sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Let's Laugh Day!
What a sad place the world would be without laughter, and what a sorrowful day it is when someone goes the whole day without one little giggle. Well, today fixes that. It's Let's Laugh Day. It's a day to get rid of some daily stress with some good belly laughs. These are not teensy weensy laughs, but ginormous laughs that get everyone laughing together.
You may laugh, but there really are a lot of short term and long term benefits of laughter. Laughter increases the intake of air, stimulates organs, releases endorphins in the brain, and improves mood. Laughter loosens up muscles, lowers blood pressure, and leaves one feeling relaxed. In the long term, laughter can improve the immune system, fight illness, pain, and depression. On top of all this, laughing burns calories!
Let's Laugh Day is being observed today! It has always been observed annually on March 19th.
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Syracuse basketball defeats Michigan State (NCAA Tournament): Brent Axe recap (PS; Axe)
It might be easier to list the reasons why this shouldn't have happened, so let's start there.
Syracuse was playing its third game in five days.
The Orange were playing before a sea of green in Detroit and not because everyone left their St. Patrick's Day outfits on for a second straight day. Sunday's game was a virtual home game for Michigan State.
Syracuse was out-rebounded 51-30. To put that another way, the Spartans collected nearly as many offensive rebounds (29) as Syracuse had total (30). Michigan State collected 21 second-chance points. The Orange had just three assists and made one 3-pointer.
Syracuse made just one field goal in the final four minutes of the game and played the last seven minutes without its starting point guard.
So how did Syracuse end up in the Sweet 16 with a 55-53 win over Michigan State?
Defense, free throws and heart. Miles and miles of heart.
The Spartans were sucked into the paralyzing effects of Jim Boeheim's zone defense, shooting a school-record 37 3-pointers but making just eight and missing the last 13 shots it attempted in the game.
Syracuse cashed in its free throws and found the energy to grind with one of the most physical teams in the sport and come out of the other end with a two-point victory.
"We were still able to persevere,'' Boeheim said. "This team perseveres through no matter what happens.''
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Syracuse's Braedon Bayer was ready when Jim Boeheim called: 'OK Braedon, you're in' (PS; Waters)
Braedon Bayer never expected to be the hero in an NCAA Tournament game.
The Syracuse junior had played in just eight games all season. He was a transfer, who had started his college career at Grinnell College, a Division III school in Iowa. He had come to Syracuse as a walk-on, but was awarded a scholarship this past December after Geno Thorpe left the team.
"Honestly, no chance ever,'' Bayer said. "I couldn't have ever imagined this.''
Bayer played a critical role in Syracuse's 55-53 win over Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.
He came off the Syracuse bench when Frank Howard, the Orange's starting point guard, fouled out of the game with 6:39 remaining and Michigan State leading 44-42.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim had no words of inspiration for Bayer as he motioned to him to go into the game.
"OK, Braedon,'' Boeheim said. "You're in.''
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https://nypost.com/2018/03/19/syracuses-season-saved-by-former-walk-ons-rugged-play/ (nypost.com; Joyce)
Braedon Bayer was surprised over winter break when Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim told him he had been put on scholarship.
After spending two years at Division III Grinnell College in Iowa, the Lagrangeville, N.Y., native transferred to Syracuse and walked on to the basketball team, sitting out all of last season. When he was awarded the scholarship, he figured he had peaked.
“I thought that was going to be the end-all, be-all,” Bayer said.
The redshirt junior guard had played just 11 minutes across eight games during Syracuse’s 35-game season entering Sunday. And then came the unthinkable.
Starting guard Frank Howard picked up his fourth and fifth fouls within seconds of each other. Boeheim pointed at Bayer on the bench and in he went, tasked with playing the final 6:39 of an NCAA Tournament game in which the 11th-seeded Orange trailed No. 3 Michigan State by four.
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Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State's 55-53 NCAA tournament loss to Syracuse (lansingstatejournal.com; Couch)
Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch gives his initial thoughts on the Spartans' NCAA tournament loss to Syracuse on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
1. A brutal end for a team that had so much promise
DETROIT – Miles Bridges took one last 3 from near half-court after the buzzer. Nick Ward rocked back and forth on the bench, his head in hands, covered by his jersey.
Basketball can be a cruel make-or-miss game. And, for Michigan State, this was partly that. The Spartans made 17 of 66 shots, about 25 percent in a 55-53 second-round NCAA tournament loss to Syracuse that was difficult to imagine a couple hours earlier.
Perhaps we should have.
This game also spoke to the shortcomings of a gifted team that, it turned out, didn’t have everything. It was missing something. We sort of knew that.
MSU never fully figured out Syracuse’s zone Sunday. And what it did effectively, it seemed to do timidly or without crisp execution. MSU attempted 37 3-pointers and made eight. Many of those 3s were contested and/or late in the shot clock after nothing else had worked.
If this is it for the Miles Bridges era, it’ll end without a Sweet 16, without fulfilling the hopes of 11 months ago when he declared he’d return for his sophomore year. I can’t imagine there’s a junior year, even amid this heartbreak.
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NCAA Tournament amps up the March Madness with upsets, comebacks (PS; AP)
One word succinctly describes what's transpired so far in the NCAA Tournament:
Madness.
But even that's probably underselling it.
A comeback for the ages by Nevada. An entire region left without a Top 4 seed in the Sweet 16 for the first time in tourney history. The 16-seed winner UMBC, falling short in its attempt to extend its historic run as underdog darlings. Oh, and defending national champion North Carolina is out, routed in its own state by Texas A&M.
And that was just on Sunday. When No. 1 seed Xavier was bounced, too.
A memorable, zany first two rounds -- even by March Madness standards -- set up what could be another wild two weekends in a tournament where anything can become reality.
"It's what makes March Madness special and it kills the coaches because it's so hard and you think you have a great team," Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. "It's March Madness and you never know what's going to happen."
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Izzo after loss: 'Don't plan on going anywhere' (espn; Murphy)
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo had a strong message Sunday for any fan who thinks this year's Spartans team failed to live up to its potential.
"You know what I would say? Find another team," Izzo said. "... I would say that I have never, ever been prouder of a team than I am this team."
Izzo said the Spartans (30-5) had a bad shooting day in their 55-53 upset loss to No. 11 seed Syracuse in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday evening. He said he was motivated to bring Michigan State as a basketball team and a university back to a place of respect and prestige after a tumultuous season filled with off-the-court controversy and questions.
NCAA tournament Sweet 16 field contains more surprises than sure things
Welcome to the Sweet 16, Sister Jean. Loyola-Chicago's Cinderella story is just one delightful development in this year's field. Half the 1-seeds are gone, and there's no telling who has the upper hand to reach the Final Four.
"I don't plan on going anywhere," Izzo, 63, said when a reporter asked if this season could drive him to retire. "I've got a job to do. I've never run from anything in my life. Nothing. I don't plan on starting now. So, I'll be here. I took too many bullets this year not to be here. So I'll be here, and we'll be back knocking on the door to win a championship. I'm going to make damn sure of that, and I'm going to get the help of my people, my team and my support. I hope I do a better job of handling all the other things."
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Michigan State never had what it took to win national title this season (freep.com; Windsor)
This wasn't the team. We should've seen it from the start.
Or at least from Chicago, back in November, when Michigan State tussled with Duke and — at least for stretches — struggled with essential basketball concepts.
Where to pass. When to pass. When to shoot. How to shoot.
Sound familiar?
It should.
Because it's what you watched unfold Sunday afternoon at LIttle Caesars arena, four months after the Blue Devils exposed the Spartans' lack of on-court intangibles. All Syracuse did is expose them even more.
This time for good, 55-53.
Game over. Season over. Expectations over.
Something we shouldn't have had in the first place. Because this team was missing something all season. And Tom Izzo knew it.
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https://www.freep.com/story/sports/...tournament-michigan-state-syracuse/436716002/ (freep.com; Farell)
In one sense Tom Izzo’s big lineup worked during the Spartans 55-53 loss to Syracuse Sunday afternoonin the Midwest regional at Little Caesars Arena.
Freshman reserve Xavier Tillman pulled down a team-high 12 rebounds. Reserve senior Ben Carter played 23 minutes, at first because of Jaren Jackson Jr. foul trouble, then because of his veteran presence passing against the Syracuse zone. Hescored two points and had two rebounds.
Even Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim admitted his team was overpowered on the inside with the No. 3 seed Spartans outrebounding the Orangemen, 51-30.
More: Michigan State basketball gets upset in NCAA tournament: The reactions
The 6-foot-8 Tillman and the 6-9 Carter played more minutes than expected, which helped MSU dominate the glass.
The problem was shooting.
Cassius Winston, Josh Langford and Miles Bridges combined to shoot just 9 of 42 from the field against the Syracuse zone. The Spartans finished at 26 percent shooting from the field.
More: Michigan State's golden opportunity for another national title is over
“They played pretty well,’’ Izzo said of Carter and Tillman. “It wasn’t that Jaren (Jackson Jr.) was playing poor. Sometimes the youth… We did some different things defensively that we’ve been doing that worked. We didn’t jump those ball screens and stay up high on them. We kind of feathered them and made sure that for the most part (Tyus) Battle didn’t get to the rim. We ran them off the 3 because we were helping with our bigs. It was a little bit of an adjustment for a couple of bigs. We found some guys. The middle of that zone… Ben had the experience to know what to do.
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Couch: Michigan State, it turns out, never became the team we thought it might be (lansingstatejournal.com; Couch)
Of all the years that have felt like Tom Izzo's next best chance at a second national championship, this one, by the end, didn't really.
Sunday's 55-53 loss to Syracuse in the second round of the NCAA tournament will sting for a while because it's the end — of Miles Bridges, of Jaren Jackson Jr., of Tum Tum Nairn, of a group of kids that elevated the program's culture and made coming to work every day worth it for Izzo and Co.
Same for Sunday.
“The effort was there all day,” Izzo said. “This time the skill let us down a little bit.”
Izzo’s most gifted team, it turned out, wasn’t close to his best.
The Spartans would have survived Syracuse’s filthy zone with a normal shooting day. But at some point, this group was likely to run into a matchup that confounded them — be it Duke or Michigan’s Moritz Wagner or something or someone that required skill and dexterity these Spartans didn’t have.
They had a chance at a national championship. But it was a slim chance. Slimmer than two years ago or four years ago or eight years ago.
This was a nice group of kids, fairly mature and respectful even in the face of intense on-court expectations and off-court turmoil.
Right up to their final hour together.
Maeve Rule '20 takes you along her day as an iSchool student and to the Syracuse vs. UNC men's basketball game at the Dome.
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GAME DAY at Syracuse University | VLOG
State Champs! Perfect Liverpool claims AA crown (video) (PS; Bomba)
The performance was not perfect. But the record still is.
Liverpool overcame a slow first half to defeat Half Hollow Hills East on Sunday afternoon in the Class AA state final, claiming the school’s first state title and becoming the eighth undefeated team in Section III history.
“It feels great,” said Liverpool senior and tournament MVP Charles Pride. “Just bringing it back to everyone in Liverpool. All the fans, everyone who supported us, thank you. That’s for you guys.”
After battling back from an early deficit and fighting through four lead changes just in the fourth quarter, Liverpool found themselves with 1 67-65 lead, the ball and just 41 seconds on the clock.
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