Stomp The Lunatic

The Lunatic is lurking. As many of us get ready to enjoy the Super Bowl, the realization occurred to the Lunatic that his favorite time of the year is rapidly approaching. It will be March before we know it and the Lunatic must be ready.

So over the next week, he will be making sure all the links are set up to allow you all to enter your picks and Stomp the Lunatic! You can continue to see past results or see the Lunatic start to blog about college basketball. But for now, please do not register or login and ignore anything stating the tournament has started. I put a fake bracket together to ensure that all the forms are pointing to the right tables – so you will probably see something silly like my daughter Katie getting every game correct as Purdue wins the 2025 tournament. I will post again when the site is ready.

Enjoy the upcoming month of college basketball – and of course the Super Bowl this weekend!!!

It is almost February, and so it is obviously time for the Lunatic to start preparing for his annual sleep deprivation exercise. This post is the start to ensure that the site is still working correctly (since I have had a moment where the whole website went down).

Sadly, WordPress doesn’t seem to be updating. The codes have to be tested to ensure you all can make your picks for the contest. And to make things complicated, the NCAA changed their website slightly, which might mean none of my datapull scripts work any more.

But that will not stop the Lunatic!!!! March is almost here – and the Madness must begin!

It might not have been competitive on the court as the UConn Huskies destroyed everyone in their path. But it was certainly a very competitive Stomp the Lunatic contest – 39 entries correctly predicted before the tournament started that Connecticut would beat Purdue in the final. Considering last year, only 10 people correctly picked Connecticut to win, it is amazing that so many people got both final teams correct along with the correct champion.

All the pools were super close. Congratulations to Will Caldwell, who managed to win the Stomp the Lunatic contest by 10 points over David Ogle.

Congratulations to Ann Schumaker, who managed to win the Upset Pool by a single point over Gus Woodburn.

And congratulations to our co-champions in the second chance pool, as we had a 4 way tie between Jen Miller, Karl Knox, David Ogle and Will Richter.

In fact, congratulations should go out to all of our winners.

STANDARD POOL

1st) Will Caldwell (1230)

2nd) David Ogle (1220)

3rd tie) Kelly Woods and Scott Grimes (1210)

5th) Joseph Laucius (1200)

6th) Laura Carini (1190)

7th tie) Chris Franklin, Chris Peterson, Lainey Miller, Steve Glass, Dan Fischer, and Ann Schumaker (1180)

LAST) Ann Wilson (250) – sorry, but we need to say the standard line……you should not have challenged Will (since we know everyone should challenge the Lunatic)

UPSET POOL

1st) Ann Schumaker (310)

2nd) Gus Woodburn (309)

3rd) Taylor Early (293)

4th) Wil Austin (289)

5th) Elizabeth Betz (281)

SECOND CHANCE POOL

1st tie) Jen Miller (800)

1st tie) Karl Knox (800)

1st tie) David Ogle (800)

1st tie) Will Richter (800)

It isn’t much of a consolation for the Lunatic, as he would have happily been stomped by all of you if it meant that Purdue would have scored 16 more points tonight. But as far as the pool is concerned, the Lunatic put up a relatively strong showing. His sane picks finished in a tie for 17th, so if we account for the tie-breaker, only 17 people Stomped the Lunatic this year.

Purdue made it to the Championship game. Only 17 people Stomped the Lunatic. The Lunatic must still be dreaming. He actually probably desperately needs some good sleep. But I am sure that the Lunatic will wake up again next March, as he will recover from watching Purdue be so close to a title and yet so far from a title.

Thank you to all of you for helping make this such a fun tournament for me to run each year, and humoring me as I rant about my favorite time of year – March Madness! It makes me so happy to blog about the tournament, and that so many of you come back each year for another chance to Stomp the Lunatic – hopefully also enjoying the blog in the process!!!!

Congratulations again to our 2024 Stomp the Lunatic Champion – Will Caldwell, our Upset Pool Champion – Ann Schumaker, and our Second Chance Pool Champions – Jen Miller, Karl Knox, David Ogle and Will Richter. And of course, congratulations to our 2024 men’s national champions – the Connecticut Huskies!!!!

The UConn Huskies guards were just too much. Zach Edey scored 37 points for the Boilers but the Huskies defense shut everyone else for the Boilers down.

Tristen Newton had 20, Stephon Castle had 15 and Cam Spencer had 11 as the Huskies backcourt just dominated on both halves of the court. The game was never in doubt as the Huskies won 75-60.

Maybe the most impressive part was the Huskies out-rebounded the Boilers 35-28. Maybe the most impressive part was they held the 2nd best three-point shooting team in the country to 1-7 (14.3%). Maybe the most impressive part was how they would run their offensive sets for 25 seconds just to suddenly have a wide open shot.

The Huskies outscored their opponents this March by 140 points, the most dominant performance in NCAA tournament history. They entered the tournament as the prohibitive favorite and destroyed everyone in their path as they proved they were the best team in college basketball.

Congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies, the 2024 men’s national champions!

The Huskies matched my dunk as a pretty lob pass to Samson Johnson a couple times for two monster dunks. Dangerous time for my Boilers as the Huskies are up 13

We might be down 9, but that rebound/dunk by Camden Heide was one of the most awesome things that I have ever seen as he came out of nowhere while Edey and Clingan were fighting for the rebound to slam it.

Hoping that spurs the Boilers on – we need some type of momentum builder!

Zach Edey has shown why he is the AP Player of the Year as he has come out scoring 16 points in the first half. And I think that Purdue might have played one of the best defensive performances that I have ever seen against a team that shot 48% from the field.

Every time Purdue would look like they would get a stop after forcing Connecticut to a couple seconds in the shot clock, you would then realize the Huskies have you right where they want as they make the shot.

The Huskies also have taken advantage of their offensive rebounds as they seem to always score off of them. Tristen Newton led the Huskies with 11 points, as the Huskies guards are taking advantage of their height advantage on the Purdue guards to drive to the lane and shoot over them.

The other place that the Huskies are winning is on the perimeter defense. They are totally taking away Purdue’s outlet passes to the wings that would lead to three-point shots. The Boilers only took 2 three-pointers in the first half. The Huskies have been happy to let Smith and Loyer drive to the lane and take their chances on them scoring the floater or getting the ball to Edey.

It is clear of how good Connecticut is – I thought Purdue played pretty well and they still find themselves down 36-30 at the half. But I still have hope – you have to have hope.

On a side note – Charlie has said that this is nerve wracking. He has inherited rooting for Chicago teams since that is who I cheer for – and he has realized that this is really the first time he has gotten to see his team playing for a championship. It is maddening as you get caught up on every single play that doesn’t go your way. I guess it is good for him to learn this madness at some point.

20 minutes left in the 2024 season. 20 minutes left for my Boilers to try to come back from 6 down to win their first NCAA Tournament championship. 20 minutes more of intense desire to see every Purdue shot to in and every Huskies shot to miss – despite knowing how ridiculous either of those outcomes are. They are so close to a National championship. But frustratingly, Connecticut at the moment is closer.

Anything can happen in March!!! Please Boilers!!!! Please come back!!!! Here we go! BOILER UP!!!

I have to admit I am a little bit annoyed at the Hall of Fame. I was considering doing the second version of my expansion story. As Katie was at rugby practice, I sat outside with my computer getting all of my administrative work done (I hand check a few brackets to make sure the site is scoring correctly – this year I did it all in Python – I know, the things I do are kind of sad.). For those worried, I got a perfect match on all the brackets, so the standings have gone through the Lunatic’s audit.

But thanks to the Hall of Fame coach, instead of relaxing before the biggest game in the history of my school, I now need to decide if I simply ignore this huge story in college basketball, or spend the 45 minutes before the game blogging about someone not even involved in tonight’s game.

Oh who am I kidding – I am nervous as hell as I eat dinner wearing my lucky Purdue shirt and pullover. So, lets do this – probably not enough time to do it justice but that is what you get when you try to upstage the national championship game.

So, apparently, John Calipari will be spinning the coaching carousel so fast that no one now knows where the wheel will stop. Who would have expected that SMU luring Andy Enfield away from USC would eventually lead to the Kentucky coaching job opening up?

I suspect this will create a huge mess – Kentucky has the reputation and the money to lure one of the top coaches from a job you would expect them to never leave. And because they have created such a great program, that school will likely also have the ability to lure another high profile coach.

The media have been saying that this is good for both schools. I am not so sure.

This probably works out great for both Calipari and Arkansas. Calipari has been an amazing recruiter no matter where he goes, so he will be able to bring talent to Arkansas that they don’t typically get (and to be fair, the Razorbacks do pretty well). And while the Razorbacks want to win, their fan base are likely to not be as critical of a team capable of making the Final Four each year because of some early exits.

Kentucky fans might have destroyed themselves. Likelihood says they do lure an amazing coach like Nate Oats or Tommy Lloyd away from their school and they will stay relevant. But lets raise the possibility.

You are a multi-million dollar coach who is beloved at your school. They worship you and will love whatever you do for them. Sure – maybe Kentucky might pay you more – but when you have all the money you would ever need, is it worth the stress. The Kentucky fan base basically just chased away a coach who has 7 Elite 8 appearances which turned into 4 Final 4s, which turned into a national championship in the 14 years he coached where a tournament happened. Most teams are lucky to every once in a while make the Elite 8 – for Kentucky fans, 50 percent wasn’t good enough because it has been a 4 year drought.

Nate Oats just led a school like Alabama with tons of resources to its first Final Four. They will be thrilled to have him for years to come – even if it takes multiple years to get back to the Elite 8 or even the Sweet 16. Why leave for the expectation to meet this tough goal?

Someone will bite – the temptation of coaching at Kentucky is too great. But if Kentucky fans think it is going to be better than Calipari, they will likely end up sad.

But the part that really bothered me was one of the names constantly suggested by the media was UConn’s Dan Hurley. I know if I had Kentucky’s money, that is the first call I am making as their AD. But it is so ridiculous – he is getting ready to coach for a national championship into a program he is turning into a dynasty and there is now a remote chance he has to answer the stupid question of if he is interested in the Kentucky job. I guarantee you the only thing he is interested in tonight is winning one more game.

Speaking of which, they just announced the starting lineups. It is time for the men’s national championship to be decided!! And the Boilermakers are playing for it!!! So very nervous!!! So very excited!!! Edey wins the tip and we are off!!!! BOILER UP!!!

A total eclipse of the sun will happen this afternoon – in Virginia, the moon will cover 80 percent of the sun starting around 2 pm, hitting its peak around 3:20 pm and ending around 4:30 pm. Be safe as you view this amazing event as we should have clear skies for it!!!!

And then of course stay up late tonight to watch the stars from Purdue and Connecticut create their own eclipse of the college basketball world – as they will be shining brightly through the night in Arizona.