NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Thread - 2018 Edition

[jbcarol]

Second Round

SUNDAY

12:10 p.m., CBS: No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 10 Butler
(Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Allie LaForce)

After conclusion. 1, CBS: No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 11 Syracuse
(Eagle, Spanarkel, LaForce)

5:15 p.m., CBS: No. 2 North Carolina vs. No. 7 Texas A&M
(Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery, Tracy Wolfson)

6:10 p.m., TNT: No. 2 Cincinnati vs. No. 7 Nevada
(Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas, Jamie Erdahl)

7:10 p.m., TBS: No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 5 Clemson
(Carter Blackburn, Debbie Antonelli, John Schriffen)

approximately 7:45 p.m., truTV: No. 9 Kansas State vs. No. 16 UMBC
(Nantz, Hill, Raftery, Wolfson)

approximately  8:40 p.m., TNT: No. 1 Xavier vs. No. 9 Florida State
(Catalon, Lappas, Erdahl)

approximately  9:40 p.m., TBS: No. 5 West Virginia vs. No. 13 Marshall
(Blackburn, Antonelli, Schriffen)

All planned tip times EDT. All actual tip times est.

[jbcarol]

With a second to go which cost me as I had UK -5!

Chico, don't be discouraged...

[jbcarol]

[jbcarol]

Allie LaForce
‏Verified account @ALaForce
6m6 minutes ago

Haas will be a game time decision the team confirmed with me. We tip at 12:10 ET on @CBSSports and I'll let you know final decision before that hopefully.

Allie: brace was not approved the NCAA.  Isaac Haas is out.

[jbcarol]

Butler 8  Purdue 5  17:12 CBS

[jbcarol]

Gregg Doyel
‏Verified account @GreggDoyelStar

Officials never had the guts to referee Isaac Haas fairly. It's no shock that his career ended like this.

DETROIT – Right when it happened, he knew something wasn't right. Gigantic Purdue center Isaac Haas, pulled to the floor by the latest in a long line of physically overmatched opponents, rolled over onto his stomach and felt his right elbow explode. With his right hand he was making a fist and letting go, trying to work some feeling into the fingers. With his left, he pounded on the court at Little Caesars Arena.

Because he knew.

Adrenaline and competition and desire got in the way at first, confusing him, convincing him he could keep playing Friday against Cal State Fullerton. He went back into the game less than 90 seconds later, but his body knew what his brain wouldn't tell him. He grabbed a quick rebound, but immediately lost the ball. Turnover. A few seconds later he committed a foul. A few seconds after that, with Haas still trying to make that fist, coach Matt Painter summoned him back to the bench.

...Isaac Haas' Purdue career ended in a way we all should have seen as a possibility. Fans of other schools hate on Haas, hate on him for his size and his strength, but Haas was never a bully on the court.

He was the bullied.

This 7-2, 290-pound behemoth, so gentle it would break your heart if you spent five minutes with him, has been attacked for four years. Here comes a football analogy, which works for every reason: Remember the 2003 NFL playoffs, when the New England Patriots decided the best way to defend Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was to hold his receivers unabashedly, basically daring referees to throw a flag on every play, knowing referees wouldn't be strong enough to do it? It was so egregious, the NFL decided that offseason to start emphasizing the illegal contact rule.

That's how college basketball players defend Haas. They manhandle him every time he touches the ball, instinctively knowing two things: One, he's so strong that it won't necessarily look like a foul. Two, let's see if the referees have the guts to blow the whistle every time it happens. Let's. Just. See.

The first half Friday, before Haas was injured, was a revelation to me. Look, I've covered Purdue since Haas got here, but never have I sat as close to the basket as I was sitting at Little Caesars Arena. So close that I could see exactly what was happening to Haas. And officials, to their credit, tried to call a foul every time one happened. Well, early in the first half they did, until it just got too hard.

Officials called so many fouls that the early ledger was five fouls against Fullerton, none on Purdue, and then it got awkward. Fullerton fans were yelling at officials, pointing out the discrepancy, calling them cheaters. Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor was pointing it out himself, in his own way. This game was on national television. The officials couldn't let this continue, right? Soon the calls started going the other way. Funny how that happens routinely in college basketball.

[See West Virginia except for that one game when the officials kept calling them.]

It was scary, but not in the way I should have seen — the way we all should have seen — coming. It was like watching a bunch of tiny villagers torment a grizzly. How long before the grizzly hurts someone?

Turns out, that was the wrong question. The right question: How long before someone hurts the grizzly?

The second half, was the answer. Haas had entered the game literally nine seconds earlier, spun to the rim to pursue a missed shot by Vincent Edwards, and was confronted by 6-7, 200-pound Fullerton junior Dominik Heinzl. The Fullerton forward had no chance, and Haas literally walked through him on his way to the rim. Heinzl hooked his right arm into Haas' left, leaned back — throwing all of his 200 pounds toward the floor — and down went Haas, landing hard on the elbow.

Do I think Heinzl tried to hurt Haas? Of course not. But he was physically overmatched by Haas, and fouling was his only weapon. Heinzl played nine minutes Friday and was called for four fouls. He wasn't in there to do much else, because he doesn't do much else. On the season he scored 76 points and committed 44 fouls, a pretty good ratio if this were hockey.

An injury like the one Haas suffered Friday wasn't inevitable — he made it almost his whole career without being badly hurt — but it's not in the least surprising given the mauling Haas received Friday, a mauling Purdue folks will tell you was similar to what happened to Haas every game.

For years Purdue has lobbied anyone who would listen, anyone who might be able to make it stop — the Big Ten, the officials, even the media — in an attempt to give Haas a fair shake, to let him enjoy the same ability to move as the other nine players on the floor. Purdue has asked, essentially, for Haas to be officiated fairly.

But alas, life is not fair. And so in his final game at Purdue, three games shy of the Final Four he so badly wanted to reach this season with his fellow seniors, Isaac Haas was writhing in pain on a court in Detroit — an innocent kid pounding his fist into the floor, guilty of being too damn big.

[jbcarol]

Butler 13  Purdue 11  13:00 CBS

[jbcarol]

ESPN Stats & Info
‏Verified account @ESPNStatsInfo
14m14 minutes ago

Purdue center Isaac Haas is out today after fracturing his elbow in the Round of 64.

Haas is Purdue's 2nd-leading scorer and averages 10.5 post-up points per game, most in D-I.

[jbcarol]

Butler 16   Purdue 13  10:00 CBS

[jbcarol]

Records by conference after Saturday's action:

[jbcarol]

Butler 21  Purdue 15  7:58

[jbcarol]

Michael Carvell
‏ @Michael_Carvell

WATCH: Comedian 'FunnyMaine' parodies how Alabama basketball fans watched postseason

[jbcarol]

Butler 24  Purdue 15  7:30

[bphi11ips]

Butler is no 10 seed.

[jbcarol]

March Madness TV
‏Verified account @MarchMadnessTV

Purdue 40 Butler 36 at the half

@ALaForce caught up with @BoilerBall's Matt Painter to discuss the first half

[jbcarol]

Butler is no 10 seed.

Bruce, the committee underestimated Butler and Maryland-Baltimore County

[jbcarol]

Butler 43  Purdue 42  17:00 CBS

[jbcarol]

NCAA March Madness
‏Verified account @marchmadness

Butler STEAL and SLAM! 🔨

[jbcarol]

[jbcarol]

Meanwhile...

But 47  Pur 52  14:00

[jbcarol]

But 60  Pur 66  7:00

[jbcarol]

Good no call?

[jbcarol]

Butler 67  Purdue 73  3:19 CBS

[jbcarol]

UMBC Athletics
‏Verified account @UMBCAthletics

Ahh we remember this game at Maryland in December....hopefully you enjoyed our game from your couch dude!

[jbcarol]

Butler 71  Purdue 73  1:47 CBS

[jbcarol]

Shot clock violation on the Boilermakers

[jbcarol]

:58.4, Bulldog ball, down two

[jbcarol]

Martin misses the 3.

[jbcarol]

Butler gets their sixth team foul.  Refs have let 'em play.

[jbcarol]

Judas Mathias with the 3 for Purdue

[jbcarol]

Butler 73  Purdue 76  :2.1

Purdue ball

That's all the time Laettner needed.  Virginia only needed :0.9

[jbcarol]

Butler ball with :1.8 down three.

[jbcarol]

Buzzer beater from just inside midcourt is no good

[jbcarol]

Butler 73  Purdue 76  Final

[hobhog]

Butler 73  Purdue 76  Final

Purdue wins despite having lost its center.

[jbcarol]

Purdue wins despite having lost its center.

NCAA March Madness
‏Verified account @marchmadness

When Haarms checks back in to the game.

#HaarmsHair

[jbcarol]

Syracuse and Michigan St have finally tipped off on CBS.

[jbcarol]

Syracuse 6  MichSt 7  14:18 CBS

[jbcarol]

Syracuse 14  State 15  under 8

[jbcarol]

ESPN Stats & Info
‏Verified account @ESPNStatsInfo

Tom Izzo (6th-most NCAA tournament wins) and Jim Boeheim (4th-most) have met once in the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan St beat Syracuse in the 2000 Sweet 16 on the way to the Spartans' last national title.

[jbcarol]

Tied up at 22

[alohawg]

I've never seen that in the game of basketball, wow.

[jbcarol]

NCAA March Madness
‏Verified account @marchmadness

Jordan Poole practiced this shot in high school

Side by side comparison is uncanny

[jbcarol]

NCAA March Madness
‏Verified account @marchmadness
18s18 seconds ago

Matt McQuaid gives Sparty the lead heading to halftime!

[jbcarol]

Relive:

WHAT. A. FINISH.  Michigan State heads to halftime with the lead after a wild buzzer-beater!

[jbcarol]

Jeff Goodman
‏Verified account @GoodmanESPN

The UMBC bookstore is hopping ... by UMBC standards. It wasn't even supposed to open today, but things kinda changed when the Retrievers made history.

[jbcarol]

Spartans are up 28-23

[jbcarol]

SU 31  MSU 35  under 16

[jbcarol]

Matt Wenzel
‏Verified account @mwenzel2
10s10 seconds ago

I think they just showed Joe Dirt on the scoreboard wearing a Syracuse shirt.

[jbcarol]

NCAA March Madness
‏Verified account @marchmadness
How?