Day 3
Nebraska Makes History, Texas Makes Chaos,
Everyone Else Makes Blowouts
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Let's be honest: Day 3 was not exactly chaos theater. We got one real upset, one certified nail-biter, one Cinderella story getting bounced by a blue chip program, and a whole lot of blowouts. If your bracket needed fireworks today, you were mostly watching Michigan, Duke, Houston, and Illinois efficiently dispatching their opponents. But there WERE some moments.
First and foremost, though, let's look at the leader board:
At the top we have a dead heat between Bocephus Johnson and Olive the Basset, both at 253 points. Bocephus got there with a scorching R1 (171) and the best R2 score in the pool (82). Olive had an outstanding R1 of 182 and 71 in R2. And fun fact: these two brackets are owned by brothers who both chose to name their entries after their dogs. And here they are:
Your bracket may have been in the trash since Thursday, but at least you got to see the adorable dogs that inspired your demise. That's basically winning!
Anyhoo, MKaras314 is right behind at 252. Then there's a cluster at 239, including the delightfully named "Turn yer head to the left and Acuff" — an entry name that aged like fine wine after Darius Acuff Jr.'s 36-point night.
SoarinOverWDW led the entire pool after Round 1 with 202 points but a 46 in R2 has them settling for 4th at 248. Meanwhile, GUGS13 had only 162 in R1 but put up 73 in R2 (second-best R2 score) to jump to 9th at 235. George Gervin had 149 in R1 and then scored 73 in R2 to climb into a tie for 24th. The Iceman still has moves. The lesson: big Round 2 scores matter A LOT.
At the other end of the spectrum? Setting aside the just for fun BAD LUCK BRIAN bracket, the cellar is currently being held down by the ridiculously named Gators provide economic benefits through the ecotourism industry. Many take swamp hoops tours, in which the Florida Gator's are a featured WINNER! bracket. If they put as much effort into picking games as they did in the promotion of Florida's booming ecotourism industry, perhaps things would have gone better.
THE CELEBRITY/ALTERNATIVE BRACKET REPORT
Let's check in on our alternative methodologies:
BUGS BUNNY: What's up, doc? Bugs Bunny is in the rankings, sitting at 9th overall at 235 points, and would be in the money if the tournament ended right now.
FAMOUS ALUMNI: 15th overall at 229. Doing genuinely well — has UCLA, UNC, and Purdue in the Final Four, meaning UNC not being in the Sweet 16 hurts. Still, 15th out of 314 is impressive for a methodology based on who graduated rather than who can play basketball.
JORDAN CHILES: 16th overall at 228. In a tournament that can often feel topsy turvy, the gymnast is outperforming most basketball experts.
JIMMY FALLON: 45th place, with more points than Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale.
STEPHEN A. SMITH: 85th at 207. Less yelling, more thoughful picking might be in order.
BRACKETOLOGIST JOE LUNARDI: 112th at 202. The man whose ENTIRE JOB is to predict this bracket is 112th. He is currently being beaten by BUGS BUNNY by 33 points.
ANDY KATZ: 200th at 187. Slowly crawling out of the depths of the leader board, but Andy had a Round 1 of only 130 — one of the lowest in the pool.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: 188th at 189. SImilar to Katz, the former presidenthas risen to 188th place. His R1 of 143 hurt him. He has Illinois, Iowa State, Duke, and Arizona in his Final Four — a sensible bracket that just didn't love him back.
METALLICA: 102nd at 204, but with a POSSIBLE of 634 — the highest remaining ceiling in the entire pool. If Houston, Purdue, Michigan, and UCLA all make the Final Four, METALLICA WINS THE MIMOSA POOL. Enter Sandman would be appropriate.
MASCOT BRACKET: 102nd at 204. Which means it's beating 2/3 of you.
DIEGO PAVIA: 162nd at 193. The Vanderbilt quarterback is 162nd in a basketball pool after watching his school get eliminated on a nearly-in-there buzzer heave. Rough weekend.
PUKA NACUA: Probably mathematically eliminated, but he still has more receiving yards than anyone in this pool.
THE GAMES, RANKED BY HOW MUCH YOUR HEART NEEDED IT
NEBRASKA 74, VANDERBILT 72 — THE ONE THAT WILL LIVE FOREVER
Nebraska had never won an NCAA Tournament game before Thursday. Never. The program — which plays in the Big Ten, mind you — was the last power conference school to still have a goose egg in the win column. They fixed that against Troy two days ago, and then Saturday night they did something even better: they went to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in school history, on a freshman's layup with 2.2 seconds left.
Vanderbilt's Tyler Tanner — who scored 27 and was absolutely magnificent — launched a half-court heave at the buzzer that hit the backboard, bounced off the front rim, rattled off the back rim, and tumbled out. Tanner said afterward he was certain it went in. How close was it to going in? Pretty freaking close -- start at 3:29...
If you're a Mizzou fan, this may look familiar -- Tanner lauched a similar near miss at the buzzer against the Tigers this season:
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg — whose son Sam plays on the team, because why not make this MORE of a movie — said the crowd was "unbelievable." Braden Frager, a freshman, will never pay for a meal in Lincoln again. And Fred Hoiberg is the only coach to take both Iowa State AND Nebraska to the Sweet 16, which tells you something about either his coaching genius or the chaos of the universe.
TEXAS 74, GONZAGA 68 — THE UPSET OF THE TOURNAMENT
Texas came in through the First Four, beat NC State, beat BYU, and then walked into the building and knocked out Gonzaga. The Longhorns have now won three games in five days. Texas has 11 NCAA Tournament wins as a double-digit seed — more than any program since seeding began in 1979. At this point, Texas just does this. They should seed themselves as an 11 by rule.
Sean Miller — Year 1 as Texas head coach — becomes the 10th coach ever to take three different programs to the Sweet 16. Meanwhile Mark Few contemplates whether a guy named Camden Heide just ended his season with a corner three.
ARKANSAS 94, HIGH POINT 88 — END OF A CINDERELLA STORY
High Point, who upset Wisconsin in Round 1, gave Arkansas everything it had. Rob Martin dropped 30 points and received a standing ovation from the Portland crowd. High Point chucked up 38 three-pointers. Thirty-eight. That is not a game plan, that is a philosophy.
Arkansas freshman Darius Acuff Jr. scored 36 points and personally scored seven consecutive points in the final three minutes. He joined Chris Paul as the only freshmen to begin their tournament career with back-to-back 20-point, 5-assist games since freshmen became eligible in 1973. John Calipari watches his freshman do something Chris Paul did and nods.
THE BLOWOUT PARADE
Michigan 95, Saint Louis 72: After SLU's dominating performance against Georgia, one would have expected a more competitive game. One would have been wrong. Yaxel Lendeborg — apparently nicknamed "Dominican LeBron" by a teammate — scored 25. The Billikens cut the lead to four before Michigan took control.
Michigan State 77, Louisville 69: Louisville star guard Mikel Brown Jr. was ruled out before the tournament even started with a back injury which clearly didn't help, but the game was never really in doubt.
Duke 81, TCU 58: Cameron Boozer had 19 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Son of NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, who won a national title at Duke in 2001. Cameron is a projected top-3 NBA Draft pick and the first freshman Sporting News Player of the Year since Zion Williamson in 2019. NBA fans questioned his draft stock after "only" 19 points, which is an unhinged thing to do.
Houston 88, Texas A&M 57: Houston's 7th straight Sweet 16.
Illinois 76, VCU 55: Illinois dominated the glass 45-29. Andrej Stojakovic came off the bench for 21 points. This was not a game so much as an administrative exercise.
THINGS OF NOTE
Only 4 perfect brackets remain in the entire nation. We started Day 3 with 224. Texas over Gonzaga slashed that to 27 in one shot. The four survivors all had Arkansas advancing and are now sweating.
"WTH is a Billiken anyway?" aged well as the Billikens lost by 23. As an aside, for those not from the STL area or otherwise familiar, a Billiken is an ancient good-luck charm sort of creature. It did not work Saturday.
LOOKING AHEAD
Michigan, Michigan State, Duke, Houston, Texas, Illinois, Nebraska, and Arkansas have all advanced as we look to finalize the Sweet 16 today. Enjoy the games!
-Jamie
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