Stomp The Lunatic

If you can’t beat it, you might as well embrace it.

Don’t look now, but 15 seed Princeton has a 7 point lead at half time over Missouri.  There were points where the New Jersey school from the Ivy League were up by 14, but Missouri scored the last 7 points to cut the lead by half at halftime.

Kansas is also battling Arkansas with the Jayhawks ahead 51-47 with 11 minutes to play.

But what a story it would be if Princeton won.  Just think about this.  St. Peter’s, Princeton and Fairleigh Dickinson would have all been 15 or 16 seeds in the last 2 years, and they would right now be 7-1 if Princeton upsets Missouri……

 

I have to give so much credit to the Tennessee Volunteers.

How many times to see this happen. Top 16 team is playing amazing and looks like they could have a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Then, one of their star players gets hurt and the season falls apart.

Zakai Zeigler was the Volunteers second leading scorer when he tore is ACL against Arkansas. They then lost at Auburn, they beat Mississippi in the SEC Tournament only to lose to Missouri in the quarterfinals. They then struggle but hang on for a three point victory against Louisiana. Despite being the 4 seed playing a 5 seed, Vegas had them as a 3.5 point underdog figuring the injury would finally finish off Tennessee.

Well, Olivier Nkamhoua went 10-13 from the field to lead the Vols with 27 points, the entire team played stifling defense, and Tennessee is advancing to the Sweet 16 with a 65-52 victory over ACC Tournament Champion Duke. And lets not forget their Sweet 16 opponent will be the winner of Florida Atlantic and FDU.

I was going to say two last thoughts, but honestly, I don’t know that I can promise that.  Just got back from Katie’s rugby game to see San Diego State ran over Furman’s Cinderella run to the Sweet 16.  So, I guess I should be happy that I didn’t miss anything super exciting.

But this fact didn’t occur to me until this morning.  If it wasn’t for the NCAA rules, this might not have ever happened.  This is because Merrimack was the regular season champion of the Northeast conference.  And Merrimack won the NEC conference tournament.  If this had been any other non-power conference, Fairleigh Dickinson would not even be in the tournament.  But Merrimack is in their 4 year transition period to Division I.  And so, the tournament runner up, Fairleigh Dickinson received the NEC auto-bid, and everything after that is history that will live forever for multiple years.  The realization that if Merrimack had been a part of the NCAA for a few more years, Fairleigh Dickinson wouldn’t even exist to have knocked us off kind of makes what happen that much more painful (and should be mentioned a lot more by the media because it adds to the magic of the moment).

Now for the second moment, I remember someone asking me about being worried about some of Virginia’s misery of getting knocked off by a 13 seed this year and of course the historic moment when they were upset by 16 seed UMBC.  And I said, I can understand how painful that moment would be, but I have to say this honestly.  If you told me right now that Purdue was going to repeat in Virginia’s footsteps by losing to a 16 seed this year and then return the following year and win the national championship, I would take that misery in a heartbeat.  I can wait for it – I just want to see it happen once.  And so if getting etched in history as one of the biggest upsets ever needed to happen, I would happily do that so Purdue could eventually raise the trophy.

Well, it appears that the basketball gods have taken me up on that deal.  And I have realized two things.  First, I did not understand how painful that moment would be – it was much worse than I expected.  I was super angry when FDU’s Sean Moore hit that 3 pointer from the top of the key with a minute left to give FDU a 5 point lead.  I could not sleep last night – didn’t fall asleep until 3 in the morning (which has made today with traveling to DC for Katie’s rugby game at 7:30 in the morning extremely rough).  As I watched the games last night, I could get past a reference to remind me of the pain.  I am sure that next year, if my Boilers are lucky enough to get back to the tournament again, I will get to relive that moment over and over again.  Second, I really hope that the basketball gods follow through with the second part of that deal.  I am not sure that it really works that way, but I wasn’t lying.  I would be happy to go through this pain for Purdue to be cutting down the nets while they play One Shining Moment at least once in my lifetime – so hopefully, fate will be kind to me at some point.

Well – some of the biggest benefactors of last night are playing now – since powerhouses Duke and Tennessee are playing for the right to play the winner of Florida Atlantic and Fairleigh Dickinson.  And the teams are tied at 13 through the first 10 minutes so it looks like it will be a great game.  Enjoy the 2nd round of games!!!

And our defending champion, Edward Zhang, has taken the first round lead. Edward managed to get 27 of the 32 games correct to be tied for the lead with Will Campbell.

There is a 7 way tie for 3rd as all these great prognosticators got 26 games right – Gabbi Ams, William Craft, Matt Di Dio, Patty Carini, Rusty Ahles, Matthew Reilly and Cooper Bradley. And the tight leaderboard has 21 more entries just 20 points behind at 250 pts.

In the Upset pool, Will Caldwell is all alone is first place with 135 points. Just 4 points behind is Edward, Matthew Reilly, Cooper Ams and David Caldwell at 131 points. Closely behind is William Craft (128), Gabbi Ams (127) and Brian Betz (126).

On the other side. 71 of us (including the Crazed Lunatic’s Dream picks) have already ripped up our brackets and are patiently waiting for Sunday night for the Second Chance brackets to become available thanks to Purdue, Arizona, Virginia and a few upset picks lost in the first round.

I also apologize in advance to all of you rooting for Alabama. Considering the Lunatic curse brutally ended my fun in the first couple days, those should realize that my sane picks have Alabama, and so you all are probably only on borrowed time. Since I have Texas and Gonzaga as my other Final 4 teams, those supporters probably should have some concern as well.

There are 189 people who are currently stomping the Lunatic. There are the 176 of you who got 22 games or more correct. And there are the more important 13 amazing athletes from Fairleigh Dickinson who have stomped so deeply on the Lunatic’s heart that this was close to being worse then when COVID wiped out the entire tournament.

That being said, you all should be thrilled. It is kind of crazy that there are 63 entries within 40 points of the leaders. Getting 24 of 32 games right is a really strong start and 40 points can be made up in a hurry in the later rounds. It is a wide open contest where many of you still have tons of hope.

But the Lunatic can tell you – hope can be a blessing and a curse. Here are my prayers for all of you that your hope will last much longer than mine did because I know the pain from when that hope is no longer there. I am sure that a weekend of watching Katie play rugby, some excellent 2nd round games and Taylor Swift break-up songs will cheer me up.

March Madness tried to cheer me up. Florida Atlantic’s Nicholas Boyd drove to the lane and made a tough shot at the basket with a couple seconds left to beat Memphis. Although Memphis fans will be angry that the referee didn’t give them a time out before the tie up that gave FAU one more chance.

I guess I can be happy that all those experts picking Memphis to beat my Boilers in the second round were wrong – since Florida Atlantic is going instead. Oh wait, FDU already beat us.

Then, TCU came back from down 11 to take a late lead. Arizona State’s DJ Horne drilled a three pointer from the top of the key with 18 seconds to tie the game at 70. But JaKobe Coles hit a jumper in the lane with a couple seconds to give TCU a 72-70 last second victory.

Last second winners in two of the last four games. I guess that is my consolation prize after not being able to enjoy the largest upset in the tournament for a second straight year.

It is not enough – the Lunatic is still mad at you, March Madness. But I appreciate the effort in trying to bring me back. A couple of buzzer beaters are always a nice way to end the night for a fan who has nothing left to cheer for.

I will congratulate the leaders tomorrow. As much as I am sure that everyone is Stomping the Lunatic, that stomping could not have been worse than what tournament darling Fairleigh Dickinson did.

Looks like I accidentally posted this in the handicapping blog instead of here.  Since I am at a lost for words, I figured I should at least put this in the right blog.

I read this story yesterday and had to laugh. Because one thing is totally relatable and the other thing is so unbelievable that it adds to the humor.

Grand Canyon is coached by Bryce Drew, who has done a great job leading them to a NCAA Tournament. Well, the team boarded their flight to Denver to play Gonzaga tonight excited about a chance to play for the National Championship.

When they got off the plane, all their athletic gear did not make the trip – it was somehow not put on the plane. All the band’s equipment made it to Denver. All the cheerleader’s equipment made it to Denver. But uniforms and shoes for the athletes who would be taking the court – gone.

And they had practice scheduled in two hours. Traveling nightmare – all of us can relate but this is happening to these kids on what should be one of their greatest moments in their life. Getting to be able to play in the NCAA Tournament is every player’s dream, regardless how it ends. Now they might not even be able to practice before their big game.

That’s when the story gets crazier. Hearing about this disaster, Baylor’s head coach decided to help Grand Canyon out – they loaned the team practice jerseys so they could practice while GC staffers rushed to a Nike store to get shoes. But here is the crazy part. Baylor’s head coach is Scott Drew, Bryce’s older brother

So with all this bad luck going on for Bryce Drew, he had the amazing luck that his big brother managed to also coach one of the 68 teams in the tournament and be lucky enough that he was also sent to Denver to play his first round game.

Maybe Grand Canyon shouldn’t find their jerseys – imagine the faces of the Gonzaga players if they took the court and saw their opponents dressed in Baylor’s road jerseys – the team that ended their undefeated season a few years ago. I am sure that Scott would be happy to help his little brother out.

Purdue joins Virginia as the only 1 seeds to lose to a 16 seed.

Fairleigh Dickinson has beat my Boilers

And I have lost all my passion for the game.

I am sure it will come back, but it won’t be tonight

Just got home from Charlie’s soccer game and found my Boilers are losing by 1 at halftime to Fairleigh Dickinson.

The announcer said it is only the 12th time that a 16 seed has led at halftime. Please don’t let my Boilers become the 2nd team to be upset by a 16 seed.

St Peter’s was hard enough – I can’t have this happen back to back years.

On a tracking note, Pitt made it the 11th out of 12 years that a play-in team advanced to the second round with their victory against Iowa State. Other than that, I think it has been the chalk winning the other games.

But at the moment I really only care about one piece of chalk – please survive and advance Purdue.

It looked like we had another double digit seed. Kennesaw State was rolling with a 13 minute lead with about 9 minutes to play, as I notice my phone give a message that the 14 seed is up big. Then, Xavier goes on a 15-0 run to regain the lead.

Kennesaw St keeps fighting and it is a tie game as Xavier brings the ball up with 30 seconds. And they make a beautiful back door pass to Colby Jones who gets his first shot blocked but then gets fouled trying to score off the rebound. But Jones only hits 1 of 2 free throws and we have a 1 point Xavier lead.

Kennesaw State’s Terrell Burden drives to the basket, looks like he has beat his defender for a layup, and Jack Nunge comes across the lane and makes a huge block. A scramble for the ball happened and Xavier’s Souley Boum grabbed the rebound and was fouled with just 3 seconds to play. Boum calmly drills both free throws and the lead became 3.

Unfortunately, the buzzer beater three never happened as Kennesaw State stepped on the out of bounce line when the ball was put in play. Boum would hit two more free throws to ice the game and Xavier survives with a 5 point victory.

Elsewhere, Michigan State managed to beat USC by 10, and another 14 seed UC-Santa Barbara jumped out to a halftime lead against 3 seed Baylor. But it looks like Baylor has taken control in the 2nd half.

Still – lots of excitement. And VCU is only down 1 at half to St. Mary’s and Vermont is only down 5 early to Marquette. Maybe one of them can add an upset to our Friday afternoon

So much to blog about – so little time. As I was cursing at my computer trying to figure out why one of my table had 357 entries and one had 356, I kind of tuned out the games. To my fairness, I expected the only game that would be close would be Texas A&M and Penn State. I was correct that Texas would end up with a big lead on Colgate and UCLA would have a big lead on UNC-Asheville. Was wrong about Houston vs Northern Kentucky.

The big news from that game is that Marcus Sasser re-injured his groin and had to leave the game early. His teammates rallied the Cougars to a victory, but if he can’t continue, that will be a huge blow to them returning to Houston for the Final 4.

I also feel horrible for Texas A&M. I don’t know what Buzz Williams did to have the committee hate him, but he had a rough week. The SEC runner-ups somehow ended up being a 7 seed, and then the committee put them up against a red hot Penn State, with a likely game against Texas if they advanced. Just brutal.

Well, Penn State continued with their red hot shooting and blew the Aggies right off the court. The Nittany Lions are certainly playing on house money right now, and since they are playing like they have nothing to lose, they look extremely dangerous. Of course, Texas has looked extremely dangerous all season – but for one night, the Nittany Lions are enjoying their time at the dance