Today was a great 13-hour day of hoops. I gotta tell yah,
it’s not like back in university where we could truck for 13 hours of hoops and
be ready for more. Trust us, we’re ready for more, but a full day of Madness is
tiring! Can I get an ay-men!?!? Can I get a nap time!?!?!
There were some great Madness Moments, especially with the
shocking #14 Harvard handing Mountain West Conference Champ, New Mexico a
shocking loss (although the Mountain West were 1-3 today showing how over-rated
they were). There was #1 Gonzaga being brought to the wire by a #16 seed scare.
Plus there were the almost-buzzer beaters with St. Mary’s, Matthew Dellavadova
missing a last second 3-pointer to win and Marquette’s steal of a win from
Davidson.
But as old as I’ve gotten, so has the announcing for the
games. You wouldn’t have known that Harvard toppling New Mexico was a huge
upset as the announcing crew mine as well have been Hans freaking Moleman!!!! They
forced the nap outta Jalen Rose in Bill Simmon’s man cave and outta the Insanity
Staff at J-Dawg’s Asylum today.
And Delly would’ve made his buzzer beater if it wasn’t for
the Curse of Gus! CBS/TNT/TruTV and whatever the other network that covers the
Madness, will you sign Gus Johnson back to the Madness!!!!
PLEEEEEEEAAASSEE!!!!!! Ever since Gus has not called any games in the Madness,
there have been zero classic buzzer-beaters in the 3 years he’s been gone. The
announcing is so timid that Jim Nantz seems exciting!
WE NEED GUS BACK!!!!!
There were tight games in the first 8 morning games with
Michigan State almost giving up a backdoor cover to Valpo, which almost gave
the Insanity Crew at J-Dawg’s Asylum a heart-attack. Bucknell made a brief
comeback to help our early parlay only to fade as did our profits tonight.
Gonzaga’s near loss almost gave Paulsen the world’s first
heart-aneurism-ulcer! He wasn’t the only one this almost happened to either.
But this game justified some pundits’ take that Gonzaga didn’t deserve a #1
seeding. They do deserve it, and they needed this game, as they haven’t had any
pressure in 5-6 weeks due to their dominance of an admittingly weaker West
Coast Conference. Gonzaga still has all the tools, and tonight’s pressure
cooker was just the wake-up they needed to lay a whooping on Wichita State on
Saturday to get back on track.
The Mountain West Conference came into the Madness with 5
teams that were considered darkhorse teams only to go 1-3! And the Pac-12 who
did indeed have a weak season overall, gave us all a big eff-you with their 3-0
performance today.
In the pool, Cav Whitely has little to deflect with his
first place tie with 14 of 16 games correct. He’s tied with Kirsten “Keertee”
Taylor for first place overall.
It takes a while to click on everyone’s bracket, so if you
had Harvard, you better speak out now! Get on the Message Board and claim your
Smack of Day award just by declaring your Harvard pick!!! Do it!
Terry McKaig foolishly loses a Final 4 pick in losing New
Mexico tonight in his bracket! Come on T! Syracuse and New Mexico? Alas, he is
a mere contestant in the pool, which bodes well for all involved as his Commish
conspiracy tactics in his Fantasy Baseball League is quite second-gunmen-on-the-grassy-knoll-like!
T, don’t forget about the Tertius Trunkaytus when making
those picks next time will you!!!!
Tomorrow’s games look to be the day of upsets, as today was
mainly favorites winning. The Insanity Staff likes a lot of the morning games
to have favorites cover easily, and judging by J-Dawg’s and The Commish’s 1st
day performance, that bodes well for the upset picks based on the Costanza
Principle!
Alrighty fellow Insanity Pool inmates, lets get something
straight here…..it’s Madness Time! It’s Christmas! It’s everyone’s favorite
time of the year! The upsets are blooming and the bracket buster picks are just
ripe for the actual pickin! But as secret superhero Graeme Gordon and O’Grady
Basketball Legend, Jordan Yu were forewarned, I’ll pick it up a notch and
five-warn y’all…..IT’S MADNESS TIME! This shiz-nat is not for the faint at
heart!
You gotta bring your picks up strong. Do you pick with
emotion and pick your favorite team? Do you pick objectively? (i.e. loving UNC
but not trusting them as far as I could throw Ford Marcotte!) How bout making
your picks based on whether you’ve been to a particular campus or really really
really like the team colors! There’s no rhyme or reason, so as Willis Adams
said when we were in Grade 6, “Poop pamp Scoobie Doo!!!!!”
Willis and you’re picks will never make sense folks, so
here’s the best non-sensical, non-frenzical, didn’t-use-a-penci-cal breakdown
of each bracket!
Your picks no makey sensey? Me likey!
Trust me, I’ll make this as short as an acceptance speech at
the Oscars…..I’ll frantically make as many picks I can once the band starts
playing.
But first some trendy trends:
- There is no clear cut favorite this year like last year’s
Kentucky Wildcats who had a stronger line-up then an episode of ER in 1996!
This is evident in how most teams that received the #1 ranking on the Monday of
each week, proceeded to lose their next game. It was like a shitty Pac-12 game
this year where no one wanted to keep the #1 seed as no Pac-12 team wanted to
win a game with any sense of quality basketball or freaking talent for that
case.
- However, there is a chunk of teams that are in the Faves
Zone. They have the ingredients, the depth, the coaching and the know how to
make a run. But every single team in the Faves zone are capable of putting up a
big honker on any game. It’s the biggest “Any Given Sunday” year in College
hoops history as “on any given day, any given team can win”……to a point though,
we’re not expecting a #16 seed to beat a #1 seed, as some Fox Sports
hack-writer suggested about #1 Gonzaga losing to #16 Southern
Here’s what we’ll say to that Fox Sports hacko-wacko on his
Gonzaga take! Click below:
And if you want the insight on the conferences,The Big Ten is King! 5 of the 7 teams that
qualified are legitimate National Title contenders in Indiana, Michigan State,
Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan! The Big East has the most teams in the
tourney with 8, but only two have a legit shot in Louisville and Georgetown.
Marquette has sleeper pick written all over dem though. There’s some
scrappiness coming outta the Mountain West Conference with their surprising
amount of 5 teams. They’ll surprise everyone because no one paid attention to
them this year. There’s some scrappiness from the Big 12 as well, but the
biggest tank job is letting five Pac-12 teams into the Big Dance. I watched a
lot Pac-12 games this year and although there were close games and exciting
endings, the quality of basketball was as bad as the UConn-Butler National
Title game a couple years back! Bee-rutal! Full of brutality the Pac-12 is this
year.
One huge gut hunch I feel is what will rise to the top will
be teams deep in athletic bigs. There are teams that have 3-4 bigs that can
play versatile hoops as 2-guards or slashing wings, not to mention banging in
the paint like Ryan “Turpentine” Paulsen! There will be upsets and wins due to
being hot from 3-point land, but having these versatile bigs like Outhet Player
of Year, Kelly Olynyk will make a difference, as well as Wisconsin’s plethora
of slashin’ bigs that can call shoot the trey.
Enough chit chat, lets get to the Region by Region Smack!
MIDWEST REGION:
My initial take is that this seems to be the bracket where
the Top 4 seeds will make it to the Sweet 16. There seems to be one bracket a
year that pans out with minimal upsets. So #1 Louisville, #2 Duke, #3 Michigan
State and #4 St. Louis should have some epics games against each other. Louisville is deep and keep an eye on
Chase Behanan, he’s a game changer. Duke
has no foot speed to counteract opponents drives to the hoop, but lucky for
Duke Head Coach, Koach Krusty-the-Clown-ski and the most hated college
basketball player of all time, Assistant Coach, Steve Wojo-never-was-any-good-ski
there is not many teams in this bracket that can run as fast as a crowd of Patrick
Ewing’s running to the Gold Club. Michigan
State has the Izzo Factor as always with great guards that made shaky plays
late in games lately, but Izzo will fix that before tip-off on Thursday. St. Louis is peaking at the right,
winning the scrappy Atlantic-10 Tourney using the inspiration of the memory of
legendary Head Coach, Rick Majerus’ death in the preseason. St. Lou is quite
disciplined and run a typical Majerus meticulous game plan to a tee.
Some other teams/players to watch out for is tonight’s
winner, St. Mary’s with All-Adolph
First Teamer, Matthew Dellavadova willing the Gaels to a win and can negate Memphis’ strong backcourt in the second
round.
Also, there is the Creighton
squad with Doug McDermott who is the most versatile bigs in the nation as
Creighton has offensive sets where McDermott will play all 5 positions during
various sets. Stop the McD and you stop Creighton, and with Coach K’s game
planning, they’ll probably lose to Duke, as they have the similar lack of foot
speed as Duke.
The 8/9 game with Colorado
State v. Missouri should have Colly
State’s bigs crush Mizzou’s overrated guard play from Phil Pressey.
WEST REGION:
This is Gonzaga’s year!
It’s gotta be! They have the point guard in Kevin Pangos. And great wing in
Elias Harris. Kelly Olynyk came outta no where for everybody (except Paulsen,
Commish, and Kevin Brechin!) to become this year’s Outhet Player of the Year.
But the Zag’s always get a bums rush for being the mid-major school . There was
hesitance in ranking them #1 during the season as they should have been #1 two weeks
before they were named. Plus not many pundits recognize their killer
non-conference sked. Not many people realize that Gonzaga approaches many big
name schools for lucrative non-conference games and they say no to the Zags. Is
it Gonzaga’s fault that a KU will say no to coming into KU’s gym for a killer
game? God knows that nobody will go to the Kennel to play the Zags! Bottom
line, this is the deepest Zags squad since John Stockton’s butt-crack in his
80’s nutter-shorts!
The current bums rush is that Gonzaga is paired with the
second most bum-rushed team in Wisconsin.
All Wisky has done this yearis
answer the bell in all their Big Ten games! They’ve run through the gauntlet
all season and couldn’t get past #20 ranked in the county. And now a #5 seed?
They’re freaking a Top 5 team overall! Trust me, when Wisconsin is playing at
all cylinders, they’re arguably the best team in the nation. Look for the
winner of the Gonzaga v. Wisconsin Sweet 16 match up to be the West Region’s
Final Fo’ representative
Other takes:
There are a lotta Stay-Puft softies in this region with Notre Dame, Arizona and Ole Miss. Ole
Miss’ scoring threat, Marshall Henderson is the 2013 All-Hick Punk Team. The
roster is one deep, and he’s it. Kid plays Jerry Springer
trailer-park-trash-guest angry and will shoot Ole Miss in the foot come crunch
time.
The possible match up between a great Steve Alford coached New Mexico and Ohio State will be a well-disciplined defensive blood-bath game.
Ohio State studs DeShawn Thomas and Aaron Craft have been flat relative to
their season’s last year, but Craft especially has picked it up especially on
the defensive end.
Wichita State/Pitt will
be a great 8/9 game as both teams have great pieces but an incomplete puzzle.
Big ups to Kansas
State’s Bruce Weber for his first year coaching job. Illinois was
ridiculous in letting him go.
SOUTH REGION
Oh man, this region has so many upsets in any round that can
happen. Look closely at Akron and Tubbysota (AKA Minnesota) to possibly
make Sweet 16 runs based on their draws.
The Insanity Report Staff always loves KU but their stud, Ben McLemore remains inconsistent and Bill Self
hasn’t unleashed Elijah Johnson’s shooting guard prowess since his Iowa State
30-pt performance.
UNC oddly enough
could be ripe for upsetting KU is a great traditional powerhouse 2nd
round match up. UNC’s Roy Williams has a lot of work to do long term, with the
direction of his recruiting and lack of defense going on for the past 6-7
seasons, but the short term changes he made with a higher 3-pt shooting,
smaller line up could strike lightning. It’s all up to Bill Self to unleash
Elijah though.
Michigan has the
most talented player in the nation in Trey Burke, but there’s a hunch on the
Wolverines for not being a big game-james team. Just a hunch from the games I
saw this year. They have great guards but really young bigs. They may have
peaked early in January as perhaps Florida
did. The Gators’ Joey Gabrick-dirty D has fizzled and their offense seems
to be inconsistent, which is evident in losing in the SEC Final to Trailer Park
Henderson. Tubbysota’s size, especially in Trevor Mbakwe could over take the
Gators.
This is Georgetown’s
region for the taking in my eyes. Otto Porter will become a household name this
month, ala Derrick Williams from Arizona 2 years ago. Plus, their passing and
somewhat consistent defense has a good draw to the Final Four as the many
anticipated upsets should bode well for JTIII’s Ahoy-Hoyas!
EAST REGION
This region is stacked with great teams which doesn’t bode
well for the upset bug we all crave. Indiana
has fizzled as of late with an early exit in the Big Ten tourney and some
late regular season losses, but Outhet Player of the Year Runner-up, Victor
Oladipo will pick his super-quick game up and unleash the Hoosiers toward a
Final 4 birth. Indiana Head Coach, Tom Crean has had a week to game plan and
motifizate his team towards the resurgence Hoosier-nation has been waiting for
since the early 90’s.
There are some compelling match ups in the bottom draw with Marquette and The U primed for an epic Sweet 16 match up. Miami has had a great
ACC run this year despite the smoke-screen of a weak ACC, but they’re for real!
Just ask Uncle Luke! Marquette just surprises everybody every year and their
work ethic will rise to the top. Midnight will strike in the Regional Final v
Indiana though.
Colorado is the
only Madness quality team from the Pac-12 in the tourney. They should overtake an inconsistent Illinois team led by All-Spaz Coach
John Groce.
Butler/Bucknell
is a great match up as Bucknell is a perennial Patriot League representative in
the Madness as Butler has their Madness mojo as well, despite coming into the
tourney flat.
The ‘Cuse/UNLV second
round match up will a blood bath of epic proportions. Sryracuse has a talented
squad this year, playing Jim Boeheim’s typical 2-3 zone. I think they have the
pieces that would be more dangerous in a Bill Raftery man-to-man. UNLV freshman
Anthony Bennett is humongous!!!! He could bust out for the Madness!
That’s it! As my previous 5-6 performance in the Insanity
Pool has shown, my takes as hopfully entertaining are as reliable as Daniel
English showing up for a treatment. So how do you make your picks? Trust your
hunches. Make ‘em with no inclination of logic whatsoever! As Willis Adams
would say, just Poop Pamp the shit outta it!
I hope youre all ready!!!! There's a great First Four game on tonight with St Mary's v. Middle Tennessee
Middle Tenn State gotta big mid major vote of confidence by being named as an at-large bid over other major conference middle goers like Kentucky and Tennessee. (so is Tennessee Volnteers referred to as Tennessee Tenneseee or Central Tennesee? I'm confused.....) Middle Tennesse had a 17 game win streak in a weak Sun Belt Conference but it was enough to get the nod despite a lot of close games in this weak conference.
Wins are wins but St Marys has had tight wins as well in a tougher West Coast Conference vs. BYU and have great experience vs the true #1 team in the nation, Zags.
Middle Tenn can go deep in the bench and are so chalk full of seniors that they qualify for the Moons Over Mihammy discount at Dennys.
St Marys has size in the blocks to match up with Middle Tenn and have an advantage defensively and from Cass Knievel country hitting the treys. Gotta give the coaching edge to St. Marys too. St. Mary's has seniors as well and their experience extends past the Dennys discount towards uptown all the way to the IHOP on Broadway!!!!! (oh wait, Dennys is on Broadway too......:-S ). St. Mary's has one factor that would make the franchise owner change Denny's into Delly's! And that mofo's is the Delly Factor!!!!
St Marys senior point guard Matthew Dellavadova is one of the funnest players to watch play hoops since the slashing Amy Jonkers!
The Delly Factor is the determining factor because he shows Kobe like determination and can carry St Marys on his shoulders. He'll slash to the rim, hit treys and hustle on defense like a '70's David Cowen!
The Insanity Staff is all over St Marys even with their 3-pt spread tonight, but if you can catch the game you will thoroughly be entertained by Matthew Dellavadova's hustle, determination and daunting mouthguard flow!
I feel the Delly Factor can overcome Middle Tennesse's 13 junior/senior experience squad and make a run v an over-rated Memphis, but one game atta time as dey say!
Stay tuned for a further breakdown of the tourney.
These games don't count for your bracket deadlines, so you know. The deadline for your picks is Thursday by first game tip-off approx. 9:00 AM PST
Get your research on, and start making those sick excuses for Thursday and Friday. I told work I'll be indisposed this week due to my ravenous bite! The Insanity will bite me and the only antidote is 12 c.c's (AKA hours) of Madness!
Enjoy Delly tonight!
Yours in Madness,
Commish A-Dish!
Here's Delly at work! Check out his celebration after the hoop! He's jacked full of a Delly's Moon's Over Mi-hammy for sure!
Alright party people, welcome to another year of crazy
Madness as we haven't had to wait until March this season. The Madness has been in full force since late December with the curse of
the #1! It seemed that no team wanted the #1 ranking, since they’d lose the
next game after receiving the #1 ranking on the Monday of that week. There's no clear cut favorite but rather teams with the ingredients for a deep a run, but this years teams are in heavy "Any Given Sunday" mode as on any day even a team like TCU can smoke a powerhouse like KU. (Breaks my heart saying that, but it was true)
The
conferences are top heavy with an amazing Big Ten and above average Big East
and surprising ACC. However, the Pac-12 is an absolute joke. The play in that conference is so low that Bobby Knight would even strangle Lew Alcindor. The SEC only has Florida; don’t
be fooled by Mizzou (too small) and the Big 12 is so up and down where even KU
had a 3 games losing streak.
Here’s a quicky post to wet your whistles out there in
Bracketville. Enjoy this week’s big conference tournies and get those straight
jackets to the dry cleaner cuz the Madness looks like the announcing ghost of
Gus Johnson would go into solitary confinement!
Watching some college hoops right as this report is getting
made, we all on The Insanity Staff in Conference Room B on the 33rd
Floor of the Insanity Tower miss Gus Johnson like no other but at least we have Mike
Gminski color commentating or is that Will Farrells Harey Carey character?? Zags
win Zag’s win!!!
Mike "Harey Carey" Gminski
Here’s the All-Adolph Top Ten team ranking, and as always
eff the current rankings. These are the top ten teams that have an actual
chance to cut down the nets in Phat-lanta.
GONZAGA BULLDOGS
They have their deepest teams in years led by the greatest
superstar in their “Cinderella” history in Kelowna-born and Outhet Player of
the Year favorite Kelly Olynyk. Kelly is the most versatile 7-footer since Gheorghe
Muresan’s performance in “My Giant”. The type of season he’s having is getting
him to a lot of all-star teams, such a unanimous 1st Team All-Adolph team
selection and the All-Ugly-As-Sin Team!
The Bulldogs have one of the most versatile line-ups in the
nation with Kelly’s strengths, and their All-Clutch point guard, Kevin Pangos.
He can hit treys all the way from his hometown in Newmarket! Right up the 400
dare!
Elias Harris is a shadow of his freshman self, but his
veteran experience at forward is a perfect compliment to Olynyk and Pangos who will be taking the big shots. Kelly and Kevin say "you're welcome Elias!"
The Bulldogs have depth at guard and forward, and have
proven that they can win on the road and in their hellacious non-conference
sked. There’s way more takes for Zag’s but the Insanity Report Staff is just
giving y’all a taste. First one’s free, then the next one will cost you yo
straight jacket plaaayaaa!!!
INDIANA HOOSIERS
The Hoooze have just as a versatile and deep line-up as
Gonzaga. They have two quality points guards in Jordan Hulls who is McCarrell-accurate from three, and freshman Yogi Farrell whose game is years above his
freshman experience. He reminds the Insanity Report Staff of a McCarrell kid
dominating the Salem girls hoops scene.
Phenom shooting guard, Victor Oladipo is fighting Kelly
Olynyk for Outhet Player of the Year this year as he is as lightening quick as Dave
Adolph eating a plate of salt-n-pepper wings.
Super Sophomore Center, Tyler Zeller is another versatile
7-footer who is lightning quick for a big running the lanes. But he can get
susceptible to being out-physical-ed like his getting owned by Minny’s Trevor
Mbakwe 2 weeks back. Check it out! Expoooowh-zed Zeller!
The Hoosiers need their wing/forward Christian Watford to
score above 15 points, as when he does, the Hoosiers are a lock to win.
Indiana’s has some bad losses as of late, but they have the ingredients for a
deep run in the Madness.
FLORIDA GATORS
They live but don’t die by the trey. They can shoot it quite
well especially with Kenny Boynton always on the flight deck ready to take off every game!
They have quality bigs in Patric Young and Mike Rosario. But the Gator defense
is capable of giving up scores as low as the mid-30-40’s! They’re defense is
more suffocating than a Joey Gabrick fart!!!! So look out for the Gators, they are
under-rated coming out of a weak SEC!
GEORGETOWN HOYAS
They’ve come back down to earth after a lengthy win streak
in Big East play a couple weeks back. Otto Porter is an amazing athletic
passing forward making the Hoyas the most exciting Princeton-style offense in
history, which is not saying much with this style of offense. With that being
said it is pretty to watch all 5 players pass the ball so great.All 5 starters distribute the ball like a UBC
parking stiff distributing parking tickets. They’ve had games where all 5
starters have 3-4 assists each. Great teamwork by the Georgetown A-hoy-hoyas
KANSAS JAYHAWKS
It pains me to say this, but KU has many ingredients to be a
dominant team, but they're mixed as well as chasing a shot of JD with milk! Ben
McLemore has the capability to go off, but in between these all-star efforts,
he is invisible. It's completely unfathomable that's he's slated as the #1 pick in this year's NBA draft!!!!! Center, Jeff Withey is Stay-Puft Marshmallow Soft. And by
marshmallow, he is march-maahhl-owwwee soft. He is no gate-keeper nor
key-master! We like Kevin Young’s all hustle spaz energy, but with it comes
well-intentioned yet spazzy mistakes. The x-factors of all x-factors is if
coach, Bill Self takes the point guard handcuffs off super senior, Elijah
Johnson! He’s a true shooting guard that could go Kevin McCarrell on your bracket! Coach Self, let Johnson go off! Rock Chawk the shit outta that Jayhawk, will you Self!!!
MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS
You know how a lot of teams name their court after
long-tenured coaches? That is so below MSU Head Coach, Tom “to the” Izzo! MSU should
be referred to as IU: Izzo U! Done no worry about their quality players and
typical Izzo rough and tumble rebounding, just expect a well-coached Izzo run
deep into the Madness sunset once again. Oh shiz-nat, I just jinxed them!
That’s just it about the Izzo, the m-effer’s unjinxable! Go Spartans!
WISCONSIN BADGERS
They have been truly insulted with their ranking being in the low
20’s all year despite their hellacious Big Team sked. They have had as many
quality wins especially in mid January when they went through the gauntlet.
They have the rare 4 out, 1 in set where most players are big and tall but can
shoot the trey. They always bring the Bo Ryan work ethic but still rely on the
trey too much.
DUKE POO DEVILS
Gotta admit, they showed up UNC big time last night. The
return of Ryan Kelly obviously made a difference. His return gives some added presence in the paint with senior, Mason Plumlee. But the Poo Devils have
little foot speed at all positions to guard the penetration or to take it to the tin
themselves. They rely on planting the puppies and living and dying by the
three. Plus, their dominance over UNC was against a team that is truly
disappointing this year. Disappointing enough that I don't even want to get started on the Tar Heels. Just shameful! But with Ryan Kelly back, they have more muscle in the paint that Ryan "Turpentine" Paulsen would be concerned about!
MICHIGAN WOLVERINES
They have the same talent as a Gonzaga or Indiana, but young
forwards and All-Adolph 1st Teamer Trey Burke. Burke has amazing
talent, maybe tops in the nation, but there is a concern on how he’ll perform
in a Big Ten Tourney game or a Madness game. It's just a Commish hunch. Tim Hardaway Jr. also mails it in
occasionally. Coach John Beilein always preaches mean defense though.
LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
They limped into the Big East tourney last year to win 4
games in 4 days in winning the Big East Tourney to make a semi-Cinderella run to the Final 4 last year. Last
year’s Insanity Crew personally saw Louisville win two games in Portland in the
1st/2nd round and were not impressed thinking they’d
tank. This year’s Louisville Cardinals has most of the same players from last year, which on
paper, they are always a threat but their guards Siva and Smith can pull a KU
Ben McLemore act. The Cardinals can either remind the Insanity Staff of a quality performance
ala the VCU Pep Band from Portland, or.....
(for those UBC Football players, the
saxophonist is not Ford Marcotte):
(Once again, these guys were a huge part of the Madness experience last year!)
.....or they could pull off a Homer Simpson Saxa-ma-phone performance. We'll see in a couple weeks where the cards land for Louisville.......
OTHER TEAMS TO LOOK FOR:
MARQUETTE EAGLES GOLDEN EAGLES
They will outwork you like they have 12 Greg Sales on the
roster! Watch out for them, they are a well coached team. They bring the hustle
and thunda incorporating Head Coach, Buzz Williams Thundamentals!
MIAMI HURRICANES
Yes, they have talented players especially in Barry Larkins
son. What’s his name? Who cares, he’ll be “Barry Larkin’s son” until he
delivers in the Madness, so here’s your chance suuuuu-on! Plus The U is
overrated because of their sweeps of a brutal UNC and slow-footed Poo Devil
squad.
Again, this one is relatively short, the Insanity Staff is
hard at work on their own Bracketology. Stay tuned for updates on the 15th
Annual March Madness Insanity Pool! Stay crazy San Diego!
Three games at the same time today was great practice for the necessary flipping skills needed for March Madness!
Firstly a contested game with Oregon outlasting UCLA today at Pauley Pavilion. Bottom line with UCLA is that Head Coach is leading the And-1 Mix Tape Team of the NCAA! They're chalk full of talent and equally lacking the needed discipline to make any noise in the Pac-12. For every one fantastic score or effort by UCLA there is 2 or 3 lazy and effortless plays. Case in point a killer drive and dunk by UCLA was immediately followed by an Oregon dunk three seconds later as UCLA was too busy punching their chests and, as Paulsen says, doing their best Terrell Owens impression of, "Love me a lot of me"
UCLA freshman stand out Muhammed was taken out of the starting line up due to being late for a team meeting. Oregon was patient and took advantage of easy hoops for an easy victory today.
Then there was the most electrifying two hours of the day with Syracuse stealing a road win outta KFC Yum Center v. Louisville. The second half was a flat out street fight! Both sides playing suffocating defense yet the other team grinding out contested treys and garbage hoops in the paint. It was a classic mano a mano Big East matchup!
Louisville slipped in the last minute with two costly turnovers that show their vulnerability while being a Top 5 quality team.
Finally a classic MVC match up with Wichita State eeking out a three point dub at home to Creighton. The Shockers are gonna be scary if Carl Hall is their friggin sixth man. He brought his hard hat and lunch bucket and outlasted Greg McDermott and the Creighton Blue Jays.
McDermott is the real deal but lack of guard play may hinder a deep run for Creighton.
Many apologies folks...it's late January and nary a College Hoops take....so here's one to get things started.
First off, wide open year this year. Anybody's ball game. Indiana and Louisville are in the next level zone by themselves but there is little separation from the peloton from teams like Florida's batty defense, Syracuse's/KU's depth and Michigan's backcourt. Have no fear College Crazy's as this bike race is infused with Rabid fans, Rabid Vitales and Pure 100% Madness ala the ending of the St Mary's at BYU game earlier this week:
There is no 14 year contrived fairy tale filled with lies, livestrong hypocrisy and needles in the bum. Just pure unadulterated Madness! The NCAA saves the hypocrisy for Football however, but back to Madness......
How great is that!?!? Dellavedova giving us some early Madness, although a lot left to be desired by the play-by-play announcer with the awkward pause after the buzzer beater. Hey ESPNU Slug, put the headset down and head back to Gus Johnson U!
St Mary's Madness mixes in well with the gambling Madness that Iowa State at Kansas demonstrated this past week as well. Iowa State, a 12 point dawg at KU, is winning by a good chunk looking to be a an easy cover on the road. But alas young Straight-Jacketeteers, KU hits a buzzer beater to the game to send to overtime. KU goes up by 15 in OT looking like they'll cover, only to have Iowa State to eventually backdoor cover. Betting Madness!!
Here's some quick takes for today's games:
Nebraska +4 at Penn State: this game has already tipped off. Nebraska has a new coach and a new scrappy attitude. They covered easily on the road at the Izzone losing by 10 to Michigan State with an 18-pt spread. i've kept track of their results and they keep it tight v. the big teams, while Penn State is still reeling from loss of all star starters 2 years ago with no recruiting class to rebuild with and a new Coach. At time of posting, Penn State was up by 5 just before halftime.
Kansas -9 @ Texas: KU's Bill Self has this team with no bonafide superstar but depth coming outta the Fog's ears! Ben McLemore is carrying this deep squad with great road victories to speak of. Texas is reeling with no Myck Kabongo still serving his bogus suspension and Head Recruiter, Rick Barnes is calling out players for lack of play. I'm laying ched on this game as all signs point to KU and the betting handicappers blessed it with a non double-digit home dawg spread. The Betting Gods would taser me from Mount Spreadlympus if I didn't bet this!
Purdue -4 vs. West Virginia: The Huggy Bear is reeling with a barely .500 Mountaineers this year. They have lost to pretty much every big-name and somewhat-big-name team on their sked. I put Purdue in my parlay but not any single units since there is little scout on the Boilermakers.
Fantastic game to watch for fan purposes will be Creighton at Wichita State! K-Smack what's a Shocker? I don't get it! Creighton is lead by McDermott and the Shockers always offer up rough nose bangin in the blocks!
Syracuse +7 @ Louisville: Louisville came into the year over-valued from their Final 4 run last March and with most major players returning except for their 3-pt shooters. However, Gorgui "The Shot Blocking Fui" Dieng is a menace in the paint and PG Peyton Siva has turned the "Guys named Peyton Corner" along with Manning in that he can deliver as a killer. The Cuse is deep as usual, and 7 points seems too much to give this huge Big East match-up!
Some more takes: Michigan State has started off well this year with great point guard play from Keith Appling, but right when we thought the drama era was over with the likes of Chris Allen and Korie Lucsious gone, but Adrien Payne and Branden Dawson had playing time cut by the Izzo after a hotel fight earlier in the week. Come on players! Know what you got in the Izzo.....just play damn it! He'll take you to the Final 4 Promised Land if you drop the E! True Hollywood Story making and start with the Hard Hat-Lunch Bucket-Blood-Sweat-n-Tears making!
Gonzaga @ Butler tonight! Gonna be epic. The biggest blind side since an Apollo Creed hook to Rocky's bad left eye, is Gonzaga big man Kelly Olynyk! After a year being mishandled by Mark Few, Kelly is busting out with 30 point games and unstoppable offense! He's a match up problem for teams with a wing game in a 7-foot body! Gonzaga has size with Elias Harris, Sam Dower and Big Poland, Przemak "The Prisimatic" Karnowski. Plus they're led by their little Bulldog PG in Kevin Pangos! He'll hit clutch J's and long range treys err day in the Kennel and in yo Face!!!!!! The Butler this year is Trey city but offer little size outside of Andrew Smith. Gymrat, Rotnei Clarke is out for the Butler tonight, so Gonzaga should come with the win, but gonna just be a fan with these two Mid-Major-Major Powerhouses in historical Hinkle Fieldhouse!
