Day 4

First off, my sincere apology to Tina Louise, who is not dead. The Times ran a story about her last week so I assumed the worst for the Gilligan's Island actress (who will not reveal her age but apparently is going strong at 91). The artcle focused on the fact that she tutors part-time at an elementary school in Manhattan and prefers not to talk about her most famous role. Fine, but what prompted the paper of record to run that story? Anyway, she is the only surviving cast member. The actress who played Mary Ann, Dawn Wells, died from COVID complications in 2020. Does anyone under 50 years old have any idea what I am talking about? It was the 70s, entertainment options were limited.

Coda. Mrs Notes split her childhood between New Jersey and Santiago de Chile. Some of the cultural touchstones of my youth are the same as hers; others she has no concept at all. I was curious if she was familiar with Gilligan's Island. Yep, she knew the theme song by heart. Moreover, she and her sister named their dolls Ginger and Mary Ann and they dressed up as the town and country castaways. So, which one was Mrs Notes? "Ginger, of course!". 😳 I better change sides. "But I think I aspired to be Ginger, but knew I was really Mary Ann". I'm so confused! Gen Z...you had to be there.

The national media is all over the fact that Pitino benched his best player, RJ Luis, down the stretch. Everyone agrees that he played a tragically poor game, but was his replacement (a little used freshman from Portugal) likely to do better? Interestingly, Luis is a junior - could the tournament benching lead to a transfer?

 A casual glance at our pool standings will reveal that, as much college hoops as I consume, a gambling savant I am not. However, the fact that balanced teams win in this tournament still stands. St John's was never good on the offensive end; that catching up to them was just a matter of time.

There are a lot of saints in this tournament:, St. John's, Mount St Mary's and Saint Mary's. The mother of Jesus made it twice! St Mary's is in the bay area of California. "The Mount", which is in Maryland, houses the largest Catholic seminary in the US.

Wisconsin was the best free throw shooting team in the country this season, by a lot. Collectively, 82% (which is insane). So it must have been excruciating for Badger fans to watch their team miss six big free throws down the stretch against BYU (including two front ends of one-and-ones). 

Trying to find something interesting to say about the Saturday Purdue and Tennessee games. I still got nothing.

I guess there's this: Purdue beat McNeese State and their miscreant lame-duck coach Will Wade. It was a tear-soaked locker room, which was just weird since Wade had already signed a contract with NC State. Apparently, we don't even pay lip service to loyalty in college sports these days.

The Big 10 is an impressive 10-1 (the lone loss being Wisconsin). The SEC also has 8 teams left in the tourney, but they started with 14.

The two conferences have only faced one another once this tourney so far, the Michigan win over Texas A&M.

His team lost, but I gave UConn no chance against Florida, the hottest team entering the tourney. UConn went on a 10-1 run spanning the halves to build a six point lead, which they maintained for most of the second half. The Huskies played tough defense against a team with a lot of weapons, including star point guard Walter Clayton, Jr. Down the stretch, Florida ratcheted up their defense and Clayton remembered he was an All-American (that in-your-eye 3 toward the end was dirty - he finished with 23). The Gators ended up winning by a bucket. It wouldn't have been that close if Florida hit their free throws (they missed a dozen). Critically, the Gators got a big rebound on a missed free throw down the stretch. Twice. That may have been the difference.

Walter Clayton, Jr. is a transfer from Iona, where he played for Rick Pitino. From Iona to first team All-American on a Final Four favorite. Welcome to the new age of college sports.

This is John Scheyer's third season at Duke. His first team won with defense, the second the opposite. This year would rise and fall based on the development of Cooper Flagg, the most complete talent to enter college since Zion. Scheyer would have to build around him and he didn't like the pieces returning for his team. So he ran almost all of them all off, including four former five-star recruits and seven players total. Notably, Tyrese Proctor was allowed to stay. Also of note, Jeremy Roach was not. He transferred to Baylor to team up with another freshman phenom, VJ Edgecombe. Roach averaged 14 a game a Duke, 43% from deep. There was no spot for him? Scheyer wanted to go big and long. Roach, at 6'2", didn't fit the mold. Sheyer says Roach will always be a Duke guy, but that's pretty cold. Roach's comments this week ("I did my four years, sacrificed a whole lot. It was just my time to go.") suggested that he will not be showing up at Blue Devil reunions. 

This one was over at the half. Baylor has Edgecombe and Roach and that's about it. And, yes, the Blue Devil's length bothered the Bears. Jeremy Roach had 7 points in his last college game. The Blue Devils won 89-66.

Flagg will go #1 in the draft. Edgecombe will go second or third. Edgecombe is competing for those spots with the two Rutgers kids. I've seen them up close and I don't get it. Granted, I sometimes get these things way wrong (I thought Chet Holmgren would be a bust), but I would take Edgecombe every time. [Editor's Note: Over the Rutgers guys not over Flagg; I'm not a complete idiot.] What the guys who do this for a living see in Dylan Harper escapes me. I'll return to the Rutgers kids and why Rutgers was terrible this season when the tourney calms down a bit.

Flagg had 18 points, 9 boards and 6 assists. Not a bad day at the office. He showed all the tools that have him starring in the dreams of NBA GMs.

Edgecombe with 16 points and 6 boards. 

Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivišić are basketball players from Croatia. They are fraternal twins, Tomislav is 7-1, Zvonimir is 7-2. They both like to shoot 3s. One person is responsible for them playing college hoops: Orlando Antingua. Antingua is famous for being the first Harlem Globetrotter who was not black (he's Dominican). Antingua eventually coached with Calipari at Memphis and Kentucky. He flamed out as head coach at South Florida and ended up as an assistant at Illinois. Everyone loves the guy, which is one reason he is one of the best recruiters in the business. Kentucky offered him almost a million a year to recruit for the Cats so he returned to the bluegrass. Antingua does well with international players; he identified Zvonimir and brought him to Kentucky. We couldn't pronounce his name, so we called him Big Z. There were eligibility issues, but when he finally played it was one of the most memorable debuts ever.

When Calipari went to Arkansas, Big Z followed him. Curiously, Orlando Antingua did not. He went back to being head recruiter at Illinois. Antingua immediately recruited Tomislav to play for the Illini. Do not, however, call him big T; he doesn't appreciate it.

Tomislav Ivišić is a better 3-point shooter than his brother. At least when he's playing my team. He hit 5 today (he took 12!). Illinois should be happy that Kylan Boswell showed up today. We could not stay in front of that guy, who torched us for 23. Fortunately, Kobe Brea, one of the best shooters in the game, showed up for us and also had 23. Balanced attack from the Wildcats. Nice to have our one-armed point guard back. Lamont Bulter had 14 points, 5 assists, 3 steals and a lot of pesky defense.

No team has ever made the Sweet 16 returning no points per game from last year. Kentucky just did.

Mark Pope, season 1: Victories over Duke, Gonzaga, Tennessee (twice), Florida and Louisville. Sixth in a brutal SEC. 3-seed in the tourney. Sweet 16 and counting. Not one NBA player on the roster (the McDonalds All-Americans arrive next year). Yea, I'm taking that.

Things were not going well for the Terrapins (unconventional mascot, but I like it). Deep into the second half and Colorado State had a lead. They couldn't maintain the double digit advantage from the first half, as Maryland slowly clawed themselves back into the game. Then the Rams went ice cold. The momentum swung to Maryland down the stretch, but CSU would not fold. With seconds reminaing, the Rams had the ball down two. Jalen Lake pulled up for a three that found the bottom of the net. One point lead with 3.7 seconds to go. Maryland got the ball to their star freshman big man, Derik Queen, who drove to the left of the lane and shot a right-handed 10-footer fading to the baseline with a hand in his face. Tough shot. It banked in as time expired. Game of the tournament so far.

Derik Queen is a local kid, from Baltimore.

Happy for Akiva and Christine, who I'm sure were living and dying with every Terps possession. I do have sympathy for CSU. They are a quality team and played their hearts out. Tough loss. Good ballgame.

Maryland coach Kevin Willard is the son of Ralph Willard, the former coach of Western Kentucky, Pitt and Holy Cross. Kevin has coached at Iona and Seton Hall. Father and son are both Pitino disciples. Kevin was hired to run the Maryland program in 2022. Recently, his name has been linked to the open Villanova job. Willard likes to build programs. He was at Seton Hall for a dozen years, turning down offers to go to bigger schools. Maryland is in the Big Ten, which is big time. But Maryland doesn't have the abundance of resources as most top-tier programs. Willard would like that to change. His comments this week haven't been subtle: “And really, the only way to do it in college athletics is put it in your contract. Because, if not, they’re going to lie to you. Unless it’s in your contract, they don’t do it." Yikes! A Sweet 16 is a pretty good bargaining chip for a new contract.

Thinking about you MSU fans. Tough game against Richard Pitino's Lobos. Impressive play putting this one away down the stretch.

Tough loss for Oregon. The Ducks came all the way back but couldn't get over the hump against Arizona. This one was for you Rafael - it’s late; maybe I’ll have more to offer in the morning.