Sweet 16...Great Subtle Madness!

Jordan Mathews' Zags defining trey to get them over the hump and infuse last final block of true belief, analogous to Roberto Alomar's 1992 ALCS homerun! (photo credit: spokesman.com)

Whatta great night of basketball tonight to start the Sweet 16!!!

There was indeed Madness led by the upset of Arizona by Xavier in the West Region, but tonight’s Gonzaga v. West Virginia game was an amazing game of subtle basketball!

Forget the played out storylines of Gonzaga and/or Mark Few’s lack of Final 4’s or even their first two averagely played games of this year’s Madness.

Tonight’s game between Mark Few’s Gonzaga Bulldogs and Bob Huggins’ (AKA “The Huggy Bear”) West Virginia Mountaineers was flat out great basketball. Both teams played ultra intelligent and efficient basketball predicated in minimal mistakes and battles won by both sides.

Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-BOSS did a great job grinding vs. Huggy Bear’s Press Virginia. This led to an apparent disappointing stat line, but his assignment was to lead breaking the press with his underrated strength. This job sacrificed his great dribble drives, but any chance of beating West Virginia must start with weathering the hurricane that is Press Virginia.

There was just great basketball played tonight!

And ESPN stat showed that about 80% of all shots by both teams was contested. That is the defense on both sides were so great and there were minimal open looks for either side. Therefore most made shots were well earned.

Gonzaga played amazing help side defense by not committing too much on the ball allowing the defender to be one crucial step closer to West Virginia shooters. Even with this, WV’s PG Jevon Carter hit a nasty contested three pointer off a tight screen late in the game.

Gonzaga learned from that shot and they made the right adjustments defending on ball screens allowing for zero easy jumpers for the rest of the game.

The subtle madness was culminated with a defensive rebound by Gonzaga that Carter craftly stole the ball. West Virginia missed the lay up from this steal as Gonzaga dodged that bullet. On the transition play right after that missed shot, the Zags had a fast break with three Mountaineers trailing. This was an obvious fast break opportunity. The ball was headmanned to Zags Sr. SG Jordan Mathews who hit a game winning trey!

West Viginia had one more look that was defended absolutely perfectly and the Zags won the game.

Mathews shot was a defining make for this Gonzaga team. It seems to have infused the final peg of belief the Zags needed to make to traverse that final hump to get the the Final Four.

There was no Northern Iowa buzzer beater. No killer Grant Hill alley-oop. Just great great subtle Madness of intelligent basketball by West Virginia and Gonzaga.

The Xavier win over Arizona was another great game of subtle Madness, as they played a patient team oriented game led by some great hustle by Jr. G JP Macura.

The late game possessions had Arizona focus on their extremely talented line up with NBA-like isolation 1-on-1’s by super sophomore Alonzo Trier. This was well defended by Xavier who responded with great ball movement manufacturing great team oriented hoops to pull ahead late in the game.

The KU dismantling of Purdue was simply KU’s superstars of Frank Mason and Josh Jackson out-superstaring Purdue’s superstar, Caleb Swanigan. KU is peaking and has to be the favorite to win it all. Getting contributions from their role guys like Lagerald Vick is huge!

Paulsen and I got off work 30 minutes after the Zags tip off and spent three quarters of the game catching up on PVR, so we didn’t watch any part of the Oregon win of Michigan except for the last 6 seconds where Michigan has a clean look to win the game. They missed that shot and Oregon escaped with what looked like another well played game.

Whatta great night of well played basketball. No buzzer beaters. Some upsets. Subtle Madness. Tomorrow, the Elite Eight is set!

Yours in Madness,

Cooler-issioner Adolph

SWEET 16 COMETH! ...AND AN OVERLY LONG RANT ON LAVAR BALL

The most anticipated match up for the upcoming Sweet 16: Kentucky vs. UCLA (photo credit: flipps.com)

Day 4 of the Madness started right off the bat with another bracket buster game in the Midwest Region with #7 Michigan outlasting #2 Louisville. Michigan was led by big man, Mo Wagner’s 26 hustle points despite Louisville had a big advantage on the boards, especially the offensive boards. Michigan grinded to a 4-5 point lead late in the game where Louisville played the fouling comeback game perfectly with quick hoops and quick fouling to stop the clock. But Michigan hit all their free throws to outlast Louisville. This busted many brackets of Insanity Pool Contestants, including this guy’s. For the umpteenth year in a row, I am in the bottom cellar of the Insanity Pool standing, AGAIN! It doesn’t bode well for any team that I pick. You could say I am quite the ‘cooler’. You coooould say I am the “Cooler-issioner”! #PaulsenPun of the day!

Michigan will play #3 Oregon in the Sweet 16, who looked good in handling a tough #11 Rhode Island team in the Midwest Region. This will be a great match up with Oregon’s guards/wings in Tyler Dorsey and Dylan Brooks showing that they can shoulder the load between them. This will be a great matchup vs. Michigan’s guards led by Derrick Walton. Michigan has an advantage over the Oregon’s bigs, even if Chris “Not Foucher” Boucher was in the line up. So now that he’s out of the line, somewhere Scoobie is herd saying, “Ruh Row!”

Huge ups for Insanity Pool leader as well as Pete Vieweg Money Division leader Derran Watts picking Michigan over Louisville. That’s some great prognostication D-Watt!

The next game was more amazing then I believe most realize. It was #10 Wichita State coming close to winning the rematch from their ultra super-duper classic 2^nd Round game from the 2014 March Madness vs. #2 Kentucky in the South Region.

For those that remember that 2014 game, it was a heavyweight boxing match where both teams hit big shot after big shot, with neither team buckling under the pressure of each ridiculous clutch shot being exchanged.

Highly rated freshman post, Bam Adebayo had his coming out party this game for Kentucky. He has been a consistently solid player all year for Kentucky, but he was nowhere near the expectation of such a highly rated froshie. Well this game he ate up the boards and hit some clutch bunnies. The super freshmen back court of PG DeAaron Fox and SG Malik Monk were their good ol’ selves displaying their nutty athleticism on both sides of the ball, This athleticism is what made this rematch from their 2014 classic eerily similar but just from the other end of the spectrum.

As in 2014, Kentucky outlasted Wichita State with out-of-this-world treys to answer Shocker buckets, and this past Sunday, Kentucky was equally as clutch with equally amazing plays but from the defensive end with nutty steals and blocked shots from Fox and Monk. It was quite impressive and their defense peaking right at the best moment bodes well for their match up vs. the generational offensive team in UCLA.

The next game was a marquee match up between two hall of fame coaches in KU’s Bill Self and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. Izzo was coming off their absolute best game of the year in their first round win vs. Miami and KU was, well KU.

This game was tight for two-thirds of the game, as Michigan State tried to control the tempo, but KU’s athleticism and veteran leadership outshined Izzo’s valiant efforts.

KU super froshie Josh Jackson is a special player, but the question before the Madness was is he late-game special? He answered that question when it counted most with step-back one-on-one J’s late in the second half that were just daggers on Michigan State. Also, energy guy LaGerald Vick had a big game with a rare barrage of treys. And Frank Mason was his regular Outhet Player of the Year self, with his fearless aggression and calming presence in such a high-pressure game vs. a quality opponent in Sparty.

The KU bigs played well, but their hands will be full and then some vs. Purdue and do-it-all post, Caleb Swanigan. It will be the Mason vs. Swanigan show that will be one hundred and fiddy percent more exciting and compelling then Batman vs. Superman.

The next game was #8 Arkansas vs. #1 North Carolina was one of those games where there is the silly saying by analysts of, “Arkansas didn’t lose that game, they just ran out of time.” That saying is so silly as in there’s a finite amount of time in a basketball game and whoever has more points after that finite amount of time is completed is the winner. What the hell does “ran out of time” mean??? That has always been so silly of a saying!......until this game. UNC showed the ugliest version of themselves with their low-IQ play. The Tar Heels play was so ugly that one could say, “UNC didn’t win the game, they just ran outta time to completely choke it away to the Razorbacks!” UNC squeaked by, by the squeakiest of margins.

The next games I gotta admit, fell victim to the commercial vortex phenomenon and so there’s little intel on Baylor’s 4 point victory over super-gamer-team USC. USC has the most double-digit comebacks in the nation this year and used a double-digit comeback in their play-in game and first round game. USC were up early and then what seemed like, purposely sunk themselves into a 10 point deficit only to dig themselves out and get the lead back only to lose at the end after both team exchanged leads over and over again.

Then there was the shocking upset of #7 South Carolina over #2 seed and possible tourney fave Duke. Two things about this game: 1) Duke was searching for their identity all year, as previously mentioned. It seemed they found it after winning the ACC tournament last week. But the other question was how could Duke fare with no true point guard.

Well the answer came Sunday, as Duke’s lack of true point guard to settle the offense fell victim to the actual team that found their identity in South Carolina. Playing the game in Greenville, South Carolina gave the Gamecocks quite the partisan home court raucous crowd. But South Carolina had similar identity issues with great talent with Sindarious Thornwell and PJ Dozier, just like Duke did with not being to find the right combo within their stacked lineup. But it was South Carolina that found their right combo and they did so right at the best time here in March Madness.

The last game was a close game at first that turned into a snoozer as UCLA dismantled Cincinnati. Lonzo Ball displayed his all-world passing and he does so despite the constant self-promotional ranting of his father, LaVar Ball. I believe most of you know of the headlines LaVar is making with his outlandish comments, so no need to tell y’all what you already know on the background of his story.

But here’s the Insanity Reports take on LaVar as it’s been asked by many over the past couple weeks. He’s a father that supports his sons, first and foremost. He does so with his outlandish comments/demands in a supportive yet self-promotional manner that dispels anything that actually may be of merit outta LaVar’s mouth.

This is all predicated under the present media age we live in where it’s the outlandish comments that gets the headlines. Heck it got a guy elected into the White House. This present media age also takes the views of people with minimal skills (cough…Kardashian) , minimal political clout (ahhh duh, Trump) and now a hack former football player and 2 point a game ex-college hoops player in LaVar saying he can beat MJ and Charles Barkley. LaVar is not helping his kids out, but it’s the present media age we live in that makes it so he’s not hurting them either.

Many teams would pass on such a phenomenal talent such as Lonzo Ball based solely on what could be perceived as a difficult parent. Not in this case. LaVar Ball is so harmless, that any NBA team that actually drafts Lonzo can easily say, “listen LaVar, we drafted your son and not you, now shut the hell up.”

The main criticism I can see on LaVar actually is his demands are that of an agent. So he’s acting as an agent for his son in a parental loophole where agents are obviously against NCAA rules. So way to be ahead of the curb on that LaVar. So the only possible criticism will be if  Lonzo ever hires an agent after he leaves UCLA. He’s already had an agent and a free one at that, and any agent hired will be a waste of money. Bad bidness LaVar.

Bottom line is LaVar is a harmless, annoying supportive father that somehow gets attention these days such as being invited to ESPN studios. Is it LaVar shoving his antics down our throats or cheap rating mongers such as ESPN?

This LaVar rant got too long! See y’all Thursday for the Sweet 16!

Yours in Madness,

Cooler-issioner Adolph

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!