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.