The Madness Ends Tonight

It honestly feels like yesterday that we were sitting in the Asylum watching the first round of the Madness and here we are ready to crown a Madness Champion between #1 North Carolina and #2 Villanova.

First, big ups to a great career Buddy Hield! He was held under 10 points for the 2^nd time this season, which was the most inopportune time to play flat and Villanova absolutely dominated the Sooners. As with Syracuse beating Virginia, this Oklahoma loss was by no means a choke game, as it would take away from the dominance that was the Villanova Wildcats!

Man alive Villanova can play defense! They are executing a phenomenal game plan by Head Coach, Jay Wright!

As for UNC, they just plain ol’ out bigged Syracuse! The Cuse was most definitely playing with house money, as they could not surcome another 2^nd half deficit as Carolina was able to answer the Syracuse press with quick cuts in the gaps and accurate passes in those gaps. The UNC forwards were able to gut the middle of the fabled Syracuse 2-3 zone and Jim Boeheim was able to walk off the court as a proud coach of an Orangeman team that most definitely belonged in the Madness.

Also, both Syracuse and UNC have had NCAA sanctions and most likely have NCAA sanctions on them respectively. Please do not let this cloud the Madness that will hopefully ensue, as the basketball played on the court should outshine the off-court shenanigans that is NCAA College Basketball.

The on goings of NCAA Basketball should by no means be shoved under the rug, but that is NCAA Basketball and this is The Madness so back to the game!

North Carolina has their forwards led by Brice Johnson, Isaiah Hicks and Joel James show off their nutty rebounding, especially on the offensive side, as Marcus Paige hit some clutch hoops. The kicker for UNC is the very very under the radar but extremely valuable point guard play of Joel Berry who had another high assist and low turnover game vs. Syracuse.

Villanova, as mentioned are on fire with sharp execution and wily veteran play. Senior forward Daniel Ochefu had an OK game vs. Oklahoma and may be hobbled by an ankle or foot injury. He will play but how much will the injury affect him?

The kicker for Villanova is that the Oklahoma bigs were the only players that showed up with a valiant effort by Oklahoma’s Ryan Splangler. If he was able to get his looks than watch out for the deep UNC frontcourt to possibly feast on the dymanic duo of Ochefu and Kris Jenkins.

Nova’s Ryan Arcidiacono and UNC’s Marcus Paige will have a great match up as senior leaders.

The final x-factor will be the match up between Sophomore point guard, Joel Berry and Freshman point guard Jalen Brunson of Villanova. If Berry continues to distribute the ball as efficiently as he has, then look for Roy Williams to get his 3^rd NCAA Championship.

Finally…..Roy.

Roy.

As in the initial Insanity Report there was an olive branch of peace extended out to Roy Williams who has been criticized for the past 3-4 years by many people including myself. I still believe that the previous years criticism was warranted, but this year Roy and the Tar Heels have grinded over the many critics of his coaching and that of the off-court allegations that most likely will be formally handled between UNC and the NCAA this summer.

Roy has shown some moxy with many quotes of wanting to fight critics and being so critical of the hate-press from many members of the media. Despite this fieriness, Roy still seems to have his body ailments as he wears a knee brace while on the sidelines in his intense defensive stance. His health and the 2-3 years of non-UNC caliber recruits may have tonight be the last time we see Roy on the sidelines.

As J-Dawg put so eloquently, Roy deserves to go out on his terms and once the final buzzer goes tonight, we’ll either see another crowning of UNC or inauguration of Villanova.

As that buzzer rings, so will the conclusion of the greatest March Madness, perhaps ever and unfortunately all that will be left for the summer will be the ugly reality that is NCAA sports.

The hypocrisy and double standards that is NCAA still gets overshadowed by the purity of the Madness and Madness gods…..thanks for this ride,

The Madness concludes tonight.

Yours in Madness,

Commissioner Adolph

Final Fo' Here We Go!!! Grinding? Well Just Gimme Some A Dat Point Guard SH**!!!!!

"...and the man kept coming after you!"

Final Four weekend!

Apologies for the late insert. Stepping back a bit to look at last Sunday’s Elite games first, we gotta talk about Syracuse, or else Terry McKaig is gonna have a Jim Boeheim jacket-throwing connip-fit…..

Cuse stamped their ticket to the Final 4 with a huge 16-point comeback vs. #1 seed Virginia. Calling this a Virginia meltdown is not giving the due credit Syracuse and Jim Boeheim deserve. Down 16 points, Cuse started full court pressing Virginia in what looked like a perfectly timed insert of the press in what may very well have been the very rope-a-dope game Cuse wanted to play.

I don’t think they planned to be down by 16 points, but that well timed press forced the ever efficient, low possession, ball-controlling Cavaliers outta their comfort zone! Virginia has the lowest average amount of possessions in all of the NCAA Div 1 and having to score quick hoops like they had to on this big of a stage was the straw that broke Coach Tony Bennett’s Cavs’ back. As much as it hurts to agree with a Reggie Miller analysis, Virginia looked outta sort having to score under that much pressure.

The key was taking the control outta Virginia’s hands with that amazing Cuse press. Earlier in the season, Virginia was scoring many fast break points pushing the ball so quick off forced turnovers, which was not seen in previous seasons. Those fast break points were off Virginia controlled pressure.

The Cuse press forced Virginia to either get past half just to be under more pressure in the half court set or it forced rushed lay up attempts that then caused some great Syracuse transition points. It which caused these quick points as the Virginia possession-controlled style was not used to playing transition defense at this fast of a pace.

Bottom line a coaching gem from Jimmy Boeheim and a well executed press by the go-go gadget reach of the Cuse forwards, especially freshman, Tyler Lydon.

The other Syracuse froshie, Malachi Richardson was also unconscious scoring 21 of his 23 points in that 2^nd half comeback. He was making shots like Jim Day at a Christmas Party!!!!

So the question is, how does Syracuse react to today’s game vs. #1 overall remaining team North Carolina?

UNC dispensed of Notre Dame last Sunday in a tightly contested game despite the score. They dominated the glass as well as took advantage of a timely defensive rebounding to get many high scoring runs. They did however, have many bouts of trading hoops where Notre Dame drove the ball down the lane and easily scored on Carolina.

If Carolina allows that tonight, then that is right down Syracuse senior, Michael Gbinije’s wheel house! He can possibly go off tonight.

Both Cuse and Carolina has talk lanky forwards but UNC most definitely has the rebounding advantage as they get an offensive rebound on 40 friggin’ percent of their misses!!!! And all this while Syracuse gives up an offensive rebound on 35% of opponent’s misses! This may lead to Cuse’s Cindarella run coming to an end.

Carolina big men, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks lead a vey very physical front line vs. a talented, lanky but lighter Syracuse front line. This match up and how Syracuse will try to get UNC PG Joel Berry outta his low-turnover, dime dropping Madness tirade will determine the late game!

Onto the early game with Villanova vs. Oklahoma.

Villanova has a deep squad that is peaking with their finest performances during this year’s Madness showing every ounce of potential they had this season as well as previous seasons. Their dismantling of KU last week was an absolute surgical game with a perfect game plan on Perry Ellis and an absolute dominating performance from Nova big man Daniel Ochefu!

Looking at the match ups, both teams have deep front courts and back courts as well as many vets. Looking at how Villanova is peaking, I was initially leaning Villanova.

Villanova’s senior general Ryan Arcidiacono will just flat out find a way on both sides of the ball. Him and the rest of the Nova guards are fantastic defenders and you know Coach Jay Wright will have a bangin’ plan that will most definitely get Oklahoma super duper star Buddy Hield outta sort.

Oklahoma will be keying on Ochefu and if they execute a great defensive plan on him, then Kris Jenkins can use his size to dominate the paint.

But, back to the guard match up. The reason that this will be an absolute heavyweight match up is that Josh Hart is an amazing Kevin Outhet-like defender that will lead that amazing game plan attack on Buddy.

But Oklahoma has Buddy. For those of you that haven’t been watching him all year, Buddy is indeed human. Please please please do not confuse his 3-point barrages with that of Steph Curry, as Steph is an absolute outlier. Buddy is human!

He has faced every opponent’s full-fledged defensive attacks all season with some hot nights and cold nights. He can get hot like he did vs. Oregon to get into the Final Four. If he’s that hot then watch out! Other defensive strategies have stalled Buddy such as in Oklahoma’s loss to Press Virginia in the Big 12 semi-finals.

No matter the game. No matter the night, Buddy will grind!

Grind?

Commish, what the f*** does grind even mean? You say “grind” this and “grind” that! “grind” “grind” “grind”!!!!

Well, it can only be summed up like most life lessons are summed up:

With Rocky quotes!

In Rocky II, Apollo Creed is trying to drum up support from his camp to get a rematch vs. one Rocky Balboa. Apollo’s manager Tony/”Duke” played by screen legend Tony Burton (RIP Mr. Burton) walked up to Apollo to state his reluctance to face Rocky. He says to Apollo he says,:

“He’s all wrong for us baby!...I saw you beat that man, like I saw no man get beat before….and the man keeeeppppppt commmmmmming after you!!!!......We don’t need that kind of man in our life!”

And that Insanity Universe is GRINDING!

Buddy has displayed this all season long with a memory shorter than Dave Adolph remembering an introduced name! Buddy can be missing shots all day, but he don’t care, he’s gonna keep taking them! And you know Villanova will keep pounding Plan A, Plan B and Plan C’s onto Buddy just like Apollo pounded that left eye of Rocky!

Hence the Heavyweight Fight we expect to see! A Heavyweight fight where one fighter pilot, Goose, may be saying to his lead baller……..”D….gimme some a dat PG shit!!!!!”

Expect some D-like haymakers and D-like 3-point daggers from Buddy tonight!

Final Fo’ baby!

Let’s roll!

Yours in Madness,

Commissioner Adolph

Coach K Reaction and half of the Final Fo' is Set!

Hey folks, another great Madness night last night! There was some pure Madness with the Kansas v. Villanova game with 2 great great teams going head to head, but before we get to that, here’s an update on the Mike Sheh-publicity-whore-ski situation.

This is a word for word quote of the Insanity Report exchanges regarding the ongoings. Pretty much, Coach K released a statement apologizing for the comments he made to Dillon Brooks and the statement said this:

“Today, I spoke with Oregon head coach Dana Altman and apologized to him for my remarks to Dillon Brooks following our game. It is not my place to talk to another team’s player and doing so took the focus away from the terrific game that Dillon played. In the postgame press conference, I reacted incorrectly to a reporter’s question about my comment to Dillon. Clearly, the story that night was about Oregon advancing to the Elite Eight, and the outstanding game they played. I sincerely hope I did not create a distraction for Coach Altman and his team at this critical time of the year. Certainly, I have the utmost respect for the Oregon program and their tremendous accomplishments.” –Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University Head Coach and United States National Team Coach”

There is it! Here is the convo by the Insanity Report Staff on the 33^rd floor of the Insanity Tower in Conference Room B:

J-Dawg: “Love how he throws in ‘and Head Coach of USA National Team’. You ‘reacted incorrectly’? Or as everyone else calls it, you lied.”

Paulsen: “I know hey, way to say sorry but not that sorry”

J-Dawg: “You stop being a distraction by stopping press releases about it. We don’t need to hear from you anymore. You aren’t in the tournament.”

Paulsen: “I agree, just let it go K. Talk about being salty.”

J-Dawg: “Oh and Mike, you have won 5 National Championships in 36 years at Duke. Amazing accomplishment. If Roy gets this thing across the finish line this year, he will have won 3 National Championships in 13 years at North Carolina. FU!!

Adolph: (still silent, but enter fist pump)

Tom Williamson: (still silent, but shakes head)

Paulsen: “I sure think UNC has reached another level now. They will be so hard to beat.”

J-Dawg: “You see that Coach K’s way of making sure his name and Duke was mentioned today even though they aren’t playing.”

Paulsen: “Ya, that drives me nuts about Coach K. You wanna call out another teams player publicly, deny saying it, get busted, half apologize, then have everyone in the media kiss your ass for the day?!?!? Stay classy Coach K!”

Insanity Report Staff in Conference Room B (except for Tom Williamson)): They all turn at Paulsen and give him another head nod and fist pump.

T-Smack: “Agree about Coach K, Dana Altman (Oregon Head Coach) deserves the smack down from someone (Bill Self (KU Head Coach) anyone? Coach Self knows how to put idiot players in place. Brooks would be publicly paddled if Self was his Coach). Altman et al. aren’t used to winning enough, so haven’t learned how to behave when doing so. Disappointed in both coaches there.”

Kris Russell: “Truth. If Altman said that garbage to Grayson Allen he would have flipped. Coach your own guys and take the loss.”

Who Dana Altman? Dat who!
(Credit: The Oregonian)

Tom Williamson: “Who the fuck is Dana Altman?”   

T-Smack: “Best comment, right there”

Amazing job Insanity Crew….pretty much sums up the whole topic. Other aspect is Coach was damned if he apologized and damned if he didn’t. Bottom line is that Coach K is a freaking legend. Period. But with sticking his nose in Dillon’s and Oregon face and having a perceived “sorry-not sorry” attention-grabbing press release does nothing for the Duke-elitist stereotype that is out there. It’s fuel for Duke haters, but also Coach K may have felt he had to release this statement to counteract getting caught from his conflicting press conference remarks about the incident. So he covered his ass. Onto the games…

Buddy Ball!!! (Credit: espn.com)

Oklahoma v. Oregon was just another Buddy Show! Buddy was unconscious and Oregon got exposed that they didn’t make any adjustments. From the first 5 minutes where Buddy was some ungodly percentage of 20 for his first 21 shots, Oregon still had a soft switch onto Buddy and never double teamed Buddy. Oregon….Dana Altman…..you have zero defenders who could face guard Buddy and so you don’t double or triple team him nearly as much as you should have? Oregon: exposed!

Also, Dillon Brooks was a different player vs. Oklahoma then he was vs. Duke. Did the whole Coach K situation actually affect him? Only he can answer that question, but he was a different player last night.

Perry Ellis wearing double teams all game!
(Credit: Topeka Capital-Journal cjonline.com)

KU vs. Villanova was just a heavyweight tilt of head to head action…possession by possession battle!!! Villanova won and it was due to their execution of their defensive game plan on KU’s Perry Ellis. Ellis is the heart and soul, as well as main focus offensively for KU. Villanova put 2 defenders on Ellis so fast as he was wearing Nova double teams like a bad tattoo. That happened all game and KU’s Bill Self tried to make adjustment in the 2^nd half, as Ellis grinded and grinded to no avail. Nova forced Ellis to have a Buddy Hield type game, and that has never been Ellis’ M.O in his whole career.

But gaw damn, this was a possession by possession battle! Nova’s Daniel Ochefu had old school post moves reminiscent of a young Chris Foucher! He dominated the paint offensively which even surprised the Insanity Report Staff as we thought that match up was KU’s to win.

Nova freshman PG, Jalen Brunson made some key shots for a froshie. Big ups there.

Guard, Ryan Arcidiacono deserved credit as a solid senior clutch player for Nova but hot damn, his soccer head bobs trying to draw fouls is as bad as Grayson Allen’s but no where nearly as ‘soccer’ as a young Drew Dunfield.

Felling bad for KU and their seniors but Villanova deserved the W and their Final 4 match vs. Oklahoma will be some more heavyweight-fighter type Madness. They will have to game plan on Buddy Hield like they did on Perry Ellis but Buddy WILL get his points. This will be a great match up next Saturday.

Today’s game will finalize the Final Fo! Lets get some more Madness!

Yours in Madness,

Commissioner Adolph

SWEET 16….coming back down to earth and shut the hell up Coach K!

Couple of notes from the recently completed Sweet 16:

Thursday games went all chalk with all the favorites winning and winning by a lot. It had to had happen with all the Madness we’ve been lucky to have injected into our Madness veins from Week 1 there had to be a sugar madness crash of epic proportions.

Lets get to the brass tax of any Smack from Thursday night and that of course is with Duke.

X’s and O’s wise their obvious lack of depth got exposed by a deeper Oregon team who took the cue from many other teams who beat Duke this year and forced Marshall Plumlee to guard up high on the elbows which forced many 2 and 1 opportunities and easy alley-oops for Oregon. Not only was Plumlee exposed on defense, but the rest of Duke’s horrendous defense was exposed with their horrendous foot speed that couldn’t catch up with Oregon’s quicks.

I agree with T-Smack on Oregon though that they still have a lotta hype about them. They have a huge huge test vs. Oklahoma tomorrow.

Okay….Grayson Allen

Tripper Boy who deserves everything that comes to him with his 2 separate instances where he tripped a player during the season. It was complete bush and Coach K decided to handle that in house. If that’s how he wants to handle it, then fine, it’s HIS player.

But if Oregon’s Dillon Brooks wants to act like a jackass at the end of the game then let him Coach Sheh-shoves-his-nose-where-it-doesn’t-belong-ski!!!!!!

Brooks hit a trey late in the shot clock in the last minute of a blow out and celebrated a bit too much. Then he hugs Grayson Allen at the buzzer as Allen walked through it. None of that is nearly as bush league as Grayson’s 2 trips.

Coach K, if you want to handle Grayson’s trip in house then handle your dismay of Brooks’ actions in house. Talk to Oregon Head Coach, Dana Altman or to Brooks…behind closed doors. You freaking know that the cameras are on you and you know that you’re on national TV! So don’t give any non-Duke player any lecture on National TV, because HE’S NOT YOUR PLAYER TO LECTURE!!!!!

If you were going to shut up about YOUR OWN PLAYER’S 1^ST TRIP trip and then shut up about YOUR OWN PLAYER’S  2^nd TRIP then shut the hell up about another teams player!

Eff man, Coach K is the most under-rated biggest sore loser out there! Just take a damn loss! Don’t lecture an opposing player or don’t do some patronizing trip to an opponent’s locker room in front the cameras like you’ve done in past Madness’. Yeah you’re giving credit to the team that beat you, but you’re doing so in a media whore manner that Kim Kardashian would be proud of!

BROOKS IS NOT YOUR PLAYER!!! SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!

The rest of Thursday’s games:

Villanova looked real good with Daniel Ochefu dominating Miami’s 7-footer Tonye Jekiri and the Nova guards holding off a great effort by Miami’s guards.

Texas A&M didn’t get lucky with an Oklahoma meltdown this time. Buddy Hield spread the ball around and if the other Sooner’s can chip in on the score sheet like they did on Thursday, then watch out for a hopeful rubber match with KU in the Final 4 who rag dolled Maryland. Once KU decided to guard the Maryland on-ball screens then it was over for the Terps.

Tonight’s games….

We got some mini-Madness with Notre Dame stealing the ball in the last minute down one to steal the game from Wisconsin.

North Carolina may have woken up. Their bigs are scary. Brice Johnson was a man among Hoosier boys today! Jeebus!

Virginia looked their usual efficient surgical self vs. a grinding Iowa State team tonight. All year Steve Prohm was fighting against the ghost of previous coach, Fred “The Mayor” Hoiberg and he did so with grace. He got the Cyclones to play for him as best he could, but damn those players loved Hoiberg. It’ll be exciting to see Prohm mold future Iowa State teams in the same manner as he did his old Murray State teams.

And Gonzaga vs. Syracuse….

Sorry Paulsen! The Zags fought hard. They looked great tonight vs. Syracuse. Their bigs, Sabonis and Wiltjer spread out Syracuse’s 2-3 zone with some early treys and were able to penetrate it with some baseline drives.

Holy moly Sabonis showed some quicks shutting down Syracuse’s swingman senior, Michael Gbinije for most of the 2^nd half to the point where Gbinije was passing the ball off the second Sabonis switched onto him off the high ball screen.

But yes McKaig, Jimmy Boeheim noticed this and called a timeout late in the 2^nd half and made the adjustment. The Zags missed some late shots and had some costly turnovers in what was a great game and an even more devastated Paulsen.

Paulsen was as devastated as Terry McKaig was gloating and that is a lot. Syracuse is in tough vs. Virginia though. Will be a great match up.

March Madness Insanity Pool update:

Huge huge ups to Leader, Derran Watts with picking 7 of the 8 Elite Eight teams! Whoa! He snagged the lead outta 2^nd round leader Diana “D” Lee’s grasp and ran away with it!

As did Pete Vieweg Money Division leader: PETE VIEWEG!!!! He’s in tough with K-Smack in 2^nd Place and Al “Not Stupid Al, No Mo!” Vieweg!  This is the Battle of Proponent and Opponent of the Multiple Bracket! Pete’s Smack Talk is with his bracket…..somewhere in North Van, Pete is heard saying, “Scoreboard!!!”

Oh yeah, somewhere in Salem, Oregon, K-Smack is heard saying, “The Smacketh giveth, and K-Smacketh will taketh away!”

Oh snap!

Brian Van Sickle and Zana Williams aren’t far behind in the Pete Vieweg Money Division.

Well folks, it’s late, we have 2 great games tomorrow with #1 v. #2 matchups with Oklahoma vs. Oregon and Villanova vs. KU

What say U???

Enjoy the weekend games and may the Smack Be With You!

Yours in Madness,

Commissioner Adolph