Stomp The Lunatic

This Saturday in Durham, North Carolina, 9,314 of the luckiest people entered Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium to get to witness the final regular season game for the winningest coach in NCAA Men’s Division I history.  Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski was looking to end his 42 years, 1,196 victories and 5 national championships with one more home victory against arch-rival North Carolina.  And there were stretches where it looked like a day of celebration would end perfectly, such as when the Blue Devils scored 14 straight points to come back and take a 9 point lead in the first half.  They kept holding onto that lead until it was 61-56 with 10 ½ minutes left in the game.  But the Tar Heels would not quit.  North Carolina would outscore the Blue Devils by 18 points in that final 10 ½ minutes, and ruined Coach K’s final regular season ending.  An amazing book of history now only has the couple of pages reserved for Coach K’s final ACC Championship and NCAA Championship wait to be written. 

And after that amazing game, ESPN didn’t change over to another ACC, Big 10, Big 12 or SEC game that was waiting to start.  It wasn’t that none of those major conferences were playing, but they had reserved the spot after that heavyweight fight for the Ohio Valley, where Murray State played Morehead State.  Murray State managed to win their 30^th game of the season, holding off the Eagles for a 71-67 victory.  And while many might have been wondering why ESPN would be highlighting a game from the Ohio Valley Conference, the Murray State Racers were celebrating because they were the first team to earn their place in the 2022 NCAA Men’s Championship!!!!  Which can mean only one thing – IT MUST BE MARCH!!!!!!  

And if it is March, it can only mean one more thing – it must be time to STOMP THE LUNATIC!!!!!!! 

That’s right – the Lunatic is back for another month of sleep deprivation, looking through stat sheets in a foolish attempt to show he can predict college basketball games. But we all know how this craziness ends – with a thorough stomping!!!!  So, without any more delays, the 2022 Stomp the Lunatic contest is officially announced!!!!!!! 

The most important part is ready – the website is up and ready to go for another year of bracket picks.   As always, the website will have all of the pages that make the Stomp the Lunatic great – whether it be NCAA results so the statisticians can build predictive models, poorly done bracketology that will show the Lunatic is simply a crazy basketball fan, cheat sheets once the brackets are released for those of us who don’t want to do hours of analysis, and of course, everyone’s favorite rants about the games.   

This year should be a fun year.  Just a couple of weekends ago, a record 7 of the Top 10 teams all lost on the same day for the first time in history.  It should be a wide-open field where there are a large number of teams with the talent to win it all. 

On Monday, March 14^th, I am excited to be joining two long-time supporters of the Stomp the Lunatic contest, Kevin Flippen and Paul Gilman, who run a podcast about sports.  The podcast is called Bumper Night, a spin off to their wildly popular Stories from the Center of the Universe podcast on YouTube.  So, join us at 8 pm EST as we will talk about the bracket and who we think will win it all.  Thanks so much to Kevin and Paul for letting me join them and rant about my favorite sport for an evening. 

Once the committee has announced the 68 teams next Sunday (March 13^th), I will update the site to have the entry form. If you don’t remember the rules (or this email has been forwarded to you), there is a link on the site.  

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an e-mail at thomas@tehodgson.com, just realize I only check at night when I get home from work!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, if you don’t want to get further e-mails about this, please let me know, and I will do my best to remove you from the distribution list – although remember as mentioned up above, organized e-mail lists are not one of my strengths. 

So, do your research, get ready for the Madness to begin, and good luck to everyone in STOMPING THE LUNATIC!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Monday and Tuesday are fun days for the Lunatic – that is because it is mainly many of the one bid conferences getting a chance to play their conference tournament finals before the media moves towards the major conference tournaments.

Today, the 7 pm TV spot highlights the two conference finals tonight. In the Sun Belt, 3rd seed Georgia State is playing 8th seed Louisiana for a chance to make the Big Dance. In the Southern, regular season champ Chattanooga is battling against 2nd seed Furman – both the top teams from the Southern are in the top 80 of the NET Rankings, so possibly might be one of those dangerous 12-14 seeds.

But we also have the semi-finals of the Colonial, Horizon, Summit and West Coast conferences. The big game of course is at 9 pm when #1 Gonzaga goes against San Francisco, as the Dons try to show that they deserve an at-large bid against the top team in the AP poll.

All the games today and tomorrow matter – because with maybe the exception of the West Coast Conference, these game are basically win or go home. Also, with less games going on, it gives the Lunatic a little bit of a chance to catch up on analyses before the season ends this weekend.

Enjoy the games – they should be fun ones!!!

My family has a very busy weekend ahead of us. Katie is playing in her first rugby tournament with the Richmond Strikers, so we are all very excited for her. So, the official email announcement will need to likely wait until Monday.

But once Ruggerfest is over, the Lunatic is back for another month of sleep deprivation, looking through stat sheets in a foolish attempt to show he can predict college basketball games.  This will likely end in a thorough stomping, but it should be a wild and entertaining ride. 

But have no fears, the Website is currently ready for the NCAA Tournament to start. While it is certainly not necessary, the registration link is live for this year’s tournament (that being said, it is typically easier to register when you enter your picks). And I have managed to pull all the box scores through Thursday’s games. The smaller conference tournaments have begun as bubble teams are hoping that teams like Murray State and Gonzaga don’t let a bid get stolen. And we all get ready – because it is time to watch an amazing month of college basketball. And it is time to Stomp the Lunatic!!!

Well – I guess they are killing my Boilermakers. With three games left, Purdue had control of their destiny of winning the Big 10 Regular Season title. And then there was a last second three pointer by Michigan State over the weekend to give the Spartans a much needed victory after a tough run of losses. But Purdue still had a chance to regain a share of the title. The Boilers fell behind early, fought their way back including an amazing shot with 8 seconds left by Jaden Ivey.

Then, as the Boilers season has seemed to go, Chucky Hepburn came racing down the court, and hit a wild three pointer off the glass to send the Boilers home with another last second loss and give the Badgers a share of the Big Ten title (they will likely clinch it for themselves as all they have to do is beat last place Nebraska for the out-right title).

So, demoralizing for a Lunatic trying to get ready for March. To be 24-6 and knowing that three of your losses happened on baskets in the last 2 seconds (including Rutgers’ miracle half-court buzzer beater earlier in the season). I know that there is still the conference tournament and of course the Big Dance, but still just a little tough.

Anyways, I am still testing out the site links – looks like all the standings links are set up, but I have to test that all the connections to the database work. So, don’t be surprised if you click on one of the 2022 links and find that Dick Vitale or Joe Lunardi are winning the pool (have to make sure when I test that everyone knows it is fake). It will probably take a couple more days, but I should have it set up by the weekend. Not even last second losses can stop the Lunatic from ranting in March.

Hi everyone – I found myself watching games last weekend, and saw the fight that was started in the handshake line at the end of the Michigan / Wisconsin game. And the Lunatic got all riled up – ready to go on one of his rants. I might still at some point.

And then it occurred to me – my desire to go on a rant means the games are starting to mean more and more – we start to get the daily articles about what teams are on the dreaded bubble, teams celebrate amazing victories, and then of course, we have this Saturday when 7 of the top 10 teams in the country lost for the first time in history (#8 Villanova must have been extremely happy that they did not have a game this weekend – they improved their position simply by not playing).

And of course, that means that March is almost here. I am currently working on the website to get it ready for the 2022 Stomp the Lunatic contest. You should be able to still visit past blogs and standings, and remind yourself about how well you did one year. But please don’t register for this year’s tournament just yet. While I test the entry and registration forms, these tables will get deleted a few times to make sure all the scripts behind them are working correctly. I will let everyone know when the site is ready!

Congratulations to the Baylor Bears, who completely dominated the previously undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs.  They played amazing defense and their guards scored at will.  They jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game, and it never really got closer than that, as the Bears won the 2021 National Championship with a 86-70 victory. 

Congratulations also to our 2021 Stomp the Lunatic Champion – John Greene.  His correct prediction of Baylor beating Gonzaga gave him a 60 point victory over John Greene. 

In the Upset Pool. Gregg Farber managed to jump out to a lead thanks to predicting UCLA to the Final 4, and held off Joe Chapman by 3 points as Joe needed Gonzaga to win to pass Gregg. 

In the Second Chance Pool, Sarah Ahles and Chris Kelly tied for first place in the second chance pool by predicting that Baylor would beat Gonzaga. Based on the tie-breaker (Sarah missed the total score by only 3, while Chris missed by 26), Sarah is the second chance pool champion.

Here is a list of all our prize winners. 

STANDARD POOL
1)	John Greene	1210
2)	Kelly Woods	1150
3)	Karl Knox	1110
4)	Andrea Zimmerman	1100
5th Tie)	Lowell Isaacs	1090
5th Tie)	Kelly Woods	1090
7th Tie)	Cooper Bradley	1070
7th Tie)	Christie Olenic	1070
7th Tie)	Josh Glass	1070
10)	Martin Poteralski	1060
LAST)	Kyle Kelly	170
UPSET POOL
1)	Gregg Farber	269
2)	Joe Chapman	266
3)	Ryan Callahan	252
4)	Adam Davis	240
5)	Hailey Peterson	237
6)	Amy Hattaway	236
SECOND CHANCE POOL
1 TIE)	Sarah Ahles	880
1 TIE)	Chris Kelly	880
3 TIE)	Kevin Busby	840
3 TIE)	Evan Goldstein	840
3 TIE)	Mark Horgan	840

As for the Lunatic, he was thoroughly stomped this year.  He was sadly sitting in a tie for 166th place – his picks did about as well as the Big 10 did this year.   But despite the stomping, I am sure that the Lunatic will be back again to try to prove his ability (or inability) to predict college basketball games.   

Thank you to all of you for continuing to make this such a fun basketball pool and giving me a chance to rant about the sport that I love to watch. 

Congratulations once again to all our prize winners, and congratulations to the Baylor Bears – the 2021 NCAA Champions. 

That was an incredible game by the Baylor Bears! The game never got close. Baylor jumped out to a 9-0 lead and never looked back. I think at one point Gonzaga got the lead down to 9 in the second half, but it never got closer. Baylor’s defense held the top offense in the country to just 70 points. Gonzaga’s defense isn’t bad – and yet, Baylor scored 86.

Baylor’s star back-court just dominated the game. Jared Butler led the way with 22 points, Macio Teague added 19, and Davion Mitchell scored 15 points to lead the way. But it was really the defense that was on display by the Bears – Baylor had 8 steals and 5 blocks against the Bulldogs.

Unfortunately, Gonzaga’s undefeated season was not to be. I really was hoping to see a perfect season. But to be fair, we still saw perfection. The Baylor Bears played a perfect game and there was no doubt who was the best team tonight.

Congratulations to the Baylor Bears – the 2021 NCAA National Champions!!!!!

Gonzaga definitely doesn’t look like they are going to go away. With a little over 7 minutes to play, Baylor was winning 33-14. But Gonzaga finished the half on an 11-4 run over the last 3 minutes, including a nice drive down the court and pass to Anton Watson for a layup to end the half.

So, the Bears lead 47-37. I don’t know that anyone can come back 10 points against the Baylor Bears – but if anyone could, it would be Gonzaga. We are 20 minutes away from a national champion. Lets see if the Baylor Bears can hang on.

Baylor is dominating Gonzaga. The Bears defense is playing amazing. Suggs got two quick fouls. The Bears are getting more offensive rebounds. Gonzaga is turning the ball over and missing layups. At one point, Baylor was up 19 points!!!!! That certainly is not something that has happened to the undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs this year.

Of course, as I decided what to type, the Bulldogs have cut the lead to 12. They score so quickly. Well – and then Baylor rattles off 5 to expand the lead back to 17. Crazy…..

Not ruling the Bulldogs out – but I did not expect Baylor to come out and dominate like this. I thought they could be winning – but not like this.