End Sweet 16 Update
Dearest Hoopheads:
Friday night brought more excitement to the tournament, as NC State continued its magical run, we lost another 1 seed and 2 seed, and we have a new leader in “Jabin’s March Madness Charity Pool” heading into the Elite 8.
Recedinghairliners sits alone atop the standings with 64 points, followed by Beavis in second place with 63 points, then JonStein1 and DeaconForever tied in third place with 62. Three players – Aunt Holly, Tenacious D, and Buddy Ryan – are tied for fourth at 61, and , and The Reverend and ENEMIGO are 4 back at 60. Remember that Saturday and Sunday’s Elite 8 games are worth 4 points each, so a lot can still change. Head to the site for complete standings after the Sweet 16.
Did someone say “Madness?”
This tournament has been called “March Madness” since 1982. It’s a great name, because you do all the homework, listen the experts, and yet this whole thing is just so unpredictable. Friday night featured some great games, including top-seeded Purdue joining UConn as the only two 1 seeds still alive in the Elite 8. NC State took out 2-seed Marquette, and Duke bounced top-seed Houston in the South Region. To show you how wacky this year’s tournament is, the Elite 8 matchups by seeds are 1 vs. 3, 4 vs. 11, 4 vs. 6, and 1 vs. 2 (Purdue vs. Tennessee in the Midwest is the lone “chalk” bracket).
What were you doing in 1983? (I know, many of you weren’t born yet!)
If I held my breath for how long it took the post-game folks to say “1983” after the NC State win over Marquette, my respiration wouldn’t have changed. 😉. It was an obvious comparison. The “Cardiac Pack” made an unbelievable run through the 1983 tournament, capped off by beating a loaded Houston team (featuring future NBA studs Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, among others) in what was, in my humble opinion, the most exciting finish in the history of the tournament at the time. But then, 2016 happened, when North Carolina’s Marcus Paige hit a double-clutch 3-pointer to tie the game with 4.7 seconds left, only to be followed by the best closing shot in the history of the tournament by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins. Which one was better? Reasonable people can disagree, but March Madness doesn’t get much better than those two games.
This year’s NC State run is eerily similar – both teams had ZERO shot of making March Madness, but won the ACC Tournament to get the automatic bid, and then got on a roll. The cast of characters from ’83 is legendary, and the “two DJ’s” (Horne and Burns) have some more work to do before they get mentioned in the same breath as Derek Wittenberg, Lorenzo Charles, Sidney Lowe, and Thurl Bailey. BTW, if you like the ESPN “30 for 30” shows, you cannot do any better than “Survive and Advance” about the ’83 Wolfpack. (but have Kleenex standing by, because it’s a tear-jerker).
NC State will meet Duke on Sunday in an “All ACC” Elite 8 game. The Dookies bounced a top-seeded Houston team (playing without star guard Jamal Shead, who had an ankle injury) to advance.
Commercials
I feel like I should ask some questions about the creepy Hane’s underwear ad in the old west saloon. Question 1: Why? Question 2. What? Question 3. Seriously, why?
OK, so we have an Elite 8, and it should be an exciting weekend of roundball. Enjoy, and I’ll be back to you after Saturday night’s first two Elite 8 games.
Yours in hoops,
Jabin