The first weekend is concluded and we are down to the Sweet Sixteen. Which means only one thing - those of you that haven't paid yet have until Thursday to do so! By my calculations I am only missing payment for 14 brackets. There may be less since with brackets flying at me along with checks, Zelle, Venmo and CashApp, I could have missed your payment. So, if/when I reach out to you later this week and you have already paid, just let me know by which method and I can look it up. Thanks.
Why do I start with payment? Because by and large the games have been boring - and that goes the same for yesterday with only a couple of exceptions. The day started off promising with a very close and exciting game between 10-seed Colorado and 2-seed Marquette, with both teams playing incredibly good basketball. In the end KJ Simpson - fresh off the game-winner against Florida - and his 20 points did not get enough help from Eddie "Big Boi" Lampkin and his 13 points. This was largely due to the fact that Marquette's Tyler Kolek showed that he could at least read a basketball court with a 21 point - 11 assist game. One key moment in this game occurred when David Joplin, a descendant of Scott Joplin [Ed. Note - NOT a descendant]; Okay, a relative of Janis Joplin [Ed. Note - NOT a relative]; Ok, well he hit two free throws with 7 seconds left to make this a two-possession game.
Then we went into the doldrums a bit, with Purdue shellacking Utah State by 39 - the largest spread in the history of the second round of the NCAA tournament - and then Duke putting a 38-point hurt on James Madison. Clemson handled Baylor 72-64 in a game that didn't seem that close. Grand Canyon at least played some exciting ball against Alabama before falling 72-61. Seriously, if you get a chance to watch that game, both teams played the entire last 8 minutes as if it was a tie game in the last 30 seconds. Then defending champion Connecticut coasted to victory over Northwestern 75-58. This was followed up by San Diego State absolutely destroying Yale so bad that New Haven, Connecticut finally felt sorry for the Elis. Speaking of Elis, just thought I should mention that they have a pep song, "Bingo Eli Yale" written by Cole Porter that is so stupid, the only explanation is that it was a prank played by Porter on the entire university before he left to enroll at Harvard. Interestingly, Porter's roommate at Harvard was future Secretary of State Dean Acheson, which may only actually be interesting to me, but I digress. Anyway, if you don't yet know how stupid "Bingo Eli Yale" is, you can judge for yourself HERE. See, I told you.
A couple of points from these games ... Utah State was led by Mountain West Conference player of the year Great Osobor, who finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds in the blowout at the hands of the Boilermakers. No word yet if he has petitioned Cache County courts for a name change to Mediocre Osobor yet.
Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, Houston apparently defeated Texas A&M 100-95 - in what has to be described as the game of the tournament. As a starting point, Houston - the number 1 seed - held a double-digit lead with just over 90 seconds remaining. Texas A&M the scored on its last six possessions, including a top-of-the-key three pointer by Andersson Garcia (yes his name is spelled "ss"), who let's just say is not a three-point specialist. (He's no Steve Sanders.) Then, in overtime, 4 of Houston's 5 starters had fouled out - including their All-American Leader Jamal Shead. It got to the point for the Cougars that walk-on Ryan Elvin was brought into the game to make key free throws. A WALK-ON!!! IN AN IMPORTANT TIME IN AN NCAA TOURNAMENT GAME!!! He made them, and Houston survived 100-95. Seriously, go watch the last two-mintes of regulation and overtime. Ridiculous.
What all of this means is that even with all the favorites winning for the most part we still lost a potential champion. Our remaining champions are: ALABAMA, Auburn, ARIZONA, Baylor, CONNECTICUT, CREIGHTON, DUKE, Florida, Florida Atlantic, GONZAGA, HOUSTON, ILLINOIS, IOWA STATE, Kansas, Kentucky, MARQUETTE, Michigan State, NORTH CAROLINA, NORTH CAROLINA STATE, PURDUE and TENNESSEE.
So, the Houston-Texas A&M game going into overtime reminded me of a very seminal NCAA Tournament game that also went into overtime. Back in 1961 the tournament still played a third-place game between the Final Four losers. In this instance it was between St. Joeseph and Utah. St. Joe's lost to Ohio State 95-69 and Utah lost to Cincinnati 82-67 to set up a highly anticipated final in which Cincinnati defeated Ohio State 70-65. Jerry Lucas of Ohio State was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four despite coming up short in the final, and some guy named Bobby Knight hit a layup for Ohio State to sent THAT game into overtime, but ultimately the Bearcats were the champions. But, this history lesson is not about the champions, it is about the third-place game.
St. Joe's was coached by the legendary Jack Ramsay, and hed a heckuva squad led by, among others Jim Lynam, Jack Egan, Frank Majewski, and Vincent Kempton, with another legendary basketball figure - Paul Westhead - coming off the bench. Utah led the game late in regulation behind 34 points and 14 rebounds from Billy McGill. But Jack Egan for St. Joe's scored 42 himself, and McGill fouled out in the second overtime. The game was an absolute classic, with St. Joe's defeating Utah 127-120 - IN QUADRUPLE OVERTIME!!! McGill was the number 1 overall draft pick in 1962, and is largely remembered for inventing the hook shot. Some of the St. Joe's players were not as successful.
Two days later, Egan, Majewski and Kempton were implicated in a gambling scandal that rocked the NCAA, having taken money to shave points in three of St. Joe's games that year. That scandal was orchestrated by a cohort of Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. The story is that the players, at least Majewski, knew the scandal was going to break even as they played in the third-place game. Egan, Majewski, and Kempton, never played basketball again.
You can read more about this game/situation in this article from 2016 in
VICE.
Back to this weekend's games ... with a relative bore of a second round, there is not too much fun on social media, other than people just complaining about refereeing in their teams' losses. So I give you a highlight from yesterday which I feel will surely be included in
One Shining Moment, Jamal Shead's Putback Dunk.
Not only did we have some great highlights, some phenomenal stats came out of yesterday's action.
Stats of the Day
9. Penn State wrestling won its third consecutive NCAA title.
8. Virginia women's swimming won its fourth consecutive NCAA title.
7. Alabama and Grand Canyon combined for 17 blocks in their game; Alabama with 9 and Grand Canyon with 8.
6. Jared McCain of Duke scored 22 in the first half; including 6 three-pointers.
5. Marquette is now 15-0 when leading by double digits at halftime.
4. Houston had 5 players with two or more fouls at halftime.
3. Stanford's Kiki Iriafen scored 41 with 16 rebounds as Stanford's women defeated Iowa State, led by Emily Ryan's 36. Interestingly, neither of these players are the teams primary stars/scorers.
2. Marquette's Tyler Kolek had 10 points, 10 assists, and 5 rebounds - the first player to have back-to-back 10-5-10 games in the NCAA tournament since Jason Kidd of California in 1993.
1. Gonzaga is in its 9th straight Sweet Sixteen. To put that into perspective, in the past five years, Virginia, Kansas and Baylor have all won 1 title, and failed to make it out of the opening weekend the other 4 times.
Players of the Day
10. Chase Hunter, Clemson - 20 points, 6 assists
9. Rayj Dennis, Baylor - 27 points, 6 rebounds
8. Tyler Kolek, Marquette - 21 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists
7. Mark Sears, Alabama - 26 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists
6. Tyrece Radford, Texas A&M - 27 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists
5. Jaedon Lee and Jamal Shead, Houston - 26 points, 9 rebounds and 21 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists
4. Tyon Grant-Foster, Grand Canyon - 29 points, 8 rebounds
3. Emmanuel Sharp, Houston - 30 points
2. Jared McCain, Duke - 30 points, 5 rebounds
1. Zach Edey, Purdue - 33 points, 14 rebounds
So, back to the pool itself. With a whole lot of chalk yesterday, excepting Clemson's win as a 6-seed over 3-seed Baylor, it was pretty dificult to discern an interesting "Pick of the Day" without giving the award to dozens of entries. But, a magic combination came through, as a ton of our entries had Auburn in the Sweet Sixteen. This fact allows me to award the "Pick of the Day" to the 4 people that correctly had both San Diego State AND Clemson in the Sweet 16. Congratulations to Allison Parker of Washington, DC, Mark Holbert of Jupiter, Florida, Caroline Spuhler of Acworth, Georgia, and Barbie Curlett 1 of Jacksonville, Florida.
As for the Leaderboard, at some point this week before Thursday's games begin, I will update the standings so that you can see who has selected what champion and runner-up, that way you know where you stand vis-a-vis other entries that have your same champion. As always, remember to double-check your brackets and let me know if you think I made an error. Otherwise, the standings are below, and we have a new leader ...
Pool Standings after Round 2
1. Blake Jackson - 80
2. Allison Parker - 78
3. Braedon Helland - 76
4. Bill Ganoe 1 - 75
5. Marcus Jackson - 74
6. Brian McMahon - 73
Jody Cox - 73
8. George Fox 2 - 71
9. Bill Ganoe 1 - 70
Ty Hedgpeth - 70
Measha Williams 3 - 70
Josh Zdrowak - 70
13. Miles Jackson - 69
Jeff Plamondon - 69
15. Kevin Dick - 68
16. Max Marion 3 - 67
Rich Samuels 4 - 67
18. Daniel Barsky 1 - 66
Kyle Henderson 1 - 66
Quinn Jackson - 66
Jacey Reynolds 2 - 66
Chris Simmons - 66
Justin Yang - 66
24. Paul Cummings 2 - 65
Amanda Staudt - 65
Katie Zdrowak - 65
27. Carolyn Fowler - 64
Mark Holbert - 64
Shane Jernigan 2 - 64
William Pujals - 64
Rich Samuels 5 - 64
32. Bill Ganoe 2 - 63
Pepe Sosa - 63
Cassi Spruill - 63
George Walks 3 - 63
Bubba Zdrowak - 63
37. Joel Chernoff - 62
Paul Cummings 3 - 62
Javier Rodriguez - 62
Rich Samuels 2 - 62
Measha Williams 1 - 62
Measha Williams 2 - 62
43. Scott Bieterman 2 - 61
James Coleman - 61
Paul Cummings 1 - 61
Alvaro Gonzalez - 61
Sean McInerney 2 - 61
Kingfish Parham - 61
Dave Piasecki - 61
Marcus Spruill - 61
Cheryl Spuhler - 61
Day Yi - 61
Keith Zdrowak - 61
54. Matt Hopps - 60
Skip LaForte - 60
Max Marion 1 - 60
Si Nichols - 60
Rich Samuels 3 - 60
59. Silas Nichols - 59
Lee Pagan - 59
Ashley Poer - 59
Jeremy Spuhler - 59
Keith Wynne - 59
Amy Zdrowak - 59
65. Justine Frank - 58
Tyler Giamberini - 58
George Walks 4 - 58
68. John Hedgpeth - 57
Brigadier General Kareem Montague - 57
Matt Okell - 57
Ryan Rodriguez - 57
72. Scott Bieterman 1 - 56
Jacey Fowler 1 - 56
Max Macon 2 - 56
Sasha Moon - 56
Rich Samuels 1 - 56
Brittany Sosa - 56
Biscuit Zdrowak - 56
79. Kyle Henderson 2 - 55
Max Marion 2 - 55
Jane Reynolds - 55
George Walks 1 - 55
83. Melissa Gaynor - 54
Dan Laishley - 54
Lily Spuhler - 54
George Walks 2 - 54
87. Dawn Lamb - 53
Derrick Lowe - 53
Max Macon 3 - 53
Chris O'Neil - 53
Jessica Samuels - 53
Jamie Toole - 53
93. James Garvin - 52
Karen Katz - 52
Caroline Spuhler - 52
Logan Spuhler - 52
97. George Fox 1 - 51
Adam Jorgensen 1 - 51
Adam Jorgensen 2 - 51
Nick Kuehl - 51
Max Macon 1 - 51
Max Marion 4 - 51
Kisha Marzouca 1 - 51
104. Michael McNally - 50
Jonathan Wasserman - 50
Mike Wolff 1 - 50
107. Jenna Finkelstein - 49
Max Macon 4 - 49
A.J. Ripin - 49
110. Clair Bullock - 48
Barbie Curlett 2 - 48
Natalie Moon - 48
113. Daniel Barsky 2 - 46
Barbie Curlett 1 - 46
Carolyn Fowler & Jane Reynolds - 46
Shane Jernigan 1 - 46
Katie Kollmeyer - 46
Chris Pettit - 46
Coco Wynne - 46
120. Arlene Amo Hopps - 44
Savannah Grace Presely - 44
122. Brent Bellinger - 43
Guy Hughes - 43
Noel Martinez 1 - 43
Anne-Marie O'Neil - 43
Barkley Sosa - 43
Mike Wolff 2 - 43
128. Colleen Giamberini - 42
Dave Marzouca 2 - 42
Sean McInerney 1 - 42
131. Noel Martinez 2 - 41
Hannah Sosa - 41
133. Stephanie Henderson - 40
Kisha Marzouca 2 - 40
Jason Spuhler - 40
136. Dave Marzouca 1 - 35
137. Alyssa Hopps - 31
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