Jaden Campbell made two late free throws and Achor Achor had a big dunk to come back from down 20 to cut the lead to 1 point with 20 seconds. Samford tried to trap Kansas but they passed the ball all the way down the court to Nicolas Timberlake and as he tried to dunk it, AJ Staton-McCray came from behind to block the ball out of his hands. But the referee called a foul, and so instead of a mad scramble for the loose ball, Timberlake headed to the line. It was clear from replays that it was a clean block, but the force that he fell to the ground made it look like contact was made.
Timberlake made both free throws, Jermaine Marshall missed a highly contested three pointer, and the Jayhawks survived with a 93-89 victory.
Congratulations to Joanna Crabbe, who got 15 of 16 games right today to take a 10 point lead. She would have been perfect had it not been for Oakland’s upset or Kentucky – but to be fair, only 9 people had the Grizzlies. So, as perfect as you can get.
Joanna is followed by both of Rob Nesbitt’s picks, Adam Levine, Ann Hawkins, and my dad Edward Hodgson who all got 14 of 16 correct. And there are 27 entries close behind at 13 of 16 correct.
Good luck to everyone on Friday as the Madness continues!
Five games in five days was just the start for NC State ride in March. The 11 seed dominated Texas Tech to run away for an 80-67 victory as DJ Burns scored 16 points as the crowd went crazy every time he touched the world.
Last Tuesday, NC State was heading into the ACC Tournament as a 10 seed knowing they had to keep winning to extend their season. Now, 9 days and 6 games later, the Wolfpack have a date with 14 seed Oakland to see who will go to the Sweet 16.
Drake tried to join the double digit party, but their upset bid ended early as the Washington State Cougars came back from down 7 with 6 minutes to play. Isaiah Watts made a huge three pointer with close to 2 minutes left to give the Cougars a 2 point lead and the Cougars defense shut down Drake for the rest of the game to beat 66-61.
And that name is Oakland. The 14 seed from Detroit won a wild game against the 3 seed from the powerful SEC, the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Grizzlies were led by Jack Gohlke, who scored 32 points. All 20 of Gohlke’s shots were from three point range, and the senior guard managed to drain 10 of them. But Gohlke just put Oakland in the position to win – he scored his last points from the FT line when he was fouled shooting a three pointer with about 4 minutes left to give the Grizzlies a 6 point lead.
Trey Townsend made a jumper to put the Grizzlies up by 5 but Kentucky came down the court and Antonio Reeves hit a three pointer to cut the lead to 2. The Grizzlies’ DQ Cole hit two free throws but the Wildcats’ Rob Dillingham hit a wild three pointer to cut the lead to 1 point with a minute to play.
With the entire stadium on its feet, Oakland takes the clock down to about 40 seconds and Rocket Watts drives into the lane and rifles the ball out to the corner and DQ Cole drills a well-contested three pointer to give the Grizzlies a 4 point lead. Kentucky would miss three 3-pointers trying to catch up but none of them would fall, and Cinderella started to celebrate on the court with a crazy 80-76 victory.
Oakland joins 11 seeds Duquesne and Oregon as double digit seeds who decided that they were going to stick around at the dance a little longer. The Grizzlies are hoping that they get to continue to wear their glass slippers a little longer as they await the winner of Texas Tech and North Carolina State.
Colorado State on Tuesday held Virginia to only 14 points and caused the Cavaliers to miss 19 straight shots.
The Rams jumped out to 8-2 lead over the first 5 minutes of the game. Then, apparently the ghosts that haunted the Cavaliers attacked the Rams.
At the 7 minute mark, Joe Palmer hit a three to end a 14-0 run by Texas. And then the Longhorns went on another 11-0 run to end the half, as the Rams went 1 for 19 to finish off the last 15 minutes of the half (assuming I counted right on the box score).
Not sure what is happening, but it is crazy that after holding Virginia to 42 points, Colorado State ended up scoring only 11 points in the first half against Texas.
It looked like we were going to see two more double digit seeds advance, and then March happened.
In 2022, Jermaine Couisnard played for South Carolina, but decided to transfer for his senior year due to the upcoming coaching change. Today, Couisnard scored a career-high 40 points for his 2023 team, the Oregon Ducks, the most points ever for Oregon in a tournament game. N’Faly Dante added 23 points and the Ducks won 87-73 to advance to the second round. This sets up a matchup with 3 seed Creighton, which is the school that Oregon coach Dana Altman was at for 16 years until heading to the Ducks.
In the other game, with 7 1/2 minutes to play, Nevada’s Jarod Lucas hit a three pointer to give the Wolfpack a 56-39 lead. Then DaRon Holmes II and Koby Brea took over. Over the next approximately 5 minutes, the two Flyers scored 14 of Dayton’s next 17 points – finished off by Brea draining a three pointer. Meanwhile, the Wolfpack were scoreless.
Jarod Lucas finally broke the run with a jumper, but Brea found his partner Holmes in the lane, and went strong to the basket to dunk the ball while being fouled. After hitting the free throw, the Flyers were ahead.
Kenan Blackshear gave Nevada the lead back with a minute to take the lead back, but the Flyers‘ Nate Santos got a layup, and Enoch Cheeks stole the ball with 15 seconds leading to Santos extending the lead to 3 from the free throw line. Nevada missed two three pointers, the clock struck zero, and the Flyers advanced off an incredible 24-4 run to end the game – making it that both Atlantic 10 teams survived to the second round.
We still have 6 perfect brackets as Joanna Crabbe, Rich Napolitano, Kevin Bostic, Drew Bradley, my son Charlie, and my step-mom Barbara have gone 8 for 8. It looks like Joanna, Rich and Kevin have Texas and Drew, Charlie and Barbara have Colorado State, so no matter what we will be down to 3 after the current game. Pretty impressive to get all 8 of the afternoon games right!
Last week, Duquesne upset Dayton and VCU to claim the Atlantic 10 automatic bid into the tournament. And apparently, the Dukes don’t want to leave the dance any time soon.
The A-10 champion jumped out to a 14 point lead on BYU and then hung on for dear life as the Big 12 team came storming back. The Cougars tied it with 1:47 at 60 with a big dunk by Fousseyni Traore. But the Dukes responded with a beautiful back door play that sent Jimmy Clark III to the free throw line where he put them ahead with 2 free throws.
And then, with 26 seconds left Clark drove to the basket again and scored to give them a 65-60 point lead. Dallin Hall tried to create some late game heroics for the Cougars with a deep three pointer that cut the lead to 2. But Duquesne’s Dae Dae Grant hit his free throws and iced the game for a 71-67 victory for the first big upset of the tournament in just the second game. Although I guess you could call Michigan State’s win an upset (but even Vegas had the 9 seed as a 1.5 point favorite).
I am excited to announce that it looks like we will have 312 entries for this year’s contest. When I get home from work tonight, I will do some checks on the system to make sure there are no errors or last second brackets in limbo on my database.
In the meantime, you should be able to see your picks both in the standings or by logging in.
Make sure Charlie and Katie have entered their picks so they can participate in the fun (I would have included Elizabeth – but does it surprise anyone here that my wonderful wife was the first to enter) – check
Reveal my horrible picks that everyone will stomp – check
Send a reminder email to people to please come to the website and enter picks that will be better than mine – check
Edit the handicapping page to have all 16 games today with poorly rushed analysis and commentary that probably only makes sense to a crazy person – check
Get ridiculously small amounts of sleep so that I will be watching the games ending around midnight in a dream-like state – check
The Lunatic is old so he might be forgetting something – but all in all, I think I have done everything on my check list. The Lunatic is ready!
The Round of 64 is set as the tournament has already provided 4 awesome game including an overtime victory and a game decided in the last minute (well 3 awesome games and a Colorado State blowout) – check! The tournament is ready!
There is less than 2 1/2 hours left before the madness begins. This is your final reminder to enter your picks! The Lunatic is ready!!! The tournament is ready! March is ready! So there is only one last question to answer on the check list.
I still have 8 or 9 games to get handicapped and so tired – probably won’t lead to great picks. But glad that at least one game came through!!! Just 12 hours to get your chance to Stomp the Lunatic!!!!
This hasn’t been the best start for the Lunatic. 0-3 for his handicapping against the spread. Missing 2 teams in his bracketology. Already struggling to stay awake and there is still one more half in the Colorado vs. Boise State game. But March brings that treacherous emotion – hope….. I desperately want these picks to go well – because it will mean that I can finally cheer for my Boilers in the Final Four. They have been to the Final Four before – but the last time that happened, I was 7 years old and I am not sure I even knew that Purdue existed. With Zach Edey and Braden Smith, I really like their chances.
There are also the moments of de-ja-vu that keep coming. Losing to the 16 seed (like Virginia did). Coming back to be ranked in the top 5 for most of the season(like Virginia did). Winning the regular season conference championship just to lose in their conference tournament semi-finals (just like Virginia did). It creates a level of hope that is dangerous. But I am still going to go with the hope.
In my Insane picks, I will go all the way with that hope. I have Purdue winning the championship against North Carolina, with Auburn and Marquette joining them in the Final 4. And as I type this, I hear the Taylor Swift song that went through my head a couple years ago.
This hope is treacherous. This daydream is dangerous. This hope is treacherous. I, I, I…….
In my Sane picks, I will still take my Boilers to the Final, but they will get beat by the team that I think has been the best all season, the Connecticut Huskies. Lets face it, a defending champion hasn’t repeated since Florida in 2007. The #1 team in the tournament hasn’t won since Louisville in 2013. (But the first one that did it was that 2007 Florida team). So, in the same sense of de-ja-vu, it is time for those streaks to end. The Huskies are an amazingly complete team that can beat you so many ways – and they tend to take big leads and not let up. 23 of the 31 wins they have this year have been by double digits. In my sane picks, they will be joined by Arizona and Marquette in the Final Four.
And as I think about all these streaks coming to an end, Taylor’s voice returns to my head
This slope is treacherous. This path is reckless. This slope is treacherous. And I, I, I like it.
So, there you go. Will this be the year that the Boilermakers break through? The Lunatic certainly can not pick against his team – no real fan can. It might not be the expert picks that the Lunatic claims to have – but maybe this year, the Lunatic will be served better by picking with his heart.
The Crazed Lunatic is a crazy college basketball fan, especially for his Purdue Boilermakers!!!! Boiler Up!!!!
Every March, his passion comes out to rant and rave about one of the best sporting events in the world, the NCAA Basketball Tournament. While many of you will Stomp the Lunatic with your picks in our fun bracket picking game, this will not diminish the Lunatic’s crazed attempt at blogging about the tournament that he loves. Whether it will be trying to predict who will be in the tournament during Championship Week or his insane attempt to handicap all 67 games against the Vegas spreads, you can count on the Lunatic’s sleep-deprived rantings throughout the month of March.
If you notice any problems with the website or have any questions about the Stomp the Lunatic contest, please reach out by email at thomas@tehodgson.com
