March Madness – Sunday

Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings indicated that Houston was significantly underrated with a #5 seed. It seems he was right, at least to the extent that Houston had little trouble with #4 Illinois. Houston won the battle of the rebounds 39-33, despite the intimidating presence of the Illini’s monstrous big man, Kofi Cockburn, a first team All-American. Houston also won the turnover battle 9-17, and made six blocks to Illinois’ two. That set of numbers created 18 more opportunities for Houston than for Illinois, and they rode that to a 15-point win.

I can’t tell you whether that happened because Houston was underrated or because Illinois was overrated, because Illinois has been unimpressive in recent appearances. The Illini again shot poorly against Houston, posting a FG% in the 30s for the third consecutive game. Those three games provided an ignominious conclusion to what had been a good season. Despite having the top seed, they lost in their very first game of the Big Ten tournament, then they barely lucked out a win after being outplayed by unheralded Chattanooga throughout most of their first round game this weekend, then they got their asses handed to them by Houston today.

Sagarin was also on the money about Auburn. His calculations indicated that they were nowhere near good enough to be a #2 seed, and boy was he right about that. Miami led that game wire-to-wire, and the second half was a total blowout.

Miami surprised me. That is a well-coached team. They don’t commit any dumb fouls; they don’t turn it over; they hustle like mad on defense; they find the open man; they take smart shots. In their first tournament game against USC, they committed only three turnovers, while forcing 18 from the Trojans. Today’s game against Auburn was an instant replay. They committed four turnovers, while forcing 13. And they need to do all of those good things, because they don’t have much muscle, so they aren’t going to get many second chance baskets. They had only six offensive rebounds in the whole game today, compared to 17 for Auburn.

By the way, I’m not sure how those NCAA eligibility rules work, but Miami has some very old players. I mean these guys were reminiscing about how they first convinced James Naismith to cut a hole in the bottom of the peach basket so they wouldn’t have to climb up and get the ball after every score. They’re the only college guys who live in an assisted living dorm. I guess that explains why they don’t crash those offensive boards – they’re afraid of falling and breaking their hips. You think I’m kidding, and of course I am, but just barely. Charlie Moore and Kameron McGusty were freshmen in 2016! We kidded my cousin Walt because he took several years to get through college, but he seems like an accelerated student compared to these guys.

It was not a good opening weekend for the Big 10. They sent three first-team All-Americans into the Thunderdome. Three men enter – no men leave. All three of their teams lost. Since Kentucky also lost, only one of the five first-teamers will be in the sweet sixteen. (Ochai Ogbani of Kansas.)

Eight Big Ten teams made the tournament. Only two survived, including neither the two regular-season co-champs nor the winner of the conference tournament. The two that managed to survive were Purdue and the 11th-seeded Cinderella team from Michigan.

In addition to Michigan, three other teams advanced to the sweet sixteen with double-digit seeds – and one of them will make the elite eight for sure, because Iowa State and Miami will play each other in the next round. The fourth one, needless to say, is the 15th-seeded Double Dicks, who will take on Purdue next.

Teams to watch:

• North Carolina really seems to have their act together. I will not be surprised if they pull off yet another upset.
• Miami’s elderly squad plays solid basketball. They should make it to the elite eight if their trainer can keep them alive long enough.
• You GOTTA love the Jersey City Double Dicks. Can they beat Purdue? Why not? Hey, they beat fuckin’ Kentucky, man!