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| 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 3rd 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.
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| 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 2nd
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 1st
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!
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| 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.
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| Madness Mania and Madness winnings! Thanks to Jespersen's buzzer beater! |
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 1st 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 2nd round!
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