Really not much to blog about – I did get to golf this morning – sadly my chipping game had returned to normal and I shot a 98.

One of the interesting pieces of the midwest region was that everyone had a home court advantage over Houston – especially Purdue who was an hour away. While Tennessee fans travelled well, they really never were able to get into the game.

Even in their first round games, their closest site was Wichita , Kansas – which is 9 hours away.

So now, the Cougars will head to the Final Four – just 3 hours away at San Antonio. I suspect Texas will be a much more friendly environment for the Big 12 champions. Although, Houston has seemed pretty comfortable being the road team

So, the only thing standing in the way of all 4 top seeds advancing to the Final Four is Big 10 regular season champion Michigan State. I am sure that the SEC regular season champions from Auburn will have plenty to say about that.

We know Houston has one of the best defenses in the country. But this is impressive. The Cougars have held Tennessee to 15 points in the first half.

They are also scoring points – so they are up 19 points at halftime as they seem determined to ensure the Big 12 makes the Final Four.

Not much more to say but that – just total domination.

Well, unlike our first game, there would be no comebacks. The Duke Blue Devils jumped out to a big lead and never looked back, as they defeated Alabama 85-65.

So, half the Final Four is set – with them both being the top seed from the region. Will we see any upsets tomorrow – we still haven’t seen one this weekend……

Congratulations to our current leaders. In the Standard Pool, Debbe Evans leads with 1010 points. She is followed in a tie for 2nd by both of Andrea Zimmerman’s picks (20 pts behind), 4th by Ryan Zotti (40 pts behind), a tie for 5th between Kevin Busby and both of Earl McKnight’s picks (50 pts behind), and rounding out the top 10 in a tie for 8th is Dave Evans, Amy Lacks and Lowell Isaacs.

The top 10 is important to note for two reasons – 10th is the last prize that gets awarded. But also because at the moment, those 10 are the only people who are beating the Lunatic – he is tied for 11th just 70 pts behind.

In the upset pool, Ashley Peterson maintains her lead at 266 points. In a tie for second is Debbe Evans and Scott Grimes (both 20 pts behind). Jerry Caldwell (39 pts behind) is all alone in 4th just one point ahead of our 5th place tie between Blake Viera, Kevin Busby, and John Franklin.

In our second chance pool, could we actually see perfection. There are still 20 people with perfect brackets – which considering we listed everyone out yesterday and it is late, we will just congratulate everyone on their continued perfection.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow as the Big 12 champion plays Tennessee at 2:20 pm and we finish with SEC champion Auburn playing Big 10 champion Michigan State at 5:05 pm.

So with the way this tournament has gone, I figured it made sense to answer one of the questions that might be on your mind.

Has all 4 one seeds made the Final Four?

Yes – but only once. Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA in 2008 where the Jayhawks defeated Memphis 75-68.

As for the East Regional, the #1 seed Duke has jumped out to a 46-37 half time lead over Alabama. So, will we see another double digit comeback happen?

I almost feel like a repeatable theme has occurred. Underdog goes up double digits late in the game. And then, the favorite starts coming back……

The Texas Tech Red Raiders had just gone on a 12-2 run, and with 6 minutes left, they held a 10 point lead. For the most part, they kept a hold on that lead as the Red Raiders seemed to be unstoppable in the lane. So, with 3 minutes to play, the lead was still 9 points and looked like one of the #1 seeds would finally lose.

Walter Clayton Jr tried to hit a three-pointer and missed, but Thomas Haugh got the rebound and kicked it back out to Clayton. When he couldn’t get free in the corner, he sent the ball to Haugh – who hit a three pointer to cut the lead to 6.

The Gators set up a press off a time-out, and while I don’t expect it was what they wanted to do, Haugh fouled Darrion Williams in the backcourt for his fourth foul. But sometimes, when trying to win a championship, you need a little bit of luck. Sure enough, Williams – who is an 84% free throw shooter – missed the front end of the one-and-one.

This time, the Gators play defense but end up following JT Toppin. And the 70% free throw shooter, missed the front end of the one-and-one – here come the Gators.

This time, off a pick, Clayton tried to get open dribbling to the wing, made a nice cross-over to change his direction, and pulled up for a pretty three-pointer to tie the game.

With the game tied, the Red Raiders finally got back to the offense that had been so dominating through the game – they got the ball into Darrion Williams, he drove the lane, made a nice spin to get a little space and hit the layup to give Texas Tech as 2 point lead.

This time down the court, Clayton gets the ball to Haugh at the top of the key, and Haugh gets the ball to Clayton rolling to the basket – it looked like he would try to lay the ball up, but Texas Tech played great interior defense to make him choose to not shoot it. But as Clayton dribbled the ball back out to the three-point line looking like he was going to reset up the offense, Clayton instead turned and fired a three-pointer to give the Gators the lead with about a minute left.

Texas Tech would get two good looks at three-pointers by Darrion Williams, but he would miss them, and meanwhile, Florida hit their free throws to eventually win the game by 5 points and head to the Final Four.

So, in the question of if we will get 4 #1 seeds, we at least know the first one has advanced. They were down 10, but 4 straight three-pointers helped send Florida to San Antonio.

And now, the track meet has begun – enjoy Duke and Alabama!!!!

And while it is certainly early, Texas Tech has jumped out to a 9-3 lead. Will anyone be able to stop the #1 seeds? Will anyone be able to stop the SEC? Will we have close games or blow outs? Will the referees call the games accurately or allow the players to beat each other up? Only time will tell.

The Lunatic had one of his best rounds of golf today. He shot 91 at the Club at Vinitiera, including a birdie on the 4th hole, a par 5 that somehow I reached the side of the green in two and chipped it to a tap-in distance. I felt that the golf gods were trying to make up for the evilness of the basketball gods. If it wasn’t for an inability to get out of a bunker on two holes (even the golf gods apparently can’t help me get out of a bunker), it could have been my best round ever there.

Well in the time I took to type this post, Florida has already come back to take a 2 point lead. Enjoy the games!!!!

I was almost ready for bed when I realized between going to see the string quartet, going out to dinner and getting back to watch and blog about the games, I missed something important. More important than missed foul calls and buzzer beating layups.

That is because 22 years ago, Heather Strange and Mary Kate Yost-Daljev set me up on a blind date. That night, I met the most wonderful woman in the world, Elizabeth Yost. I could never begin to imagine the impact that two good friends thinking about us to setup a dinner date would have.

The inside joke is that our friends thought that we were so square that we were perfect for each other. So as Elizabeth and I smile, it is important to remember that two squares make a rectangle.

22 years ago, my life was forever changed. Good friends led me to find the love of my life. Elizabeth – I found all I’ve waited for, and I could not ask for more.

I will apologize for the lack of enthusiasm going into the Elite 8 – but with it being after 1 am, and still hurting from the last second loss to Houston, I am ready for some sleep.

But even if the Lunatic is tired, there are some people who deserve some praise, our Sweet 16 leaders!!!!!

In the Standard Pool, Debbe Evans has now taken a 10 point lead over Ashley Peterson. In 3rd place, Andrea Zimmerman is tied with herself only 20 points out of the lead. In 5th place, Ryan Zotti and Scott Grimes are tied – only 40 points out of the lead. And just 50 points out of the lead is a four way tie for 7th place between Kevin Busby, Joseph Laucius and both of Earl McKnight’s picks.

In the Upset Pool, Ashley Peterson is running away with 266 points. She has a 24 point lead over Scott Grimes, a 28 point lead over Debbe Evans, a 41 point lead over Jerry Caldwell and a 46 point lead over John Franklin.

In the Second Chance Pool, we had 24 people pick all 8 games correctly to be tied for first. You know what – why not – you all deserve a place in the blog.

Congratulations to Michael Cheung, Sarah Wark, Jess Klecak, Kathleen Godwin, Dan Fischer, Lehua Martin, Laurie Neitzke, TJ Acuto, Ryan Zotti, Bill Panak, Joseph Laucius, Mikayla Cole, Rusty Ahles, Chuck Brugh, Scott Grimes, Josh Lacks, Will Austin, Bill Richter, Andrew Murphy, Rob Owens, Earl McKnight, Andrea Zimmerman, Martin Poteralski and Michael Urban. While I can’t be sure, I have to believe that have 24 people correctly predict the entire Sweet 16 is a Second Chance record. I suspect it is also a Lunatic Blog record for the most people who got their name called out to celebrate their brilliant picks.

We might as well break a record if we are going to break the Lunatic’s heart. If it is any consolation (which we all know it is not), the Lunatic’s sane picks are lurking in 17th place, hoping to continue to sneak up the leaderboard.

With that, the Lunatic is going to go to sleep. With it being predicted to be 80 degrees here in Richmond, he has a tee-time in the morning. Maybe a little bit of golf will be able to cheer him up, and I should still get home in time to watch the Elite 8 games Saturday night.

The Boilermakers found themselves down 10, and started to come back. They had made it a 2 point game with a little over 4 minutes when Houston missed a shot and in the fight for the rebound, a Cougar goes right over Caleb Furst to knock the ball out. It should have been an over-the-back penalty but it was called out on Furst. To rub salt in the wound, the replay showed that the ball actually last touched the knee of the Houston player but it wasn’t reviewable. And then LJ Cryer made a three-pointer off the new possession to extend the lead to 5.

Still, the Boilers had life in them. Braden Smith made a pretty pass to Trey Kaufman-Renn for a dunk to cut the lead to 3 with 2:20 to play. Then, the teams managed to stop each other multiple times. With under a minute to play, Houston was pushing Purdue all the way to half court, and so with the shot clock winding down, Smith desperately drives into the lane and kicks the ball out to the corner where Camden Heide hits a 3 pointer to tie the game.

With 34 seconds left, Houston decides to hold the ball as long as possible. Milos Uzan drives to the lane, and completely shoves Braden Smith out of the way to create space to shoot the ball with 5 seconds left, he misses his shot and as it looks like Camden Heide is in position for the rebound, Joseph Tugler jumps into him, the ball goes off Heide’s hand out-of-bounds, and it is Houston’s ball.

As they review who the ball goes off, the announcers are commenting on how it wasn’t an offensive foul on Uzan but since that is not reviewable, the ball is clearly off Heide.

And so 2.8 seconds left, and Milos Uzan passes the ball into the lane to Joseph Tugler, who immediately passes the ball back into Uzan who has just taken a step onto the court. And the Lunatic screams “NOOOOOO!!!!!!” as Uzan goes up for the layup to win the game for the Houston Cougars.

It is a shame because Purdue fought so hard in this game. And fought is the appropriate word as the Houston players ran them over time and time again as they crashed the offensive boards without any fouls against them. With all the contact that happened in the game, Houston only had 5 fouls called on them the entire second half.

At the end of the day, Houston had 16 offensive rebounds that typically led to points – and it was the final crashing of the boards (and the ridiculous non-call on the offensive foul on the drive) that led to them getting the ball out with 2.8 seconds to end Purdue’s season. It was a brutal way to finish the year, but I have to say that I was proud of how they played – they played their hearts out and ended up 1 second short.

So, all 8 favorites won in the Sweet 16. In 3 of the regions, we will see the #1 seed play the #2 seed. And in the one region where the #2 seed was eliminated, the #3 seed took its place.

While I am sad for my Boilers, you have to admit that it should be a great Elite 8. We have

• The SEC regular season champion
• The SEC tournament champion
• The Big 10 regular season champion
• The ACC regular season / tournament champion
• The Big 12 regular season / tournament champion
• The Big 12 second place team
• The other two SEC tournament semi-finalists who have been in the top 5-10 teams in the polls for most of the season.