Stomp The Lunatic

It had seemed like a really good day.  Purdue had comfortably won their game against CSU Fullerton, which made me happy.   Then, #13 Marshall upset Wichita State to become the second 13 seed to be playing in the Round of 32.  And as I was packing up my work computer to go home and get dinner for the family, I went to check the scores.  And popped up on the ESPN news feed was the horrible news.   Purdue’s star center Isaac Haas had fractured his elbow after a hard fall in the second half, and the injury would require surgery.  This would be the last game that the senior would play as a Boilermaker.

At first, all I could think about was how bad this was to the Boilermakers chances – when Haas is in the game, the offense often runs through him.  They dump the ball into the big man, and if the defense double teams him, he kicks it out to one of Purdue’s great three point shooters.  Leave him alone and he typically backs you up to the basket until he turns and lays the ball in softly off the backboard.

But then I thought about Isaac.  I have heard Isaac interviewed a few times and many stories about him, and he genuinely seems like just a really nice person.  He has dedicated his basketball to playing for his younger sister Erin who has epilepsy.  There is a really nice story that was written about Isaac in ESPN – http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18166926/purdue-boilermakers-isaac-haas-playing-cure-sister-epilepsy.

Purdue is a senior-laden team, and it has been a really special group of seniors.  Haas, Vince Edwards, Dakota Mathias and PJ Thompson can claim that their recruiting class has won more games at Purdue than any other group before them.

When Isaac Haas was on the floor, he was almost always the biggest player on the court.  But off the court, you would find that the best part about Haas was how big his heart was.  And so my heart is broken that his senior season was ended too early – he deserved to be out there with his teammates to try to make one last run at a Final Four.

My apologies – but I decided to wait until the morning and a few hours of sleep to ramble about the leaders.   Normally, I would do it immediately after the last game, but I went from flipping to the Florida / St. Bonaventure game to noticing that they had moved on to another television show – without remembering what happened (although Florida was comfortably ahead, so I figured the Gators had won – turns out, so did Michigan).

I did give our leader Laura her own post – going 16 for 16 is pretty amazing.   But she is not alone on the leaderboard.  Both Christy Lindvall and Craig Mize went 15-1 to be just 10 points behind in the Standard Pool.  And there are 14 other entries who are just 20 points behind because they went 14-2 on Thursday.

In the Upset pool, Laura obviously leads as well – when you get every game right, you get the max amount of points.  Christy is 2nd at 81 points just 6 behind, and Craig is 3rd at 74 points.  Rounding out the top 5 is Joe Chapman at 70 points and Stacy Dooms at 69 points.

The Lunatic’s sleep deprived picks are lurking in with the many people at 13-3.  However, I did lose a Sweet 16 team when Arizona got knocked out – as I picked the Wildcats to also beat Kentucky – based solely on my dislike for Calapari.   Although I will have to use one of my wife’s quotes from last night.  As Davidson was close and we were rooting for the upset (because how can you not root for the upset – well unless it is your school who is the favorite), she said, I am pretty sure I have Davidson in both my picks.   And when I said – wow, you picked Davidson to beat Kentucky, and she replied, “I’d rather lose than pick Kentucky.”   I’m not sure that the Lunatic will go that far, but it looks like at least for one game on Saturday, I might be in the same boat.  Unless of course Buffalo continues to play the way they did last night – go Bulls!!!!

Good luck to our leaders in keeping their picks so perfect.   And good luck to everyone in Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!!!!   Enjoy the games!!!!!

With Michigan and Florida winning the final two games of the night, we still have a perfect bracket.  Laura Carini is our early leader – by going 16 for 16 on Thursday!!!!

Truly incredible job of picking games, Laura!

I missed most of it because I was watching the end of a very entertaining game between Alabama and Virginia Tech.  But as the Tide was holding off the Hokies to advance to the Round of 32, Buffalo was crushing Arizona.   That’s right – the Buffalo Bulls of the MAC Conference beat the Arizona Wildcats of the Pac 12 Conference by 21 points.

Buffalo will join the ranks of the Cinderella with Loyola.   But I am very surprised how Arizona just folded down the stretch.  Buffalo steam-rolled them in the second half, and Arizona packed it in and gave up.

You were right, Mark – Calapari should have been moaning that he was going to play Buffalo!!!!!!

But how about this – after the Buffalo upset, Christy Lindvall and Laura Carini are still going strong with a perfect bracket.  Unfortunately, I am not a billionaire – so there is no crazy huge prize for an undefeated perfect bracket.  You simply get your name put in a post on the site congratulating you on how awesome you did.

Mark commented to my rant on Calapari – that he forgot to mention Buffalo – the MAC Champion – who is going to upset Arizona.

The 13 seed is leading at halftime over the Pac 12 Champions 40-38.  I don’t know that the Bulls can hang on to win this game, but have to give Mark a lot of credit for calling his shot early and having that look pretty good so far!!!!

How about the play by Davidson, Stephen F Austin and San Diego State.  Davidson gave Kentucky fits in Boise (guess we now know why Calapari was so upset).  14 seed Stephen F Austin was leading at half at Texas Tech until the Red Raiders went on a run at the end of the game to survive and advance.

But the biggest heartbreak has to be San Diego State.  The Aztecs Devin Watson and the Cougars Rob Gray put on a great show of anything you can do, I can do better.  Watson tied the game with a big three pointer with about a minute left.  Gray then answered with a three of his own to put Houston back up by 3.   So, Watson comes back on the field and hits another impressive three to tie the game.

But all that did was set the stage for Rob Gray, who scored 23 of Houston’s 28 second half points..  With the shot clock off, Gray waited until 5 seconds left in the game before driving to the basket with an impressive drive into the lane and an acrobatic lay-up that went in with 1 second left.  Somehow, San Diego State got a perfect baseball pass down the court to give Trey Kell one chance to hit an amazing buzzer beater, but his shot missed to the left.

Great job to all the double digit seeds for making things interesting – but the chalk so far is hanging on.

What a wild finish in Dallas.  With 1:17 left, Clayton Custer from Loyola hit a big 3 pointer in the corner to tie the game at 60.  Miami drove right back down the field with Ja’Quan Newton hitting a shot to give the Hurricanes a 2 point lead.  Loyola’s Marques Townes gets fouled on a drive and hits one of two free throws to cut the lead to one.  But at this point there is only 26 second left.

Then, the craziness started.  Loyola, probably in trying to foul, stripped the ball from Miami and forced a turnover.   They got a great drive to the basket that was well defended by Miami, but Loyola got the offensive rebound.  The big center went back up and looked like he got fouled, but there was no call and Miami gets the rebound and is quickly fouled.

But with 9 second left,  Lonnie Walker IV missed the front end of a one-and-one and Loyola’s Ben Richardson gets the rebound and kicks it out to Townes.  Loyola’s guard drives down the court, but Miami plays tough defense to stop his drive to the basket and force him to pass the ball.  So, he kicked the ball out to the only player he could see, Donte Ingram.   And calmly, with 0.3 seconds left in the game, the senior guard hits a NBA deep three point shot to win the game for the Ramblers.

The Missouri Valley Champion has pulled off the first upset of the tournament, after Oklahoma and UNC-Greensboro threatened but fell short.  Congratulations to Loyola for the big victory to advance to the second round of the tournament.

I struggled this year – maybe it was doing too much bracketology, or maybe it was the fact that it is midnight, but I had a hard time picking too major upsets.  I am sure they will happen, just couldn’t figure out where they would be.

Anyways, in the South, I kept coming down to the Sweet 16 game between Virginia and the Arizona / Kentucky winner as the key game – I think Tennessee will get to the Elite 8 and then fall to the Cavaliers.  I think both Arizona and Virginia will give Virginia a tighter game, but Virginia’s defense will win in the end.

In the West, I think Gonzaga is going to upset Xavier in the Sweet 16, before running up against North Carolina again.  For the second season in a row, the Zags will lose to the Tar Heels.  I think North Carolina is going to pull the upset on Virginia in the Final Four to get to the Championship.

In the Midwest, this is going to be a brutal region at the top.  I have Duke beating Kansas in both my brackets in a region where the top 3 teams are definitely going to dominate.  But they will fall to the winner of the East.

In the East, it comes down to Villanova – the team favored by Vegas to win it all, and my Boilers.  In my sane picks, I can’t go against the Vegas favorite – they know what they are doing, so I will take Villanova to the championship.   In my insane picks, my Boilermakers pull the upset and then ride that upset to the championship.  With them being one of the top 8 teams, I have to pick them.  I couldn’t live with myself if they won the tournament and I didn’t pick them with one of my picks.

So, there you have it.  Purdue will take down the 3 ACC teams in my insane picks, and Villanova will take down the 3 ACC teams in my sane picks.

At this point we have 267 entries – and there is plenty of time for more!!!!   Don’t miss out on your chance to Stomp the Lunatic!!!!!!!!!!

Charlie has gone with a very conservative picking strategy that has led him to three number 1 seeds (Virginia, Villanova, and Kansas) advancing to the Final Four.  He was very indignant when I said he picked no upsets – because he clearly picked North Carolina to beat Xavier in the West.  This will lead to the Cavaliers winning the National Championship against the Jayhawks.

Katie’s entry of Pink Sparkly Unicorns was much more loyal to family and local teams.  She also picked Virginia to make the Final Four because she lives in Virginia, she picked Duke and North Carolina to advance to San Antonio because her Grandpa got his PhD at UNC and did his post-doc at Duke.   And she picked Purdue because that is where her Daddy went.   Of course, when it comes to the championship, Katie picked her Grandpa’s schools, with the Tar Heels beating the Blue Devils.

The Lunatic still has to do lots of research – he will probably be up very late tonight.  If you haven’t already, make sure you get your picks in.   It is important to have as many people as possible STOMP THE LUNATIC!!!