My apologies on the short-shrifted post yesterday, but sometimes during these pools I do have to work and attend to other obligations. At least I did a post. I plan on making up for that with a bit extra today. And most of that extra is not sponsored by number 1 seeds, as two heavyweights go down. As Howard Cosell would say, DOWN GOES FRAZIER!!! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!!! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!!! For those that don't understand the referencem on January 22, 1973, undisputed heavyweight champion Joe Frazier fought the number 1 contender George Foreman in Kingston, Jamaica for the heavyweight championship of the world. Frazer was 29-0 with 25 Knockouts, and had won 10 consecutive title fights. Foreman at the time was 37-0 with 34 knoclouts. In the second round, Foreman won via TKO with 1:35 remaining, after having knocked down Frazier 6 times. The first knockdown led to Howard Cosell's legendary call, which now is used anytime a "heavyweight" goes down; heavyweights like Alabama and Houston!
And, Alabama and Houston were - BY FAR - the two most selected champions, and, BY EVEN FURTHER - the most selected finals matchup. But, BYE-BYE. That leaves our champions as: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga, Houston, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Marquette, Miami, Michigan State, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas. Yes, we have 6 of the Elite 8. We are guaranteed to lose 2 of these champions today as FAU plays Kansas State, and Connecticut plays Gonzaga. Today is a BIG day as far as the entire pool is concerned. Should be fun to watch.
Before we move on, I owe you a tournament history lesson from yesterday. My initial thought was to write about tournament 20-point scorers, with Drew Timme of Gonzaga breaking that record yesterday, but he broke the tie with Bill Bradley, Elvin Hayes, Danning Manning, Glen Rice, Corliss Williamson and Richard Hamilton, and there is just so much there, that it would be unfair to just select one of those tournament greats. So, instead, I am going to focus on the other record broken Thursday, the 19 assists in one game by Markquis Nowell of Kansas State, who broke the record of Mark Wade of UNLV, who had 18 assists in 1987,
Mark Wade was a 6' senior point guard for UNLV in 1987, and he led the team with standout guard Freddie Banks, wing Gerald Paddio and big man Armon Gilliam. (Although not the best player on the team, my favorite was Jarvis Basnight, a 6'8" forward from Detroit, who played like he was a 6'8" forward from Detroit!) UNLV, behind legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian - who is probably going to be sanctioned just for me writing this - won the Preseason NIT, and strolled through the season to a 33-1 regular season record, the only loss being to then number 16 ranked Oklahoma 89-88 in Norman. UNLV stormed through an undefeated conference season and won its conference tournament to secure a 1 seed in the tournament.
In the tournament's first round, UNLV played sacrificial lamb Idaho State in Salt Lake City, Utah, as UNLV, behind Mark Wade's 9 assists that led to 23 points by Freddie Banks, 18 by Gary Graham (from the greatest single high school team of all time - the 1983 Dunbar High School from Baltimore team) off the bench, and 3 other double digit scorers, demolished Idaho State 95-70. In the second round, Kansas State only put up a little bit of a tougher fight as UNLV won 80-61. Wade had 13 assists, which led to 24 points by Gilliam, 15 by Banks, 14 by Basnight, and 10 by Paddio to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
In the Sweet Sixteen, Wyoming - behind future NBAer Fennis Dembo's 27 points, but up a tougher fight, but still feel to UNLV 92-78 as Wade once again had 9 assists. Gilliam dominated the game with 38 points and 13 rebounds as UNLV advanced to the Elite 8 where they would face Iowa. Iowa fell 84-81 and behind its four future NBA players - Roy Marble, B.J. Armstrong, Brad Lohaus, and Kevin Gamble - gave UNLV its toughest test. Wade was up to the task dishing 12 assists to his teammates, especially Armon Gilliam, who scored 27 with 10 rebounds. Paddio added 20, Banks scored 17 and Graham contributed 10 off the bench. With the victory UNLV goes to the Final Four.
The 1987 NCAA Final Four was held in New Orleans, and the fans in attendance witnessed a classic. UNVL lost to Indiana 97-93 in the Final Four, but not because of poor play by UNLV. Banks scored 38 with 8 rebounds, Gilliam had 32 with 10 rebounds, and Mark Wade dished 18 assists, on 35 baskets!!! Indiana won because of the 33 points scored by Steve Alford, 18 by Dean Garret, 12 by Rick Calloway, and 14 by Keith Smart, who would go on to score 21 in the Final including THIS SHOT that occurs 30 seconds into the video.
But despite losing in the Final Four, Mark Wade finished the tournament with a total of 61 assists in the tournament - 5.2 PER GAME!!!
Also seriously, if you love basketball, read about that Dunbar High School team. I recommend The Boys of Dunbar, but ESPN did a documentary as well. That team was LOADED!
But, back to the present. Our leader, Rich Samuels 1 of Palm Beach Gardens, FL remains the same, but there have been some dramatic changes behind him. Drew Foster, of Lake Worth Beach, Florida flies into second place followed closely by Carolyn Fowler, of Greenacres, Florida, Mitch K (Lamb) of Delray Beach, Florida and Javier Rodriguez 2 of Coral Gables, Florida - all tied for third. Drew rose up the standings due to having 3 of the 4 wins yesterday, as did Steven Usma 2 of Miami, Florida and Josh Zdrowak, of Orlando, Florida. All three of those entrants had Creighton, with Miami and Texas. Other people that selected Creighton were: Fowler, Dana Williams of somewhere in the Greater West Palm Beach, Florida area, Rich Samuels 2 of Palm Beach Gardens, Brittany Sosa of Orlando, Florida, Steven Usma 2 of Miami, Florida, and Rich Samuels 3 of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Apparently Rich Samuels really believed in Creighton. Should be a nine-way tie for Pick of the Day, right? NO!!!!
That goes to Jim Baruffi of Jupiter, Florida who was the only person to pick San Diego State into the Final Four. No word on wether or not Jim has any affiliation with either San Diego State, or the Aztecs, but congratulations Jim, you have earned it!!!
Now, Creighton did beat Princeton, and had Princeton won, I would have written about their 1965 basketball team, which went to the Final Four. I mean, when will I have the opportunity to write about an Ivy League team making the Final Four. It hasn't happened since Penn did it in 1979, but nobody cares about Penn in 1979 as that was the Magic-Bird championship between Michigan State/Indiana State. So, in light of the fact that I will likely not have this opportunity, I will tell you about Princeton's final four run in 1965.
Princeton finished the regular season 23-6, and 13-1 in conference to earn a post-season berth. They traveled to Philadelphia to play Penn State in the Palestra, which they narrowly won 60-58 behind 22 points and 9 rebounds by future Senator Bill Bradley, Princeton's star. The Tigers easily handled North Carolina State 66-48 in the second round in College Park, Maryland. In the second round game, Bradley dominated scoring 27 points (nobody else from either team had more than 13) and a game-high 14 rebounds. But this game had nothing on Princeton's next win, a 109-69 dominance of Providence in what we would call the Elite 8. Bradley was once again dominant, scoring 41, with 10 rebounds and 9 assists to advance Princeton to the Final Four.
The Final Four was held in Portland, Oregon, and the Tigers played the Michigan Wolverines, where they lost 93-76. Michigna was led by future NBAer and College Basketball Hall of Famer Cazzie Russell, who had 28 points and 10 rebounds. Bill Bradley finished with a game-high 29, but could not get enough help from his teammates. Princeton still had one game remaining, as back in 1965 the NCAA tournament held a third-place game in which Princeton would play Wichita State - and play them they did.
Princeton won the third-place game 118 - 82. In that game Bradley had 58 points - YES 58!!! - and 17 rebounds. Bradley's 58 points are still the most points scored in a Final Four game (the tournament record is Notre Dame's Autin Carr's 61 in 1970), and his 87 are the most cumulative scored in a Final Four. He also went on the star in the NBA winning 2 NBA titles and making the Hall of Fame, and did a thing in the Senate serving 3 terms. Bottom line - he was pretty accomplished.
Since I just spent some time going over Bill Bradley's stats, let's see what the players of yesterday accomplished themselves.
Players of the Day
8. Norchad Omier - Miami - 12 points/13 rebounds/3 assists/1 steal
7. Isaiah Wong - Miami - 20 points/6 rebounds/3 assists
6. Darrion Trammell - San Diego State - 21 points/5 rebounds/2 steals
5. Baylor Scheiermn - Creighton - 21 points/9 rebounds/4 assists
4. Tosan Evbuimwan - Princeton - 24 points/6 rebounds/9 assists/1 steal
3. Ryan Langborg - Princeton - 26 points/3 rebounds/1 assists/2 steals
2. Ryan Kalkbrenner - Creighton - 22 points/5 rebounds/2 assists/amazing interior defense
1. Nigel Pack - Miami - 26 points (7 three pointers)/4 rebounds/2 assists/1 steal
And for some more stats ...
Stats of the Day
6. Alabama star Brandon Miller shot 3-19 (1-10 from three). He became the first person in NCAA tournament history to shoot under 20% for the tournamant, with a minimum of 40 shots.
5. Texas star Dylan Disu played only 2 minutes, before suffering a foot-injury. He was later seen in a walking boot on the bench.
4. Matt Kuchar tied Tiger Woods for the most all-time victories at the WGC Match Play, with 36. Kuchar finished his group play 2-0-1.
3. Sandy Alcantara - the reigning unanimous National League Cy Young Award winning, finished his last spring training start against the Houston Astros pitching 3 innings, giving up 0 hits and striking out 8.
2. San Diego State had the 3rd best three-point defense in the NCAA Tournament (out of 363). Seems as if that worked out for them as Alabama shot 3-27 from three-point range.
1. Since tournament seeding began in 1979, this is the first time NO 1 seeds have advanced to the Elite 8. It has never happened before. NEVER!
I know that I have posted yesterday's tournament history, and I did Princeton 1965 and Bill Bradley today, but to make up for yesterday's plain report, I want to give an extra something today, and that extra something is the story of Jim Larranaga, coach of the Miami Hurricanes.
Larranaga was the head coach and American International in 1977-1979, and has been a head coach constantly since 1986, with stints at Bowling Green, George Mason and Miami. Born in the Bronx to Cuban parents, he seems a natural fit at Miami, but he is probably most well known as coach of George Mason from 1997-2011. He left Bowling Green for George Mason after being the second-winningest coach in Bowling Green history. His 2004 team became the first 20 win-team at George Mason in 14 years, but with three starters returning for their junior year, disappointingly wen 16-13 in 2005. This was just setup for the 2006 season, in which George Mason won the Colonial Athletic Conference regular season title (tied with UNC-Wilmington), but lost to Hofstra in the semi-finals, a game known for George Mason's Tony Skinn's punch below-the-belt to a Hofstra player, earning him a 1 game suspension. George Mason earned an at-large berth, one of the last teams selected into the tournament. but began a magical ride to the final four in Indianapolis defeating Michigan State 75-65, North Carolina 65-60, Wichita State 63-55, and Connecticut 86-84 in overtime, before falling to eventual champion Florida 73-58 in the Final Four.
Larranaga left George Mason as the winningest coach in school - and conference - history. Larranaga was coached to Miami, and his hiring is a fantastic story. Larranaga was on vacation and his agent could not get in touch with him. Miami had contacted the agent about their recent coaching vacancy and really wanted to look at Larranaga. Although the agent couldn't (or wouldn't) get in touch with the coach while he was on vacation, Larranaga's daughter reached out and asked her dad to send in his resume. However, having been coach at George Mason since 1997, he didn't have a resume. So, thinking quickly, Larranaga's daughter sent Miami's Athletic Director a copy of Larranaga's wikipedia page!
Larranaga, at 73 years of age, is the second-winningest coach in Bowling Green history, the winningest coach in George Mason history (by 143 games), and the winningest coach in Miami history. And tomorrow, Miami will compete in its second consecutive Elite 8.
OK - now I feel better.
Social Media Posts of the Day
3. As a setup, the NCAA Men's Hockey tournament started Thursday, and yesterday Harvard played Ohio State, with the Buckeyes losing 8-1. My friend Josh R. found this on twitter:
"Harvard gave us Facebook and this game. That's two strikes."
2. From my Facebook page - "Brandon Miller firing blanks for Alabama".
1. This from Twitter - as shown to me by my friend Brendan H.
IYKYK!
On to the standings. Feel free to double-check my scores, and let me know if you have any questions. Please note that the A.J. Ripin/Jeremy Spuhler bracket situation has been solved. Jeremy's bracket had been scored correctly, with A.J.'s a duplicate of Jeremy's. I have found A.J.'s origingal bracket and scored it. He is nominally better that previously listed, but he does have Gonzaga as his champion.
1. Rich Samuels 1 - 77 - Alabama/Texas
2. Drew Foster - 70 - Texas/Kansas State
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