Stomp The Lunatic

Down 2 with 1.1 second left, Virginia Tech has missed two three pointers to take the lead but somehow still have the ball. And they run a perfectly executed lob pass to Ahmed Hill – and he simply can’t make the layup. The ball harmlessly falls off the rim and the Blue Devils survive and advance.

The Blue Devils are taking control – and off a steal, Duke passed a beautiful alley-oop pass to a skying Zion Williamson – and VT called time out. The number one team in the country is now 6 points ahead with a little over 10 minutes to play

Where is Tony Romo when you need him?

Seriously – can the Virginia Tech Hokies knock off Duke. The Hokies played an incredible first half and are beating the #1 team in the country 38-34.

That being said, I love Buzz Williams – doing the halftime interview, I was joking with Elizabeth that the Virginia Tech coach looks like he has been running the entire 20 minutes and about to have a heart attack when this came out of his mouth to sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.

“Hey, is Nantz calling the game. If so, can we have Romo sub in for Coach so we can get NFL Sunday with you, Nantz and Romo – get Coach out of there!”

And then he ran off to the locker room. With an Elite 8 spot on the line, he is having enough fun and is so loose that he can joke with Michele and Nantz before heading to the locker room. That is the best sideline interview that I have seen of the tournament.

And if the Hokies play as loose and are having as much fun as their coach, the Duke Blue Devils and their fans might have more to worry about than the Lunatic curse.

Auburn could do no wrong – every shot they put up seemed to go in. To be fair, during multiple runs, it seemed like North Carolina was simply watching Auburn play – as they constantly got wide open three pointers or would simply drive past flat-footed defenders.

I could hear my father-in-law Fred screaming all the way from New Bern, “Call Time Out, Roy!!!!!”. UNC would have been better off calling those remaining two timeouts to try to stop Auburn’s momentum than take them back to the locker room with them. It probably wouldn’t have mattered based on the way that the Tigers were playing.

This was simply a bad matchup for the Tar Heels – most teams wilt at the pace of play that UNC plays. Auburn challenged it and ran with them – until they slowed down at the end into half-court sets to finish the game.

Of course, this could simply have been the Lunatic Curse – UNC was obviously the Lunatic’s upset pick champion. If that was the case, then Duke fans should beware…….The Lunatic’s sane pick champion plays next (and the announcers just mentioned that Cam Reddish will not be starting due to a knee injury – not a good start). Blue Devils and Hokies getting ready to tip off.

Congratulations to Auburn on making it to the Elite 8!!!!

LSU had an early run to see if they could do better than Tennessee’s run last night. And then Michigan State went on an 11-0 run to extend the lead back to 15 points and never looked back. And the Big 10 champion will now wait to find out if they will play Duke or Virginia Tech.

Meanwhile, #1 seed North Carolina is down 10 points with just 7 minutes to play. Could we see our first top seed go down? Auburn has looked great all night

Is it fate – coincidence – madness. Last night, the Big 10 co-champion Purdue got out to a quick lead against one of the top SEC teams in Tennessee at halftime 40-28.

So, after one half of play, the other Big 10 co-champion Michigan State got out to a quick lead against one of the top SEC teams in LSU. After 20 minutes of play, the Spartans have a 40-28 lead.

If that game ends up anywhere close to the second half of Thursday’s game, we are all in for a treat.

Meanwhile, the track meet between North Carolina and Auburn is moving fast – with the Tar Heels hanging onto a 2 point lead.

So, I guess I need to tell more people about my plans.  As much as the Lunatic would love to only watch and rant about basketball, there are just other things going on in life.  In this case, he had to travel for work.  I was in Charlotte for meetings, knowing full-well that unless I get lucky that my meetings ended early and maybe I could catch an earlier flight on stand-by.  But it was not meant to be – when the Sweet 16 games started, I was in the Charlotte airport.

But that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t going to cheer on my Boilers.  As is my superstition this year, I changed at the airport into my Purdue sweatshirt over my Purdue T-shirt.  I sat down at the gate for the flight and turned on March Madness On-line.  And my wonderful wife Elizabeth taped the game for me – so I knew I could watch the rest when I got home.  And I was quietly very happy (it would be a little weird to start screaming at my phone in the airport) as I watched the Boilers build up an 11 point lead late in the first half as it became time to board.   As I was getting on the plane, I couldn’t get the video app to work any more, but thanks to ESPN, I knew before the plane took off that Purdue had a 40-28 lead at the half.

So, I texted my wife that I was leaving but might not text her when I land in Richmond – since I didn’t want to get any alerts about the game.  I would watch the second half on tape.  And as I turned off my phone, the flight attendant said, we only have 5 empty seats so we have a very full flight.  And I couldn’t believe my luck as I was sitting next to one of those empty seats.  It was such a nice flight being comfortable in my window seat happily thinking that my Boilers were winning.

Then, a relatively poor choice on my part.  I had such a hard time getting anything to work on my phone other than text messages once I got on the plane, I figured that when we landed – I can quickly turn my phone on, text Elizabeth that we landed, and then simply turn the phone back off – none of the apps were working on the plane anyways.  So, I turned on the phone, pushed the button to write a text message, and then my phone started going crazy.

I had multiple texts from my friend (and old roommate from my days at Purdue), Dave Zimmerman.  I try to ignore the texts coming up at the top of my phone as I quickly text my wife that I am home.   As much as I tried not to read what was flashing at the top, I can’t miss the next one – “Ugh…12….”

I had no clue what 12 meant – but Ugh didn’t sound good.  And of course, as I try to turn off my phone before I get any more information, the March Madness app wakes up and all I see is “CLOSE GAME Tennesseee”  So, here I am – driving down I-64 towards downtown thinking “I must be crazy – I might be coming home to watch potentially the worst half of basketball that I ever watched.   Can I really be going home to watch the 12 point lead disappear.  Then, I see the traffic sign – “CRASH, I-95 NORTH TWO RIGHT LANES BLOCKED”  Seriously, can this be getting any worse – I can’t possibly sit in traffic for a long time thinking about if they lost.  As I get to the I-95 interchange, I made a desparate decision – I was going to go south and go away from my house to catch the Downtown Expressway.  The decision was good – traffic was just sitting (at 10:15 pm at night) on the Northbound lanes.  I think to myself – I am going to have faith – they are going to win.

I talk a little bit to my wife while we fast forward through the first half and then start to watch – and sure enough Purdue after growing the lead to 18 points was watching Tennessee chip away at it.  My wife intelligently goes to bed as I nervously watch the lead continue to shrink.  And sure enough Tennessee takes the lead.  But Purdue’s Ryan Cline hit three-pointer after three-pointer to keep tying the game.  With 10 seconds left Tennessee’s Grant WIlliams grabs an offensive rebound and makes a huge dunk to give the Volunteers a 2 point lead.

Purdue’s Carsen Edwards drove down the court, and got his shot blocked out of bounds with 2.7 seconds.  And then somehow, Purdue in-bounded the ball into Edwards in the corner – who is fouled as he shoots a last second three-pointer.  Three free throws for an 85% FT shooter to win the game.  And sure enough, the Purdue star missed the first FT.  But fortunately, Edwards stayed calm and made both the next 2 free throws to send the game in overtime.

At the start of the overtime, as one of Purdue’s good FT shooters missed another FT, I finally figured out what 12 was – it was the number of free throws that the Boilers missed (and I think the number continued).  But Tennessee wasn’t much better from the line (which was surprising from two teams who were shooting so well from the field), and Purdue had a big tip-in by Nojel Eastern, some big free throws from Grady Eifert and a nice layup from Edwards built the lead to 5 points.  Then, Matt Haarms had a great dunk to give the Boilers a 7 point lead with just 1 1/2 minutes left.  And then the missed FTs from Purdue – and more missed FTs from Tennessee – just enough to keep the lead safe but make fans crazy nervous that they were not wrapping up the game.

And the Boilers survived – we are playing again on Saturday after upsetting #2 Tennessee.  They played a great game against a great team – and most importantly, they survived and advanced.  I should probably check to see what the other texts were from Dave – although I will wait until the morning to answer….. It is after midnight (actually it is 12:42 am).  SO EXCITED!!!!   Totally not even thinking about the fact that both my Elite 8 teams in the West region lost so my bracket is probably going down.  I simply do not care!!!!!!   BOILER UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

So very excited! BOILER UP!!!!

I found myself picking the exact same teams as I did before – my Elite 8 teams are still alive – why would I think differently. And then I thought to myself – what is the point of doing a second chance pick if you choose the exact same way as last time.

So, I decided to go with what I want to see instead of what I think will happen. I love the Big 10 – and obviously I love Purdue. How fantastic would it be if Michigan State, Michigan and Purdue all made the Final 4 and only UNC made it from the ACC. Oh wait – I live in Virginia in the middle of ACC country. No one around me wants that.

But I do – I will have Michigan State beating Michigan for a 4th time, and then have Purdue upsetting North Carolina to make the Final 4. Then Carsen Edwards has a monster game to lead the Boilermakers over the Spartans to win the National Championship!!!

Don’t get me wrong – I like most of the teams left – how can I not root for the local Virginia schools. My father-in-law went to UNC and did his post-doc at Duke, so how can I not root for the Tar Heels and Blue Devils. But at the end of the day, it is still ok for a crazed lunatic to dream! Go Big 10!!!! BOILER UP!!!!!

Ten reasons to do the Stomp the Lunatic Second Chance Pool

• You no longer have a Final Four team left in your real bracket after what you thought was an awesome upset picks of top mid-majors of Buffalo, Wofford, Belmont and Murray State did not product this year’s Loyola-Chicago like you hoped.
• You want another chance to say that you had a perfect bracket after your billion dollar picks were ruined when Minnesota upset Louisville in the first game of the tournament.
• You are so excited that Games of Thrones is about to start that you want to pick the schools with mascots that would be closest to best in battles that end in total carnage.
• Your children somehow are crushing you in the pool by picking all favorites (or maybe picking where their grandparents went to school like my daughter does).
• Your favorite team has been eliminated from the tournament so now you can pick teams intelligently to show off how much you know about basketball, and you know you will be able to easily beat the Lunatic since his school, Purdue, is still alive in the tournament.
• You have always wanted to pick an all-ACC Final 4 and Duke, Florida State, Virginia and UNC is probably the closest you will ever get to doing this and having a realistic chance at it happening.
• With all the top teams remaining in the tournament, you can comfortably pick upsets and not feel like you are picking something that will happen only if all the stars align.
• Flipping a coin could actually create a feasible and interesting bracket and so you would like to really try your luck.
• It is another – and more importantly, last chance in 2019 to STOMP THE LUNATIC!
• It’s 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.   Just go to the login page and once on your main page, click the Enter Bracket button under Second Chance Entry.

You even have all Wednesday and Thursday afternoon to do them, since the games don’t start until 7:10 pm EST. Good luck to all of you!!!!!

– The Crazed Lunatic