“Ultimately, ‘Cinderella’ is the story of the underdog. You root for her in this fairytale; the girl who has nothing, deserves so much more, and gets it.” – Lily James
Cinderella Arrives At The Dance
In case you missed it, the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago earned their first trip to the Final Four since 1963, winning in convincing fashion over Kansas State. This was the first game of the tournament where the Fighting Sister Jeans did not need last second heroics in order to win. The Wildcats were never able to get the lead back under double digits in the second half. The Ramblers are only the fourth 11 seed to advance to the Final Four.
So how does an 11 seed get to the Final Four? Certainly, they must be a good team, as the Ramblers definitely are. At the same time, success in the NCAA tournament often comes down to match ups, and that is true for the better seeds and not just the underdogs. This is why there is so much grousing about seeding “mistakes” made by the committee before the tournament even begins, because where you are seeded can often go a long way in determining your fate. It would be an error to say that Loyola-Chicago had an easy road to the Final Four. They defeated Miami and Tennessee, strong teams from strong conferences. But they also benefited from other unlikely upsets in their region allowing them to face Nevada and Kansas State rather than Cincinnati, Kentucky, or Virginia. None of the previous three 11 seeds to advance to the Final Four have won a national semifinal game, and it is exactly because of the match up factor that I believe Loyola will join that winless club.
Wolverines Win Ugly Game
The Michigan Wolverines will be a match up nightmare for Loyola of Chicago. KenPom.com has the Wolverines ranked fourth in the country in defensive efficiency, and it certainly showed up in tonight’s game where I often wondered if either team would reach 50 points. Their four point victory over Florida State featured 11 blocked shots, 12 steals, 31 missed three pointers, and 25 TURNOVERS between the two teams. I am not saying a Loyola-Chicago victory over Michigan in the Final Four is impossible, as the Ramblers have shown themselves to be remarkably resilient. Nevertheless, the Wolverines will be the heavy favorite, and rightly so.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this game happened after it was over in the post-game interview with Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton. Prompted by the panel in the New York studio, Dana Jacobson asked coach Hamilton why Florida State did not foul, down four points with eleven seconds to go. At first, the 69-year-old coach acted noticeably irritated, his response implying that he thought the question was stupid. “You think that’s why we lost the game?” For a moment it appeared that Hamilton would pull a Bobby Knight and simply walk away in disgust, but to his credit, he composed himself and gave a more lengthy – and more classy – response, giving Michigan credit for playing stifling defense and basically disrupting his team’s entire game plan.
Let It Snow
March Madness seems to be infecting everything right down to the weather. I don’t know what the weather is like where you live, but we received an unseasonal ten inches or so of snow today. This made the trip to my brother’s, fellow minion Josh Marshall, quite the adventure, but we arrived safely. It was there that I watched the first game of the night, ate pizza, talked Purdue basketball and other topics with the extended family, and fed breadstick bites to the dog. Incidentally, there are no dogs left in the tournament, but there are still cats along with a couple of wolves, though, as I have explained already in a previous commentary, their team name (Ramblers and Raiders) has nothing at all to do with a wolf. Perhaps more schools should simply change their mascot to a wolf in order to enjoy more tournament success.
Awards?
Speaking of dogs, I am sure you minions are much like Pavlov’s dogs by now, expecting awards every time one of these tomes arrives in your inbox. Here are a few tasty morsels to hold you over until tomorrow.
- The Two For Two award goes to Kate “Mom” Ginty and Julie Bowen, the only two contestants to get both games right with original picks. Their prognosticating prowess has earned them 4th and 2nd place in the current standings, respectively.
- The Don’t You Forget About Me award goes to my sister-in-law, Sara Marshall, who has no more teams left in the tournament. To be fair, there are no less than two dozen minions in the same situation, but I am obviously picking on Sara because we are related.
- The Isn’t That Spelled With An ‘A’? award goes to Margaret “Marshmellow” Dean, the precocious young minion who’s been hanging out in the top 10 for a good portion of the contest. It turns out that Margaret is the daughter of 3rd place minion Veronica Ramirez. I guess it runs in the family.
- The Yes, But You Haven’t Figured It Out Yet award goes to Don “Is There A System To This?” Naugler, currently in 116th place.
- The Ancient Chinese Secret award goes to Brock Zagel, who sent me a text this morning revealing the secret to our current contest leader’s success. Brock will receive a year’s supply of Calgon for his efforts.
- And speaking of the contest leader, the Phil Mickelson “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” award goes to the STILL-in-first-place Paula “Cookie Monster” Novak. According to the aforementioned informant, Paula’s system for picking winners involved choosing the team from a state where she has friends or relatives. Who knew such a correlation existed? There are chinks forming in Paula’s armor, however, as she lost BOTH games tonight. Perhaps this opens the door for someone to take over the top spot tomorrow.
That’s it for tonight. Be sure to tune in tomorrow when I will hand out the region by region awards.
The Wizard of Whiteland