March Madness 2022 - Return Of The MAAC

Day 3 standings?  You can find them here.  Mets super fan Chubbs has taken a big lead in the Main Pool after Day 3.  In the Gamblers Pool, he shares the top spot with Tommy King.  There are a host of pursuers not that far behind them though.

On to the second round action!  On Saturday afternoon, I got to experience something that I never thought would happen in my life.  As a lifelong NC State fan, I understood that there were basically two rules that I had to live by:

1. Hate Duke
2. Hate North Carolina

Everything else was pretty much optional.  But during the first game of the second round, I found myself in the completely unusual position of not only rooting for the Tar Heels, but screaming at the television in hopes that they would win.  Why?  Certainly not because of my bracket.  I picked Baylor to win the East Region and go to the Final Four.  To give this story it's proper background, we need to go back and look at the preceding two weeks...

When I thought about what I wanted to write in the opening e-mail for this year's tournament, I wanted to talk about a disturbing trend that I noticed while watching Championship Week.  And that trend involved how much the officials wanted to be part of the game, especially as it drew nearer to its conclusion.  Part of the problem is that nearly everything is up for review in the last two minutes of the game.  Should there be 3.4 seconds or 3.2 seconds left on the clock?  Let's take 10 minutes to figure it out.  Was there a hard foul?  Well gee, it must have been flagrant in some way.  Did someone swat the ball out of someone else's hands?  Let's go to super slo-mo and see if the ball grazed the fingernail of the guy who was holding the ball before it went out of bounds.  The point of these reviews is to correct obvious missed calls, but instead, refs were taking inconclusive replays and were going by what they "felt" was the right call, causing lengthy delays in the process.  There was one championship game in a league tourney where the announcer said something along the lines of "I'm not sure what they're looking at since this one is pretty obvious" and then the refs made the complete opposite call.  (The announcer was 100% correct by the way.)

That brings us to the opening game between Baylor and North Carolina.  The Tar Heels looked outstanding as they throttled Marquette in round one, but they were still fairly large underdogs to the reigning champs coming into this matchup.  Baylor would score the first 4 points, but then North Carolina took control of the game, going on a 24-6 run to open up a big lead.  The margin was 13 at the half.  When Brady Manek knocked down a three to extend the lead to 25 midway through the second half, you knew it was time to get the throne ready for a new national champ.  Then all hell broke loose.  Baylor had a player on their team named Jeremy Sochan who was basically playing the role of Dennis Rodman in this game.  As Baylor's hopes of repeating began to slip away, he began antagonizing North Carolina.  There was a moment where he got "tangled up" with a Tar Heel, then used his legs to clamp on the North Carolina player's foot while he tried to get up from the floor.  That earned him a Flagrant 1, but it certainly didn't dissuade him from keeping up these antics.  He'd be involved in three more moments like this before the game was over.

The second of these four incidents was where the game turned.  To be fair, Manek deserved what he got in this situation.  As Manek was boxing out, Sochan gave him a bit of a shove from behind.  Manek turned to see where Sochan was, then swung his elbow behind him as the ball bounced off the rim.  Manek hit Sochan in the head, Sochan went down, and the refs headed to the monitors.  Manek had 26 points in the game and North Carolina was on cruise control, but this boneheaded play was certain to change the momentum.  Manek was correctly assessed with a Flagrant 2 foul, which meant he could catch an early shower and watch the rest of the game from the locker room.  You knew this would inspire the Bears to make a run, but climbing out of a 25 point hole in 10 minutes seemed unlikely.  Baylor hit a few shots, North Carolina had a few turnovers, and the crowd started getting into it since they were playing in Texas.  All of that felt normal.  But then the refs sensed an opportunity to join in the fun and that is something that should never happen in a game, certainly not one of this magnitude.

North Carolina looked like they had never played against a press before and created a bunch of their own problems, but a press is definitely difficult to overcome when the defenders can just barrel into you over and over again without a foul being called.  Meanwhile, when the Tar Heels were on D, any hand check drew a whistle.  Baylor wasn't shooting the lights out to make this miraculous comeback happen.  It was 8-on-5.  North Carolina was having this game stolen from them and it was complete bullshit.  It was gross cheering for the Tar Heels and it still makes me a little queasy writing about it.  There was one stretch where 14 fouls were called by the refs, with 13 being on North Carolina.  On a normal day, this would have made me laugh hysterically.  But as I watched this theft unfold on Saturday, I was pissed.  And once the game headed to overtime at 80, I knew the Tar Heels were done.

Only somehow they were not.  They hit a three pointer to begin overtime and for some odd reason, Baylor pulled off the press that was essential to their miraculous comeback.  Were there still terrible calls?  Yes.  But as I mentioned before, it wasn't like Baylor was making a lot of shots.  The refs couldn't put the ball into the hoop for them.  The Bears shot 1 for 11 in the extra session.  Despite that, the refs were doing things like calling a ball out of bounds off of North Carolina when you didn't even need to see a replay to know that it hit off of each of the Baylor player's hands before going out.  Then when Baylor put up an airball with 9 seconds left and were down 5, there was another lengthy review as the refs tried to figure out any way to keep this charade going.  They had done their part, but Baylor hadn't done theirs.  Congrats to North Carolina (feeling nauseous again) on knocking out the defending champs and this embarrassment of a referee crew with a 93-86 victory in overtime.

One #1 seed was now gone.  Could we see a second one head to the exits in the next game?  At least with North Carolina, you could point to their 1st round game and come up with a reason to think that they might put up an effort worthy of taking down a #1 seed.  Creighton?  They were very lucky to survive round one.  And Kansas didn't break a sweat on Thursday.  This had all the makings of a second round rout.  But give credit to the Bluejays.  They didn't back down to the Jayhawks one bit.  At the half, they only trailed by 1.  In the second half, they responded to every Kansas run by knocking down threes.  And it wasn't like Creighton was a particularly good three-point shooting team.  They just happened to be on fire from downtown in this one.  They were still only down a point with a minute to go when they went to the well one too many times.  As they pushed the ball out beyond the arc for a three that would put them up two, a Kansas defender jumped into the passing lane, stealing the ball for a fast break that would extend the lead to 3.  Creighton would attack the basket the next time down the floor, but the Jayhawk defense made another big play, blocking the shot and ending the Bluejays' hopes.  Creighton would not score again as their season came to a close.  Kansas moves on to the Sweet 16 with a 79-72 victory.

The final #1 seed playing on Saturday wouldn't take the court until the very last game of the night, so we'd have to transition to a 3 vs 11 matchup next.  Most pundits on Selection Sunday felt that Tennessee did not get a high enough seed when they were placed on the 3 line despite winning the SEC tournament.  Based on the seedings of other teams who won that day, it was clear that the Selection Committee didn't put a lot of weight into the games that were decided on the day that the bracket was being announced.  The Vols couldn't have asked for a better draw though.  In round one, they faced Longwood, a 14 seed making their first appearance in the Madness.  In round two, they got 11th seeded Michigan, a team that was dealing with turmoil and injuries.  They had regrouped enough to overcome a 15 point deficit in round one against Colorado State, but this was definitely a step up in competition.  

Perhaps that comeback was a sign that the Wolverines were getting their mojo back though.  After all, this squad was ranked #6 in the nation in the preseason.  Michigan jumped out to a 10-2 lead and held the lead for most of the first half before the Vols showed their class by ending the first 20 minutes with a 13-2 run to go into the locker room with a 5 point edge.  Tennessee would still lead by 6 with under eight minutes to play, but the last two TV timeouts worth of game time belonged to the Wolverines.  Over the last eight minutes, they outscored the SEC champs by a 22-8 margin.  We have a double-digit seed headed to the Sweet 16!  Juwan Howard and Michigan can be found in San Antonio next weekend after a 76-68 upset.

The next two games featured 4 seeds who dominated their opponents.  The Richmond Spiders had made a gallant run through the Atlantic 10 tournament and used that momentum to upset Big 10 champ Iowa in round one.  But they ran out of steam against the regular season champs from the Big East.  Providence led by 15 at the half and the lead only got larger from there.  The Friars exterminated the Spiders by a score of 79-51 and now move on to face Kansas in the Sweet 16.  UCLA was expecting a tough West Coast battle when they took on 5th seed Saint Mary's, but the second best team from the West Coast Conference was no match for the second best team out of the Pac-12.  The Gaels did jump out to a 7 point lead early on and were able to trim a 7 point halftime deficit down to 1 a few minutes into the second half.  But the last 15 minutes of this game belonged to the Bruins.  UCLA's hopes for a national semifinal rematch with the WCC's top team remains alive after taking down Saint Mary's by a score of 72-56.

Game 6 out of 8 was a matchup of two of the smallest schools remaining.  Murray State has frequently come into the Big Dance as one of the best mid-majors in the country, looking to play the role of Cinderella.  But in this second round game, they would have to play the part of considerable favorite.  That was because the team standing at the other end of the court was 15th seeded St. Peter's, unexpected conqueror of the mighty Kentucky Wildcats.  Up until 2013, it was unheard of that a 15th seed could make it to the second weekend.  A few had sprung a 1st round upset, but being able to regroup and pull off that magic against another top team 48 hours later was a lot to ask.  That was until the Jetskis of Florida Gulf Coast broke through in 2013.  And then Oral Roberts was able to do it in 2021.  Could the Peacocks be the third 15 seed to make it to the Sweet 16?  One thing in St. Peter's favor was that the Racers went through just as tough of a game as the Peacocks had in round one.  Both teams had to leave everything on the floor for 45 minutes Thursday night.  Who would recover quicker?

Answer: the 15 seed.  Murray State had won 31 games this season, including 21 in a row coming into this game, but they would never hold the lead against St. Peter's.  The Peacocks bridged the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half with an 11-0 run that put them up by 13.  The Racers kept battling back, eventually getting within 2 with four minutes to play.  But St. Peter's scored 11 of the final 14 points.  No overtime necessary in round two.  The MAAC tournament champs are headed to Philly for the Sweet 16, ending Murray State's season with a 70-60 upset.

New Mexico State took out UConn in an ugly affair in round one.  Their second round game vs. Arkansas was not much more pleasing to watch.  The problem for the Aggies is that their superstar, Teddy Allen, wasn't able to go off for 37 points again.  He could only manage a dozen against the Razorbacks.  That dropoff in production was the death knell for New Mexico State.  Arkansas only scored 53 in round two, but it was 5 points more than the Aggies.  The SEC has their 1st Sweet 16 rep after Arkansas eeks out a 53-48 win over New Mexico State.

Last game of the night and it was back to the #1 seeds.  Gonzaga looked terrible in round one, but they survived despite a lackluster performance.  Memphis looked great for the first 20 minutes of round one, then hung on in the second half to get a date with the Bulldogs.  Both teams played first halves that were similar to what they did in round one.  Gonzaga was not sharp at all and Memphis built a big lead, heading to the break ahead by 10.  Like Michigan, the Memphis Tigers were a team that was highly ranked in the preseason (#12), but never lived up to their potential.  Were they finally living up to their potential now?  Could they join the Wolverines in the Sweet 16 by pulling off a big upset the way Michigan had earlier in the day?

Well if Gonzaga played the first half like they had in round one, there was no reason for them to deviate from that game plan in the second half, since they had gone on a huge run in that first game to pull away from Georgia State.  How did they do that?  Dump the ball inside.  And in the opening minutes of the second half, they did that.  There was just no stopping Drew Timme.  The mustachioed Bulldog with all of the old man moves went off for 14 points in the first 6+ minutes of the second half, bringing Gonzaga within 2.  Memphis began to get in foul trouble during this stretch and you could also feel that the pace of the game was being played in Gonzaga's favor.  Despite having 3 timeouts, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway decided to let his kids keep playing.  And to their credit, they hung basket for basket with the overall #1 seed for most of the second half.  But it became a free throw shooting contest late and Gonzaga made just enough to hold off a tenacious Memphis squad.  For the second game in a row, Gonzaga has looked vulnerable, but they had just enough to defeat Memphis by a score of 82-78.

One more recap to end the weekend.  Is this the last we see of Coach K?  Duke - Michigan State is the feature matchup of Day 4.

March Madness 2022 - Heeding the Warning

Pool standings up front as promised.  It's good to be the King.  More specifically, it's good to be Tommy King, as he leads the Gamblers Pool and is tied at the top of the main pool with Chubbs.  Lurking just behind them is Dwight, only one point out of the lead.  Full standings can be found here.

There are some patterns that seem to sustain over time when it comes to March Madness.  There's almost always a 12-5 upset in round one.  There's typically a team that wins a major conference tournament that falls flat as soon as they show up for the Big Dance.  And if Day 1 includes a bunch of upsets, then Day 2 restores balance in the universe.  That last phenomenon might just be a reversion to the mean.  After all, it would be true madness if upsets just continued non-stop throughout the tournament.  But I tend to think of this trend a little differently.  I believe that some of these bigger schools aren't all that concerned about their opponents until they see a St. Peter's land a right cross flush to the chin of Kentucky and watch one of college basketball's bluebloods crash down to the mat.  Even Gonzaga got a bit of a standing 8 count in round one and they're the #1 overall seed.  That must have had an effect on all of the favorites who took the floor on Friday for their games.  They knew that any team could be sent home immediately, no matter how unlikely it looked on paper.  And as a result, we had a bunch of games that were completely lacking drama.  Rather than waste your time with recaps of each of these blowouts, here's a list of favorites that triumphed by at least 15 points on Friday:

• #1 Arizona def. #16 Wright State 87-70
• #2 Villanova def. #15 Delaware 80-60
• #2 Auburn def. #15 Jacksonville State 80-61
• #2 Duke def. #15 Cal State Fullerton 78-61
• #3 Purdue def. #14 Yale 78-56
• #3 Texas Tech def. #14 Montana State 97-62
• #9 TCU def. #8 Seton Hall 69-42

(Yes, I know that last one technically doesn't count as a favorite winning, but #9 seeds have historically won more than #8 seeds in their first round matchup.  Plus I don't feel like writing about how Seton Hall watched UConn the night before and thought "hey, we can do that!")

That left nine other games on the Friday schedule.  Spoiler: just because a game didn't make the list above, doesn't mean that it was compelling television.  Case in point: the opening game of the day between Loyola-Chicago and Ohio State.  The Ramblers have become a March darling in recent years due to a Final Four run and the spunkiness of their #1 fan, 102-year-old Sister Jean.  This team wasn't expected to do as well as they had in previous seasons now that they were operating under a new coaching staff, but the Ramblers upset the Missouri Valley Conference tournament as the #4 seed and made their way into the bracket.  They seemed like a team no one would want to face and the unlucky team to draw them was Ohio State.  The draw might have been unlucky, but the Buckeyes were fortunate enough to catch Loyola-Chicago on a day when they were just plain bad.  This was not expected to be a high scoring game as both teams leaned mostly on their defense, but I've seen better shooting in CYO games.  The Ramblers missed a bunch of layups and their open threes tended to clank off the side of the rim or thud off the backboard.  On one possession, a Loyola-Chicago big man attempted a baby hook just a few feet from the basket and somehow airballed it short.  Ohio State wasn't exactly Loyola Marymount on the other end, but they were doing enough to make this feel like a blowout in the same way that New Mexico State had done to UConn the night before.  Once the Buckeyes reached 40 points, this game felt over.  Essentially it was.  The Ramblers were lucky to reach 41 before the buzzer, but that was not nearly enough to advance.  Ohio State moves on with a 54-41 victory.

Sadly, that was the closest of the four early afternoon games.  Things got a little better in the late afternoon set.  USC and Miami met in a 7-10 battle that was much more competitive than you would have thought if you followed college basketball throughout the year.  USC was a team that was ranked in the top 25 pretty much all year long, while Miami finished 4th in the ACC in a year where that conference was much weaker than it typically is.  The Hurricanes nearly lost their opening game in the ACC tournament to 13-20 Boston College, before falling in a tight game to Duke in the semifinals.  Miami certainly didn't play like they were the underdog in the first half, using a 16-2 run en route to an 11 point halftime lead.  The Trojans found their offense on the other side of the break, starting the second half with a 17-2 run to move ahead by 4.  The game would be tight from that point until the final minute, when the Hurricanes built a seemingly insurmountable 7 point lead.  But it's hard for any team to close out a game in March and USC came roaring back, tying the game with 14 seconds to play.  Miami played for the last shot, drove to the lane, and got a whistle.  USC was called for a foul with only 3 seconds to go.  The Hurricanes made both free throws, but the Trojans would have one last shot.  Needing to go the length of the court, USC managed to complete a pass to mid-court and they were able to get a fairly clean look at a long three-pointer.  There were shades of Gordon Hayward and Butler in the title game against Duke as the ball hit the backboard and then the front of the rim before refusing to go down.  Heartbreak for USC as Miami heads to round two after a 68-66 thriller.

More ACC you ask?  Even though they only got 5 teams into the tournament, 3 of them were playing at the same time.  The late afternoon window also featured Jenn's beloved Alabama Crimson Tide playing the likely inebriated Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  It was hard to imagine that the Irish wouldn't be somewhat fatigued after their late night win and then cross-country flight to San Diego on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, but they didn't look any worse for wear in this game.  Notre Dame put up 41 in the first half to lead by 5 at intermission.  Alabama would trim the margin to 2 early in the second half, but Notre Dame found another gear, putting together a 17-5 run to blow this one wide open.  The Crimson Tide showed promise early in the season with a surprising win over Gonzaga, but as the season went on, they seemed to sputter.  The gas tank officially hit E in this one, as the 11th seeded Irish easily handled Alabama by a score of 78-64.

The last of the ACC teams playing on Friday afternoon was Virginia Tech.  Like Richmond in the Atlantic 10, there was no chance of this team getting an at-large bid when they showed up for their conference tournament.  And they were one second away from being knocked out in their first game there.  But they hit a game-winning three in overtime to beat the 10 seed Clemson.  Then they took out that now-invincible Notre Dame team I just talked about above.  Didn't North Carolina win by 32 yesterday?  They sure did, but they were no match for the Hokies in the ACC semis.  And the cherry on the sundae was denying Coach K one last ACC tournament championship to punch their ticket to the Big Dance.  It was an extremely impressive run over 4 days and it made many people select them to move past Texas in round one on Friday.  The only problem with runs like the one that Virginia Tech made in the ACC tournament is that you have a few days off, the momentum goes away, and it's hard to bring things back to a 10 again.  Richmond was a bit lucky with their draw because their opponent, Iowa, had also made a run through their conference tournament, meaning the "bounce factor" (horse racing jargon) was in play for both of them.  Texas, on the other hand, had been knocked out of the Big 12 tournament in their first game, so they had a chip on their shoulder.  This game was very competitive in the first half, but the final play before the break might have shown the writing was on the wall for the Hokies.  Down by 1, Texas threw up a desperation heave from beyond half court that went on, giving the Longhorns the lead at the half.  In the second half, it was all Texas.  They would go on a 25-9 run to break it open.  The Hokies put up some garbage points late to make the score look a little nicer, but Texas was never threatened over the last 15 minutes of action.  Virginia Tech will always have the ACC tournament championship and one of the best celebrations to Enter Sandman that you will ever see, but this is where we have to bid them adieu.  The Longhorns move forward to play Purdue after an 81-73 win.

Could we finally get a big upset during the evening games?  Chattanooga seemed like a real upset possibility as they took on Big 10 regular season champion Illinois.  The Mocs were one of two very good teams to play in the Southern Conference.  The other team was Furman.  These two played in the championship game of the conference tournament and, with only one spot on the line, battled in what was the best game of Championship Week.  A winner couldn't be settled in regulation, so they put 5 more minutes on the clock.  Furman grabbed a two point lead with only 4.3 seconds to play.  Chattanooga inbounded the ball and frantically dribbled from one side of the court to the other, barely getting past the midcourt line.  A three was launched right before the buzzer and it went in.  Neither team deserved to lose, but it was the Mocs who would go dancing.  Like any good upset candidate, Chattanooga showed they weren't going to be intimidated by the favored Illini very early on in this game.  They jumped out to a 13 point lead in the first half.  That lead would eventually evaporate, but the Mocs once again put together a run to establish an 11 point edge in the second half.  Illinois, meanwhile, was having Kentucky-like problems.  They too had an All-American big man who they were relying on completely once times got tough.  And when I say Kofi Cockburn is a big man, I mean that he looks like 12-year-old Andy Reid in that old Punt, Pass, and Kick footage.  Just a man amongst boys.  He was intimidating on the defensive end.  He cleaned up on the boards.  Everything ran through him on the offensive end.  Just as Tshiebwe seemed like he was willing Kentucky to victory, Cockburn was shouldering the load for the Illini.  His jumper put them up by 1 with 46 seconds to go.  The two teams would each knock down a couple of free throws before Chattanooga had one last chance to win it.  Make that two last chances.  They missed a shot with a few seconds to play and got the offensive rebound.  But the second shot didn't fall either.  So much for big upsets on Day 2.  Illinois barely survives by a score of 54-53.

The best we were likely to do in terms of an upset was seeing an 11 seed advance.  Notre Dame had pulled off the trick earlier in the day by taking out a 6th seeded team from the SEC and Iowa State was looking to replicate that feat in their game against LSU.  LSU was playing their first game under a new head coach after their former coach, Will Wade, was fired for illegally paying recruits.  Not exactly a momentum builder going into March.  This game was a strange one in that it was close throughout, but one team basically had the lead the entire way.  LSU hit a three pointer two minutes into the game to take a 5-4 advantage and then never led again.  And it wasn't like the Cyclones dominated for the remaining 38 minutes.  Their largest lead was 11, but the Tigers would claw back to within 2 with less than a minute remaining.  Iowa State did not panic.  In fact, as they had done throughout the game, they responded with a basket to make sure LSU could not get in front.  The Cyclones knocked down a three with 20 seconds to go and that was all she wrote.  Another 6 seed from the SEC goes bye-bye in round one as Iowa State takes this matchup by a score of 59-54.

The late evening session included the aforementioned TCU blowout and a 10:45pm tip-off time for Wisconsin and Colgate.  I was secretly wishing that Wisconsin would be up by 30 at halftime so I could go to bed, but that is not how March Madness works.  Before we get to that game, let's touch on two others.  Houston didn't meet my arbitrarily picked blowout margin of 15 points, but they came as close as you could in dispatching 12 seed UAB by a score of 82-68.  That left Michigan State vs Davidson as the last pre-10:45 tip-off game of the first round.  This game was expected to be close and it did not disappoint.  Davidson was the regular season champ of the Atlantic 10 conference and they made it to the conference tournament final before falling to the white-hot Richmond Spiders.  They were also getting a bit of a home game in this matchup with the Spartans as this contest was taking place in South Carolina.  They would need all the help they could get in this very evenly-matched battle with tournament stalwart Michigan State.  The Spartans got off to a quick start, jumping out to an 8-2 advantage, but neither team would hold a lead larger than 4 for the next 30 minutes of the game.  A Wildcats 8-2 run put them up by 5 with seven minutes to go, but Michigan State would respond by scoring the next 10 points of the game.  The Spartan lead would get as large as 8 with just under a minute left, but Davidson would not go quietly.  The Wildcats would score 14 points in the final 49 seconds of the game, but they needed 15 to send it to overtime.  CBS is overjoyed to get Coach K vs Izzo in round two as Michigan State holds off a pesky Davidson squad by a score of 74-73.

Game 32 in 48 hours.  Wisconsin vs. Colgate.  The Raiders were easily the best of the 14 seeds in this tournament and Wisconsin has a history of going ice cold from the field in tournament games, so if Colgate just get hot for a few stretches, there was a real chance that we could be losing our first 3 seed of the tournament.  Unfortunately for Colgate, this game was taking place in Wisconsin, so even though they held the lead for most of the first half, the raucous crowd kept coming alive to help the Badgers get back into it.  At halftime, the game was tied at 28.  About 10 minutes into the second half, Colgate was back in front by 4.  But over the next 7 minutes, it was the Raiders who couldn't make a shot.  While they were stuck at 54 points, the Badgers turned a 4 point deficit into a 6 point advantage.  Colgate tried to catch up from there, but the dagger came on a Wisconsin three pointer that gave the Badgers a 9 point margin with less than 90 seconds to play.  11-seeds advancing was as good as it was going to get on this Friday.  Wisconsin moves on to play 11-seed Iowa State after a 67-60 first round win.

Dave complaining on behalf of North Carolina?  What is the world coming to?  It actually happens in the Day 3 recap, coming later this afternoon.

March Madness 2022 - Happy St. Petey's Day!

I know, I know...where the hell is the spreadsheet with the pool standings?  Day 1 standings can be found right here.  Jenn had a very good St. Patrick's Day!

Speaking of the most holiest of holidays...when the first round of March Madness takes place on St. Patrick's Day, it becomes the ultimate juggling act for an Irish guy like myself.  Before noon, I'm checking the Gmail account that I only use four weeks out of the year because I truly hate Gmail, but Hotmail won't let me send out e-mails to a group of 47 people.  While I'm on there, I try to respond to any replies that came in from the opening e-mail and to troubleshoot any problems that Yahoo has caused by not having a user friendly pick 'em template.  This year, I learned that the links I provided were forcing people to use the same bracket in multiple pools.  Stupid Yahoo.

After that's done and the first game begins, I start copying the picks from everyone's brackets into my nerdy spreadsheet so that my formulas can calculate the pool scores easily.  That takes a while to do, but I was able to get the Gamblers Pool finished by the time the Thursday afternoon games were done and the Main Pool finished before my head hit the pillow Thursday night/early Friday morning.  Part of the reason this takes so long is because I'm watching the games at the same time.  I'm a huge fan.  I have to watch the games!

And then because it's St. Paddy's Day, I need to drink beer like I'm Brett Kavanaugh.  What can I say?  It's a labor of love.

Having gotten everything done by the end of the day on Thursday, you might be wondering why the recap isn't showing up until Sunday evening.  Well as complicated as that Thursday schedule was, it got even worse on Friday.  My big handicapping day each week is Friday (don't ask why, just accept this as fact and skip the lengthy explanation), so horse racing takes up much of the day.  And I did pretty well on Friday.  Well enough that I locked down my 10th trip to the National Horseplayers Championship.  The day that I qualify to the NHC is the biggest weight-off-my-shoulders day of the year, so I felt the need to celebrate.  (Note: Jenn has told me that I never celebrate my wins as much as I, ummm, "grumble" about my losses.  So I celebrated the win on Friday.).  Bourbon was consumed.  Wine was consumed.  Recaps weren't written.

On Saturday, I started to catch up on the recaps, but we were also supposed to attend our first ever Bat Mitzvah.  I didn't grasp that this event was akin to going to a wedding, so once again, recaps weren't completed.

Which brings us to today.  I'm watching the second day of the second round and trying to recap events from several days ago.  And I'm delaying any alcohol consumption until I've made some serious headway on this front!

We kicked off Thursday's action with Colorado State taking on Michigan.  Before the season, the Wolverines were expected to be one of the best teams in the nation, but they never lived up to the hype.  Their head coach, Juwan Howard, was suspended for 5 games after a post-game scrum with the Wisconsin coaching staff.  Once they were bounced from the Big 10 tournament in their opening game against Indiana, it was fair to wonder whether they would even qualify for the Big Dance.  They did sneak in as an 11 seed, but they did not draw an easy assignment as Colorado State went 25-5 on the season while finishing second in a very competitive Mountain West Conference.  About 15 minutes into the game, you had to wonder whether Howard was going to punch someone else as the Rams jumped out to a huge 28-13 advantage.  The Wolverines were able to mount a little bit of a run before the half, trimming the lead to 7 at intermission.  Whatever formula for success was found in those last five minutes of the opening half was employed throughout the final 20 minutes.  Michigan put up 46 points in the second half, completely overwhelming Colorado State as they cruised to a 75-63 victory.  First upset of the day.  It wouldn't be the last.

South Dakota State was a popular Cinderella pick, coming into the tournament on a 21 game winning streak and having gone undefeated in the Summit League.  As the 13 seed, they were taking on the Big East champs from Providence, who were coming off an 85-58 shellacking at the hands of Creighton in their conference tournament.  The Friars would score the last 7 points of the first half and to take an 8 point lead after 20 minutes.  The Jackrabbits had a tough time closing that gap in the second half with Providence holding them at bay for a long time.  South Dakota State was finally able to close within 3 with a minute remaining, but as was the case in the first half, the Friars would finish off the scoring.  They accounted for the last six points of the game en route to a 66-57 victory.

In the other two matchups in the early afternoon time slot, Memphis jumped out to a huge 19 point halftime lead over Boise State and then held on late to win 64-53.  Then the defending champs took the court and dished out some punishment as Baylor thumped Norfolk State by a score of 85-49.

There were two more blowouts in the late afternoon games.  Tennessee followed up their SEC tournament victory by crushing Longwood by a score of 88-56.  The second blowout was a bit unexpected as it came in an 8-9 matchup.  North Carolina pretended they were playing in Coach K's final home game again, running up the score on Marquette in a 95-63 rout.

How about some competitive games?  Well, Gonzaga vs Georgia State didn't spring to mind as a matchup that would be particularly close, but the Panthers did everything in their power to make the overall #1 seed sweat.  Georgia State trailed by only 2 at the half, but they didn't let up after the halftime show was over.  The Panthers took a two point lead with 13 minutes to play.  Could we actually see a 16 seed win for the second time ever?  Gonzaga did not look like themselves for the vast majority of this game, but eventually they figured out that they had a huge height advantage on the Panthers and began dumping the ball inside religiously.  Clinging to a 59-57 lead, the Bulldogs started playing like a national championship contender, going on a 24-1 run to end Georgia State's shot at an epic upset.  It wasn't pretty, but the Zags move on to round two after a 93-72 victory.

Last but not least in the late afternoon was a matchup between two teams that won their respective conference tournaments as lower seeds.  Iowa was the #5 seed in the Big Ten, while Richmond was the #6 seed in the Atlantic 10.  If the Spiders hadn't won the A-10 tourney on Selection Sunday, some other at-large team would have gone dancing.  But they stole that bid away and here they were taking on the Hawkeyes.  The teams traded the lead back and forth for the first 25 minutes of the game as Iowa's prolific offense struggled.  With the Hawkeyes unable to find the mark from downtown, Richmond's confidence grew and they would open up an 8 point advantage.  Iowa would creep back into it late, trimming the lead to 1 with two minutes to go.  They were down 3 with a minute left when a controversial no-call would be their undoing.  A Richmond player clearly made contact with an Iowa shooter as he attempted a three-pointer to tie the game.  There was no whistle though.  Richmond grabbed the ball as it fell short of the rim and closed out the game from there.  The 5 seed wasn't nearly as lucky for Iowa in this tournament as the Spiders became the bazillionth 12 seed to pull off the 12-5 upset in a 67-63 triumph.

The early evening games would get underway with another 5-12 matchup featuring some ugly offense.  UConn was known for playing strong defense and underwhelming offense.  New Mexico State was more offensively oriented, but they hadn't played against a team as stingy as the Huskies.  How rough was this game early on?  It was 2-2 at the first TV timeout.  Ouch.  The Aggies wouldn't get any easy buckets, but they did have a star player (Teddy Allen) who was eventually going to put the ball in the hoop, while UConn couldn't generate much offense no matter what they did.  Allen had 14 points in the first half while the Huskies could only muster 22 as a team.  The Aggies led by 10 at the break.  I'll just go ahead and tell you that Allen put up another 23 in the second half and let you figure out who won.  Another 5 seed gets bounced in round one as New Mexico State takes out UConn by a score of 70-63.

Indiana was looking to make it 3-for-3 for the 12 seeds, but St. Mary's was not as generous with turnovers as Indiana's First Four opponent (Wyoming) had been on Tuesday night.  The Hoosiers continued to struggle from the field and the Gaels made them pay.  A 5 seed makes it to round two as St. Mary's blows out Indiana by a score of 82-59.

Georgia State had laid the groundwork earlier in the day that anything was possible even though the dam eventually cracked and Gonzaga ran away with their 1 vs 16 matchup.  But in theory, a 2 vs 15 game should be even closer, right?  Well not many people thought that St. Peter's would give Kentucky a run for their money as the Wildcats were led by likely player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe.  And the Peacocks' chances got considerably worse when one of their best defensive players picked up two quick fouls in the first 90 seconds of the game, forcing him to sit out the rest of the first half.  But St. Peter's never looked intimidated in this matchup.  They played solid halfcourt defense and made Kentucky work for everything.  On the other hand, Kentucky looked very much like Gonzaga had earlier in the day.  Things that seemed easy for them on the offensive end of the floor throughout the season now felt like a complete struggle.  Kentucky was able to get to the free throw a line a ton in the first half, but it didn't matter.  The game was deadlocked at 37 at intermission.  In the second half, the Wildcats went on a couple of runs and you got the impression that each one might spell the end of the line for the Peacocks.  But St. Peter's kept their nerve, even when they trailed by 6 with three minutes to go.  They would score the next 7 to take the lead.  Kentucky was officially in trouble.  As the final minutes wound down, Kentucky looked more and more desperate to have Tshiebwe carry them.  And for the most part he did.  But it wasn't enough to prevent overtime as St. Peter's hit a jumper late to tie the game.  Tshiebwe would make the first two buckets in the extra period, but the Wildcats offense would stall out after that.  The Peacocks would go on a 10-1 run to take command, eventually knocking down a bunch of free throws to seal the upset.  Hope you had this 15 seed advancing on your bracket because you just got a ton of upset points if you did.  Kentucky is sent home, losing to St. Peter's, 85-79.

That would not be the only OT game in the early evening session.  It was hard to watch much of the Creighton - San Diego State matchup due to how captivating the St. Peter's - Kentucky game was, but it sure looked like the Aztecs had this one under control, leading by 9 with only 2:30 remaining.  But San Diego State stopped scoring, while the Bluejays did not.  Nine in a row by the Bluejays tied the game at 62, but a foul against Creighton with 7 seconds left looked like it might save the Aztecs.  They went to the line for a 1-and-1 and missed the front end.  On to overtime we would go.  San Diego State found their offense again, going up by 3, but Creighton battled back to take the lead by 2.  With only a few seconds remaining, the Aztecs ran one of the most predictable out-of-bounds plays you will ever see.  Their best player threw the ball inbounds, passing it to their big man at the top of the key.  There was a 100% chance that he was immediately passing the ball back to San Diego State's best player.  The Bluejays defender converged on the return pass, a turnover ensued, and Creighton was moving on.  San Diego State's 72-69 OT defeat meant that the Mountain West's 4 teams had all lost their opening games.  Forget that I described that conference as "very competitive" earlier in this recap.

Four more games to cap off the night if you weren't asleep, drunk, or both by this time of the night.  We'll start with the easiest result of the last 4 games.  Texas Southern is very good in Dayton.  They did not play Kansas in Dayton.  Kansas lead at the half by 28, then cruised to a 83-56 victory.  The other three matchups were nailbiters.  Two of them involved 4-13 matchups.  Arkansas doesn't have the strongest history in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament and they were taking on a dangerous Vermont team who had a bit of a home court advantage with this game taking place in Buffalo, NY.  This game had a similar feel to the Providence - South Dakota State game earlier.  Seeding was the same, as was the game trend.  The lower seed played tough for most of each half, while the higher seed seemed to find just a little more in the latter stages of each 20 minute block.  This game was tied at 27 late in the first half, but the Razorbacks scored the final 7 points before the break.  The Catamounts stormed back to take the lead early in the second half, but with about 8 minutes to go, Arkansas countered with a 13-5 run to take a 9 point lead.  Vermont would close to within 2 with seconds to go, but Arkansas calmly went to the line and made two free throws to seal the deal.  Arkansas moves on after a 75-71 scare from Vermont.

The roles were reversed in the other 4 vs 13 matchup, as it was the Akron Zips that actually controlled most of the action in their game against last year's surprise Final Four team, UCLA.  The Bruins found themselves down 8 in the first half before climbing back into it, but as the second half progressed, Akron began to pull away again.  It was 47-39 with less than 8 minutes to go before UCLA went into full lockdown mode on the defensive end.  They made sure nothing came easy for the Zips as they slowly closed the gap on the scoreboard.  Akron would only manage 6 points in those final 8 minutes as UCLA denied the 13 seed from being the latest upset winner on a wild Day 1.  The Bruins survive with a 57-53 victory.

That left one game to round out the night and I have to admit that it was the 1st round matchup I was most looking forward to.  Two really solid mid-major clubs meeting up in a 7-10 clash.  Murray State's resume was similar to South Dakota State's: 30 wins and an undefeated record in the Ohio Valley Conference.  They were taking on the San Francisco Dons, the third team from the West Coast Conference to earn a bid in this year's tournament.  San Francisco was trying to emerge from the shadow created by the two big guns from their conference: Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.  These two teams did not disappoint.  The first half featured a lot of offense and back-and-forth action.  The Dons would hold a slim one point edge at the break.  The Racers seemed to be getting the better of San Francisco as the second half wore on, building up an 8 point lead with only 2 minutes to go.  But the Dons refused to go quietly.  They hit a 3, got a stop, made 2 free throws, got another stop, hit another 3 and we were off to yet another overtime on day 1.  This overtime was without a doubt the most entertaining one to watch so far in this year's tournament.  Players on both teams had this look on their face that seemed to say "you can't stop me".  There were no signs of exhaustion.  Just bucket after bucket.  With a minute left, the Racers were leading the overtime session by a score of 14-12.  It was San Fran's turn to answer, but they finally missed.  That was the only cushion Murray State would need.  Each team would make one more basket, but the Racers had the luxury of closing things out at the free throw line from there.  Hope you stayed up for possibly the best played game of round 1 as Murray State prevailed with a hard fought 92-87 win.

That's it for Day 1.  The recaps for the rest of this weekend's action will be up tomorrow!

March Madness 2022 - The First Four...Drinks Are On Mike Brey

The first week of March Madness is always the craziest week of the year for me because it involves brainstorming the ever-important, hoping-for-at-least-2-laughs opening e-mail to the pool, as well as setting up all of the brackets in my spreadsheet, watching as many games as possible, and coming up with recaps of the action.  This year, I threw in a trip to Saratoga and back just to ratchet up the chaos a little more.  As the saying goes, I can sleep when I'm dead.

Right now, I'm very much alive and caffeinated and ready to take on the 2022 version of March Madness.  The brackets are complete and I kept my eyes open to watch at least a bit of 19 of the first 20 games in this year's tournament.  The only game that I did not get to see any of was the opener in Dayton.  Yes, this First Four recap will only be 75% complete, but the last game of the quartet gave us a lot of extra action, so it evens out a bit.

Game 1?  Your guess is as good as mine.  The only thing I can tell you is that this year's Madness started off very similarly to last year's version.  Texas Southern was a 16 seed playing in the First Four for the second consecutive season and apparently the Tigers really enjoy playing in Dayton.  They advanced to the main bracket with a win in last year's debut game and turned the trick a second time on Tuesday night with a 76-67 victory over Texas A&M - CC Music Factory.

I arrived home from Saratoga at halftime of the second game, so the halftime crew on TruTV got me up to speed on how the first half of Indiana vs. Wyoming went.  And the reviews were not good.  The consensus was that Indiana should have been pleased about getting to intermission with a 5 point lead since they had played poorly in the first half.  On the other hand, the Cowboys needed to be thankful that they were within shouting distance after being very sloppy with the ball for the first 20 minutes.  Seemed like a very "glass is half full" read on two teams who were struggling on the court.  Maybe I should have gotten back on the PA Turnpike instead of watching the second half, because what I witnessed seemed eerily similar to the halftime description.  The Hoosiers struggled to put the ball in the hoop, going 2-13 from beyond the arc and missing 8 of 20 attempts from the charity stripe.  But the good news for Indiana was that Wyoming was willing to give them plenty of extra attempts to score.  Wyoming's Hunter Maldonado and Graham Ike combined for 15 turnovers in this game while the entire Indiana team only had 8.  The Hoosiers proved to be slightly less bad in this matchup, but an ugly win is still a win.  Indiana moves on with a 66-58 victory.

If there was a pair of First Four games to miss, it was the pair that took place on Tuesday night.  The action on Wednesday was far superior to what was on display the night before.  First up was possibly the best matchup of 16 seeds that this tournament has ever seen.  When you're talking about 16 seeds, you're not expecting to see teams that excel on the defensive end.  But if you're lucky, you might see some offensive fireworks.  The matchup between Bryant and Wright State was like the 4th of July on steroids.  Bryant featured Peter Kiss, the leading scorer in all of college basketball.  Wright State countered with Tanner Holden, who was merely the 17th highest scorer in the nation.  These two gentlemen were not shy about putting up shot after shot, but neither were their less heralded teammates, to be honest.  It was a close, high-scoring affair at the half, with Wright State holding a slim 44-42 edge.  It took 11 seconds for Bryant to tie it up once the second half began.  With such a frantic pace being played, you had to wonder which of these two squads would eventually run out of juice.  Turns out it would be Bryant, as that dunk 11 seconds past intermission would be the last time they would pull even with Wright State.  Kiss was able to put up 28, but Tanner was even better, going for 37 points and 11 rebounds.  Wright State moves on after a very entertaining game, taking down a valiant Bryant bunch by a score of 93-82.

You would think that on a night with only two games being played that 175 total points would be the high water mark, but Notre Dame and Rutgers would combine for more than that.  It wasn't expected to be a high scoring affair, especially when you consider the fact that the Scarlet Knights won a game earlier this year with only 48 points.  But in this matchup of two teams who unexpectedly made early exits from their respective conference tourneys, offense wasn't scarce.  Rutgers almost got to their full game total from that early season victory as they went into the half with a 41-36 advantage.  The two teams scored in completely different ways.  For Rutgers, they depended mostly on 1-on-1 matchups, relying on their star players to create offense on their own, either by taking the defender off the dribble or stepping back and launching three-pointers.  For Notre Dame, success on offense was a team effort.  Specifically, all 5 members of the Irish would take up position out by the three point line, drawing out the Scarlet Knights defense.  Then they would rotate the ball and look for opportunities to slash to the hoop.  Rutgers was so terrified of the Irish's ability to hit threes that they would bring their defense out to the perimeter over and over again.  With both teams being relatively successful with their respective approaches, there was little reason for either team to change things up.  And the score remained close throughout the second half.  But both teams appeared fatigued late due to all of this scoring that they weren't necessarily used to.  The score was tied with 1:50 left and it would remain tied 110 seconds later as no one could buy a bucket at the end of regulation.  We were headed to overtime.

In OT, Rutgers looked like they might have finally gained an edge as they had a 1 point lead and the ball with only 27 seconds remaining.  But nothing is ever easy in March.  The Scarlet Knights threw the ball away on the inbounds and Notre Dame quickly scored to take the lead.  Suddenly Rutgers went from running out the clock to needing a bucket to survive.  They put up a 3 and connected with 8 seconds to go.  Now it was the Irish who were in desperation mode, but once again they drove to the hoop and scored, sending us to double overtime.

It was starting to feel like we might never find a winner as the clock ticked past midnight on the East Coast.  Having officially reached St. Patrick's Day, one might have thought luck was on the side of the Irish as they grabbed a 3 point lead with only 41 seconds to go.  But Rutgers went iso, got the ball to their best player, and he sank a jumper from deep to tie the game yet again with 23 seconds left.  Notre Dame took their time, not hiding their intention to drive to the hoop in the waning seconds.  This time, Rutgers was able to make a stop, but Notre Dame grabbed the offensive rebound and followed with a layup to take the lead by 2 with 1.4 seconds to play.  The deflated Scarlet Knights got the ball inbounds, but took too many dribbles and weren't able to launch a heave to win it before the buzzer sounded.  Notre Dame survives with an 89-87, double OT victory.

While the game was highly entertaining, it paled in comparison to the post-game interview with an exuberant Mike Brey, head coach of the Irish.  He excitedly yelled "You know what day it is?  St. Patrick's Day!" as if it was a foregone conclusion that his team would win once the clock struck midnight on the East coast.  Then when he was asked how his team would handle a double overtime game and then a flight to San Diego before having to play Alabama in less than 48 hours, Brey responded that all he cared about was making sure there was Irish Whiskey on the flight there.  That's my type of guy!

Goodbye Dayton, hello field of 64!  It was time to get a little bit of sleep before Thursday's crush of 16 games and the first look at the 2022 pool standings.

March Madness 2021 - Just The Way He Drew It Up

It's pretty rare that we get the best two teams in the national championship.  The tournament is called March Madness for a reason.  It's just not easy to navigate 5 rounds (or 6 rounds if you're UCLA) of single elimination to get to the final game.  But with all the twists and turns in this year's edition, we still managed to get the matchup everyone was eager to see.  Baylor and Gonzaga were supposed to play earlier in the year, back when they were both unbeaten.  Some covid positives in the Baylor program forced the game to be cancelled and it looked like we wouldn't get to see these two titans battle.  But the fates were kind and rather than see those teams face each other in a somewhat meaningless game in December, we got to witness it on the grandest stage of them all.  Bears.  Bulldogs.  Battlestar Galactica.  Basketball immortality.

One way or another, a program was about to get its first national title, as neither of these teams had ever won the championship before.  And for Gonzaga, the stakes were even higher.  Indiana back in 1976 was the last team to run the entire gauntlet undefeated.  The last team to make it this far was Indiana State back in 1979, but they were the underdogs vs Magic's Michigan State Spartans.  The Zags were the favorites in this matchup.  However, they were going to have to dig into the reserves to beat Baylor.  The national semifinal against UCLA was a Rocky-like slugfest.  Could they come back two nights later and maintain their high octane level of play?

The analysts on TV will tell you that Gonzaga looked flat early, but I disagree.  I think Baylor came out with a strong game plan that put the Zags into a situation they weren't used to.  Here's how the game started and see if you notice any trends:

• Baylor wins tip.  Misses jumper.  Gets offensive rebound.  Misses jumper.  Gets offensive rebound.  Makes jumper.
• Gonzaga misses a three pointer.
• Baylor misses jumper.  Gets offensive rebound.  Makes layup.
• Gonzaga turnover.
• Baylor makes a three pointer.
• Gonzaga misses a three pointer.  Gets offensive rebound.  Turns ball over.
• Baylor makes layup.

Add that all up and it was 9-0 Baylor very quickly.  As this game would go on, the analysts would talk about a weary Gonzaga team and how they couldn't make stops.  But to me, that really wasn't the case.  What I saw was:

• Baylor dominating on the boards.  It wasn't like the Bears came out with a hot hand or that the Zags were playing bad defense.  But Baylor kept getting offensive rebounds and it was too hard for Gonzaga to make multiple stops.
• Baylor was taking Drew Timme out of Gonzaga's offense.  The Zags couldn't get the ball to Timme, so they settled for three pointers early on, which they were not hitting.
• Baylor refused to drive 65.  I mentioned Charles Barkley's comment about Gonzaga only playing at 65 mph and being the best at it.  But Baylor's aggressiveness and speed on defense, especially in the first few minutes when they jumped out to a big lead, caused the Zags to have to play faster.  And when they played faster, they made mistakes.  There would be a lot of Gonzaga turnovers in this game where players tried to drive to the hoop faster than they were accustomed to and lost control of their dribble.

Would a fresh Gonzaga team be able to play at that faster speed?  Maybe.  But it seemed like Baylor had the perfect game plan in place.  The Zags were thrown off and panic mode set in quickly.  Jalen Suggs picked up his 2nd team foul before the first TV timeout, so they would have to play without their team leader for most of the first half.  The lead would balloon to 29-10.  Gonzaga was the top scoring team in the nation, but it sure seemed like they would need everything to go right the rest of the way to even have a chance of completing an improbably comeback against this Baylor squad.

To Gonzaga's credit, they would begin to figure it out as the first half wore on.  They had more success on the defensive end by switching from man-to-man to a zone.  They got Timme into the offensive flow eventually.  And after only scoring 10 points in the first 10 minutes, they scored 27 points over the next 10 minutes.  Their deficit at halftime was a mere 10 points, Suggs had managed to stay away from foul #3, and despite an ugly start, the undefeated season was still a possibility.

Unfortunately for Gonzaga, the second half started out eerily similar to the first half.  Baylor had the ball first again and that possession went: Missed three, offensive rebound, missed layup, offensive rebound, made three.  After a Gonzaga layup, the Bears came down and knocked down another trey.  The lead was 14 again.  Gonzaga would whittle it down to 9 at one point during the second half, but less than two minutes later, Baylor would put the final nail in the coffin.  With the lead back up to 13, Corey Kispert drove to the hoop and had his layup swatted away.  On the other end, the Bears had numbers.  After some crisp ball movement, they found an open shooter behind the arc.  As the ball was in the air, you could hear someone from Baylor yell "Yup" and sure enough, the ball found nothing but net.  The lead was 16, there was only 12 minutes to play and Baylor had crushed every small run Gonzaga had made to get back into the game.

I used to watch NFL Primetime on ESPN after the games on Sunday afternoon were over and every year, when the last undefeated team was handed their first loss, Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, and company would talk about how the 1972 Dolphins would pop the champagne again as the last undefeated champ.  They would even play a sound effect of a champagne cork popping.  As Baylor hit that three to extend the lead back to 16, I imagined hearing the 1976 Hoosiers popping their champagne, knowing it would be at least another year before someone could take their throne as the last undefeated champ.  (Of course, since this entire tournament took place in Indiana, it's possible that the 1976 Hoosiers were in the arena popping bottles and that's what I was hearing.  Ya never know.)

There was no drama over the last 12 minutes as Gonzaga would get no closer than 13 points.  With the blowout in place, CBS was desperate for filler as the minutes ticked down.  I'm sure they had a ton of stuff ready in case Gonzaga had been way ahead, but it felt like they weren't as ready for a Baylor blowout.  They decided to air coach Scott Drew's press conference from back when he got the Baylor job in 2003.  The program was in shambles, but he promised that he would get them back to the NCAA tournament.  And then he followed it up by saying that they weren't just going to get there, they were going to win games when they got there.  Well Coach Drew, your team won 6 of those games this year.  And that makes the Baylor Bears your national champion.  They handed the Zags their only defeat of the season, by a final score of 86-70.

One last look at the Magic Spreadsheet:

Magic Spreadsheet

Aiden and Scott B are your two champs.  Tiny is your double runner-up.  And Scott B and Dave H claim the final spots on the respective podiums.

That's it folks.  It was Madness as advertised: a 15 seed nearly making it to the Elite Eight, an 11 seed almost getting to the title game in one of the best college basketball games of all time, a final between the top two ranked teams in the country, and an undefeated team coming up one step short of glory.  I hope you enjoyed this tournament as much as I did.  I hope you watched One Shining Moment.  And I hope we're back to normal this time next year.  Take care everyone!

March Madness 2021 - And Here's To You, Adam Morrison

The National Semifinals played out just like everyone imagined: one hard fought battle and one complete snoozer.  Ok, maybe the Final Four flipped the script on us a little bit.  If you didn't tune in on Saturday night, you missed a doozy.  The national championship on Monday night has a tough act to follow.  But before we get to the Final Four recap, let's take a gander at the Magic Spreadsheet!

Magic Spreadsheet

Not much drama remaining in this year's pools.  In the Main Pool, Aiden was our champ this year, with Tiny taking the runner-up spot, and Scott B finishing in 3rd.  Some tweaks to that Main Pool bracket helped Scott finish two spots higher in the Gamblers Pool.  He is the champ of this year's edition, while Tiny got his second silver medal by coming in 2nd in this pool as well.  The only position that is still up for grabs is third.  Chubbs needs a Baylor victory and a total score less than 136 points to steal 3rd, while any other scenario will give the bronze to Dave H.

A Baylor victory in the national championship?  Yes, putting the Magic Spreadsheet at the top of the blog means spoilers galore.  (As does procrastination and putting this out two days after the game has ended.).  The Baylor-Houston game was supposed to be the tight affair among the two national semifinals as it featured two top 10 teams with contrasting styles.  Baylor was known for their strong guard play on the offensive end.  The Bears could score in bunches based on their proficient three-point shooting.  Their opponent was known for having one of the best defensive squads in the nation.  Houston had held their opponents to less than 56 points per game during the first four rounds of the tournament.  But they also were somewhat fortunate in how their bracket played out.  Their path to the Final Four consisted of playing the #15 seed, the #10 seed, the #11 seed, and the #12 seed, making them the first team ever to win their region without playing a single-digit seed.  Facing Baylor was a steep upgrade in competition and it showed very early in this one.  The surprise was that it was the Bears defense which dominated during the opening 20 minutes.  Houston only had one guy who seemed able to score and that was Marcus Sasser.  I'm sure that if you told the Cougars before the game that Sasser would score 17 in the first half, they would have assumed that they were well ahead of Baylor at intermission.  But Sasser's teammates only managed 3 points during those 20 minutes.  The Bears, meanwhile, were on fire from beyond the arc.  By the time the dust settled on half #1, Baylor led by 25.  The second half was nothing more than a victory lap for the Bears as Houston couldn't get any closer than 17.  Baylor will play for the national championship after a 78-59 victory over Houston.

The other national semifinal was the one that figured to be the mismatch.  Undefeated Gonzaga came into the game averaging over 90 points per contest.  UCLA had only scored 51 in their Elite Eight victory over Michigan.  The Bruins were going to have come up with some Houston-like defense (pre-Baylor) or they were going to have shoot the lights out to have a chance in this one.  And given that they had already played 5 games in this tournament, including 2 overtime games, it seemed really unlikely that UCLA could give the Zags a game.  Oh how wrong that analysis was!

There was plenty of offense in the first half as Gonzaga scored at their typical pace.  But they found themselves trailing for most of the opening 20 minutes as UCLA was hitting nearly everything.  Forget only scoring 51 points against Michigan.  The Bruins almost matched that mark by halftime in this one.  Still, despite holding the lead most of the way, UCLA found themselves trailing at the half when Gonzaga hit a last-second shot to take a 45-44 lead.  It was a really impressive showing from the Bruins, but it had to make you wonder whether we were seeing what we saw in Gonzaga's round two game vs. Oklahoma.  The Sooners came out blazing hot in that one, holding the lead for most of the first half.  But eventually they couldn't keep pace with the Zags offense and Gonzaga pulled away to a comfortable victory.  How much more could UCLA possibly have in the tank.  The answer?  Plenty.

The Bruins were led by Johnny Juzang, who has been the most impressive player in this year's tournament.  Whenever UCLA really needed a bucket, Juzang would get it for them.  But this wasn't a case of a star player carrying the underdog team, a la Steph Curry back in his Davidson days.  Cody Riley was banging bodies in the paint with Gonzaga's Drew Timme, getting offensive rebounds and hitting the occasional mid-range jumper.  Tyger Campbell was running the offense for the Bruins, driving into the lane, hitting shots, and getting some of the Zags into foul trouble.  And when Juzang was denied the ball on the offensive end, UCLA turned to Jaime Jaquez Jr. to hit some key shots.  The Bruins seemed to be thriving on the "next man up" philosophy.  Whenever someone was called on to make a big play, they made it.  In most Gonzaga games this season, there was this feeling of inevitability that the Zags were going to win.  As the second half wore on, it felt like it was inevitable that the Bruins were about to end Gonzaga's undefeated season.

If it sounds like there is no way that Gonzaga should have been keeping pace based on how well UCLA's offense was working, then you haven't seen the Zags play this year.  You need a tremendous offense to score over 90 points per game.  Much like the Bruins, the Zags were getting contributions from everyone.  Drew Timme has been their best player in this tournament and he was a key to their offense yet again.  Jalen Suggs was doing his part to create off the dribble.  Joel Ayayi came out hot and did most of the scoring for the Zags in the first half.  Corey Kispert basically played the role of Jaime Jaquez Jr. for Gonzaga, hitting clutch buckets when the other offensive threats were defended well.  And even though Gonzaga unexpectedly missed some layups and free throws during the course of this game, they still managed to hold a 7 point lead midway through the second half.  But that lead evaporated quickly and the game became a one-possession affair all the way down to the final buzzer.  Making things more ominous for the Zags was foul trouble.  In particular, Timme had picked up his 4th foul with almost 5 minutes left in the game.  Could Gonzaga's offense keep up with UCLA (wow, feels weird typing that) if Timme fouled out?

Turns out they wouldn't have to answer that question.  UCLA oddly decided not to test Timme much on the defensive end by feeding the ball to Riley.  Instead they relied on the hot hand of Johnny Juzang.  But there was a key play involving Riley that made the highlight reel.  He had slipped free when Timme left him to double team a UCLA player.  Riley got the ball and looked like he had an easy dunk.  But Suggs came out of nowhere to get a finger on the ball as Riley headed to the rim.  The dunk missed its mark and Suggs tracked down the ball.  He then fired a full court bounce pass to a streaking Timme for a dunk on the other end.  The Zags were back on top.  Until Juzang made yet another jumper.  The game was still tied as UCLA came down the court for the last possession.  Juzang was not giving up the ball.  As the seconds ticked down, he drove past two defenders and elevated in the lane.  Before Juzang had even gotten to the free throw line, Timme had set up shop ready for a charge.  The last seconds ticked off the clock as Juzang released a floater and collided into Timme.  I was expecting the refs to let the teams play, but suddenly there was a whistle.  Would the call go against Timme, knocking him out of the game and giving Juzang two shots from the free throw line for the win with less than a second to go?  No!  The refs called a charge on Juzang.  The game was headed to overtime.

(I should note that I had alternated between sitting and standing while watching this game, but for the last 6-7 minutes of regulation and overtime, it was nothing but standing and pacing.)

We headed to OT and Timme's foul trouble still seemed to be the guillotine hanging precariously over the Zags head.  Could he make it 5 more minutes without fouling out?  Seemed like only a matter of time before he got his 5th foul if he was going to make defensive plays like he did at the end of regulation.  But the Zags didn't seem concerned that his 5th foul might come on the offensive end.  They fed Timme the ball for the first 3 possessions of overtime and he scored on all of them.  UCLA kept switching on screens and the Zags were taking advantage.  After a timeout, Gonzaga tried to play it safe with Timme by sitting him on the bench for a possession, trying to get him back in for offense later on.  But that strategy seemed to backfire as the Zags offense would not be as sharp for the remainder of overtime.  There were some head scratching plays for UCLA as well, with Juzang not touching the ball on offense for most of the extra period.  Both teams strayed from the guys who got them here.

Gonzaga would hold a 5 point cushion, 90-85, with less than a minute left in overtime.  For some reason, I was still convinced the Bruins were going to win.  The score 91-90 flashed through my mind.  And when Jaquez Jr. hit a contested three to trim the lead back down to 2, that feeling grew even stronger.  As had been the case in regulation, the Zags went to Corey Kispert for their final offensive possession and once again he was off the mark.  Deja vu.  UCLA grabbed the rebound and got the ball to Juzang.  Deja vu.  Would the variation be a three here to end it?  No, instead Juzang pulled up for a contested jumper that missed.  But he grabbed the rebound and laid it back in.  90-90.  Three seconds left.  We were headed to a second overtime.  Or were we?  Rather than call a timeout, the Zags inbounded the ball to Suggs immediately.  He had enough time to dribble just past halfcourt.  He rose up and shot the ball before the buzzer.  And it banked into the basket.  I was in complete shock.  It almost felt like UCLA should get another possession to tie it and send it to double overtime.  But the clock read zero, Gonzaga had escaped, and the dream of being the first undefeated champion in 45 years lived on.  Somewhere Adam Morrison was smiling...

...and that somewhere was courtside.  Morrison was the star player on the Zags back in 2006 when they were still truly a Cinderella.  It looked like they were headed to the Elite Eight as they held a lead late against (you guessed it) UCLA.  But the Zags blew it down the stretch and when the Bruins got a hold of a loose ball with a 1 point lead and only seconds remaining, Morrison was reduced to tears while laying face down on the court.  UCLA broke Gonzaga's hearts 15 years ago and now Jalen Suggs had returned the favor in the 2021 Final Four.  The Zags will meet Baylor after narrowly beating UCLA 93-90 in overtime.  It was one of the best college basketball games ever.  And UCLA provided one of the gutsiest runs in the tournament ever, playing 6 games, 3 of them going to overtime, only being eliminated when the undefeated #1 team in the nation banked in a shot from half court.  Hats off to this UCLA squad!

While the Bruins were amazing in this year's tournament, their loss means we get the game we were all hoping for.  Earlier in the season, when both Baylor and Gonzaga were undefeated, it was the matchup every college basketball fan had circled on their calendar.  Covid didn't cancel that game, it merely delayed it.  Monday night, with the national championship on the line, the two top teams in the country will find out who truly is the best.

Make sure you tune in.  And don't forget to stay for One Shining Moment!

March Madness 2021 - USC Can't Drive 65

It's been a busy week, so even though I started writing this blog post on Wednesday, it's not getting finished until shortly before the Final Four begins.  One change in today's blog: the Magic Spreadsheet moves from the top of the post to the bottom.  We have a winner in one of the pools and the other one is all but decided, so we'll leave the congratulations until the end.

The West region was up first on Tuesday night and it was time to see how powerful the PAC-12 juggernaut truly was.  USC had crushed their first three opponents in this year's tourney, but so had Gonzaga.  In fact, the Zags had been doing it all season long.  The analysts on TV certainly seemed to believe that USC was a formidable foe for Gonzaga and not the team that needed two overtimes to beat Utah in the PAC-12 quarterfinals just a couple of weeks ago.  To put it nicely, the Trojans did not get off to a good start in this one.  They turned the ball over a few times, allowing Gonzaga a quick 7-0 lead and once again, a Gonzaga game felt like it was over really early on.  USC came into the game as one of the top defensive units in the country, leading the nation in blocks.  They would record zero blocks in this game.  They only managed 1 turnover in the first half, while giving up 49 points to the Zags as USC headed to the locker room down by 19 after 20 minutes of play.  There was no drama in the second half as Gonzaga seems to know how to hold on to a cushion without expending too much energy.  Sir Charles probably put it best after the game when he said the following (paraphrased): "Gonzaga doesn't play at 100 mph.  They play at 65 mph.  They keep the game at that speed and they know no one can beat them at that speed."  It's true.  The Zags never seem to be stressed while they play the game.  They go about their business and dominate.  It's methodical and ruthless.  And it was good enough to earn them a trip to the Final Four.  The West region champs remain undefeated after dismantling USC by a score of 85-66.

Hope you got your offensive fix in the first regional final because baskets were hard to come by in the East region final.  It was a matchup of the two conferences that had been talked about the most in this year's tournament.  Michigan was representing the Big 12, the best conference in the country during the regular season, but a huge disappointment during March Madness.  They were taking on UCLA from the PAC-12, a conference that didn't get a lot of love during the regular season, but showed how good they were when it counted by getting 4 teams into the Sweet 16 and 3 into the Elite 8.  Oregon State had fallen short vs Houston and USC had just gotten bounced by Gonzaga, so it was up to the Bruins if the PAC-12's run was going to continue.  10 minutes into this one it was 11-4 Michigan and, after watching the Gonzaga game, it was hard to imagine how either of these teams was going to be able to keep up with the Zags in the national semifinals if they survived this game.  UCLA was able to develop a bit of offense as the half wore on and the Bruins led by 4 at the break.  They would extend that lead to 9 early in the second half and it appeared the Wolverines were in deep trouble, but then UCLA went cold.  Like "the mountains have turned blue" cold.  For the next 7 minutes, the Bruins didn't score.  That allowed Michigan back into the game, but they could only muster a mild run while UCLA went scoreless.  It would be a one possession game throughout the final minutes, mainly because neither team could score.  The Bruins went ahead 48-47 with 4 minutes to play and then no one scored for another 3 minutes.  Yikes.  Both teams added two points to their totals in the final minute, but Michigan would have the last chance to win.  And the chance after that.  And one more still.  Down by 1, Franz Wagner airballed an open three from the top of the key.  After UCLA hit a free throw to make it a two-point game, the Bruins exhibited some dicey last-second defense for the second straight game, allowing Michigan an open look for the win that did not drop.  The ball was knocked out of bounds with less than a second to go, but the Wolverines got possession.  Surely they wouldn't get another open look, right?  Wrong.  Wagner got about as good a chance as you can get on a catch and shoot 3 and it didn't miss by much, but it missed by enough.  UCLA has gone from the First Four to the Final Four.  It feels like they might have stolen Abilene Christian's magic as they've needed miracles to win the last two games.  Alabama couldn't hit a free throw and Michigan couldn't hit open threes.  They will probably need Gonzaga to miss the exit ramp to the arena to get to the national championship game, but hey, they've made it this far, so you've got to give credit where credit is due.  UCLA is your East region champ after an ugly 51-49 victory.

Magic Spreadsheet update: The Main Pool has not been decided yet, but Aiden is the overwhelming favorite at this point.  Nate S can still win if Houston defeats UCLA in the national championship game.  But any other outcome will give Aiden the win.  As for the Gamblers Pool, it was starting to look dire for Scott B, but he can thank UCLA for clinching the 2021 title for him.  Tiny needed Michigan to beat UCLA and Baylor to beat Houston to jump over Scott in the standings and he was certainly favored to do so, but the Wolverines came up short.  Chubbs was further down the standings, but he had Gonzaga losing to Michigan in the Final Four with Baylor as his overall champion, so he had ample room to make up ground late.  But the Wolverines loss left him with too much to do in the final weekend.  So congrats to Scott B, the 2021 Gamblers Pool champ!

Magic Spreadsheet

Time for the Final Four!  Can Houston cool down Baylor's explosive offense?  Does UCLA have any more miracles up their sleeves?  Will we get the covid-delayed dream matchup of Baylor-Gonzaga in the national championship?  And can Gonzaga cap off an undefeated season, something that hasn't been done in 45 years?  Tune in now!