“To be the best, you have to beat the best.”
Tom Izzo
After a number of yawners and blowouts in the Sweet Sixteen round, all four Epic Eight games were quintessentially March Madness. Today’s double header offered up yet another overtime thriller, another Duke game was decided by two points or less, and we have a new, first-time contest leader joining the teams making their first ever trip to the Final Four.
Sunday’s Hot Takes
Sundays can be busy for Mr. & Mrs. Wizard and family, not to mention exhausting. The Wizard decided to catch a quick snooze this afternoon only to wake up in a disoriented panic five minutes in to the first game. I am sure that never happens to any of you. Anyway, today’s ramblings won’t be quite as extensive as yesterday’s. I suspect this comes as a disappointment to some and a relief to others.
- Which inmates are running this asylum? The officiating team for any NCAA game consists not only of the three officials on the floor, but also one alternate and the crew staffing the scorers table. The off-court crew are responsible for important tasks such as clock operation (which has been woefully inept this year, for some reason), score keeping, and tracking personal fouls, among other things. In the UK-Auburn game, the off-court crew seemed to have no control over any aspect of their assignment. Aside from the aforementioned clock issues, the game announcers made known that on four separate occasions the assignment of a personal foul to a player had to be changed at the scorers table to correct a discrepancy from what was called on the floor. The result? Nobody seemed to know which players had how many fouls, and when I say nobody, I mean coaches, fans, announcers, and on-court officials. If you follow me on Twitter, this is what prompted my tweet: “Do any of the refs know what is going on in this game?”
- I heard a rumor there was a Bonnie Tyler sighting in DC today. She was standing behind the Kentucky bench belting out her 80’s hit single, “I Need A Hero!” Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Tyler Herro was short on heroics today, going just 1-5 from 3-point range and scoring only 7 points. PJ Washington was a monster for Kentucky. That dude has crazy long arms. Speaking of celebrity sightings, conspicuously missing from the UK crowd this year was alum Ashley Judd. Maybe that’s why they lost. OK, maybe not. On the other hand, Magic Johnson did show up for the Michigan State game, and Charles Broccoli was pouring on the cheese for Auburn from the studio. I’m just saying…maybe there is something to this celebrity fan stuff.
- Defense wins championships? I did some quick checking. The three #1 seeds that have all been bounced from the tournament are ranked 1st (Gonzaga), 3rd (North Carolina) and 6th (Duke) in points per game this season. Conversely, Virginia and Texas Tech rank 1st and 3rd respectively in opponent points allowed per game, i.e., scoring defense. Texas Tech is also 1st in defensive efficiency, and Virginia is 6th. Now to be fair, Gonzaga was also 5th in defensive efficiency themselves, so this isn’t a bulletproof correlation. Add to it that neither Michigan State nor Auburn rank all that highly in either category. Still, it is an interesting observation. The prospect of a Virginia-Texas Tech title game is intriguing to say the least. That game could end in the 40s.
- Useless tournament fact: In the two games previous to today’s, neither Zion Williamson nor Tre Jones sat out for a single second of game time.
- Fun tournament fact: This year’s Final Four consists of essentially three newcomers and a traditional powerhouse. While this isn’t Virginia’s first trip in school history, it is their first trip since the field expanded to 64 teams. Neither Texas Tech nor Auburn have ever been to the Final Four. The Spartans have ten Final Four appearances, eight in the 64-team era. Does that make them the heavy favorite? Past performance does not guarantee future results, so probably not. However, Coach Tom Izzo probably does make them at least the odds-on favorite. Never count that guy out in March.
- This overtime is made possible by Buffalo Wild Wings. Wait, wut? I realize everything has a sponsor these days, from kickoffs to timeouts to NASCAR pit stops to the winning putt at the Masters, so I can understand, “This overtime brought to you by…” But come on – made possible? Really? You mean, like, were it not for Blazin’ wings and fried pickles we would just call it a tie and send everyone home? Maybe the TV broadcast wouldn’t be possible without the large size box of boneless cash from B-Dubs tossed in your favorite sauce (personally, I like Asian Zing), but I’m fairly confident they would play the overtime regardless. And speaking of B-Dubs, have you ever stopped to consider what sort of creature those wonderful little drumsticks come from? When was the last time you saw a chicken that small? No Chicken Little jokes, please. This is a serious question. Inquiring minds want to know.
- Some days nothing goes your way. Down two points with under five seconds to play, Duke’s RJ Barrett had a job to do – make both free throws and tie the game. He tried to make the first, but missed. Now RJ has a new mission – miss the second free throw and hope for an offensive rebound miracle ala Virginia the night before. Good solider that he is, he tried very hard and very obviously to miss that second free throw, and of course, it went in.
- Bonus points aplenty await a handful of minions should either Texas Tech or Auburn win even one more game. In fact, a national championship by either team will be worth so many points as to literally have the potential to win the contest for someone who isn’t even on the first page right now. I love this awesome scoring system. (Insert wink emoji here.)
Regional Awards
With all four regions now complete, it is time for the annual region-by-region awards, plus a couple of others.
- The Fantastic Beasts Of The East award – where to find them? In Gabe Foster, Yardley Glassley (which is really fun to say), and Tim Miles, all of whom got every game in the East region correct with original picks.
- The West Side Story award goes to Robert Puglisi, the only contestant to be perfect in the West region with original picks. Do you feel pretty?
- The Mouth of the South award goes to five contestants who got 14 out of 15 correct in the South region. Even with the benefit of re-picks, no one got every game right in the South. This year’s winners are John Ulmer, Phil Sadaka, AJ Spuches, Dave Barndt, and Jonathan Hand. Each of you will receive a signed photo of Jimmy Hart.
- The Buy Me Some Barbecue award goes to those contestants, also five of them, who picked 14 out of 15 correctly in the region that concluded in Kansas City, the Midwest. The winners are Dale Roberts, Meg Siebenhar, Elaina Mullins, John Connell, and James McKay. Each of you will receive a bottle of your favorite sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings…plus a coop of miniature chickens.
- The Upset Stomach award, sponsored by Tum-Tu-Tum-Tum-Tuuummmms, goes to Billy Brundage who correctly picked 17 of the 19 possible upsets in this year’s tournament. That’s with original picks, folks. No, he did NOT go the “weenie” route and pick all of the upsets in the first round. This would have made it impossible to pick the later games right, as most winners would have been lost after the first two days. Go have a look at his bracket. It’s pretty remarkable. Billy is currently in 15th place and has Michigan State as national champion.
- The I Missed The Part About The Bonus Points award goes to four contestants who did not pick a single upset correctly: Ron Marshall, Andrew Fabrizi, Evan Cress, and Lee Braddock.
- The Fantastic Four award goes to just two prescient minions who correctly picked all four Final Four teams with original picks. Given the make-up of this year’s Final Four and how unusual it is, I am truly impressed. The winners are Dylan Scheumann (rhymes with limon, which is a cross between lime and lemon and the secret ingredient that makes 7-Up taste so good when you are sick) and Meg Seibenhar (I have no idea what that rhymes with). Dylan is also our new contest leader – so congrats, Dylan – while Meg is 28th.
Closing Thoughts
The contest is still very much up for grabs, with a good number of contestants still able to win all three remaining games. OK, when I say it is up for grabs, I am misleading you a bit. Actually, with only four teams remaining, some quick math reveals that there are only eight possible outcomes from here. Thus, there are at most eight possible winners of our contest, fewer if a particular minion wins in more than one scenario. And even though Ryan Fogle made the extremely cool suggestion of adding a maximum score report that would be available once the Final Four is set, alas, the exercise is left to the reader, at least for this year. Duty (i.e., work) calls, friends. Duty calls.
Now it’s time for a five-day break from the Madness. See you again next Saturday after the national semifinals.
The Wizard of Whiteland