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

The College Student-Athlete: The Only Reason For This Year's Madness....and it's no accident.

It took a full week away from the Madness to really grasp it all.

We got spoiled.

We all saw what happened! And since the last Insanity Report, we got another taste and another roller coaster ride last Sunday with another flurry of buzzer beater moments with the meltdown of Northern Iowa to Texas A&M and the Wisconsin buzzer beater in a span of 10 minutes.

How can this be?

How? Why?

This is a rarity and it’s the purest of raritys. Why? How could those 4 days last weekend happen?

Before we move on, please please please watch the video on NCAA.com or on YouTube called, “March Madness Moments: Sights and Sounds of Opening Rounds.” This video shows the main buzzer beater highlights from the opening round, but also it shows WHY we have been so lucky as to watch the best 4 days of hoops in March Madness history.

So why? How?

The college student-athlete! That’s why! That’s how!

After last weekend it seems pretty ironic that the top “one and doner” in Ben Simmons is not in the NCAA Tourney. Say what you will about Ben Simmons and LSU’s season. What it does highlight is that this year’s Madness which was previewed to have lots of parity is mainly filled with teams chalk full of juniors and seniors who have not only taken the long path as an athlete but also as a student.

Look at the many press conference moments in the video of the players describe how they were feeling after the loss they went through. They were emotional, spent and truthful!

What was showcased last weekend was the true plight of the college student-athlete, by it’s very definition. By the true definition it is the difficult and otherwise unfortunate journey taken.

Unfortunate in that, for the student-athlete going through their journey, are many times that it feels like an unfortunate situation during their 4-5 year stay at their school.

It’s not easy.

Many people are aware of the demands and sacrifices of the college student-athlete. Such as the heavy time demands to balance classes, practices, training sessions, travel, etc. Then there is the sacrificed time away for shortened family visits for Christmas and summer time due to training and game schedules. There is also the sacrifice of missing many other fantastic college experiences that non-student-athletes get to partake in. These difficult demands and sacrifices are just a few of many that will test the will of each and every student-athlete at least once in his/her 4-5 years. This can be guaranteed.

There is a lot of physical, mental and emotional pain during these 4-5 years. It is very difficult and again, at many times, it feels like an unfortunate situation.

It takes playing the last game of a college career to realize how fortunate it was to go through every high and low and that the most unfortunate aspect of this journey, is…

…that it’s over.

The journey of countless hours in the gym, weight room and film room is what help defines the career of a college student-athlete. The harder the student-athlete grinded, the deeper he/she can dig.

The meltdown by Northern Iowa was indeed a meltdown vs. Texas A&M, there is no denying that, but what defines Northern Iowa is how they responded to that meltdown. What defines them is the response to losing the 12-point lead in 42 seconds with the 2 overtime periods where they battled back; burning every drop of fuel down to the very last vapor of fumes left in their tank.

The journey involves so much preparation. Such as that of the many times Bronson Koenig practiced his fade away three-pointer from the corner in practice and with Nigel Hayes during many pre-games. That preparation allowed him to know the ball was going to go in as soon as it left his hands.

There has to be a winner and loser during these games. It will be a devastating loss for Northern Iowa or a harrowing win for Wisconsin. Despite the different results, the grinding and difficult journey will always be the same for all sides of that result.

The pain is not in one very rare and painful loss, but rather there is a pain that the 4-5 year journey is over. Just listen to Utah’s Brandon Taylor when he says while crying, “I’m never going to go to war with a guy like Cool’s anymore…I’m not going to go to war with Coach K being my coach.” A journey that Taylor has gone through WITH his teammates and coaches. One that he will never regret, but ask him if he’d repeat it? The answer could be no. It’s just that difficult and not every person can do it.

So to go through that journey, that’s Madness.

These players aren’t one-and-doners that don’t go to class and suck the life out of a scholarship; these players went through the grind of the journey of a student-athlete.

What we saw last weekend were many ballers answering the bell of a challenge that could only have been met from how much they shouldered the incredible demands and sacrifices they chose to make.

It was no accident that they made the choices to go through their journey. It was no accident what we saw with the many buzzer beaters, upsets and shear madness, because what we saw, I am convinced, were the results of the Madness that is the plight of the college student-athlete.

They answered the bell and we reaped the exhilaration of watching it.

We saw 4 amazing years of players such as the amazing duo of Fred Van Vleet and Ron Baker giving us a Final 4 run in their freshman year, an undefeated regular season run in their sophomore season, a Sweet 16 junior season run and their final 2 victory March Madness run in their senior season at Wichita State. We got to see the outcomes of the true journey of the student-athlete that Stephen F. Austin Head Coach, Brad Underwood said “(is) everything that this is about!”

Most years of the Madness are saturated with teams with one-and-done players that are at a program for a one-year pit stop before going off to the NBA draft. That’s fine. It gave us great Madness in a Duke and Kentucky team last year or the Unibrow led Kentucky team in 2012.

Not this year.

We got the saturation of amazing moments that could only have been made possible due to the choice to go through what only a college student-athlete can go through.

Thank you Ron Baker and Freddie Van Vleet! Thank you college student-athlete!

And we have 2 more weekends of Madness?

Madness you spoil us.

Enjoy tonight’s Madness!

Insanely yours,

Commissioner Adolph.

The Greatest Day in March Madness History!

The Madness in one fell photographic genius swoop! (Credit Ronald Martinez of Getty Images)

Folks! It’s Saturday morning and I still can’t come down from the roller coaster that was yesterday’s madness! There’s no need to make sense of it and just hoping that today can offer a morsel of the excitement that last night gave us.

Let’s take a look back though…

The morning started off like any typical Madness day. We get a #10 seed win with Syracuse showing up and #7 Dayton not showing up at all. Villanova dispensed of UNC-Ashville quite easily, yet their storyline is not done, as we shall see if they’re for real or will disappoint with another early exit later on.

Chalk up another #10 seed victory with VCU’s win vs. Oregon and an infusion of more Madness Traditional Underdog Karma with VCU and their Pep Band living another day in the Madness. This added to the underdog karma slippers that Gonzaga, Wichita State and the Butler comfortably slipped back into in Day 1.

Big ups to the direction that Oregon State Head Coach, Wayne Tinkle is taking the Beavers though. Anti-Multiple Bracket Legislation Lobbysist, and Oregon State alumnus, David Schmidt is looking forward to many Madness wins that Tinkle should get the Oregon State faithful in the future.

Then #13 seed Hawaii plays a solid game vs. a solid #4 Cal who has dealt with recent injuries and off-court issues to give us the 3^rd double-digit seed victory of the first 4 games of this day’s Madness.

OK OK, now lets sit back and watch the start of Michigan State’s coronation and start of yet another Final 4 run for Tom Izzo and Outhet Player of the Year, Denzel Valentine.

Right?

Nope!

Enter in the #15 seeded Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders who we all know soundly defeats Izzo. They play an amazing game with amazing shot taking, perfect rebounding and block outs. Bottom line Middle Tennessee was the better team than Michigan State today. Period.

We were too busy watching the following games, but came upon some clips of Izzo after the game in the hallway and in his press conference. All I could see was Izzo talking for his players for the loss, again just calling like it was, Middle Tennessee was the better team.

He wore this loss for his players. Like all GREAT coaches do, he took the blame for the loss while always giving credit to the players for the wins, which didn’t happen to take place today. Also, in wearing this loss with the utmost class and grace, there was no patronizing handshake or walk over to Middle Tennessee’s locker room that Coach K would have and has done. Why? This is Middle Tennessee’s moment. They deserve it.

A defacto #1 seed in Michigan State losing to what could have been a 16-seed giving us the Biggest Upset in Madness History! All Izzo says and has to say is the 5 words he said to his superstar player, Valentine, “Thank you. I love you.” That upset and Izzo’s class already makes this a historic day in Madness lore.

March will always be the month of Izzo (Credit Detroit Sun Times)

Wha? There’s more games to watch still?

Yeppers, #10 Temple gives #7 Iowa a run for their money. As does #12 South Dakota State making Maryland earn their keep. Those damn double-digit seeds.

Buddy Hield leads a late 2^nd half push to easily dispense a scrappy CSU-Bakersfield.

That sugar high of the double-digit seed upsets gives us the obligatory sugar crash that was the Pitt/Wisconsin and Stephen F. Austin/West Virginia games. Thanks for giving us another double-digit seed winner in SFA, Madness Karma, but the tough defenses and inept offenses gave for a slew of foul calls and whistles that led to a freaking 3-hour game. SFA didn’t win as much as the plug was pulled outta the socket putting all of us out of our misery, especially West Virginia and the Huggy Bear.

J-Dawg was seen struggling to keep his eyes open. Don’t fret, he got his second wind…..

Texas A&M and Oregon go chalk with their wins while Xavier makes us, watching in The Asylum, sweat out the 13 point cover. Just some degenerate Madness for you wagering fans out there.

Right when we’re coming down from the amount of upsets and the Izzo upset, comes one of the greatest 1 hour run of games in Madness history.

Notre Dame erases a 12-point halftime deficit to give us a mano-a-mano dogfight with Michigan.

Cincinnati and St Joes take turns punching each other in the jaws. Hoops scored by both teams followed by clenching defensive possessions going back and forth.

Turning the channel to the Northern Iowa/Texas game we have another epic dogfight with a contentious 1^st half highlighted by a flagrant foul by Texas leading to a 7-point possession with the free throws and ensuing possession to give Northern Iowa an 8 point lead at half.

Northern Iowa was executing all the small details making Coach J-Dawg pump his fist with many compliments to UNI Head Coach, Ben Jacobson. Texas comes back with their size and tenacity to hit timely threes to make this game exchange leads more than a rat in the witness protection program.

Texas hits a runner with 2.5 seconds left to tie the game. We think, aw man there’s gonna be overtime. The play-by-play announcer, Carter Blackburn mentions quickly that Jacobson doesn’t take time outs in these situations; Northern Iowa has 1 left. The whistle is not blown and the ball inbounded to UNI senior Paul Jesperson.

He catches the ball just before half court, takes a dribble to the left to what looks like a mini euro step, the heeve…….

Bank!

Swish!!!

Northern Iowa wins!!!!!! The Asylum erupts! J-Dawg is face first on the ground in disbelief!

J-Dawg: Post-Jesperson Shot.

D$ and I are jumping up yelling, screaming and hugging yet still speechless watching the replay of this epic buzzer beater.

But quick!!! Turn to the St. Joe’s/Cincy game. St Joes comes outta a time out down 1 with 16 seconds left. They have an opportunity to take the last shot but chuck a three pointer with close to 10 seconds. I yell, “What the hell are they doing?????”

Swish!

J-Dawg turns to me, “That’s what!” St Joes up 2. Cincy comes back and dribbles down the court, the guard passes right to Octavius Ellis for the dunk at the buzzer to tie!!!

Or is it?

Replay shows that the ball was still in Ellis’ hand as the clock hits zero.

St. Joe’s wins!

The drama ensuing from the replay and the refs taking an extra 2-3 minutes to mull over who tells Cincy coach, Mick Cronin the bad news just adds to the drama that if St. Joes gets this win then all three of us in The Asylum cash in on 3 pretty big parlays. We needed the tight Xavier cover, the tight Notre Dame win, the Jesperson buzzer beater and now this St. Joe’s win at the buzzer to cash in some nice winnings.

There is pandemonium among all three of us! Yes, it’s a rare gambling win, but it only compounds everything we just witnessed today from the Izzo upset to Jesperson’s buzzer beater.

Madness Mania and Madness winnings! Thanks to Jespersen's buzzer beater!

I sit back on the couch searching for the words and just sigh in utter Madness disbelief! Only thing in my head is this is the greatest day in Madness history!!

Naw, it’s the greatest day of my life! Period…all due respect to previous milestone moments and all important people in my life thus far. All due respect to the future Mrs. Commish and the birth of our future children. I can see the congratulation to us, as friends and family say, “congrats on the birth of you’re 1^st child Mrs. Commish and Dave!”

Yeah thanks, it’s still doesn’t top March 18, 2016!

Nawwwww, of course not! I kid, I kid.

However, I love how the Madness can bring out these moments that can rival (NOTE: future Mrs. Commish and future Commish Baby, rival, but will never top) such moments of such elation! We get three weekends every year just for the chance to witness a moment like Jesperson’s!

For those sports nuts into sports hypotheticals, we got a taste of what it would have felt like if Gordan Hayward’s half court bank shot went in at the buzzer of the 2010 National Championship game. We got a day that began with the biggest upset in Madness history that was one of 6 double-digit seeds to go down to 2 buzzer beater moments in the span of 5 minutes! Lost in all this was J-Dawg reminding us that Iowa had their own buzzer beater? To be spoiled like we were today in actually forgetting a third earlier buzzer beater?  

To have the highs of the morning games to the lows of the Pitt/Wisky and SFA/Huggy Bear games to those 2 buzzer beater moments to end the day?

Bar none the GREATEST DAY IN MARCH MADNESS HISTORY!

Alas, as only the great Bill Belichick could muster up, “Onto the 2^nd round!