85 Expansion - A Few Bounce Difference
I had the title for my writing planned out - “Death, Taxes, Purdue Choking in March.” And to be clear, I still think Purdue is a bad team in March. “But they made the championship in 2024 how can you say that?” I don’t care, they lost to a 13 seed, 15 seed, and 16 seed in consecutive years from 2021 - 2023. Last night, the ball bounced their way on the final possession, and a tip in with 0.7 seconds left allows Purdue to survive and advance. And credit Purdue for some great execution down the stretch with veteran point guard Braden Smith, who is the NCAA all time leader in assists, having a great drive to the basket to catch Texas off guard and put them in a situation to win. But still, a bounce the other way sends that game to overtime where anything can happen. And that is what makes March so tough, that no matter how good a team is you need a little bit of the luck factor to continue on. I can’t find my source, but I know that was a talking point on ESPN or one of the halftime shows after Florida lost, because there was a conversation on why it is so hard to repeat - you can’t repeat luck. And in a single elimination tournament, even the best teams need some.
The Purdue Texas game had you holding your breath the entire game. The largest lead of the entire game was just 4 points; neither team could pull away, trading shot after shot to keep the game close from beginning to end. Even when Purdue intentionally fouled Texas big man Matas Vokietaitis with 20 seconds left, due to him being just a 67% free throw shooter on the year, he sunk both of them. Dailyn Swain is a projected first round pick in the upcoming NBA draft, but his poise down the stretch should move him into the lottery discussion. But you can’t teach experience, and Purdue’s veterans handled business down the stretch. Still not a good team in March.
Even though the first game tipped off 20 mins prior to the Corn Championship, with a high amount of replay reviews the Iowa Nebraska game finished prior to Texas Purdue. I was watching Purdue / Texas from tip off, so I didn’t switch over and couldn’t catch any of that game. There has been some talk about how late some of the games are, and you’d think with all this scheduling you could spread out 4 games in a day so people could watch them? Guess not, thanks NCAA, another great decision by the mafia.
Regardless, we learned two things. Iowa has better corn, and Ben McCollum is a really damn good coach. The players played very well but just look at the optics. The key players for Iowa came from Drake, Wyoming (!?), Kansas State, and Robert Morris (!?). These aren’t some 5 star recruits dancing their way to the elite 8, these are under the radar guys who are able to pull off some great wins. Nebraska ends their historic run in the sweet 16, and have a new bar set for the program. They can get back to shucking this off season, and “shucking” if they lose Fred Hoiberg. Even though they somehow only had 4 players on the floor on a key play with under a minute left that resulted in 3 Iowa points, an inexcusable mistake, he turned that program around and both Fred and Ben are big names in the coaching carousel. But in the theme of luck, Iowa certainly got some with that costly error from Nebraska that you simply could not make up. I could go off for awhile about the 4 guys on the floor but even the more novice of basketball fans here (Erin) know that you need your full team on the court to win.
Our late games included Arizona just destroying Arkansas by over 20 points in their 109 - 88 thrashing, and Arizona has so far countered my luck narrative because that was zero luck. We also had a defensive battle that kept the Fighting Illini still fighting with their 65 - 55 win over Houston. Crazy that Arizona was 1 point away from doubling Illinois’ winning score. We’ll see if that defense can hold off Bennett Stirtz and Iowa for another weekend of dancing. Good luck to Purdue against Arizona… reminder that Purdue is bad in March.
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A huge shake up in the bracket after night 1 of the sweet 16. Jim, Ed, Chris, Carly, and Rob K all had 3 of the 4 games correct. Specifically, Carly is looking really smart with that Illinois pick, because naturally no one had Iowa. She also stands alone having Tennessee in the elite 8… we’ll see how that pans out tonight. We all knew Rob would move up the rankings, it’s kind of annoying how he’s so consistently good at these things. At least I’m not his son trying to beat him in year round activities. I heard Chris is talking smack down in the Piscataway School District halls, saying something along the lines of “your husband sucks at this.” I self admit that thank you very much, keep riding high on your Iowa Hawkeyes that you didn’t even pick to win more than one game, lot of faith in your alma mater there.
Everyone else had a mix of 2 or 1 games correct from last night, but tonight’s games hold a significantly higher weight in our bracket. We have a strong mix in the east of Michigan State vs UConn and Duke vs St. John’s picks, while most of us had Michigan and Iowa State advancing.
All games are games to watch, but specifically Duke vs St. John’s at 7:10 is the huge game for the tri-state fans and Big East fans. The last game tipping off at 10:10 is absurd but go ahead and do stupid things NCAA, we didn’t want to watch anyway.
Rory F Beglane
Founder of the 85 Expansion Bracket Challenge - www.85expansion.com
Villanova Enthusiast
0 Time Bracket Winner
1 Time Always March Winner