MADNESS IS COMING!
Here’s a shot gun breakdown of the major
players in the major conferences this year. Enjoy this read the final
conference tourney games are played today leading to the Selection show this
afternoon!
WEST COAST CONFERENCE
The WCC is a mid-major by definition but
has more tourney depth than the SEC!
GONZAGA BULLDOGS
All the ingredients to make it to Mark
Few’s first Final Four led by All Adolph First Teamer PG Nigel Williams-BOSS!
He’s super strong driving to the hoop and quarterbacks the top team in the
nation. Big man Przemak Karnowski is close to 300-lb brute with soft hands and
great passing. Super Transfers, Johnathan Williams and Jordan Mathews offer
athletic wing play and streaky 3-pt shooting respectively. Freshman big Zach
Collins offers a complimentary mobile big man to Karnowski’s size in the post.
ST. MARY’S GAELS
A Top 25 team all season. Who says the WCC
is weak??... with a number 1 seed in Zags and a top 25 team in the Gaels led by
consistent big man Jock Landale, makes the WCC a deep conference. Tread
carefully if you have any WCC smack and you’re in a 100-foot perimeter of
Insanity Report WCC Correspondent, Marc “The Bestus” Paulsen. Watch your back
Lee-Wai and T-Smack…keep the cotton candy at the carnival eh!
BIG EAST
VILLANOVA WILDCATS
Free entry to the Pete Vieweg Money Pool to
first Insanity Pool Inmate to name the three teams named Wildcats. Nova has
All-Adolph First Teamer Josh Hart, who was clutch all season including his last
second tip in in the Big East tourney. I’m really surprised that a defending
champion returning as much talent as they did from last year’s Championship
team is not as heralded as a title threat as much as Nova should be. DO. NOT.
SLEEP. ON. NOVA. PERIOD!!!!
PAC-12
This is a top heavy conference with the
below 3 team and nobody else!
ARIZONA WILDCATS
Zona has been ravaged by injuries and
suspensions to take a share of the regular season Pac-12 title as well as the
Pac-12 conference tourney title. The return of super sophomore Alonzo Trier has
sparked the Wildcats who have been led by super duper froshie, 6-11 forward
Lauri Markkanen. He can take over games with his length and treys. Remember
that name. Markkanen has more than just
a loud barkkanen!
OREGON DUCKS
The Ducks took on a slow start due to the
early season foot injury to leader Dillon Brooks only to be devastated with Sr.
forwards Chris Boucher’s torn ACL right before the Pac-12 final vs. Arizona
tonight. Ouchy! The Ducks have the main ingredients returning from last year’s
Elite 8 run. Brooks can lead the way, but the transition from the loss of
Boucher must be quick or else Oregon will have an early exit. Side note,
Oregon’s seeding could be affected with this recent injury.
UCLA BRUINS
Despite the millennial self-promotion of
his father and younger brother, freshman Lonzo Ball is super legit as an
amazing passer, yet has a very inconsistent jumper. Bruins also have the most
athletic front court in the nation with fellow one-and-doner TJ Leaf and Jr.
Thomas Welsh. UCLA is super interesting with their borderline generational
offense and lowly ranked defense.
BIG 12
KU getting their 13th straight
regular season Big 12 title is an amazing modern era accomplishment as this
year’s Big 12 is the top rated conference in many metric systems yet again.
KANSAS JAYHAWKS
Two all world players with Freshman Josh
Jackson and Outhet Player of Year, Sr. PG Frank Mason. There is an incredible
lack of depth for KU highlighted by KU’s Big 12 tourney first round exit with
Josh Jackson out with a suspension. Expect Head Coach Bill Self to unleash his
wizardry that have kept KU as a top 3 team in the nation, despite the lack of
depth and a slew of off court troubles for KU all season.
IOWA STATE CYCLONES
The All-Sleeper pick of the Madness! They
aren’t sneaking on anybody however, as they won the Big 12 tourney tonight.
There is lots of talent for the Cyclones and do not, I repeat do not sleep on
Sr. Wing Deonte Burton who is a mobile 6-4, 250 lb athletic big man. He will be
a match up problem for every team in the Madness. One that can be a deep run.
WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS
Press Virginia! They’ll always be dangerous
with their amazing full court press. They have also improved their front court
play. However, they have had an inexplicable loss every 5-6 games all season,
which leads the Insanity Report Staff to think another inexplicable loss is in
the Mountaineers’ Madness run this year.
BAYLOR BEARS
They have flat out peaked from their
undefeated non-conference record in December and early January run as the top
team in the nation. They have had bad losses highlighted by their first round
loss in the Big 12 tourney to average K-State.
OKLAHOMA STATE COWBOYS
First year coach, Brad Underwood has
brought in his magic from his time at Stephen F. Austin. Oklahoma State has a
batty offensive attack lead by backcourt by Super Sophomore Juwan Evans and Sr.
Phil Forte.
TCU HORNED FROGS
Another amazing first year coaching job by
Jamie Dixon who came from a 13-year run at Pittsburgh to return to his alma
mater. Freshman PG Jaylen Fisher has been solid and consistent all season.
BIG TEN
This conference has zero elite team but
huge depth with 7 teams likely to get tourney bids.
WISCONSIN BADGERS
Lead by Sr.’s F Nigel Hayes and SG Bronson
Koenig. Wisky has their patented 4 or 5 out offense that has been very
perplexing at various times during the season when they had minimal cutting
away from the ball making them very easy to defend. This has highlighted some
erraticness from Wisky, but their M.O is they usually find a way to win, so you
can never sleep on the Badgers
PURDUE BOILERMAKERS
Sophomore big man, Caleb Swanigan has had
as many 20 pt/10 rebound games as Grayson Allen has tripped a guy! Heyyyy
yooooo!!!! Swanigan was a sleeper pick as Outhet Player of the Year with his
many 20 and 10 games. Fellow 7-footer Isaac Haas gives a nasty front court that
is limited with a questionable back court.
MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS
January February IZZO!!!! March is Coach
Izzo’s month, but his hands are full with a freshmen laden team that had both veteran
forwards lost for the season even before it even started. The typical Izzo
physical rebounding has been lacking with the injuries to the bigs, but the
freshmen line up continues to develop led by super athletic wing Mile Bridges
and upstart big man Nick Ward.
NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS
A Cinderella team for sure as they have
earned their very first NCAA Tourney berth in school history! They were the
only team in a Power 5 conference never to play in the NCAA tourney. They have
had some key wins in the past 2 weeks late in the Big Ten regular season only
to get shellacked by 28 points by Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tourney semi-final
today. Ouchy! They have a week to get their legs back!
MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS
Minny lost 4 regular minute guys from a
8-23 team last year with minimal upgrades in the off season…..by all accounts
except that of Minnesota. A solid and quick backcourt with solid freshmen bigs
have led Minnesota to earn an at-large berth from their regular season record alone,
but was solidified with a semi final berth in the Big Ten tourney.
MICHIGAN WOLVERINES
A surprisingly deep back court and front
court led by Head Coach John Beilein who Insanity Report Coaching Correspondent,
J-Dawg has labeled as elite, as Beilein has garnered yet another great
defensive game plan for this deep squad.
MARYLAND TERRAPINS
Jr. PG Melo Trimble has led a ragtag bunch
of Terrapins to a surprising run similar to Minnesota’s run. Maryland lost a solid
forward to injury in Jr. Michal Cekovsky, but if the game is tight then
Maryland will always have a shot as Melo will have the ball late in the game
with a chance to hit that late shot.
SEC
Only one team. Period.
KENTUCKY WILDCATS
Another packed freshmen class chalk full of
McDonald All-Americans led by SG Malik Monk who is the poster child of
Kentucky’s inconsistency as he can drop over 40 points one game followed by a 7
point game the next. PG DeAaron Fox is hobbled by a recent ankle sprain that has
slowed him down but he should be close to 100%. Big man froshie Bam Adebayo has
not been a bust by any means, but as a highly heralded recruit, he has been a
B+ talent which doesn’t help as his inconsistency adds to the many questions
for Kentucky.
FLORIDA GATORS
Nawww, we can add Florida to this shot gun
Insanity Report. The Gators are very solid defensively, but they’re led by 2nd
year coach, Mike White. He came from Louisiana Tech where he averaged 30 wins
in his last 3 seasons with La Tech to earn the job offer from Florida. However,
in those 3 seasons they were always upset in the Conf–USA tourney losing a
berth to the NCAA tourney. Add in the Gators NIT berth last year, and Mike
White has yet to coach an NCAA tourney game. Just saying.
ACC
This may be one of the greatest conferences
in the history of the NCAA as they should have 10 berths out of the 15-team
conference. What makes them great is that even the bottom 3 teams had big wins
vs. top ACC teams this year. There was never an easy game all season in the ACC
NORTH
CAROLINA TAR HEELS
They have all the ingredients needed for a
title run. They have a great PG in Jr. Joel Berry, 2 great x-factor players in
Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson with the deepest front court in the nation. Not
many teams beat the Tar Heels as much as they can beat themselves with
defensive lapses and cold shooting streaks which was evident in their ACC
tourney loss to Duke.
DUKE BLUE DEVILS
A mixture of great returning players led by
All-American Grayson Allen, amazing leader Amile Jefferson, great scorer Luke
Kennard and solid defender Matty Jones. Then add in the #1 rated freshmen class
chalk full of NBA Top 5 draft picks in Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Frank Jackson
and Marques Bolden and this is bar none the best talent in the nation. However,
Duke was a #5 seed in the ACC tourney. Despite a great record Duke struggled to
find their identity all season due to injuries, tripping incidents and Coach
K’s back. If they find their identity then they can walk through the Madness
for a title run. They just won the ACC tourney tonight. Identity found?
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH
Coach Mike Brey keeps getting into the
second weekend of the Madness with reloaded vets. Watch out for forward, Bonzie
Colson. Keep track of that name,
LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
Coming back to the tourney after a one-year
self-penalized tourney ban. They have yet another nameless bunch of players who
play typical great Rick Pitino defense.
FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
Deep talent led by McD All-American
sophomore Dwayne Bacon and PG Xavier Rathan-Mayes. The Noles have great wins,
but just a feel that doesn’t garner a deep tourney run.
MIAMI HURRICANES
Jim Larranaga can flat out coach. Not much
speed in the back court or size in the front court, yet another solid ACC year
for the Canes
VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
I’m gonna call bust year for Virginia. Tony
Bennett runs a great culture and very disciplined defensive team. Yet they
can’t score this year and they may finally be getting exposed as an over rated
team who has great defensive metrics yet bad losses late in the year.
SYRACUSE ORANGEMEN
An underwhelming 18-14 record which was
riddled with solid wins vs many top 25 teams in those 18 wins. These wins
should get an at-large berth for Cuse, but those 14 losses include some bad
losses to bum teams. A second straight Final 4 run is very very unlikely for
Jim Boeheim, but we just need Cuse to get an at-large berth or else Insanity
Report Baseball Correspondent, Terry McKaig will be taking a knee and
boycotting the Inanity Pool. Come on Selection Committee, make the right move.
The Insanity Pool needs McKaig!
