Day 4

After a Day 3 that at times was a fun as a root canal, it was refreshing to tune into a game that had actual pace. High quality play from both teams, at least on the offensive end. There were very few fouls called in this one - neither team reached the bonus in the second half; Colorado had only 3 fouls with 20 seconds to go in the game. Which was a problem because they were down two and needed to put Marquette on the line. It took 13.6 seconds of game time for the Buffs to commit the four fouls needed to put the Golden Eagles on the charity stripe. Joplin hit them both. Ballgame, 81-77. And a good one. Not a lot of defense in this one; can't say I missed it all that much.

The Buff's da Silva only 2 in the first, 15 in the second. Friday's hero, KJ Simpson, chipped in 20 (although it took 19 shots to get them).

Marquette's point guard, Tyler Kolek, was deadly with a little floater when he got in the lane. He finished with 21, all from within a few feet of the basket. Five Eagles finished in double digits.

Shaka Smart has his team in the Sweet 16 for the first time since he took over at Marquette in 2021. Smart did a decent job at Texas, but consistently under-achieved in the tournament (this is the first of his teams to make it out of the first weekend since 2011). That won't get it done, even at a football school. Smart's name is linked to some of the current job openings, but it seems like he's found a home in Milwaukee.

Way too much Zach Edey for the Aggies. The Boilermaker big man continued to stomp through the tourney with 23 and 14 in just 26 minutes. Utah State could not stop Purdue's offense, while generating none of their own. Utah State was also outrebounded 49-26. That's the recipe for a 39-point shellacking. This was Purdues 31st win of the season, the most ever for the program. Gonzaga up next for the Boilermakers.

Researching mascots was more fun that the Sunday late afternoon/early evening games. The Duke-James Madison contest was not close from the jump. Duke won 93-55 in a game only Christian Laettner could love. Duke shot over 50% from both 2 and 3. Freshman Jared McCain exploded for 30 (22 in the first half). He hit eight 3s and did not turn the ball over. 

The Carolina Triangle schools all make the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015.

The James Madison teams have been known as the "Dukes" since 1947 since. The name honors President Samuel Page Duke, who led the university from 1919 to 1949. This was just a name. There was no actual mascot until the 1970s when they decided that Dukes was a bulldog, which is called Duke Dog.

In 2007, Duke Dog was tackled by Chanticleer, the depressed chicken mascot from Coastal Carolina. A fight broke out between the two mascots. Someone trying to break it up was pushed to the ground by Duke Dog, who did not realize it was a police officer. I am not making any of that up.

Duke University was originally known as Trinity College. A major early benefactor of Trinity was Washington Duke, who made his money in tobacco. The college president recognized that there were several schools using Trinity so he change the name to honor Washington Duke and his son James B Duke. Their mascot is a Blue Devil. 

Dusquesne University is a Catholic school in Pittsburgh. It's original name was Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost. When the college transitioned to a university it re-named itself in honor of Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville, who established Fort Duquesne in the area now encompassed by Pittsburgh during the French and Indian War. Duquesne is credited with facilitating the first Catholic services in the area. The sports teams are known as the Dukes. 

A Duke is a member of royalty ruling over a duchy. In the hierarchy, they are below king. queen prince, princess and grand duke. The Duquesne mascot is a Duke. The James Madison mascot is a bulldog dressed up as a Duke. Obviously.

Alabama is all about offense. They better outscore you because they have no clue on defense. With the #1 offensive efficiency in college hoops, Alabama is a threat to hit triple digits on any given night. It was shocking, therefore, that the Tide had only scored 23 with 4:20 to go in the first half against Grand Canyon (which had only managed 18). Bama closed the half doing Bama things, scoring 15 to lead by 8 at the half. The second half was wild, by which I mean up and down and sloppy punctuated with jaw dropping individual efforts on both sides. 

Bama started missing at the rim while the Lopes willed the ball in through all kinds of contact. GCU finally took the lead with about 6 minutes left. Then the pendulum immediately swung the other way with Bama getting all the loose balls and finishing consistently on pick and rolls through traffic. Alabama holds off the upset bid, winning by 11.

GCU was a one-man show. Tyon Grant-Foster had 29 and 8. As usual, Mark Sears led Alabama, stuffing the box score with 26 points, 12 boards (he's 6-1!), 6 assists and 3 steals.

Grand Canyon is coached by Bryce Drew, NCAA hero at Valparaiso (check out the video - it never gets old) and former coach at his alma mater and Vandy. After going winless in SEC play in 2019, Drew was fired and replaced by Jerry Stackhouse (who was just fired himself - Vandy also took a run at Dusty May). I actually think Bryce Drew got a raw deal in Nashville. Grand Canyon thought similarly, and immediately signed Drew to a 6-year $16 million contract.

Grand Canyon is the only for-profit school in NCAA Division I. Phoenix seems to be the epicenter of profit-seeking higher education for some reason. University of Phoenix, which is almost completely virtual, is a degree mill churning out well over 1,000,000 graduates to date. You and I are subsidizing those degrees as Phoenix consistently ranks among the recipients of the most Federal student aid and loans, particularly GI Bill funds.

Grand Canyon has higher aspirations. They have an actual campus in Phoenix where 20,000 attend classes. An additional 80,000 take classes exclusively on-line (that’s mind boggling), making Grand Canyon the largest Christian university on the planet. Grand Canyon desperately wants the legitimacy of being acknowledged as non-profit, but the education department (under both Trump and Biden) refuses to recognize them as such. The fact that Grand Canyon Education Inc. is traded on the Nasdaq might have influenced the decision.

Grand Canyon’s operating budget is over a billion dollars a year (let that sink in) and their hoops team is raising their profile, so why do they care about non-profit status? It actually has as much to do with taxes as legitimacy. College campuses take up a lot of space and large tracts of urban land owned by a publicly traded company generate huge tax liabilities. Indeed, Grand Canyon pays 8 figure property tax bills, the highest in Phoenix. The more I read about Grand Canyon, the less I like it (and am seriously amazed that the NCAA sanctions them).

That said, they sure have some dedicated fans. A bunch of them made the trip to Spokane for the games and they had a watch party in what appeared to be a full arena in Phoenix. The fans do coordinated dances at timeouts and some of the male fans actually wear shirts. They also are known as the Antelopes (or Lopes), which is a cool mascot. So they got that going for them.

GCU is a new school that has been DI for only a few years. And yet the home game atmosphere rivals Kansas or Duke. The reason is Grand Canyon doesn't prioritize donors. Students get the best seats and a tail gate area outside the arena encourages a party vibe. Alcohol is not condoned (the campus is dry) but it apparently is tolerated.

Baylor's Scott Drew (brother of GCU's Bryce Drew) runs a players first program. Meaning, his guys have a permanent green light. Which can lead to the kind of night turned in by Bears guard Ray Dennis. He had 27. But it took 21 shots to get them including 2-10 from deep. A lot of those 3s were heat checks. This just in: he was not hot. After the opening minutes, Clemson took control and maintained a lead that hovered around double digits. Baylor came back to make it interesting. But they completely lost discipline in the last minute, throwing up some questionable 3s (see Dennis, Ray although he wasn't the only one). Clemson pulls the upset, 72-64.

Baylor loses in the second round for the third straight year. That 2021 title trophy is still shiny, but Scott Drew would not be on my short list to run a major program (that may or may not be in the Bluegrass state).

The Huskies led Northwestern 40-18 at the half.  Ouch!  They let up in the second, actually getting outscored by five. But this one was never close to in doubt. Tristen Newton with 20 points and 10 assists for Connecticut; Clingan with 14 and 14 plus 8 blocks.

With a 1:26 to go, Houston was up 10. From that point on you would never guess that the Cougars are known as a disciplined, defense-first team. They gave up a long 2, a 3 and fouled on another 3. A&M had the ball down 3 with 14 seconds to go. Wade Taylor missed 3 shots but the Aggies ended up with the ball out of bounds with 2 seconds left on the clock. Andersson Garcia got an open look from deep, fumbled the ball, and then nailed a 3. Overtime. Epic fail Houston.

A&M kept it interesting but ultimately succumbed by 5 in a hard fought contest, 100-95. 

Houston had four players foul out; A&M two.