“Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier ‘n puttin’ it back in.” – Will Rogers

Today we were treated to a couple of wild and entertaining clashes of storied programs with vast basketball pedigrees. While it is not at all unusual to see names such as Kentucky and Connecticut on the Final Four logo, seeing them there with a 7 and an 8 by their name rather than a 1 or a 2 certainly is. Though it’s cliche, it’s still true that two extremely talented but admittedly underachieving teams have managed to peak at just the right time.

Double Trouble

Yesterday we had two brothers coaching in two different regional finals, and both lost. Today we had two B1G schools from the state of Michigan in two different regional finals, and they both lost. I’m sensing a pattern, here. The news isn’t all bad for duos this year, however. Kentucky starts twin brothers Aaron and Andrew Harrison, and the SEC has two teams in a Final Four which many thought, or perhaps prayed, would include three B1G teams. I’m still trying to decide if Kentucky came out of nowhere, or if they were under-seeded. Depends on who you ask, right J.R. Shrader?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie reaped a bountiful harvest of the seeds he said they had been planting in The Garden, earning an improbable victory over favored Michigan State and an historic achievement. The History Maker award definitely goes to this year’s Huskies, the first ever 7 seed to advance to the Final Four. When I look at the box score for this game, two things stand out: free throws and turnovers. Sparty had an advantage in field goal percentage, three point percentage, rebounds, and assists. They even shot 87.5% from the free throw line. So how did they lose? Both Michigan State and UConn missed only one free throw each the entire game. The difference is that UConn attmpted 22 free throws and made 21, whereas Sparty shot only 8 and made 7. Do the math. That’s 15 points. The other eye-popping statistic is Michigan State committing twice as many turnovers as Connecticut, 16 to 8. When you commit twice as many turnovers and shoot one third as many free throws as your opponent, it is tough to win.

These Cats Are Out Of The Bag

In contrast, victorious Kentucky won in spite of horrific free throw shooting, making only 6 of 11 from the line (54%). I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Bad free throw shooting does not win championships, and I believe this is an Achilles heel that could derail the Cats’ national championship aspirations. Kentucky made up for it with stellar shooting from the field, however, including a smoking hot 7-11 from three point range. Some of those were absolutely back-breaking bombs, too, including the eventual game winner. I will say this for Kentucky: every one of their games has been extremely entertaining, even more so, I’m sure, for the UK fans in our contest.

1st and 10 on the 35 Yard Line

I have a question. What’s with all these guys picking the ball up on a drive to the basket and cradling it like Adrian Peterson going in for a touchdown? When did such a move become not a traveling violation? Naismith must be turning over in his grave. The rules seem pretty straightforward to me. You get the step as you are picking up your dribble plus one more. The coaches in the basketball clinics I went to as a kid called it “a step and a half, almost two.” For these Barry Sanders wannabes, it’s more like two steps and a half, almost three. I don’t get it.

Speaking Of Things I Don’t Get…

I’m all for being clever and creative in advertising, but there are a couple of ads that have been running repeatedly this tournament the point of which completely escapes me. The first is the Sprint Framily Plan commercial with the daughter singing a creepy rendition of Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home” in French while we are introduced to her family, or I suppose, “framily”, consisting of dad, who is a talking hamster, and assorted other freaks and psychos. Then there’s the Audi commercial where various and sundry characters in completely unrelated and largely unfamiliar scenes and situations work their way through a piecemeal recitation of Queen’s “We Are The Champions”. What was it these companies were wanting me to buy, again?

On the other hand, I totally get geek culture, and so does AT&T, which is what makes their latest series of ads with the two geeks installing and tweaking wireless networking equipment so funny. “It means you’ll be able to post from the break room.” Perfect.

A Quick Look Ahead

With only three games remaining in this year’s tournament, here are a few quick observations.

• Wisconsin makes only its second Final Four appearance in the 64 team era and its first under coach Bo Ryan.
• Connecticut returns to the Final Four the first year after being ineligible for post-season play due to NCAA sanctions.
• Florida enters the Final Four on a 30-game winning streak. The last team to beat Florida? Connecticut on December 2, 2013.
• Kentucky makes its second Final Four appearance in the last three years.
• The success of the relatively low seeded UConn and Kentucky teams combined with the relatively surprising success of Wisconsin, at least among the minions, is a recipe for abundant opportunities for big time points thanks to the Scategories bonus. This means the final standings will likely not look anything like what they do now, so stay tuned.
• The conclusion of round four of the contest brings the upset bonus to an end. Upset bonuses only apply up to the regional finals because the teams are seeded within their region. Comparing seeds across regions does not make sense, so there are no upset bonuses awarded in the final three games. Scategories bonuses are still awarded, however, as appropriate.
• The Year of the Underdog? Of the 60 games played so far, 21 have been upsets, i.e., have been won by the lower seeded team. I am not sure if that is a record, but it sure seems like a lot to me.

Final Four Awards

The completion of the regional finals is a special time in the contest when I hand out several accolades that have become somewhat traditional.

• The Beasts Of The East award goes to Michael Weier and Phillip Huneck who each picked 14 out of 15 games correctly in the East region with original picks.
• The Wild, Wild West award goes to 14 out of 15 game winners Gary Charlson, Lynn Scofield, and Kerri Riley in the West region. Again, those are 14 original picks made correctly.
• The Whistling Dixie award goes to the top performers in the South region with original picks, Genya Trisler and Zach Richardson, who each picked 13 out of 15 correctly.
• The Crossroads Of America award goes to 13-game winners in the Midwest region Genya Trisler and Paul Boswell.
• The Three Out Of Four Ain’t Bad award goes to the minions who picked three of the Final Four correctly with original picks: Bruce Schafer, Alyssa Sines, Kerri Riley, Roy Stickney, Chris Cammack, and Zach Barnes. No one picked all four Final Four teams even with the benefit of re-picks, once again demonstrating just how difficult it is to pick a perfect Final Four.
• The Upset Stomach award, brought to you by Pepto Bismol, also goes to Genya Trisler who picked 14 of the 21 available upsets with her original picks. The Even More Upset Stomach award, however, goes to Gavin Hand, who scored the most bonus points from upsets (79) and also picked 14 when re-picks are included.
• The No Risk, No Reward award goes to those contestants who didn’t pick a single upset correctly out of the 21 available. My condolences go to Raymond Godman (674th place), Ariel Tucker (689th place), Eric Bates (637th place), and Garry Brackett (661st place).
• The Yogi Berra It Ain’t Over Until It’s Over award goes to Chris Grunden who has risen from nearly dead last (717th) to 6th place! Year of the underdog, indeed.
• The Cat Scratch Fever award goes to Kentucky Wildcat fan Roy Stickney who has ridden the Wildcats’ rising fortunes all the way to 7th place.
  
• The This Contest Is Child’s Play award goes to 6-year-old Abby “Lil Momma” Sadaka who just cracked the top 100 with Kentucky’s big win.
• Finally, the Catch Me If You Can award goes to contest leader Michael Weier. Michael’s big lead shrunk considerably after his national semi-finalist pick, Michigan, lost to Kentucky, but he is counting on UConn to take him all the way home to victory.

Three Games Left

And now it is time for the weary wizard to step back behind the curtain for a few days and take respite from the madness. Once again, I want to thank all you minions for your emails, posts, tweets, and alias updates that have made the contest more fun for me than ever this year. Check back next weekend as we crown both an NCAA National Champion and a 19th Annual Jeff’s March Madness Contest Champion. May the best minion win!

The Wizard of Whiteland

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