Stomp The Lunatic

I should have known something like this might happen. We had a decent amount of upsets on Thursday. Historically, whenever one side of the bracket has a lot of upsets, the other side of the bracket has the favorites take control. We had two 9/8 upsets with Iowa and Utah State. And we had several exciting finishes, including California Baptist making a 18-2 run to almost come back against Kansas and Furman keeping close against UConn midway through the second half.

Happily for the Lunatic, the Purdue game was not close – I get nervous enough when watching the games, and still have nightmares of FDU and St. Peter’s. So, it was so nice to see my Boilers win comfortably and of course, watch Braden Smith break the all-time assist record. My lucky Purdue shirt and socks will be ready to be worn again when we play Miami on Sunday.

Sadly for the Lunatic, the evening games didn’t leave much to blog about. The two closest games happened while I was enjoying the Boilers win, so don’t know much about what happened. UCLA had a 12 point lead over UCF before the Knights started storming back. They managed to cut the lead all the way down to 3 when Jordan Burks hit a three-pointer with 10 seconds left. But Trent Perry would make two free throws and iced the game for the Bruins.

A similar thing happened between Iowa and Clemson, where the Hawkeyes built a 14 point lead with 7 1/2 minutes to play before the Tigers started to claw their way back. Clemson cut the lead all the way to four after Ace Buckner hit a layup. But Iowa ran the clock down on the next possession and Kael Combs drove to the basket for his own layup to extend the lead back to 6, and the Hawkeyes finished off the Tigers.

The late game I watched was Miami FL and Missouri, that was tied at 54 with just 7 minutes to play. Then Malik Reneau from Miami hit a jumper in the lane, stole the ball on the next possession and hit a three pointer from the top of the key to extend the Hurricanes a 5 point lead. This would lead to a run where Miami outscored Missouri 26-12 to finish the game and advance to the next round. So, the Cinderellas of the tournament put up some good fights, but in the end, the favorites pulled away to advance to the next round.

Congratulations are due to our First Round leaders!!!!  Six entries had the incredible performance of going 29-3 over the last two days.  Our leaders are Tony Wilson, Joanna Crabbe, Ava Wiederman, Al Lester, Donnie McCullough, and Eric Brown. 

And if that wasn’t impressive enough to have 6 people get 29 first round games correct, we have another 19 entries who went 28-4.  Just an amazing job by everyone in picking the games!!!!  Since that deserves to get your name in the blog, here we go – our large tie for 7th is between Matt Reilly, Reid Standley, Cinde Schumaker, David Caldwell, Laura Hummel, Tonya Cole, Mark Walsh, Richard Napolitano, Rob Bradley, Sam Franklin, Eric Ziedler, Mike Wyatt, Rob Bradley, Rosemary McKnight, Lehua Martin, Ryan Smith, Dan Fischer, John Green and Bob Degenhardt. Based on such amazing picks, we should have a fantastic contest this year.

In the Upset Pool, our leader is Matt Reilly at 144 points, who correctly got all 8 of the upsets in the first round.  Matt is closely followed by Tony Wilson (1 pt behind in 2nd), Ava Wiederman (3 pts behind in 3rd), Al Lester (4 pts behind in 4th) and Joanna Crabbe and Bob Degenhardt (7 pts behind in a tie for 5th), Laura Hummel, Eric Brown and John Greene (9 pts behind in a tie for 7th), and Donnie McCullough (10 pts behind to round out the top 10).

Normally, the Lunatic would be pretty pleased with going 25-7. But that performance this year has him lingering in a tie for 134th place. So, it looks like a really good stomping has begun!!!

I think it was around the 12 minute mark, but it was so fitting because it is how so many of his assists happened. Trey Kaufman-Renn set the pick and roll, Braden Smith drove to the basket, and quickly bounce passed the ball into the lane to TKR who dribbled once to the basket and muscled his way to a layup while getting fouled.

And the crowd in St Louis went crazy as they knew that was Braden Smith’s 1,077 career assist to become the all-time NCAA record holder in assists, surpassing longtime leader Bobby Hurley.

Congratulations to Purdue’s Braden Smith on his record!!!!!

The big news of the afternoon games while I was at work was that Utah State pulled off the 9/8 upset on Villanova with a big run over the last 4 minutes to take a close game and run away. Wright State and Hofstra gave Virginia and Alabama fits, but the Cavaliers and Crimson Tide did pull away late. And Miami(OH) hot shooting went ice cold against the dominating defense of Tennessee.

But the biggest news was Iowa State’s star Joshua Jefferson got a low ankle sprain and was seen on crutches after the game. They certainly didn’t need him to beat Tennessee State today, but it could become a bigger story if he is unable to play Sunday against Kentucky.

So I have my lucky Purdue shirt on. And my lucky socks in case they are also lucky. Boiler Up!!!

Otega Oweh’s half court prayer did not get wasted. With about a minute left, Oweh drove and got fouled and hit both free throws to give the Wildcats a 2 point lead.

Santa Clara tried to take the lead with a three pointer by Sash Gavalyugov, but Kentucky’s Brandon Garrison blocked it to lead a fast break into a dunk and the Wildcats were up 4.

With about 35 seconds left, Gavalyugov tried again from three only to be blocked again by Garrison. This time, Mouhamed Dioubate got the rebound, was immediately fouled and hit his free throws to extend the lead to 6.

Jake Ensminger tried to keep Santa Clara in the game as he got a rebound off another miss, retreated to the corner and hit a three pointer to cut the lead to 3 with about 19 seconds left. But it was too late, Kentucky kept hitting their free throws and Santa Clara ran out of time – the Wildcats win 89-84.

With Texas Tech running away from Akron in the second half, attention now comes to Wright State who headed into halftime with a 5 point lead over 3 seed Virginia. Do we have another Cinderella brewing?

Down 2, Kentucky got the ball to Otega Oweh who made a nice spin move to the basket and made the layup in traffic to tie the game at 70 with 9 seconds left to play.

So Santa Clara gets the ball into Allen Graves on the wing, and he lets go a three-pointer to try to win the game. And it is nothing but net as he gives Santa Clara the lead with around seconds to play.

The Wildcats rush the ball in to Oweh, he gets the ball barely past half court when he has to let the ball fly, and as the buzzer goes off, the ball hits the backboard and goes through the net to tie the game at 73.

And the announcer is saying “You can’t make this stuff up!” Fun start to the Friday games as we head to overtime between Kentucky and Santa Clara.

I do have to thank the four late games, because they were mostly blowouts. At least Kennesaw State made it interesting against Gonzaga, although to be fair, it never really felt like Gonzaga was in danger of losing. Under normal circumstances this would be really bad for the sleep deprived Lunatic – since it would mean that I fall asleep in the games.

But with trying to clean up the website, create an email list (which I am horrible at maintaining) and handicapping 16 games, the games not being very interesting allowed me to focus on the other pages of my website.

Then again, I am not sure why I am handicapping anything. So far, I am 20-20. If I had just bet the same amount for every game, I would be down $40 imaginary dollars to the Lunatic Casino. So, instead I am down $111, including the awesome pick of locking Georgia who was a 2.5 point favorite and watch St. Louis beat them by 25 in a game that really wasn’t that close.

But I will keep tiering the games at least through the first round before I get desperate and start betting big on everything.

As for the first day of results, we need to congratulate our 8 leaders. Bob Degenhardt, John Greene, Al Lester, Lochlan Middlebrook, Lowell Isaacs, Laura Hummel, Dave Evans and Matt Reilly – as these 8 all managed to go 15-1 on a day when TCU, VCU, Texas A&M, High Point, Texas and St. Louis all pulled off upsets according to the seed lines. They are chased closely by a large group of people – but since I think that it is amazing to go 14-2, they deserve their place in the blog! Congratulations to our entrants tied for 9th – Kevin Bostic, Jimmy Lee (both entries), Brent Peterson, Gregg Farber, June Flynn Degenhardt, Kevin Busby, Kathy Godwin, Will Richter, Tony Wilson, Joanna Crabbe, Ava Wiederman, Bernard Benson, David Ogle, Doug Brunner, Mike Wyatt, Ryan Hinton, Alex Simon, Tony Bisese (both entries), and Bob Degenhardt (2nd entry).

As for the Upset Pool, congratulations go to Dave Evans and Matt Reilly as they lead the upset pool with 88 points, giving them a 3 point lead over Lowell Isaacs. Bob Degenhardt is in 4th place just 5 points behind. Laura Hummel, Lochlan Middlebrook, Al Lester, John Greene, and Kevin Bostic are tied for 5th just 6 points behind. And Ryan Hinton rounds out the top 10 at 80 points.

Don’t despair if you had a few blemishes today. Friday will bring more games and more opportunities to make up ground on the leaders.

But if it is any consolation, the 5 minute curse might have been broken.

With 5 minutes, I noticed that #11 Texas was leading 70-62. And I thought, this can’t really happen for a third time. And then I watched the BYU Cougars cut the lead to 4. It got painful in one perspective, as the Cougars kept fouling Matas Vokeitaitis, the Longhorn’s center. And over the final 5 minutes, he missed 6 straight free throws, allowing the Cougars to continue to chip away at the lead.

After missing both free throws with about 30 seconds, the Cougars got the ball to Robert Wright III who drove to the hoop and shot a short jumper to try to cut the lead to 2 only to watch Vokeitaitis redeem himself with a huge block. The Longhorns would hit their free throws from that point to win 79-71.

And for yet another lead, one of the teams playing in the First Four games in Dayton followed up that win with an upset in the Round of 64. Could Texas actually make it to the Sweet 16 – we will see this weekend!!!

As for perfection, this game marked the last moment of perfection. Bob Degenhardt had managed to go 11-0 through the upsets. But he had the Cougars to beat the play-in winner, and so we now have a 12-way tie at 11-1.

But there is plenty of time to make up ground regardless of where you are in the standings. All you need is the team you have going to the Championship to keep winning. So, perfection might not be obtainable. But still lots of chances for success.

Congratulations to Bob for being the last perfect bracket.

North Carolina had a 19 point lead on the VCU Rams – but no lead in March is safe. The Rams kept chipping away at the lead, until I noticed that with five minutes left the score was 70-62. I told Elizabeth, that was the same score as the High Point game.

Sure enough, Michael Belle gets a dunk and was fouled. After hitting the free throw, it was a 5 point lead. Then, Terrence Hill Jr hit a long three pointer to cut the lead to a nail-biting 2 point lead. And while it was not a crazy scoring fest in the last 4 minutes like the High Point game, VCU kept nipping away until Terrence Hill Jr drove the baseline for a pretty layup to tie the game at 75.

North Carolina tried to hold for the last shot but VCU forced a turnover with 2 seconds left. So it looked like the Rams would get a chance to win the game in regulation. But Seth Trimble picked off the pass drove to the three pointer line and got a decent look to win the game but his shot was long – we are heading to overtime.

With 5 minutes left, Wisconsin had a comfortable 8 minute lead. Then Chase Johnston shot up a three-pointer from the half court logo on a run-out from a defensive rebound, and Terry Anderson hit a three-pointer from the top of the key, and in 45 seconds that comfortable lead was down to a 2 point nail-biting lead.

And then the pace of the game picked up. Neither team could stop the other. Nick Boyd hit a jumper for the Badgers just to get answered by Terry Anderson with a layup. Boyd would get fouled and hit both free throws just to get answered as Chase Johnston hit a three from the wing. The Badgers’ John Blackwell missed a shot in the lane only to have it tipped in by Nolan Winter – so of course, the Panthers’ Cam’Ron Fletcher hit a three-pointer to tie the game.

Boyd continued to drive to the lane at will – giving the Badgers a lead off a layup, and after High Point finally missed a shot, Boyd extended the lead to 4 points with another drive. But there was no quit in the Panthers – Johnston hit another three to cut the lead to 1 with about a minute to play. High Point pressed and caused the Wisconsin player to lose the ball out of bounds – and after a challenge, the Panthers got the ball.

As they were reviewing the play, the announcers mention a fascinating stat about the senior Chase Johnston who had cut the lead to 1. Johnston shot an amazing 48.5% from three-point range this season (63 of 132). What is more amazing is that he had only shot 4 shots from within the arc and missed all 4 of them. So, all but 4 shots he has taken all season have been three-pointers, and he has hit 48% of them, but hit 0% on his 4 chances for two-pointers.

Owen Aquino backed down his defender into the lane, and made a fade-away attempt, but his shot missed and the Badgers rushed the ball up the court so they could not be pressed. They give the ball to Boyd on an isolation play where everyone cleared out to let him drive 1 on 1. He drives down the right side of the lane and tries to switch hands to lay it up on the left, but the rim gets in the way.

The Panthers Rob Martin gets the rebound and starts to push the up the field and sees noneother than Johnston streaking down the court – so he lobs the ball down the court to the free-throw line and Johnston catches it, runs two steps towards the basket and hits his first two-point shot of the season on the open lay-up giving High Point a 83-82 lead with just 11 seconds to play.

Everyone knew who would get the ball – the Badgers gave it to Nick Boyd, he got stopped in his first attempt to drive to the hoop, but undeterred, he made another move and beat his defender to the lane. But Owen Aquino came off his man in the lane and managed to block Boyd’s layup.

But it wasn’t over just yet – Cam’Ron Fletcher got the rebound with 2 seconds and was fouled, but he missed the free throw. So, the Badgers had one last desperation try. But the lob pass down the court was intercepted by Terry Anderson and the upset had been completed.

It is what I love about March. Just when you think you have seen it all, it throws something new at you. A player who only shoots three-pointers and has not made a single shot from inside the arc all season wins the game with 11 seconds on a break-away lay-up.

It would be wrong to not mention the fact that the other mid-majors tried to make their own noise. South Florida came back from down 23 points to cut Louisville’s lead down to 4 points before running out of time as the Cardinals survive. McNeese was only down 3 to Vanderbilt at half-time, but the Commodores eventually pulled away.

After just 6 games, only 7 entries of 341 have perfect brackets. Congratulations to Troy Cole, Sonny Mao, Bernard Benson, Ashley Peterson, Bob Degenhardt, and my wonderful wife Elizabeth and my amazing daughter Katie. Of course, both my wife and daughter picked North Dakota State to upset Michigan State, so now we are down to 5.

Will someone survive the night 16-16 in the same way that Duke survived against Siena. Only time will tell. But beware the mid-majors. They are here to play!!!!