Stomp The Lunatic

OK – so there is still 4 minutes left.   But at 86-47, I think the Wildcats can hang on to this one.

Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins and Ryan Arcidiacono just could not miss.  The Wildcats are shooting over 70% from the field for the entire game – and over 50% from three-point range.  Villanova could do nothing wrong.    Even if Oklahoma hadn’t gone as cold as it did, I don’t think they could have kept up with the insane shooting from the Wildcats.

So, the Big East Champion will wait to see which ACC team they will face.  Will the Wildcats get a reunion with old-time Big East Syracuse – or will it be the ACC champions UNC Tar Heels.   We will all know in a few hours!!!

Despite my complaints about violations and scandals, it is pretty obvious how important coaching is to the college basketball game, and this Final 4 has an amazing list of coaches.   Here are the career wins (along with their ranking in the coaching elite) – thanks to Sports Reference.

• Jim Boeheim – Syracuse (989 wins – 2nd all-time, 2nd active)
• Roy Williams – North Carolina (782 wins – 9th all-time, 3rd active)
• Lon Kruger – Oklahoma (590 wins – 38th all-time, 10th active)
• Jay Wright – Villanova (474 wins – 74th all-time, 21st active)

It gets even more impressive if you keep going.   You have to have won 427 games to be one of the top 100 coaches of all-time (at least in career wins).  Only 30 of the 351 NCAA Division-I teams can boast having that talented of a coach.    11 of those 30 were coaching teams that made the Sweet 16.   And the other 5 aren’t slouches – only Billy Kennedy at 310-249 has a winning percentage under 60% (although to be fair, Greg Garb from Wisconsin has only coached this season).  Considering that Kennedy, Tom Crean from Indiana, Mark Turgeon from Maryland and Tony Bennett from Virginia have a lot of coaching probably left, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them eventually finish their careers in the top 100.

But just think about this, the Final 4 coaches this year combined have a record of 2,835 wins and 1,156 losses – for a winning percentage of just over 71%.  There were only 61 coaches (63 if we include Boeheim and Williams) who can claim a higher winning percentage.   And to put into perspective how hard that is, here are a few pretty famous coaches who didn’t win 71% of their games.

• Bob Knight – 70.6% (899 wins – 3rd all-time)
• Jim Calhoun – 69.7% (877 wins – 5th all-time)
• Lefty Driesell – 66.6% (786 wins – 8th all-time)
• Lou Henson – 64.9% (776 wins – 11th all-time)
• Hank Iba – 69.3% (752 wins – 14th all-time)
• Ray Meyer – 67.2% (724 wins – 16th all-time)
• Don Haskins – 67.1% (719 wins – 17th all-time)

Anyways, that is a long-winded way of saying that these 4 coaches are pretty amazing.

Just 15 minutes to tip-off of Villanova vs Oklahoma!!!!!     Get your favorite snack and drink ready – the Final Four is about to begin!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

There has been a lot of fantastic basketball this March.   But there is still a question that goes through my head – and apparently, I am not the only one who had this thought because I saw articles on it from both USA Today and CBS, and I would not be surprised if even the announcers on TBS say something during the game.

But the ACC portion of the Final 4 between UNC and Syracuse bring to the forefront the scandals of college basketball.   On one side, you have Syracuse.   Syracuse was brought in front of the NCAA Committee of Infractions with multiple issues ranging from not following their drug testing policies, academic fraud, and extra benefits.   And so Syracuse did what a team about to be smashed by the NCAA – they “self-imposed” a 1 year post-season ban.   But lets be honest, everyone knew exactly what they were doing.  The Orange were 15-7 at that moment of the 2015 season and struggling with injuries – they were a long-shot to make the NCAA tournament as it was.  So, they basically self-imposed a ban on going to the NIT in an attempt to get leniency.   The NCAA slapped another 9 game suspension on Syracuse – which he was allowed to take in December while they were playing the likes of Colgate, Cornell, Montana State and Texas Southern.   And now here they are now playing for a national championship.  Seems like a fair punishment for years of breaking the rules.

At least they were punished.  Because on the other hand, you have the Tar Heels.   Everyone has known about the academic fraud that has embarrassed the University of North Carolina.  And it is totally unclear about how bad the punishment is going to be – because the investigation has dragged on forever.   As was reported by USA Today, in August just 4 days before the deadline to respond to the allegations against them, UNC conveniently announced that they had discovered more violations involving their women’s basketball and men’s soccer team.  This meant that the NCAA would have to revise their charges against UNC and the 90 day clock for UNC to respond to those charges would start all over.  And of course, this meant that by the time all of that finished, the 2016 men’s college basketball season featuring the pre-season #1 North Carolina Tar Heels, would also be completed.

So, the schools cheat against the rules, and then use the horrible NCAA infraction process to their advantage to figure out when they will take their penalty – likely at a time they probably weren’t going to be competitive anyways.    Actually, it really makes me wonder how bad the NCAA is going to come down on Louisville for the stripper scandal – they self-imposed a 1 year ban at a time when they were a contender.  You have to imagine they feel they are looking at something much longer than 1 year if they made that choice.

And while the ACC scandals are obviously the larger elephant in the room, it made me wonder about the other two Final Four teams.  At Villanova, Jay Wright’s program was put on a 2 year probationary period because they had enough secondary infractions that it accumulated into a major infraction.  It seemed like the biggest issue was around a phone code scandal that might have been purely the players doing things they shouldn’t have – but it still put a bad spotlight on the Villanova program.   At Oklahoma, Lon Kruger was brought to the university in 2011 because of his reputation of cleaning up programs and still being successful at winning after the Sooners were dealing with issues from Kelvin Sampson and Jeff Capel.    So, it looks like Villanova’s and Oklahoma’s programs are cleaner (or being cleaned up), but they have had to deal with their own problems.

If everything I have read about Lon Kruger is true, it makes me want to root more for the Sooners.  In an era of win at any cost, it sounds like Kruger runs his program the right way – and so there would be something awesome about seeing him win.   And when the tip off happens, no one will be thinking about any of this.   There will be just be 4 really talented teams playing for the National Championship.  And over in the shadows of Houston’s NRG Stadium will be the elephant – most likely standing close to NCAA President Mark Emmert, who will be wondering if he will be handing the trophy to a school he just recently punished or one that he is about to punish.

 

 

It has been a fun tournament so far, so hopefully, we will have a fun Final 4.      I will probably do my ranting and raving throughout the afternoon as I get myself excited about the games.

It will be interesting since this Final Four features matchups that happened in the regular season.   Oklahoma crushed Villanova in December in Hawaii, and North Carolina won both of their ACC regular season games against Syracuse.

But familiarity also sometimes creates interesting results, and all 4 of these teams are too talented to not leverage their experience from the past games to try to get the advantage tonight.   So excited that the Final 4 is about to begin!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I watch Nevada try to hold on to force the CBI final to a third winner-takes-all championship against Morehead State, I realize two things.

1. It is after 11 pm, and I am watching Nevada play Morehead State.   And I am debating about turning the channel over to the Vegas 16 Final between Old Dominion and Oakland.    I might have a serious problem……  Oh wait, I am crazy.  OK – I feel better now.
2. Many of you might not want to go through all the scenario files, and just want to know if you have a chance to win

Well – here are the potential winners (realizing that these are un-official, and that it is after 11 pm and the person doing the editing is a crazy insane person watching the CBI final).  Good luck to our leaders

	STANDARD	UPSET	SECOND CHANCE
UNC beats Oklahoma	Ann Hawkins	Gregg Farber	Pam Ciejek
UNC beats Villanova	Sharon Thornton	Michael Swinson (FUN) Gregg Farber (MONEY)	Andrew Murphy
Oklahoma beats UNC	Mike Wassmer	Gregg Farber	Mary-Rian Bradley Jerry Caldwell
Oklahoma beats Syracuse	Mike Wassmer	John Bachmann	Mary-Rian Bradley Jerry Caldwell Jim Wambach
Syracuse beats Oklahoma	Mike Wassmer	John Bachmann	Sara Murphy
Syracuse beats Villanova	Tanmay Gautam	John Bachmann	Sara Murphy
Villanova beats UNC	Michael Swinson (FUN) Jason Lacks (MONEY)	Michael Swinson (FUN) Gregg Farber (MONEY)	John Bachmann
Villanova beats Syracuse	Michael Swinson (FUN) Jason Lacks (MONEY)	Michael Swinson (FUN) John Bachmann (MONEY)	Will Caldwell Dan Miller Lowell Isaacs John Bachmann

Just for those who want to skip to the end of the book and read the last page.   Or simply for those who want to figure out what teams they should root for (or if you believe you have a power similar to the Lunatic Curse, who you want to try to destroy).

The 8 scenario files are up that should tell you how you will do based on the final potential outcomes.   At this point, I am relatively sleep deprived – and so, realize that these are as always, unofficial – all that matters is what is in the final standings page.

Good luck to everyone!!!!!!

At this critical stage in the tournament, congratulations go out to Mike Wassmer – who leads our pool with 960 points.  Mike correctly picked Villanova, Oklahoma, and UNC to the Final Four to take a 30 point lead over Tanmay Gautam (who also had those three teams in the Final 4).   Then, Nathan Standley, Andrew Braslow, Audra Lifson, Jim Carini and Ann Hawkins trail our leader by 60 – with a total of 900, and David Chamowitz and Michael Swinson are behind by only 70.

In our Upset Pool, John Bachmann hangs onto the lead at 275 points.  But Gregg Farber has shot up into 2nd place just 2 points behind our leader as Gregg was the only person brave enough to pick Syracuse to the Final Four.  Kelli Shonts is in 3rd, just 6 points behind, Doug Crowe is in 4th just 7 points behind, and Rick Flynn is in 5th just 8 points behind.   So, we have a really tight leader-board in the Upset Pool (although, there might not be a lot more movement as since Gregg didn’t pick the Orange to the Championship game, the only teams that can score people points are 1 and 2 seeds).

Andrew Murphy holds the lead in the Second Chance Pool – leading with 520 points.  Just 40 points behind are Pam Ciejek, Ann Hawkins, Mary-Rian Bradley, Jim Wambach, Matt Shafiee, Dan Miller, Will Caldwell, Jerry Caldwell, John Bachmann, Kristian Schmidt, Nick Kindig and Lowell Isaacs.   So, the Second Chance Pool looks like it will be extremely close…….

Congratulations to Mary-Rian Bradley, because not only is she doing great in the Second Chance Pool, but she also has the traditional first prize awarded in the Lunatic Pool.   At 240 points and after picking Kentucky, Arizona, Northern Iowa and Fresno State, Mary-Rian’s picks have guaranteed the last place of the paid entries into the Standard Pool, and gets her entry fee back.   Considering the Lunatic’s poor second week performance, he does not deserve any recognition.   Mary-Rian should not have challenged our leader Mike.

 

 

The run was coming.  The Tar Heels had watched their lead fall from 11-3.  And Brice Johnson had just turned an over-the-back violation into a technical foul as he tossed the ball over his head in disgust, and the Irish hit the technical FTs and a layup on the next drive to finish a 12-0 run to take the lead.  And the Lunatic thought – here it comes.  Then something amazing happened.

Marcus Paige made a nice shot to get back the lead, and then what might have been the pivotal play of the game.  UNC’s Theo Pinson stole the ball from Bonzie Colson at the top of the key, and fell on the ball to call time-out and get the possession.   And with the Tar Heels now going small, the momentum changed again, the Tar Heels scored the next 10 points to finish their own 12-0 run and get back their 11 point lead.   And then, the Tar Heels never looked back – partially thanks to beating the Irish to almost every rebound.

Congratulations to North Carolina for a fantastic victory to earn a trip to the Final Four.   And so our four contestants in Houston are set.   Big East regular season champion Villanova will take on Oklahoma and their superstar, Buddy Hield.   And the ACC champion North Carolina will take on a Syracuse team, who has taken the gift given to them by the Selection Committee as one of the worst RPI teams in history to get an at-large bid and has played as champions.

Three of the four teams remaining have held weeks at #1 in the polls throughout the season.  And Syracuse certainly won’t be intimidated by any of them – with their hall of fame coach leading them.   Good luck to the Wildcats, Sooners, Tar Heels and Orange!!!!   It should be a fantastic Final Four worthy of what has been a fantastic tournament.

The Virginia Cavaliers looked like everything was going right for them.  The team that had knocked them off the last two tournaments was upset in the first round.   The other top 10 school that was only 1 1/2 hours away from the Chicago regional semi-finals/finals also got upset in the first round.   And the top seeded Cavaliers had beaten Butler and Iowa State to get to the final, where they would face a team they beat earlier in the season to get to the Final Four.

Then, they jumped out to a 14 point lead on the Syracuse Orange – which they then held onto going into the last final 10 minutes.  They had cut the lead to 9 points at the 8 minute TV timeout, as Charlie and I watched on my computer so Katie could watch Henry Danger on TV.    I thought to myself that I would take the break to use the bathroom and watch the last 5 minutes before taking the kids to bed.   And when I came back into the room, Charlie says, “Guess what, Dad?   Syracuse is winning!”  Sure enough, as I get back to my computer, I see that while I was gone, the Orange had gone on a 12-2 run to take a 59-58 lead (apparently led by some great play by Malachi Richardson).   My wife looks up in surprise and says we should put it on the big TV, much to Katie’s chagrin.  And we all watched as Syracuse continued stopping Virginia every single time down the court to finish up with an amazing 68-62 victory.

I was actually glad it was time to take the kids up to bed, because I had no clue of what to write in the blog.  As many know, Syracuse is not one of my favorite teams.   I very loudly screamed that Syracuse shouldn’t be in the tournament with all their losses in the ACC.   And yet, hear the Orange are, cutting down the nets in Chicago and getting ready to the Final Four.    They definitely proved me wrong – they proved everyone wrong (tell me how many people outside of Syracuse fans picked the Orange to get this far).  But in this crazy tournament, this of course make sense.   Here we had one of the top teams in the country with a 14 point lead with under 10 minutes to play against a double digit seed.  And so of course, the double digit seed would go on to outscore the #1 seed 31-11 for the remainder of the game.   No lead has been safe in this tournament, and painfully, for the Virginia Cavaliers, heartache would hit them this Easter Sunday, as they went unbelievably cold at one of the most important moments of its season.

So, now, after all 4 #1 seeds made it to the Elite 8, we have only one remaining.   And I feel bad for them.   That is because, the North Carolina Tar Heels now enter this game as the favorite to win the tournament.  And this tournament has not been kind to favorites.   The Lunatic Curse has been in rare form this week, as I have watched in pain as I have gone from in the lead to tied for 200th as Miami FL, Texas A&M, Duke, Oregon and Kansas all have lost.   And so the only remaining team that can score points for the Lunatic is of course – the North Carolina Tar Heels.  And if that isn’t bad enough, their opponent is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish – a team they lost to on the road in the regular season (before destroying them in the ACC tournament).   All the Irish have done is come back from being down 12 at half against Michigan, come back from being 5 down with 1 1/2 minutes left to get a last second tip-in basket by a player who typically averages 2 points per game to beat Stephen F Austin, and then stole the ball twice in the last 28 seconds after being down 3 to come back and beat the Badgers.

So, all the Tar Heels have riding against them is the Lunatic Curse, the pressure of being the last remaining #1 seed, the pressure of beating a team that they are expected to beat convincingly because of what they did in the ACC tournament, and of course that opponent is the Fighting Irish – one of the teams that the Lunatic is not allowed to root for on pure principle of being a Boilermaker.  That same Fighting Irish team that has needed to comeback in amazing fashion in all three games to just get the chance to play the Tar Heels.   And the Tar Heels will take a 5 point lead into the second half – which means the stage is now completely set for what the Lunatic has watched all weekend.   Notre Dame has the #1 seed right where they want them – and so I feel bad for North Carolina – I hope my curse doesn’t knock them out as well as everyone else I have rooted for this weekend (especially when they were nice enough to take out the Hoosiers).   Good luck, Tar Heels.  With everything against you, you will need it.

There wasn’t much to write about the first game.   Buddy Hield scored 37 points to lead the Sooners over the Ducks to be our first team to make their way to the Final Four.

In the later game, senior Ryan Arcidiacono hit some critical FTs near the end, and knocked the ball out of Frank Mason III’s hands to get one of the best birthday gifts ever – a trip to the Final Four!

And so the #1 team going into the tournament, the Kansas Jayhawks, have been eliminated from the tournament.   And thus, Villanova and Oklahoma await to see which two ACC teams will join them in the Final Four.

Congratulations to Mike Wassmer – who correctly forecasted the #2 seed upsets tonight to take a 30 point lead over Tanmay Gautam.  John Bachmann holds on to his Upset pool lead, but it has been shrunk to 2 points by Kelli Shonts.   And Andrew Murphy has taken the lead of the Second Chance Pool over multiple entries 40 points behind.