March Madness Day 8 Recap

Intro to be uploaded later.

Game Commentary
Part 1
Part 2

The Leaderboard
1. Craig M - 86 pts*
T2. Bryan L - 77 pts (Louisville)
T2. Colin M - 77 pts*
4. Cindy F - 74 pts*
T5. James H - 71 pts*
T5. Sam OC - 71 pts*

T-Last: Paula B - 36 pts*
T-Last: Rachel G - 36 pts*
* - Selected champion has been eliminated from the tournament

Shoutouts
To Bryan L, Colin M, Sam OC, Leni P, Zahra H, Ed K (nice job Dad!), Max M, Megan K, Sue G (nice job mother-in-law), and Shelly P, for correctly selecting Michigan as a Final Four team.

To Zahra H, Ed K (nice job Dad!), Megan K, Bryan L, Colin M, Max M, and Sam OC, for correctly picking the winners of both of today's games.

To Kevin Ware, the Louisville player who suffered the gruesome leg injury. According to Rick Pitino, before Ware was taken away, he asked Pitino to call over the whole team and exhorted them to win the game. With an injury that prompted Joe Theisman to express his heartfelt sympathy. 

To both Celinda's family (including Peter G, Sue G, and Nathan G) and my family (including Ed K and Denise K), for making Easter such a terrific day today.

To Miles, for being such a wonderful kid on a pretty long day for him. Two separate parties and he was the star of the show all throughout both.

To Louisville's basketball program. On the same day that the men clinched a Final Four bid, the women knocked off Baylor 82-81 to clinch an Elite 8 bid. Yes, the same Baylor that went 40-0 last year, and followed it up with a 34-1 record (including the #1 overall seed in the Women's tourney) until today.

Condemnations
To the Houston Astros. Much has been made of how Alex Rodriguez will make more than the entire Astros team this season ($29M vs $25M, and $6M of that will go to a player who's playing for someone else this season). Most people are using this to lambast A-Rod. I get it, it's fun to do and he deserves it. But there is no good reason the good people of Houston should be subjected to 162 games watching what amounts to maybe a AAA-caliber team. That's an embarrassment.

To Major League Baseball, who put the Astros in the first game of the Major League Baseball season. Despite them putting an embarrassment of a product on the field for this season. 

Tweet of the day

Maybe Florida still has a chance against Michigan. I say that only because today is a day known for incredible comebacks. #MarchMadness
— Frank Caliendo (@FrankCaliendo) March 31, 2013

See you back here on Saturday for Day 9!

March Madness Day 8, Part 2

Louisville 85, Duke 63
I didn't catch as much of this game as any of the others in this round. And I think that was a blessing (more on that later). Honestly when I turned on the TV at halftime and saw that Duke was only down 3, I was shocked. Duke is a good team, but Louisville had consistently looked better than the field in every moment I had seen of them in this tournament.

In the second half things went about as I had expected. Louisville's suffocating defense took its toll on Duke (36.5% from the field) and Louisville's offense actually improved in the second half (they scored 50 points), and the top seed in the entire field moved on to the Final Four.

During the second half, Celinda hopped on facebook/twitter and saw the hubbub surrounding Louisville's Kevin Ware and his injury. She declared she had no interest in seeing it. I also had no interest in seeing it, but part of me felt obligated to see it, given I'm running a pool and providing daily updates on the games in the tournament. Before I made my final decision I hopped onto twitter, where I saw this tweet from Fox NFL reporter Jay Glazer:

I just saw the Kevin Ware injury. I work in 2 violent sports and i gotta say I have never seen anything THAT bad
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 31, 2013

The two sports he's involved in are NFL football and MMA. If an MMA guy is saying that, I should probably listen to him.

In the end, I didn't. I watched the first two shots CBS had of it, and immediately closed the window I was watching. I didn't see a close-up (I didn't want to see something I wouldn't be able to un-see), but I did see his leg buckle in a thoroughly unnatural way. I have to agree with the consensus, don't go looking for it (though I'd be happy to get feedback from anyone who watched this game live during this episode).

Celinda said it best (paraphrasing), "You knew that when this happened it would either break Louisville or they'd come back stronger." For Kevin Ware's sake, I'm glad Louisville came back stronger.

March Madness Day 8, Part 1

Michigan 79, Florida 59
Two teams played in this game. One got going right from the opening tip. The other took over 15 minutes to really hit its stride. Unsurprisingly, the one that was ready from the get-go was Michigan, the team that was up 41-17 with 4 minutes to go in the first half. After that it was simply a matter of keeping Florida from putting together a series of sustained runs. Florida got within 11 points 4 minutes into the second half, Michigan responded by scoring 9 of the next 11 points and Florida never even got a whiff of being that close again.

I have to say, I didn't see Michigan coming. In fairness to me, they did lose 6 of their last 12 games on the season. On the flip side, they did win 20 of their first 21, and were ranked #1 for a time. Having watched them closely for the last 2 games, and a decent amount the game before them too, their offense is outstanding. I think where I missed the boat on them was defensively. They are much better than I gave them credit for. Combine an elite offense with a just good enough defense and you have a team capable of making a Final Four run. Combine the elite offense with a legitimately good defense and you have a serious threat to win the whole thing, like Michigan.

March Madness Day 7 Recap

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter (or a Happy Sunday if you prefer). Hope you get to spend the day with loved ones eating delicious food, and if you happen to stumble onto a basketball game or two while doing so, that sounds like a terrific way to top off your day, especially if Duke loses.

Game Commentary
Part 1
Part 2

The Leaderboard
1. Craig M - 78 pts
2. Cindy F - 74 pts*
3. James H - 63 pts*
T4. Jon J - 62 pts
T4. Josiah K - 62 pts*
T4. Barack Obama - 62 pts*
T4. Leni P - 62 pts

T-Last: Paula B - 36 pts*
T-Last: Rachel G - 36 pts*
* - Selected champion has been eliminated from the tournament

Shoutouts
To Craig M, Cindy F, and James H, the only 3 people in the pool to accumulate points today. They also double as the only three people in the pool to have Syracuse in their Final Four.

To Craig M, for being the only person with a chance of nailing 3/4 Final Four teams, depending on what happens tomorrow.

To Wichita State, no one correctly picked the 9-seed Shockers to make the Final Four out of the West region.

To Easter mornings with a young child. I can't wait to watch Miles find all of the treats the Easter Bunny left him.

Condemnations
To Steve Alford, former New Mexico coach. Just before the tournament, he signed a 10-year extension with New Mexico. Before the ink was dry on the contract, he led the 3-seed Lobos to a first round upset at the hands of Harvard. Now today, he ditched New Mexico to take the vacant UCLA job.

This is how the system works. Coaches can jump around even while under contract (there's usually a buyout). Students, on the other hand, have to sit out a year if they transfer. Even if they transfer on account of a coaching change. Sound fair? Nope. Sound consistent with how the NCAA works? Absolutely.

Tweet of the day

"Charles Barkley is in too many commercials." - Peyton Manning#MarchMadness
— Frank Caliendo (@FrankCaliendo) March 30, 2013

Happy Easter! And enjoy Day 8!

March Madness Day 7, Part 2

Wichita State 70, Ohio State 66
Wichita looked like the better team for the first 29 minutes of this game. They were more aggressive, shot much better, and attacked the glass with abandon. Ohio State was totally thrown off of their game. They settled for outside shots and didn't hit any of them. They weren't making the hustle plays. And they found themselves down 20 points with 11 minutes to play.

Then things switched, and Ohio State started looking like the favorite again. They drove, they attacked, and they started matching Wichita State's effort. Wichita dealt with a couple injuries and massive foul trouble. They tightened up just a little bit, and they allowed Ohio State to get within 4 points with about 2 mintues to play. The question at this point was, could Wichita State make just enough plays to hold off the fast charging Buckeyes.

The answer was yes. A three point shot, a falling over 5-footer in the lane, and a couple free throws were enough to make sure Ohio State couldn't get close enough to attempt a shot to tie or take the lead. In the end, the Ohio State University simply dug themselves too deep a hole before they finally found themselves offensively. If they could have stayed within 12-15 points, they would have won this game. They couldn't, so Wichita State moves on to the Final Four.