March Madness 2023 - The Last Nantz Dance

The National Championship marks the end of a five-month long college basketball season.  That's always a little bittersweet because you know there are certain things that you won't see or hear for a while.  No drunk Bill Raftery yelling "ONIONS!".  No referees taking 10 minutes to decide whether an extra two-tenths of a second should be added to the clock.  No Lily from AT&T appearing on your screen every 30 seconds to do some lame ad that she appears to really hate doing herself.  (Note: The CBS/TNT guys were brutal on Lily this year.  Just openly stating how annoying the ads had become.  Poor Lily.)

But there was one thing that was going away forever after Monday night.  Jim Nantz was calling it a career as far as calling Final Four games was concerned.  Nantz had become the Pat Summerall of March Madness, that soothing voice who guided you through the game as the John Maddens (Billy Packer/Bill Raftery) provided the more animated moments of the broadcast.  And just as Nantz would always have a closing phrase lined up as the Masters winner sank his final putt, he would have one ready as the final seconds ticked off the clock in the national championship game every year.  But the 2023 national championship was all about a sendoff to the voice of the Final Four, fittingly in his adopted hometown of Houston.  He received several standing ovations over the weekend.  And the last line of his broadcast was less about the team who won (no spoilers yet!) and more about staying true to himself.  The guy who famously welcomes the audience with "hello friends" had a fitting farewell line for himself, hanging up his headset with "thank you for being my friend".  Nantz will still be anchoring coverage of the Masters this upcoming weekend and, who knows, maybe he will actually break out the Nantz Dance in a future Capital One commercial with Samuel L Jackson, Spike Lee, and Charles Barkley.  But his last college basketball call would be this national title tilt between Connecticut and San Diego State.

Would the Aztecs be the first team to give the Huskies a real battle?  Early on, it seemed like that might be the case.  I had predicted that this would almost certainly be a low-scoring affair, but San Diego State had jumped out to a 10-8 lead before this game hit the first TV timeout.  The Aztecs were on pace for 100!  Well, at least for 4 minutes they were.  After that first TV timeout, San Diego State's shots stopped falling. Part of it was due to the interior intimidation provided by Connecticut's big men.  Drives to the lane were rushed and shots were arched much higher than usual to avoid being swatted away by the Huskies giants down low.  As those shots began to miss, San Diego State resorted to shooting from beyond the arc, which really wasn't their specialty.  Connecticut wasn't exactly putting on a clinic on the offensive end as the Aztecs play pretty stingy D themselves, but they were putting the ball through the hoop occasionally.  As for San Diego State, they would go 11 minutes before connecting from the field again.  By then, Connecticut's lead was double digits and the Aztecs were in the same kind of trouble that the Huskies' first 5 opponents had found themselves in.  And when teams got desperate against Connecticut, they simply ended up digging a deeper hole for themselves.  

No sequence was more emblematic of this than the one that occurred with just over 3 minutes left in the first half.  San Diego State had just hit a three pointer to trim the lead from 16 to 13.  And now they had knocked the ball away out on the perimeter to generate an easy fast break opportunity.  Darrion Trammell, the Aztec who had saved them in their nail-biting win over Creighton, had no one in front of him and could cruise in for an easy layup.  But he saw a Connecticut player chasing after him.  Rather than take the gimme 2, he decided there was an opportunity to get 3 points on this play.  He slowed up and tried to lure the defender into fouling him as he laid the ball into the hoop.  Except he didn't get fouled.  And he missed  the layup.  Connecticut's Joey Calcaterra grabbed the rebound, pushed the ball up court and passed it to teammate Andre Jackson Jr. near the three point line.  Jackson caught the ball and deftly dropped behind his back while simultaneously facing the hoop and setting a pick on an Aztec defender.  Calcaterra was ready for this slick pass, rose up, and drained an open 3 to re-establish the lead to 16 points.  It was a 5 point play that went against San Diego State and killed off any momentum they may have been building.

The lead was 12 at halftime, but Connecticut's super power in this tournament has been running away and hiding in the first few minutes of the second half of every game.  But give the Aztecs credit as they didn't allow that to happen.  San Diego State wasn't doing much to cut into the lead, but they had renewed energy on the defensive end, which is where they excelled.  In essence, they were buying time.  The Huskies were used to having the game put away with 12 minutes to go, but the Aztecs were hanging around in that 10-12 points down range.  After another Calcaterra three increased Connecticut's lead to 15, San Diego State finally found an offensive rhythm.  They would score the next 9 points to creep within 6.  And with just over 5 minutes to go, they would draw within 5 points at 60-55.

Despite the Aztec run, Connecticut never looked truly fazed.  There was no panic.  There was no real change in how they ran their offense.  It was simply a look of "keep doing what got us here and we'll be fine".  And they were.  After San Diego State got within 5, the Huskies came down the floor and drained a three pointer to increase the lead back to 8.  And despite there being about five minutes to play, that shot felt like the dagger.  It was the moment where Connecticut seemed to let the Aztecs know that they weren't going to get close enough to make a last second play to win as they had done in their previous two games. The Huskies would end the game on a 16-4 run to win the national title by a score of 76-59.  It was one of the most dominant runs we've seen in this tournament and almost certainly the most dominant run of a team that wasn't a top seed.  Congratulations to Connecticut as they win their 5th national championship!

Other champions crowned on Monday night included Christopher, who didn't have to worry about 166 total points in the title game once San Diego State quit playing offense for 11 minutes of the first half.  He gets the crown in the Main Pool, where I finished second and Fred Alcaro finished third.  As for the Gamblers Pool, I will always be mystified how I came in first despite picking my beloved Wolfpack and watching them bow out in round 1.  I guess if there is enough chaos, any outcome can kinda/sorta make sense.  Christopher gets the runner-up spot in that pool with Natalie Schweitzer rounding out the podium.

The final standings can be found here.

I hope all of you enjoyed this year's epic version of March Madness where absolutely no team was safe.  Well, unless your team's gym is located in Storrs, Connecticut.  I want to thank you all for playing, thank you all for reading (or at least pretending to read), and thank you all for laughing (obviously pretending to laugh).  It means a lot to me that so many people look forward to this pool as their connection to March Madness, my favorite sporting event of the year.

So until next year, it's time to sign off.  Goodbye friends.

March Madness 2023 - Ain't No Sunshine Teams, They Gone

This spreadsheet is gonna look awfully similar to the last one you saw, but here it is.

Is there such a thing as too many upsets in this tournament?  The answer of course is no.  The upsets are what make this the best sporting event year in and year out.  But there is a percentage of folks out there who seem to want to see upsets on the first weekend and then big names reigning supreme in the second weekend so that the same teams compete in the Final Four every year.  Guess those people will have to wait until 2024 because this weekend was going to be all about San Diego State, Florida Atlantic, Miami, and Connecticut, with UConn being the only program with any previous Final Four experience.

Up first would be San Diego State (champions of the South region) vs Florida Atlantic (champions of the East region).  Both teams could lay claim to major accomplishments already.  The Aztecs took down the overall number 1 seed (Alabama) in the Sweet 16.  Meanwhile, no matter what happened in the Final Four, the Owls would end the season with the most wins in Division 1 basketball.  This game got started with a couple of early runs.  Florida Atlantic scored the first 5 points of the game before San Diego State responded with 14 straight.  Just when the Owls look staggered, they would come back with a 16-3 run of their own.  And really, from this point forward, Florida Atlantic would have their noses in front in this national semifinal.  They grew the lead to 10 before settling for a 7 point halftime lead.  In the second half, a crucial set of plays looked to spell doom for the Aztecs.  San Diego State already had three fouls in the second half when they committed an innocent looking 4th foul.  Micah Parrish decided to throw a small elbow after the play which is a big no-no in the college game.  A technical foul was called, leading to two free throws for the Owls.  After sinking those, Florida Atlantic quickly got a good look at a corner three, but San Diego State fouled again.  Three made free throws later and the possession had finally ended.  But now Florida Atlantic was in the bonus for the rest of the half and the lead had grown to 14.  The Aztecs were in deep, deep trouble.

But as is true in any sport, as the athletes creep closer to the title, the pressure gets ratcheted up.  And Florida Atlantic started to wobble under that pressure.  They started to foul more while on defense.  San Diego State wasn't making them pay from the charity stripe, but they didn't need to.  The Owls completely forgot how to box out on missed free throws.  Florida Atlantic might have had that one long possession which grew the lead to 14, but now the Aztecs were getting multiple prolonged possessions where they were able to chip away the lead while running up Florida Atlantic's foul total at the same time.  And as San Diego State slowly drew closer, Florida Atlantic couldn't knock down a shot.  After Alijah Martin made a three to put the Owls up 5 with 7:45 to play, Florida Atlantic would only make 1 field goal over the next 7 minutes.  And they didn't take advantage of getting into the bonus early either.  Still, the Aztecs started to get sloppy once they were able to see the finish line as well.  They drew even with the Owls several times, but couldn't take the lead.  And when Florida Atlantic made a layup with 46 seconds to go to bring their advantage back up to 3, it looked like this year's biggest Cinderella story might be playing on Monday night.

San Diego State regained their composure in the final minute though.  They scored a quick two to draw within 1 with 36 seconds to play.  They then made the decision not to foul (which I honestly believe was a mistake).  Florida Atlantic brought the clock down to 9 seconds before star player Johnell Davis drove to the hoop.  He was unable to extend the lead back to 3 as San Diego State grabbed the rebound and hurried downcourt.  Their star player was not on the court and the Aztecs had a timeout they could call to get him back in the game, but coach Brian Dutcher decided to roll the dice one more time.  He let his squad play on, a decision that looked shaky as the clock got down to 2 seconds with guard Lamont Butler looking a little confused about what to do with the ball.  There was no time for a pass, so he pulled up and let the ball fly with just tenths of a second on the clock.  And Butler found nothing but net.  There's been a lot of craziness in this year's tournament, but this was our first true buzzer beater.  The Aztecs tear the hearts out of Florida Atlantic at the horn, moving on to the title game with a 72-71 victory over the nation's winningest team.

We would find out in the second national semifinal whether the seemingly inevitable coronation of the Connecticut Huskies could be stopped.  The Huskies have steamrolled all of their opponents through four rounds of the tournament and they were big favorites to continue that trend against the Miami Hurricanes. Miami's resume was a little better than they were being given credit for though.  They were co-champions of the ACC and the #1 seed in the conference tournament.  They played the highest seed possible in every round on the road to the Final Four, dismissing Indiana, Houston, and Texas along the way.  And they had the most experienced coach of the remaining 4 teams, a guy who had brought an unknown George Mason program to this stage 17 years ago.  If anybody could figure out a way to stop the Huskies, it would be Jim Larranaga.

Early on in this one, it looked like the stage might be too big for the Hurricanes.  The calling card for Connecticut in this tournament has been their ability to wear out the other team, usually running away and hiding early in the second half.  But in this game, they were off and running in the first half.  The Huskies scored the first 9 points of the game.  If Connecticut only got better as the game wore on, then Miami couldn't afford to fall behind this quickly.  But Larrnaga's team settled into the moment and worked their way back into the game.  With a little over 8 minutes left in the half, the Hurricanes had tied the game up at 19.

Just when it seemed like Miami had proven that they were in for a 15 round fight, Connecticut hit them with a brutal uppercut.  The Huskies would score the next eight points to build a formidable lead again.  Connecticut simply has had too much size for everyone in this tournament, starting with big man Adama Sanogo.  Sanogo is one of those players whose impact on the game doesn't fully come through on the stat sheet.  Sure, he'd end up with 21 points (including two made 3's!) and 10 rebounds, but his presence in the lane caused Miami to miss a bunch of layups.  And when he wasn't patrolling the paint, Connecticut had backup center Donovan Clingan disrupting the Hurricanes attempts to drive to the hoop.  The Huskies lead was 13 by halftime and, less than 4 minutes into the second half, it had ballooned to 20.

From there, it was just a matter of how big the winning margin would be.  Give Miami credit though, as they played the second half a bit like Pitt had played against Xavier in their second round game.  At no point did you really believe they could win, but they kept fighting until the final buzzer.  They would draw within 8 at one point before falling by the 13 point margin that Connecticut had held at the half.  The Huskies will attempt to run the table by double-digits when taking on the San Diego State Aztecs in this year's national championship.  Miami's run ends here, after a 72-59 defeat.

I mentioned in the last recap that there wasn't going to be much to update in the standings after the national semifinals.  In the Main Pool, there was practically nothing, as the tie between Christopher and myself depends on the final score of the national championship.  But with San Diego State's buzzer beater getting them into the title game, it seems extremely unlikely that the total score will reach the 166 points I would need to win on Monday night.  Miami came into the Final Four averaging 80 points per game and couldn't reach 60 against Connecticut.  The Aztecs will need to have their best offensive performance of the year to give me a chance.  But don't shed a tear for me on that front because Connecticut's victory over Miami gave me the crown in the Gamblers Pool (rigged!).  Christopher will take second place there.  As for the bronze medals, they go to Fred Alcaro in the Main Pool and to Natalie Schweitzer in the Gamblers Pool.

Second-to-last standings can be found here.

One final game.  One shining moment.  One last recap.  Tune in and enjoy the ending to the maddest March I've ever seen since running these pools.

March Madness 2023 - The Perfect Storm

The Final Four is set.  And nearly all the brackets are done.  Find the almost fully complete pool standings here.

Who was going to take on the refuse-to-lose Florida Atlantic Owls in the national semifinals?  A surprising rematch would determine that answer.  San Diego State and Creighton were meeting in the tournament for the second season in a row, though there were much bigger stakes on the line this time around.  These teams met in round one last year, with San Diego State blowing a late nine point lead then losing in overtime.  That might have given the Aztecs some extra motivation in this one, although how much extra motivation do you need when your school's first Final Four appearance is on the line (true for both schools)?

Most of this game was played at San Diego State's pace, another disadvantage for the Bluejays, but Creighton held the lead for much of this game despite that.  They weren't hitting as many three-pointers as they typically do, but they were getting the ball inside to big man Ryan Kalkbrenner, who was a nightmare matchup for San Diego State.  The low-scoring affair went to halftime with Creighton holding a 33-28 edge.  It was avert your eyes time in the second half.  There is no way to describe the opening 12 minutes of half number two as anything but ugly.  Neither team could convert offensively without any regularity, as they would combine to score 23 points during those 12 minutes.  Tennessee had spoken about making Duke "play in the mud" during their second round game and San Diego State was doing something similar here.  The offense picked up a little in the home stretch as the Aztecs would go on an 11-3 run to nose their way back in front, a position they had not been in since very early in the game.  But their biggest lead in this game would only be 4 as they could not pull away from this pesky Creighton squad.  The Aztecs looked like they might be in control after a Bluejays miss with 40 seconds to play as they had a two point lead and could run out most of the clock.  But as we saw in their game against Alabama (and in their late game collapse against this Creighton team in round one last year), San Diego State might be the worst team in the country against a press.  First, they tried to inbound the ball and couldn't, forcing them to call a timeout to avoid a five-second call against them.  Somehow they drew up one of the worst inbounds passes you will see in a basketball game at any level.  San Diego State's Adam Seiko (who was playing against his brother, Creighton's Arthur Kaluma, in yet another odd subplot from this game) decided to try and lob the ball from the sideline back towards a teammate that was running towards Creighton's basket.  The pass was overthrown, Creighton easily picked it off and laid the ball in to tie the game.  I know the backwards heave from the Virginia game was more shocking because it led to a last second three that won the game for Furman, but this play was just way worse in terms of fundamentals than that one was.

San Diego State may have blown the lead on that dumb play, but Creighton would make all of the head scratching decisions over the last 33 seconds.  San Diego State clearly was having trouble with the press, but with the game now tied, the Bluejays backed off and let the Aztecs walk the ball up the court on the next possession.  Because there was slightly more than 30 seconds left, San Diego State was going to have to shoot the ball and Creighton would likely get one more shot at winning the game.  But with a foul to give before the Aztecs were in the bonus, Creighton decided to foul San Diego State on purpose with just under 7 seconds to play and about 4 seconds on the shot clock.  That foul would normally reset the shot clock to 20 seconds, but with only 7 seconds left, the shot clock was turned off, meaning San Diego State could take the last shot of the game.  Bizarre decision.  The Aztecs tried to inbound the ball and had all sorts of trouble again as Creighton pressured the inbounds pass, but San Diego State eventually got it in.  The ball would get passed to their savior in this regional, guard Darrion Trammell.  He drove around the player guarding him, pulled up at the foul line and took a jumper.  It would be short and to the left, as Trammell fell to the floor on his left side.  And as the ball hit the rim, a whistle could be heard.  The refs called a foul on Creighton's Ryan Nembhard with 1.2 seconds to go.  There was plenty of uproar about this call.  Some believe you can't make that call with 1.2 seconds to go, which I personally believe is crazy.  If you're calling it with 15 minutes left, it should be called with 1 second left.  Or don't call it with 15 minutes left if it is truly a borderline call.  But be consistent.  The other issue was that Nembhard had drawn the call by putting his hand on Trammell's hip, which didn't seem like much contact at all.  But I would submit to you that if you jump straight up in the air, it is really hard to land sideways from that position unless you're given some assistance (go ahead, try it!).  It might not have looked like much, but Nembhard definitely gave him a nudge to the left, which seemed to have affected the shot, which missed to the left.  No matter what anyone else thought, the ref called the foul and Trammell was going to the line.  He missed the first (ball don't lie?), putting maximum pressure on himself for the second free throw.  But that one was pure, leaving Creighton with nothing more than a full court Hail Mary to win the game.  And they came close to at least increasing their chances.  They threw a full court heave that hit the fingers of several players before falling out of bounds.  And on replay, it looked like 0.1 seconds remained when the ball hit out of bounds.  So even though the Bluejays would only be able to tap the ball into the hoop with that amount of time on the clock, they happened to have a 7'1" dude who was considerably taller than anybody on the Aztecs roster and they would be taking the ball out right next to their hoop if they were awarded possession.  But the refs determined that the clock didn't start immediately when the ball was touched, meaning the 0.1 should have run off and the game was over.  Plenty of controversy late, but it is San Diego State heading to Houston after a 57-56 victory over Creighton.

One more ticket to be punched and that ticket would go to the victor of the Midwest region.  Miami had ended Houston's hopes of playing the Final Four in their home city when they beat them in the Sweet 16.  Now they would be attempting to end Texas' hopes of playing the Final Four in their home state.  The Longhorns would once again be without the guy who led them through the first two rounds of this tournament, Dylan Disu, but they showed in the last round that they were perfectly capable of destroying a very good team without him as they dismissed Xavier without much trouble.  It was the Hurricanes who got off to a hot start in this one, racing out to a 9-2 lead, but that lead would be short-lived.  Texas shook off the jitters and went on a 15-4 run to put themselves out in front.  They would maintain and eventually extend that lead to 8 by halftime.  One fun note from the late stages of the first half: Miami's Nigel Pack was driving towards the corner and had a little too much momentum, so as he was falling out of bounds, he put up a desperation jumper that found its way into the hoop.  But the refs waved it off.  Why?  Because in the college game, you are not allowed to shoot over the backboard.  And that was the only angle Pack had because he was falling out of bounds.  This wouldn't be the last unique Miami play of the game.

In the second half, Texas increased their lead even further, giving the impression that Miami's magical run may be coming to a conclusion.  The Longhorns led by 13 and were on defense as Miami inbounded the ball under their own hoop.  Now you might not be able to shoot over the backboard, but you know what you are allowed to do in the college game?  Bounce an inbounds pass off the opponent's ass and then dunk the ball furiously!  Texas made the mistake of defending the inbounds pass with their backs turned to the guy with the ball.  Miami's Wooga Poplar took notice, bounced it off the defender's butt, and then slammed it home.  The Hurricanes run didn't start immediately as a result of this play, but it was a moment where Miami suddenly seemed to have life again.  A few minutes later, Miami would go on a 13-2 run to take their first lead in forever, leaving the Longhorns looking a little wobbly.  The teams would trade baskets over the next couple of minutes, but momentum stayed in Miami's corner.  The final stretch would be dominated by Miami's Jordan Miller, who was perfect from the free throw line in his 8 attempts over the last 4 minutes of the game.  In fact, this Hurricane was perfect the entire game, going 7-7 from the field and 13-13 from the charity stripe.  Texas had no answer to Miller late and Miami slowly put this one away.  Jim Larranaga brought George Mason to their first Final Four and now he has done with Miami.  The Hurricanes are headed to Houston to take on Connecticut, winning the Midwest regional final over Texas by a score of 88-81.

Exciting news for all those who are upset that their brackets are done...so is everybody else's!  Okay, there is one exception, but we'll get to that.  All brackets in the Main Pool are kaput, but first place hasn't been decided yet.  Christopher and I are tied with 66 points, so the championship game tiebreaker will be needed to determine first place.  I need the combined score to be higher than 166 points, so if San Diego State beats Florida Atlantic, you can go ahead and assume that Christopher is the champ, as the Aztecs would need a triple overtime game to get to 80 points.  Fred Alcaro rides his alma mater to a 3rd place finish in the Main Pool.  Over in the Gamblers Pool, I currently hold a 4 point edge over Christopher, who used different picks in that pool.  One of those picks was taking Miami to make the championship game and if Christopher is right about that, he'll score 5 points and take the crown in this pool.  That is the only bracket with any action remaining in either pool.  First time participant Natalie Schweitzer hangs on for 3rd place in the Gamblers Pool.

To see the full spreadsheet, click here.

The Final Four begins on Saturday with three first-timers and a suddenly dominant-looking Connecticut team.  But if this tournament has shown us anything, it is that things don't always play out the way you might expect.  Enjoy the rest of the week and make sure to not only catch the men's action on Saturday night, but the Women's Final Four beginning on Friday night, as the most exciting player in all of college basketball, Caitlin Clark, meets the immovable object, the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks, in the national semifinals.

March Madness 2023 - Few and Drew Got Nothing Left To Do

You're definitely going to read this recap, right?  It's only two games!  Fine, fine...for those only interested in the spreadsheet, you can find it here.

But if you're ready to find out which two teams punched their tickets to the Final Four, you're in for a treat.  It's gonna be a pretty short read.  Of the two games, most people were interested in the later game, figuring that the early game would not be that interesting.  However, 2023 is March Madness on steroids.  Better to expect the unexpected.  And as a result, we had a great opener and a snoozer of a closer.

Kansas State has been a surprise all season.  Florida Atlantic is a school that most casual college basketball viewers aren't familiar with, but they've been in the Top 25 rankings this year.  They were the last two standing in a region that included Purdue, Marquette, Tennessee, Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State.  The "name" schools had their chance to cut down the nets in Madison Square Garden, but they were knocked out one by one.  So now it came down to the Wildcats and the Owls to decide who would get the first golden ticket to Houston.  These teams were evenly matched and it showed throughout this one.  The star of this tournament has been Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell, but Florida Atlantic also had a "little guy" in Johnell Davis who had been essential in getting the Owls to the Elite Eight.  Both teams liked to get up and down the court.  And both teams had a big guy who they relied on to make plays from time to time.

In the first half, neither team could build a big advantage.  Florida Atlantic held the lead for most of the first 20 minutes, but Kansas State kept things close.  And this wasn't one of those low-scoring slugfests.  Each team was lighting it up on the offensive end.  Kansas State would get one last layup before the half to cut the Owls lead down to 4.  If the second half lived up to what we saw in the first 20 minutes, we were in for an exciting finish.  With Nowell feeling unstoppable and Kansas State being the team from a major conference, there was a sense that if the Wildcats went on a run, then Florida Atlantic could be in some trouble.  That run came early in the second half, as Kansas State came out of the break on a 19-8 run to go up by seven.  How would the Owls respond?  Well, a big part of that run was due to Florida Atlantic starting to misfire on the offensive end.  They just needed to see the ball go through the hoop a couple of times to get back into rhythm.  Those 8 points I mentioned came over the course of the opening 8 minutes of the second half.  With the perimeter game on fumes, the Owls decided to get their big guy involved to turn the tide.  And center Vladislav Goldin came through for them.  He'd score 6 points for them over a stretch that saw them come back and regain the lead.  Now it was the Wildcats who had gone cold.  Nowell was still filling up the stat sheet, but his balanced attack from the win over Michigan State (20 points, 19 assists) had been changed in this game as he was first and foremost a scorer in this one.  And once it became clear that he'd be the primary offense, Nowell started forcing up some shots, just as he had done late in the game against the Spartans.  A 63-57 lead for Kansas State had now become a 67-63 deficit with only 4 minutes left to play.

The fireworks would pick up again down the stretch.  FAU's Alijah Martin (infamous for his missed dunk at the buzzer against FDU) drained a three and then hit two free throws on the next possession to put the Owls up eight.  Kansas State countered with two free throws from sharpshooter Ismael Massoud, followed by a long three from Nowell to cut the margin back to three again.  Johnell Davis hadn't been heard from in a while, but a driving layup made the lead 5 again.  Nowell would get fouled on the other end and calmly drained two free throws to get it back to a 3 point deficit with about a minute to play.  Martin would try for the dagger three, but that was no good.  Nowell tried to trim the lead to 1, but his layup wouldn't fall.  It was now time for Kansas State to foul.  The Owls could only make one of two to bring the lead to 4 temporarily, as the Wildcats raced down and drained a three to make it a one-point game again with 24 seconds to go.  Another foul put FAU on the line and Michael Forrest made both free throws.  Kansas State decided not to go for three, taking an easy layup to make it a one point game with 8 seconds to go.  The Owls were able to run 2 seconds off the clock again before Forrest was sent back to the free throw line.  He had ice in his veins, as he swished two more no doubters.  At this point, it seemed likely that Florida Atlantic would foul rather than let Nowell make yet another magical play in this tournament, but they surprisingly did not.  Several players met him as he came across with midcourt with the ball, but no one fouled.  Then Nowell did the unexpected: he passed the ball.  With only 2 seconds on the clock, he threw it to Massoud, who would get doubled immediately and then have the ball stripped away.  That was it.  The run of Jerome Tang and Markquis Nowell was over, while Florida Atlantic heads to their first ever Final Four, clinching the East region with a 79-76 triumph.

A couple of notes about these two teams.  To those who say that this tournament isn't as good as previous ones because Florida Atlantic has made it this far, I would say go watch another sport.  No one had a problem with #8 seed North Carolina getting to the title game last year, or #11 seed UCLA going from the First Four to the Final Four two years ago.  It's not crazy that a #9 seed has made it this far.  And this Florida Atlantic team has won 35 games this year.  They aren't a fluke on any level.  As for Kansas State, Markquis Nowell put up one of the all-time great performances in this tournament.  Even in this loss, he put up 30 points and 12 assists, making him one of only a handful of players to put up 30+ points and 10+ assists in a tournament game, just 48 hours after setting an NCAA record for assists in a tournament game.  As for first-year head coach Jerome Tang, he has a bright future.  He took a team expected to finish last in the Big 12 to the doorstep of the Final Four.  He also had enough class to go to the Florida Atlantic locker room after the game to congratulate them on their win and let them know that they were the toughest team they had played this year.  The Kansas State Wildcats are in good hands.

Game two featured at least two of the three title favorites once the field had been trimmed down to the Elite Eight.  Gonzaga seems like they are a title contender every year now.  Just one problem.  They still don't have a title.  They weren't going to get a better chance than this year with so many upsets having occurred already.  They would be facing a Connecticut Huskies squad that hadn't been tested yet in this tournament, winning every game by at least 15 points.  One question that had yet to be answered: How would Connecticut react if they were facing a tight battle in the final few minutes of a tournament game?  After all, this was a team that had lost 8 times this year, so it wasn't like they were invincible.  If Gonzaga could keep things close or had a lead late in the second half, maybe the Huskies wouldn't look as smooth as they had in their first three beatdowns.

Well, we still don't have the answer to that question.  Gonzaga led the nation in scoring this year, but one of the storylines that kinda emerged along their path to the Elite Eight was that they had sort of morphed into those teams like Purdue and Kentucky.  Those teams became heavily reliant on their big man without getting much help from their guards.  And the Zags had become the same way.  Drew Timme was carrying the load for them with the occasional assist from Julian Strawther, who was more of a guard/forward hybrid.  But the actual guards on the team were contributing very little.  Gonzaga's three-point shooting was poor in the first three rounds and their free throw shooting wasn't very good either.  Timme had put up 36 against UCLA, but it felt like he'd need at least 40 against Connecticut if the guards didn't step up their game.  Early on in this one, Timme must have realized he was going to have to shoulder the load again.  The Zags had several open threes in the first few minutes and two of them wound up being airballs.  It was going to be get the ball into the post or use transition offense if Gonzaga was going to make it to the Final Four.  For Connecticut, their attack was much more well-balanced.  And surprisingly, it was their big man,  Adama Sanogo, who was facilitating their offense.  Gonzaga didn't want Timme getting into foul trouble guarding Sanogo, so they would often double-team him.  Sanogo found his open teammates, finishing the first with 5 assists, a career high for him.  Finding open teammates was the theme of the first half for the Huskies, so it was appropriate that the half ended with Connecticut getting the ball to an open Alex Karajan for a three that extended their lead to 7 at the break.

Connecticut had broken several of their games open early in the second half, so Gonzaga would need a hot start to keep their chances alive.  That did not happen.  Timme, who picked up two fouls in the last 5 minutes of the first half, was called for an offensive foul less than 30 seconds into the second half.  Two minutes later, he was called for a very dubious foul.  That 4th foul would mark the end of Gonzaga's season for all intents and purposes.  Not because the Zags were going to come back and win this game (all indications at that point were that Gonzaga's guards couldn't hit enough shots to keep the team in it).  Rather the Zags had become lost on the offensive end without Timme on the court.  And with more than 17 minutes to play and 4 fouls, he was destined to be off the court for a while.  Connecticut immediately went for the jugular.  They led by 10 when Timme went to the bench.  A minute later, the lead was 18.  Everyone in a Gonzaga uniform looked like they had no hope left.  Eventually, Connecticut would be up by as much as 33 points.  The final margin would be 28, as Connecticut rolls on to the Final Four with another blowout victory, winning the West region by a score of 82-54.

As with the other game, a few comments about these teams.  Gonzaga has been a great program for nearly 20 years now, but you start to wonder whether they wouldn't trade spots with Virginia, a team known for getting upset in the early rounds of this tournament over and over again, but who managed to put it together one time to win a title.  As for Connecticut, they are going to be the big favorites in Houston next weekend.  During the Texas game last night, the commentator working the game was asked in the final moments if Texas was now the favorite as the highest seed remaining.  He responded "obviously they are".  That statement seemed dubious then and seems downright foolish now.  Even if the Longhorns blow out Miami tomorrow afternoon, my guess is that Vegas would still make them an underdog to this Huskies team that is firing on all cylinders at the moment.  One other note about Connecticut: all 8 of their losses this season were to Big East teams.  And there is still one Big East team lurking in the bracket.  That would be Creighton, who gave the Huskies one of those L's.  Would be an interesting title game if they met up.

Time for pool standings and with so many upsets, there is a bit of clarity even with 5 games remaining to be played.  In each pool, there are three people still alive to be champion.  In the Main Pool, Christopher's bracket is done, but he holds a 5 point lead.  I would need Miami to beat Texas and then have a favorable tiebreaker result to catch him.  Alex Peerenboom needs Texas to get to the title game to win the pool.  Fred Alcaro is currently in third, but like Christopher, his bracket is finished.  In the Gamblers Pool, I'm leading by 4 points over Christopher, who needs Miami to reach the final to win.  Dwight Crowley can still win if Texas gets to the title game and he beats me in the tiebreaker.  Natalie Schweitzer is sitting in 3rd and can finish as high as 2nd if Texas beats Miami and then loses to Connecticut in the Final Four.

Full standings and more can be found here.

Two more spots to be filled in the Final Four.  San Diego State and Creighton will decide the South region in the first game, with the winner taking on Florida Atlantic next weekend.  Then Miami and Texas clash to see who will take on the juggernaut known as Connecticut.  Enjoy the games!

March Madness 2023 - "The U" Oughta Know

The recaps will get shorter.  I promise.  But if you want no recap, just click here.

Only 12 teams remained heading into Friday night and with this being the craziest March Madness in recent memory (and given this tournament's history, that's saying a lot!), it was fair to wonder whether the #1 seeds would survive another round.  We would find out right away, as the first two games of the night featured Alabama and Houston.

We'd start off in the South region with the overall #1 seed Alabama.  This team has been shrouded in controversy all year due to a murder that involved several players, most notably All-American Brandon Miller.  And if you think I'm belaboring the point, the godfather of Alabama sports (Nick Saban) would disagree.  Earlier this week, Saban suspended a member of the Crimson Tide football team after he had been arrested.  Saban then pointedly said "there is no such thing as wrong place, wrong time".  That was the excuse Alabama's basketball coach, Nate Oats, gave when addressing Miller's involvement in the murder.  It was a flip response that no one appreciated, even within the Alabama athletic community.  That being said, if there is one truth in sports, it is that winning absolves everything, and the Crimson Tide seemed to have gotten the draw of all draws in terms of getting to the National Championship.  They faced little opposition in the first two rounds when playing Texas A&M - Corpus Christi and Maryland.  After Thursday night's results, Alabama would need to beat San Diego State, the winner of Creighton/Princeton, and then the winner of Kansas State/Florida Atlantic to play for the title.  Not exactly Murderer's Row, but in the tournament, it was silly to take anyone for granted.  Especially a team as good defensively as San Diego State.

The Aztecs play the game the way that Virginia and Tennessee did, and you might think "well, that's no good, those teams got upset".  Well, that style plays a little better in the tournament when you're the underdog.  When you're the favorite, you don't want to let the underdog hang around, but if you're the underdog, you don't mind so much if things stay tight.  And that's how the first half played out in this one. In horse racing, we always say "pace makes the race" and the Aztecs had Alabama playing at their pace in the first half.  It was a low scoring, grind it out type of affair, with San Diego State getting the better of it, heading to the locker room ahead 28-23.  Coach Oats definitely sent the message that his players needed to pick up the pace in the second half, as they forced the action immediately, going on a 17-6 run.  The Aztecs foolishly tried to go up and down the court with Alabama and paid the price.  After the Crimson Tide increased their lead to 9, San Diego State remembered that they would have to play their way to advance.  Over the next 4 minutes, they would go on a 12-0 run to retake the lead.  Meanwhile, neither team was getting much production from their top scorers.  Miller was misfiring from all over the place, hitting only 3 shots from the field and totaling just 9 points.  The Aztecs had a worse problem as their best player, Matt Bradley, had a goose egg to this point.  But Bradley would get on the scoreboard late in the game, helping out teammate Darrion Trammell who had been carrying the Aztec offense.  On the other end, Alabama was struggling to score inside due to the presence of San Diego State's Nathan Mensah, who was swatting away anything near the rim.

San Diego State led by 9 with less than 1:30 to go and it seemed the game was well in hand, but putting away games must not be a West Coast thing.  Just as Gonzaga had done the night before, San Diego State began to wilt under the late game pressure.  They started turning the ball over.  They couldn't make free throws.  And they were fouling Alabama.  30 seconds later, the lead was down to two.  The Aztecs needed to steady themselves at the free throw line and eventually they did.  They would make 5 of their next 6 free throws while not allowing the Crimson Tide to score another point.  Say bye-bye to another #1 as Brandon Miller does his best Cade Cunningham impression in this year's tournament.  San Diego State will make their first Elite Eight appearance after a 71-64 victory over the top team in the land.

Alabama's loss left the Houston Cougars as the only #1 seed remaining in the tournament.  And they would not have an easy task on their hands trying to defeat the Miami Hurricanes.  Miami had shown in their second round game against Indiana how dangerous a team can be when they have exceptional guard play and the ability to clean up on the glass.  They also had one of the most likable coaches in America, Jim Larranaga.  Larranaga had brought George Mason to the Final Four back in 2006.  Now he was aiming to bring the Hurricanes to back-to-back Elite Eights, after having never made it before last year.  Could this Miami team score enough against a stingy Houston defense that allowed under 57 points per game this year?

The answer sure seemed to be yes early on.  Both teams started out ice cold for about two minutes, then both went on a scoring spree, which was much more to Miami's playing style than Houston's.  With about 5 minutes left in the first half, the score was tied at 31, so unless Miami went ice cold like UCLA did in the second half of their game on Thursday, 57 was going to be a breeze (wasn't meant to be a Hurricane joke, but now that I've written it, I am not changing it).  "The U" would actually end the half on an 11-5 run, giving them a 6 point lead at the break and leaving Houston coach Kelvin Sampson scratching his head on how to stop this team.

Miami didn't slow down in the second half.  They scored the first 5 points after intermission.  Then they went on a 14-2 run that opened the lead to 17.  The Cougars wouldn't get the lead under double digits the rest of the way.  As much as I hate to say nice things about another ACC club, Miami has kinda become the most likable team to watch in this tournament.  They will head to yet another Elite Eight, sending home the final #1 seed in Houston by a score of 89-75.  Not only will "The U" be represented in the Elite Eight of the men's tournament, they will be joined by the women's team who upset #1 seed Indiana and #4 Villanova to find themselves one win away from a Final Four appearance as well.

Not sure who would have predicted that #6 seed Creighton and #15 seed Princeton would be battling for the right to play #5 seed San Diego State with a trip to the Final Four on the line, but that is how things have played out in the South region.  Creighton, like their Big East brethren Connecticut, had a ton of early season success, went into a bit of a swoon, and then came into this tournament as a bit of an enigma. But with 10 teams remaining at this point, the Big East was represented by three of them, so falling short in conference play might not have been as bad as it looked.  On the other side of the court was Princeton, who was actually the #2 seed in the four-team Ivy League tournament, but they won two games there, then won two games against slightly stiffer competition (Arizona and Missouri) to find themselves in the Sweet 16.  This one was a shootout early on.  Creighton is known for its scoring, so that wasn't much of a surprise.  And Princeton showed during the first weekend that they weren't here to play the 43-41 style game that old coach Pete Carril used to upset UCLA once upon a time.  In fact, 43-41 was already in the rear view window by the time this one got to the half.  Creighton held the lead, but it was a slim 47-43 advantage.

The first 8 minutes of this game was where it was decided.  The Bluejays kept their offense humming along at the pace it was going in the first half, while the Tigers finally hit a wall.  Creighton would outscore Princeton 21-9 during this stretch, building a 16 point edge and putting this game out of reach.  But give credit to "the smart kids".  They never stopped trying and were able to get the lead down to 7 points at one stage, but that would be as close as it got.  Creighton advances to their first Elite Eight, further twisting the knife they put in my back in round one.  A valiant Princeton team bids adieu.  The Bluejays face the Aztecs for a spot in the Final Four after an 86-75 victory.

As was the case on Thursday night, it seemed like the best matchup of the evening was slated for last.  But unlike UCLA and Gonzaga, Texas and Xavier didn't have any notable history between them.  They just happened to be two of the top seeds remaining in this insane tournament and they were colliding in round three.  Texas got some horrible news before the game, as the man who led them to victory in round two, Dylan Disu, was injured and would not be available against the Musketeers.  Perhaps that adversity was exactly what the Longhorns needed, as they took it to Xavier from the opening tip.  Texas scored the first 6 points in this one and would never trail.  Xavier had a lot of good looks in the first half, but their shots would not fall.  The Longhorns had everything going their way.  Already up 14 with time winding down in the first half, Texas' Timmy Allen put up a desperation heave that banked in to put the Longhorns up 17.  If Xavier's bubble hadn't been deflated before, it seemed to be once that miracle went in.  Texas would increase the lead to as high as 24 in the second half before Xavier made the final score a bit more respectable in the final minutes.  But the Musketeers would not be the 3rd Big East team to make it to the Elite Eight.  Instead, it will be Texas after a dominant 83-71 victory.

On to the standings...Christopher (still don't have a last name) has jumped into the lead of the Main Pool, holding a 1 point edge on me as we head into the final 7 games of this year's tournament.  Fred Alcaro is stubbornly holding on to 3rd, 6 points back.  In the Gamblers Pool, thanks to all of the chaos, the guy who picked NC State to win it all holds a 7 point edge over Natalie Schweitzer.  Christopher holds third in that pool.

Now that you've patiently read about all of Friday's action, you can access the spreadsheet here.

Time to punch some tickets to the Final Four!  The East region will see underdogs collide at Madison Square Garden as Kansas State and Florida Atlantic battle for a trip to Houston, followed by a heavyweight matchup between Connecticut and Gonzaga in Las Vegas to decide who will represent the West region.  Just two games tomorrow - don't miss them!

March Madness 2023 - Dad Jinxed Me

Just here for the spreadsheet?  You can find it here.

The Sweet 16 is upon us and that means evenly spaced out games that are a heck of a lot easier to keep track of over the course of the day.  Two regions playing with games spaced out a half hour apart.  It ensures that we don't have multiple games coming down to the wire at the same time.  Ya know, unless a game goes to overtime, which we hadn't in this year's tournament until...

...welcome to Madison Square Garden, where the first game of the East regional featured the surprising Wildcats of Kansas State vs Tom Izzo's battle-tested Michigan State Spartans.  After his amazing play in the second round vs Kentucky, the focus was on Wildcat guard Markquis Nowell.  Nowell was seemingly involved in all of his team's scoring in that game, whether it was emulating Magic Johnson with some fancy passing or channeling his inner Steph Curry with some cold-blooded threes to end Kentucky's hopes of advancing.  Somehow Nowell would raise his game Thursday night on one of the biggest stages in basketball.  This game was a high scoring, but fairly evenly matched affair through the first 24 minutes of play.  Kansas State held a lead of 43-38 at the half despite the fact that the Spartans were on fire from outside of the arc.  About 4 minutes into the second half, a play happened that seemed to spell doom for the Wildcats.  As Nowell was driving to the hoop, he turned his ankle.  During the TV timeout, he was unable to put any weight on his injured leg, leaving everyone to wonder whether he would be able to continue.  But Nowell wouldn't be out of the game long, even though it appeared that he was playing on one leg for the next few minutes.  He made a spectacular play, heaving up a desperation three with the shot clock winding down that banked in, tying the game at 55 while he hopped down the court to try and play defense.  Both teams put on a show on the offensive end.  Michigan State was getting contributions from everyone on the court, whether it was AJ Hoggard continually driving to the hoop against a hobbled Nowell or the continued bombardment from three-point range from Joey Hauser, Tyson Walker, and Jaden Akins.  Nowell might have been facilitating the offense for Kansas State, throwing highlight reel passes to David N'Guessan and Nae'Qwan Tomlin, while getting long range shooting help from Cam Carter and Ismael Massoud.  Just as Kansas State seemed to be pulling away, gaining a 7 point edge with under five minutes to go, there was an immediate response from the Spartans, draining a three to let the Wildcats know they weren't ready to go home.  There were several times in the final minutes where Nowell would try and hit a three from beyond NBA range to try and end it, but none of them connected.  Michigan State continued to drive to the hoop, eventually tying the game with 5 seconds left.  Nowell would get the inbounds pass and race down the court for a potential game-winning layup, but the attempt would bounce off the rim.  This tournament has more than lived up to the Madness label, but until now, it hadn't had an overtime.  Off to the extra session!

In OT, the teams yet again traded the lead back and forth as Nowell crept closer and closer to the NCAA tournament single game record for assists, which was 18.  With the game tied and about a minute to go, Nowell would tie the record on the play of the tournament.  Walking down the court, Nowell appeared to be arguing with his coach in a very animated fashion.  Right as the argument ended, he fired the ball towards the hoop from just inside half court.  As the ball headed towards the rim, teammate Keyontae Johnson was streaking to the hoop, having cut behind his defender who was mesmerized by the player-coach argument had been taking place.  Johnson rose up, caught the ball facing away from the hoop, and reverse jammed home the alley oop, sending MSG into hysteria.  After the game, the Kansas State players and staff would claim this wasn't a designed play, but I urge you to go back and watch the incredibly bad acting of coach Jerome Tang.  There's no chance this wasn't scripted.  But it was a hell of a play at a hell of a moment.  Michigan State wasn't dead yet though.  They would get fouled on the next trip down the floor and make 1 of 2 from the free throw line, leaving them down by 1.  Nowell once again tried a crazy long 3 to end it and it missed badly.  A Spartan player allowed the ball to bounce out of bounds, but the refs gave possession to Kansas State.  Replay confirmed that the ball had nicked the fingers of a Michigan State defender.  Nowell would inbound the ball, finding Massoud in the corner for a jumper that would extend the lead to three and give Nowell the NCAA record for assists in a tournament game.  The Spartans had one last chance to tie, but they made a mess of their final possession.  Nowell knocked the ball free as Michigan State desperately tried to shoot a three.  He tracked down the ball, sprinted down the court, and spun in a reverse layup as time expired to send Kansas State to the Elite Eight, winning by a score of 98-93.  Nowell would end the game with 20 points and 19 assists in an all-time performance.  After the game, coach Tom Izzo would channel his inner John Calipari and disrespect the upstart Wildcats, saying that it was a couple of lucky shots that decided the game.  You have to wonder if that disrespect continues to fuel Kansas State as they move further in this tournament, hoping to reach their first Final Four in the modern era.

That was a really long recap...ready for a shorter one?  Connecticut hasn't given me too much to write about in this tournament because they have been bludgeoning their opponents especially in the second half.  They trailed by one against Iona only to win by 24.  They were up by one in their next game against Saint Mary's, but ended up winning by 15 in a game that never really felt that close in the second half.  Surely Arkansas, who had just dethroned defending champion Kansas, would give them more of a game, right?  Wrong.  Connecticut didn't even bother waiting for the second half to establish their dominance in this one.  The Huskies would build a 17 point lead going into intermission and things didn't get better for the Razorbacks during the second 20 minutes of play.  Connecticut would go on a 16-4 run out of the locker room to lead by 29.  Arkansas coach Eric Musselman would not be removing his shirt after this game, though Huskies superfan Bill Murray did encourage his team's coach, Dan Hurley, to remove his shirt once the blowout was complete.  Hurley is a bit less exuberant than Musselman and declined the request.  But he won't be declining a spot in the West region final on Saturday as his Huskies continue to be the most impressive team in the tournament through three rounds, eliminating the Razorbacks by a score of 88-65.

If any game was expected to be a blowout, it wasn't Connecticut-Arkansas.  It was Tennessee-Florida Atlantic.  The Vols had re-established their reputation as a national title contender by bullying a red-hot Duke team in round two.  Florida Atlantic had been a bit fortunate to get to this point.  In round one, it took a Memphis meltdown for them to advance.  Then they avoided top seed Purdue thanks to a historic upset by Fairleigh Dickinson.  And then they were in trouble against the Knights before Johnell Davis saved them late in their second round game.  But the Owls came into this one with 33 victories on this season's resume.  And that record was built playing in what may have been the most underrated conference in the country.  Florida Atlantic reigned supreme in Conference USA, a conference that also included Charlotte, who won the CBI championship this week (the third-tier college basketball postseason tournament).  And in the NIT (the second-tier college basketball postseason tournament), both North Texas and UAB are in the Final Four, with a chance to meet one another in an all Conference USA championship game.  So the Owls weren't just gonna be thankful to make it this far.  They were great at finding ways to win and they were planning on coming up with something to overcome the much taller, much more physical Tennessee team they were pitted against.  They didn't find many answers in the first half, 20 minutes that felt like they were dominated by the Vols.  Florida Atlantic was completely stifled on the offensive end, getting little going inside and misfiring from outside the arc, going 3 for 14 from three point range.  But when the half ended, they were only down 5 points.  Tennessee fit the mold of a lot of teams that had done well in college basketball this year.  Incredibly tough on defense (they were #1 in the nation), but unable to fill up the stat sheet on the offensive end.  So while the Vols felt comfortable playing games like this, it always leaves the door open for the other team to catch fire and put tremendous pressure on them in a one-game-for-your-season situation, as Virginia found out in round one.  That scenario played out in the second half.  The Owls finally started to make some three pointers and you could feel Tennessee tense up through your TV screen.  And as the Vols continued to struggle on offense, Florida Atlantic started to smile.  They started to accelerate the speed of the game.  They simply took control, even on the boards, where Tennessee was expected to have a huge advantage.  All of this resulted in an 18-2 run that put the Owls on top by 10.  That lead felt like it was a hundred based on the Vols inability to score.  They would end up getting no closer than 5 the rest of the way.  Florida Atlantic notches win #34 on the season and make their first ever trip to the Elite Eight, beating their second squad from the Volunteer state in this tournament by a score of 62-55.

Without a doubt, the marquee matchup of the evening was UCLA-Gonzaga.  There's no doubt that these two teams have been the two best teams on the West Coast for some time, but they don't tend to play each other during the regular season.  (I find this incredibly confusing.  Why do we get Kansas, Duke, Michigan State, and Kentucky in an early season four-team "tournament" every year, but we can't get UCLA, Arizona, Gonzaga, and Saint Mary's in a West Coast version?)  Perhaps this lack of regular season familiarity lends to more drama when they meet in the NCAA tournament.  UCLA and Gonzaga have in two of the most memorable tournament games in recent history.  It was 17 years ago exactly before Thursday night's tilt that we had the "Adam Morrison/Heartbreak City" game, where Gonzaga as the 3 seed in the West region looked to take over the mantle of best West Coast team from UCLA, the 2 seed in the West region.  The Zags would lead by 13 at the half and by 9 with less than 3 and a half minutes to go. But UCLA turned on the pressure and Gonzaga wilted under it late.  The Bruins would score the final 11 points, leaving Adam Morrison lying on the court in tears.  UCLA would make it to the national championship before falling to Florida in the title game.  Two years ago, these teams met in the Final Four under completely different circumstances.  UCLA was an 11 seed who started the tournament in the First Four.  They were massive underdogs to the undefeated #1 overall seed Gonzaga.  But the Bruins gave the Bulldogs all they could handle.  The game looked to be headed to a second overtime when Gonzaga star Jalen Suggs banked in a shot from just inside half court to send the Bulldogs to the national championship, where they had nothing left in the tank, getting embarrassed by Baylor.  What would round 3 give us?  More magic, naturally.

A key aspect of this game was that UCLA was dealing with injury trouble.  They had lost their best defender, Jaylen Clark, in their final regular season game.  Perhaps a bigger blow to the team was losing big man, Adem Bona, due to a re-aggravated shoulder injury in their previous game against Northwestern.  Bona was meant to guard Gonzaga's Drew Timme, so UCLA would have to channel their inner Florida Atlantic and figure out a game plan that would make up for their disadvantage in height.  That game plan looked good in the first half.  UCLA coach Mick Cronin seemed to say "Timme can have his, no one else is getting a thing".  Timme would score 17 of the first 31 for Gonzaga, but the Bulldogs were down despite his dominance in the low post.  As much as Timme was getting what he wanted down low, the Bruins were getting what they wanted everywhere on the court.  Not typically a high scoring team, UCLA put up 46 points in the first half, heading to the break with a 13 point lead (echoes of 2006!).  The announcers of this game realized that this performance was abnormal from UCLA and wondered aloud whether they could keep up this pace for the full 40 minutes.  Spoiler: they could not.  Gonzaga started to provide Timme some help on the perimeter, their defense got a little better, and UCLA started to score less and less.  And then suddenly, the Bruins weren't scoring at all.  With 12:30 to go, UCLA led by a score of 59-52 after star player Jaime Jaquez Jr. made a layup.  From that point on, the Bruins would go more than 11 minutes before they would hit their next shot from the field.  Meanwhile, Gonzaga kept their methodical offense humming.  With 9 minutes to go, the Bulldogs grabbed the lead.  And with 2:30 left, they had built it to double-digits, moving ahead 72-62.

So UCLA was done, right?  As Lee Corso would say, not so fast.  This game went completely retro over the last 90 seconds.  Gonzaga had multiple chances to extend the lead beyond 10 as the Bruins continued to miss all their shots, but they let those opportunities skate by.  With the lead down to 9, Jaquez drove the lane and ended UCLA's field goal drought, getting fouled in the process.  The "and 1" brought the lead down to 6 and CBS began getting the Adam Morrison footage ready.  The two teams traded free throws, keeping the lead at 6 with 52 seconds to go.  The Bulldogs got the ball inbounds and UCLA hounded them with their press.  Malachi Smith couldn't find a teammate, so he threw it to Mick Cronin.  (To be slightly fair to Smith, Cronin's suit was a similar color to Gonzaga's uniforms.)  It was a bad mistake and everyone watching had to be thinking it was 2006 all over again.  UCLA went to Jaquez again and he immediately came through with another "and 1", dropping the lead to 3.  The Bruins fouled one of Gonzaga's worst free throw shooters, who bricked the first and got a very fortunate bounce on the second one to increase the lead to 4.  Jaquez, who had now remembered that he could make a shot, drove to the hoop and cut the lead to 2.  Gonzaga continued to struggle with the press.  They managed to get down the court with the ball, but they picked up their dribble and needed to use a timeout.  For some reason, Gonzaga forgot the one option that it is open to teams who don't handle the press or shoot free throws well.  That option?  Just go to the hoop and score!  Gonzaga was so dead set on trying to dribble out the clock, that they weren't even attempting to convert on a fast break.  After the timeout, CBS showed Timme standing on the court just shaking his head in disbelief.  And when he was fouled after having the ball inbounded to him, you couldn't be sold on his chances of draining two free throws.  Or even one.  Neither attempt looked particularly good, UCLA grabbed the ball, and the Bulldogs were in deep trouble.  Gonzaga fell for the bait of defending another drive, the Bruins kicked the ball out for a three, and one swish later, it seemed like Heartbreak City again.

There was still 12.2 seconds to go though.  The safe money was that the ball would go to Timme, who had 36 points despite blowing those two free throws.  But when I say this game went retro, I'm not just talking 2006.  I'm talking 2016 as well.  Gonzaga ran the Kris Jenkins play, the one that won the 2016 national championship for Villanova at the buzzer against North Carolina.  The guy who took the inbounds pass dribbled quickly up the court, pitching the ball behind him as he played fullback to the two defenders in front of him.  Julian Strawther, a Las Vegas native, took the pitch and pulled up at the edge of the logo, a few feet further back than Jenkins was when he hit his famous shot.  The result was the same though, as Strawther's shot was pure, putting the Bulldogs back in front with 7.2 seconds to go.  UCLA raced down the court to try and tie it, but Tyger Campbell had the ball stripped from him and Strawther was fouled with 1.4 seconds left and a chance to put this game away for good.  Naturally, he missed the first shot.  He did make the second, putting Gonzaga up three.  Did I say this game went retro?  Because I'm not talking about just 2006 and 2016, I'm talking about 1998!  The Bruins countered with the Bryce Drew play!  UCLA inbounded the ball to mid court, where the ball was immediately lateraled to the right where a streaking Tyger Campbell got into position for a realistic shot at a three.  The ball was on line, but just a little long, hitting off the back iron.  Gonzaga survives one of the craziest roller-coaster-like games you will ever watch in the tournament, defeating their rival UCLA by a score of 79-76.

The Madness simply never disappoints.

After I had finished up the second round pool standings on Sunday night, I sent a picture of the Gamblers Pool to Natalie Schweitzer, the 15 year-old leader who was playing in this pool for the first time.  Her reaction?  "My dad just jinxed me, so I'll probably finish last now."  Natalie may have been right.  The young rookie picked UCLA to win it all, so it's going to be tough sledding from here on out if she's going to take the crown.  Someone who made an even worse pick for national champion (yours truly) has a 5 point lead over Matt Brayko and the aforementioned Natalie, with a boatload of pursuers 6 points back.  In the Main Pool, Fred Alcaro leads by 2 over Christopher and by 3 over me.

Once again, the spreadsheet can be found here.

Hard to believe that Friday night's action will be able to live up to the craziness of what we saw on Thursday, but this year's tournament had continued to deliver one surprise after another.  Will we see another #1 seed (or both that are remaining) get knocked out?  Tune in tonight!

March Madness 2023 - That's Alright, We're on TruTV, Man

Just 8 more games in a wild first weekend of the Madness that definitely did not disappoint.  No more 1 seeds in action, so let's head to the other end of the spectrum.  Could we possibly see the first 16 seed in the Sweet 16?  Fairleigh Dickinson would be taking on another team that had never been to the Sweet 16 either.  But that game would be played much late on in the schedule.  Let's start things with another team that took part in the First Four, the Pitt Panthers.

(Actually, if you don't want to hear about the 8 games that took place on Sunday, you can just access the spreadsheet here.)

When you have 16 seeds beating 1 seeds and 15 seeds getting to the second weekend for three straight years, nothing really surprises you about this tournament anymore.  But it is still pretty remarkable that one of the two winning 11 seeds that plays in the First Four always seems to take home a first round victory as well.  And some of them (like VCU) go much further than that.  Pitt was trying to replicate VCU's Final Four run, but they would have to get by Xavier to keep the dream alive.  Xavier was a bit of a team in disarray in round one, falling way behind Kennesaw State in the second half and arguing with one another before showing enough fortitude late to eke out a win.  Perhaps it was first round jitters, but the Musketeers showed why they deserved to be a 3 seed in round two.  Xavier's offense was high flying in the first half with guard Adam Kunkel draining 5 treys to give the Musketeers a 48-34 advantage at the break.  Things didn't change much in the second half as Pitt had a hard time cutting into the Xavier lead.  The Musketeers would build the lead up to 20 points, but the Panthers truly had no quit in them.  The game seemed out of reach, but Pitt kept grinding away, bringing the deficit down to 8 with a minute left.  But the clock was their enemy and despite never giving up in a game where Xavier was the dominant team, eventually Pitt ran out of time.  Xavier moves on to play Texas in the Sweet 16.

The next game featured the big name school vs the upstart.  With so much craziness in this year's tournament, Kentucky was one of the few recognizable powerhouses still standing.  On the other end of the court from them was Kansas State, the team picked to finish dead last in the Big 12 before the season.  But the team from Manhattan surprised everyone this season, earning themselves a 3 seed in the East Region.  Old habits are hard to break though and the betting public said Kentucky was the favorite in this one.  They certainly had the best player on the court in Oscar Tshiebwe, who I would argue is by far the best big man in the college game.  He's hard to stop on offense and almost impossible to keep off the boards.  The problem for Kentucky was the same one they had last year and the same one that Purdue had in round one.  Tshiebwe is so much better than his teammates that everything runs through him and the rest of the team can be gun shy when that option isn't available.  On the other side, Kansas State had a better balanced team, but it's not like they don't have a special player of their own.  His name is Markquis Nowell and to say he is a playmaker would be an understatement.  He made three highlight plays to end the first half that put Kansas State ahead at the break.  The first was a behind the back pass on a fast break.  The second was a pass through his legs to a trailing teammate on another fast break.  Finally, he threw a no look lob for an alley oop right before the horn.  In the second half, Kentucky fought back mainly on the shoulders of Tshiebwe, but also with some help from Cason Wallace, who made a habit of scoring after steals or rebounds.  But no one played bigger than "the little kid" (as Kentucky coach John Calipari called him afterwards) as Nowell stopped passing in the final minutes and started draining dagger threes to put Kentucky away.  The battle of the Wildcats goes to Kansas State as yet another big name in college basketball fails to make it to the second weekend.

Who would be up next for Kansas State?  We would find out immediately as Marquette and Michigan State were on the court next.  This game felt very similar in nature to the Kentucky-Kansas State game.  In one corner, you had the college basketball powerhouse (Michigan State).  In the other, the surprising upstart that surpassed all expectations to grab a high seed in the tournament (Marquette).  Michigan State's success in March has typically been attributed to coach Tom Izzo, mainly because a lot of his teams have lacked superstars and needed time to gel together.  "Mr. March" (as he's known) seems to care less about what his team's win-loss record is as long as they make the tournament and are peaking when they get there.  So even though the Spartans were a 7 seed in the East region, they had to be considered dangerous.  Marquette found this out the hard way on Sunday.  Early in the game, the Golden Eagles were stymied on the offensive end, partly due to Michigan State's defense and partly due to some cold shooting.  Marquette would soon be down by a dozen and their prospects at making a comeback were looking bleak with Big East player of the year Tyler Kolek in and out of the game with foul trouble.  But in the second half, the Golden Eagles went on a run and took the lead, seemingly seizing all of the momentum.  That was until they decided that shooting the ball wasn't important any more.  Marquette went on a stretch of 8 possessions where they took a total of 1 shot, turning the ball over 7 times.  Instead of pulling away, this sloppy stretch kept the Spartans alive and soon they had the lead back.  Michigan State's lead was 5 when college basketball's dumb replay rules came into play.  Kolek drove to the hoop and laid the ball up to the glass.  Michigan State defender Mady Sissoko rose way up and pinned the ball against the glass.  Was it goaltending?  The refs decided it was not while action was going on and it could not be reviewed because it happened with 2:01 on the clock.  If it happened two seconds later and the clock read 1:59, they would have reviewed it, since plays like this one can only be reviewed in the final 2 minutes.  That was the end of the road for Marquette, as their magical season ends at the hands of Mr. March.  The Michigan State Spartans have a date with the Kansas State Wildcats at Madison Square Garden next weekend.

Time to swing out to West region action in...Albany, NY?  The regions don't really make sense in the first two rounds anymore as Albany was hosting games for the Midwest and West regions this weekend.  At least this game had one team from the West playing in it.  St. Mary's looked for most of the season like they were on the verge of replacing Gonzaga at the top of the WCC.  They had a top 10 defense, they beat Gonzaga in their first matchup, and held a two-game lead in the standings for a while.  But a late loss in a league game followed by a loss to Gonzaga in the rematch got them a tie as the conference champs.  And when they met Gonzaga in the championship game of the WCC tourney, they got steamrolled.  So despite a very strong resume, it seemed like few people were expecting the Gaels to beat Connecticut in round two.  The Huskies, like the Gaels, were darlings of those who track advanced metrics for basketball.  And the trajectory of their season was similar to that of St. Mary's.  Early on they were blowing people out, before struggling a little bit in league play in the Big East.  Yet those losses weren't perceived as bad as the ones that St. Mary's had suffered.  Connecticut showed why they were favored in this one by repeating what they had done in round one.  They trailed at the half vs Iona.  In this game, they needed a three pointer with 5 seconds to go in the half to take a one point lead into the locker room.  But what Connecticut has done better than any other team in this tournament is force their will in the second half.  It's almost like a football team who struggles to run the ball in the first half, but as the game goes on, they wear the opponent down and start tearing off runs of 7-8 yards at a time.  A 1 point lead would balloon to as high as 18 points in the final stages of this one.  Connecticut will attempt to wear down the Arkansas Razorbacks in their next matchup Thursday in Las Vegas.

Princeton was still waiting to see who their opponent would be on Friday night.  Due to some odd scheduling, most of the teams who won on Saturday had to wait a day to find out who they would be playing next weekend.  The Tigers would get the winner of Baylor and Creighton.  Baylor had played like Connecticut in their first round game: meek in the first half, dominant in the second half.  Creighton was coming off of a bullsh...brilliant win against NC State, ensuring that I will never know joy as a sports fan. The Bluejays were a bit like Arkansas this season (they actually played a very tight game early in the season in the Maui tournament with Creighton winning by 3).  They were in the preseason top 10, they got off to a hot start, and then suddenly they lost 6 in a row.  They recovered somewhat in Big East play, at least enough to make the tournament.  Which Creighton team would show up in this one?  Answer: the preseason top 10 version.  This game was never that close, much like Princeton's the day before.  The Bluejays built an early 10 point lead.  Baylor tried to chip into that lead time and time again, but had little success doing so.  In fact, the lead would grow to 18 in the second half.  The Bears would make the final score look respectable, but 85-76 belies how badly Baylor was beaten in this game.

Time for the game of the night!  I'm sure at the beginning of the season, people were wondering when we might get an FDU/FAU battle.  In the second round of the tournament, duh!  Two rosters filled with mostly little guys (taller than me, I know) on a stage that no one expected them to be on, duking it out for a spot at Madison Square Garden next weekend.  Hard to even describe what an opportunity this was for each of these schools.  Florida Atlantic was the big favorite here based on having 32 wins on the season and the suspicion that Fairleigh Dickinson played their Super Bowl the other night and might have nothing left for round two.  But the Knights weren't lacking energy in this one.  Florida Atlantic scored the first 9 points of the game, but Fairleigh Dickinson immediately responded with a 14-6 run to let the Owls know they had a fight on their hands.  And FDU also had Dayton's band behind them.  Because FDU didn't have a band of their own, Dayton's band decided to follow the Knights from the First Four to make sure they had musical support.  Those tunes seemed to be working as Fairleigh Dickinson would go ahead by as much as 5 points in the second half.  But as is the case in many of these games, one player decides to take over and that player was Florida Atlantic's Johnell Davis.  Davis became the first player in an NCAA tournament game with at least 20 points (he had 29), 10 rebounds (he had 12), 5 assists, and 5 steals.  The Owls pulled away late, leading to Fairleigh Dickinson raising the white flag and not fouling as the final seconds ticked off the clock.  But Florida Atlantic's Alijah Martin decided to put an exclamation point on the win by going in for an uncontested 360-degree dunk.  Not only was it in poor taste, it looked especially dumb when Martin was rejected by the rim (boos rained down from the crowd).  FDU's coach, Tobin Anderson was livid while shaking hands with FAU's coach after the game, but even that seemed a bit rich for a guy who's been talking shit publicly about Purdue and Florida Atlantic.  Speaking of talking shit...the most hilarious moment of the night came in the postgame interview with Johnell Davis.  He was giving a genuine answer to Jamie Erdahl's question when he accidentally said 'shit' on live TV.  He immediately apologized, but the best part was Erdahl's immediate response: "That's alright, we're on TruTV, man!" (translation: no one could find this game on TV if they tried).  It was a light-hearted moment that might have balanced out the bad karma of the gratuitous dunk attempt.  At least Florida Atlantic hopes so as they will need as much luck on their side as possible when they face the Tennessee Vols in the Sweet 16.

Back to Albany, capital of the Midwest.  Indiana was taking on the last ACC team remaining in the field, the Miami Hurricanes.  The Hoosiers were led by one of the best (some say the best) big man in the country this year, Trayce Jackson-Davis.  If your best player is a center, you would expect that team to clean up on the glass, but Miami did something in this game that I can't recall having ever seen in a game, much less a second round game in the tournament.  The Hurricanes had more offensive rebounds than the Hoosiers had defensive rebounds.  That means for every missed shot Miami put up, they were more likely to come away with the ball for a second possession than Indiana was to head down the other end.  That's insanely good rebounding, especially when the other team has a huge All-American patrolling the lane.  All of those extra opportunities gave Miami a huge edge.  It led to a 14-2 run that broke the game open.  And when Indiana started pressing to try and get back into it, their problems got worse.  Miami's guards were way too fast, leading to easy scores once they broke the press.  The ACC does not get shut out of the Sweet 16 as the Hurricanes overcome the Hoosiers by a score of 85-69.  What inspired such a performance?  Coach Jim Larranaga said in the postgame interview that they were embarrassed by how they played on Friday (in a game they won).  Houston better hope that the Miami players weren't embarrassed by how they played in this one as they'll be facing the Hurricanes on Friday night.

The last game of the night featured maybe the most polarizing program in college basketball: Gonzaga.  Fans of schools from the major conferences say Gonzaga skates by on their easy conference schedule and gets seeded way too high for March Madness.  Zag defenders respond by saying that Gonzaga's tournament performance proves they are as good as any other school in the nation.  The Zags were putting a streak of seven consecutive Sweet 16 appearances on the line against TCU.  That streak makes them the only non-ACC school to make more than 5 consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 since the field expanded to 64 (and now 68, I guess) teams.  Early on, that streak appeared to be in danger as the Horned Frogs jumped out to a 10 point first half lead.  Gonzaga cut that lead in half by intermission, then got rolling in the second half.  At one point, the Bulldogs scored 13 in a row to take charge, never falling behind again the rest of the way.  But the best part of this game was the finish.  You may have seen the "bad beat" on social media featuring the last play of the game, but this gambling nightmare was way more soul-crushing than that clip might have let on.  Let's pretend you bet on Gonzaga.  The Zags were laying 4.5 points to TCU and led by 7 with 30 seconds left and TCU in possession of the ball.  Not ideal.  If they hit a 3, you might be screwed.  And the Horned Frogs were firing from beyond the arc.  They missed one trey and then another.  <Phew!>  But the ball went out of bounds and is staying with TCU.  <No!>  Except Gonzaga was pretty sure the refs made the wrong call and asked for a review.  The refs somehow missed the ball hitting the arm and the leg of the TCU player.  After a fairly quick review, the call was overturned.  Zags up 7, with the ball, 15.6 seconds away from cashing your bet.  <Pay Daddy>  With so little time left in a 3 possession game, it was possible that TCU might even let Gonzaga run out the clock.  Instead, they defended the inbound play really well, causing the Gonzaga player to absurdly just throw the ball to no one in particular underneath his own hoop.  A TCU player grabbed it, was fouled, and made two free throws.  Still up 5 with only 13.7 seconds left.  And things got better when Gonzaga scored a breakaway dunk with 8.4 seconds to go, making the lead 7 again.  <Woo hoo!>  Except now you knew TCU was going to be putting up a three that could kill your bet.  And sure enough, they hit a three with 3.0 seconds left to trim the lead to 4.  <Come on!>  At this point, you're ready to rip up your ticket, since TCU probably ain't fouling.  But they did!  And it wasn't even the first guy who touched the ball.  Gonzaga got the ball in, completed a pass, and TCU still fouled, leaving 0.8 seconds on the clock.  The Zags went to the line, drained both free throws, and were up 6 once again.  <It's a miracle!>  Except you know how this story ends.  TCU slowly rolled the ball up the court.  No one touched it as Gonzaga celebrated.  As the ball trickled past half court, a Gonzaga player realized the horn hadn't sounded yet, looked at the TCU player following the ball up the court and gave them the "pick up the ball, dude, the game's over" look.  TCU guy picks it up inside the logo just past half court, fires from deep, and swishes it.  <LOSER!>  Gambling is so much fun.

Luckily for you, all of the heartbreak from this year's pool probably already happened.  Most of the brackets have been smashed meaning you will have to pull off some sort of TCU-like cover play to catch the folks at the top of the standings if you fell behind on opening weekend.  Who are you chasing?  In the Main Pool, Princeton Fred has a big margin on the field, leading 2nd place Christopher by 5 points and me by 6.  In the Gamblers Pool, Natalie Schweitzer (aka Teen Angst) looks to follow in her mom's footsteps as a pool champion.  She leads me by 1 point and Matt Brayko by 3 points.

Another link to the spreadsheet can be found here.

That's it for the first weekend!  Not sure I can remember a Sweet 16 that feels like this one.  Who's the favorite?  Alabama or Houston, the remaining #1 seeds?  UCLA, Michigan State, or Connecticut, the teams with banners hanging in their gyms?  It seems like you could make a strong case for 14 of the remaining teams, with Florida Atlantic (33 wins) and Princeton (outplayed a PAC-12 and a SEC team in the first two rounds) as the two not-the-craziest-longshot teams remaining in the field.  Should be interesting.  Tune back in on Thursday to see how it plays out!