I got off to a great start in this tournament. I had the first 15 games right. Gonzaga beating Seton Hall was the only one I was wrong about. Days 2-4 were not as good, but I ended up winning the first round in my pool at work. But the only games I really cared about were the two games we played in. I really don't care too much about my picks. I just want Notre Dame to win. My feelings for Michigan are well-known. We beat them 31-0 (but really 37-0) in our last football game. I'd be perfectly happy never playing them again in anything. But the tournament committee had other ideas. I was rooting against Michigan in the play in game because I could take losing to Tulsa, but I couldn't take losing to Michigan. Of course, Notre Dame ended up playing Michigan.
Kyle and I bought tickets for the tournament shortly after the selection show. Friday was a wild day of basketball, but I missed most of the exciting games. I listened to the end of the Michigan State-Middle Tennessee game in the car on my way to the Hicksville train station. Actually I stopped first at Chopt because it was a Friday in Lent and I figured there wouldn't be great meatless options at Barclays Center. By the way, now that there's a Chopt on Long Island, I think it gets the number 2 spot on my Fast Food Power Rankings. It's delicious and it's healthy. I also missed the half-court shot by Northern Iowa to win and the late dunk that would have sent the St. Joseph's-Cincinnati game to overtime. And that's one of the reasons that I don't love the idea of going to the tournament, especially during the first round with so many games going on. I wouldn't have gone if Notre Dame wasn't in Brooklyn. But a Notre Dame win would make missing some exciting finishes worth it.
The first game was West Virginia-Stephen F. Austin. For the session we went to, Michigan had the most fans, we were second, West Virginia third, and Stephen F. Austin was last. Wilhelm described Stephen F. Austin people as "backwoods folks" who "don't leave the state. But neutral fans were definitely on their side. I got there early, but Kyle was stuck at work. Early on, I thought West Virginia was clearly better and they were on the verge of blowing Stephen F. Austin out. They were up 20-11. But Stephen F. Austin hung around and by the time Kyle got there, I think it was 20-19. They really controlled the game from there. Thomas Walkup was the story of the game for Stephen F. Austin. He finished with 33 points (19-20 at the line), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block. Stephen F. Austin won 70-56.
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| Our view from the last row |
Then it was time for the main event. Mike Brey made a lineup change with Matt Farrell in the starting lineup. I still don't get it, but we've now won two tournament games with Farrell in the starting lineup, so whatever. We played a pretty ugly first half and trailed 41-29 at halftime. But I wasn't really too worried. We've beaten good teams after getting down double digits (North Carolina, Louisville, Duke) and this was Michigan. The second half was a different story. Steve Vasturia didn't play a great game, but he made some plays early in the half. V.J. Beachem played the best game of his college career (18 points, 7-7 shooting, 6 rebounds). Rex Pflueger played some good defense. Beachem gave us our first lead with a three that made it 51-48, but Michigan came right back with two threes to retake the lead. Beachem later tied the game at 56 with a three. When it was tied at 59, Beachem hit another three to give us the lead for good. After making a mistake and taking a bad shot after getting an offensive rebound that gave Michigan the ball back down three with 44 seconds to go, Bonzie Colson hit two free throws to ice it with 11 seconds left. We ended up defeating the forces of evil 70-63. I got home around 2:00 in the morning. I didn't care after a game like that.
I knew I was going back on Sunday. Kyle ended up not being able to make it. My dad was going to go, but he wasn't feeling good Sunday morning. It was the earliest session of the day so I listed the extra ticket on Stubhub before going back to sleep. My plan was to get up later and see if I could find somebody to come if the ticket hadn't sold. But it sold for a profit of about $20 before I got up again. So I went by myself on Sunday. The first game was Villanova-Iowa. This time, Villanova easily had the most fans, we were second again, and Iowa was third. When I walked around Barclays Center, I didn't see a single person wearing a Stephen F. Austin shirt. But again, the neutral fans would go for them (except for maybe Villanova basketball/Notre Dame football fans or Villanova fans who follow my policy of rooting for Catholic schools first). Villanova pounded Iowa. It's not worth talking about that.
Our game with Stephen F. Austin ended up being a classic. A lot of fans left after the first game, so I moved to a seat near half court (still high up). During pregame introductions, I applauded the Notre Dame players of course, but I also applauded Thomas Walkup for his performance on Friday night. In this game, Walkup was very good, but he wasn't as dominant as he was against West Virginia (he did draw three fouls on one possession, but 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists wasn't going to kill us). It was a back and forth game. We went into halftime up 42-41 when V.J. Beachem made a three at the buzzer. We got a couple of five-point leads in the second half and led by seven at one point, but Stephen F. Austin just wouldn't go away. After getting that seven point lead, that was when Walkup drew three fouls on one possession and finished it off with a three-point play. That started an 11-2 run for Stephen F. Austin. We went back up 70-68, but then it looked like Stephen F. Austin was taking over. Walkup hit two free throws to make it 75-70 with 2:05 to play. Stephen F. Austin didn't score again. Demetrius Jackson got a layup on an inbound play with 1:35 left. Jackson hit two free throws with 47 seconds left to make it a one-point game (unlike last year against Kentucky, Brey went two for one, good call). We got the ball back with 23 seconds left after Walkup missed a jumper. Brey didn't call a timeout (good call again) and Jackson drove to the basket and missed. Zach Auguste got the offensive rebound and missed (he was probably fouled, but he's not a great free throw shooter anyway). Then Rex Pflueger scored his only basket of the game on a tip in with 1.5 seconds left (by the way, Dennis gets credit for the title of this post). I gave a big fist pump and yelled out "Yeah!" when it went in. Stephen F. Austin missed a heave that would have won it (it wasn't close). Beachem had 15 points and 7 rebounds, Auguste had 16 points and 15 rebounds, Jackson had 18 points, and Pflueger had the two biggest points of the game. It was pretty special.
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| My view for Notre Dame's win over Stephen F. Austin |
It's probably the best basketball game I've been to. I've never been to a game with more on the line (I've never been to an NBA playoff game, these are the only two games I've been to this deep into the NCAA Tournament). I've seen some good games, but this one meant more, it was back and forth the whole game, it had a great finish, and my favorite team moved closer to a championship. I think it's kind of like the basketball version of the 2014 Stanford game.
So this NCAA Tournament experience was pretty awesome. I might try to go next year to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden. Notre Dame has made it to consecutive Sweet Sixteens for the first time since the 1970s. And we're not done. We play Wisconsin tomorrow. That's a game that could go either way. If we win that, we play a team that we've beaten once this year (and got blown out by, but check out what happened in our three games against Duke last year) or a team we should have beaten. We definitely aren't the favorite to come out of this weekend, but making the Final Four is not impossible.
Three notes about the NCAA Tournament to finish. First, they fixed the naming of the rounds (I was ready to make some joke about how Brey's streak of making it to at least the second round in four straight tournament appearances could be snapped this year). We don't have 60 teams getting a bye into the second round anymore (out of the 64 that play in that round). The other thing that they sort of fixed was the courts. I absolutely hated those bland standardized courts. The courts this year are better, but they should just have one color out of bounds (other than whatever writing there is). And I don't like the key being white (any other color would be better) and the free throw semicircle being a different shade from the rest of the non-key area inside the three point line. It's much better than what it was, but they really should just let each arena use its own court. If you want to slap a March Madness logo at halfcourt and some NCAA Tournament decals out of bounds, I'm fine with that, but they each arena should have its own personality (like Brooklyn's black theme). And the last thing is not selling alcohol. It's ridiculous. This is America. An adult should be able to buy a beer at a basketball game. Whatever, there was plenty of beer waiting at home for me to celebrate.
We're not done yet. Go Irish!
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