“The ode lives upon the ideal, the epic upon the grandiose, the drama upon the real.” – Victor Hugo
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
Consider this: four games played. Two decided by two points, the other two decided by five points. Comebacks. Lead changes. Big time shots. Big time mistakes. Three upsets out of four games. The last two games came down to the wire at the same time, making it nearly impossible for even the Wizard to keep up. As far as March Madness goes, does it get any better than this?
Can I Quote You On That?
I think I’m going to have to give the Best One Liner In An Interview award to Connecticut’s coach Kevin Ollie, who after the game said (paraphrasing), “We’ve been talking a lot about planting seeds, and what better place to plant seeds than in The Garden?” For those who don’t get it, the East regional is being played in Madison Square Garden, the arena the CBS folks keep telling us is the most famous arena in the world. Not sure how they know that, but we’ll go with it for now. UConn is now in position to make history if they can beat Michigan State and go to the Final Four as a 7 seed. No 7 seed has ever made it to the Final Four since seeding began in the tournament in 1979.
The One That Almost Got Away
With 2:23 left to play, Michigan’s Jordan Morgan made a dunk to put them ahead of Tennessee by 8. I was ready to switch to the other game, as it seemed Michigan had this one well in hand. Not so fast. The Wolverines committed four consecutive turnovers and scored no baskets in the final 2:23, nearly earning themselves the Jean Van de Velde Utter Meltdown award. With 10 seconds left, down 1, and the ball on their own end of the court, Tennessee’s Jarnall Stokes gets called for what I think was a dubious charge. Nik Stauskas makes one free throw, Michigan’s only point in the last 2:23, and Michigan escapes with the two point win. As they say, survive and advance.
Reggie Would Be Proud
Good thing Greg Anthony is in Indy calling the Midwest regional games, because he might have had a psychotic episode from a flashback had he been calling the Michigan State vs Virginia game. If you’re old enough, you may recall about 20 years ago or so, Reggie Miller The Knick Killer score 8 points in 9 seconds to beat the Knicks in game one of their playoff series. The second of two three pointers came after Reggie and Greg got “tangled up.” Knicks fans prefer to point out the obvious – Reggie helped Anthony to the floor, allowing him to collect the inbound pass and bury the three.
Fast forward to tonight. With 34 seconds left and leading only by two, Sparty’s Keith Appling gave a hearty shove to his Virginia defender, allowing him to catch the inbound pass freely against a press that was giving Sparty some trouble. The no-call drew the ire of Virginia coach Tonny Bennett, not to mention the Wahoo faithful who pelted the refs with a shower of boos worthy of the merciless New York venue. It seemed that Michigan State had this one all but won, up four with 9 seconds to play, when Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon made a three pointer to cut it to 1 with just under two seconds left. This earns the Wahoos the Princess Bride Mostly But Not Completely Dead award, because it seemed like every time I looked at the scoreboard expecting a final, there they were down only a point or two. If only they could have gotten that magic pill from Billy Crystal.
Backyard Brawl
In what was perhaps the best and most surprising game of the night, the Bluegrass Battle Royale between Louisville and Kentucky could not have been over-hyped. I haven’t verified it, but I suspect it was either a rare or perhaps a first-ever meeting of the previous two national champions in a tournament game. Add to that the in-state rivalry, the fact that Rick Pitino has coached both teams to national titles, and the endless scrutiny coach Calipari’s perennial “one-and-done” squads garner, and we had the makings of an epic contest. Boy, did these guys deliver!
Louisville charges out to a 13 point lead. Kentucky cuts it to three at the half. CBS quotes some ridiculous statistic like Louisville has won 68 consecutive games when leading at the half. Foul problems mount after the half, especially for Louisville. After scoring 34 in the first half, it took the Cardinals almost 7 minutes to score 10 more points. With 1:27 to go, the Wildcats take their first lead! With 14 seconds to go, down two, Louisville’s Wayne Blackshear earns the Black Sheep award by missing the first of two free throws. The second free throw he made was the last point Louisville would score, and Kentucky, perhaps the toughest 8 seed we’ve seen in a long time, moves on to the Elite 8, and Rick Pitino loses his first ever Sweet 16 game.
This game definitely gets the Last Man Standing award for utter brutality. Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein goes out early with an ankle injury. Louisville’s Stephan Van Treese plays half the game with super-absorbent gauze stuck up both nostrils to stop the bleeding. making him look like some sort of demented warthog. I kept waiting for the old school Batman “Boom! Zaaam! Kapow!” to show up on the screen.
And Now We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Basketball For This Ridiculous Huddle of Officials Around A TV Monitor
Nothing takes the air out of a great nail-biter headed toward a fantastic finish better than waiting five minutes on three officials to make up their mind about whose ball it is or how much time is left on the clock. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have seen me tweet this toward the end of the Kentucky-Louisville game.
“Oh, so the players can now APPEAL to have the refs go to the monitor? What’s next, the coach throws a red flag on the court?”
I seriously expected Ed Hochuli to walk to center court at any moment and give one of his classic explanations in all of its lugubrious detail. I understand making good use of technology and wanting to get the call right, but this is just getting way out of hand. After the referee on the baseline made the call, (and he was right there on the baseline next to the play, I might add), and awarded the ball to Louisville, every Kentucky player and Coach Calipari started gesticulating vehemently toward the sideline monitor basically insisting on a review of the play. The officials complied. Now, to their credit, the zebras stuck with the original call, but not until an eternity had elapsed, and we had been treated to the same replay from every conceivable angle in ultra-slow motion over a dozen times. I was nearly asleep, drooling on my keyboard by the time play resumed. This has got to stop. It’s basketball, not probate court. It’s not supposed to take forever.
Which One Of These Is Not Like The Others?
The Elite 8 is set, and it’s a familiar cast of characters: Florida, Michigan State, UConn, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan, and Dayton. Wait. Who?!! Dayton??!!! They’re from the state that ridicules every institution except THE Ohio State University. (Buckeyes in the contest undoubtedly grew up hearing, “Wright State, Wrong University.”) It has to stick in every Buckeye’s craw that it’s not even Cincinnati, but Dayton left with a chance to represent their fair state in the Final Four. I am not sure how good of a chance it is against mighty Florida, but I can name six minions who would really like to see it happen. These six contestants get the When You Wish Upon A Star award for taking Dayton to the Final Four with original picks, giving them a chance at a hefty scategories bonus plus upset bonus for a total of 34 points for one game! Those contestants are Stephanie Baumann, Jamison Cooper, Tyler Drone, Sarah Gillig, Adam Regan, and Paul Sopke.
Elite 8 Shout Outs
Half of the eight games played over the last two nights were won by the lower seed, which made for some big moves in the contest standings both up and down. Be sure to check them out on the Reports and Standings Page. And now, here are our Elite 8 shout outs.
- The Crazy Eights award goes to three contestants who got all eight of the Elite 8 correct, but this award comes with an asterisk. No one got all eight with original picks. Only these three got them all right by making good use of re-picks. Luke Anderson needed four re-picks, Josh Marshall needed three, and Sara Marshall needed just two. And while we’re on this topic, the I Sense Unsanctioned Collusion award goes to Josh and Sara, whose status as husband and wife makes their success in the Elite 8 seem rather suspicious.
- The I’ve Been Everywhere, Man award goes to Phil Stump whose position in the rankings has literally been all over the map, from a worst of 685th to a best of 25th to his current position of 59th. Phil is giving Johnny Cash a run for his money. For this award Phil will receive two bus tickets good for a trip to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto…
- The True Blue award goes to the whopping 68 contestants who picked Kentucky to advance to the Elite 8 with an original pick. There are too many names to list, so if that was you, pat yourself on the back.
- Similarly, the Lucky 7 award goes to 57 contestants who picked #7 UConn to advance to the Elite 8.
- The Three Is A Magic Number award goes to those contestants who picked three of the four third round upsets correctly with original picks. (We know three people got all four correct, but they needed re-picks to do it.) Genya Trisler, Joel Nowacki, Carol Moritz, Andy Johnson, and Chris Grunden will receive School House Rock: The Complete Boxed Set for their efforts.
- The I Hate This Stupid Scoring System award goes to Steven Clair who has just as many wins as the contest leader but is in 120th place.
- The I Love This Awesome Scoring System award goes to Gavin Hand, the highest ranking minion with a winning percentage below .500. Gavin is in 9th place.
- The Always A Bridesmaid But Never A Bride award goes to yours truly. I climbed as high as 25th and thought I might actually have a chance at a top ten finish, but alas, my national champion, Louisville, is gone, and so are my hopes. For the record, I have never won my own contest.
- The You’ll Be Sorry award goes to current contest leader Genya “12th Man” Trisler. Though she is currently in first place, Genya did not make any re-picks! This could very well doom her chances of winning the contest, as she had Gonzaga going all the way to the championship game.
Parting Thoughts
This year’s contest could be the most competitive we’ve had this late in the game in several years. It is still very much up for grabs, so if you’re still riding the Dayton or Sparty or UConn train, keep watching. One big Scategories Bonus is all that sits between you and March Madness glory!
Until next time,
The Wizard of Whiteland