DAY 3: LESSONS IN MADNESS

Press Virginia did it again vs. Notre Dame today! (photo credit: Getty via sports.yahoo.com)

LESSONS IN MADNESS

Oh boy!

This is indeed March Madness! Villanova, the defending NCAA champion and East Region #1 seed lost to Wisconsin in an exciting 2^nd Rd masquerading as an Elite 8 game. Many comments have been made that a veteran laden lineup with previous experience such as Wisky should not have been an 8-seed, but alas they beat Villanova in a well played game where both teams grinded.  Yet again, the defending champ and a #1 seed falls in the 2^nd Round. Ahhhh, out first taste of true Madness this year!

Huge huge ups to Slider, Diana Lee, Julie Smulders and Brady Janzen for being the only 4 out of the 78 Insanity Pool contestants to pick Wisconsin over Villanova! Their interest in Wisky, especially that of Slider brought back some more “Wisky” memories with J-Paq and the Commish set to the AC/DC song, “She’s got the Jack!”  Yeeee-yoooooooo!!!!

Those memories too were great Madness!

Wisconsin is in real tough vs. Florida who had little trouble vs. Virginia today to make it to the Sweet 16 in Head Coach, Mike White’s first March Madness. Virginia is a solid program with a solid team led by Sr. PG London Perrantes, but they were missing one key piece that one couldn’t put their finger on. Losing players like Justin Anderson and Malcolm Brogdon over the past 2 years to the draft seemed to be too big of holes for Perrantes and the Cavs of Virginia to fill. Nonetheless, you had a great career London.

The day started with another solid match up where #5 Notre Dame got their behinds press virginia’d by Huggy Bear’s #4 ranked West Virginia. The oft patient Fighting Irish were forced into corners of double teams and many turnovers. The solid match up was an easy victory for the Huggy Bear where they will take their high-pressure defense to the Sweet 16 vs. #1 seed Gonzaga.

<sigh> Gonzaga……

Gonzaga is still a team to be reckoned with despite their first 2 games showing some cracks in their armor, as they have not played a full 40 minutes of their usual offensive schemes settling for rushed shots at many times vs. SDSU and Northwestern. Today’s game vs. Northwestern was a game where they had the lead for the entire game. They were up 20 points in the first half, where the second half took a bad turn in exposing the Zag’s nerves. Losing the big lead that Gonzaga had only exposed another side of Madness that Commissioner Adolph wasn’t too proud of. This led to some takes on Gonzaga predicated on some ugly wagering Madness that garnered some lessons in discipline and wagering management that was helped by Insanity Report Chief of Staff, D$ talking the Commish off the ledge.

Gonzaga weathered the storm by playing some rotations rarely played as Coach Mark Few stuck with the hot hands. As cliché as it sounds, for the remainder of the Madness, Gonzaga’s best players will have to play like their best players…..for the full 40 minutes. As Insanity Report Gonzaga and WCC Correspondent, Marc Paulsen mentioned, Gonzaga’s game vs. Press Virginia is a new game. It’s starts at 0-0 with just as much of a chance to make it to Few’s first Final 4 as they had before today’s game.

Zag’s Unite!

Lessons in Madness.

Middle Tennessee learned another lesson in Madness that there is a fine line between being a Madness darling after a big upset making it all the way to a Final 4 team in the same fashion as the 2006 George Mason Final 4 team or the 2012 Lehigh team that upset Duke only to lose by 12 points in their next game.

Middle Tennessee learned Lehigh’s unfortunate lesson of Madness following a big upset for the second straight year. Butler was too tough. They don’t look great, but those Bulldogs find a way and they found a way today vs. a Middle Tennessee team that graduated some generational players who gave their school and fans 2 great Madness victories vs. Michigan State and Minnesota.

Iowa State gave it the ol’ college try with their 20-point comeback vs. Purdue today, but fell short to Purdue’s superstar forward Caleb Swanigan hustle and rebounding. Iowa State big man, Deonte Burton’s 2^nd half showed why he should be a lottery pick this summer. If not, he’ll still have a long career in that other league.

St. Mary’s also gave Arizona a scare. They fell short while executing their slower, yet efficient tempo for 30 minutes until Arizona’s length and athleticism gave some clutch hoops in the final minutes.

Another lesson in Madness: Brackets getting busted!

Defensing Insanity Pool champion Derran Watts is back in the lead and this year submitting his entry into the 2^nd Annual Pete Vieweg Money Division.

Standings for the Money Division will be released after tomorrow’s games.

The Sweet 16 will be complete tomorrow!

Yours in MADNESS,

Commissioner Adolph

DAY TWO OF THE MADNESS

Moment of the day was Tyler Self's three pointer vs UC Davis (photo credit: kansascity.com)

Well well well! What the what the!?!?!???? 2 days of Madness and two days of the lower seeds winning again. The only 2 upsets were #11 USC beating #6 SMU and #11 Rhode Island beating #6 Creighton. The Rhode Island wasn’t that much of an upset with the Rams coming in hot with Creighton finally pulling the plug just over a month since they lost their star PG.

Some thoughts on the games today:

Michigan vs. Oklahoma State was a great back and forth game. Both sides answered each other’s hoops. Michigan’s PG Derrick Watson was lights out late in the game. There were thoughts that Michigan would be worn out from their plane troubles during the Big Ten Tourney, but they are fo’ real! Especially with the amount of treys they hit today. Michigan is in tough vs. Louisville who looked not as sharp today vs. Jacksonville State, but settled down in the 2^nd half.

Baylor took care of business vs. New Mexico State, as they should have. But they have fizzled vs. Top 25 teams since mid-January so we’ll see how they fare vs. the ultra scrappy USC Trojans with their upset of SMU. SMU was no joke either. F Semi Ojeleye had a great game, but in true USC fashion they won all the 50-50 balls and outhustled their way into the 2^nd round for yet another play-in game team making it into the 2^nd Round. They’re becoming as reliable as a 12 seed win every year.

Arkansas outlasted Seton Hall in a tight game up until the last 2 minutes when Seton Hall played lazy defense and rushed their shots on the other end. The clutch-o-meter was at a low 2.5 for Seton Hall. Arkansas is in real tough vs. #1 seed UNC who looked in true Madness form vs. Texas Southern. UNC should have, as they are the top team of the top ACC conference who were playing the best team of the worst conference in the nation.

Oregon showed that they are back on track from losing star forward Chris “Don’t Call Me Foucher” Boucher. Dylan Brooks was Dylan Brooks as well. Their next game vs. Rhode Island will be a great game as all key players of both teams match up well.

KU was back on track since their 1^st Round exit in the Big 12 Tourney last week. Josh Jackson was his usual athletic self and Frank Mason was his usual Outhet Player of the Year self. Speaking of Self, coach’s son Tyler Self was in the game playing extensive garbage time and hit a rare three that got the bench jumping. The typical Bill Self smirk was a great moment for KU and the Self fam jam.

KU will play a Michigan State team that had their coming out party as they handed the Miami Hurricanes a beating similar to the Canes 2^nd half meltdown at Duke earlier this season. The freshmen-heavy Spartans were clicking with the typical Izzo-type hustle and rebounding that took until todays game to develop.

Just 3 words are needed to be said: January, February, IZZO!!!!

Speaking of Duke! Watch out! They have found their groove. They finally have a steady starting rotation with the most dangerous bench in the nation. Any team that can have Grayson Allen and a top 5 NBA draft pick in Harry Giles coming off the bench is a team that is freaking dangerous. Duke was hot from three today, which always helps as the hustle of post Amile Jefferson who has a limited inside game if the treys aren’t falling.

Duke will be playing a hot South Carolina who I didn’t see play. In flipping through the other 3 games on at the time, every time I tried to look in on the South Carolina vs. Marquette game there was a commercial playing. By the time the game made it through the commercial vortex South Carolina was up by 20. It done matter though, as the Gamecocks will need every cheer from their home crowd of the “neutral” court in Greenville, South Carolina to beat Duke this Sunday. Won’t happen, Duke continues to improve and that’s scary.

Similar commercial vortex issues happened with the Cincinnati/K-State game. There were doubts about Cincy before the Madness, but Mick Cronin is a helluva coach and their disciplined defense will try to slow down the offensive gauntlet that UCLA brought again tonight vs. Kent State. The game was close until UCLA exploded midway through the second half and the final score of 97-80 was not indicative of how tight the game was. UCLA’s defense is still in question. As much as Duke was trying to find their identity all season, the same can be said for the APB UCLA is putting out on their defensive schemes.

Kentucky was also in tight vs. Northern Kentucky tonight. The game was never in doubt but Kentucky showed their inconsistent play with careless turnovers. They have the highest capability out of any team to flip the switch for a quick 12-15 points in 3 minutes just as quickly as the switch can be flipped the other way to forced shots and dopey defense. This bodes well for the organized play of the Wichita State Shockers who dismantled Dayton to a slow demise tonight.

Lotsa chalk in the first round. Second round starts this morning!