College basketball

[Vrede too]

Women's Final Four
Dallas

7:00 PM, ESPN/ESPNU/ESPN+
3 LSU (32-2) -2.0 vs 1 Virginia Tech (31-4). Go basketball.
LSU monster 29-13 4th to win 79-72. The win was guaranteed the moment that 2nd year Coach Kim Mulkey and her outfit stepped onto the floor. 1st ever championship game for LSU.



9:00 PM, ESPN/ESPNU/ESPN+
GO 2 Iowa (30-6) > overall 1 South Carolina (36-0) -11.0
HAWKEYES!!!
Half: Iowa 38, South Carolina 37. Do you believe?
Final: Iowa 77, South Carolina 73.
Caitlin Clark: 15-31, 5-17 3PT, 6-6 FT, 6 REB, 41 PTS, 1st ever with back-to-back 40 point games. Ball hog? Maybe 8 TOs, maybe not 8 AST. National player of the year sets semi record for points.
Defending champ SC hadn't lost since March 6, 2022!
Iowa 1st Final since 1993.

That jacket should be disqualifying.

You tell her, I ain't gonna.

[GoCubsGo]

You tell her, I ain't gonna.

[Vrede too]

You tell her, I ain't gonna.

https://media.tenor.com/fWHm7ew5okEAAAA ... -never.gif

Men's Final Four
Houston

6:09 PM, CBS
9 Florida Atlantic (35-3), Cinderella vs 5 San Diego State (31-6) -2.5 (tight), O Really
Go basketball

8:49 PM, CBS
Go 5 Miami (29-7), O Really > 4 UConn (29-8) -5.5, Useless
Go Miami/O Really

[O Really]

"They've" been painting UConn as invincible, but then they did that with Bammer as well as SC in the womens' game. Go 'Canes!

[Vrede too]

"They've" been painting UConn as invincible, but then they did that with Bammer as well as SC in the womens' game. Go 'Canes!

Yeah, "invincible" is when all of the 1s, 2s and 3s already got vincibled.

[Vrede too]

Men's Final Four
Houston

6:09 PM, CBS
9 Florida Atlantic (35-3), Cinderella vs 5 San Diego State (31-6) -2.5 (tight), O Really
Go basketball
FAU, up by 12 with 15:00 left, is the 1st team to make the FF w/o ever having won a game in prior MMs . I like the burrowing owl mascot:



EDIT: Tied w/ 4:00 left, incredible SDSU comeback from 14 down in the 2nd.
EDIT 2: Wow!!! Buzzer beater, Florida Atlantic 71 < San Diego State 72. Congrats!

8:49 PM, CBS
Go 5 Miami (29-7), O Really > 4 UConn (29-8) -5.5, Useless
Go Miami/O Really
Even 2nd half, could not gain on the lopsided 1st half.
Miami 59 < UConn 72. Sorry.

Okay, who had a 4 and a 5 playing for the championship in the pool?
GO SDSU > UConn!

[GoCubsGo]

Heartbreaker.

[O Really]

Aztecs!
'Canes!

[Vrede too]

... 'Canes!

Half: Ut-oh.

[O Really]

... 'Canes!

Half: Ut-oh.

Final: Ut-oh

[Vrede too]

Women's Final

3:30 PM, ABC ESPN+, Dallas
Go 2 Iowa (31-6) -3.5 > 3 LSU (33-2)
#1 seed was a kiss of death in both Women's and Men's.
Tough choice, but Iowa did knock out SC and Iowa City is more Dem than Baton Rouge.
Go Hawkeyes!

EDIT: Holy crap, half: LSU 59, Iowa 42.
59 is amazing for college of either gender, most points ever for a Women's Final half. LSU is led by Jasmine Carson off the bench: 7-7 FG, 5-5 3PT! 2-2 FT, 21 points. LSU is 75.0% 3PT.
Iowa star Caitlin Clark has 16 for the half, most total points ever in the Women's tourney. She and Iowa are excellent but insufficient. No one has ever come back from 17 down at the half in the final.

EDIT 3rd quarter: Iowa nibbled it down to a 7 point margin, finished 22-16 for the quarter to make the deficit 11, 75-64. Caitlin Clark has a Final record 7 3PTers.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey:



How do you beat that?

[GoCubsGo]

Women's Final

3:30 PM, ABC ESPN+, Dallas
Go 2 Iowa (31-6) -3.5 > 3 LSU (33-2)
#1 seed was a kiss of death in both Women's and Men's.
Tough choice, but Iowa did knock out SC and Iowa City is more Dem than Baton Rouge.
Go Hawkeyes!

EDIT: Holy crap, half: LSU 59, Iowa 42.
59 is amazing for college of either gender, most points ever for a Women's Final half. LSU is led by Jasmine Carson off the bench: 7-7 FG, 5-5 3PT! 2-2 FT, 21 points. LSU is 75.0% 3PT.
Iowa star Caitlin Clark has 16 for the half, most total points ever in the Women's tourney. She and Iowa are excellent but insufficient. No one has ever come back from 17 down at the half in the final.

EDIT 3rd quarter: Iowa nibbled it down to a 7 point margin, finished 22-16 for the quarter to make the deficit 11, 75-64. Caitlin Clark has a Final record 7 3PTers.
LSU coach Kim Mulkey:



How do you beat that?

That "outfit" should be disqualifying.

[Vrede too]

... LSU coach Kim Mulkey:

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2023 ... quality=70

How do you beat that?

That "outfit" should be disqualifying.

Again, I dare you to tell her.

Final: You don't beat that.
Iowa 85. Perfectly respectable Women's or Men's score.
LSU 102. Record for the Final Same margin as at halftime.
Iowa star Caitlin Clark 30 points after >40 the previous 2 games.
LSU 5 players >9 points, 4 >14 points, 3 >19 points. That is sharing the win.
LSU's 1st ever Championship in Kim Mulkey's 2nd year. It's her 4th as a head coach.

Kim Mulkey is amazing:
5'4" point guard, four consecutive state championships, high school valedictorian, 4.0 GPA.
Louisiana Tech:
AIAW (pre-NCAA) Champion 1981
NCAA Champion 1982
1983 Pan American Games gold medal
1983 World Championships silver medal
Louisiana Tech assistant coach: NCAA Champion 1988
Head coach: NCAA Champion x 4, first person in NCAA women's basketball history to win a national championship as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. She started crying with 1 minute left in the game.
3× AP College Basketball Coach of the Year (2012, 2019, 2022)
Son Kramer is a St. Louis Cardinal.
Daughter Makenzie, played college basketball and softball for Baylor and is now an assistant coach on Kim's staff.

Wow, more at the link.

[Vrede too]

Women's

I'm done scoring points now, and will certainly keep dropping in the ranking given the lack of any Cinderellas busting all brackets.

EDIT: 2 #1s, a #2 and a #3, pretty good seeding.
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/bracket

I went 1/4 in the Elite 8, can't win any more games and will finish 38/63.
The leaders are 50/60 with 3 games remaining, and a bunch of people went 4/4 in the Elite 8.
My rank, which will fall, is #369,362.

The 2 winners and a bunch of others went 2/2 in the FF and picked correctly in the Final.
My rank only fell to #383,524. I guess lots bet on SC and VT.

[Vrede too]

Even in defeat, Caitlin Clark's NCAA tournament run was one to remember

... Here are the 10 most memorable women's NCAA tournament individual performances:

... 2. Caitlin Clark, Iowa, 2023

Clark averaged 31.8 points, 10.0 assists and 5.2 rebounds in taking the Hawkeye to the title game. That included a 41-point triple-double in the regional final against Louisville and another 41-point effort against No. 1 overall seed South Carolina in the national semifinals. She had 30 points, eight assists and two rebounds Sunday in the loss to LSU, and she finished with more points (191) and assists (60) than anyone has had in a single women's NCAA tournament.

1. Sheryl Swoopes, Texas Tech, 1993 ...

Men's Final

9:20 PM EDT, CBS, Houston
GO 5 San Diego State (32-6) > 4 UConn (30-8) -7.0 ugh
GoO ReallyGo
UConn has won every MM game by double digits, ut-oh.

[O Really]

San Diego has had a bit of inferiority complex to its larger more flashy neighbor to the north, and it didn't help when the Traitors left town. But the whole area has gone totally amuck over the Aztecs - probably as big as if as big-league team was going to the Series or Super Bowl. Population of San Diego County is about the same as Connecticut, so if fan energy makes any difference, then Aztecs have a chance. And Monty is returning for the game, even if in an "unofficial" capacity.

[Vrede too]

San Diego has had a bit of inferiority complex to its larger more flashy neighbor to the north, and it didn't help when the Traitors left town. But the whole area has gone totally amuck over the Aztecs - probably as big as if as big-league team was going to the Series or Super Bowl. Population of San Diego County is about the same as Connecticut, so if fan energy makes any difference, then Aztecs have a chance. And Monty is returning for the game, even if in an "unofficial" capacity.

Half: Ut-oh.

[O Really]

Well Aztecs had a great season. They'll still get a parade.

[Vrede too]

Well Aztecs had a great season. They'll still get a parade.

It was a helluva run!

My rank dropped to #714,146, I can't score any more and my rank will drop further next weekend.

We want a million! We want a million!

I doubt it. I think most everyone that could pass me already did so in the Elite 8. Some of them will pull further ahead, but the rest of us have busted brackets.

I'm 31/63 in the bracket. The 2 winners are 45/63 and they and many others went 2/2 in the FF and picked UConn to win.
My rank dropped to #735,673. Oddly, I can't find how many total entries there are, but I know that it is more than 2.3M. I'm in the top 30% or better.

[Vrede too]

CBS (email)
Great Minds Think Alike
Brackets with your same Final Four and Championship picks: 0.28 percent Ftr I didn't think my FF was thaaat crazy: 2 AZ, 2 TX, 2 UCLA and probably the worst, perennial contender 5 Duke. In fact, there was a 5 and all my 2s were too conformist.
Eenie meenie miney…
Here’s the percentage of games you guessed picked correctly: 49 percent
It’s not the Destination,
It’s the Journey
Here’s how your bracket ranked
in each round:
Championship 49,762nd, tied with everyone else that flopped, 1.95M of us or more.
Final Four 115,790th, tied with everyone else that went 0/2.
Elite Eight 362,296th, tied with everyone else that went 0/4, close to 2M of us or more.
Sweet Sixteen 113,166th, better.
Second Round 340,466th, better.
First Round 2,207,519th, sucky start.

How nice of CBS to follow up by rubbing it in.