Stomp The Lunatic

Cinderella has a name – and it is Oral Roberts!!!!! That’s right, Oral Roberts has become just the second 15 seed to make it to the Sweet 16, as they upset Florida 81-78.

Oral Roberts came back from being down double-digits early in the second half. ORU’s Kevin Obanor hit a jumper to give them a 77-76 lead. Florida’s Noah Locke gave the lead back to the Gators, but ORU came back down the court, and DeShang Weaver hit a three pointer from the wing to give the Golden Eagles a 2 point lead.

Then, both teams played good defense holding each other from scoring. With 17 seconds, Obanor hit one of his two free throws to extend the lead to 3. The Gators had a frantic sequence where Tre Mann missed a three-pointer to tie, Scottie Lewis tracked the offensive rebound down in the corner and threw up a desperation three-pointer as he faded out-of-bounds. But the shot was short, the rebound got slapped around, and time ran out.

Cinderella has found a way to stop the clock. She is still dancing, and will be getting to play #3 Arkansas in the Sweet 16. Congratulations to the Golden Eagles!!!!

Rutgers was pulling the big-time upset of #2 Houston. They were up 58-49 with 5 minutes to play.

Then, Houston went on a 14-2 run to finish the game and come back for a 63-60 win. Down 2, Houston’s DeJon Jarreau missed his shot, but Tramon Mark rebounded the ball, went back up strong, gets fouled and still makes the basket. Then, Mark hits the free throw to take a 1 point lead.

Rutgers had a couple chances to tie – but Geo Baker lost the ball on the first drive. And then after Marcus Sasser hit two free throws to extend the lead to 3 with 9 seconds, Rutgers last ditch three-point shot missed.

Houston survived and advanced. And heartbreak for Rutgers – this is one of the best seasons they have had in a very long time – so hate to see it end like that.

ESPN wrote an article titled “Reseeding the men’s March Madness 2021 field for the round of 32”. So – I was curious who they thought were the teams that should be reseeded.

You ready for this.

The one seeds should be Gonzaga, Illinois, Baylor and Michigan (the current 4 one seeds)

The two seeds should be Alabama, Houston, Iowa and Arkansas (since Ohio St lost – they moved up one of the 3 seeds)

The three seeds should be Kansas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Florida State. They corrected their perceived slight of Oklahoma State by switching the order of West Virginia and the Cowboys.

The four seeds are Villanova, Creighton, Colorado and Texas Tech. Basically, all the 5 seeds and the top 6 seed move up in order to fill gaps of teams that have lost.

The five seeds are USC, Florida, LSU, and Oregon. So, the 8 seed LSU jumps 7 seed Oregon.

The six seeds are Loyola-Chicago, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Maryland – teams just moving up to fill gaps

The seven seeds are Rutgers, Syracuse, UCLA and Oregon State – teams just moving up

The eight seeds are Ohio, Abilene Christian, Oral Roberts, and North Texas – so they moved both the 14 seed Abilene Christian and 15 seed Oral Roberts over 13 seed North Texas.

So, they flip-flop Oklahoma State and West Virginia. They flip-flop LSU and Oregon. And they move Abilene Christian and Oral Roberts pass North Texas. Which if they left them in their seeded order, they would have been the same seed.

If you are going to write an article reseeding the 32 teams – how about actually reseeding the teams.

Arkansas led for the entire game – sometimes by double digits. But in a game defined by a bunch of runs, it was finished by a lack of a run.

Texas Tech hit a couple free throws to get the game to a 1 point game with 2 minutes to play. Arkansas did a good job of taking some time off the clock, but missed their drive to the basket, so Texas Tech had a chance to take the lead. And then they walk the ball up the court.

With 1:15, Mac McClung draws a foul dribbling outside trying to get open, but the 82% FT shooter missed the free throw.

Arkansas takes another 20 seconds off the clock, but misses a long three-pointer, and Texas Tech starts walking the ball up the court. There is 50 seconds in the game, you are down 1 point, and you are helping the other team take time off the clock. Terrance Shannon Jr drives to the basket but missed the layup.

Then, it gets stranger. Because there is only 34 seconds left – if they miss, you are going to get the ball with 3-4 seconds, so you should foul. But Texas Tech lets Arkansas walk the ball up the court, and then finally, reach in on Arkansas’ JD Notae to stop the clock with 19 seconds. That’s right, down 1 point, they let 15 seconds drop off the clock without trying to trap the ball and steal it. They simply let Notae unguarded dribble 15 seconds off the clock.

Notae makes the first free throw and misses the second one to give Texas Tech one more chance with 19 seconds. And Texas Tech WALKS the ball up the court. It was like they thought there was still 15 minutes in the game instead of 15 seconds. Arkansas pressures them to the point that there is only 6 seconds left to where the announcers even say that they need to do something soon because they are running out of time. Kyler Edwards drives to the basket for a well-guarded contested layup, the ball harmlessly falls off the rim, and Notae gets the rebound to end the game.

Notice I said gets the rebound to end the game – because by the time Notae got the rebound, Texas Tech didn’t have any more time on the clock to foul him. The game was over. It is one thing when the team with the lead successfully plays keepaway to drain the clock. But it is amazing to me that a team losing by 1 to 2 points would take close to 35 seconds off the clock because they have no urgency for the need to tie the game.

Arkansas played better basketball for 38 minutes – and so not trying to take anything away from their victory. But Texas Tech played with no urgency to try to tie or win the game in the final 2 minutes – and then with 6 seconds left in the game were forced into a desperate drive that failed and ended their season. If they had simply rushed the ball up the court, they would have had a good 14-15 seconds to set up their offense and possibly get a much better shot. Not to mention the 20 seconds they let go off the clock by not fouling fast enough or bringing the ball up slowly on other drives.

I get that if you tie the game with too much time in the game, then you have to play defense to stop the other team from taking the lead back. But isn’t it a better situation to be playing defense for 15 seconds where if you succeed, you go to overtime. It makes no sense to me to not give yourselves another chance if you miss because you are afraid they might score afterwards.

Should we be surprised. Tell me if you have heard this story before.

Syracuse struggles through the first half of the season. They start winning big games late in the season to get in the bubble discussion. They get in as one of the last at-large teams in the field – with experts questioning the decision that the Selection Committee made. And then, Syracuse starts playing to prove the experts wrong.

Syracuse jumped out to a double digit lead early in the first half, and then held off every comeback bid that West Virginia tried. It seemed every time they would make a run, Buddy Boeheim would be there to hit a big three-pointer to regain the lead. Boeheim finished the game with 25 points to lead the Orange.

It wasn’t pretty at the end, with getting trapped in the corner and missing free throws. But they did just enough to hang on for a 75-72 victory to become the first double digit seed to make it to the Sweet 16.

I thought to myself that instead of watching Wisconsin get hammered by Baylor, or diving through statistics to try to handicap Monday’s games, I would take a break to do something other than sit around my house.

So, I thought, why not go out and shoot some free throws. I could come up with some fun blog about how many I could make.

That was sadly the most exercise I probably have had in months. It has been so easy to just settle into your house. I love video games. There are so many fun TV shows to binge watch. I shot my first shot up and felt a pain in my shoulder. It was asking me why I was torturing it.

But I was determined, so I shot a few layup to hopefully make my shoulder remember how to work, and got started. And I started well. I made 7 of my first 10. I was pleased.

I stayed relatively consistent for a while – I made 17 of my first 25. 68% was pretty good for someone who hadn’t shot a basketball in several months. It was all down hill from there. I was tired – if my form was off, my shoulder would twinge. It was bad, Still, I finished making 28 of 50 free throws….. So, 56%. Maybe in an attempt to make myself healthier, I should plan to go out and do that each day to see if I get better or worse.

Still – that still baffles me that some of the players are only making 50-60% of their free throws. Sure, there is the pressure of a game. And they are not just standing there and getting in a rhythm. But to be fair – they are also not 47 years old, 5’7″, significantly overweight, and haven’t picked up a basketball in months. And I can make 50-60% of my free throws.

Hopefully, the next time in the tournament you hear the announcer mention that the player is a 50% free throw shooter, you get the image of this old, out of shape Lunatic shooting free throws in his court. And hopefully, the free throw the goes in for the player. If he doesn’t, then you can see this tired old man slowly jogging after the ball rolling away from him.

As I was finishing up my blog on the Lunatic curse, a commercial came on that gives some perfect – and very timely – advice. Corona’s hotline operator Kenny Smith picks up the phone and says:

“OK! Listen closely! Take your bracket, ball it up, and throw it in the trash. Grab yourself a Corona, and enjoy the rest of the games. Are you crying? There’s no crying on the Corona hotline!”

Well, I am not crying (at least not yet). And I am not much of a beer drinker – so probably not going to grab a Corona. But the rest of the advice is good. I am going to throw out my bracket and simply enjoy the rest of the games.

Oh – and just in case you are wondering. Remember, the Lunatic picked Illinois, Gonzaga and Alabama to make the Final 4 in both his picks, with Baylor winning the South in his sane picks and Purdue winning the South in his insane picks.

So, in basically the first 2 days of the tournament (and 1 game into the third day), 2 of those 5 teams (including the sane pick for the national champion) are already eliminated.

This appears to be a real stomping this year. My apologies in advance to fans of Gonzaga, Baylor and Alabama. The Lunatic Curse appears to be coming out early this year. I feel additionally bad because Gonzaga so far has been undefeated this season – that would have been a nice story to see Gonzaga become the 8th undefeated national champion since 1939, and the first one since Indiana did it in 1976.

At least Baylor has the benefit that they are facing a Big 10 team right now. That probably makes them safer to make the second weekend. If that happens, I should probably make sure to take them in the Second Chance pool – they are already doomed. Why would I pick another team and then doom the chances of another team. The Lunatic Curse is real – with great power comes great responsibility.

Loyola-Chicago ran this play where they would get the ball to their center Cameron Krutwig at the top of the key, and one of their guards would come through a bunch of screens along the baseline, come around a final screen to get a hand-off pass from Krutwig, and then the guard would drive off the pass to the basket. Typically, the person guarding the guard would run into multiple screens – and so it would force Illinois to either switch to guard the person driving to the basket, or stay with their man defense. If they switch, the guard simply passed the ball back to Krutwig for a layup. It they don’t, the guard got a layup. And it seemed no matter which choice Illinois made, it was always the wrong one.

Loyola-Chicago jumped out to a 9 point half-time lead, and never looked back. They beat the #1 seed (3rd ranked team in the country) 71-58 and become the first team to make it to the Sweet 16. To be fair, maybe we should have all seen this coming – we all remember the Ramblers Cinderella run to the Final 4 in 2018. 5 of the top 7 players in minutes for the Ramblers are now seniors. And of course, they still have the 101 year old chaplain Sister Jean watching over them.

I am just so bummed because I fell for the hype. This was going to be the Big 10’s year. Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State are all ranked in the top 8 of the country. The entire tournament is happening in the heart of Big 10 country in Indianapolis. While the crowds would be small, it was clear every crowd would be rooting for the Big 10 team creating a home court advantage.

Illinois was supposed to be the best of the Big 10 teams (although I am sure Michigan would argue with that). And Loyola-Chicago basically dismantled them. This game wasn’t even close. Illinois kept trying to force the ball into Kofi Cockburn down low, and it was clear why. When he got the ball, he was impossible to stop. The problem was Loyola stopped most of the times they tried to force the ball into them and they would turn the ball over. Ayo Dosunmu is a first team All-American, and he was invisible – going 4 for 10 from the field with 9 points and 6 turnovers. The Illini had 17 turnovers as a team.

Illinois did not look like the #3 team in the country. Ohio State losing to Oral Roberts did not look like one of the top 8 teams in the country. Purdue losing to North Texas did not look like one of the top 16 teams in the country. The Big 10 was supposed to be the best in college basketball and was playing the NCAA tournament on basically their home court. And the Missouri Valley champion just took their best team out of the tournament.

Loyola-Chicago deserves so much credit – because the way they played today, they certainly looked like they are capable of going much farther than the Sweet 16. Congratulations to the Ramblers for being the first team to make the Sweet 16.

To:It was a crazy first round – and that makes what some of our leaders have done even more impressive.  We had two 13 seeds, a 14 seed, and a 15 seed win games – and yet our leaders still got so many games correct. 

In the Standard Pool, our leader is Joey Ams – who managed to correctly pick 26 winners.  But we have many who are within 20 points. Getting 25 correct was Will Caldwell, TJ Acuto, Lowell Isaacs, Kevin Busby, Ryan Callahan, and Sam Luy.  And getting 24 correct was both of Mark Walsh;s picks, Michael Cheung, both of Joseph Laucius’ picks, Nick Kindig, Adam Davis, and Ethan Busby 

In the Upset Pool, Ryan Callahan and Joey Ams are tied at top with 142 points.  They are followed by Sam Luy at 139, and Adam Davis and Kevin Busby at 135. 

As for the Lunatic, he only got 21 games right – so he is lurking in a tie for 76th place. So far, a pretty solid stomping. Of course, his daughter Katie who thought the games were football got 23 games right by just picking school names she liked. Meanwhile, apparently the Lunatic curse has been extended to Elizabeth – she is in last of the entries in the prize pool as she only got 11 games right. Charlie so badly wanted to do 2 picks this year thinking that will help him. He got 21 right in one pick and 20 in the other – so he is not happy that he is losing twice to his sister.

If you are not one of our leaders, don’t despair.  There is lots of opportunity to make up ground in the later rounds.  And if you have powers like the Lunatic to curse all your teams into early losses, the second chance pool will come out Monday night after the games.  Everyone likes having a second chance!!!!