Stomp The Lunatic

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 a creative pick of a 1 seed, 2 seed, 3 seed and 4 seed of Xavier, Cincinnati, Michigan State and Wichita State has blown up in the first weekend.
• You want another chance to say that you had a perfect bracket after your billion dollar picks were ruined when UMBC became the first 16 seed to beat a 1 seed – sorry Virginia fans.
• Now that you know that a 98 year old nun (Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt) is providing spiritual guidance to Loyola – Chicago and they have managed to win their two games on last second shots, you know the Ramblers are destined to win the tournament.
• Your daughter who doesn’t understand the scoring system and picked schools based on where her grandparents went to school and your son who picks all the games based on who is the higher seed are both beating you in the pool and you want another chance to redeem yourself
• Your favorite school has been eliminated and so you now 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 decided that all the teams you pick are jinxed, and since there are still schools out there that you don’t like, you want to test the theory by picking them. If you have that power (like the Lunatic does), you might as well use that power for good (let me suggest taking Kentucky and Syracuse).
• You know that no 5 seed or 9 seed has ever won the tournament, and with as crazy as this year’s tournament has been at breaking historic trends, you know that #5 Kentucky, #9 Florida State, #5 West Virginia and #5 Clemson are destined to end that streak as well.
• With it being the first day of Spring tomorrow and anticipating the second chance that Mother Nature is giving Virginia by dropping 3-5 inches of snow, you want a second chance to pick schools in locations most likely to get snow (Loyola-Chicago, Michigan, West Virginia or Villanova (take your pick – both get a lot), and Syracuse.
• It is another – and more importantly, last chance in 2018 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.

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

 

Those who are regulars in the Stomp the Lunatic contest know that I am not a fan of Jim Boeheim.   While I respect how amazing of a coach he is, he tends to say things in press conferences that really rub me the wrong way.

Well, not today.  Today he was asked by a reporter about what his thoughts were on how some people were saying that they would rather have a mediocre .500 team that have what happened to Virginia.

And as only Boeheim can do, he gave a pretty long answer to the question.  Here are some of his best quotes.

“I’ve seen coaches win games in this tournament, two, three, four games and they’re terrible coaches. Things just went right. And it’s what you do over the course of 35 games that determines what kind of coach you are. You win 17 games in the ACC, win the ACC Tournament? He’s got — I think he’s got one guy who was hurt that will be an NBA player. The other guys are — they’re pretty good. There’s a couple. They may sneak in. I don’t know. They may sneak in there.  But he’s won the ACC against Duke and North Carolina what four or five years? I don’t know what it is. It’s beyond even trying to understand it. With maybe two recruits in the top 40. And he’s playing against 15 guys on each team over those period of time that were in the top 20 or top 10 or top 5 in wins? Come on. It’s one game. It’s one game.

“Pittsburgh, they didn’t like their coach because he didn’t win the tournament. They’re doing really good now, aren’t they, in Pittsburgh? I know all those people were yelling, too. They wanted him out.”

“Come on, the tournament is — I’ve lost in this tournament, everybody has. I’ve looked at the list of bad losses, and I couldn’t believe we weren’t even on it.  But Mike Krzyzewski has lost, I’ve lost, Roy Williams has lost, Bill Self has lost, Dean Smith lost.  There’s nobody that hasn’t lost.”

“This is college basketball. I saw the Spurs get beat in their first game of the playoffs one year. They won the championship. Golden State, I think, got beat in the first game. They won the championship. It’s one-and-done. You’re off your game a little bit, you know, and it’s not that, like, people will say, they’re just good in the regular season they’re not good — that’s just stupid.”

 

I know that this loss is going to sting for a while.  But Virginia fans need to know that their program is in amazing hands with Tony Bennett.  If Virginia was a 2 seed (like Michigan State lost to Middle Tennessee State, Duke lost to Lehigh, or Syracuse lost to Richmond), this would just be considered an awesome upset by UMBC.  But in those cases, Middle Tennessee State, Lehigh and Richmond were just ranked a couple teams higher than UMBC.  In fact, the Syracuse / Richmond game happened in 1991 when there was no play-in game.  Based on where UMBC was ranked compared to the other conference tourney winners, they would have been a 15 seed that year….

To be fair, some of the things that I have read are totally unfair – both to Bennett and UMBC.   No one wants to mention this, but UMBC stayed in the game until the very end against Kansas State.  They didn’t just surprise Virginia – they almost surprised Kansas State as well.  UMBC might not have had a major win before their conference tournament, but they earned the right to be here – and beat a pretty good team in Vermont on their home court to do it.

It is a historic upset.  But it is only historic because Virginia had an amazing season where they went 31-2, won the ACC by 4 games, and won the ACC tournament.  Otherwise, this game just appears like Arizona (another major conference champion) getting upset by Buffalo.  It will take some time, but Virginia basketball will be just fine under Bennett’s leadership.

 

West Virginia ended a wild Sunday of basketball where they were determined not to fall to the upset bug that was happening, as they beat Marshall 94-71.

This created something that I don’t remember seeing in the pool.  We have an 11 way tie for first place – as Josh Martin, Butch Bisese, Christy Lindvall, Edward Zhang, Alex Simon, Andrew Braslow, Bob Degenhardt, Steve Martin, Michelle L Miller, and both of Andrea Zimmerman’s picks are in the lead at 440 points, with another 6 entries (and my 2 fun entries of the Sagarin and BPI picks) just 10 points behind.  To make it even more crazy, 5 of our 11 leaders can’t correctly predict this year’s tournament winner.  With the scores so close and with so many upsets, there are a lot of people who are within striking distance to win the pool.

In the Upset Pool, Christy Lindvall has a decent sized lead as she has accumulated 239 points.  Triona Weeks is in second at 202 points, followed by Joe Chapman and Edward Zhang at 191 and Alex Simon at 190.

The Lunatic is hovering in 45th place – but with both Virginia and North Carolina out, he is stuck hoping that Villanova or Purdue will win the East and then the whole tournament.  Of course, he is also being beaten by his daughter Katie with her entry called Pink Sparkly Unicorns.

This morning, Charlie asked me how he was doing, and after letting him know that he was slightly ahead of Katie and I, Katie asked where she was – and I told her she was 60 points behind the leaders – tied with me.  She responded with the question, “Are points good or bad?”  So you know that she is probably destined to beat me with her picks of where Grandpa and Grandma went to school vs. the ones I poured hours of analysis into.

Whether you picked based on analysis or schools you simply like, my guess is you also had your bracket crushed today.   But you are not completely done – that is because all of us get a second chance.   The Second Chance Pool is up and ready for you – simply login to get to the Second Chance Pool entry page.

Good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!

 

 

Florida State after playing a tight first half found themselves down to #1 Xavier by as many as 12 with just 10 minutes to play.   But on crazy bracket busting Sunday, no lead is safe.  The Seminoles kept cutting down the lead – getting it down to 4 with 4 minutes to play.  Then, on their next two possessions, Mfiondu Kabengele would get the offensive rebound off a missed shot, and lay the ball in to tie the game.

Xavier would retake the lead 70-68 as Paul Scruggs was fouled on a drive and hit two free throws.   Then, after an offensive foul on Florida State, Xavier has the ball stolen by Trent Forrest, and in transition, Forrest kicks the ball out to PJ Savoy, who drains a three pointer to give Florida State the lead 71-70.

Florida State’s Braian Angola stole the ball on the next possession.  Xavier tried to trap PJ Savoy to steal the ball, but instead foul him.  Savoy hits both free throws and they are now up 3.   Then, in a strange possession with only 22 seconds left, Xavier shows no urgency at all – almost walking up the court.   They eventually set up a play that gets Kerem Kanter a wide open three pointer, but he throws up an air ball.  Now forced to foul, Florida State’s CJ Walker gets to the line and hits the final two free throws, and the top seed in the West is going home.

Florida State joins Kansas State as 9 seeds who won today.   The Wildcats played a tight game with Cinderella darling #16 seed UMBC – but eventually started pulling away at the end to win by 9 and ending the Retrievers upset streak.  So, if your bracket hadn’t been destroyed by the top 4 seeds all losing in the South, the West responded with both UNC and Xavier losing tonight.

Its going to be a wide open tournament!!!!!

Earlier today, one of the ACC teams that tied for 3rd in the conference standings, North Carolina, went up against the SEC’s Texas A&M, who went 9-9 to finish in a tie for 7th in their conference.  Because the ACC is so strong, and UNC went all the way to their conference tournament finals, the Tar Heels ended up being a 2 seed.  Of course, we know that the Aggies went and totally destroyed the Tar Heels.

So, later tonight, one of the ACC teams that tied for 3rd in the conference standings but was not considered as good as UNC got ready to play their Round of 32 game.  The #5 seeded Clemson Tigers would be the underdog – as they go against #4 Auburn, the SEC regular season co-champions.  So, of course, after seeing what Texas A&M did, you would have to figure that Clemson might be in a little bit of trouble.

So, with 8 minutes left in the game, Clemson finds themselves up 75-37.  Because that makes total sense.  Clemson blows out the SEC regular-season champion, and the better team from the ACC goes down by 21 to the SEC bubble team.  You have to love March!!!!

The Wolfpack found themselves down 22 points with just 11:34 left in the game.  But funny things happen in March, and Nevada produced a comeback for the ages.  Because Nevada finished the game on a 32-8 run.

That’s right, the Wolfpack made a huge run – and after Cincinnati’s Cane Broome hit two free throws to make the game a 5 point game, Jordan Caroline made a layup to cut the lead to 3 points.  With 57 seconds left, Caleb Martin hit a three pointer with someone in his face to tie the game.  And Cincinnati’s Jacob Evans missed on his drive – so the Wolfpack had a chance to take the lead.

Nevada’s Cody Martin let the shot clock run down, drove to the free throw line and stepped back for a jumper.  The shot ended up missing, but Josh Hall got the offensive rebound, and instead of kicking the ball out to make sure the Wolfpack got the last shot, he decided to make the play of the game, he made one dribble in the lane to the basket, and put up the shot that rolled in and gave Nevada its first lead of the game.

Cincinnati got one more chance to tie or win the game – but they were unable to score.  And so the Wolfpack led the game for 10 seconds.  But it was the correct 10 seconds – the ones that will send Nevada to Atlanta for the Sweet 16.

And at this point, one of the following teams will win the South Region – #7 Nevada will play #11 Loyola – Chicago, and #5 Kentucky will play the winner of the #9 Kansas St / #16 UMBC.   I am sure everyone had that in their brackets…..

Purdue had built an 8 point lead with 4 minutes to play, but no lead is comfortable or safe in the NCAA Tournament.  Sure enough, the Butler Bulldogs slowly started chipping away at the lead, cutting it all the way down to 2 points.  But despite a few Boilermaker turnovers, Butler couldn’t get any closer thanks to some awesome defense – including a fantastic block by Vince Edwards on a drive by Kamar Baldwin.

So, the Boilers have the ball with 27 seconds left nursing their 2 point lead.  And after running some time off the clock, Ryan Cline passes the ball to Dakota Mathias at the top of the key, and the senior drains a huge three pointer to ice the game.

Purdue might have been without their big man Isaac Haas.  But Matt Haarms and Jacquil Taylor played great to fill the void in the center.  And all three of Purdue’s other starting seniors, Mathias, Vince Edwards, and PJ Thompson all scored in double digits to pull out a victory and head to the Sweet 16.

BOILER UP!!!!!

At the end of the night, we have a three way tie for the lead, as Andrew Braslow, Bob Degenhardt, and Michelle Miller are all at 400 points.  Dave Evans and Jack are just 10 points behind, and 11 entries are tied just 20 points behind.

As for the Upset Pool, Christy Lindvall is still ahead with 183 points.  Christy is followed by Triona Weeks, Andrew Braslow, and Lauren Martin at 170 points, and Bob Degenhardt at 168.

Right now, 106 entries are stomping the Lunatic – including being beat by his son, Charlie (which will make him happy) and being tied by his daughter, Katie (which probably won’t make her nearly as happy as knowing that on Monday she can start watching her shows again).  But to show how competitive this pool is, the Lunatic is only 60 points back – so there are lots of opportunities for changes in the standings (probably more for all those others – we know the Lunatic will eventually be stomped).  And we have 8 more exciting games to help decide that.