Please allow me some days to travel back home, get acclimated with some work and to double check all of the scores of the top 6 or so Michigan selectors so that I can verify that my current tally is correct (or incorrect). I will then pay out the winnings to those that finish in the Top 3.
As a note - if you have not yet paid your entry fee - please do so NOW!!! I will be paying out the winners in a few days, so it would be great if I did not have to chase you down!
Connecticut beat Illinois. I mean it. Literally beat them. Like Old Testament, flood the world, turn whole teams into stone or pillars of salt type of ass-kicking. Really don't need to say much about the game because it was so horrific. I will give my apologies to Terrence Shannon of Illinois, who apparently I cursed by calling him one of the best two players in the tournament. We shall see if the curse affects Zach Edey today.
Alabama defeated Clemson in a close, fun, brutally-tough matchup that featured a lot of up-and-down the court, three-pointers and athleticism - and PHYSICALITY! This matchup was brutal down low. But fun. There was one stretch mid-way through the second half where the teams hit 5 consecutive three-pointers. This is Alabama's fist trip to the Final Four. I hope their fans bring their football zeal and anxiety to the Arizona!
Social Media Posts
Thousand upon thousands about Connecticut destroying Illinois. That is all.
Stats of the Day
There are so many amazing stats from the UConn game, that they dominate this list, so of course I will start with the other game.
Eight people in our pool did pick Alabama to advance to the Final Four. And although Marcus Jackson of Reston, Virginia, Braeden Helland of Riviera Beach, Florida, Dave Piasecki of Tacoma, Washington, Coco Wynne of Delray Beach, Florida, and Savannah Grace Pressly of Boca Raton, Florida all deserve mention for their pick, only Jane Reynolds of Greenacres, Dawn Lamb of Delray Beach and Barbie Curlett 1 of Jacksonville, Florida had both Alabama AND Connecticut. So Jane, Dawn and Barbie - congratulations on your award for the "Pick of the Day!"
For the history section, I usually just see what memory or anniversary or something the games of any particular day trigger, and if possible, I will write about that. For today's history lesson, it wasn't anything that occurred on the Court, but rather the fact that I saw one commercial on numerous occasions yesterday that triggered my memory, likely intentionally. The commercial is Coach Krzyzewski talking about the importance of being in uniform, with a montage of athletes and members of the military while Coach K keeps talking. The first person shown is current NBA great C.J. McCollum, in what looks to be a facsimile of his college uniform.
This was noticeable because McCollum went to Lehigh, not a basketball powerhouse, but still was a 2-time Patriot League Player of the Year and 2-Time AP Honorable Mention All-American while playing for the Engineers. He earned both of these awards during the 2012 season, in which Lehigh earned an NCAA Touranment berth, and a 15-2 seed matchup against traditional powerhouse Duke, coached by Krzyzewski.
In that game, Lehigh kept it close at halftime, going into the locker down by 2, 30-28. The offensive explosion occurred in the second half, as Lehigh scored 47 to defeat Duke 75-70. McCollum finished the game with 30 points and 6 assists, receiving scoring help from Gabe Knutsen with his 17 points and team-high 8 rebounds. Duke was paced by Mason Plumlee's 19 points (with 12 rebounds) and Austin Rivers also contributed 19 points. The downfall for Duke was trying to guard McCollum, who not only scored 30, but also fouled out Duke's starting guards Seth Curry - brother of Steph - and Tyler Thornton.
Lehigh's cinderella-run ended in the second round, as they were beaten by Xavier 70-58, as McCollum couldn't muster the same scoring magic dropping 14 points, but contributing 8 rebounds.
Lehigh, however, remains one of the few 15-seeds to have ever won an NCAA Tournament game over a 2 seed. That list is:
Kentucky behind future first two overall picks Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist would eventually win the 2012 title over Kansas, led by Thomas Robinson.
As for CJ MCCollum, despite being an Honorable Mention All-American in 2012, decided to come back to Lehigh for his senior season, where he became the Patriot League's all-time leading scorer before succumbing to a broken foot. He was drafted with the 10th overall pick in the 2013 draft by the Portland Trailblazers, where he played for 10 seasons before being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, where he still plays. He has a career average of 19.4 points per game. As he is playing, McCollum is beginning his transition into his post-NBA career by hosting a popular basketball-themed podcast called Pull Up with C.J. McCollum, and he will be putting his journalism degree to use as he has signed a deal with ESPN to be an analyst for its various platforms.
Kudos to Coach Krzyzewski for recognizing basketball talent and for having McCollum on the commercial given the history between Lehigh and Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
Players of the Day
Sorry for the late post - but I did have work I had to do today (Damn depositions.) But finishing this up while actually watching basketball, so that is nice!
Well, the Sweet Sixteen is now halfway done, and we had some pretty good games last night. WE HAVE A NEW LEADER(S), but before we get started, I have to relay this story from one of the entrants in our pool.
Jody Cox of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was on vacation last week and as we all know, that was when our brackets were due. He and his family were on a Spring Break ski trip, or in the jungle, or Serengeti, or Australian Outback, who knows. [Ed. Note - I know, but it isn't my place to put his business out there.] But, he really, really wanted to enter the pool. So, being the bright, MacGyverish guy that he is, he drew his own brackets, took a picture and sent it to me so that I could timely receive his entry. Now, it is perfectly legible and I had no problem scoring his sheet. However, I found out in talking to him this week that he drew the brackets on a pizza box!!! That my friends, is resourcefulness and dedication!!! He is the Andrew Tate of our pool - without all of the criminality and horrible personality.
There are also some pretty interesting facts and statistics pertaining to the beginning of the Sweet Sixteen!
Purdue and Gonzaga - both in the Sweet Sixteen - have the most tournament wins without winning a national title at 46. Illinois has 44. [Spoiler Alert - 45].
The Illinois-Iowa State game is a matchup of KenPom's number 1 ranked offense (Illinois) and defense (Iowa State).
Duke hasn't beaten a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament since 1994. They play the one-seed Houston Cougars in the Sweet Sixteen tonight.
San Diego State has more tournament wins the past two years (7) than in all previous tournaments combined (6).
Louisiana Tech won the first women's NCAA Tournament in 1982 over Cheyney State. The starting point guard for Louisiana Tech was Kim Mulkey. You can read some about here on this post from SINICKAL. (There's your F'in cite!) You can also find us making fun of here in last year's Final Four Chronicles, and possibly more this year if LSU makes the Women's Final Four.
The Connecticut-San Diego State game is the rematch of the 2023 title game; The Marquette-NC State game is a rematch of the 1974 NCAA title game. NC State won that game 76-64, behind the Most Outstanding Player David Thompson, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Some big basketball names in that tournament: Besides Thompson, Norm Sloan coached NC State and Tom Burleson was a standout, Al McGuire coached Marquette who had Maurice Lucas, and some featured players from outside that championship game included Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes from UCLA, Marvin Barnes from Providence, Campy Russell from Michigan and John Shumate from Notre Dame. Loaded!
But, due to the rules of the day, we missed the possibility of the greatest tournament championship game, if the ACC Championship game was any indication. See, back then only conference champions could participate in the NCAA Tournament, and NC State and Maryland were both in the ACC. At the time of the tournament, NC State was ranked number 1 in the country and Maryland was ranked #4, but was probably the hottest non-Wolfpack team in the country entering the ACC tourney. Being the number 1 seed, NCAA had a quarterfinal bye and dispatched Virginia 87-66 to make the finals. Maryland, with the conference's number 2 seed, ran through Duke 85-66 and North Carolina 105-85 to set up the most collosal of conference finals, which NC State won 103-100 in overtime. NC State qualified for the NCAA Tournament, and Maryland went home - as by far the greatest team to never even make the NCAA Tournament. But that score is just the start ...
As stated earlier, NC State was led by David Thompson, three-time ACC Player of the Year and 1975 National Player of the Year. His co-stars were Tom Burleson - the ACC Tournament's Most Outstnding Player - and Monte Towe, looking like polar opposites at 7'4" and 5'7" respectively. Future Baltimore Oriole pitcher Tim Stoddard also started on this team coached by Norm Sloan.
Maryland had its own assortment of star players, including 6 future NBA draft picks. It is even hard to say who "led" this team, but the six future draft picks included John Lucas, future Congressman Tom McMillan, Len Elmore, Mo Howard, Tom Roy, and Owen Brown. Maryland was coached by the legendary Lefty Driesell, who passed away this February.
This game went back-and-forth all night, with Maryland hitting 12 of its first 14 shots. NC State withstood that storm, and trailed only 55-50 at halftime. NC State had a four-point lead with just over 2 minutes left in regulation, but Maryland scored two late buckups to force overtime. Three lead changes in the extra frame occurred before NC State prevailed 103-100.
Most impressive state of this game is that both teams combined for zero turnovers in the second half and overtime. Let me say that for the people in the back: BOTH TEAMS COMBINED FOR ZERO TURNOVERS IN THE SECOND HALF!!! That is high quality basketball.
Of course, the following year the NCAA expanded the tournament and allowed at-large teams into the NCAA Tournament. Also of lasting import is the story that David Thompson could jump so high that he could take a dollar bill of the top of the backboard - and leave four quarters change! He also scored 73 points in a single NBA game, topped only by Wilt Chamberlain (100, 78, 73 two times), and Koby Bryant (81) and Wilt Chamberlain (78). [Luka Doncic also scored 73 in a game earlier this year.]
I know this is only NCAA Tournament-adjacent, but this is one of the three greatest basketball games ever, along with Duke-Kentucky 1992 (I can't believe I have to mention this - UGH!) and the 1992 US Olympic team's internal scrimmage chronicled in The Greatest Game Nobody Ever Saw.
Now, let's get back to the 2024 games.
The first early game was Clemson/Arizona, with the Clemson defeating Arizona 77-72. Clemson took an early lead, and although it kept seeming like the Wildcats were clawing back, they never could get over that hump. With 1:06 remaining in the game, Clemson called time out, and then ran a picture-perfect out-of-bounds play for a PJ Hall Dunk that not only ended the game, but showed that all Wildcats must have problem defending the out-of-bounds under the basket play. And, since I thought of this point as it happened, Guy Hughes of Lexington, Kentucky and Kevin Dick of Alexandria, Virginia have to suffer this thought with me now that I put it out there.
This is Clemson's first Elite 8 since 1980, when they were led by Larry Nance, who eventually went on to win the very first NBA Slam Dunk championship!
The second game was absolute annihilation: Connecticut over San Diego State 82-52. Some numbers from defending-champion UConn's run:
Then, Illinois beat Iowa State behind Terrence Shannon's 29 points, including two free throws with 6 second left to raise the lead to 5.
With a 3, 4 and 6 seed all advancing over a 1, 2, and 2 seed, we lost three champions last night, including Your Tournament Host. 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, out of the 12 remaining teams in the tournament, entries have each of them as their champion, except Clemson.
Most entries had Connecticut in the Elite 8, and a surprisingly large number of entries picked Illinois into this weekend's game. There were 12 entries with the Crimson Tide into the Elite 8, but only 3 that had Clemson surviving this far. For that reason Kyle Henderson 1 of Fort Worth, Texas, Cheryl Spuhler of Acworth, Georgia, and Savannah Grace Pressly of Boca Raton, Florida all win the coveted "Pick of the Day"! Congratulations you three.
Players of the Day
Now, on to the rankings. You will notice a whole lot of Jacksons near at the top. In fact, the Jackson Five are all doing very well. I'll bet you can't find the 5th Jackson! (You can't - it's Staudt!) Anyways, as always, please check your scores and if you feel that a discrepancy exists, let me know.
Tournament Standings after Sweet Sixteen/Day 1
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.
