Stomp The Lunatic

The #1 team in the country was on the ropes. St. John’s took a 1 point lead into the locker rooms at halftime, and after watching Duke score the first 5 points of the second half, the Red Storm went on a 15-1 run, capped off by a three-pointer by Ruben Prey and a jumper by Ian Jackson.

The Blue Devils found themselves down double digits. Then, as Duke started chipping away, the telecast posted the following stat. Duke is 5-0 this season when they fall behind by 10+ points during the game. And sure enough, Isaiah Evans hit a jumper and a three-pointer to cap off an 18-7 run to give Duke the lead.

The teams would trade off baskets back and forth until about 4 minutes to play when Evans hit a step back three-pointer to give Duke a 70-69 win. After a defensive stop, the Blue Devils got the ball into Cameron Boozer’s hands, and he drives the lane and hits a floater and got fouled. After the free throw, Boozer had given Duke a 4 point lead with 3 to play.

After another missed three-pointer, Duke extended the lead to 6 when he got the ball in the corner, faked a three-pointer to get the defender to fly by him, took a couple dribbles towards the hoop and hit the jumper.

Zuby Ejofor from St. John’s would hit a deep three-pointer from the wing to cut the lead to 3, but Caleb Foster would make a nice drive to the basket after running the shot clock down and then muscle the ball up to the basket for a tough lay-up.

Dylan Darling would miss a three-pointer but Dillon Mitchell got the offensive rebound and kicked it back outside. This time, Ejofor would try the deep shot and miss, but the ball goes out off a Duke player. Finally, after some strong defense, Bryce Hopkins got the ball in the corner, drove the baseline and made a nice reverse layup to cut the lead to 3 points with 52 seconds.

St. John’s would foul Cameron Boozer by holding onto him as he was getting ready to set a screen, but the Duke star missed the front end of the one-and-one, so St. John’s still had a chance. And Zuby Ejofor would get fouled on his drive with 14 seconds to play. Ejofor would only hit one of the free throws to cut the lead to 2. So, St. John’s was forced to foul Isaiah Evans.

And sure enough, Evans missed the first free throw before hitting the second one. St. John’s got the ball into Dylan Darling, who took the ball to the wing, acted like he was going to drive to the basket, and then shot the three-pointer. But it barely hit the rim before going out-of-bounds.

Duke would get the ball into Cameron Boozer, he would hit both free throws to ice the game, and the Duke Blue Devils survived to advance to Sunday’s East Regional Final in Washington, D.C.

We are 30 minutes away from watching what might be one of the best games of the tournament – and we are only in the Sweet 16.

The ACC regular season and conference tournament champion Duke (34-2) will be playing the Big East regular season and conference tournament champion St. John’s (30-6).

I am still not 100 percent sure how the Red Storm ended up a 5 seed, and who both teams angered in order to put them in the same region with each other. This probably should be a Regional Final or a Final 4 game – instead we get to see them play to kick off Friday’s Sweet 16.

And that is just the start. We got Michigan vs Alabama, UConn vs Michigan State and Iowa State vs Tennessee. You really can’t ask for a better set of games. Super looking forward to it.

Arizona jumped out to a 26-15 lead on Arkansas early and never looked back as they cruised to a 109-88 victory. I have to admit that watching Arizona dismantle a very good Arkansas team does not make me as excited as I was two hours ago. I still think Purdue has a chance because they play a completely different style of basketball from Arkansas. But it certainly doesn’t make you feel good when you know that defense is your team’s biggest weakness and your upcoming opponent just scored 109 points.

So, I switched over to the Illinois vs. Houston game. With it being 24-22 at halftime, I figured it had to be a better game than watching Arizona stomp all over Arkansas. And then laughed as Illinois went on a 17-0 run early in the second half and then hold on to beat Houston by 10. Still, the Big 10 has to be thrilled with its performance, as it won 3 of the 4 games today. Sure – they were guaranteed to win at least one game with Iowa and Nebraska playing, but after Illinois’ victory over Houston in the Cougars’ backyard means that the Big 10 will now be guaranteed at least one team in the Final Four – as the Fighting Illini will play the Hawkeyes for the opportunity to head to Indianapolis.

Congratulations to Illinois, Arizona, Iowa and Purdue on advancing to Saturday’s Elite 8 games.

As for the Stomp the Lunatic Pool, Matt Reilly has been tied up by Bo Luy at 650 points – they have a small 10 point lead over Matt’s second bracket, Heath Lindvall and Dan Fischer. Ryan Hilton is in 6th place – just 20 points behind. And Brian Betz, Mark Walsh, Will Richter and Mike Wyatt round out the top 10 at 620 points in a tie for 7th.

In the Upset Pool, Matt Reilly leads at 243 points, and has a 3 point lead over Shirli Zelcer. Lochlan Middlebrook is in 3rd place at 222 points, followed by Tony Wilson in 4th place at 220 points, and Matt Reilly’s second bracket along with Bo Luy being tied in 5th place at 218 points.

As for the second chance pool, 10 entries were able to pick all 4 games correctly tonight. Those 10 perfect brackets are owned by Lauren Martin, William Craft, Michael Cheung, Karen Barton, Jim Wambach, Audra Chamowitz, Jerry Caldwell, Steve Thornton, Wendy Joseph and my wonderful wife, Elizabeth Hodgson!!!

Congratulations to all our leaders. We also unofficially can congratulate Brent Hassell, although he has won the prize no one wants. With Houston’s loss to Illinois, Brent’s last team alive has fallen. So he is locked in at 190 points to clinch last of the eligible entries in the Standard Pool. This is normally where we say the classic trash talk, “You shouldn’t have challenged the Lunatic!” – but we all know that is not true. The Lunatic is lingering in a tie for 95th place so everyone should have challenged him. With Matt Reilly having two of the top 5 entries, the more appropriate statement is “You shouldn’t have challenged Matt!”.

Four more exciting games tomorrow. Duke and St. John’s kick us off in Washington, DC at 7:10 pm, with Michigan and Alabama kicking off in Chicago at 7:35 pm. And then, in the late games, we have an outstanding matchup between UConn and Michigan State at 9:45 pm with the finale being Iowa State and Tennessee at 10:10 pm.

Should be some fantastic basketball as we will lose 4 more teams to get down to the Elite 8 this weekend!

In another tight game, Iowa managed to tie the game with 5 minutes to play at 65 when Alvaro Foiguieras hit a three-pointer. And then both teams went cold. Neither team scored for almost 3 minutes.

With about 2 minutes left, Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz drove to the lane and kicked it back out to Cooper Koch at the top of the key. He then passed it back out to Stirtz who had rolled out to the wing, and Stirtz hit the three-pointer to give the Hawkeyes the lead.

Nebraska tried to match the three-pointer, but Rienk Mast’s three-pointer from the wing missed and Iowa’s Alvaro Foiguieras rose over everyone to get the rebound. Stirtz would once again drive to the basket and kick it back out to the top of the key – this time to Foiguieras. And Foiguieras found Tate Sage wide open in the corner, who calmly hit the three-pointer to give the Hawkeyes a 6 point lead.

Pryce Sandfort would take a deep three-pointer that missed and rolled off to the corner. Nebraska’s Braden Frager would chase the ball down, take a dribble out to the three-point line, and make the shot from the corner to give the Cornhuskers life.

But on the in-bounds play after a timeout, Karl Combs bombed the ball down the court to Foiguieras who hit the break away lay-up and got fouled. His made free-throw would extend the lead back to six.

Sandfort would miss another free throw from the top of the key causing Nebraska to start to have to foul to try to extend the game – but they still had fouls to give. This turned out to be important as the Hawkeyes did a great job of getting the ball in and avoiding the defenders coming in to foul until Tate Sage found Foiguieras in the corner, and the junior forward drove the baseline for a dunk to make the lead 8.

Nebraska would miss a few more three-pointers, Iowa would hit a free throw, and Pryce Sandfort would hit a meaningless three-pointer with a couple seconds left on the clock as Iowa would advance to the South Regional Final with a 77-71 upset victory.

You don’t see a lot of 9 seeds make it to the Elite 8 – they are getting hot at the right time of the year. Congratulations to the Hawkeyes!!!!

Texas’ Tramon Mark did everything humanly possible to get his Longhorns to the Elite 8. Even after a scare where he landed on Fletcher Loyer’s foot and twisted his ankle, Mark came back and continue to score at will against the Boilermakers. Mark finished the night 11 of 15 with 29 points to lead all scorers. No matter what Purdue did, it seemed like Mark was going to score whenever he wanted to. This made the Lunatic horribly nervous as the game continued to stay tied deeper and deeper into the night.

There were a lot of reviews – CJ Cox got clobbered with an elbow by Matas Vokietaitus in the first half. Trey Kaufman-Renn and Camden Heide got a double technical foul which looked like a hook-and-hold on TKR. Honestly, I am not sure either should have gotten a technical, but if anyone should have, it was the Boilermaker. I think they felt they needed to calm down the physical play – but it did not stop anything. There was another appeal by Texas to try to get another hook-and-hold on TKR, but it was ruled that he was just getting post positioning before getting fouled (which as a biased Purdue fan, I feel was the correct call).

To my defense (on my biased calls), I had told Elizabeth earlier that I didn’t think Texas’ Vokietaitus deserved a technical for the elbow, he was trying to get out of the double team and clobbered Cox, but while excessive contact, it looked like he was trying to make a basketball play and not trying to kill the Purdue guard.

Everyone who was playing in the paint was in foul trouble – that was because both teams were either driving hard to the hoop or posting up.

With a little over 5 minutes left, Mark hit a three-pointer with a hand in his face to give Texas a 70-66 lead, and the Lunatic was downright panicking. But Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith would get fouled and hit their free throws to tie the game with about 4 to play.

Matas Vokietaitus got fouled in the paint with a chance to give Texas the lead from the line, but he missed the one-and-one. And the Boilers did what they had most of the game, they got the ball down into post – this time to Oscar Cluff, and his layup gave the Boilers a two point lead.

Dailyn Swain would drive to the basket but miss the layup and Purdue had a chance to extend the lead. CJ Cox missed a three-pointer, but Cluff got the rebound and kicked it back out. Purdue would have Braden Smith drive the baseline but it was blocked by Vokietaitus. It was first ruled a shot clock violation, but then after review, it was clear there was still 0.5 seconds off the clock. What wasn’t clear was if the ball went off Oscar Cluff or Dailyn Swain – the refs ruled it was Texas’ ball despite the disagreements from the announcers (since obviously at this point, I am very biased). The announcers were surprised that Painter didn’t challenge it – but I think he was right. They just reviewed it and felt it was off Cluff’s hands, that was not going to be overruled by looking at it again.

Purdue might not have gotten the basket, but they took over 40 seconds off the clock. At this point, it was clear who Texas wanted to get the ball, and CJ Cox was chasing Tramon Mark all over the court trying to stop him from driving. Eventually, with the shot-clock going down, Mark took a deep jumper and missed. Worse, Mark then fouled Braden Smith as he brought the ball up the court – the clock stopped, but Smith went to the line. And shockingly, Smith only hit one of the two free throws – it was still a one possession game. Bad thoughts start going through the Lunatic’s mind as he watched his 83% shooting senior guard miss the second free throw. He had to remind himself that Texas had not been great from three-point range.

Purdue guarded the perimeter well so Dailyn Swain eventually drove to the hoop – his shot in the lane would be short, but Chendall Weaver would be in the right place to tip it in and cut the lead to 1 point with a minute to play.

The Boilers would give the ball to their star point guard. And with the shot clock winding down, Smith drove hard to the basket, beat his man down the lane, and made the layup! Jordan Pope would try to tie the game with a three-pointer that was short, and there was a battle for the rebound leading to a jump ball with about 20 seconds. When the ball got in to the Texas center Vokietaitus, Fletcher Loyer immediately fouled him to send him to the line. He had been struggling in the tournament from the line, but with the season on the line, he made both free throws to cut the lead back to 1 point.

Texas played the inbounds well, forcing the ball into CJ Cox, where he got fouled. With all the senior leaders on the Purdue team, it would be the sophomore with the most important free-throws of his life. And CJ Cox like a hero drilled both of them to keep the lead at 3 points. And the Lunatic thought – this is OK, as long as the lead is 3, we can’t lose in regulation – just keep trading baskets and we win.

Texas brings the ball in and get it to Dailyn Swain. The Purdue defender closed in quickly to take away the three-pointer, and Swain drove right by him. He gets all the way to the hoop, makes the layup and gets fouled by Oscar Cluff with 11 seconds left. And with the biggest free-throw of his life, Swain drills it to tie the game. And the foul was big since it was Cluff’s fifth – Purdue had lost their center that had been so important in getting offensive rebounds and posting up in the paint.

Everyone kind of expected that Purdue would run their patented pick-and-roll between Smith and Kaufman-Renn. Smith brought the ball up the court, let the clock tick down so they got the final shot, but TKR never came up to the free throw line – it was an isolation play with the NCAA all-time assist leader looking to win the game himself. Smith drove to the lane, it was well defended, but Smith got the ball up onto the backboard and rim, but it was just a little bit too strong.

And there was Trey Kaufman-Renn. The senior has not gotten the accolades that he did last year as adding Oscar Cluff as a paint presence reduced some of his scoring. So, it was so incredibly awesome as the game looked like it was heading to overtime to see Kaufman-Renn’s hand rise above everyone and tip the ball back towards the basket for the game-winning shot. All season long, Trey Kaufman-Renn has done whatever the Boilers needed him to do to succeed – he traded individual accolades for what was best for the team. And when the team needed him the most, the senior was in the perfect position and tipped the ball in with perfect precision to send the Boilermakers to the Elite 8.

All five Boilermakers starters scored double digits. And whether it was Loyer’s three-pointers to spark them in the first half, Cluff’s late game rebounds, Cox’s defense on Mark at the end of the game along with his clutch free throws, Smith’s drives to the basket that drew points, or Kaufman-Renn’s 20 points on 8 of 10 from the field including the game-winning tip-in, every starter played their role and helped the Boilers advance to the West Regional Final.

Congratulations to the Boilers!!!!! Boiler Up!!!!! The Lunatic still is struggling to calm down. I am so happy!!!! The Boilers are in the Elite 8!!!!

My heart is still beating at a level that is probably not healthy. Apparently, the Iowa vs. Nebraska game that started 20 minutes after the Purdue game is already over – so have no clue what happened there other than a score (congratulations to the Iowa on their continued magical run).

So many thoughts going through my head. I have been wandering my house looking for anything to eat or drink that can calm me down (without going to alcohol that will surely knock my sleep-deprived mess into unconsciousness). I am so happy. I was so nervous. Trey Kaufman-Renn is my hero. All of the Boilers are my heroes.

Oh my goodness, there are still two more games tonight. And they are great matchups – Houston vs. Illinois and Arizona vs. Arkansas. I need to get my wits back so I can write something sensible about the game. I would love to also find out what happened in the Iowa vs. Nebraska game.

But I need a minute. I have lots to talk about but I need to catch my breath.

The Lunatic was very critical of Auburn leading into the tournament. This is because of some of the things that ex-coach Bruce Pearl said about Miami (OH) and the fact that it seemed inappropriate that he was advocating for his ex-team to make the tournament, especially when it is his son who is now the head coach at Auburn (which also feels a little shady that he basically left at a time that allowed him to hand the keys over to his son)

I think the Lunatic’s criticisms were fair, especially considering that as the tournament got closer, even Bruce Pearl started trying to change the narrative that Miami (OH) at 31-0 now belongs in the tournament if they lose in the MAC tournament.

But the Lunatic is sympathetic to his friend Karma – he believes in being fair to people. You can’t just talk about the bad and ignore the good. The Lunatic also believes in second chances (of which you have about 6 hours to get your second chance picks).

And so Auburn deserves some credit for how they have handled not making the tournament. Which leads us to the NIT. I might say more about it next week as the semi-finals kick-off and I have a limited time to blog before the Sweet 16 regathers my attention. There are a whole bunch of things from player eligibility and post-season tournaments that I would love to address if there was only more time and I wasn’t always exhausted.

But here is the core NIT issue. No one wants to play in it. For many major conference teams, it is NCAA Tournament or bust. This is short-sided to me for two reasons. One is the business model – the NCAA gets revenue from the NIT tournament – I think I saw somewhere that its net revenue was around $3.5 million. That is certainly not a lot compared to the NCAA tournament championship – but it is certainly a profitable tournament for college sports. It won’t exist much longer if teams decide not to play in it – which feels like college basketball is breaking their contracts.

Second is the competitive nature – it is an opportunity to play more basketball against teams you normally don’t play. You might see different styles of play. Players get the opportunity to learn in a low-pressure environment. It shouldn’t probably go unnoticed that last year Nebraska played and won the Crown tournament – and this year they are playing in the Sweet 16. You get to keep playing and practicing basketball for two to three weeks. That should only be helping your program get better.

The NIT even changed the eligibility rules to allow more power conference teams a chance to play (presumably because they want more of them and the power conferences complained about access because of automatic bids to mid-major regular season champions who lost in their conference tournament). Well, the NCAA removed that protection to the mid-majors and instituted a new rule.

There are now 16 exempt bids – the SEC and ACC get two exempt bids, and then the conferences with the 12 best computer ratings each get one exempt team – the Big 10, Big 12 and Big East used to also get 2 but those now go to the Crown tournament thanks to their TV agreements with FOX. Still, if I understand it correctly, that means those conferences have 9 guaranteed spots into the NIT.

And then you get Virginia Tech saying they are not going to play in the postseason before the NCAA field even is announced. And then one by one, the dominos start to fall. This year, it even broke into the mid-majors as Belmont declined a bid because their head coach took a job with a struggling power conferences team and then their players entered the transfer portal – likely to follow him.

So after the NCAA bent the rules to guarantee home games and extra spots to the power conferences, you know who actually showed up.

• Oklahoma State (Big 12) – who lost at home to Davidson
• Wake Forest (ACC) – who beat Navy at home before losing to Illinois State at home in the second round
• California (ACC) – who beat UIC at home before losing to St. Joseph’s at home.
• Auburn (SEC)

They could have taken their ball and gone home like so many other power conference teams did. But they decided to play. And they have played well! They beat South Alabama and Seattle last week, and last night they beat Nevada to make the semi-finals next week where they will be playing Illinois State at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The other semi-final next Thursday will be New Mexico vs. Tulsa.

They decided to play basketball instead of being upset that they didn’t make the tournament. And they have been winning. And now they are the clear favorites to win the NIT in Indianapolis (where they will play in the same city just a couple days before the Final 4).

Winning often leads to more winning. And the Auburn coaching staff, players and administration all did the right thing to give him themselves the opportunity to get some momentum going into next season. The fact that Auburn simply showed up when everyone else is quitting on the season deserves some respect. The fact that they are winning those games deserves even more respect.

And if they can win two more games next week, they will get to call themselves champions. You can say that the NIT championship means nothing. But when you are there on opening day and they are raising a banner to the roof of your stadium because of what you did, it certainly is a moment that those players can be proud of for the rest of their lives. Most people might not remember who won the NIT in 2026. But if they win two more games, they will write themselves into the history of their school.

Of course that might not happen, they first have to beat Illinois State (23-12) and then beat either New Mexico (26-10) or Tulsa (29-7). They might be mid-major teams, but they are strong teams who also want to finish their season on a winning note. But Auburn has the Lunatic’s respect – because they are there to represent their school, which is what college sports is supposed to be about.

Good luck to all four teams in the NIT next week – and thank you to those teams to keeping the traditions of college basketball alive.

It is a tradition here at the Stomp the Lunatic blog, including a sad year when I was so sleep-deprived that I accidentally copied an old version. But since it is already 10:40 pm on the Wednesday before the Sweet 16, it is time.

Here are the top 10 reasons to do the Second Chance Pool!!!!!

• 10) Your chances for a perfect bracket disappeared after the first game when TCU beat Ohio State and so you want a second chance to achieve perfection.
• 9) You always wanted to pick teams by flipping a coin and figured that with 12 of the 16 teams being the top seeds, all the remaining games were probably 50/50 games to pick anyways.
• 8) You were so impressed that 6 Big 10 teams made the Sweet 16 that you decided to pick an all Big 10 Final Four in Indianapolis
• 7) After all the favorites winning in the first two rounds, you know that March will strike back this weekend with massive chaos leading to #5 St. John’s, #9 Iowa, #11 Texas and #6 Tennessee upsetting the favorites to head to Indianapolis.
• 6) Because there are no pools on who will win the next 3 weeks of Jeopardy, and after watching an episode, you can’t get any of the questions correct – so you need an easier game to play.
• 5) Realizing that 19 of the 21 last national champions have had blue in their logos, you are sure that Duke, Illinois, Arizona and Michigan are guaranteed to play each other for the title.
• 4) You realize that your daughter is beating you by picking her favorite mascots so you figure if you can’t beat her, you should join her.  Then you spend the next couple hours debating whether a Blue Devil or Red Storm would win in a mascot battle.
• 3) You did so badly in your original picks, and you heard that someone once won the Upset pool by picking teams by geography, so you put up a map of the United States, blindfold yourself, and throw a dart at the map so you can pick the schools closest to the city where your dart lands.
• 2) It is another – and more importantly, it is the last chance in 2026 to Stomp the Lunatic!!!
• 1) It is absolutely FREE!!!!

That’s right – your entry fee already covers your Second Chance Pool entry – and so there is absolutely no good reason not to do the Second Chance Pool. You even have all Thursday afternoon to do them since the games don’t start until 7:10 pm EST. And with the Lunatic going with his 8^th reason to pick only Big 10 teams in the Final Four, it should be incredibly easy this year to thoroughly stomp him.

In fact, here are the Lunatic’s entire Second Chance bracket:

Everyone deserves a second chance – but you still have to take that second chance to win! Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic (a second time)!

One of the big stories before the tournament was the loss of Alabama’s second leading scorer Aden Holloway due to a drug arrest. The Lunatic mentioned that he did not know what Karma had planned for the Crimson Tide – it could be a punishment for the team, or it could be simply an opportunity for someone else to be the star.

On Sunday, Karma spoke loud and clear – the opportunity had been created for others. And multiple players on the Crimson Tide took the stage.

The Lunatic had wanted to switch over to the second half after watching the end of the UCLA vs UConn game. And he turned over to a game where the Crimson Tide were beating Texas Tech 49-25 at halftime. Do you realize how hard it is to stay awake to watch a game at 11:30 pm when you are already sleep deprived and you find out the game is a 24 point demolition. So without a box score and a replay I couldn’t tell you much of what happened.

Alabama supposedly lost their biggest threat from three-point range. So against the talented Texas Tech team, Latrell Wrightsell drilled 6 of 9 three pointers to score 24 points and Houston Mallette came off the bench to hit 5 of 7 three pointers for 15 more points on their way to dancing their way to the Sweet 16 with a 90-65 victory.

But here is the most impressive piece. Texas Tech averaged 80.4 points per game, shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range. The Crimson Tide have never really been known for their defense. So imagine the Lunatic’s surprise as the Red Raiders scored over 15 points less than their season average and only hit 4 of their 25 three pointers.

There are not many teams that could lose a starter that averages almost 17 points per game, play against a fellow top 20 team, and not only shoot better from three-point range and play a suffocating defense that would hold their opponents to 15 points less than their season average.

Alabama lost their second best scorer and appear to have become a more complete team that can still score at will but now can also defend. I don’t know if that will be enough to beat the Wolverines on Friday, but to be honest, that is exactly what the Tide want – the Lunatic thought the big, physical team from the Big 12 would be too much to handle and Alabama won by 25. So they certainly want the Lunatic to think Michigan is too strong to repeat that performance. Doubt the capabilities of the Crimson Tide at your own risk – they put together their most complete game of the season on Sunday night – who knows how far this team can go if they can continue to play this well.

Congratulations to Alabama on proving people wrong and continuing to become a better team amongst all the distractions.