Stomp The Lunatic

BYU was up 10 with about 3 minutes on Wisconsin when a strange play happened. The Badgers trapped BYU’s Dawson Baker in the corner, and as he tried to split the trap, he elbows Max Klesmit in the groin. After a review, the refs determined that Baker intentionally did it which led to a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection.

You could clearly see that Baker dropped his shoulder to try to split the trap – which led to the contact. But in my opinion, it was a basketball play. The announcers mentioned that it wasn’t that simple – the way the rules are written, it doesn’t matter if it is a basketball play or not – it simply matters that it was intentional. If that is the case, the rule needs to be re-written. We can’t allow a player to get trapped in the corner (where he is also somewhat being mugged), and say that if there is accidental contact to the groin if the player tries to dribble out of the trap that it is an automatic ejection because they intentionally tried to dribble the ball.

Well, John Tonje would hit both free throws to cut the lead to 8, but it looked like it will be alright as BYU’s Egor Demin hit a deep three pointer to make the lead 11. But Wisconsin would chip away at the lead. It was 8 with 90 seconds to play. Tonje would hit a three-pointer and a layup while being fouled to cut the lead to just 2 points with a minute to play.

Demin dropped the clock down to 30 seconds before missing a three-pointer, but the rebound barely went off a Wisconsin player last to give BYU the ball back. The Badgers decided to simply defend and stopped Dailin Hall’s drive to the basket.

At this point, I had a horrible thought go through my head. What would happen if Wisconsin scored, and the game went to a couple overtimes. BYU is not allowed to play on Sundays. Would they have to stop the game, or just give the Cougars an exception since the game started on Saturday.

But with 10 seconds left, all the Badgers could get was Tonje shooting a well-defended fade-away jumper and the Cougars escaped with a 2 point victory. No need to play on Sunday, just need to book their trip to the Sweet 16.

Meanwhile, in Wichita, Gonzaga was trying to create a miracle comeback of their own on Houston. Houston led by double digits for most of the game, but Graham Ike would score 5 straight points to cut the lead to 76-72. Ike would cut the lead to 3 from the line and Khalif Battle would further cut the lead to 1. But that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get. LJ Cryer hit two free throws to make the lead 3 points, Gonzaga’s Battle would be forced to a desperation three pointer from the corner that would be blocked, and the rest of the time ran off allowing both Cougars to survive massive comeback bids.

BYU ended the Big 10s run of 10 straight wins, and then Tennessee made sure that a new run did not get started by knocking off UCLA. And the Lunatic is falling asleep as he types. Going to have to do Sunday’s handicapping before the games in the morning, because I am exhausted.

I don’t know that I will keep these picks but in case I get delayed, I will buy myself two more hours. The first game is Florida (-9.5) vs Connecticut (O/U 151) – if I had to at this point, I think the game will be exactly like the Auburn / Creighton game. That means take Florida (20) and the over (20).

I might change my mind once I get a chance to see some data. But that will be in the morning.

For a person who knows very little about college basketball, Katie has apparently decided that her goal if she can’t win the pool is to get as many references in the blog as possible. As I typed that, she said, “Because I am not going to win pool – I picked teams with pretty names.”

I do need to give her credit – she was able to name the three leading scorers for Purdue – so I have at least turned her into a Boilermakers fan.

When we got home, I said “I am not really sure but I think my handicapping might be doing badly.” Of which, Katie said – you should give me some handicapping. This turned into a conversation around explaining that I am not trying to give people advantage like a handicap in golf, but trying to pick all the games by the spread. She was not as happy about that.

Then, she said, “I am a fan favorite – that is why I keep making the blog.” Then she said, “Or it is because I say dumb things.” She is counting – she knows she is now in the blog 3 times – it might be actually a few more. I suspect that we all can enjoy some of Katie’s commentary on the tournament over the next couple of weeks.

This has made Katie smile with a grin from ear to ear. Well, I have had a great day, but there are still a few actual basketball games to be played – not to mention that I really do have to pick the 8 games for Sunday. I don’t even know what the lines are, so I guess I better get going. It would be best to not be up until 3 am.

So, I will apologize for the lack of blogging this evening. Tonight was Glen Allen’s Battle of the Classes, and since both Katie and Charlie were there, I decided to finally go and see what it is all about.

I did try to keep track of the tournament while I was there. Right before the event started, I noticed that Texas A&M was up 70-66. Then, I smiled as I watched as the Wolverines’ Vladislav Goldin and Roddy Gayle Jr score the games next 9 points. Over the last 8 minutes, Michigan would outscore the Aggies 25-9 to send the Big 10 conference tournament champion to the Sweet 16.

It looked like Texas Tech was handling Drake, which made me a little sad for the mid-major conferences, but it also let me spend more time enjoying the Battle of the Classes. I also noticed that Creighton was beating Auburn at halftime. We all know that the Tigers came out in the second half and ran away from the Bluejays – although I can’t tell you how. From the box score, I will assume that Chad Baker-Mazara’s 17 points and Denver Jones’ 15 points had something to do with it.

As for Battle of the Classes, Katie did a great job helping the Freshman class create all the art for the Art Competition (the gym looked amazing from all 4 classes). They had lots of relay races and games, where Charlie and a few other classmates won the “skeeball” game – where they had to get all the balls down a hole in the middle of the board by how they moved the board. And then, the senior class won the dance competition – which Charlie also participated in and did great.

So, Purdue advanced to the Sweet 16, I got a little bit of time to golf, and got to see both my kids have fun at Battle of the Classes. How could the day be any better?

Well I have apparently forgotten how to hit a golf ball – so I played my 6 holes at Belmont and came home. And came home to shock as the Razorbacks were up double digits.

The Razorbacks had to fight against foul trouble as Zvonimir Ivisic fouled out with around 12 minutes and Jonas Aidoo and Johnell Davis had 4 fouls each. The Red Storm got the lead all the way down to two, but could not finish the comeback.

Strangely, Big East player of the year RH Luis Jr didn’t play the last 5 minutes as he was 3-17 from the field and so Rick Pitino tried something else. Whatever that was didn’t work as Billy Richmond hit a jumper along the baseline and DJ Wagner made a layup to give the Razorbacks a 6 point lead, and the Red Storm simply had no one on the court who could hit a shot. Arkansas would finish on a 11-4 run lead over those 5 minutes as Luis helplessly watched from the bench.

Of course, the Razorbacks are ruining my narrative. One of the things that I argued is that I don’t like teams with losing conference records making the tournament as an at-large team. And it looked like the SEC was going to prove my point.

• 6-12 Texas lost by 6 in the play-in game to Xavier
• 6-12 Oklahoma got a 9 seed and lost by 8 to Connecticut
• 8-10 Vanderbilt got a 10 seed and lost to St. Mary’s by 3
• 8-10 Georgia got a 9 seed and lost by 21 points to Gonzaga
• 8-10 Mississippi State got an 8 seed and lost to Baylor by 3

So, that left the 8-10 Razorbacks- and for the second game in the tournament, they took a close game with about 5 minutes to play and beat Kansas and St. John’s. Because Arkansas can’t simply let me have this – they have to prove the Lunatic wrong. And to do it, they took out the first top 4 team of the tournament in 2nd seeded St. John’s (and two Hall of Fame coaches in Bill Self and Rick Pitino).

And as the Razorbacks have won 7 of 9 and gotten Boogie Fland back from an injury that kept him out half of the season, they might also get back leading scorer Adou Thiero – who hurt his knee in late February.

The Razorbacks might be one of the most dangerous 10 seeds that I have seen when they get to full health next week. Congrats to Arkansas in continuing to prove the Lunatic wrong.

So very happy!!!!! Purdue jumped out early on McNeese and coasted to a 76-62 victory. Trey Kaufman-Renn was unstoppable in the post as he scored 22 points, but Purdue had a pretty balanced attack as Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith and CJ Cox all had double digits in points.

I do feel a little bad for McNeese – they seemed to enjoy all the attention, but it was ridiculous that their head coach Will Wade signed a contract to coach at NC State before they played their first tournament game against Clemson. So, if you are a Wolfpack fan, you probably should have watched as I would be surprised if a few of the Cowboys’ players won’t be playing at Raleigh next season as they follow their coach. NC State is getting a winning coach (even if I am not a fan of him for the recruiting scandal that got him fired from LSU). But it feels like we should be able to let those conversations not get finalized until after the team has left the tournament and their season is officially over.

Anyways, the Boilermakers victory makes the Big 10 9-0 so far in the tournament, which is an unprecedented start for a conference. Not sure that will translate into a title for one of the 8 Big 10 teams in the tournament, but still an amazing start.

And as Purdue waits to see who they will be playing between #1 Houston and #8 Gonzaga, they know that they will be playing them 1 hour from Mackey Arena down in Indianapolis. Indy is certainly going to be filled with a lot of black and gold shirts next week!!!

It creates a dangerous amount of hope for the Lunatic. Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn are playing incredible basketball and they will get to play for a chance to return to the Final 4 in what will basically be a home court for the Boilers. They certainly wouldn’t be favored against Houston, Tennessee or Kentucky – but with a home court behind them, anything is possible. Hope can be dangerous – because more hope can lead to more heartbreak.

For now, the Lunatic is simply going to be happy that Purdue is continuing to play into the second week of the tournament. I think I am going to celebrate with playing at the local par 3 – since it is gorgeous outside (and honestly, I am not as excited about St. John’s vs. Arkansas as the media is).

Congratulations to my Purdue Boilermakers – BOILER UP!!!!

The Friday late games started with some intrigue. UConn vs. Oklahoma was pretty close, Illinois hit a three pointer at the buzzer to go up 5 at half, and Bryant was only down 5 at half time as well. The only game that wasn’t competitive was Oregon vs. Liberty – where I think the Ducks started off with an 18-2 start.

Unfortunately, the games did not stay close. The only one that stayed interesting was the Huskies and Sooners. For the first time in 11 tournament games, the UConn Huskies found themselves behind as the Sooners came back in the middle of the second half to take a 1 point lead. The teams would go back and forth until about 4 1/2 minutes where the Huskies found themselves up 57-56. Alex Karaban would hit a deep three pointer to kick off a 10-3 run for the Huskies to help them survive and advance against the Sooners. Meanwhile, the three Big 10 schools, Illinois, Michigan State and Oregon ran away in the second half to advance.

I think I just heard on the post-game show that this is the first year since 2017 that all of the top 16 seeds managed to win. The top teams to lose over Thursday and Friday were 5 seeds Clemson and Memphis. While we all love the upsets, it should lead to some really exciting games later in the tournament with all the favorites advancing.

With a lot of the favorites winning, we have some really high scores. Our leaders are Debbe Evans, Jim Sell and Scott Grimes – who all successfully got an incredible 29 of 32 first round games right. They are chased closely by Stacie Gilmore and Ashley Peterson, who both got 28 of 32 games right. We then have 18 people tied for 6th place at 270 points.

In the Upset Pool, Stacie Gilmore is our leader with 148 points – as she correctly got our three biggest upsets in McNeese, Colorado State, and Drake. Ashley Peterson is only 5 points behind in 2nd place. And 3rd through 5th are also just separated by a point, as Gregg Farber is in 3rd at 142, Scott Grimes is 4th at 141, and Jim Sell is 5th at 140.

The Lunatic is lurking at 260 points – a tie for 24th is a pretty good start for our sleep-deprived blogger. With 165 of the entries getting 24 of the 32 games right, getting a single Sweet 16 or Elite 8 game correct could move people significantly in the standings. Good luck to everyone in the Second Round in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!

So, the Lunatic is doing surprisingly well on his handicapping page, especially with picking the over/under bets. This is even more surprising considering that many of his picks have been made between midnight and 3 am.

But that success isn’t the main reason that he is super excited. The Lunatic has managed to finish picking all 8 of Saturday’s games. The thought that I can consider going to bed after the last game ends instead of turning on Law & Order: SVU so I have something on in the background to try to keep me awake while I pick the games is super appealing.

Last night, as I made my last 4 picks, I had to go back into the comment section and remove the character that was showing up for 10-15 straight characters as I momentarily nodded off with my finger on the keyboard. So the thought of going to sleep before 2:30 am is making the Lunatic super happy.

If I keep doing this well, the Lunatic Casino is going to start comping me to try to keep me in the sportsbook. They have one of the best imaginary buffets around – delicious roast beef. I can see a casino representative coming towards me now – please Mr. Lunatic – stay up ridiculously late and possibly make some bad bets while you are here. Why don’t you get some food to give yourself some strength?

Marquette had taken a one point lead with 6 1/2 minutes to play (58-57). Then Nelly Joseph and Donovan Dent took over. First Dent got the ball inside to Joseph for a layup to regain the lead. Then, Donovan hit two baskets to push the lead to 5. Then, Marquette tried to stop Dent and he found Joseph open for another layup. Then, Dent got another assist when he passed the ball to Tru Washington for a deep two-point shot (his foot was just on the line) from the corner.

The Lobos would go on a 10-0 run over 3 minutes to take control of the game. Marquette would just not recover from the run. If they tried to stop Dent from driving, he would find the open pass. If they took away the pass, he would simply score himself.

I have to apologize to the Mountain West champions. After watching San Diego State and Utah State get destroyed, I simply assumed that this would be another tough tournament for the Mountain West – they have a history of quick exits.

They proved me wrong. First, the conference tournament champion Colorado State beat Memphis in a game that they controlled. Then, the regular season champion New Mexico totally outplayed and outhustled Marquette, a team coached by Shaka Smart who is known for teams that hustle.

If I had said that one conference would advance 2 teams to the weekend and one would only get 1 between the Mountain West and ACC, who would have guessed after the UNC / San Diego State game that the answer would be the Mountain West.

Beware the Mountain West champions – they have both moved on to the weekend.

Well, in the time it took me to write my post, wrap up things at work and head home, St. Mary’s went on a 16-4 run to tie the game at 43 with 8 minutes to play.

In what turned into a defensive battle, Augustas Marciullonis broke a tie at 50 with a three-pointer to give the Gaels a lead, and a couple minutes later, Luke Barrett hit a three to extend the lead to six. Vandy’s Devin McGlockton responded with a three, but Marciullonis drew a foul and hit his free throws to keep the lead at 5.

Still, the Commodores would not go away. Tyler Nickel hit a three with a minute left to make it a 2 point game. St. Mary’s took time off the clock, and Barrett missed a shot, but Mitchell Saxen got the rebound and was fouled. Saxen hit one of his two free throws to set the stage.

Vanderbilt came down the court, but Jason Edwards missed a three-pointer to tie the game. The rebound headed to the corner, where McGlockton got the ball, but his desperate three-pointer also missed the target, and the WCC champions survived and advanced.

Meanwhile, North Carolina summed up their season. Down 22 points to Ole Miss, they played with a crazy passion including an 11-0 run to cut the lead all the way down to 2 with about a minute left as RJ Davis drove to the basket and made a crazy layup while being fouled. After Davis hit the free throw, Ole Miss came down and got Sean Pedulla open off a screen for a game-ending three-pointer. Ole Miss would hang on for a 71-64 victory, as the Tar Heels have to wonder what their season would have been like if they had constantly played like they did in the second half against Duke in the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament today.

The announcer mentioned as Ven-Allen Lubin missed a layup with about 22 seconds about Carolina uncharacteristically missing so many shots in the lane, and the other announcer said – but that layup is not what cost them the game. You simply can’t fall behind 22 points and expect to win. That stretch in the first half where they went cold is what ended their season.

Looking forward to some of the late games tonight. UConn vs. Oklahoma and Illinois vs. Xavier should be interesting games! But that being said, my apologies to Vanderbilt (and almost Ole Miss). Like I told Charlie, the game isn’t over. I should have waited to see what happened before posting – I just was in a hurry to give credit to Colorado State and Baylor.

Haven’t seen much this afternoon while I have been at work, but it looks like we have had a few more upsets as 9 seed Baylor knocked off Mississippi State and 12 seed Colorado State knocked off Memphis.

Some of my theories about the weaker part of the SEC and the Mountain West. Mississippi State lost to Baylor – so things started as expected. But then Colorado State made sure the Mountain West would have a team in the 2nd round against a Memphis team whose star player PJ Haggerty played out of control as Memphis tried to come back.

I think Vanderbilt is up double digits as well – not to mention Ole Miss is killing North Carolina (the Rebels aren’t in the category of weaker SEC teams at 10-8, but they certainly are making sure UNC doesn’t repeat what they did against San Diego State). Of course, there is still a full half to be played. Will head home soon so I can see the evening set of games!!!