Stomp The Lunatic

With the championship game hours away, you can go to almost any sports website and hear tons of people give you a perspective on how tonight’s game will go. But you can not get expert opinions like the amazing set of experts that the Lunatic has arranged. I also need to mention that Charlie’s response to needing to participate was a question of “Can we get ice cream tonight?” Couldn’t do it tonight, but the Lunatic has real expenses to provide this level of expert content for you.

CRAZED LUNATIC – Gonzaga – the Bulldogs have beat everyone that they meet – and most of the time it isn’t close. 29 of their 31 victories have been by double digits, and most concerns about them were how they would react if they ever got behind or in a close game. Apparently, the way they handle that is by hitting a miracle three-point shot from half court. Every time I watch the Bulldogs, I am so amazed with their ball movement and how easily they get to the basket to score on layups. Baylor is a fantastic team – they play well on both ends of the court as we saw in the way they demolished Houston in the semi-finals. But it seems that Gonzaga is perfectly comfortable to let a team score against them, because they are going to simply come back down the court and score more points. It has been 45 years since we have seen an undefeated champion – I would love to see Gonzaga end that streak tonight.

MRS LUNATIC – Gonzaga – I have always liked Gonzaga, and despite their record, I consider them as the underdog. I always love it when the small schools do well, and having a non Power-5 champion would be awesome! I have picked them in all of my pools. Gonzaga saved me from finishing in last place, and they have been the cornerstone of my awesome Second Chance picks. Go Zags!!!!!!

CRAZY CHARLIE – Baylor – I am going to be the contrarian. I like rooting for the underdog. I don’t like Gonzaga cause they ruined UCLA’s hope and dreams – it would have been great to see an 11 seed win. And we know everything is bigger in Texas – so Baylor is going to beat them. Its going to be a blowout – big win for a big state.

KRAZY KATIE – Go Bears! The Crazed Lunatic and Mrs. Lunatic looked at Katie and said, “You know, its not the Chicago Bears!” And Katie said, “Wait, the Chicago Bears already got eliminated! Then said, oh wait – they are a football team! I know nothing about basketball – who are you picking?” Both of us parents said, “Gonzaga”. And Katie said, “Then, I change my pick – I will go with Gonzaga because you are. And on principle, I can’t agree with my brother – I must pick Gonzaga just to spite him.”

After that, Charlie started getting frisky and wanted to bet real money on the game. We needed to remind him that he really doesn’t have any money to bet with – he just wants us to give him money if Baylor wins. He needs to put his money where is mouth is. Not one of my finest parenting moments.

I know that most of the blog’s focus is on the men’s basketball tournament, but if you have not been watching the women play, you have missed out on some great basketball games. The final on Sunday featured two Pac 12 schools as Stanford and Arizona played for the championship.

Stanford jumped out to the early lead, but Arizona would keep fighting back. A great example is simply looking at the first two quarters where Stanford jumped out to a 16-8 lead at the end of the 1st, watched Arizona come back to take the lead in the second at 21-20, and then Stanford scored the next 11 points, before Arizona finished the scoring to cut the halftime lead to 31-24. Arizona continued to cut that lead down to 3 by the end of the 3rd quarter.

Every time it seemed that Stanford would get the game under control, Arizona would come charging back. Every time Arizona got close, Stanford would come up with an answer to hold off the Wildcats. With 3 1/2 minutes to play, Arizona’s Aari McDonald made a three-pointer from the top of the key to cut the lead to 51-50. But after a good defensive stand by both teams, Stanford’s Kiana Williams passed the ball into Haley Jones, who made the basket and was fouled. After Jones hit the free throw, Stanford had a 54-50 lead.

The last 2 minutes was a display of the great defenses of both teams. Arizona stole the ball twice, but couldn’t convert on the offensive end. Aari McDonald kept trying to will the Wildcats to a victory by getting to the free throw line on her drives – after making two free throws with 37 seconds left, the lead had shrunk to 1 point.

Arizona decided to play for the defensive stop. Stanford let the shot clock dwindle down, but when they started to initiate their offense, Arizona stepped in and stopped them cold, forcing a shot clock violation. Arizona was going to get the ball at half-court with 6.1 seconds to play and a chance to win the national championship.

The Wildcats got the ball into their star player – everyone knew it would likely be McDonald who would get the last shot. But this time, it was the Stanford defense that swarmed in and stopped her. In desperation with one second left, McDonald put up a heavily-contested fade-away jumper from near the three-point line, but it would not go in. Stanford had held on for the 54-53 victory.

It was a really fun game to watch for the casual basketball fan who had no rooting interest. The game was close, it had star players like Haley Jones and Aari McDonald, and the national championship came down to the final shot. You can’t ask for more out of a game. Both teams played their hearts out in a really, great basketball game.

Congratulations to the Stanford women’s basketball team – the 2021 women’s national champions!!!!

Jalen Suggs’ three-pointer will go into history as the shot of the tournament (assuming nothing crazier happens in the championship game). But for the Lunatic, Suggs’ half-court bank shot to beat UCLA was only the second best shot of the weekend.

Before the tournament, my good friend, David Zimmerman, reached out and asked if I wanted to go golfing over the next few weeks. We hadn’t seen each other since August (with our last golf adventure) and so we wanted to get together to do something fun. We agreed to play on Sunday.

So, Dave drove up from North Carolina, and I met him in Petersburg at a course called Dogwood Trace. It was a nice little municipal course in Petersburg, and it cut a decent 45 minutes off of the travel for Dave.

Neither of us was playing great – neither of us had played since that round in August and that might have been our only round of golf in 2020 as we both tried to stay in our bubbles with the pandemic happening. But it was all ok. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and we were getting the chance to catch up on everything in our lives and just have fun on the golf course. Perfect Sunday afternoon.

Anyways, we had our first bit of success on the 8th hole as Dave hit a nice drive up the left side of the fairway on a par 5, and hit a beautiful fairway wood to the fringe. His eagle putt from the fringe was just a little bit off – but ended up with a short putt to get his birdie. Considering both of us were posting double bogeys or worse on most holes, we were pretty happy the have a good hole.

So, we drive up to the 9th hole, a 166 yard par 3 over a small pond to a green sitting in front of the clubhouse. Dave hit his shot well but pushed it a little bit right of the green. And so I stepped up to tee. I thought to myself as I grabbed a club that I have not hit really anything solid all day and was pathetically already pretty sore. You might not really think of golf as a strenuous sport, but when you do very little exercise and simply keep yourself walled up in your house due to the pandemic, it is amazing what muscle aches you can find from swinging a golf club. And as I said, I was not playing well – I was swinging the club a lot….

So, not wanting to be short and end up in the pond, I grabbed a 5 iron to have a little extra club. I took a nice swing and watched as the ball nicely went into the air, flew over the pond, and landed on the front end of the green. Dave said, “Nice shot!” and we walked back to the cart not thinking anything else about it. We were simply chatting and laughing the way we always do as we play golf.

As we drove up closer to the hole, I was looking around to see where Dave’s ball ended up – mine was on the green so I figured I had a 10-15 foot birdie putt that I would miss horribly. And then Dave said, “Tommy, where’s your ball!” I turned towards the green, and he was right, we couldn’t see it anywhere. We kept looking at the front of the green where there was a little ridge on the green. For a second, both of us saw a white glimpse but it disappeared as we got closer to the hole.

So, we get out of the cart, walk up to the green, and we find the ball resting in the hole! I had hit my first ever hole in one!!!!!!! As any avid golfer, I had always dreamed of hitting a hole in one, but truth be told, I figured that now that I play only once in a while, that the chances of that dream coming true had past. I was so excited that I had Dave take some pictures of me taking the ball out of the hole and posted one of them to Facebook.

I then went back to hitting the ball wildly all over the course. Dave crushed me in our match for the mythical dollar – think he won 4 & 2. For me, on the scorecard in the final score was a 100 with multiple asterisks next to holes where Dave was nice enough to give me a mulligan – I probably shot 105 or 106 if we were really keeping an accurate total. But the only thing that mattered was under the 9th hole, where it had a 1 and two large circles.

The world is going to remember Jalen Suggs shot this weekend for a very long time – it will be etched in history as we see classic buzzer beaters of the tournament. But for me, the moment from this weekend that I will remember for the rest of my life is the 9th hole at Dogwood Trace golf course where my dream of hitting a hole in one came true. And even better, I was able to share it with one of my closest friends, David Zimmerman. I could not think of a more perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

UCLA did what no one all season was able to do. They were able to go possession by possession with the mighty Gonzaga Bulldogs. There were multiple times where it looked like Gonzaga had regained control. There were multiple times where it looked like UCLA was going to pull the amazing upset and end Gonzaga’s undefeated season. And then 3.3 seconds defined history.

I wanted to have the perfect way to summarize everything – and so I am going to give credit to ESPN. Because right now on the front page of ESPN is a video of the moment of the tournament – I copied a screen shot of it – but to give them full credit, I will also provide the link in the caption to their full story and the video of the incredible last 10 seconds.

This game had so many shifts in momentum. UCLA showed how they were really good all tournament at playing the game at their pace and coming up with efficient shots. Gonzaga showed their incredible ability to quickly get to the basket and score.

Gonzaga built a 7 point lead with around 11 minutes left – and it looked like the Bulldogs were starting to do what they do to everyone. But like Gonzaga in the first half, the Bruins came back as Tyger Campbell made a layup to give UCLA a 71-70 lead with 6 minutes to go. The game stayed within one possession the rest of the half.

Momentum can change so quickly with Gonzaga. With two minute in a tie game, UCLA got the ball into Cody Riley that looked like it would lead to a huge dunk to give the Bruins the lead. Instead, Jalen Suggs came from behind and blocked the shot. Then, he chased the ball down in the corner, and started to push the ball up court. Then as if he did it directly off his dribble, Suggs threw a beautiful one handed bounce pass to Drew Timme that led to a Gonzaga dunk. It looked like UCLA was going to take the lead, and in just 6 seconds, they found themselves back down by 2.

Of course, UCLA had the ultimate answer to everything – Johnny Juzang. On the next possession, Juzang tied the game back up at 79 off a jumper as he did so many times in this tournament.

The teams traded points (Gonzaga with a basket, UCLA with free throws) – giving Gonzaga a chance to try to take the lead one more time in regulation with 40 seconds left. But this time, Cody Riley would repay the favor and block one of Suggs’ drives to the basket. And then Corey Kispert missed a deep three-pointer to give UCLA the chance to win the game.

UCLA couldn’t have asked for a better situation. 15 seconds left in a tie game. And the ball in Johnny Juzang’s hands. All tournament, Juzang had been coming up big at the end of the game. But this time, Juzang drove to the basket, and Drew Timme took his position in the middle of the lane to draw the charge. This game was heading to overtime.

Timme continued to come up big in the start of the overtime – he made three layups to lead Gonzaga to a 4 point lead with 3 minutes to play. Cody Riley would cut the lead to 2 with a little over 2 minutes to play. Then Gonzaga looked like they put the dagger in UCLA’s heart. With 1:17 left on the clock, Gonzaga’s amazing ball movement found the ball in Andrew Nembhard’s hands – where he drained a three-pointer to put the Bulldogs up 5.

Strangely, UCLA brought the ball up slowly and eventually called time-out – draining a good 20 seconds off the clock. I was telling Elizabeth that I really didn’t like this because Gonzaga can score so quickly. You have to make up 5 points on a team that can score points at will – don’t let time slip off the clock. But UCLA set up their offense, and Tyger Campbell found Jaime Jaquez Jr in the corner for a three-pointer to bring the game back to 2.

Now, UCLA had the most amazing task. With 50 seconds left and a 2 point lead, you know Gonzaga is going to take some time off the clock before they run their offense. All UCLA has to do is stop the best offensive team in college basketball, so they can get the ball back with a chance to tie or win the game. But if they fail, they will only have 20 seconds to come back from at least 4 points down.

And like UCLA has done all tournament, the Bruins defied the odds. They played tough defense, stopped Gonzaga’s attempts to get the ball in the lane where they score at will, and forced the Bulldogs to settle for a three-pointer, which Corey Kispert missed. And so everyone knew where the ball was going with 20 seconds.

Johnny Juzang got the ball, drove into the lane and pulled up for a jumper – there would be no charge drawn this time. Juzang’s jumper missed short – but Juzang would not be stopped. He flew to the ball to get his own offensive rebound, slid to the basket and hit the layup to tie the game at 90 with just 3.3 seconds left. And then, someone defied the odds against UCLA.

Gonzaga quickly in-bounded the ball to Jalen Suggs, and he charged up the court. Suggs got a couple feet past the half-court line, and heaved the ball up from the Final Four logo. And sure enough, the ball banked off the backboard as the buzzer went off, and into the basket. Elizabeth and I both screamed in shock of what we just saw. Suggs runs off to the sideline and jumps on one of the announcer’s tables celebrating, closely followed by all of his teammates. UCLA’s amazing run from the First Four to the Final Four was sadly over. They have no reason to hang their heads – they did what no one thought could be done this season, and it took a half-court shot to finally end their season.

Gonzaga off a miracle shot advances to the championship game to play the Baylor Bears – a game that has seemed to be destined to be played all season. Gonzaga and Baylor were the top 2 teams in the preseason polls – Gonzaga in the AP preseason poll, and Baylor in the Coaches preseason poll. The teams were scheduled to meet to hopefully end the debate, but Covid concerns cancelled the game. And then all the Bulldogs and Bears did was win game after game until Kansas finally beat Baylor in late February.

We will likely be watching Jalen Suggs’ shot for many years to come as one of the greatest moments in tournament history. Just imagine how it will rank if Gonzaga can win one more game on Monday night and finish an undefeated season for the first time in 45 years. I am sure that the Baylor Bears might have something to say about that – but for right now, it is incredible that a team that has beaten almost everyone by double digits found their way to the championship game off a shot from basically half-court.

Congratulations to the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Baylor Bears – call it a miracle, call it destiny, or just call it the two best teams in the country advancing their way to the championship game. Monday night will be the game that college basketball fans have wanted to see all year. But little did the college basketball world know that the game to set up that championship would be an instant classic that will be remembered for a long time.

An instant classic!!!!!! Can not even believe that ending! There is so much that needs to be said – so much back and forth!!!! So much drama!!!!

I need a second to catch my breath!!!! But Gonzaga and UCLA just played the game of the tournament! For as boring as the first semi-final was, this game made up for it and more.

Heartbreak for UCLA!!!! Celebration for Gonzaga!!!! A shot from the mid-court logo that will probably be replayed for several years to come.

What a great game – it would be too much of a shame to end after 40 minutes….

But can’t blog just yet – so much action to watch!

Lets face it. If I had told you before the games started that one of the semifinals would be a 25 point game at halftime, and one of the semifinals would be a 1 point game at halftime, we all would have said that this was the 25 point game. But that is not the case.

And more impressively, UCLA led the game for a good chunk of the first half – they had the lead to as much as 6 points, led of course by Johnny Juzang with 15 points. And UCLA’s Tyger Campbell has been very impressive at guard driving to the basket.

But Gonzaga appears to be dealing with the fact that someone is finally giving them a challenge. Joel Ayayi has scored 16 points to lead the Bulldogs, and despite the Bruins being ahead most of the half, it was Corey Kispert hitting a jumper with 4 seconds left to give Gonzaga a 45-44 lead at the half.

It has been a great half of basketball. Can UCLA and Gonzaga continue to both hit over 57% of their shots? Can the Bruins go on another run to build out a lead on the number 1 team in the country? Can UCLA become the first 11 seed to ever make the championship game (1986 LSU, 2006 George Mason, 2011 VCU and 2018 Loyola-Chicago all lost in the semi-finals). Can Gonzaga go on one of their runs to go from a close game to a double digit lead? Can the Bulldogs continue their undefeated season and advance to the championship?

Only 20 minutes will tell!

Congratulations to the Baylor Bears – Houston played better in the second half, but never really got the game close. With the 78-59 victory, the Bears will become the first team to have earned a spot in Monday night’s championship. Baylor will now wait and see whether they draw the #1 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs or #11 ranked underdog UCLA Bruins.

One storyline that I have read in different sites is that it seems like Gonzaga and Baylor are on a collision course to meet in the championship. Their game in the regular season had to get cancelled due to Covid concerns, and considering they have both been at the top of the polls the majority of the year, there was thoughts of how fitting it would be if they would finally get to meet in the tournament.

Baylor sure appears to be trying to hold up their end of the bargain. Houston is one of the best defenses in the country, and they can not do anything to stop the Bears. Baylor is up 45-20 at halftime. Jared Butler is 4-5 from three-point range as he has 17 to lead the Bears. Davion Mitchell and Matthew Mayer have added 9 as the Bears have scored the most points in a first half against Houston than any other team in country. Baylor is 57.1% from the field, including 53.3% from three-point range.

Add into it that it is also the least amount of points that Houston has scored in a first half, and you realize Baylor is winning with both offense and defense. Marcus Sasser has 17 points for the Cougars, but the rest of Houston is shooting 1-15 from the field.

This has been a very impressive half of basketball for Baylor. Sure, anything can happen in March – but I don’t know that Houston can come back from down 25.

Obviously, the Pac 12 has had an amazing tournament on the men’s side. But tonight, we need to give some recognition to the women.

In the first women’s semi-final tonight, Stanford beat South Carolina 66-65 in a wild finish where South Carolina took a lead with less than a minute left thanks to a three-pointer from Destanni Henderson. But Stanford would regain the lead off a long offensive rebound by Haley Jones that led to her making a jumper from the corner. With 16 seconds, Ashten Prechtel stole the ball for Stanford to stop South Carolina and force them to start fouling to try to extend the game. South Carolina managed to trap Stanford near the half court line and got a steal from Aliyah Boston with 8 seconds left, and South Carolina charged up field for one last chance. But Brea Beal would miss the tough layup over a Stanford defender, and Boston would miss the tip-in offensive rebound attempt – letting Stanford escape with a 1 point victory.

But the bigger shock might be Arizona’s 69-59 upset over #1 UConn. On Thursday, the news broke about Arizona feeling snubbed as a promotional video showcasing the Final 4 teams accidentally showed clips from South Carolina, UConn, and Stanford, but forgot the 3 seed Arizona Wildcats. This whole tournament has been a disaster for the NCAA – but forgetting one of the teams playing in the semi-finals in a promo about the semi-finals is an amazing level of incompetence. But it looks like the Wildcats channeled that anger at being left out and decided to punish the Huskies by eliminating the top seed from the tournament. Aari McDonald led the Wildcats with 26 points as Arizona jumped out to 32-22 halftime lead. The Huskies did make a late rally to cut the lead to 5 points, but the Wildcats hit some key shots to stop the rally and hit enough free throws at the end of the game to hold on to the victory.

So, the Pac 12 will be guaranteed the Women’s National Championship as Stanford and Arizona will battle it out for the title. Congratulations to both Stanford and Arizona for making it to the championship game.