Cool Hand Lucroy

They certainly surprised me. A lot of people got introduced to Robert Martin, future pro, this weekend.

Good call. Even Indiana's coaching carousel shows how tough it is to sustain S16 success. Or look at Kentucky totally turning on Cal, who's now entering his second straight S16. My goodness, Rick Barnes gets this chatter all the time. In CBB, everyone always wants you to win one more game. If Gard had made three S16s in the last four years, people would be talking about how he couldn't win the big one for failing to get to E8s and FFs. I mean, Nebraska fired Tim Miles and hired Hoiberg, who took...SEVEN YEARS to get that program to where it is now. I'd rather Wisconsin not have the toxic culture of Indiana.

Oh yeah. I'm with you. Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Bo would have absolutely been of that list.

100 to all of this. I'll add the BYU game last year, where you just run into a team firing on all cylinders, a team with Richie Saunders in peak form (if he's healthy on this year's BYU, that's a title contender), and you play probably a B game overall. But you hang in and are right there at the end. What are you gonna do? That's this tournament. It happens to everyone! Badgers are fine. I even think this year Gard got a team to get A LOT better over the course of a season. That's a new trick, at least in terms of the amount of improvement. I wish the GG detractors would at least recognize how much that guy has adapted. He never seems to think he has it all figured out, and that flexibility doesn't get headlines. It's also a fantastic quality in a coach (and, usually, a person).

You're not wrong to say Bo has a much more successful NCAAT resume than Gard. Gard isn't Bo. I don't think anyone is arguing that. If you take a look around CBB teams like Wisconsin everywhere are struggling. Look at the Big East. Heck, look at the ACC. Power is consolidated at the very top of two leagues, and everyone else is chasing and hoping to get a nice draw in the tournament. Gard has kept UW hoops relevant. That's not going to get a lot of credit. But it is MASSIVE given how the sport has changed. You can't fairly compare Bo and Gard because there's no way Bo thrives in this landscape. The "built by Gard" thing is also a bit of a dodge. I get it. But Gard took over a roster in compete turmoil (that team lost to Western Illinois!) and had them within a possession of an Elite Eight. Obviously, everyone wants a Sweet 16. For the Badgers, that's always the goal. But it's so hard to do that, and all Gard has done is put the team in the best spot to achieve in every year but a couple. Given how this could've gone, this is like an 85th percentile outcome.

These are are juicy tidbits. Love it! Would not be surprised at all if there's more to the story than "nobody would play us." I want more of these good mid/high major games, but getting them requires breakong orthodoxy on all sides. Gottlieb just feels like a publicity hire, but the GB team got better as the year went on. That's something, I guess.

Broken clocks for me. High Point looked like a dud. But part of the fun is being shocked, right? Been an above-average tournament so far. Still missing some real Cinderella spice, but maybe Utah State does something crazy today. That would probably be the closest thing. One of these years a 1-4 seed will lose on the first round again. Never expand the tournament! (But I am sure we are headed to at least 72 next year).

High Point very impressive. Johnston had a couple rim out with under 3 to go that would've given HPU the lead. Those were the shots that went in against the Badgers. That's the way the ball bounces. Nebraska-Vandy delivered. Wow. What a final sequence. No timeouts. Fluid. Trading buckets. Then the near miss. Happy for Hoiberg and the whole state. Not sure people realize how unique Nebraska is. It's the only high-major where there are no pro teams in the state and NO D1 football competitors. It's just all Nebraska all the time (apologies to Creighton fans, but I imagine many of them are happy to root for the Huskers on the gridiron and in a lot of other arenas too). You felt that in OKC. Not a great day of games, but a very good night. Gonzaga quietly leaves the WCC. Tomorrow's best tip looks like Iowa State-Kentucky or UCLA-UCONN, but it's a solid day all-around. Be curious to see if either one seed gets pushed. I think there's a big upset lurking somewhere, but it's probably with one of the two seeds listed above. Here's to at least 3 close finishes.

I mean, yeah, I will totally admit that mids have to just adapt and take more buy games. No reason for St. Thomas not to just take a check to play at the barn. Imagine High Point and Miami had some of those chances too. The Zombie MCC/Horizon is a helluva league. Iconic tourney upsets, three FFs, and an immortal nun. You know GB decision making is questionable when they think hiring Gottlieb is the way to relevance. But I digress (sort of).

Hard to run a mid these days. I definitely miss the GB glory days. Lotta good energy around the MCC/Horizon for a long, long time, but conference realignment probably hurt that league more than any other. Must have been 08 or 09 that GB beat UW. I think Crean also lost at Fort Wayne a while back. Lately, the trend seems to be taking recruits back to hometowns. Did Duke play at Maine with Pratt last year? I think so. UNC always seems to have one in-state or regional roadie. Davidson or Wofford or Charlotte. Easier when you have a dozen schools to choose from. Be kind of fun for Minnesota and St. Thomas to home and home, and Iowa really dropped the ball by letting go of their in-state showcase (I bet the gate there was GREAT!), but I'll stop beating that particular dead horse now.

Hard to run a mid these days. I definitely miss the GB glory days. Lotta good energy around the MCC/Horizon for a long, long time, but conference realignment probably hurt that league more than any other. Must have been 08 or 09 that GB beat UW. I think Crean also lost at Fort Wayne a while back. Lately, the trend seems to be taking recruits back to hometowns. Did Duke play at Maine with Pratt last year? I think so. UNC always seems to have one in-state or regional roadie. Davidson or Wofford or Charlotte. Easier when you have a dozen schools to choose from. Be kind of fun for Minnesota and St. Thomas to home and home, and Iowa really dropped the ball by letting go of their in-state showcase (I bet the gate there was GREAT!), but I'll stop beating that particular dead horse now.

Hard to run a mid these days. I definitely miss the GB glory days. Lotta good energy around the MCC/Horizon for a long, long time, but conference realignment probably hurt that league more than any other. Must have been 08 or 09 that GB beat UW. I think Crean also lost at Fort Wayne a while back. Lately, the trend seems to be taking recruits back to hometowns. Did Duke play at Maine with Pratt last year? I think so. UNC always seems to have one in-state or regional roadie. Davidson or Wofford or Charlotte. Easier when you have a dozen schools to choose from. Be kind of fun for Minnesota and St. Thomas to home and home, and Iowa really dropped the ball by letting go of their in-state showcase (I bet the gate there was GREAT!), but I'll stop beating that particular dead horse now.

All completely true. I think it would benefit everyone from a hoops perspective. Obviously, the financials are different. I'd really love to get a look at a budget someday. What do you make from a buy game after the payout? I doubt those $$ have too much impact on player salary pools at the end of the day (I mean, the Badgers share of B1G media deals and NCAAT payouts have to be WAY more, though I understand that that money isn't just basketball specific), but that's based on nothing but gut feeling. Bo definitely played those games, probably partially out of wanting to go back to Philly every so often. I think GB beat one of those Badger teams during their last good year (that I remember). The MTEs have a big role here too, of course. A10 schools with some pedigree can usually get in (Saint Mary's gets in, Belmont or UNI can get in), but you'd love to see some of the bigger ones set aside a spot for a prior season's MAC or Valley champ. Charleston Classic does right by the mids. One more of those kind of things would go a long way. Overall, though, I totally agree that the current orthodoxy makes it seem very unlikely. I really believe it's much more of an "afraid to lose" thing than anything else, but I don't get get to see the financials [shrug].

All totally reasonable, though I think I'd disagree about the "no-win" part. Coaches seem to say this, but good mid-majors tend to rate at Q1 on the road. Borderline Q1 (more Q2) neutral, and Q3 if you play them at home. Where I sympathize is that it's hard to predict how mid-major rosters will do over the long haul. You schedule Baylor in November, on a neutral, it's pretty likely they're not going to be Q3 by the end of the year, because of how the NET works. Drop a game to Miami or Bradley, and there's a MUCH bigger chance that goes to a Q3 or Q4 loss. Definitely not blind to that. Still, scheduling good mid-majors doesn't have to compete with scheduling high-majors in road/neutral environments. It just has to be better than your buy games. Nobody learned anything when the Badgers beat Campbell this year. UW also played 3 MAC schools at the Kohl. Playing Bradley on a neutral is a better game than all of those. So is a home-and-home with UNI or Drake. Especially if you're scheduling the Valley, you know the programs are strong. If every high-major gave up ONE easy buy game and did a home-and-home or neutral-site mini exhibition with the St. Thomases and NDSU's of the world, that's really not a huge sacrifice, and it's much closer to a first-round tourney game than a beatdown of UMKC or something. I DO think the MAC or A-10 and the Valley should be doing an annual challenge. Heck, a Big East-A-10 challenge is a great thing for the sport of basketball, especially in November when you can get non-football campuses really into a televised athletic event. More 5-12 style regular-season matchups would be good for the sport, and I genuinely think it would be good for borderline top-25 high-majors and bubble teams.

This can only be justified by short-term market logic, and it's long-term bad for society and the game. I'm no fan of the sports books (it's fine for gambling to be 10-20% of our relationship to sports, but it's become so much more), but at least they a) are restricted to sports and b) have a deep and vested in ensuring that markets are insulated from insider trading and bet-rigging. Obviously, there are deep concerns about part B, but nobody WANTS game fixing, and the entire business is predicated on some foundational level of trust in the bet menu. Polymarket not only lets people literally bet directly on mass death, but it's incredibly hard to police. Anybody can trade on insider info all the time, and the regulatory space is super ill-defined. Why MLB wants to open that door, I have no clue, other than some oversimplified intro business course some commish crony took once as an undergrad. Bad deal for everybody.

Looking forward to a few tips on Saturday: Michigan-SLU: Tough break for SLU having to turn around and play the early game after finishing after midnight Eastern last night. Three teams scored 100 Thursday. These are two of them. Should be fun. I'm skeptical that SLU's offense will work against Mara and Yaxel (if I were Dusty, I'd just station one of both of them in the paint and not late the Billikens get those easy cuts to the rim), but Georgia had a week to prepare and looked like they were playing on ice. If nothing else, expect points. Duke-TCU: Let's see if the Blue Devils learned anything from getting pushed to the absolute brink by Siena. The injuries are catching up to them a little bit, and, as Badger fans saw up close, the Frogs are a dangerous team. If there's a 1-seed upset lurking, it's probably this one. Louisville-Michigan St.: Two very balanced teams, one of whom wants to play relatively slow (MSU) and one of whom wants to run (Louisville). Looks like the Cardinals have Brown healthy enough to contribute. One hall of fame coach against one who might get there when all is said and done. Two big, big names in the sport, both of whom have been under the radar lately, for different reasons. Nebraska-Vandy: GAME OF THE DAY. OKC going to be rocking with Husker fans. I think Vandy is a sneaky FF team. They looked like far and away the best 5 on the board; you could argue they deserved a three. Put that up against the best team in Nebraska history, and you're going to get a very meaningful S16 for somebody. Expect off-the-charts intensity in this one. Nebraska would be the vibes favorite, but Vandy's the better team (the bookmakers seem to be on board with that--'Dores a 1.5-pt. favorite). Must-see. VCU-Illinois could be fun (I could see anything from a narrow Rams win to an Illinois blowout); same for Gonzaga-Texas. That's six games with a ton of potential. I'm not sure High Point can keep it going against Arkansas and Acuff (the Hogs terrified me as a potential Badger opponent--I think they're another great SEC team), but always good to see a mid-major playing for a S16. Houston-Texas A&M feels like the clunker of the day, but maybe that press works against the Cougars. It's March!

5-second call late with a timeout in the pocket. Oof.

Just two morning after thoughts. Good to see the High Point coach call out the scheduling issues that really hurt D-1 hoops as a whole, both in the on-court postgame and the presser. He's right. I'd actually like to see Gard schedule more home-and-homes and neutral site games against good mid-majors. Go to Illinois State or Bradley (Wardle has such Wisconsin connections, I'm shocked this game hasn't happened already). Play UIC or Loyola in Milwaukee (honestly, I really miss the in-state round-robin that was part of this schedule for so many years--when Iowa lost the Des Moines showcase where ISU and Iowa played Drake and UNI, it really symbolized the consolidation of power in the sport). I know scheduling space is limited. And I know high-majors want home games, but the basketball benefit to a game like that is so much better than hosting the kinds of buy-game opponents we usually see. Seeing teams like that can really help when you're up against a good 11, 12, or 13 in March. A few years back I think we played (and lost to) Saint Mary's on a neutral, but that might have been an MTE. At the very least, I'd like to see something like BracketBusters come back. The idea that something like that wouldn't benefit EVERYONE (you're telling me coaches wouldn't scout potential transfer candidates?) is pretty crazy to me. Second, you know a healthy Winter makes the difference in a one-point game. I thought our bigs were really bothered by High Point's skill on the wings and in the post. The defense was a bugaboo all year. It looked like it was improving in late February and March, but some old habits came back to bite. We'll finish in the 50s in defensive efficiency at KenPom, which isn't going to get it done most years, even with a borderline top-10 offense. I like the shift to a more up-tempo style. It's important for drawing talent in this era. But you've got to be able to gel that talent on both ends of the floor. Something was missing on that end this year, and hopefully they can fix it as they build to next season.

Yeah, bingo! I said to my wife, "up eight heading into the last couple media timeouts, you feel pretty good." Not to be today. One thing that surprised me was the athleticism of High Point's guards, especially Martin. That guy was outstanding today. They go 15/40 from 3, outscore us by 18 there, and Johnston goes 4/6 off the bench. Kid has 1 two-point FG all year, and it's the game-winner. That's March. I have seen so many mid-major wins unfold just like that. A confident team, launching triples, good guards, and they get a big contribution from off the bench. Not making excuses, but early tip out West seemed to impact us a little bit too. Also, add Louisville to the list of schools that fired a solid coach and then wandered the wilderness. Gard's the right guy here, and he deserves more credit than he gets.

Games like that are what the tournament is about. It sucks to be on the other side of it, but that was one of those classic March games everyone not in the Cardinal and White will appreciate. As others have said, Boyd is a super fun player. He had a great year and shouldn't get blamed. That said, there did need to be more touches for Blackwell down the stretch. High Point played with more freedom and fluidity, and being unable to extend an 8-point lead with about 8 minutes to go really hurt. Obviously, the last two offensive possessions were really not good. Rohde had Blackwell open at about midcourt, and I'd just rather him dribble into a 35-footer there than through to the FT line. Even if Rapp catches that, he's not Laetner. 2 seconds left, I get it, but still. The 11 seconds possession was worse. High Point played it perfectly, and it was emblematic of the late game stall. A lot of standing around watching Boyd. Winter obviously not 100%, didn't get much from Carrington and I thought a pretty poor performance from AB, who looked like he didn't belong in a game played at that pace. Some things you'd like back, but, like @Jim French Stepstool said, it's hard to rewrite too much. Sometimes, the other guys have a moment, and Johnston got his. That's what it takes for mids to win, and this one unfolded to the upset script. Feel for a team and coaching staff that's going to take a lot of unfair criticism. You want to know what it's like for basketball to be truly irrelevant, go ahead and fire a coach that's been a consistently good seed in March. Ask Minnesota or Memphis how that can work out.

Great effort by Turang on the SB in the ninth. I mean, if he were Javy Baez he'd have gotten the out, but... Hoping Chourio gets a big AB here in the ninth.

I'll take the L on UMBC. 🫣

Team Chourio for me! Hoping the atmosphere is as electric as last night. Been fun! And when it ends, there's just a little over a week until Opening Day.

He and Frelick can both race as the Italian.

Zerpa in line for the win. Chourio the rally starter.