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