More Madness!!! Day 3 recap

Michigan Freshman, Jordan Poole getting chased by Mo Wagner after his well executed buzzer beater play drawn up by John Beilein (Photo credit: chatsports.com via espn.com)

The best of mornings to everyone on this Day 4 of The Madness of what has been yet another historic and epic 1^st and 2^nd rounds. The thing is that not just for the die-hard college basketball fan, but for the common sports fan that just tunes into March Madness, the NCAA Basketball Tournament ALWAYS delivers!

I would be remised to not mention the utter Madness shattering win of the #16 UMBC Retrievers over #1 overall seed Virginia due to the short attention span of the 24-hour news cycle. With the short attention span, it now demonstrates of the new school historical relevance of UMBC’s win because after the 24-hour media frenzy of the win, we are still talking about it!

Yesterday’s Madness was highlighted with 2 tight game endings starting with Loyola-Chicago having another game clinching shot with 3 seconds left to surpass Tennessee in a well played 63-62 win. This was the second straight game for the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago with end-of-the-game drama. Have they expended their Madness karma or do they have a longer Cinderella run in them? They play the winner of the Nevada-Cincinnati. Nevada could surprise Cincy today.

To close out Day 3 was a very well executed play for Michigan freshman, Jordan Poole hitting a buzzer beater three to get past a pesky Houston team. Michigan Head Coach, John Beilein is an absolute March Madness wizard!!! His post game interview was indicative of how much he loves his players and how much his players reciprocate it. Also, his explanation of the play showed how he is a coach’s coach and player’s coach. He prepares as best he can and enjoys these moments when they come while weathering the bad beats when they inevitably come. It is an absolute pleasure watching him coach and his Michigan Wolverines battle every March.

Villanova had a tale of two dominant halves with Dante DiVincenzo scoring 18 points in the 1^st half and Mikal Bridges taking the baton scoring 22 of his 23 points scored in the 2^nd half in their 81-58 beat down of Alabama. DiVencenzo was absolutely everywhere in the 1^st half with his barrage of 3’s, steals and charges. Bridges was en fuego from 3! Just unconscious!

Alabama came out sharp with future lottery pick, PG Collin Sexton leading the sharp offensive possessions until those sets became NBA-style isolation plays for Sexton with the other 4 guys stationary. This made it easy for Nova to defend and mixed with the barrage of treys, well then there was the result we got for the first game of Day 3.

Villanova looks so complete right now with Outhet Player of the Year candidate, PG Jalen Brunson running the point and big men Omari Spellman and Eric Paschall showing their versatility hitting key jumpers with great hustle on 50-50 balls. The three’s are falling in bunches for Villanova so hopefully the other facets of the Wildcat game stay sharp as the high 3-pt percentage may regress back to the mean.

Duke manhandled Rhose Island 87-62 in the second game of the day. This led to the Insanity Report Staff thinking that with the huge influx of Madness the night before with UMBC’s historic win, that the balance in the Madnessphere might resort to chalk results for the favorites.

Duke has made a very impressive mid-season adjustment playing their 2-3 zone full time. The Insanity Report Midwest Breakdown mentioned Duke’s early defensive woes. The switch to the 2-3 zone has been successful for Coach K as the defensive weaknesses of horrible helpside D and guarding the dribble penetration are hidden through great rotations and Syracuse zone principles.

Kentucky was just way too athletic for the Buffalo Bulls today in their 95-75 win further adding some truth to the balance in the Madnessverse theory.

Gonzaga’s 90-84 win showed many holes in Gonzaga’s game from shoddy free throw shooting, a rusty performance by Johnathan Williams and shaky nerves at the end of the game from a still developing Killian Tillie. But Zach Norvell Jr.’s 28 points was an impressive display of timely three’s and dangerous drives to the hoop. Although not a perfect game by Gonzaga by any means, it was still an improvement from their opening round game vs. UNC-Greensboro. If Gonzaga continues to find their peak, then they may very well get some winnable matchups leading to a trip back to the Final 4.

Florida lost a tight game vs. the scrappy and athletic Texas Tech Red Raiders by a score of 69-66. They had 2 clear looks at the buzzer to tie the game but couldn’t convert. The frustrating thing for Florida Gators fans is that Florida has shown many times this season that they are capable of the being the best team in the nation with unstoppable offensive possessions, but they just can’t get on the consistency train. The Gators lack minor tangibles especially on defense with lazy aspects. These small tangibles add to their potential not being realized this season.

KU held off a stud performance by Seton Hall senior, Angel Delgado and his 24 points, 23 rebounds to outlast the Pirates 83-79. Kansas has had a shortened bench all season with severe lack of depth in the front court. By outlasting the talented front court of Seton Hall gives KU some promise to go further in their bracket for possible games vs. Duke or Michigan State. This would be epic.

These first 3 days have been epic. It’s been an absolute thrilling ride and having one more day still to go is a treat.

Will UMBC continue their Cinderella run or will they be totally spent from the past 48 hours of the media frenzy following their historic win vs. Virginia?

Stay tuned. A historic opening 2 rounds of March Madness will conclude today.

Madness History!!! UMBC Retrievers Shock the World!!! - Day 2 recap

UMBC Retrievers picking each other up and turning the Madness world upside down last night!! (Photo credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images via The New York Times)

What?!?!?! What just happened???

It took a full night to digest last nights pure unadulterated Madness!!!! After a day 1 where 14 of the 16 winners were the higher seeds, we were due for Madness in Day 2, but this??? We were served with straight up Madness anarchy!!!!!

UMBC did it! They exorcised the 16-seed demons winning the first game by a 16-seed in 135 tries! #16 UMBC, you read right, the #16 UMBC Retrievers beat not only the #1 seeded Virginia Cavaliers, but the #1 overall seed last night by a shocking score of 74-54!!!

The texts and messages within the Insanity Pool community were ones of pure shock. Every aspect of this upset was completely jaw-to-the-ground shocking!!!!

As mentioned, Virginia was the #1 overall seed! They were the only consistent team in a season where every other team had a streak of bad games and bad performances. Welp, Marge my friend, the Cavs came back down to earth in a meteoric flaming ball of shock last night.

Watching the game was one where our attention was grabbed immediately with the game tied at half, 21-21. Everybody was thinking of when would Virginia pull away. We saw first round games where the 16-seed was in tight at half and every time the 1-seed woke up and went on a run.

Not Virginia! UMBC just kept scoring. They made Virginia’s packline D look silly! UMBC drove through the helpside defenders like it was the worst game of red rover ever! Red rover red rover UMBC called history over!!!

The Retrievers did so by whooping Virginia by 20 points in the 2^nd half! History was made by the Retrievers?!?!?! Why not the “Pillowy Softs” or “Teddy Bears”!?!?!? The Retrievers played like down right Bulldogs!

And credit must be given to UMBC for last night. I can see how Virginia’s style of play with the lowest possessions per game in the nation will be criticized with a fine-toothed comb. The fact is that Tony Bennett leads a powerhouse program in Virginia and his packline defense is absolutely stellar. No other style of D would have stopped the Retrievers and their 68% shooting percentage in the 2^nd half!

We just saw history! Period. And it was glorious!

But unfortunately for Tony Bennett, his Virginia Cavaliers will forever be remembered as “that team”.

UMBC Retrievers? What will they be remembered for? Lets see, their story isn’t done yet. Apologies go out to K-State, as they will be facing a team that has the entire sporting world behind their opponent, the UMBC Retrievers. And kudos to Coach Odom, he and his Retrievers threw the Insanity Report South Region Breakdown of UMBC right into the Commish’s face…..it was stated in the Insanity Report, “Hey Retrievers, go fetch this poop kicking you will get from Virginia!!!” Coach Odom was heard at his post game presser, saying, “Hey Commish, fetch this!!!! We just fetched history is all!!!”

Yes you did Coach Odom. Yes you did!

Stay tuned this Sunday for The Retrievers’ next chapter, they ain’t done!!!

Now the rest of this was the running account of the Day 2 games, until UMBC shook our Madness worlds upside down. Enjoy.

Ok ok ok!!! Yesterday’s Day 1 games had only 2 upsets, so the forecast for Day 2 was for some Madness and upsets. (And ohhh boy were there upsets!)

The first game was a Madness dud with Texas A&M easily dismantling Providence, but whatta perfect way to start the morning with Bill Raftery on the mic opening the first game with a “Jim Nance…..Grant Hill……The Friars start MAANNN to MAAANNNN!!!!!” Classic Bill!!! #SendItInJerome

The next tip-off had the Purdue beat down of the disowned Cal State Fullerton Titans as Fullerton section behind their bench was completely empty. Insanity Report Board Member and Degenerate Correspondent, D$ was screaming at the sea of red seats applauding the 2 fans that snuck into the section 2 minutes in. No fan, no fam and no show for Fullerton losing to Purdue by 26.

The forecasted Madness upsets got off to a quick start as #13 seeded Marshall Marshmellow Herd upset #4 seed Wichita State in what you could say was a Shocker?? The ending was quite drawn out as there were video ref review after video ref review that led Insanity Report Board Member and Coach Correspondent, J-Dawg to a recorded 3 hat throws at this momentum killing video delay. Upon the extended timeout time given to both teams we got a full show of Marshall’s head coach wearing the T-Shirt and Blazer get up. Apparently he had a hot date in the hotel lounge after the game. We are thinking he may be taking from the Larry Eustachy off-court co-ed playbook. Our crack Insanity Report staff is on this development. Stay tuned.

#15 Georgia State gave #2 Cincinnati a scare but the Bearcats pulled away for a 15 point win being a tight tight win against the -14.5 closing spread on Cincy. Man, that is tight, just imagine if the spread was -9.5, am I right D$!?!?!?!

#15 Lipscomb gave UNC a good effort for the first 10 minutes but UNC pulled away, but holy gaw damn they are so up and down. But they are making mid season adjustments away from their traditional big sized front court sets to a small ball 3-point shooting look. Their 2 freshmen posts are coming off the bench now with less minutes with grad transfer Cam Johnson moving into the starting 5 with his 40% 3-Pt shooting. UNC hasn’t peaked yet.

The Butler Arkansas game was a game of runs. Butler was up 21-2 in the first 7 minutes of the first half only to have Arkansas take the lead highlighted by a 13-0 run. And then Butler ends up winning by 17 in a stinkfest.

And for the rest of the games, Insanity Report Co-Coach Partner, Lee-Wai and I were too busy celebrating history at the halfcourt heave play call…….Weeessssssst-woooooood!!!!

Sweet 16 games today folks!!! More Madness and as Mr. T said in Rocky III, “We got alotta Mo!!!!”

Yours in Madness,

Commissioner Adolph

MIDWEST REGION BREAKDOWN

#1 KANSAS JAYHAWKS

Many experts are saying KU is more like a 3 seed than 1, which is just bonkers. When a team wins the regular season title and conference tourney title of the toughest conference in the nation deserves a 1 seed! Can I get a Rock Chalk!?!?! KU has Devonte Graham at guard. Svi’s gonna have to be a consistent scorer. And the Bigs gotta stay healthy and outta foul trouble. Mitch Lightfoot has grabbed the attention of the Insanity Report Staff.

#2 DUKE BLUE DEVILS

By far the most talented team in the nation. Period. But high highschool rankings does no good in the madness. Duke had down right atrocious defense early in the season with their bigs having absolute tunnel vision on the helpside to go with slow reaction time on the helpside defending the dribble penetration. The guards couldn’t contain dribble penetration, which forced Coach K to run zone the entire game now. This bolted Duke up to #7 ranked in the nation defensively. Kudos for this quick turnaround, but despite this tactical adjustment, the defensive weakness of each player will likely get exposed. Marvin Bagley is just so dominant on offense that he can cover many Duke defensive deficiencies.

#3 MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS

Izzo man!!! Sparty has boat loads of depth in the front court. Miles Bridges has to step up even more as a primary scorer hitting the opportune open jumper that won’t come too often. The x-factor is with PG Cassius Winston. He was a liability on the court with bad decisions that didn’t lead to personal turnover stats for himself, but many non scoring possessions. He’s improved drastically and leave it to Izzo to hide a weakness while highlighting a strength in Winston’s length on D getting many deflections and steals for transition opportunities. If Cassius has good decision-making then Sparty goes deep into the Madness

#4 AUBURN TIGERS

Bruce Pearl has down right over achieved with loss of players from the FBI investigation and the whole shadow from it all. Have they peaked? Pearl is not historically a 2^nd weekend coach in the Madness.

#5 CLEMSON TIGERS

Limping in with too many injuries

#6 TCU HORNED FROGS

Jamie Dixon has turned this program around, but they too have injuries with huge loss of Jaylen Fisher back in January. He’s not a game changer but they lacked depth with Fisher.

#7 RHODE ISLAND RAMS

D$ says A10 is trash. I tend to agree

#8 SETON HALL PIRATES

Senior laden team that many say don’t sleep on Angel Delgado as one of the top rebounders in the nation and a bonafide NBA draft pick. This has been said for past 3 seasons now and what does Seton Hall have to show for it? Another first weekend exit most likely

#9 NC STATE WOLFPACK

Amazing turnaround by Kevin Keatts in his first season at the helm. There’s some glaring weakness on the metrics but NC State are gamers! 7-0 Center Omer Yurtseven will burst on the scene. He’s a 50% 3 point shooter than can bang in the paint. Omer, remember that name!

#10  OKLAHOMA SOONERS

Shouldn’t be in the tourney. Period. There’s no justification for this other than the ratings to be had for watching Trae Young. That’s the only reason for the at-large berth, and it makes complete financial sense, just not basketball sense.

#11 SYRACUSE ORANGEMEN

Terry McKaig is licking his chops for the ‘Cuse! They have their regular 2-3 zone that gives teams fits. ACC teams have caught up to it, but will TCU?

#12 NEW MEXICO STATE AGGIES

Chris Jans has improved the Aggies since the departure of Chris Beard to Texas Tech and that was some huge shoes to fill. This is a great pick for the 12-5 upset

#13 CHARLESTON

Got nothing.

#14 BUCKNELL

Some experts are saying they are a live dog, but against Izzo and Sparty? Nah, Izzo won’t let another upset like Middle Tennessee State happen again. Bucknell, buck off says Carlton!

#15 IONA

A MAAC regular in the tourney. They have an up tempo offense that could give Duke fits. But an outright win? Nah.

#16 PENN QUAKERS

This is an odd seeding for an Ivy League Champion that usually has solid rebounding in the front court and high basketball IQ guards which Penn has. They could be the first 16 seed to win a game, but Bill Self won’t let that happen.

EAST REGION BREAKDOWN

Oh boy, this region may be the Anarchy Bracket Busting Bracket!!!

#1 VILLANOVA WILDCATS

Other than Virginia, Nova has been the 2^nd most consistenct team in the nation with the most complete team in the nation led by Outhet Player of the Year candifate, Jalen Brunson. Nova can bang in the post and shoot from downtown with the versatility of RS Fr. Post Omari Spellman. Mikal Bridges has NBA-draft pick written all over him. Donte DiVincenzo comes off the bench and spot starts with a high assist total. Head Coach Jay Wright has the next highest organized team in the country next to Michigan’s John Beilein. Tough on both sides of court. Yet they didn’t win the regular season Big East title. They still aren’t Madness proof, but nobody is other than D$’s degenerate hashtags.

#2 PURDUE BOILERMAKERS

These guys wre a top 5 team all season. They rolled over a Big Ten conference that was top heavy and not as strong as years past. 7-1 man-child post Isaac Haas is a beast in the post, but he is susceptible to shot altering double teams. The Edward-zz-ezz in Carson and Vince are solid with Cah-harsen manning the point. Matt Painter has the Boilermakers run and solid defense, but Purdue lives and dies by the three a little too much for my liking. Flip a coin on their deep run into the Madness or early exit.

#3 TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS

These guys had a 2 game lead in the Big 12 late in the season that would have ended KU’s 13 year Big 12 regular championship run and what do they do? They lose 4 of their last 5 games. Coming into the season, columnist Jon Rothstein said that Texas Tech may have the most talented team in the nation. They are chalk full of raw talent and Chris Beard is transforming Texas Tech into a legit powerhouse. But slight injuries to top player Keenan Evans and peaking a tad too early gives T Tech a possible early exit from the Madness.

#4 WICHITA STATE SHOCKERS

They bring back close to everyone back from last years solid Madness team. PG Landry Shamet was the best PG in the tourney last year, but he hasn’t parlayed this to being a top PG this season with some turnover issues. He’s still gaw damned dangerous though. Big man Marcus McDuffie is back from injury and has had plenty of time to establish his presence on the boards and in the paint. 5^th year Sr G Connor Frankamp is just not a consistent 3-Pt shooter. There I got it off my chest. The love for Frankamp as a good home town boy gives me the heebie jeebies. I felt like we were waiting for Wichita State to make that next step all season to be a bonafide top 8 team, but if never came. Finally, when Insanity Report Coach Correspondent mentions in an Insanity Report meeting that Wichita State looks awful on D and disorganized an is destined for a 1^st or 2^nd round exit, then you look harder at the Shockers

#5 WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS

Press Virginia went of with a great start to the season, but hit a speed bump losing 7 out of 11 games. In those few wins, they still managed to beat Oklahoma who lost against everyone it seemed like. Head Coach, Bob “Huggy Bear” Huggins still runs the Press Virginia Full Court Press, but they are actually pretty lowly ranked this year defensively. 40^th ranked is pretty good but not up to Huggy’s usual standards being 4^th and 6^th best in the nation the previous 2 seasons. Sr. PG Jevon Carter is the straw that stirs West Virginia’s drink. Huggy Bear is lacking in the front court with pretty low rebounding metrics. For a team loved so much by many in previous years, West Virginia limping into the Madness could be the formula for their deep run into the Madness.

#6 FLORIDA GATORS

The jeckyl and hyde team of the whole season. They looked like the best team in country at the PK80 toutney in October with their 3 headed monster back court and lunch bucket front court bangin on the boards. After the PK80 tourney final loss to Duke the Gators lost 3 of their 4 games. All of these 5 games, including the Duke game were vs. tourney teams. I’m chalking this up to a PK80 hangover. Then they went on a 5-7 in the middle of the SEC sked. The Gators may be limping into the Madness but they are by far the lowest ranked good team of the Madness. Their capabilities can’t be overlooked.

#7 ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS

A sleeper team that can score in bunches and have defensive streaks. Don’t sleep on these guys. Oh and take the over!

#8 VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES

These guys are kinda limping into the Madness, but still have a recent home win vs. Duke. Buzz Williams has rebuilt this team to a regular Madness team in just a few seasons. Watch out for possible break out tourney for super frosh Nickeil Alexander-Walker to explode onto the national scene

#9 ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE

They have the necessary ingredient of to go deep with a top level PG in Freshman Collin Sexton

#10 BUTER BULLDOGS

I’m not feeling the Bulldogs with their first year Head Coach, but many metrics have Butler rated pretty high. Bracket buster?

#11 ST. BONAVENTURE BONNIES

Anyone see their play-in game vs. UCLA??? Nobody wanted to win that game. Not great shot selection and the defense was non-existent. So this is an obvious recipe for a Sweet 16 run!!! #Madness

#12  MURRAY STATE

Know nothing of these guys.

#13 MARSHALL

Best team of a decimated Conference USA that is a low major conference now. Lowwwwww, like get that base into your voice low!!!

#14 STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

People wanna take SFA, but Coach Underwood and his great 4-high sets (AKA Motion and Thumbs) are gone. Let it go Insanity Inmates, Let it go!

#15 CS FULLERTON

Big West Conference? It’s a surfing powerhouse and not hoops.

#16 RADFORD

Enter in Robert Radford pun. They are not the “Natural” and would need “All the Presidents Men” to get within 15 points of Villanova