Sunday, April 7, 2024

The Cream Has Risen: The NCAA Block Squares Pool

A little later for Easter, but we got a championship game with the number 1 overall seed in the tournament playing the number 3 overall seed. I am not going to spend a lot of time with this post today as I have to work on another one documenting this trip to the Final Four, but I did have a couple of observations from last night:

First, Purdue fans. Damn, you would think that they have never been to a final four before! They last went in 1980, and apparently everyone in the State of Indiana wanted to be here in Phoenix this weekend. You know, just in case they really are the re-invention of that trash fire from the University of Virginia.  Evidence? At tip-off for the Purdue-NC State game last night the "get in the stadium" price on Stubhub was north of $1450 and a Purdue alumna friend of mine sent me this tweet on Purdue fans on Friday.


This takeover of the Phoenix metro by the Purdue fan base is impressive and their attendance at the games last night was ridiculous.

Second, this UConn run is stupid. Last night was the 11th consecutive double digit win for this team in the NCAA Tournament. This kind of streak doesn't happen. Period. I am not sure this happens in the regular season when you are bound to run into some teams that don't belong on the court with you. 

These are kids! One bad day with a girlfriend can derail even a good team. 

Last night, Alabama hit 8 of 11 3-pointers in the first half and TRAILED by four points. What are you supposed to do with that if you are Alabama? I get that there game is focused on shooting a ton of threes but at one point last night they were shooting 75% from 3 and losing! Alabama played really well and got blown out. 

Again, I may have to eat these words, but this UConn run is one of the best we have seen. I am not sure how Purdue beats them. 

On to the Block Squares Pool. Our winners last night were:

(1) Purdue 63        (11) N.C. State 50     Ryan White

(1) Connecticut 86      (4) Alabama 72    Jen Hinkle

One more game to go. See you all in the stadium on Monday night!

--Your Tournament Host

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