Stomp The Lunatic

• Your All ACC Final Four of North Carolina, Duke, Louisville and Florida State doesn’t look so good now that the Tar Heels are the only ones left
• After watching our leader go 31 for 32 in the first round, you are sure you can go perfect for just 15 games
• Now that your school has been eliminated from the tournament, you can pick teams intelligently and really show off your basketball knowledge – I can not use this reason since my Boilers are still alive
• Your children are both beating you in the pool even though they don’t even know Gonzaga is a #1 seed, and thus, you want to see if you can beat them at their own game by picking the rest of the games based on which mascot would win in a fight – I would suggest going with Wolverines, Bears or Gators simply so you don’t have to break ties between Wildcats and Bulldogs
• You just learned that Wisconsin has 4 senior starters who have played in two Final Fours (they have won 115 games in their career) and want to say that you picked them to finally win that championship that has eluded them
• You just realized that 12 of the last 13 champions had blue as one of their school colors and you picked Baylor in the main pool because you liked their fluorescent neon green uniforms
• You want to be able to say that you legitimately picked in a bracket for a double digit seed to make the Elite 8 – go Xavier!!!!!
• You are ready to get on the Michigan Wolverine bandwagon, knowing that any team that survives a plane crash right before the post-season probably is destined for greatness.
• With the Championship Game being in Glendale, Arizona, you think it would be cool if you picked all three of the remaining Pac 12 teams (Arizona, UCLA and Oregon) – don’t worry about the East Regional Champion – as last weekend showed, no one is going to predict that region right anyways
• It is another – and more importantly, last chance in 2017 to STOMP THE LUNATIC!

OK – one bonus reason.    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 7:15 pm.

The Lunatic is going with the what he wants to see approach – I found myself this weekend conflicted about rooting for my Big 10 because I picked Villanova and Louisville.   So, my second chance bracket might go down, but I will at least be rooting for what I want to see – which in this case is Purdue cutting down the nets after beating the Pac 12 champions Arizona in the championship, with Wisconsin and UNC joining them in Glendale!!!

No matter how you pick your second chances, good luck to all of you!!

By the way, I can’t let this go during the tournament.   Did you notice how careful Indiana was to fire their head coach minutes into the NCAA tournament on Thursday to ensure that it would not get lots of press?   Then again, Indiana cares about those optics – they turned down a home NIT game this year (which is what would have given the Hoosiers the best chance to win and keep their season alive) in order make sure television cameras didn’t catch a half-empty Assembly Hall – since it was Spring Break, and Indiana fans don’t normally get excited about NIT games.

But I just want to put this in perspective.   Tom Crean was the coach to lift Indiana out of the hell that Kelvin Sampson left them in.   When Crean took over for the Hoosiers, he inherited a program that had three years of sanctions – because of those, IU’s star player left early for the NBA draft, there were graduations, and 5 left either by transfer or being kicked off for disciplinary reason – so he started with 2 walk-ons who had a career 36 points between them.  That first year was a disaster, but Crean managed to get recruiting to get some more talented players, and sure enough, made the tournament in his 4th season (the first one after sanctions were lifted), where they made it to the Sweet 16.

If you look at the last 6 years (the ones where they didn’t have sanctions), Tom Crean has coached the Hoosiers to 3 Sweet 16s, 2 regular season Big Ten championships, and a record of 138-69 (66.7%).   To put into perspective how successful that he has been, here are the list of schools that were able to go to more Sweet 16s in the last 6 years – Wisconsin had 5, Kentucky, Michigan State, Louisville, Florida, North Carolina, Kansas and Arizona had 4.  He has been to the same number of Sweet 16s in the last 6 years as Hall of Famers Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.   So, only 8 programs have done better from the perspective of making the second weekend of the tournament, and the two coaches that have won the most games in NCAA history only were able to go 3 of 6.   I don’t see Duke fans and Syracuse fans screaming for their head coaches to be fired for that level of success.

But this is Indiana basketball – they are supposed to do better.  So, lets look at their history.   In the 14 years before Tom Crean took over this storied program that was left for dead because of sanctions, the Hoosiers had made 1 Sweet 16 (the 2002 season when they made it all the way to the finals), they won the Big 10 once (co-champs in that same 2002 season) and the best record of any of those teams was 25-8 (the 2008 team that was the last season Kelvin Sampson coached).   In the three seasons, Tom Crean led the Hoosiers to the Sweet 16, his teams also won 27+ games (going as good as 29-7 in 2013).   Tom Crean’s last 6 seasons were even better record-wise than the last 6 that Hall of Famer Bobby Knight coached.   You had to go back to 1991-1996 to find the last time the Hoosiers had a better winning percentage and three Sweet 16 appearances.   Obviously, Bobby Knight had more success before those years – but that is the point.   No one since a Hall of Famer from the 1990s had done as well at Indiana as Tom Crean has done.

Tom Crean made Indiana basketball relevant again.   And they looked like they were going to have a great year – knocking off both Kansas and North Carolina.   Then injuries killed this team and they went into a free-fall during the conference season.  I don’t see how that becomes the coaches fault (maybe you could argue that they don’t have enough depth – but I guarantee you that similar things would happen to a lot of teams if they lost one of their stars).  And because fans stopped showing up and started complaining for the coach to be fired, that is exactly what happened.

You could argue that he didn’t win enough National Titles – but the last time the Hoosiers won the whole thing was 1987.  You could argue that he was losing the recruiting battle in-state – yet, I never remember hearing the press mention that he had a bad recruiting class.  You could argue that he missed the tournament 2 of those 6 years, which doesn’t happen at Indiana.   You could argue that he couldn’t beat Purdue enough – since the Boilers had a winning record against the Hoosiers during Crean’s tenure.  But I can tell you that somewhere in the United States, there is going to be a college basketball program who is going to be thrilled to death that Tom Crean is available to be their coach – and he will win games the way he did at Indiana and Marquette.

Indiana might get lucky and find someone who can finally lead them to the promised land of college hoops.  Maybe Indiana can convince someone big to join them.   Smaller programs like Wichita State, Xavier, Dayton and Butler all have outstanding coaches that might be finally willing to jump for a chance to coach the Hoosiers.   Maybe they will steal Steve Alford away from UCLA to bring us back to the days when he played for the Hoosiers.   But if you base success on having teams that can make the Sweet 16, there are only 17 programs that have made 3 or more like Crean.   And likelihood says those coaches are staying with the program they lead to Sweet 16 every other year.

When Tom Crean took the job 9 years ago, Indiana fans should have been forever grateful for him to come and try to clean up their program and get them winning again.  And he did exactly that – and won more than any of the coaches after Bobby Knight.   But because he was not winning national championships, Indiana boosters and fans complained loudly enough to get rid of the person who brought them back to being a team that was feared.   Sometimes, sports fans don’t realize when they have a good thing – only time will tell if Indiana fans get what they believe they deserve or fall to being a mediocre team constantly firing their coach every few years as they search for the next Hall of Famer.

First, VCU loses their head coach after only 2 years – as Will Wade has decided to become the LSU Tigers new coach.   Then, Richmond’s Spiders season ended in the NIT quarterfinals tonight as they lost to TCU.

Congratulations are due to both VCU and Richmond since both had fantastic seasons.   But the last couple of days haven’t really been the best for the local teams.

After the first weekend, Ryan Zotti has continued to hold onto the lead for both the standard and upset pools.

In the standard pool, Ryan has 530 points, giving him a 10 point lead over Earl McKnight.  Charles Flynn and Chris Peterson are tied for 3rd at 510 points, and there are 7 tied for 5th place – just 30 points behind.

In the upset pool, Ryan has 223 points, followed by Kyle Kelly and 212, Dan Wells and Earl McKnight at 210 and Bill Kahn at 208.

The Lunatic is being crushed – as his insane picks are in a tie for 64th place, while his sane picks are all the way back in a tie for 161st place.   Not looking good for the Lunatic – he could be thoroughly stomped this year.

But that is why we do a Second Chance Pool – if you picked Villanova, Duke or Louisville to win it all, unlike those teams, you get a second chance to redeem yourself.   Just login and put in your picks for one chance at a do-over.

Well, the East has been thrown wide open.   South Carolina has knocked off the Duke Blue Devils 88-81 in Greenville, South Carolina.   The Gamecocks found themselves down 10 early in the second half, but came back – led by Sindarius Thornwell’s 24 points.  And now, a team that had not won an NCAA game in 44 years going into this tournament now finds themselves in the Sweet 16 in a region that has lost both its top 2 seeds.   Now, #3 Baylor and #4 Florida find themselves the favorites in a region that was figured to be won by either the ACC tournament champion or the defending national champion.

This is also big from a conference perspective as well – who would have figured when we started the tournament with 9 ACC teams, that only the regular season champion, the North Carolina Tar Heels, would be playing in the Sweet 16.

Rhode Island looked like they were going to become Cinderella – the only remaining double digit seed from a mid-major conference.  They had the lead all the way to 11 points to start the second half.   But slowly and surely, the Oregon Ducks chipped away at the lead.   And with the lead at 4 with a little over 2 minutes to go, bad things started to happen.   The Ducks hit one of two free throws to cut the lead to 3, got the rebound, and kicked the ball out to Tyler Dorsey – who calmly sank a three-pointer to tie the game.   Then, with 40 seconds, Dorsey drilled another three pointer from the top of the key to give the Ducks the lead.    Dorsey finished the night with 27 points, but none were bigger than his last 6.

Rhode Island got a couple chances to tie the game, but Stanford Robinson and EC Matthews missed their game-tying three pointers, and Oregon was able to run out the clock.   And for those of us who can tear up our brackets, the clock sadly struck midnight on the Cinderella Rams.   And for Oregon Ducks and Pac 12 fans, breathe a sigh of relief – the Ducks have survived and advanced.

Kansas always stayed a few steps ahead of Michigan State, until they blew the game out of the water in the second half.    North Carolina’s game wasn’t as easy – as the Tar Heels found themselves down 65-60 with 3 minutes to play before scoring the last 12 points of the game to win and advance.    That was a really great try by Arkansas who looked like they were going to pull the upset, but UNC didn’t panic and managed to survive and advance.

So, Tar Heel fans, you can breathe a sigh of relief – UNC is in the Sweet 16.   Now, you can join the rest of us in seeing whether or not Rhode Island can take out Oregon – they have a 6 point lead with 12 to play.    And USC has cut Baylor’s double digit lead to 5 at half (can the Trojans really win their third straight tournament game after falling behind by double digits….)     Still lots of basketball to play tonight!!!

Wichita State did their best to try and add another Cinderella to the Sweet 16 – but every time the Shockers would tie the game or take the lead, Kentucky would go on a mini-run and get the lead back to 4-6 points.   So, the SEC champion will be making its way to the Sweet 16 again, where they will wait for the winner of the UCLA / Cincinnati winner.

Just six more spots left for the Sweet 16 – should be some exciting games to wrap up the first weekend!!!

The Louisville Cardinals were up 8 points at half-time – something everyone would expect out of a 2 seed in a 2nd round game.    But the Cardinals opponent are not any normal opponent.   Because the Michigan Wolverines seem to be on one of those magical journeys.

This team has been through a tremendous amount in the last couple of weeks.   But something has been different about this team since their charter plane to the Big Ten tournament had to abort their take-off and crashed due to the high winds.   For those who have been following this story, you knew that they would probably make a run at some point.

Moritz Wagner scored a career high 26 points to help lead the Wolverines back, Derrick Walton, Jr. – who had a unusually poor shooting game – hit a fantastic drive to the basket to keep the lead at 4, and then DJ Wilson hit four free throws to make sure that Louisville couldn’t catch them.   And the Wolverines become the third Big 10 team into the Sweet 16.

Much has been made by the media about how this has been a weak year for the Big 10.   The regular season champion from Purdue barely snuck into the protected seeds as the last of the 4 seeds.   The Wisconsin Badgers, who were ranked 7th in the AP poll and 5th in the Coaches Poll on February 6th, went on a losing streak where they lost 4 of 5 games, but they righted the ship in the conference tournament by making it to the championship game – they were given an 8 seed.   And these magical Wolverines who won the Big 10 tournament by sweeping 4 games in 4 days were only ranked a couple of spots ahead of the Badgers – getting a 7 seed.

Thanks to that seeding, the tournament no longer has defending champion Villanova – the #1 seed in the tournament, and ACC powerhouse Louisville, who was the last 2 seed.    But this leads to something that does bother me.    When teams lose in the ACC and the Big 12, it is because those conferences are so strong that it is tough to go through that tough schedule without some blemishes – and so those losses are OK.   But you lose a few road games in the Big 10 (by the way, Wisconsin’s 4 losses that took them from top 10 in the polls to an 8 seed were Northwestern, and road games to Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State) and you are punished for not being able to beat weak teams.  If you go 10-8 in the Pac 12 like USC but don’t beat Arizona, UCLA, or Oregon, you didn’t beat anyone.  Well, the 4 Pac 12 teams haven’t lost yet in the tournament.  No one talks about the strength of the SEC, but Kentucky, Arkansas and South Carolina are still playing in the 2nd round and Florida is already in the Sweet 16 after being an ACC team by 26 points.

Great basketball is played all around this country – not just on Tobacco Road.    I am not saying that the ACC isn’t tough – I am sure no one would want to have to play the likes of UNC, Duke and Louisville twice every season.    But there are lots of really talented teams outside of the ACC – it would be great if the media gave those other teams and conferences just a little more attention.    It looks like these teams are going to claim that attention the best way possible – winning games and advancing in the tournament.

I don’t think my heart can take much more than this.   Purdue had a 19 point lead, and then, I got to watch as the Cyclones slowly chipped away at the lead, all the way until they actually took a 2 point lead.    But then, PJ Thompson hit a wide open three pointer to get the lead, and then Caleb Swanigan and Vince Edwards got some great baskets in the post to give Purdue a larger lead.

Yet, it still came down to 11 seconds and the need to hit a free throw to ice the game.   Some of you might have remembered that Purdue had a lead against Michigan in the Big 10 championship, but missed a FT with 11 seconds giving Michigan the chance to tie the game and send it to overtime – we all know what happened after that.

So, now here is Dakota Mathias, a 84% FT shooter on the line – and sure enough, he misses the free throw.  And it was Wooden Award finalist Caleb Swanigan – who had his 28th double-double of the season – skying over everyone to get the rebound and kick it out to Thompson.   So, now with 7 seconds, PJ Thompson – the same guy who missed the FT against Michigan, nervously rattles home both FTs to ice the game for the Boilers.

When they had a 19 point lead, I wasn’t expecting that the game would be so exciting – but at the end of the day, the Boilers did what you need to do in this tournament – survive and advance.

As for the leaders, Ryan Zotti still holds onto his 10 point lead over Rohit Kapoor, Dan Wells, and Earl McKnight.   Sadly, if you had just picked the better team in the AP Poll, you would be tied with Ryan – but we all know the AP Poll will eventually slide – they have Villanova as the champion.

I need to now slow my heart back down – hopefully, I can get to sleep – have so much adrenaline going through me right now – so happy Purdue won.