Wow.  Just wow.  It’s 1:20 AM.  I got home about 30 minutes ago, popped some popcorn (hey, it’s been 6 hours since I ate!), grabbed a Mt. Dew, and fired up the most incredible game I’ve ever seen in person on the DVR.  This one exceeds all the cliches, folks.  It was one for the ages.  It’s also cliche to say that Butler, though they lost, has nothing to be ashamed of.  Losing hurts no matter what.  These Bulldogs fully expected to win this game, and when they didn’t, they plodded off the court with obvious disappointment on their faces.  Nevertheless, they plodded off the court to a rousing ovation from an appreciative city.

They Play The Right Way

I’ve heard more than one person say it of Butler over the course of the tournament.  It is true.  There is no other explanation for a team like Butler being able to play so competitively with a program with the history and caliber of Duke.  They have long scoring droughts.  Their lack of size gets them in foul trouble.  Throughout the game it just felt like it was getting away from them, and yet I was continually surprised to look at the scoreboard and see that Butler never fell more than two possessions behind.  They didn’t waste time or energy complaining about the officiating.  They left that to the fans in the stands.  Instead, they remained focused and kept themselves close enough to have a chance to win at the end.  The only way they could have done any better, in my opinion, was to actually win the game.

The announced crowd was just over 70,000, and by my estimation, no more than 20% of them were Duke faithful.  Easily 50,000+ roared in approval as Butler made that final defensive stop, setting up one possession for a go-ahead score and the most magical of happy endings.  The atmosphere was absolutely electric.  In every other state, it’s just basketball, but this is Indiana, and ten of these Butler boys are Indiana’s own.  When Gordon Hayward released a half-court shot at the buzzer to win the game, those 50,000+ Hoosier faithful rose to their feet and collectively willed that ball into the basket.  It was destiny.  It had to happen.  It almost did.  Folks, that ball hit the square.  As the relatively small contingent of Duke faithful rose and cheered their victory, 50,000 disappointed Hoosiers sighed, but then smiled and applauded their heroes as they left the court.  These guys are good.  They will be back.

Give These Devils Their Due

It’s easy to hate Duke.  They’ve been so successful for so long.  They’re the New England Patriots of college basketball.  Still, this team, the least respected of the four top seeds in the tournament, peaked at just the right time and won by playing essentially the same style of basketball as Butler.  If there’s one thing Duke did well tonight that I believe was a key to victory, it was stop Gordon Hayward.  They did not allow him to really get anything going offensively.  They denied him the ball all night, and when he did get it, they made him give it up or take a tough shot.  If you’re Butler, there is no one else on the floor you want taking that go-ahead shot on the final possession, and he nearly made it, but it was a very, very tough shot.

This Duke team could have very easily lost their composure when they failed to score, up 60 to 59 with less than 35 seconds left to play. They haven’t been living under a rock for three weeks.  They’ve seen Butler do this to the mighty before: Syracuse, Kansas State, and Michigan State.  But they didn’t falter, played superior defense, and got that critical defensive rebound.  Where other teams have become frustrated with Butler’s tenacious defense, Duke was patient and scored efficiently.  Duke was the first team to score 60 points against Butler the entire tournament.  No doubt about it, Duke earned this one.

Contest Wrap

While it was tempting to just go to bed and leave the final commentary for tomorrow, I decided it was time for this contest, like this year’s spectacular tournament, to come to an end.  Without further ado, here are this year’s final contest awards.

• The So You Think You’ve Got It All Figured Out award goes to those of you (you know who you are) who told me, quote, "With your point adjustments this year, all you had to do was pick all upsets in the first two rounds (except for the 16’s), and then use the re-picks to play the odds in the later high-point games, and you can win easily."  Oh yeah?  Well, we had a contestant, Margaret "Bear" Dean, who did almost exactly that.  She picked all upsets in the first two rounds except for Syracuse, winning only 11 out of 48 games, and climbed as high as second.  She then made some "safe" re-picks, including Duke in the championship game.  Her final rank?  121st.  I contend that if this year had not had so many upsets, she would have finished even worse.  Every year someone tries to convince me that this strategy is the easy way to win, and yet in 15 years, it has always been tried and never worked.
• The Top Prognosticator award goes to the contestant who picked the most games out of 63 correctly.  This year’s award goes to Connie Randazzo, who picked 48 games correctly and finished in 3rd place.
• The You Could Have Done Better Flipping A Coin award goes to BethAnn Fairchild, who picked only 12 games correctly and finished in last place.  Better luck next year, BethAnn.
• The Finger Lickin’ Good award goes to Amber "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" Little, my beloved nine-year-old, who picked Duke to go all the way and finished in 14th place.
• The Most Improved Player award goes to Rick Morgan, who climbed from the abyss of 478th place to finish in 27th.  Reward yourself with a new set of drumsticks, Rick.
• The Not In This Lifetime, Pal award goes to 19th place contestant Evan Gidley whose alias asks the question, "Wonder if Jeff is now a Cameron Crazy?"  Is that a serious question?
• The Mission Not Accomplished award goes to Dan "Striving for last place(again)" Kopp, who finished in 20th.
• The Rookie Of The Year award goes to Cason "Cash" DiIulio who never ranked lower than 16th, climbed as high as 1st, and finished in 4th place.
• This year’s contest was so dominated by kids, I’m giving the Jimmy Neutron Award For Childhood Genius to the kid who actually finished 4th in the 12 and under age group, my oldest daughter, Andrea Little.  Andrea finished 18th overall in the contest.
• The Teen Queen award goes to the first place finisher in the 13-19 age group and overall contest runner-up, Christina "Mad Dog" Klinker.  Throw that dog a bone.  Ruff!
• The Easily Outperforming His Lipper Average award goes to the top finisher in the 20-29 age group, Anthony "The Economist" Randazzo, who finished 12th overall in the contest. 
• The I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter award goes to Eusi "can’t believe I’m doing this well" Fraser, who finished first in the 30-something age group and 5th overall.  Eusi will receive a year’s supply of Parkay.
• The 40 is the new 30 award goes to the winner of the 40-49 age group, Brian Pettitt, who finished 6th overall in the contest.
• The Finished Strong In The Contest But Not Yet Eligible For The Senior Discount award goes to Rob Barta, who actually finished second in the 50-something age group but receives this award due to the fact that the first place finisher in this age group already received an award.  Rob finished 7th overall.
• The Pass The Geritol award goes to the top finisher in the 60 and over age group, David Gaffney, who finished 10th overall.
• The Upset Stomach award goes to Lewis Schafer, who scored more upset bonus points (excluding Scategories bonus points) than anyone else at 65.  Lewis spent a good portion of the contest in first place but finished in 36th.
• The Just Because You Deserve It, and I Can’t Think Of Anything Clever To Call This Award award goes to 9th place contestant Mark Vandre and 8th place contestant Heather DiIlulio. 
• The Close But No Cigar award goes to Julie Harman, the lone contestant to pick Butler to go all the way from the beginning.  Julie was one half-court buzzer-beater away from winning the whole thing.  Instead she settles for 11th.
• The You Can’t Escape Destiny award goes Lucky Ongko.  Where should a guy named "Lucky" finish in the contest? Nowhere else but 13th, of course!
• The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Chris Shelton, the lowest-finishing contestant with a winning percentage greater than .700.  Chris finished 49th.
• The If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It award goes to CBS for spoiling One Shining Moment with some new chick who just had to have face time during the traditional closing video montage.  You never saw David Barrett, Teddy Pendergrass, or Luther Vandross in the previous editions of the video, did you?  No, they just lent their voices to the best images of the tournament.  No offense, miss, you’re very talented, but this is about the players’ shining moments, not yours.
• And finally, the Contest Championship, the Big Kahuna, the Grand Poo Bah of Prognostication award goes to this year’s contest winner, the precocious fourth-grade phenom, Cayden Bauschek.  Cayden picked 6 of the final 7 games of the tournament correctly with original picks, sealing the deal with his pick of Duke as the national champion.  I guess in this case the little guy really can win it all.

Closing Thoughts

So at long last, I bid my friends adieu.  I want to say a big thank you to everyone who sent me an email of appreciation, encouragement, or something just plain funny.  As always, it is the collection of witty, good-hearted good sports who join my little contest that make it such a joy every year.  I’m thankful for the opportunity to make new friends and reconnect with old ones.  May God richly bless you all.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t give myself an award this year, it is because I received the best award a basketball fanatic like me could ever receive, a trip to the Final Four and the opportunity to witness an Indiana basketball story that will be told and re-told forever.  It was awesome.  I will never forget it.

Until next year, the Lord willing…

The Wizard Of Whiteland

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You can obviously tell from the relative emptiness of the stands that we arrived early.  By the time the first game started, the place was packed.  This was my first trip to Lucas Oil Stadium.  If you’ve never been, let me just tell you, the place is mammoth.  I don’t see how anyone sitting in the 600’s could see the court without the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope, but I suppose the enormous video screens in the corners and above center court were a big help.  For our part, we could actually watch the game on-court and reasonably follow the action.  The entire experience was memorable, to say the least.

One More Game

How ’bout them Bulldogs? I have to say that I am beyond impressed with their tenacity, their toughness, and the way they simple find ways to win.  I will not venture into too much game analysis, since those of you watching on TV probably have a better grip on the game stats than I do.  Be assured, though, that we in the stadium were well aware that both Butler and Michigan State had gone nearly 10 minutes in the second half with nary a field goal.  While we were all biting our nails down to the final (missed) Spartan shot, still, we just had that feeling that they were going to win yet again.

One of the coolest moments of the evening was when Draymond Green missed his attempt at the go-ahead basket in the closing seconds.  Suddenly all of these Butler fans in West-Virginia yellow and Duke blue stood to their feet and roared in approval.  This wasn’t Rocky.  That was a few season ago when no one took Butler seriously.  No, this was Rocky II, when the underdog had earned his respect, and now nearly everyone was in his corner.  I received high fives from people I had never met – a truly special moment.

Then There Was That Other Game

Is there anything more frightening than a Duke team playing its best basketball in the NCAA Tournament?  The story of Butler-Michigan State was how both teams had arrived on this hallowed ground by winning in dramatic fashion, sometimes by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins.  A short review of fighting Kroojewooskies’ path to the championship game reveals a very different story.  None of their final scores have been anything even remotely resembling "close", and the only team so far to even challenge them late into the game was Baylor.  Do not let the injury to Da’Sean Butler fool you.  Duke whipped West Virginia in every phase of the game start to finish.  We left the stadium at the five minute mark to beat the traffic.

Now, understandably, Duke is the prohibitive favorite to win tomorrow night, and Butler will face its toughest test of what has been a magical run.  Nevertheless, I do not think we can look at previous games and say things like, "Well, if Duke shoots like they did last night, Butler has no chance."  If there is one thing Butler has done successfully and consistently throughout the tournament, it is take opponents OUT of what they do best.  After all, haven’t we heard this line reasoning before?

• If Derrick Caracter (UTEP) plays like he did in the Conference USA tournament, Butler has no chance.
• If Murray State plays like they did against Vanderbilt, Butler has no chance.
• Forget Onuaku.  If Wes Johnson (Syracuse) plays like he did in the first two rounds, Butler has no chance.
• Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente scored 63 points between them in Kansas State’s victory over Xavier.  Butler has no chance.
• This is Tom Izzo.  This is March.  This Big Ten basketball.  This is Lucious and Green and Allen and Morgan.  Butler has no chance.

Yes, tomorrow we have Coach K, Singler, Scheyer, Nolan Smith, the Plumlee twins and Zooooob (at least that’s what the guy behind me kept hollering every time he touched the ball).  Butler has no chance, unless of course they do what they always do, and that is make it impossible for Duke to play their game, make their shots, and generally get anything accomplished at all.  If they can do that, then maybe, just maybe, Butler has a chance at the impossible.  If they pull it off, the only unanswered question after tomorrow night’s game will be who is going to play Gordon Hayward in the movie.  Zach Efron, perhaps?

Contest Update

After three weeks of madness it has come down to six folks who picked Butler and 44 folks who picked Duke.  Of the six who picked Butler, one and only one picked them from the beginning, making that pick a true-blue Scategories pick.  The other five contestants chose them on a re-pick, which is still worth 30 points.  The Duke bandwagon, while relatively small, is still too big to be Scategories-worthy, but it still carries 32 or 30 points if they win, depending on if you used a re-pick or not.

Ironically, the contestant currently in first place cannot win the contest. Out of sympathy for her plight, I will give the Kobiashi Award For No-Win Scenarios to Christina "Mad Dog" Klinker, who, though she has Butler picked to win it all, is not far enough ahead of JulieH, the contestant who made the Scategories Butler pick, to beat her in the case that Butler wins.  If Duke wins the championship, Cayden Bauschek will live up to his alias ("I’ll be back in first") and win the contest.  Others will move up, of course, but these are the two contestants competing for the coveted Jeff’s March Madness Contest championship.

Tune in late tomorrow night for the final contest commentary and awards.

It is probably safe to say that I have been watching the Final Four, if not the entire NCAA tournament, on television for about 30 years.  My earliest memories are of watching the championship game with my step-father and perennial entrant in our contest, Ron "Hotrod" Marshall.  I remember watching with him in 1981 as Indiana defeated North Carolina the evening after President Reagan was shot.  I remember watching with Ron (Marshall, not Reagan – let’s not get confused, here) the following year when a freshman you might have heard of named Michael Jordan hit the shot that proved to be the game winner as North Carolina defeated Georgetown.  If I had been doing the contest at age 11 in 1982, I would have awarded the Boneheaded Play Of The Decade award to Georgetown’s Fred Brown, who infamously passed the ball right to North Carolina’s James Worthy, mistaking him for at teammate.  Worthy would have received the You’re Not So Worthy After All award for missing both of his free throws after being fouled, but the What Were You Thinking? award goes to Georgetown coach John Thompson for using his last timeout before Worthy’s free throw attempts, thus ultimately denying the Hoyas a chance to setup a play for the winning the shot.

Since then I’ve been a faithful observer of all the best highlights you see every year in CBS’s promotional montage, from Jimmy Valvano’s NC State Miracle, to Villanova’s 89% field goal shooting second half and savvy swat of the ball out of bounds to stop the clock that sunk Patrick Ewing’s shot at back to back championships with Georgetown, to Christian Laettner’s shot heard around the world, to Chris Webber’s infamous time out, to Kansas’ recent comeback for the ages, and so many other memories too numerous to recount.  But in all those years, I have always watched on television, and never in person…until now!

Mr. Little Goes To Bracket Town

By the favor of God, tomorrow I have the privilege of attending my first ever Final Four with my brother and couple of our friends.  Amusingly, those other two friends are both named Jeff (although the younger, a teen, goes by Jeffery).  I told my brother, Josh Marshall, we should get four souvenir T-Shirts and have "Jeff #1", "Jeff #2", "Jeff #3", "…and Josh" emblazoned on the back of them.  Ok, maybe not.

There are simply no words to express how excited I am to attend what is already an historic Final Four by simple virtue of the participants.  Hopefully it will prove to be just as historic as the games are played.  Sadly, it may prove to be historic in that it will be the last Final Four of the 64 (65?) team era, as the talk of expanding the field to a mind-numbing 96 teams next year grows louder and louder.

Nevertheless, I intend to enjoy every shining moment.  If you are one of my Facebook friends, watch for a mobile pic upload or two, as I’m sure I’ll be snapping a few with the Crackberry.  Please do not hold me to a Saturday night edition of the commentary, as we will be getting home rather late, and this Sunday is pretty much the most important day of the year for us followers of Jesus Christ.  Have no fear, though, as the game winners and standings will be updated as the games conclude, as always (thanks to the aforementioned Crackberry – no iPhone quips, please).  Follow me on Twitter for up-to-the-minute tweets of the experience inside Lucas Oil Stadium, and watch for me on TV.  I’ll be the guy wearing the creamsicle-orange Butler shirt.

Oh Yeah, The Contest

312 contestants have scored their last point in the contest, some echoing the fact in their amusing aliases.  That leaves 175 of us with games to win, points to score, and glory to obtain.  There have never been more points on the line in the final three games than this year, so pop some popcorn, grab a soda, and plop down in the front of the tube on Saturday evening and root for your teams, and don’t forget to check your computer for the contest standings before you go to bed.

I’ll see you in Bracket Town.

The Humble Wizard of Whiteland  

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