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| RJ and Duke put a stomping on the Bison in the 2nd half! (Photo Credit: Youtube still photo) |
Day 2 started with Cincinnati dominating
the offensive boards and getting all the 50-50 balls until 7 minutes left in
the 2nd half to cough up a 79-72 loss to Iowa. Yet another wrong
pick in the Commish’s last place bracket, but the reason to pick against Iowa
was an emotional one. It’s been way too many years seeing Iowa Head Coach, Fran
McCaffery’s embarrassing public outbursts on the sidelines and at the refs. Way
to get a Madness win Coach McScumbag.
Ole Miss with the 2019 Kent State
performance of the Madness with their 95-72 shellacking at the hands of Lon
Kruger and the Oklahoma Sooners. Nuff Said.
Northern Kentucky hinted at some Madness
anarchy having the game within 3 early in the 2nd half to fall to
Texas Tech’s suffocating defense 72-57.
UC-Irvine started the upset train with a
70-64 win over 4th seeded K-State. Down by 5 with under 2 minutes
left, K-State’s Xavier Snead made an amazing one handed rebound and pitch out
for a trey that may have been a turning point, but Irvine hit some late free
throws to come out with the W. UC-Irvine was almost a unanimous pick as a sexy
upset team by many prognosticators and it panned out for the Anteaters.
Then there was another attempt at madness
as 15th seeded Colgate gave a late game effort to then fall to
All-Adolph 1st Teamer Admiral Schofield’s 2 uber clutch treys to
close out a 77-70 win for 2nd seeded Tennessee. Insanity Report
Board Member, T-Smack stood at attention after the 2nd trey saluting
and yelling, “Yes sir, Admiral, sir,” she said. Schofield nodded to T, and
instructed, “at ease Insanity lieutenant, at ease.”
Then there was Virginia. Yes that the #1
seeded Virginia who lost to #16 UMBC last year playing another #16 seed in
Gardner-Webb. Everybody’s collective phone and social notifications were going
haywire as Gardner-Webb got to a 14 point lead and ended the 1st
half up by 6. The Madness Universe was collectively saying,
“No…..wait…what…again…c’mon”. There was utter shock.
Not for Virginia. They remained calm and
came out of the locker to start the second half on a 25-5 run to shut down all
the naysayers as well as exorcise the 1st round demons. DeAndre
Hunter led the way with 23 points, as this All-Adolph 1st Teamer was
injured last year during the UMBC game.
Hunter may or may not have made a
difference last year vs. UMBC, but he made a difference today. Virginia took
advantage of Gardner-Webb wilting under the pressure with predictable and
easily defendable offensive possessions. The calmness helped many dagger three
pointers fall to further bury Gardner-Webb.
Many in the Insanity Report Board Room
thought that the very memory of the UMBC loss would catapult Virginia to a
dominating 30-40 point win today. The yearlong reminder of UMBC kept Virginia
on point all season. They used the chants as fuel and welcomed the mention of
their place in NCAA history as the first 1-seed to lose to a 16-seed. You best
believe that this 1st half scare will serve as ultra fuel for the
Cavaliers for the rest of the tourney.
What seemed to be the upset anarchy that
early games were looking to give us, gave us some uneventful beat downs in the
early afternoon games with #6 Buffalo and Nate Oats sending their old Head
Coach, Bobby Hurley and his Arizona State Sun Devils back to their Tragic12
wasteland with a 91-74 drubbing of the Sun Devils.
Speaking of Tragic12, this year’s bracket
has a handful of teams that seem undeserving, such as Oregon (even though they
earned an automatic berth by winning the Tragic12 tourney) and Washington. As
in other years, when there are teams that seem undeserving, there will be one
of these teams that will make a deep run.
Oregon seems like that deep runner with
their trapping pressure and the streaky drive to the basket slitherness of
Payton Pritchard. The 72-54 win over Wisconsin was tighter then the final
score, but the 2nd half folding of the Badger tent showed that Ethan
Happ and company just could not get over that Top 15 hump all year.
UDub was actually the only Tragic12 team
that deserved to be in the Madness and they showed it with a convincing 78-61
win over Utah State. The game started with some solid defense from both sides
but right before halftime into the 2nd half, UDub kept a cushion
allowing us to channel surf to the Duke game.
Duke was in tight for a chunk of the first
half, but nary a person was that concerned, as it wasn’t a matter of ‘would’
Duke make their run, but ‘when’? And they did to open the second half. It was
the Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett show. The underrated Zion defense produced
may transition possessions leading to the highlight dunks most of us have seen
2-3 times over on the Sportscentre loops and trips to the FT line.
Duke actually shot the three ball quite
well tonight, but again Duke can be exposed if their opponent can take care of
the ball vs. the Duke pressure to limit transition possessions while converting
the higher then average Duke turnovers. Duke shows these holes, but holy moly
Zion has the ability to cover these holes up for 5 more wins to an NCAA title
or he can tire and Duke can be defeated. We shall see.
But after much consultation among the
Insanity Report shareholders, board and an impromptu poll, due to the objection
of original Insanity Pool Commish, Kevin Outher, the 2019 Outhet Player of Year
will remain Zion Williamson; But, it is Zion Williamson from Spartanburg Day
High School!!!
How’s that Kev?
The Insanity Pool Universe values your contributions,
as you are a pioneer and visionary. The Outhet Player of the Year Award shall
not be besmirched.
Houston’s 84-55 feast of Georgia State was
missed….again due to the Zion show.
Liberty boosted some Madness into the
evening games with another 12-seed upset by topping Mississippi State 80-76.
Liberty was down by over 10 points with about 7 minutes to play when they
started their run. Usually it’d be reported how Mississippi crumbled or dare I
say choked; But Liberty dictated every defensive possession manufacturing
steals and they converted almost every possession in their dominating comeback
late in the 2nd half.
The trend of 1-seed having slow starts continued
with North Carolina having to come from behind down 5 at half to beat Iona
88-73. Roy did what Roy does with letting his players play out these runs. It’s
a great player friendly coaching method. And when it works it works, case in
point, two straight national championship games with one of the being a
National Championship 2 years ago for Roy and UNC. But, I’ll be that guy and
say that during droughts or after losses, it still seems that Roy could call a
timeout to organize a play. But again, who are we to disrupt this recipe of
success?
The Tacko Fall puns dominated as much as
Tacko’s UCF dominated VCU 73-58. The Rams of VCU did not go chasing Tacko Falls
because it was Tacko Time all day with his 13 point, 18 rebound performance.
Right about now, Insanity Report Board Member, Marc Paulsen is leaning back in
his board chair ringing in another Paulsen Pun hashtag. Well played sir.
The Mediocre Bowl was won by Ohio State
62-59 over Iowa State.
Va Tech trounced a flat Saint Louis and may
be on a collision course towards a meeting with El Duke.
That’s it. Their wasn’t much Madness, but
the Insanity Universe is balanced with the yearly basement dwelling of Da
Commish.
After the first round, Russell “The
Resident A-hole” Bock remains in first place in the whole Insanity Pool and in
the Pete Vieweg Money Division. But he has also lost a Final 4 pick as he lost
Wisconsin. Wisky? Yah nice pick….idiot!!! (Love ya man)
2nd round tomorrow!
Yours in Madness,
Commissioner Adolph
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