Welcome Tournament Players to the Road to Indianapolis 2021. It feels weird saying "road" to Indianapolis, since all of the players are already in Indianapolis and some of the coaches and CBS staff are probably already at St. Elmo Steakhouse, the bastards. (Yes, I am jealous). I know for a fact that Jim Nantz has his own whiskey shelf behind the host stand.
Some of the referees apparently went out to eat and it cost 6 of them their tournament officiating jobs as they were sent home. When they arrived at their hotel on Monday to check-in (with a mandatory 48 hour quarantine period like everyone else associated with the tournament), there room was not ready and not food was available to eat. So, like any hungry person would do, the ventured out for some dinner. Turns out, the next day one of the officials tested positive for Covid-19, meaning all 6 of them were sent home. Weird times.
But also good times. And by good, I mean GOD DO I MISS THIS TOURNAMENT. They canceled one year and it feels like an enternity since I was in Minneapolis in 2019. Can you believe that technically Virginia is still the defending tournament champions. Unless you cound the fact that UCF claims last year's title because, well, that is what UCF does. Virginia is also seriosly affected by Covid, having had to withdraw from the ACC Tournament last week due to positive tests within the program. They self-quarantined in Charlottesville becasuse they are some very fine people, arriving in Indianapolis just yesterday. Everyone has to pass 2 pcr tests to play, 1 yesterday and 1 today And yes, I hope this is the last Covid reference of the tournament. Unless, of course, a team has to withdraw. Fingers crossed THAT doesn't happen.
We have 120 entries in the pool, from near and far. And, a large number of you failed to follow directions. Most notably Wes Wiggins of Tucson, Arizona and Colleen Hamilton I, II, III, and IV, of West Palm Beach, Florida (or at least nearby), all forgot to put their names on their entries. Thankfully it only took a minute or two for me to figure out the culprits.
I do want to give credit to Arlene Amo Hopps of Quincy, Massachusetts for having the best penmanship. I note this because some of you should seiously work on your writing. On one entry I could just barely determine that the person picked Winthrop over Villanova.
Although mostly 2-legged entrants, we do have a handful of 4-legged entrants, including our first ever gator, Bubba Zdrowak from Orlando, Florida. Interestingly, he did not pick the actual Florida Gators.
But 2 entrants did (both in my household - good grief!) Florida is one of 13 championship picks in our bracket. The overwhelming favorites are Gonzaga and Illinois, which makes since as the 1 and 3 overall seeds. The list of the champions selected are (teams remaining in bold): Alabama, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Gonzaga, Houston, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Virginia.
Yes, that means a number of participants have already lost their champion. On DAY 1! Particularly hurt by Ohio State are Luis Briones of Foxborough, Massachusetts, Collen Hamilton 3, and 4 of West Palm Beach-ish, Florida, and Dave Marzouca 2 of Boynton Beach, Florida. But that all pales in comparison to Skip Laforte of Greenacres, Florida (it's the place to be), who selected Michigan State as his champion, and thus was out of the tournament before it officially started yesterday.
And speaking of Ohio State, that game knocked out a number 2 seed, as the Buckeyes just couldn't put away Oral Roberts. And yes, we had one person select Oral Roberts, and that was Steven Usma 4 of Miami, Florida. For being the only person to select Oral Roberts, Steven wins the "Pick of the Day" award, with all due apologies to Stephanie Henderson of (if I had to guess north/northeast Texas), and Kingfish Parham of Atlanta Georgia, who both not only selected North Texas, but also guaranteed North Texas! Great work.
Oral Roberts and North Texas were not the only two upsets of the day as 5 double digit seeds advanced. Rutgers, a 10-seed, doesn't count as bonus points under our definition, so that means that 4 upsets worth bonus points were available. And nobody took advantage of the bonus points more than William Pujals of Charlotte, North Carolina, who not only selected 3 of the 4 upsets correctly (North Texas, Oregon State, and Syracus), but he also guaranteed Syracuse. He received more in bonus points (20) than most people received points. Lots of entries selected Syracuse, and even guaranteed Syracuse (one of the 2 most popular upset selections, along with Georgetown), so no special mention to those players, but congrats and take your bonus points.
Which brings us to today's history lesson. I try to come up with my history lesson based upon a memory that is triggered by the day's play, and two things came to mind that led to one tournament memory specifically: (1) Oral Roberts winning as a 15-seed over a 2-seed; and (2) Syracuse upsetting San Diego State. What single memory could these two results bring together?
We have to go way back, well before any of us had even heard of University of Maryland-Baltimore City, back to mid-March 1991, when even a 15 seed had never defeated a 2 seed. Interestingly, that 1991 Final Four was also held in Indianapolis. But before the Final Four, an important first round game was held in Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland, between the number 2 seed Syracuse Orangemen (now Orange) and the 15 seed Richmond Spiders. The game featured legendary coaches Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and Dick Tarrant of Richmond, and Richmond won 73-69 to become the first 15 seed to ever win a tournament game. Richmond jumped out early scoring 44 points in the first half, and held on for their four point margin. Richmond was led in scoring by Curtis Blair's 18 points, while Kenny Wood also had 12, with Terry Connolly adding 14 off the bench. They defeated a loaded Syracuse team that included Billy Owens - who would become the 3rd overall pick in the NBA draft by the Sacremento Kings - LeRon Ellis, and Adrian Autry. Richmond's advantage was its bench, paced by Connolly's 14 points and 30 minutes, and had 3 players play 13 minutes or more, 13 being the minutes played by Syracuse's sixth man Conrad McCrae.
Since then, 8 other 15-seeds have been victorious, including Santa Clara (1993), Coppin State (1997), Hampton (2001), Lehigh (2002), Norfolk State (2012), Florida Gulf Coast (2013), Middle Tennessee (2016) and Oral Roberts (yesterday). Oral Roberts has a big hurdle this next round, as only Florida Gulf Coast in 2013 won their second round game.
And, there is nothing like a historical upset over the Orange to keep Syracuse alumni Silas Nichols of Washington, D.C., and Javier Rodriguez of Coral Gables, Florida from celebrating last night's Syracuse win too much.
Back to yesterday's action, we had some great performances from players yesterday, including Justin Smith from Arkansas who scored 29 points, had 13 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 blocks in 20 minutes, Brad Davison from Wisconsin who scored 29 on 5-7 shooting from 3-point range, Javion Hamley who had 24/11 for North Texas, and Max Abumas who had 29 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for Oral Roberts. But, the leading performances yesterday were Kevin Obanor from Oral Roberts who scored 30 points and had 11 rebounds, Miles McBride of West Virginia who scored 30 points (with 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals) on 11-17 shoorting, and Buddy (maybe I am not JUST) the coache's son Boeheim who scored 30 points while going 7-10 from 3-point range.
Stats of the Day:
4. Houston had 6 players score in double figures. Now that is some balanced scoring.
3. Oregon State secured their first NCAA Tournament win since 1982. That was so long ago the Beavers in 1982 were led by Sophomore Charlie Sitton and Freshman A.C. Green. Yes, THAT A.C. Green.
2. Oral Roberts had only 6 turnovers against Ohio State. That is the way to upset a higher seed. Take care of the ball.
1. The average age of the starting lineup of the Wisconsin Badgers is older than the starting lineup of the Chicago Bulls. You read that correctly.
Best Social Media Posts
3. From PFTCommenter on Twitter: Oral ironically just absolutely refuses to go down
2. From RossTuckerNFL on Twitter: Oral Roberts has more wins over Ohio State than Jim Harbaugh.
1. From Tim Reynolds on Twitter: Breaking: Terry Porter just called a foul on Oral Roberts and awarded Ohio State six free throws. (For those that don't know, Terry Porter is the official that threw the [extremely] late pass interference flag against Miami and in favor of Ohio State in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl.)
The only two unanimous selections from yesterday were both number 1 seeds: Baylor and Illinois.
So, enough chit-chat. Here are the standings. If you think there is a discrepancy between your listed score and the score you believe you earned, just send me an e-mail and I will be more than happy to re-visit and re-score your sheet. I do make mistakes and I will be happy to correct them. Just know that if in re-scoring your sheet I find an error, no matter which direction, I will use the appropriate score - so there is the possibility of moving backward. On to the standings (ties listed alphabetically):
1. William Pujals - 32
Is this where I go for the trash talk? Is this it? Am I talking the refuse?
ReplyDeletePerhaps if you were not anonymous we could reply. Who is this?
ReplyDeleteBrandon Satterwhite. This comment dialog says that it will reply as me (using my google account)... but then it posts anonymously. :(
DeleteHello BRandon. This is the place to trash talk, but it would be much more difficult to trash talk you if you didn't lose a finalist on the first day!
ReplyDelete