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!
Thank you for your patience, as I had to return to work today after a full weekend of basketball, and World Baseball Classic!!!
Our leader, Rich Samuels 1 of Palm Beach Gardens, FL lengthened his lead over still second place Silas Nichols of Washington, DC, and they are joined on the podium by Rich Samuels 2 of Palm Beach Gardens, FL. All three of those entries have both of their finalists remaining. This reminds me that this week I will update the standings with Final picks of each entry, so that we can all see where we stand in relation to other teams that have the same champions or finalists.
We also have a clear leader for a return of her money - Lily Spuhler of Acworth, Georgia, but her champion is still alive, as well as 3 of her Final Four, so there is a good chance that she can rise up the rankings a bit, so as not to finish last.
And speaking of finalists, we lost two more champions in games that matched up champions against each other: Indiana lost to Miami, and Marquette lost to Michigan State. Our champions are: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga, Houston, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Marquette, Miami, Michigan State, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA. That means that of the 16 teams remaining in the tournament, entrants have chosen 11 of them to win the tournament outright. That means a whole lot of movement in the standings!
The interesting one for me is Michigan State. Of course, Florida Atlantic is the answer, but they got through by winning the 8-9 matchup, which is supposed to be close, and then playing the 16 seeded Fairleigh Dickinson. Michigan State was supposed to lose their last game to the 2 seed Marquette, but Tom Izzo always does this. His teams always win 1 or 2 games more than they should. In fact, this is one of our interesting stats of the day!
Interesting Stats of the Day
4. St. Mary's lost their second round game to Connecticut in large part because they had no double digit scorer in the game.
3. Creighton shot 22-22 from the free throw line.
2. Xavier led the NCAA in assists averaging 19.2 per game. They had 22 assists in victory over Pittsburgh.
1. Tom Izzo passed Jim Boeheim of Syracuse for most tournament wins ever by a lower-seeded team.
Michigan State's win also earned bonus points for several brackets that had them beating Marquette - all 17 of you. For the few that had Michigan State over Vermont - no bonus points. The other stunning Sweet Sixteen team - Florida Atlantic University - won the battle of FU schools (FAU over FDU) - 9 total. Eight of those - Guy Hughes of Lexington, KY, Shane Jernigan 1 of Denver, Co, Jonathan Cox of Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Bennie Merchant of Asheville, NC, Duncan Merchant of Asheville, NC, Savannah Grace Pressly of Boca Raton, FL (and our current FAU student), Hannah Sosa of Riviera Beach, FL and Day Yi 1 of Forest Hills, NY all deserve mention. But, their picking prowess pales in comparison (at least for one day) to Arlene Amo Hopps of Quincy, MA, who not only has selected FAU into the Sweet Sixteen, but also received bonus points for choosing Michigan State over Marquette, the only person to do so. For that - Arlene receives the Pick of the Day!
Arlene Amo Hopps had some serious competition for best penmanship this year, with Drew Foster of Lake Worth Beach, Florida and Max Macon of Jupiter, Florida making it really easy for me to see which teams they picked. Thank you you three!!!
One of the intriguing matchups from yesterday was Pittsburgh playing against Xavier, coached by Pittsburgh basketball star and alumnus Sean Miller. Sean Miller started at point guard his freshman year, with powerhouse forwards Charles Smith and Jerome Lane. Smith would go on to win Big East Player of the year in 1988, win a bronze medal in the Olympics for Team USA in 1988 (the impetus for the "Dream Team,") and then play 10 years in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers, the New York Knicks, and San Antonio Spurs. Jerome Lane led the Big East in rebounding in 1988, then went pro where he was drafte d by the Denver Nuggets. He played 5 seasons in the NBA, and twelve professional seasons on various teams in various leagues. Miller finished his collegiate career starting all four years of college, averaging 10 points a game. 102 total steals, and 5.8 assists per game. None of his steals and assists were better than THIS PLAY!!!
And I know that this play did not occur in the tournament - but boy was it amazing. I remember fondly. Since it isn't exactly tournament history, I will tell you that Pittsburgh entered the 1988 tournament as a 2 seed in the midwest, where they defeated Eastern Michigan 108-90 with CHarles Smith scoring 31 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, Jerome Lane adding 22 points and 17 rebounds, Demetreus Gore adding 24 points, and Sean Miller scoring 3 points, but dishing out 9 assists compared to only 1 turnover. They then lost 80-74 in overtime to Vanderbilt in the second round as Barry Goheen (from my dad's hometown in Kentucky) led the Commodores with 22 points, and the future NBA'er Will Perdue contributing 15 points and 5 rebounds. For Pittsburgh, Charles Smith scored 21 with 10 rebounds, Jerome Lane scored 8 points but had 20 rebounds, and Sean Miller played all 45 minutes and had 7 points, 7 assists with only 3 turnovers. But despite losing to Vanderbilt, Sean Miller and Jerome Lane had the play of the season. Go back and watch it again!
Social Media Post of the Day!
1. Although this had to do with Saturday's game and not yesterday's, I saw it yesterday, so here it is. Credit to Silas Nichols of Washington, DC for the find.
Players of the Day
Honorable Mention: Norchad Omier - Miami - 7 points/17 boards
10. Oscar Tshiebwe - Kentucky - 25 points/18 rebounds
9. Mike Miles - TCU - 24 points/1 rebound/4 assists/2steals/1 block
8. LJ Cryer - Baylor - 20 points/2 rebounds/1 assist
7. Tyson Walker - Michigan State - 23 points/2 rebounds/ 2 assists/1 steal
6. Adama Sanogo - Connecticut - 24 points/8 rebounds
5. Drew Timme - Gonzaga - 28 points/8 rebounds/3 assits/1 block
4. Isaiah Wong - Miami - 27 points/8 rebounds
3. Ryan Nembhard - Creighton - 30 points/2 rebounds/2 assists/2 steals
2. Markquis Nowell - Kansas State - 27 points/2 rebounds/9 assists/3 steals - and, he scored 7 points, and assisted on 2 3-pointers during a 13-2 Kansas State run late in the second half in their victory over Kentucky.
1. Johnell Davis - FAU - 29 points/12 rebounds/5 assists/5 steals - only person with this state line in the history of the NCAA tournament.
Now, on to our players. Feel free to double check my scores, and let me know if you think that i need to change something.
STANDINGS
1. Rich Samuels 1 - 65
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
Before I get started, I need to apologize to Javier Rodriguez 1, Javier Rodriguez 2, Javier Rodriguez 3, and Javier Rodriguez 4 - all from Coral Gables, Florida, Jonathan Cox of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and Dave Piasecki of Tacoma, Washington who were not included in the first day's update because their e-mailed brackets went to my Spam folder. I have found them, properly date-stamped, and they have been scored and are be included below. Welcome also to Karen Katz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who mailed in her sheet, and I received it yesterday. She is also scored and included in the standings. That means seven more entrants than we thought.
While I am handing out apologies, I apologize to Drew Foster of Lake Worth Beach, Florida, as I failed to credit him with the full 10 points for guaranteeing Furman's win. I have adjusted his score accordingly and his total as shown below is now correct.
As far as the games go, we should have known that we were in for some serious madness just by the end of one of the early games - Xavier over Kennessaw State. Kennessaw State, after an incredible block by Kennessaw's Chris Youngblood, ends up fouling Colby Jones of Xavier after a scramble for the ball. He makes one to give Xavier a one-point lead (instead of 2 if he hit both). Kennessaw's Terrel Burden then drives the lane for a seemingly open layup and the lead with 5 seconds remaining, when Jack Nunge comes out of nowhere to block his shot. In the scramble for the rebound a Kennessaw player seemingly recovers the ball and is fouled, but the referees - probably rightly - let the teams keep scrambling, and Xavier's Souley Bourn recovers, and seals the win with 4 straight free throws. And this was the NON-Upset.
From the first set of games to the last there was excitement, as Florida Atlantic's Nick Boyd makes a layup with 2.5 seconds left to push FAU into a 1-point lead over Memphis, and securing their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.
So, did any upsets occur? Let me think. Not sure I remember. Oh year - A 1-seed lost for only the third time ever in NCAA basketball tournament history as Fairleigh Dickenson, a team that in most ordinary years would not even be in the tournament beat Purdue as the Big-10 regular season and tournament champions folded for the third consecutive tournament to a 16-seed. So you might ask what I mean that Fairleigh Dickenson wouldn't ordinarily be in the tournament? Merrimack College won the Northeast Conference tournament championship, but because the are just transitioning from Division II to Division I, the NCAA has a transition period in which that school cannot participate in the post-season. So, instead of Merrimack playing in the NCAA Tournament, Fairleigh Dickinson, the regular-season champion - received the conference's automatic bid. They then had to beat the Texas Southern Tigers - a 14-21 team that won the SWAC conference tournament to receive an automatic bid, despite finishing 8th in the conference - which they did handily 84-61 on Wednesday. You might also ask what I mean by the third time a 16 seed has won. Well, you probably remember 2018's game in which University of Maryland-Baltimore County absolutely destroyed Virginia. But, that was not the first time it happened.
For today's tournament history lesson, let's wander back to Saturday, March 14, 1998. Your Tournament Host was behind the bar demanding that the television sets be turned to ESPN2 to watch some tournament basketball. The Harvard Crimson, behind Kathy Delaney-Smith, had traveled to Palo Alto, California to take on the number 1 seeded Stanford Cardinal coached by the legendary Tara Vanderveer. Everyone - employees and customers alike - chastised Your Tournament Host for wanting to watch women's basketball. But, as the clock turned to midnight on the east coast and as the 16th-seeded Crimaon, behind th spectacular play of Allison Feaster - the nation's leading scorer and future WNBAer - kept the top-seeded Cardinal on edge, the spectators in my bar became more and more interested in the game (and less interested in chastising me.) The tension mounted in the arena as Stanford playing on its home court (in the women's tournament at this time the topf 4 seeds host the first and second round games,) could not contain Feaster, who finished with 35 points and 13 rebounds. As the game approached the under four minute television timeout, my bar was officially closed, but most of the customers stayed to watch the end of the game. They were not disappointed as Suzie Miller's basket with just under two minutes remaining put the Crimson up for good, as the closed out the Cardinal on a 9-2 run to win the game 71-67.
Allison Feaster was the first person in any sport to be named Ivy League Player of the Year three times. She was a first round draft pick in the WNBA, going 5th to the Los Angeles Sparks. She played ten years in the WNBA, while simultaneously playing in Europe for those 10 years, whils also playing 8 more. After she retired she traveled as a Sports Diplomacy envoy for the State Department before taking a front office job in the G-League as the league's Player Personnel & Coach Relations Lead before being hired by the Boston Celtics as the Vice President of Team Operations and Organizational Growth.
Now, back to the pool. Purdue losing knocks out one of our champions. But, despite the fact that everyone in our league picks some upset, no entrants received any bonuses for correctly selecting Fairleigh Dickenson. A special heart-feld condolence to Scott Bieterman 1 and Scott Bieterman 2 of West Palm Beach, Florida, who I believe is an alumnus of Purdue University.
As a reminder, the champions in our league are: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga, Houston, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Marquette, Michigan State, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, Virginia.
For the day, it was very competitive in terms of selections. We had exactly zero unanimous selections in our pool, as a couple of entrants selected Grand Canyon over Gonzaga. So, if nobody received bonus points for the Fairleigh Dickenson win, how was that not a unanimous selection? Easy, Alyssa Hopps of Quincy, Massachusetts thought Purdue was ripe for an upset, but selected Texas Southern to win. Oh, so close Alyssa.
We did have one other upset occur yesterday, that being Pittsburgh over Iowa State. Twenty-seven entrants chose Pittsburgh, but 4 had them as their guarantee: Silas Nichols of Washington, D.C., Sal Disanza of presumably somewhere near West Palm Beach, Florida, Javier Rodriguez 2 of Coral Gables, Florida and Karen Katz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For that, you all receive Co-Picks of the Day! A special mention to Jessica Samuels of Palm Beach Gardens, FL and John Hopps of Quincy, Massachusetts for going 15-1 yesterday.
Because of his Pittsburgh pick, Silas Nichols of Washington, DC takes the overall lead from Your Tournament Host, who falls all the way to second. Newcomer to the pool Sal Disanza rises to third.
Interesting Stats of the Day
4. At one point in the second half Iowa State made 1 out of 19 shots, after starting the game 0-8 from the field. Hard to win any games, let along tournament games, with the rate of failure.
3. Purdue's unanimous first-team All-American Zach Edey was held without a shot in the last 9 minutes of the game, and held to only 1 shot in the final 13:30. Again, hard to win when you aren't really playing.
2. Oscar Tshiebwe of Kentucky finished the game with 25 rebounds, the most since Phil Hubbard of Michigan grabbed 26 rebounds in 1977.
1. Fairleigh Dickenson ranked 353rd in the nation in defensive efficiency this year. To state the obvious, 352 college basketball team played better defense than Fairleigh Dickinson did this year. Yikes.
No fun social media posts as I tried to mix basketball watching with St. Patrick's Day. Hopefully see some good ones on Saturday.
Players of the Day
8. RaeQuan Battle - Montana State - The Chef finished with 27 points in a loss to Kansas State. Probably need a RZA, a GZA, a Ghostface Killah, a Method Man, an Inspectah Deck, a U-God, and an Ol' Dirty Bastard in the rotation to help.
7. Terquavion Smith - North Carolina State - Finished with 32 points. Would have placed higher if his team had won.
6. Mike Miles - TCU - Finished with 26 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
5. Oscar Tshiebwe - Kentucky - The star from the Democratic Republic of the Congo finished with 8 points, 25 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.
4. Trayce Jackson-Davis - Indiana - Scored 24 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished 4 assists.
3. Julian Strawther - Gonzaga - 28 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks
2. Ryan Kalkbrenner - Creighton - 31 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks
1. Adama Sanogo - Connecticut - 28 points, 13 rebounds.
As far as our players, our standings are below. Feel free to let me know if you think I made a mistake, as sometimes I do. Just know that if I re-score your sheet and find a mistake that was made in your favor, I will correct that too.
1. Silas Nichols - 39
So the Sweet Sixteen began in earnest, and it began with a whimper as Oregon State outlasted Loyola (IL) after a blazing first half that had the Beavers leading 24-16. That is right, ladies and gentlemen, this snorefest had Loyola scoring only 16 points in the first half. Heck, Oregon State only had 24. Ouch. We had less scoring in the second game, as the one seed Baylor picked off Villanova by 11, after holding the Wildcats to only 21 points in the second half. Oral Roberts and Arkansas provided us with a lot of drama, and astronomically more scoring by comparison, as the Razorbacks held off the Golden Eagles 72-70 when Davonte Davis hit a short jumper with 2.9 seconds left and Max Abmas - the leading scorer in the NCAA this year - had a good look for 3 from the right wing bounce off the rim to end their Cinderella season. The nightcap appropriately left us ready to sleep as the Syracuse Orange, who scored a whopping total of 46 points, fell to the 2 seed Houston Cougars.
The games were crucial as WE HAVE A RETURNING LEADER. Silas Nichols 2 of Washington, D.C., returns to the lead as Nancy McInerney of Atlantic Beach, Florida had a heartbreaking day. She actually selected a Loyola/Syracuse Elite 8 matchup that would have vaulted her way ahead of everybody. Alas, Silas jumps back into first. But, he has Illinois winning.
We lost no champions yesterday as the only favorite to lose was Loyola. So, our champions remain (in bold): Alabama, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Gonzaga, Houston, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Virginia. We are guaranteed to lose at least today as Florida State and Michigan play each other.
As far as our pool, nobody had Oregon State over Loyola, and that was a 12 versus 8 so not eligible for bonus points anyway. But, couldn't somebody have selected Oregon State just so I wouldn't have to type out the brackets that co-win the "Pick of the Day", which are everyone that selected 3 winning teams from yesterday. Given that a 1, a 2, and a 3 won, there really wasn't that many brackets. So, congratulations to: George Walks 2 of West Palm Beach, Florida, Edy Pecan of Somewhere Near West Palm Beach, Florida (I think), Rich Samuels 1 of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Katie Zdrowak of Orlando, Florida, Jeremy Spuhler of St. Petersburg, Florida, Martha Kroesen of West Palm Beach, Florida, Rachel Bornn of Averill Park, New York, Emily Lawson, of New York City, New York, Brian Hinaman of Parrish, Florida, Biscuit Zdrowak of Orlando, Florida, and James Garvin of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. All 11 of you win the "Pick of the Day".
For standings purposes. most people received 8 points for 2 correct selections. Obviously it was some combination of Baylor, Arkansas and Houston. If you received 8 you likely moved up a bit, 12 you moved up a lot, 4 you moved down some, and yes we had a number of entries that failed to score any points yesterday, kind of like Syracuse.
Arizona, under Hall of Fame Head Coach Lute Olson, was seeded a respectable 4 after finishing the season 19-9, earning at At-Large bid after UCLA won the Pac-10 automatic berth. They were sent to the Southeast Regional where they defeated a surprisingly tough South Alabama team (13 seed) 65-57 in the first round. Interestingly, South Alabama was coached by Bill Musselman, who is the father of current Arkansas coach Eric Musselman. Arizona advanced to the second round where they defeated the College of Charleston (12 seed) 73-69, after the College of Charleston upset Maryland.
Arizona moved into the Sweet Sixteen in Birmingham, Alabama, where they encountered the 1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks, and fought off the top team and won 85-82. That Kansas team, by the way, had Jacque Vaughn running the point, Scot Pollard patrolling the middle, and were led by the two-person punch of Raef LaFrentz, who would be the 3rd overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, and Paul Pierce, who is a finalist this year for the Basketball Hall of Fame. Arizona then took overtime to beat the 10 seed Providence 96-92 to advance to the Final Four.
The 1997 Final Four was in Indianapolis, also the location of this year's entire tourney, where they clashed with the champions of the East bracket, number 1 seeded North Carolina, a game they won 66-58. That North Carolina team was loaded with Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Ed Cota, Scott Williams, Shammond Williams (no relation), and Makhtar N'Diaye. And if you don't think I listed that many players just so I could type "Makhtar N'Diaye", you don't know me very well.
Arizona then clashed in the finals with the powerhouse Kentucky Wildcats, fresh off the 1996 championship, in the final game. Kentucky had 6 players on that roster that would go onto the NBA, Wayner Turner, who at the time had played more college basketball games than anyone else, 151, Scott Padget, Nazr Mohammad, Jamaal Magliore, Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer. Nevertheless, Arizona outlasted the defending champions in overitme 84-79, to win the national championship.
Ultimately, 5 guys from that Arizona team would later play in the NBA. Included in that list are Michael Dickerson, A.J. Bramlett, and the man who would have the longest impact in the NBA Jason Terry. But, this Arizona team was led this year by Mike Bibb, who would be the second overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft, just one spot ahead of the aforementioned Raef LaFrentz, and Miles Simon, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 1997 Final Four, as he was the tournament leading scorer with 132 total points, including 30 in the championship game. Something Syracuse barely managed to do yesterday.
Kentucky, fresh off its 1996 championship over Syracuse and this 1997 overtime championship loss, went on to win the 1998 championship defeating Utah in the Finals led by Most Outstanding Player Jeff Sheppard. And yes, I found a way to make this tournament about Kentucky.
On to the standings. Remember, feel free to double check my scoring and let me know if you feel there is an error. Final two teams listed with remaining possibile teams in bold.
