The Butler Gets Conned

That sound you hear is the collective sigh being exhaled from Butler nation. Put simply, they had a bad shooting night. It happens. As a home team fan, I could talk about a few non-calls and how UConn’s big advantage on the boards wasn’t just because of their size, but because they were repeatedly allowed to hold the Butler players down so that they couldn’t jump. However, complaining about the officiating is the loser’s excuse, and those types of things happen in every game. That is not why Butler lost. They simply could not make an open shot. The shots they made all tournament just would not go in tonight. In the first half, they can be forgiven for missing tightly contested shots. In the second half, they had open looks that repeatedly rimmed out. You could tell toward the end it was in their head. The UConn players would feign running out at the shooters, but wouldn’t even put a hand up. Clang! The mental damage had been done. The Bulldogs were changing all their shots whether they were contested or not for fear of them being contested. We’ve never seen Butler so out of sorts throughout the entire tournament. It is a shame, really. If only they could have made a few more shots.

Nevertheless, as they say, to the victor goes the spoils. I saw one particularly amusing Facebook post this evening: “Butler needs to silence the Lamb.” Did they ever. Kemba Walker may have had the most points, but Jeremy Lamb took over the game when it mattered the most. Connecticut really wasn’t utterly dominant, except for a 7-10 minutes stretch in the second half. In the Florida game, that happened, too, but Butler overcame it. In tonight’s game, however, it was enough for UConn. Congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies on the 2011 National Championship. A win is a win, and they certainly worked hard for it from the Big East tournament until now. On the other hand…

A Big Fat Bowl Of Raspberries…

…to CBS for allowing such a surly, boorish, cynical bunch of complainers to spew such negativity at halftime. Analysis is one thing. Yes, the game was poorly played in many ways. But those fellows were unabashedly insulting these kids. It would be one thing if we were talking about paid professionals, but these are kids who are living the dream of a lifetime. Losing is bad enough. They do not need the likes of Charles Barkley ripping them to shreds on national TV. While I enjoyed CBS’s partnership with TNT from a viewing perspective in rounds one and two, I certainly hope they will re-think their staffing next year and ban Barkley and Smith from the desk. Their attempt to make up for it with some lip service praise in the post game didn’t impress me. You blew it, guys. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Now That’s First Class

The Class Act award goes to coach Brad Stevens. There he was, smiling, just outside the locker room as he cordially answered the lady’s questions and spoke highly of his team. Even after a clearly poor performance, to be sure, it is very easy to be a Butler Bulldog fan. I salute you.

They Did Get One Thing Right

The Even A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day award goes to CBS for smartly abandoning their one-year experiment of letting what’s-her-face sing “One Shining Moment” in what amounted to a music video for her with a few basketball clips mixed in. The outcry must have been great from that debacle, as this year they brought back Luther Vandross’ smooth, unobtrusive delivery as the backdrop to the best moments of the tournament, from the exciting to the poignant. It’s a March Madness staple, guys. Don’t mess with it again.

Final Contest Awards

Now let us turn our attention to happier matters, the final contest awards.

• The Jimmy Neutron Award For Childhood Genius goes to Margaret Dean for finishing 4th amongst the kids 12 and under and 12th overall. She gets this award because three other kids finished in the top ten and will receive their awards in a moment.
• The Justin Beiber Teen Sensation award goes to Chris “The Last Emperor” Rose, the top finisher among the 13-19 age group and 14th overall. Chris will receive a commemorative Justin Beiber bobble head.
• The Always Go With The Dogs award goes to Mike “I pick by mascots” Meiser, who was the top finisher in the twenty-something age group that did not also finish in the top ten overall. (Mike was 16th overall.)
• The Xena: Warrior Princess award goes to Christy “Warrior Mom” Bowen who came oh so close to winning the contest but ended up as the top finisher in the thirty-something age group that did not also finish in the top ten overall. (Christy was 11th overall.)
• The You Didn’t Win Due To Your Unintelligible Alias award goes to Ben “vahokieno1” Sisson who was second in the forty-something age group and 30th overall. (First place in the forty-something age group finished in the top ten.)
• The Book ‘Em, Dan-O award goes to Gary “insert alias here” DeLong, our top finisher in the March Madness 5-0 age group and 15th overall.
• The Wisdom Of The Ages award goes to Jeanne “Sweet Grandma” Helke, our top finisher in the 60 and over age group and 17th overall.
• The Joan Of Arc award goes to the top female contest not otherwise receiving an award, Michelle Schroeder. Michelle finished 5th among the women and 18th overall.
• The Rookie Of The Year award goes to Jane “Go Urbana” Gomez, who led the contest for a long time and finished 8th among the rookies and 24th overall. (Yes, believe it or not, that means 8 of this year’s top 10 overall were rookies!)
• The Battle Of The Sexes award, unbelievably, goes to the Women this year, who beat the men 84 to 81 in terms of average score. Oh, the shame!
• The Flattery Will Get You Nowhere, But Extortion Is Pretty Effective award goes to Scott “Ida Zervbetter” Whitlow, who threatened to boycott next year if he didn’t get an award just because he missed the top 10. Scott finished 31st.
• The Aren’t You Glad I Didn’t Let You Stay Up And Watch Butler Lose award goes to my oldest daughter, Andrea “I believe in my Bulldogs” Little, who finished 20th overall.
• The Re-picks Saved My Bacon award goes to Jeffery Cardwell and Chris Deaver, who each got 9 games correct using re-picks. Jeffery finished 23rd, and Chris finished 37th.
• The Top Prognosticator award goes to the contestant who picked the most games right with original picks. This year’s winner is Ben McCann, who picked 44 out of 63 games correct. Ben finished 35th.
• The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Ron Marshall, who picked two-thirds of the games correctly but finished 164th.

And now for the Top Ten

• In 10th place, the As Close As A Gordon Hayward Half-Court Heave award goes to Eric Shelton, who was in first before tonight’s game.
• In 9th place, the I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to William “The Candy Man” Harper. William climbed from a low of 514th to finish 9th with a win-loss percentage barely better than UConn’s shooting percentage in tonight’s game. I guess the Candy Man can!
• In 8th place, the I Don’t Drive Automatics award goes to Aaron “Clutch” VanderMolen.
• In 7th place, the Multiple Personality Award For Schizophrenic Picking goes to Brian “Steve Zissou” Klecan. It took the both of him to finish this high.
• In 6th place, the Marc My Words award goes to Marc Hazel, who incidentally was smart enough to change his pick from Duke to Arizona and thus got every game in the West correct.
• In 5th place, the No Need To Buy A Vowel award goes to Shane “Rhymes with Didn’t Need To Re-pick UConn” Vaiskauskus. Sure, rub it in!
• In 4th place, the Put Me On The PBA Tour award goes to Andrew “Let’s Celebrate By Goin'” Bolin. Ok, that’s not his alias, but I thought I’d throw in a little Chris Berman.
• In 3rd place, the Don’t Call Me Valerie award goes to Kim Harper, the highest finishing female entry in the contest.
• In 2nd place, the Foiled By UCF Knight To Queen 4 award goes to Jacob “Chess Champion” Deaver who finished only six points out of first place.
• And finally, this year’s Contest Champion, the King, the Grand Poo-bah of Prognostication, let’s have a big round of applause for Christopher “UCF Knight” Randazzo. Christopher reigns supreme among the seven Randazzos in this year’s contest, and I am sure he will enjoy rubbing it in over the next twelve months. Congratulations, Christopher. May visions of Jim Calhoun dance in your head.

And with that, I bid you all adieu once more until the Ides of March return again, and we gather for our annual basketball festival once more. Many thanks to everyone for your participation, your humor, and your encouragement. You are what makes this little contest so special. It is truly a labor of love, and I look forward to seeing you all and a few new friends again next year. Until then, keep in touch, and may the ball always bounce your way.

Warmly,

The Wizard Of Whiteland

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Final Four Faux Pas

With only two games on tonight, I’m going to assume that everybody reading this knows who won and either watched the games or watched the highlights already on Sports Center. Therefore, I am choosing to bypass any specific play-by-play observations in favor of some more philosophical musings.

You Might As Well Face It You’re Addicted to Threes

Live by it, die by it, or so goes the cliche. Still, I am continually amazed at how willing teams from the upper, lower, and every echelon in between seem content to shoot the open three-pointer, the long three-pointer, the forced three-pointer, the ridiculous three-pointer, the unnecessary three-pointer, and the downright idiotic three-pointer at every opportunity. Shoot early. Shoot often. Consider the following. The four teams tonight combined to attempt a whopping 84 three-point shots. Of those 84, 26 were made for a success rate of just barely 30%. VCU made a living all tournament with deadly shooting from three-point range, but in tonight’s game they were just 8-22. Tonight’s other loser, Kentucky, similarly was 9-27. Conversely, UConn attempted only a dozen three-pointers and made only one! Someone please explain to me why DeAndre Liggins took a contested three-pointer, down two, with 9 seconds left? Take those leggin’s to the hoop, Liggins! Kentucky didn’t even make a move to the basket. Yes, UConn played good defense, but not that good. In the two games Kentucky won by close shaves in this tournament, did they do so by bombing a three? No. Brandon Knight made a move to the basket. That’s the smart play. At least draw the defense to get an open three-pointer, but no. Knight checks the air in the ball for seven seconds and then passes to Liggins for the heroic, contested three. Bzzt. Game over.

Free Throws Still Matter

My grandfather used to say, “You have to make your freebies!” It’s still true. Consider these numbers. VCU: 8-13, Butler: 20-26. Not only did Butler shoot a much higher percentage, but they got to the line twice as often as did VCU. In the second game the number of attempts was much more balanced, 12 for Kentucky and 11 for UConn. However, UConn made 9 while Kentucky made only 4. That may night seem significant until you consider Connecticut won by a single point. Monday night’s championship will pit two very good free throw shooting teams against once another.

Who Are You Calling Dog?

Monday night’s championship will feature dogs vs. dogs, but it doesn’t take a genius nor a prophet to know who the odds makers and the media will dub the underdogs, that being the Butler Bulldogs. One has wonder if such a pronouncement is supportable by anything rational or concrete, however. Yes, UConn is the blue blood in this match-up, with multiple Final Fours and national championships to their credit, and the 25-year coach with the impressive resume. Let’s not forget, however, that these Connecticut players didn’t make the tournament last year, while these Butler players played in this very game just last year. If you ask me, UConn didn’t exactly overwhelm Kentucky tonight. In fact, they were one stupid decision on Kentucky’s part away from overtime at best, and defeat at worst. Much has been made of UConn’s perfect 13-0 record this year in “tournament” play, including ten consecutive wins starting in the Big East tournament. Let’s not forget, however, that Butler hasn’t lost in a long time, either, not since February 3rd, in fact. That’s fourteen in a row if you’re keeping score at home. Butler has repeatedly shown the ability to win close games, neutralize opponent’s star players or withstand them, and generally apply the Al Davis creed to the hardwood, “Just win, baby.” I expect Butler to win. Maybe you should, too.

Semi-Final Awards

This has been an historic year for contest scoring, with both games tonight earning 31 happy contestants a whopping 48-point scategories bonus each. No contestant picked both games correctly with original picks, however, so no one earned 96 points tonight. There were four contestants who picked both games correctly with the help of re-picks, however. More on that in a minute. What’s more, both Connecticut and Butler were such unpopular picks as national champions that both teams qualify for the Ultimate Scategories Bonus, meaning a few brilliant (or perhaps lucky) contestants will score a 96-point bonanza on Monday night. More on that in a minute, too.

But first, the awards…

• The Four Horsemen award goes to those four contestants who picked both games correctly this evening, albeit with the help of a re-pick for one of the two: Julia Harper, Eric Shelton, Janae Dailey, and Jeffery Cardwell.
• The Wonder Woman award goes to Christy “Warrior Mom” Bowen, who vaulted to first place after Butler’s victory. Beware the golden lasso.
• The Checkmate award goes to Jacob “Chess Champion” Deaver, who jumped from 27th to 5th after Connecticut’s victory. Bobby Fischer would be proud.
• The Absolutely Abominable award goes to Ethan “Yard Yeti” McGivern who jumped from 508th to 27th thanks to Butler’s victory. Ethan will receive a year’s supply of yellow snow cones.
• The Moment In The Sun award goes to Eric Shelton, who, not to be outdone by Warrior Mom, jumped to first place after Connecticut’s victory. This makes Eric our current contest leader, though it will be short-lived.

With the tournament down to two teams and one game remaining, we are left with only two possible outcomes, two possible winners. Likewise, in our contest, we are now down to only two possible winners, those who picked UConn and Butler with original picks and are the farthest up the leader board, respectively. Butler’s representative is Christy “Warrior Mom” Bowen, and UConn’s representative is Christopher “UCF Knight” Randazzo. One of these two contestants will win this year’s contest, meaning that a Butler victory would not only be historic from a NCAA Tournament perspective, but also historic in the context of a our contest, as it would be the first victory ever by a female contestant.

With that, I sign off once more until the final horn sounds. Be sure to check back late Monday night or Tuesday morning for this year’s final contest commentary and awards.

The Wizard of Whiteland

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