Stomp The Lunatic

Last season, the Iowa State Cyclones only won 2 games the entire season. Which is what makes tonight even more incredible. It is special enough when an 11 seed pulls an upset to reach the second round of the tournament. But the turnaround that the Cyclones have had is amazing.

LSU kept trying to trim the Cyclones lead – getting as close as 2 points when Mwani Wilkinson made a layup with under a minute. So LSU decided to play defense, get a stop and try to tie or win the game on the final possession.

Iowa State eventually got the ball into the hands of freshman Tyrese Hunter around the NBA three point stripe on the sideline, let the shot clock get down to 3, and calmly drilled the three pointer to lead the Cyclones to a 59-54 victory.

It was a little bit of some karma as well – considering that LSU just fired their head coach due to the NCAA payment scandal allegations. But this isn’t just a story about LSU’s mess. Today, it is much more a story about the turnaround of the Iowa State program, which has now won 19 more games this season than they did last year, and they will be playing on Sunday to add to that turnaround.

Go Cyclones!!!!!

13 seeded Chattanooga led this game for 39 minutes – but Illinois fought and fought and managed to survive. The CBS announcer just mentioned that Illinois led for only 25 seconds. Unfortunately for Chattanooga, it only matters who is leading when the clock strikes zero.

With under a minute and down 1, Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins was surprisingly fouled, but he missed the free throw. But Kofi Cockburn rebounded the miss and hit the short shot in the lane.

Chattanooga drove right back and Malachi Smith got fouled driving to the basket. Smith hit both free throws to regain the lead for the Mocs.

But it would be short-lived – after some good defense, Alfonso Plummer drove to the basket and was also fouled. Plummer, who hit some key three pointers to help Illinois climb back into the game, calmly hit nothing but net on both free throws to put Illinois ahead.

Malachi Smith drove to the basket with time running out just to get his shot blocked by Hawkins. Smith chased the ball down to the corner, made a nice move to get open from about 17 out, and his shot was just a little too strong as time ran out on Chattanooga.

It wasn’t pretty. But March doesn’t care about style points. Illinois wins 54-53 to sadly send 13th seeded Chattanooga home – survive and advance!!!

I have to tell you I was nervous – after losing to 14 seed North Texas last year and then watch St. Peter’s beat Kentucky, you realize quickly that there is no safe game in March.

But the Boilers handled their business and pretty decisively never let Yale get into the game, winning 78-56 and advancing to Sunday. Many of the top teams have been advancing today, but we did finally get a pair of upsets.

The Miami FL / USC game was super exciting as there were 12 lead changes in the second half. Miami looked like they had the game under control with a 7 point lead with 44 seconds, but Drew Peterson from USC tried to change the story. He hit a three pointer to cut the lead to 4, and then helped trap Miami in the corner to force a turnover as Miami dribbled out of bounds. Then Peterson hit another three pointer. In 19 seconds the lead dropped from 7 to 1.

Miami got fouled and Sam Waardenburg hit one of two free throws to set the stage. Peterson drove to the basket this time and made the layup to tie the game. Miami gets the ball one last time and Charlie Moore drives to the hoop and gets fouled with 3 seconds to go and calmly hit both free throws to give the Hurricanes a 68-66 lead. And then March almost happened. Peterson got the ball at half court, launched the ball up at the buzzer, banks off the backboard, hits the front of the rim, and harmlessly falls to court. The Hurricanes hang on to their 2 point upset victory over USC.

Looks like the upsets will continue at Charlie’s soccer game as Notre Dame ran away from Alabama. But halftime is over – back to soccer for a short time.

We have 5 who managed to get 14 of 16 games right despite all the upsets. Our leaders at this early stage are Gregg Farber, Mike Mullins, Ted Hatcher, Ann Hawkins, and Rob Nesbitt. Ann picked one more upset and leads the Upset Pool.

My son Charlie is in a group of 21 entries tied for 6th – going 13 of 16. So, he is super happy. The Lunatic is hanging in there at 12 of 16 – which is in a tie at 27th.

But since it is 1 pm EST and I am nodding in and out as I type this, I will have to call it a night, even if I want to blog about Murray State’s exciting overtime victory over San Francisco.

We will see if the chalk fights back tomorrow or if the upsets continue

Arkansas and UCLA were supposed to run away as 4 seeds.

UCLA needed a 15-4 run to finish the game, including a huge three-pointer by Tyger Campbell.

Arkansas found themselves in a tight game against Vermont. Stanley Umude led the Razorbacks with 21 points, as Arkansas watched their small lead get cut all the way to 2 with 10 seconds left and almost turned the ball over. But replay ruled the ball was off the Vermont, and Arkansas held on for a 4 point victory.

It doesn’t have to be pretty – you just have to survive and advance. On a night when upsets are happening a lot, you have to give UCLA and Arkansas some credit for hanging in there and surviving.

My Sane Picks along with 118 other entries might have just ripped up their brackets! That is because the most picked team to win the East bracket just got eliminated in overtime by the 15th seed St. Peter’s Peacocks!!!!

It looked like the Wildcats would survive when they scored the first 4 points of overtime. But the Peacocks hung in there to tie the game off a three-pointer from Doug Edert. Then, Daryl Banks got fouled going to the basket and hit both free throws to give the Peacocks the lead. And with about a minute left, KC Ndefo drove to the lane, got double teamed, but found Hassan Drame for the layup to give St Peter’s a three point lead.

Then, when all the pressure was there with Kentucky fouling to try to extend the game, St. Peter’s went 6 for 6 from the line to finish off the massive upset.

Who would have thought that two 12 seeds winning wouldn’t be the biggest story of the day. That’s because the Kentucky Wildcats are heading home and MAAC Tournament Champion St. Peter’s is staying a couple more days in Indianapolis!

15 seed St Peter’s just sent 2 seed Kentucky to overtime!!! Are we going to have another year where a 15 seed busts everyone’s brackets! Turn to CBS as quickly as possible!!!

New Mexico State’s Teddy Allen was on fire tonight!!!! Allen scored 37 of New Mexico State’s 70 points as he might have single-handedly carried the Aggies to a 7 point victory over the UConn Huskies.

The Aggies become the second 12 seed to win today – joining our local University of Richmond.

Everyone should be afraid of spiders! All the teams from the Atlantic 10 (especially Dayton and VCU – since this particular version of scary spiders cost them a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament) already knew about these dangerous Spiders.

After invading the Atlantic 10 tournament in Washington, DC, these Spiders took the conference autobid, knocked Dayton out of the at-large pool, and the selection committee sent them to Buffalo, NY expecting that the Big 10 tournament champions would send them back to Richmond.

The Spiders had other plans. Iowa shot 36.8 percent from the field from three point range as a team this season (including Iowa’s leading scorer Keegan Murray and Kris Murray who both shot over 40 percent). Well – the Spiders put a web over the basket, as the Murray’s went 0-8 and the Hawkeyes went 6-29 (20.7 percent) from behind the arc.

To be fair, there were some questionable calls towards the end – such as when Kris Murray clearly got fouled shooting a three pointer and it wasn’t called. But the Spiders still managed to hit their free throws and hold off the Hawkeyes’ last ditch efforts to catch up.

At the end, it was 12 seeded Richmond winning 67-63. These Spiders will be continuing to build their webs in Buffalo’s KeyBank Center, and they have the 4 seed Providence Fryars in their sights.

Be afraid of Spiders! Very aftaid!!

It looks like we have around 315 entries this year who have decided that they know more about college basketball than the Lunatic!!! And knowing how I do, I am sure most of them are right!!!

When I get home, I will do some final validations to make sure everything looks OK. It is always a good idea for you to do a quick check on the Standings page and make sure your picks are there. Let me know if you see any issues.

In the meantime, it looks like Colorado State and Providence have jumped out to small first half leads – if that holds up the Lunatic will go 0-2 to start. Looks like the Stomping is ready to begin!

Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!