Stomp The Lunatic

The UCLA Bruins.   It was guaranteed as the first game of the day pitted UCLA and UAB to play – and it was the Bruins taking care of business running away

Just to give everyone a reminder – here is the reaction of the press to the selection committee choosing UCLA.

Myron Medcalf – Selection Committee just gave UCLA a slot for trying hard.  Hand them a blue ribbon, too.

Dana O’Neil – UCLA…   I’m just so confused.

Eamonn Brennan – Apparently all that matters is that you play a tough nonconference schedule, even if you score 7 points in a first half.

Joe Lunardi – First thoughts: I missed on Indiana; they missed on UCLA.

Jeff Borzello – So the committee really put UCLA’s resume, Temple’s resume and Colorado State’s resume side-by-side-by-side and chose UCLA? Hahaha. OK.

Doug Gottlieb (on the actual selection show) – UCLA safely in is a joke to me.  It makes no sense.

Doug Gottlieb (also on the show) – There’s not a reasonable person in the country who believes UCLA belongs in the 68-team field.

In fact, Gottlieb actually felt it necessary three separate times throughout the show to state how bad of a decision it was to include UCLA – including his only question to the Selection Committee chair – and I use question loosely – it was more of a statement of how wrong the committee was followed by a request for the chair to comment.

 

Well – the first team to the Sweet 16 is the team that everyone said doesn’t belong in the tournament.  Somewhere, Selection Committee Chair Scott Barnes and the rest of the committee are smiling – the Bruins have validated their choice.   UCLA was definitely worthy of making the Tournament – and the Bruins will still be playing next week.

 

Friday almost was a perfect day for the top seeds.  It took the last game of the night to end that streak when Dayton continued their success from the play-in game and upset Providence to go to the Round of 32.

This left us with a four-way tie at the top of the pool.  Donna Woodburn, Greg Williams, Chris Franklin and Kynan Bush all did fantastic in the first round – getting 28 of the 32 games correct.   They are followed closely by 14 people who are only 10 points behind – including my 8 year old son, Charlie (he will be thrilled to know that he is in the top 10).

In the upset pool, Donna Woodburn is leading with 147 – closely followed by first day leader Brian Lawton at 138, and Greg Williams and John Woodburn at 136.

The Lunatic is quietly lurking around in a large tie for 43rd place at 250 points.  I am pretty happy to have got 25 games right – but that will not be enough.   While that is a good showing for the Lunatic, we still know the inevitable story is that he will be STOMPED!!!!

After a wild Thursday, the first 8 games of today have been won by the favorites.   There has been a couple close ones – including awesome efforts from two of the 13 seeds – as UC-Irvine was beating Louisville with less than a minute to play before giving up the last 4 points to lose by a basket.  And Valparaiso had a chance to hit a three pointer in their final possession before losing the ball and the game to Maryland.

So – still some exciting games.  But this time, the favorites seem to be the ones surviving.   We will have to see if the evening games continue to hold that form.

Brian Lawton earned the lead in both the standard and upset pools by getting 14 of 16 games correct.

Considering that not a single one of our 361 entries was able to correctly get all of the first 5 games correct, being able to survive the day with only 2 losses is an incredible achievement!!!!

Great job of picking the games, Brian!!!!

How do you lose a 7 point lead with 48 seconds, especially with the other team’s best player ejected earlier from the game.   My Boilers just couldn’t hit a free throw to extend their season to the weekend.  Just one would have been enough.

Very tough time to be a Boilermaker fan.  Hate to see such a turnaround season end with tons of missed opportunities.  I guess the only consolation I have is that Kentucky probably would have crushed us.  But right now, that is not much consolation.

As I watch Dayton finish off a nail-biter to come from behind to upset Boise State, the Lunatic realizes that he should create his own picks.   So, without further ado.

In my sane picks, I have Kentucky doing what Vegas says is even-odds (which is one of the first times I remember seeing that) – beating Notre Dame to win the Midwest and going on to win the entire tournament.   In the west, Arizona will knock off Wisconsin.   In the Midwest, Virginia will take out Villanova.   And then in the South, Duke will beat Iowa State.  This will lead to Kentucky beating Duke for the title.

In my insane picks, I still have Duke and Kentucky getting to the championship game.  But I have Wisconsin winning the west over Arizona.   And I have the Midwest completely blowing up, as Michigan State upsets Virginia and Louisville on their way to the Final Four.  This will lead to Duke upseting Kentucky’s perfect season and creating a new reason for Kentucky fans to hate Duke.

We currently have 263 entries – and it is not unheard of for us to get tons of entries on Thursday – don’t miss your chance to join the fun!!!!!   I am sure that all of you will have great odds of Stomping the Lunatic!!!!!!