So the second round has started, and boy what a doozy again. The pool lost two champions - Duke and Kansas - and we have a new leader, Rich Samuels 1 of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, who happened to go 6-2 yesterday, wall while picking Arkansas over Kansas to gain bonus points. All-in-all we had 8 people have Arkansas into the Sweet Sixteen. Joining Rich were Allison Parker of Washington, D.C., Ty Leatherman of Wilmington, NC, Shane Jernigan 2 of Denver, CO, Edy "Almond" Pecan, of West Palm Beach, FL, Matt Okell 1 of Jupiter, Fl, Guy Hughes, of Lexington, KY, and Savannah Grace Pressly of Boca Raton, FL. For selecting Arkansas instead of Kansas, you 8 share the Co-Pick of the Day.
Now, that is a lot of people to share the Co-Pick of the Day, but that is made possible by the fact that nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, picked the Princeton Tigers to defeat Missouri and advance to the Sweet Sixteen. From that bracket we had mostly Arizona, some Missouri, and a couple of Utah State's, but no Princeton. Princeton, the Ivy League tournament champion by virtue of defeating the regular season champion/Evil Empire Yale, has acquitted itself very well in this tournament, and it shouldn't fully be a shock that an Ivy League team does well in the second game of the tournament. See, the Ivy League schedule actually takes into account that these players have class during the week, and so for most weeks they schedule games only on Friday and Saturday nights. Yes, back-to-back nights. This is something the major conferences do not do, so most teams do not see back-to-back except come tournament time. By the time an Ivy League team arrives at the tournament, they feel the Thursday-Saturday structure as an extra day of rest. So, if an Ivy League school can pull an upset in round 1, do not be shocked if that occurs again in the second round, because the team's schedules are constructed to survive in that environment.
So Duke lost to Tennessee, which was actually the higher seed, and the defending champion Kansas Jayhawks lost to Arkansas, meaning we will have no repeat champion again. The last defending champion to repeat was the 2007 Florida Gators, who defended their 2006 title. Allow me a littel walk down memory lane to that 2006 Final Four in Indianapolis.
The NCAA designates four restaurant/bars in the host city to act as host bars for each of the teams. Now, those establishments are open to the public, but serve as a meeting point for fans of each of the teams if they so choose. We wandered into the UCLA bar in Indianapolis - which was a TGI Fridays around lunctime on Saturday, and the UCLA cheerleaders just so happen to be in the bar area at the time. We strike up a conversation with them, and I may have mentioned something about Joakim Noah being ugly. Florida beat UCLA in the finals on Monday evening and Joakim Noah was named MOP of the Final Four, having set a record for blocks in a tournament. But, toward the end of the game, it looked as if Noah winked and smiled at the UCLA cheerleaders. He was asked about that in the post-game interview. Noah's response,
"No, actually they were talking a lot of trash. I mean, it was crazy. Like, okay, fans. But, I mean what are those big things? I don't know what they're called [pom-poms]. They were just crazy to me, like 'You're so ugly.' I mean, it jurts when you have so many beautiful girls out there just telling you how ugly you are and stuff. I just had to focus on the game. I mean, when somebody is screaming all that stuff at you, you know, the best thing I could do was just blow a kiss by, and maybe they like me."
I am not saying that the cheerleaders would not have come up with this on their own, but I did plant that seed in their mind a couple of days earlier. A copy of the transcript of the post-game interview can be found HERE.
Our league champions, with those that remain in bold, are: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga, Houston, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Marquette, Michigan State, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA. We are guaranteed to lose at least one champion, as Michigan State plays Marquette.
One of the teams that easily advanced to the Sweet Sixteen was the 5th seeded San Diego State Aztecs, who defeated Furman 75-52, and to set-up a matchup with number 1 overall seed Alabama. Most people remember that Kawhi Leonard played at San Diego State, but they have also had a couple of other stars who played basketball while at school there. Let's take a walk down memory lane with two of these stars.
The first is Michael Cage, who played at San Diego State from 1981-1984 where he was two-time conference Player of the Year and a 1984 consensus All-American, and finished his career as the leading scorer and rebounder in school history. He still remains the rebounding leader and is second in scoring. Cage was selected with the 14th overall pick in the 1st round of the 1984 NBA draft, just behind such luminaries as [H]Akeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Charles Barkley, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Leon Wood, and Kevin Willis and ahead of such players as John Stockton, Vern Fleming, Michael Young, and Jerome Kersey. [Ed. Note - That draft was LOADED!] Cage would play 17 seasons in the NBA for 5 different teams, leading the NBA in rebounding in 1988. He finshed with a career average of 7.2 points per game, and 7.6 rebounds per game.
The second star played at San Diego State from 1978-1981, and is still the all-time school leader in assists, and also 7th in school history in steals. You won't know him from his post-collegiate basketball prowess, but you may recall Tony Gwynn from his other job - Hall of Fame baseball outfielder.
Now, back to our pool.
Interesting Stats of the Day
5. This is Princeton's 7th time appearing in the Sweet Sixteen, but its first appearance since 1967. Princeton's other appearances occurred prior to the expansion to 64 teams, meaning it only took one victory to make the Sweet Sixteen. Although, Princeton did reach the Final Four in 1965, and probably would have been the subject of my NCAA tournament history if they weren't from the Ivy League. (Jonathan Wasserman of Palm Beach Gardens - this is petty!)
4. Hayley Van Lith of Louisville scored 13 points for the Lady Cardinals in the last 5 minutes of the game, leading Louisville to a 83-81victory over Drake.
3. Dereck Lively of Duke played 36 minutes and took ZERO shots. And he is going to be a late-lottery pick.
2. The "under' has hit on 75% of the tournament games so far. Courtesy of Sinickal.
1. Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis won his fourth individual wrestling title, defeating Ohio State's Sammy Sasso - no relation - 4-2 in the 149 pound division. Not basketball related, but very impressive.
Social Media Posts
3. Not really social media, but Day Yi of Forest Hills, NY e-mailed me to say that he forgot to put the "Ar" in front of Kansas on his bracket.
2. From Twitter: Maryland was clearly out-gunned by Alabama in their second round matchup.
1. From Facebook by my friend John from college: "You too, Kansas? Not enough Big Gradey Energy tonight" #BillSelfis REALSick #MarchSadness
Players of the Day
8. Jahvon Quinerly - Alabama - 22 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals
7. Ricky Council IV - Arkansas - 21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists
6. Marcus Sasser - Houston - 22 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists
5. Ryan Langborg - Princeton - 22 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal
4. Jaime Jaquez - UCLA - 24 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists
3. Davonte Davis - Arkansas - 25 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist
2. Dylan Disu - Texas - 28 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals
1. Olivier Nkamhoua - Tennessee - 27 points, 5 rebounds
As for our pool, here are the standings. Let me know if you think I might have made a mistake on something.
1. Rich Samuels 1 - 51
