Stomp The Lunatic

So, it is super late, so will keep it brief. But we can’t end the night without congratulating our leaders.

Sam Brunner has taken a 20 point lead in the main pool over Carrie Viera. 30 points behind are Kennedy Urban, Ann Hawkins and Carlie Reynolds in a tie for 3rd. And in a large tie for 6th just 40 points out are Chris Franklin, Tom Forrest, Debbe Evans, Anne Haines and Ann Schumaker.

Our Upset Pool Leader is Tom Forrest at 228 points. He is followed closely by Chris Franklin (223), Carlie Reynolds (218), Gus Woodburn (213) and Sam Brunner (212).

In our second chance , only 2 people got all 4 games correct – congratulations to Kathleen Godwin and Nick Kindig. There were 19 people who got 3 of the 4 games right in a massive tie for 3rd (and while I am not going to name off everyone, I have to congratulate my daughter Katie for being one those entries.)

Four more great Sweet 16 games kick off again tomorrow. Probably a lot less blogging and a much more nervous Lunatic as the Boilers take on Gonzaga. Boiler Up!!!

Just as in the Alabama game, Iowa State came charging back in the second half. But unlike the Alabama game, the team leading at halftime stopped the momentum. Curtis Jones from the Cyclones made a three pointer to cut the lead to 2 with 5 minutes. But Terrence Shannon Jr hit a three pointer from the corner. Then, after a Tre King layup, Illinois came down again and this time, Luke Goode hit the three pointer and the lead was back to 6.

Iowa State’s Curtis Jones made a layup to cut the lead to 3 with a minute to play. After running the shot clock down, Shannon got fouled – but only made one of the two free throws.

But the next possession was the final straw. The Cyclones were moving the ball around the perimeter trying to get a three point shot off, and Shannon jumped out and stole the pass. There was nothing at that point that was going to stop the speedy Shannon as his dunk put Illinois up 6 with 17 seconds left.

The Cyclones didn’t give up – Jones drew a foul on a three pointer and hit all 3 free throws to cut the lead to 3. But Shannon hit the two free throws to ice the game. Tre King would score right before the buzzer – but there was no more time left. Illinois ran out the clock and upset the Cyclones 72-69.

So, in a tournament of watching the chalk advance, as all 8 of the top 2 seeds advance to the Sweet 16, saw 3 of those 8 lose tonight as the underdogs revolted. Only UConn was able to withstand the carnage.

So we will have UConn against Illinois in the East and Alabama against Clemson in the West on Saturday.

At halftime, it looked like the West would be an all ACC final. But Grant Nelson and the Alabama Crimson Tide were not ready to leave the dance. It took the Tide just 6 minutes to take a 59-57 lead. Then it got extremely exciting as the teams went back and forth.

With about 4 to play, Nelson hit a three pointer to go up 5. But then UNC went on their run. Jae’Lyn Withers made a layup, RJ Davis hit a jumper in the lane, Davis drove again and got fouled to hit two free throws, and then got fouled again for two more free throws. The Tar Heels were back up 3 with 90 seconds to play. Mark Sears finally broke the Tide’s scoring drought to make it a 1 point lead. Then, UNC made the mistake.

With a minute, they got the ball to Jae’Lyn Withers at the top of the key wide open, and Alabama totally baited the 21.1% three-point shooter to take the shot. They had taken the lead by driving to the basket, and yet, took the low percentage three at a critical moment. It was too strong, and the Tide got the ball down 1.

Sears got the ball over on the wing, drew Bacot out to him, and got the ball to Nelson under the basket. Withers rotated to foul him but it didn’t matter. Nelson muscled the ball up onto the glass and in. And then he hit the free throw to put the Tide up 2.

RJ Davis drove to the basket but had it blocked out of bounds by Nelson. With the shot clock running down, Davis tried to drive again and took a desperation shot over Nelson, which went off the backboard and never touched the rim for a shot clock violation. UNC fouled quickly but Nelson made both free throws to extend the lead to 4.

In an odd play, Davis took a long route to the basket and then gave it to Armando Bacot for a layup to cut the lead to 2 with a couple seconds left. And then the strangeness happened.

UNC probably should have got the ball back. Alabama could not get the ball in, so eventually the Tide called time-out. It seemed like a long time so I rewound it and timed it. The Alabama has the ball for 5.3 seconds before a timeout was allowed. But not a reviewable play.

This time Alabama gets the ball in to Nelson. He missed the first free throw short, missed the second free throw long and the blocked Harrison Ingram’s desperation heave to win the game 89-87.

I think I heard this is the first time Alabama has made the Elite 8 in 20 years – congratulations to the Crimson Tide for an incredible comeback as both top seeds fall in the West.

In Los Angeles, the game has turned into a track meet as UNC outscored Alabama 54-46 in a game that looked for a while like neither team could miss a shot.

So, with it being halftime, I have turned over to the game in Boston, and as they go to the 4 minute TV timeout, Illinois is up 30-20 on Iowa State. So, if Iowa State continues at that scoring pace, there is a possibility they don’t get to the 54 points that the Tar Heels scored in the first half.

Lots of credit to Illinois – it is tough to score against the Cyclones – so already being at 30 points is impressive. Just maybe not as impressive as Alabama scoring 46 against UNC and the Tar Heels scoring 54 against the Tide.

It is crazy, the Tar Heels are up 8 – and with the pace of the game, it feels like that could be made up in under a minute. Meanwhile, Illinois is up 10 points against Iowa State, and it feels like the Cyclones would need to go on a run for 5 minutes to make up the difference.

So, every year, this feels like a necessary article. If I am going to create my bracketology and do all this research on the teams, it seems to only make sense to have at least one post about how the selection committee did.

So, lets first talk about a couple strengths. At the end of the day, the committee always does a really great job of selecting and seeding the field. We could make some arguments about some teams here and there, but at the end of the day, the teams that most deserve to be in the dance are playing.

You also can give them a lot of credit for seeding the top part of the tournament. 12 of the 16 protected seeds made it to the Sweet 16, and two of the missing 4 seeds were replaced by 5 seeds. All-in-all, they got the top part of the bracket right.

They also deserve a little bit of grace – I have been doing my bracketology for a long time, and this was one of the hardest fields to create. There is always one or two teams that steal bids in the smaller conferences, but I don’t remember a time when there was clearly 5 bids that teams who knew their season was over without a tournament victory managed to earn their ticket to the dance. By the way, I am not opposed to teams earning their ticket. At the end of the day, one of the interesting things about the NCAA Championship is almost every team has a chance to play in it simply by winning their conference championship.

But it certainly makes the lives of the Selection Committee harder. At the end of the day, most people who watch the game can agree that the teams in the polls should be in the dance – that is 25 teams. Last year, 10 of the automatic bids belonged to the polls. So after including the rest, the committee still had spots for 21 other teams. This year, it was 5. So, the committee only had spots for 16 other teams. This year, teams that would normally be safely in the tournament were playing in the First Four in Dayton. It is one thing to debate whether or not a team should have been a 11 seed in the play-ins or a 9/10 seed. The committee has some margin of error to be wrong. This year – all those 11 seeds are eliminated from the tournament.

The committee is also relatively predictable. Whether I agree with the rankings or not, I was able to predict 34 of the 36 at large teams. When a Lunatic can come up with that list, they are at least relatively consistent. Lets be clear – I would not have picked the 36 teams they did, and I would not have picked the 36 teams that I did in my bracketology – my beliefs and rules of giving at large teams would be different. But because of the process the committee uses, they tend to be very predictable. You might not like the rules of the game – but you at least know the rules.

That doesn’t mean that the Lunatic doesn’t have complaints. I might dig into some of these more next week while I have few games to rant about. But here are my main complaints.

The committee uses the non-conference schedule to keep a team out, but this then diminishes their conference schedule. Clemson went 11-9 in conference and ended up being a 6 seed. Pitt went 12-8 in conference and was left out of the tournament. Sure – the committee doesn’t have the hindsight here – but the rest of the NCAA field so far is 1-8 against the ACC – so 12-8 is pretty good. Add the fact that Clemson swept the Panthers, and that means they went 12-6 against the rest of the conference. Pitt was eliminated because their non-conference schedule was awful. But some of the final teams in didn’t have the greatest non-conference schedules either. Leaving the 4th place team from the ACC out feels like a significant miss.

I also feel like the committee made mistakes on the Mountain West. To be fair, none of us knew what to do with the Mountain West. But I can tell you for sure, there is no reason that the Mountain West should be getting 5 at-large teams when the Big East is getting 2 at-large teams. Those 2 Big East teams are 4-0. The 5 Mt West teams were 4-4 (and one of those wins was a First Four game). When we are taking a team that went 10-8 in the Mountain West over a team that went 13-7 in the Big East, we probably have made a mistake.

The committee also couldn’t figure out how to seed correctly within the Mountain West. San Diego State went 11-7 in conference and was a 5 seed. Utah State won the conference at 14-4, was ranked better than the Aztecs in the polls, and was a 8 seed. I don’t even know how that happens. I could understand if one was a 5 seed and one was a 6 seed. But Utah State finished 3 games ahead of the Aztecs in the standings – how do they fall 3 seed lines below them.

The committee is too tied to the NET rankings. This is the reason why so many Mountain West teams got in – all 6 of the Mountain West teams were in between 20 and 38 in the NET. I will probably rant more about this at some point. But here is the clearest point about the NET – which also ties to the final complaint.

We can not have major conference teams finishing in the top 4 of their conference missing the tournament when we are letting teams in with losing records from their conference.

Lets take Mississippi State – the Bulldogs went 8-10 in the SEC. The Bulldogs finished 9th in the SEC, and while they had 2 big victories over Tennessee, a victory over Auburn, and non-conference wins against Washington State and Northwestern, they also had plenty of losses – including one at Georgia Tech and one at home vs. Southern University.

Now, lets take Seton Hall – who went 13-7 in the Big East. Their big victories included UConn and Marquette. They also had 2 victories against St. John’s and victories against Providence, Villanova, Butler and Xavier. They lost their main non-conference games to Iowa, USC and Rutgers, but that Rutgers loss was the worst NET team they lost to. So – let compare.

Record – Seton Hall (20-12), Mississippi State (21-13)

Conf Record – SH (13-7), Miss St (8-10)

Quad 1 Record – SH (5-8), Miss St (4-9)

Quad 2 Record – SH (4-3), Miss St (4-3)

Quad 3 Record – SH (2-1), Miss St (7-0)

Quad 4 Record – SH (9-0), Miss St (6-1)

NC SOS – SH (227), Miss St (234)

SOS – SH (33), Miss St (28)

So – Seton Hall had a much better conference record in their conference, had comparible records across the different quads, didn’t have the horrible loss to a Quad 4 team, and yet they were left out of the tournament while the Bulldogs were an 8 seed (comfortably in). It is crazy that the 9th place team in the SEC is comfortably in the tournament when the 4 place team in the Big East (behind 3 teams that were seeded no worse than 3rd) is left out. It doesn’t help the Committee’s argument when the Bulldogs then lost by double digits to Michigan State (another .500 team).

But there was one statistic I left out that explains this. Mississippi State’s NET ranking was 31st. Seton Hall’s NET ranking was 67th. I am not sure how this happens, but it did.

There is a point where we need to move away from the statistics and value the conference records. They are not always perfect ways to rank the team, but when teams like Pitt and Seton Hall finish 4th in the competitive ACC and Big East, you have to feel for them when it is because the efficiency statistics say an 8-10 team in the SEC is better than them.

Look – at the end of the day, Seton Hall or Pitt are probably not going to win the National Championship. And Pitt ruined any argument for me when they declined the NIT invitation – if you don’t want to compete any chance you get, it is probably best that you are watching the games at home. But did they deserve a chance over some of the teams that got in? Yes – they probably did.

At the end of the day, all these teams on the bubble had blemishes that meant it was up to the committee to decide their fate. Unlike teams like NC State and Oregon who took their fate into their own hands and earned their tickets to the dance, these bubble teams needed the committee to select them. It is a terribly difficult job that gets heavily scrutinized – so they deserve a ton of credit for always putting together a fantastic tournament. But I still feel like they could do better. It probably doesn’t change the the final weekend – but it certainly matters to those players. Of course, what do I know – I am crazy.

Looks like the North Carolina / Alabama game is really good (and I suspect the Iowa State / Illinois game will also be good). So, I will leave the committee belong and go back to enjoying the games!!!!

At the end of the day, the players on the court win or lose the game. But in this game, Coach Brad Brownell made a decision that changed the entire momentum of the game.

Arizona spent the entire second half cutting the lead to tie the game, simply for Clemson to hit a basket or two to regain the lead. But Brownell made a big decision with 1:06 seconds. Oumar Ballo had just cut the lead to 3 points, and Clemson had taken 21 seconds off the shot clock when they got the ball in the post. As the Clemson player started trying to back down his Arizona defender in the lane, Brownell called time out. As the whistles blew, the shot missed – but of course, it didn’t matter since time out was called.

So, instead of getting this well-contested miss, Clemson inbounded the ball and Chase Hunter found PJ Hall for a dunk to extend the lead to 5. But while the assist in the scorebook goes to Hunter, I feel like the assist here should go to the great play that Brownell drew up during the time-out.

Arizona’s Jaden Bradley made it a two point game with a nice three-pointer from the wing. So, Clemson ran the clock down again and Chase Hunter drove to the basket, made an acrobatic move towards the hoop and scooped the ball in while being fouled. His free throw made it a 5 point game with 25 seconds to play.

Arizona’s Caleb Love drove the lane and hit an impressive jumper in the lane to cut the lead to 3 with 16 seconds. And then the Wildcats forgot they were playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson in-bounded the ball to a wide open Joseph Girard III, who was probably baffled by the fact that the Wildcats were letting him just hold the ball unguarded. By the time the Wildcats realized that they probably needed to foul Girard, he threw the ball all the way up-court to a streaking Dillon Hunter – who made a layup while getting fouled. He missed the free-throw, but at this point, the damage was done.

Jaden Bradley would miss a three-pointer, Chase Hunter would get the defensive rebound, and the Clemson Tigers won 77-72 to advance to the Elite 8. Of course, it makes sense, all the teams in the Sweet 16 had either won a regular season championship, a conference tournament championship or were ranked in the final top 25 poll except for Clemson. So, of course, the first team to advance to the Elite 8 is – Clemson.

Meanwhile, we should also congratulate the UConn Huskies – who completely destroyed San Diego State in the second half. I am not going to write a lot about it since I was watching the closer game in Los Angeles. But the three starting guards for the Huskies, Cam Spencer, Tristen Newton and Stephon Castle combined for 51 points as they almost outscored the Aztecs by themselves. So, the UConn Huskies become the first defending champion to make the Elite 8 since Florida in 2007 by beating the Aztecs 82-52.

Congratulations to the Tigers and Huskies!!!!

I guess the defending national champions need to be on upset alert as well.

With the Huskies being so used to destroying everyone, I imagine that none of us (other than Aztecs fans) expected San Diego State to be keeping it close.

If it wasn’t for Cam Spencer scoring the last 5 points of the half by hitting two free throws and a three-pointer, it would be a 4 point game. So, the Huskies are up 40-31 at halftime, but at times have looked human. If San Diego State can keep the Huskies off the offensive boards in the second half, they might be able to put a scare into the Huskies.

Well – as they go to halftime, I get to go back to Arizona and Clemson – as the Wildcats look like they are mounting a charge. Here’s hoping all 4 games are close tonight!!

The Pac 12 regular season champion is officially on upset alert. Although the Wildcats just got a couple of crazy dunks by Oumar Ballo.

But despite the highlight reel dunks, it is the ACC’s Clemson who are up 39-31 at halftime. Ian Schieffelin has 9 points and Chase Hunter has 8 as it has been the Tigers getting better shots and playing solid defense.

Beware the ACC. They have invaded Los Angeles and Dallas over the next two days – and based on the first 20 minutes of the Sweet 16, it looks like they have intentions to stick around for a while.

I normally try to make the blog a political free zone. I am somewhat of a centrist, and so to be honest, neither political party seems to be representing me well. But in this case, I couldn’t resist.

I have most of my news feeds on my phone about March Madness – I can’t possibly follow every thing, but I am trying as hard as I can. So I was a little surprised to see something about a Michigan GOP legislator – surprised enough to look at it.

And I almost died laughing at the absurdity. Michigan state representative, Rep. Matt Maddock – posted a picture on X of an Allegiant Air flight landing at Detroit Metro Airport with three buses having a police escort. So, the far-right Republican decided to continue the conspiracy theory about illegal immigrants being shipped into major cities. Here was his quote:

“Happening right now. Three busses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?”

Of course, everyone was quick to help out the Michigan representative. Here is the quote from the CNN article.

“The only Allegiant Air flight to the airport on Wednesday was a charter flight that carried the team from Gonzaga University, which plays Purdue University on Friday.“

The comments on his post were a bunch of Gonzaga fans stating that it was the Gonzaga Basketball team and the police escort was taking the team to the Sweet 16.

At least in this case, the only people who should be scared of those who were on that plane are Purdue fans. Oh wait – that is me – maybe they should send a few of the starters home – definitely at least check their papers.

Joking aside, I don’t want to see anyone win a game because of politics. I hope that everyone – fans and definitely players safely get to their Sweet 16 arenas.

Arizona and Clemson are ready to tip-off!!! The games are going to start – I had a few more blog posts that I wanted to add, but we will have to see. There is basketball to watch!!!

Good luck to your second chance picks!

Good luck to your original picks!

Enjoy the games!!!!!