Stomp The Lunatic

I can see why Miami (OH) went 31-0. Even if you are a good defensive team, it is tough to guard a team that is going to shoot 41 three-point shots. When they did go inside the three point line, they were extremely efficient – going 13 – 23. That is just tough – you stop the drive and they just kick it out. And they are not afraid of shooting it from deep.

Add into it that the fans in Dayton were ready to explode whenever one of the three-pointers went down, and that lead to the Redhawks winning 89-79 over SMU to win their first NCAA Tournament games since 1999. The fans were so crazy, there was even a point where a bunch of them came out in speedos to try to distract the free throw shooter (which he did miss to delight the crowd).

Congratulations to the Redhawks for advancing to the next round!!!!!

I thought I would try to get ahead of my handicapping by getting all the first round games in tonight – but I have run out of steam. Still, the page has all the updates for Thursday’s games that start at noon.

Just 11 hours until the Round of 64 starts!!!! Make sure you get your picks in before Noon tomorrow!!!!

It could just be looking at too many handicapping stats. It could be that I am just tired. Or maybe it is simply that the top teams in the country have seemed to dominate teams throughout the season. But I was a little sad as I looked at my picks that were relatively void of upsets. Because the Lunatic loves it when the underdog wins.

In the first rounds, I am just not that impressed with the mid-majors. Almost always a 12 seed wins a game, and sometimes a 13 seed wins. But the teams I thought had the best chances to pull upsets, Northern Iowa and McNeese drew hot St. John’s and Vanderbilt. Typically, you see one of those updates happen because you get a mid-major champion playing against a team that was struggling down the stretch. Instead, you get a team that was the regular season and conference champion of the Big East. So, I tried to take some 11 seeds here and there, but I can’t see them continuing to then beat teams like Michigan State or Illinois. And it just keeps leading to the chalk winning. At one point when I was picking my sane picks, I had all four #1 seeds in the Final Four before I erased my bracket, took a step back to watch the Miami / SMU game, and then figured out what 2 or 3 seeds I was willing to give upsets to.

In my sane picks, I got Duke beating Houston and Arizona beating Iowa State as the Blue Devils go through the best teams of the Big 12 to win the championship against Arizona.

In my insane picks, I still have Duke beating Houston to get to the final. But I have Purdue upsetting Arizona, Michigan and then the Blue Devils to cut down the nets in Indianapolis.

In the last 2 hours, we have had over 40 entries as we are now up to 222 entries. With the typical last minute rush, we will hopefully break 300 entries again – which always leads to a fun tournament.

Don’t miss your chance to Stomp the Lunatic!!!!! Get your picks in – you have only 14 hours (basically until Noon tomorrow) to make your picks and help us all Stomp the Lunatic!

There was a point in time where Prairie View was 11-17 in February. But the Panthers won 7 straight games to rise to 8th in the SWAC and then win the SWAC Conference Tournament to earn their spot in Dayton. At 300th in the NET rankings, they were the worst team statistically to make the NCAA Tournament. So, no one would be surprised if the lost today to Lehigh, a team that finished 2nd in the Patriot league.

Well, the Panthers have now won their 8th game in a row, as their defense frustrated Lehigh into 16 turnovers with 9 of their shots being blocked. And unlike yesterday, there was no last second run to make it close – Prairie View kept the pressure on, beating the Mountain Hawks 67-55.

It is just a reminder that analysis can predict a lot. But at the end of the day, the games are played on the court – not on paper. Congratulations to the SWAC Conference Tournament Champions, Prairie View A&M.

Meanwhile, as we wait for the late game in Dayton, we get the news that SMU star player BJ Edwards will not be able to play as his injured ankle is still not ready to play. I do feel a little uncomfortable about this – SMU finished on a bad losing streak without their star player, but the news that he would be able to play this week was enough for the Selection Committee to give the Mustangs the final spot instead of other teams. One has to wonder if the committee would have gave the spot to streaking Oklahoma if they knew Edwards was unable to play.

Will this be the break that Miami needs to win in their first game this season against a power conference team – or will someone step up for the Mustang to keep their season alive until their star player can join them.

Not that people need help Stomping the Lunatic. But if you are not sure who to take, there is a method that helps.

Ken Pomeroy is one of the leading statisticians in college basketball analytics, and his models identify the most efficient offenses and defenses in college hoops. I read different cutoffs as people try to slide the outliers in – but in general something like 20-21 of the last 23 champions have been balanced enough to be top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

So if you want to know who that leaves you with….

• Duke (Off – 4, Def – 2)
• Arizona (Off – 6, Def – 3)
• Michigan (Off – 8, Def – 1)
• Florida (Off – 9, Def – 6)
• Houston (Off – 13, Def – 5)
• Louisville (Off – 19, Def – 25)
• Iowa State (Off – 20, Def – 4)
• Michigan State (Off – 24, Def – 13)

Here are some of the teams that missed out because their defense just missed the cut.

• Purdue (Off – 1, Def – 36)
• Illinois (Off – 2, Def 28)
• Vanderbilt (Off – 7, Def 31)
• Texas Tech (Off – 12, Def 33)

Here are some teams that missed out because their offense just missed the cut.

• Gonzaga (Off – 29, Def – 9)
• UConn (Off – 30, Def – 11)
• Tennessee (Off – 34, Def – 15)
• Virginia (Off – 27, Def – 16)
• St. Mary’s (Off – 40, Def – 20)

Finally, here are the teams that have a top 25 ranking in one measure but not a top 40 ranking in the other.

• Best remaining offenses – Alabama (3), Arkansas (5), BYU (10), Wisconsin (11), Georgia (14), Ohio State (16), Texas (18), UCLA (21), Santa Clara (22)
• Best remaining defenses – Nebraska (7), Kansas (10), St. John’s (12), Clemson (21), TCU (23), Northern Iowa (24)

I do think it is interesting that of the top 5 offenses, the only one with a top defense is Duke. But all 5 of the top defenses rank also have a top offense.

I guess the phrase defense wins championships might be more prophetic than we think. Anyways, hope that helps you with your brackets. Now I am off to see what other analytics I can come up with before eventually picking Purdue.

I will say this – because I do think analytics can really help you win a bracket pool like this. But there is a reality you have to live with. Let me approach it as a Purdue fan – lets say that you are picking the West region and while you can certainly see some teams with the potential to beat Arizona or Purdue, the odds tell you that these two teams will be in the regional final. The Kenpom approach says you should pick Arizona – and since they are the 1 seed and have only lost twice all season, this feels statistically the right answer.

So lets say you go with the stats, and the games start happening and the bracket breaks as you expected. As a Purdue fan, you desperately want to see your Boilers return to Indianapolis for the Final Four. But this will blow up your chance to win the pool – you went with the statistics and picked Arizona. So now you are conflicted. Are you really going to be happy if you come in 5th in the pool because you were right that Arizona beats Purdue? Of course not – you want to see your team win.

I personally feel you should always try to set yourself up so that you don’t end up being disappointed if you are correct. Sure, a little bit of realism is probably needed. Being from Richmond, I would like to see VCU go far. But picking them to the Final Four is probably a little crazy, even for me. But still I firmly believe you should pick with your heart so you can truly root for your picks.

If you are like me, that is a good way to use the upset pool. Pick with your heart in your entry trying to win the upset pool and pick with the statistics in your standard pool. And maybe you get lucky and one of them wins. Whichever way you choose, I hope it leads to success for you.

Well, I went 1-1 in both games – if I got the totals right, I missed the spread. If I got the spread correct, I missed the totals. So, that seems about right for my handicapping.

But I did get all the formatting cleaned up so that I could have the nicer view of the Handicapping page (and so that 32 First Round games don’t suddenly start flooding the blog).

Right now, I have only tonight’s games and yesterday’s results in the page (I have Lehigh and Miami OH to cover the spreads). I am really excited to see the Miami vs. SMU game. I want to see if Miami can prove all the critics wrong and beat a power conference team. I want to see if with BJ Edwards back, will the Mustangs turn into the dangerous team that could make a run in the tournament. It should be a fantastic game.

So, as the Lunatic goes through his check-list (that only exists in his head which probably explains why he is so far behind). He needs to pick all the games (and at least get Thursday’s games by the spreads – which is a lot harder than simply picking that the #1 seed will beat the #16 seed).

Will I use sound analysis to pick my brackets this year? Or will I get paralyzed with so much data to analyze that I will run out of time and pick wildly around midnight so that I at least have a bracket to root for? I like to believe it will be the first – but something tells me it will be the second.

Enjoy tonight’s games! And don’t forget to make your picks to Stomp the Lunatic!!!

With about 3 minutes left in the game, Texas’ Chendall Weaver hit a free throw to give the Longhorns what looked like a comfortable 9 point lead against the NC State Wolfpack. But remember, no lead is safe in March.

With under 2 minutes to play, Tre Holloman drives to the basket, gets fouled, and makes both the layup and free throw to cut the lead to 6 points. An immediate foul sent Dailyn Swain to the line – where he calmly made both of them. But the Wolfpack’s Paul McNeil Jr would come back and hit a three-pointer, and suddenly that comfortable lead is down to 5 points with 90 seconds to play.

Texas struggles to break the press, and eventually turn it over. Quadir Copeland picks up the ball and drives to the hoop but gets his layup blocked by Tramon Mark. Unfortunately for the Longhorns, the ball would go to NC State, and they would find Paul McNeil Jr for another three-pointer. We have a 2 point game with a minute to play!!!!

Texas almost turns the ball over again but they finally get the ball in successfully, and run down the clock. The ball ends up into Tramon Mark, and he starts to try to get free at the top of the key but he is guarded tightly. But big players make shots – Mark gets almost to the foul line, takes a dribble to his right as if he is going to drive to the lane, pivots and hits a ridiculous fade-away shot to extend the lead back to 4 points at 66-62.

But the Wolfpack were not done, they got the ball out to Darrion Williams on the wing and with a defender in his face, he drills the three-pointer to make it a one point game.

Texas’ struggles against the press continue as they get trapped in the corner and have to call their final timeout. But this time, when they get it in, Dailyn Swain loses control of the ball and it goes out-of-bounds – the Wolfpack have a chance to take the lead! They get the ball into Tre Holloman and he drives straight to the hoop, where he gets fouled. So, the 80+% free throw shooter goes to the line and misses the first free throw long. But he hits the second to tie the game.

Texas brings the ball down and runs down the clock. They get the ball into Tramon Mark on the wing. Mark drives to the basket, and with very little time on the clock launches a high arching shot over his defender, and the ball rattles in the basket with 1 second to play.

After Texas got lucky that the refs didn’t call a technical foul for their bench sprinting onto the court thinking the game is over, NC State got one more desperation chance – but the shot gets blocked by Swain and the game ends with a 68-66 victory by the Longhorns.

First of all, I need to thank Charlie. Because with the lead being close to double digits, I started to nod off before he called me about trying to logon to the webpage. Once I helped him navigate the site, I got to see the final 3 minutes of chaos in Dayton.

Second of all, I have to mention Karma again. Remember how the Lunatic said in his Handicapping post that many of his Locks end up failing. He locked the over at 158.5 points because when these teams played last time, they combined for 199 points. So, it makes sense that the Lunatic’s lock was wrong by 24.5 points. If Mark had missed his shot and the game went to overtime, the Lunatic probably still loses the over bet. Don’t mess with Karma!!!!

Finally, what a fantastic couple of games. March is known for wild comebacks, and in about a minute, both UMBC and NC State took 9 point leads that looked unsurmountable, and completely erased them. Sure, both their comebacks ended up falling just a basket short, but in both cases it was thanks to some last second heroics by the Howard Bison and Texas Longhorns.

I guess I need to go to sleep since I almost fell asleep earlier. Hope you all enjoyed the games – and that the rest of the tournament is as good as the games were tonight.

With two minutes left to play, Howard looked like they were safely advancing out of the first four with an 11 point lead for a date with Michigan.

Then, Caden Diggs hit a layup to cut the lead to 9. So, Howard ran the shot clock down but Cam Gillus missed a long jumper – still they took 30 seconds off the clock. Then, UMBC’s DJ Armstrong Jr got fouled in the lane and hit two free throws to cut the lead to 7. Howard looked clearly content to take another 30 seconds off the clock, so UMBC fouled Cam Gillus – and he missed the free throw. This time, it would be Caden Diggs heading to the line after being fouled, and his two free throw cut the lead to 5 with about a minute to play.

So, UMBC fouls Gillus again, and the 77% free throw shooter leaves it short, so the Retrievers rush down the court. They get the ball out to DJ Armstrong Jr on the wing, who takes a step back to the three point line and launches a shot over his defender. And it hits nothing but net – the lead is down to 2 points with 43 seconds.

With the momentum suddenly going against the Bison, they wind the clock down and get the ball inside to Bryce Harris. Looking like he might not even get a shot off – he takes a wild 10 foot turn-around jumper, and drills it with 14 seconds to extend the lead back to 4 points.

UMBC sprints down the court with Jah’Likai King needing only 7 seconds to get to the rim and cut the lead back to 2 points, and so they foul Howard’s Isaiah Brown with about 4 seconds left. Brown hits the first free throw, but misses the second, and the Retrievers have one last chance to tie the game. But Armstrong’s half court shot misses, and Howard escapes with an 86-83 victory.

Hopefully, that is a reminder to all favorites that the only lead that is safe is the one that happens when the clock strikes zero. The Retrievers cut an 11 point lead down to 2 in just over a minute. But unfortunately for them, their frantic comeback just ran out of time.

It was certainly an exciting way to start the tournament. 66 more games to go!!!!

Hope that everyone has worn Green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!!!! The NCAA has given us the gift on this wonderful day of the two play-in games in Dayton.

Currently, Howard has jumped out to a 49-41 halftime lead in a high-paced game.

I sadly might not blog too much about the games. I really need to get going on my handicapping and picks. I am hoping that I will at least get the cleaned up version of the Handicapping page by the time that Texas and NC State are done playing.

So many things to rant about – but I am going to try to focus. It is just so hard when the play-in games are actually happening. The tournament has started!!!!!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!

I will eventually get the full cleaned up version of the Handicapping page up and running. Once we get to the 16 games on Thursday followed by 16 games on Friday, that is a little bit too much to put into the main blog – even for the stats geek like myself.

But I also don’t know that I will get home from work in time to get the handicapping page fully ready before tomorrow’s games tip off. So, since there is only two games, I will handicap them here.

For those unfamiliar with the Lunatic’s attempt to gamble imaginary money at his imaginary casino, here is how it works. The Lunatic rates his bets into three tiers – a $10 bet means he has no clue who is going to win the game but it is no fun to have an article about predicting all the games and not actually predict a winner. A $20 bet means he feels pretty confident about the outcome – he wouldn’t call it a sure thing, but he feels good about the pick. A $30 bet means that he is calling his shot that this is a lock, and something has to go massively wrong for it to not come through.

Historically, I get most of my locks wrong, and I get most of my guesses right. Then, I eventually get tired of losing on my tiers and bet the same amount each time in a sad attempt to get even.

I also leave this disclaimer on the main site. This is for entertainment purposes only. I am a sleep deprived Crazed Lunatic – betting real money on my picks is a truly crazy action. And you never know how his friend Karma will act. Normally Karma makes all my Locks lose – I got too cocky and it needs to knock me down. But don’t anger Karma – it knows that if you bet against the Lunatic knowing he will do badly, that is when his imaginary picks will get hot and do well….

I also mention this important fact (in case you were not convinced by the entertainment purposes only clause). The Lunatic has won small amounts of imaginary money the last few years in this crazy effort to pick all the games. However, the Lunatic has never gone into a true Las Vegas Sportsbook and left with more money than he came with. So, I do not bet real money any more – Vegas has won enough from me.

Enough with the disclaimers – lets get to the games.

6:40 pm on truTV – #16 Howard vs #16 UMBC (-1.5) – Over/Under: 140.5

I do feel bad in one respect for Howard and UMBC. Because they both did something that many teams were unable to do. Not only did they win their conference’s regular season title, but they also backed it up by winning their conference tournament. And their reward is to play in the first game of the tournament.

I don’t know a lot about these teams, but I did see a little of the America East championship where UMBC beat Vermont, and they looked pretty decent. Also, the statistics say UMBC is slightly better (which makes sense why Vegas has them as a 1.5 point favorite). It is hard to only win a game by a point (it happens, but normally a free throw happens to pad a lead). So, while it is a guess, I would go with UMBC for $10 to cover. As for the spread, the teams average closer to 144 pts per game, so I think we are getting good odds with the over – I will take the over for $20.

Lunatic’s picks – UMBC ($10), Over ($20)

9:15 pm on truTV – NC State (-1.5) vs Texas – O/U: 158.5.

This is one of those rare games where you have a reasonable data point from the regular season. These two teams met in Maui in November and played a fast-paced game where the Longhorns won 102-97. Both teams come into the tournament struggling as they both have lost 5 of their last 6 games. But the one thing that doesn’t seem to change for either team is that they score a lot of points.

I think you have to lock the over. When these teams met in the season, they scored 199 points. Even if they don’t light it up in Dayton as they did in Maui, you have to figure they are getting to 158.5. Give me the over for $30. As for the game, I feel like I am getting a gift – Texas won the regular season by 5 and I am going to get another 1.5 points. I am going to put $20 on Texas getting 1.5 points – I feel like they should repeat what they did in Maui, but realizing that we are talking about two teams that struggled coming into the tournament, I am not going to lock the outcome like I will the points.

Lunatic’s picks – Texas ($20), Over ($30)

So, there is your Tuesday preview. We should have two really fun and really competitive games tomorrow. The tournament will begin in just about 18 hours. So very exciting!!!!

And he is scared to death of it. While I can not explain it, I still believe that Karma exists. We all have sat there and watched a game where a referee calls a foul that looks like a bad call, and then the 90% free-throw shooter goes to the line and misses the free throw. The ball doesn’t lie – it knows!

Blogging things makes me scared that one comment that goes too far could impact my favorite team. But the last few weeks, I have been thinking about things that I can’t keep avoiding the topic.

I will take my Boilers for example. At the end of the Northwestern game, once the game was clearly out of reach in the final minute, the coach subbed out senior star Nick Martinelli (who had fought so hard all year including that night where he scored 25 points on 10-16 from the field) so the Northwestern fans could cheer for him one last time in Chicago. And as the Northwestern fans stood to cheer for him, many of the Purdue fans at the United Center stood as well so the entire arena was giving him a standing ovation for all he has meant for Northwestern basketball. It wasn’t the type of trash talking you usually see from fans – it was everyone standing in respect for a senior who had played his heart out.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been to enough Indiana games to see things that I was not proud to see the fans do. But for this night, I was proud to be a Purdue fan. Because sportsmanship matters and videos of the game surfaced afterwards of this nice moment. I thought to myself about writing about it – but I was too afraid it might jinx my Boilers.

So of course, I made sure I wore the same Purdue shirt that I wore and the same black socks in case they were lucky the next day, and the Boilers won again against Nebraska. And then I washed those lucky clothes because maybe Karma really liked it when I wore those clothes – and they held on to beat UCLA. And so for the fourth day in a row, I wore my Purdue shirt, and somehow they won the Big 10 championship. That shirt and those socks will certainly be worn on Friday as we play Queens.

I totally understand that it is more likely that the players simply did well. Oscar Cluff played inspired basketball for 4 days. Braden Smith broke the Big 10 tournament record for assists. Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 20 points against Michigan. Everything clicked. But it is nice to think that because the fans did something nice that Karma looked favorably on the Boilers. It is nice to think that by simply wearing an old black Purdue T-shirt and black socks that I can send some luck my Boilers way. And so I get nervous about writing about Karma.

But things keep coming up that make me see the coincidences work in the opposite direction as well. Lets take a couple of Hall-of-Fame (or at least future HOF) coaches. First, lets look at Dan Hurley from UConn. The Huskies needed a win in the last regular season game to claim a share of the Big East title. And so of course, Hurley was upset when they needed a basket in the last drive, there was certainly contact, but no foul was called leading to Marquette winning the game. And so he goes on one of his tirades, bumping into the referee as he screamed at him. So, he gets tossed from the game. It didn’t impact the final score – there wasn’t enough time once the foul wasn’t called for the Huskies to win. But his press conference afterwards was awful.

“I don’t think I bumped the ref,” Hurley said. “ I thought I got close to yelling at John. If John thinks I bumped him, he’ll say I bumped him. I think I yelled into the back of his head, ‘Foul! Foul! You could screenshot whatever you want to screenshot. I don’t feel like I made any contact with John. I don’t believe I did.”

It is laughable to think that all he said was Foul. And to say you can screenshot it doesn’t make it true is ridiculous. The game is nationally televised and everyone saw Hurley come onto the court like a maniac and bump into the referee. No one would have thought any less of him if he simply said, I was so upset – that drive was so important to our season and I felt there was a foul and I lost my composure. I should have never physically touched the ref. But Hurley simply denied what everyone in the world saw.

That leads us to Saturday night at Madison Square Garden where the Huskies could get some redemption and take the conference tournament title. And St. John’s runs them out of the gym (and Hurley got another technical foul for complaining with the referees). You could say it is coincidence and St. John’s just played an inspired game. But the Lunatic is scared of Karma and if it played a role.

Lets talk about the Michigan State Spartans and Jeremy Fears Jr. First of all and above anything else – Fears is an incredible player who has the capability of leading the Spartans all the way to a National Championship. But he is a dirty player. The narrative started with their first game against Michigan, but it really got bad after he intentionally kicked a Minnesota player in the groin who had guarded him too close. He claims he slipped, but when a person slips, they don’t throw one of their legs backwards up to their waist while their other leg stays perfectly balanced and in place. Izzo said he would chew him out and deal with it that night.

So, sure enough in their finale against Michigan, the same type of play happened as he got fouled on the wing and suddenly kicked his leg up towards the Elliot Cadeau’s groin. It looked like he missed – but it also looked pretty clear what his intent was. Of course, he said he slipped again. At the press conference, Izzo said the following.

Izzo said he “did what I was gonna do, I chewed him out for it” before continuing to assail Michigan’s Dusty May’s public comments from the first game. “But I watched it on tape, and the guy’s pushing him in the back. And sometimes that happens. I’m sick of it being one-sided, though. That’s what upset me about the first time. So Fears will get his lunch from me. I wonder if some of their guys will get their lunch from what happened in the first game that didn’t get public. I don’t condone anything. I don’t think he tried to kick him on purpose.”

I have watched college basketball passionately for a long time. I remember playing in high school as a small 5’7″ kid with a much bigger player on my back. And never once did I get pushed in a way which would cause one of my legs to flail wildly straight into their groin. Somehow, this scenario happened twice to an All Big-10 player, and we are supposed to believe that he was falling and it wasn’t intentional. And it is complete garbage to say that Izzo chewed him out for it. If Izzo truly chewed him out for it, Fears never would have done it a second time. And even Izzo knows there is a difference between a player guarding physically and close, and a player kicking someone in the groin. The first is a basketball play – one that he coaches every single player who has worn a Spartans jersey to do. The second has nothing to do with basketball and has no place in the game.

So, that leads to Friday night as they play an undermanned UCLA team when Tyler Bilodeau, their leading scorer and rebounder, injures his knee late in the first half. And Donovan Dent goes off to score 23 points while Trent Perry adds 22 to lead the Bruins to a 4 point upset of the Spartans. And while I know it was just an inspired game by Dent and Perry, the Lunatic wonders if Karma had anything to do with it.

And yet, I was still afraid to write about it. The Lunatic wants Karma to be on his side. And then Monday’s news hits. So, lets go back to January, when the Alabama Crimson Tide invited Charles Bediako to challenge that he should still have 2 years of eligibility because the NCAA allowed other pros to play. Eventually the court sided with the NCAA, but Bediako got an injunction to get to play for a few games. Ironically, the Crimson Tide only went 3-2 in the 5 games that Bediako played, including a loss in his first game back at home against Tennessee. Once the court ruled against him, the Tide finished the season 7-2, with a win on the road against Tennessee. They actually might be a better team without Bediako – but they were willing to bend the rules to get whatever edge they could get.

I am sure that I will rant more about this – because player eligibility is a real issue that needs to be discussed by the Lunatic. But that is not what this rant is about. It is about the force that scares the Lunatic to death. And so when today’s news came, it forced the article to be written.

A few people have said that Alabama should have to forfeit the three games they won. Of course, that isn’t possible – it would break the court order. A few people have said that the Selection Committee should give them a bad seed to punish them – but that isn’t fair either. It might be a punishment to Alabama, but it also would punish some 8-11 seed by making them play against a true 4-5 seed instead of a 7-8 seed.

So, then the news comes out today. Second leading scorer Aden Holloway was arrested and charged with multiple felonies when the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force search a residence near Alabama’s campus and recovered more than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash.

It makes no sense to me why the second leading scorer of Alabama is involved with any of that. The kid is probably making a ridiculous amount of money through NIL programs as a star player for the Crimson Tide. But the school has announced that he has been removed from campus – so one has to assume that means he will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Once again, I am sure the reality is this is just a young man who had too much money and decided that he wanted to get mixed up with drugs. But there is part of me that is scared that it was really Karma punishing the Tide because it knew no one else could. Lets be fair, it might even lead to the Tide getting better. Everyone was excited about getting Bediako back, and thought it was a big loss when he was ruled ineligible – and the Tide got better. Maybe Houston Mallette or Taylor Bol Bowen become the next man up, and they become one of the fairy tale stories of March as they lead Alabama to the Final Four.

Karma is all around us – so it is important to be a good sport and a good fan. Cheer for your team – absolutely. Don’t trash talk – it is not worth hurting someone’s feelings over a game. Don’t lie such as Hurley and Izzo did – Karma does not like it when people lie.

As for the Lunatic, I will be washing my black Purdue T-shirt that Karma has told me I need to wear. The Lunatic will do whatever Karma asks him to do.