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| Most talented player in the nation, Lauri Markkanen (credit fansided.com) |
Holy Bejeebus! I can’t freaking sleep here
folks! It’s just too damned exciting. The time before tip of March Madness is
as slow as Dave Adolph running down court on a “fast break”!
So here’s a quick breakdown of your
friendly neighborhood March Madness Regions.
Obvi lets start with everybody’s favorite
team, the Gonzaga Bulldogs and their West Region!!!
WEST REGION
1. GONZAGA BULLDOGS
The connection on the floor between 1st
Team All-Adolph G Nigel Williams-BOSS and Przemak Karnowski is very Stockton-Malone
line! Strengths of Gonzaga are their depth and versatility as they can play a
high tempo or slow-it-down slow tempo game. In either pace, they are very
patient and make great reads and show how well they are coached by Mark Few.
Great x-factor players in freshman F Killian Tillie who is very efficiently
productive in garbage time minutes and fellow freshmen F/C Zach Collins who is
tall, skinny but very strong in holding position in the blocks while quick in
the open court with a solid 15 footer jumper reminiscent of a young Letah
Addison!
A little rant on behalf of Insanity Report
Gonzaga and West Coast Conference Correspondent, Marc Paulsen here, is that
although Gonzaga is the Insanity Pool odds on favorite to win the whole
tourney, they consistently get no love from media and pollsters as one loss
during the season drops them further down polls then a loss does for a
traditional Power 5 Conference team. Only way to shut those Smallist’s up is as
Jake Taylor in Major League says, “Win the whole f***ing thing!” OK deal!
16. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE JACKRABBITS
Gonna go on a limb here and say that this
will not be a year that a 16-seed finally beats a 1-seed. But watch out for
Jackrabbit F Mike Daum and his 25.3 points per game, which is good enough for 2nd
in the nation. Gonzaga’s depth at forward with Karnowski,, Collins and Tillie
will shut down Daum. But interested to see this kat play.
8. NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS
The Cindarella darling of the young
Madness. They are making their first NCAA tournament in the team’s history. Before
this year, the Wildcats were the only Power 5 conference team to have never
played in the Madness! They had some great late season wins to solidify their at-large
berth highlighted by their late season win at the tough barn that is the Kohl
Center housing the Wisconsin Badgers. However, Wisky walloped Northwestern by
28 points in the Big Ten Tourney semi-final a week later, so the question is
have Northwestern turned into pumpkins already?
9. VANDERBILT COMMODORES
First year coach, Bryce Drew leads Vandy as
he came from coaching Valpo, his alma mater upon which he has a classic buzzer
beater in Madness lore back in 1998. Vandy will be playing far from home in the
Salt Lake City site. They have snuck up on everybody as they play in the weak
SEC but have some big wins vs. some Top 25 teams this year, including a great
out of conference win vs. Iowa State. Vandy have good bigs in 7-footer Luke
Kornet and Jeff Roberson with good guard play with high shooting percentages.
Junior PG Riley Lachance has rebounded from
a tough sophomore season last year as he had a great freshman season rockin
treys like a young and current Jordan Yu. It’s safe to say that Lachance was a bust
last year, but has rebounded greatly under Coach Drew’s first year at Vandy to
be back shooting 49% from 3 as well as almost doubling his assist total from
last year as well. Not a bad first year under Coach Drew. This is a great great
8 vs. 9 match up with Northwestern, as the Wildcats have a great point guard in
Jr. Bryant McIntosh as well.
5. NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH
Freaking Head Coach, Mike Brey gets little
recognition from building the Irish with solid 4-year players and constantly
reloading talent after losing key players to graduation every year. This year
was no different after losing studs like Demetrious Jackson and Zach Auguste.
Last year the Irish were more guard oriented, as Jackson was the main weapon at
PG, but this year the Irish are more forward oriented led by Jr. F Bonzie
Colson and his 17 ppg and 10 rebounds per game. Sr. F VJ Beachum contributes 15
pgg as guard Steve Vasturia and Matt Ferrell split the passing duties with
their 3.5 and 5.5 assists per game respectively. The Irish find a way with
their efficiency that may not be glamorous to the lay fan but is so fun to
watch their patient and opportunistic execution.
12. PRINCETON TIGERS
Not much is known about the Tigers, however
they won the regular season title in the Ivy League this year as well as the
first ever Ivy League post-season tourney. One thing that sticks out as kenpom.com’s
All-Ivy League team has 4 Princeton players on it. Huh! Princeton plays a
typical smart-high IQ, hard-nosed game as most Ivy League champs. Also, Ivy
League have many first round wins over the past few seasons, so a yearly
12-seed upset is not outta the question, but they are in real tough vs. the
Irish.
4. WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS
Press Virginia! Coach Bob “Huggy Bear”
Huggins leads the Mountaineers into the tourney with many great wins but some
tough losses vs. lower teams and a tough loss at KU this year where they
coughed up a 12 point lead with 2 minutes left. They live by the sword of their
suffocating full court press but will also die by it if their opponent can
break it. Forwards Esa Ahmad, Nathan Adrian and Elijah Macon struggled a lot
early in the season filling in some big shoes of departed pro and graduating
players, but they have improved at a steep rate and continue to do so with
athletic hoops and clutch boards vs. bigger opposing forwards. Jr. PG Jevon
Carter quarterbacks the full court press and looks like he’s 45 years old.
13. BUCKNELL BISON
Know nothing of these guys although saw the
last 10 minutes of their Patriot League title game last week. Seemed to me they
play mainly a half court set, so I’m anticipating Press Virginia to feast on
some Bison turnovers.
6. MARYLAND TERRAPINS
Don’t sleep on this team. Shrouded by many
criticisms of Head Coach Mark Turgeon, the Terrapins return one main player in
Jr. PG Melo Trimble from last years disappointing season that was loaded with
talent. Add in a solid mixture of gelling freshmen and these Terps are a great
sleeper pick.
Melo has been relatively disappointing as
he was slated as a sure fired one-and-doner as a freshman and is still playing
at Maryland as a junir. But Maryland has a nutty record with something like a
20-8 record in games decided by 6 points or less. These tight games have Melo
with the ball late in every of those games, so he has proven his clutchness.
Expect Melo to grind out some late game clutchness this tourney, but they are
hobbled with the late season injury to solid freshman forward Michal Cekovsky.
11. XAVIER MUSKATEERS
Xavier was pre-season top 10 team that
snuck into the Madness as one of the last teams to get in with some late season
wins despite losing star guard Edmond Sumner to a torn ACL in late January.
Fellow star, Trevon Bluitt has stepped his game up since the injury. He was
already a solid contributor as a thick wing player with some grit. Xavier’s
late season push to go with Maryland’s slight late season slump makes for a
great 6 vs. 11 match up. I’m leaning Maryland due to Melo’s clutchness, but
lets not forget Commissioner Adolph’s yearly bottom dwelling performance in the
Insanity Pool. L
3. FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
Super solid lineup with great returning
talent with a super froshie in 6-10 forward Jonathan Isaac. They’ve proven
their metal with a split vs. Duke and Notre Dame and a win in their only game
vs. Louisville. But they did have a bad loss at lowly Georgia Tech where they
absolutely did not show up. They completely shut down in the 2nd
half. So this is definitely a tale of two teams that can show up for the
Madness.
14. FLORIDA GULF COAST EAGLES
This team is the sexy pick to upset due to
their Sweet 16 run a couple years back as a 15 seed. But there are no remaining
players from that Sweet 16 team, so this is a completely different team and
Head Coach Andy Enfield moved onto USC after that Sweet 16 season as well. I
know nothing of these guys, but they have not played the many games vs. Top 25
teams as Florida State has, but cool interstate game here vs. FSU.
7. ST. MARY’S GAELS
We have watch many of the Gaels’ games this
year as they were in the Top 25 all year along with Gonzaga being in the top 3
in the nation all year. This is a great rebound from last year, as St. Mary’s
were the best team that didn’t get an at-large berth in last year’s madness.
They return every player from last year’s team and come into the Madness with
this solid lineup led by F Jock Landale. He can bang in the paint and has Kevin
McHale like moves in the post.
10. VCU RAMS
You don’t want to go to waaaaaarrrrr with
the Raaaaaams! Don’t start no stuff, they’ll be no stuff!! The best Pep Band in
the nation and great live Madness memories with the Insanity Report Staff in
Portland! Like Shaka Smart of yester year, VCU Head Coach, Will Wade is in many
rumors to take many head coach openings
in Power 5 conferences. Since he’s replaced Shaka, he’s had great recruiting
classes with higher rated players than Shaka ever got. They have great seniors
led by PG JeQuan Lewis.
2. ARIZONA WILDCATS
Head Coach, Sean Miller is regarded as the
best coach not to have made the Final 4…..along with Mark Few. This possible
Elite 8 match up with Gonzaga is one we all hope to see. Miller’s done a great
job this year with pre-season injuries losing players for the year and the
suspension of super sophomore Alonzo Trier due to PED’s. Holy moly, the Arizona
games that Bill Walton was the color commentating were absolutely hilarious. He
was relentless as every time Trier got the ball, Walton would say, “hey take 3
of these”. Oh Bill! But I repeat from the previous Insanity Report that
freshman 7-footer Lauri Markkanen is the most talented player in the nation.
Bar none! He may not be the most valuable or productive player like a Frank
Mason, Josh Hart or Caleb Swanigan, but he’s the most talented!
15. NORTH DAKOTA
No clue and don’t care. Arizona will roll
these tomato cans!
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