85 Expansion - The Partly Unexpected Championship
Exciting update here for the 85 Expansion - we’re live on the web! 85expansion.com, a little side project I worked on as a way to archive the writing, keep everyone up to date on the rankings, and send better email updates. It’s a work in progress, but kicking it off now to hopefully to work out some kinks and be ready to go for next March.
For our games, we started off with the Gators chomping down on the Tigers, led once again by Walter Clayton Jr. Worth every dollar of the $750k I heard he made when he left for the Iona Gaels to Florida, WCJ had his second consecutive 30 point game, dropping 34 and leading the entire NCAA tournament in scoring. The last player to have that stat was Larry Bird - a pretty good sign for Clayton as he climbs up the NBA Mock Draft boards as a late first round pick. Auburn was up by 8 at the half but Florida just would not go away, diving after loose balls and shutting down Johni Broome. Sure, Auburn went scoreless for a three and a half minute stretch late in the game, but there is no other story than Walter Clayton Jr just being the best player on the court.
The same cannot be said for the Duke Blue Devils, with an absolute historic collapse. Duke looked like they would cruise to yet another victory with ease for the first 30 minutes. But then, as Kevin Pulsifer said in his ESPN article, for some reason the Duke freshmen for the first time played and looked like freshmen. With turnovers and missed shots, there was just one field goal made in the final 10:30 of game time for the Blue Devils. Obviously, much of that is to the credit of the Houston defense. An interesting Houston stat you don’t often see in basketball players - the team has an average mile time of 5:19. The slowest time is 5:45, fastest 5:07. That stamina paid off to close out the game, because the Cougars did not tire. Houston had a 9-0 run final 33 seconds, going a perfect 8-8 from the line to close out, an area you often see late game exhaustion show. The below win probability chart is one that no words can capture, you just need to see it to understand how improbable the comeback truly was.
There are murmurs of Cooper Flagg staying at Duke another year. Even with the NIL valuation of $4.8 million, the second highest paid college athlete after Arch Manning, I still do not see that being enough with an NBA #1 pick being valued at over $10 million.
Regardless, we’re set up for a great game tonight between Florida and Houston. Two teams that have had poise and comebacks throughout the tournament, can Walter Clayton Jr still go off vs a Houston defense that will clearly have all focus on containing him?
Click to download full bracket and breakdown of scoring
A huge bracket shakeup, mostly due to the Houston vs Duke game. Duke, the most popular championship pick in all ESPN brackets, let down the Brennans and opened the door for others. Although they’re still in the hunt due to all 3 picking Florida, it won’t be for long…
Chris Puder was the sole person to have both Houston and Florida in their championship, and jumps to second place. A Houston win obviously moves him up to first. Out of nowhere like he’s coming down the home stretch of an 400m race, Joey Correia would move up to 2nd with a Houston win behind Chris. Can the collegiate runner count on the Cougars stamina to lead him to some prize money?
On the flip side, Gator Nation Alumni Household remains in San Antonio for the weekend, as Jonathan and Katherine would go 1-2 in our standings with a Florida win. Rob, the only other person to pick Florida, would not complete the comeback and only jump to 5th place. Therefore, Lelia has a lock on 3rd place no matter what - can’t do better, can’t do worse.
While we’re here, a shout out to Paige Bueckers, as the UConn team DOMINATED South Carolina for the championship yesterday. The future #1 WNBA pick played up to her potential after some horrible injuries earlier in her college career, and UConn is back on top of the WCBB world.
Enjoy the championship tonight, 8:50 PM! Clousers, that’s 7:50 PM for you, don’t let the time zone confuse you.
Rory F Beglane
Founder of the 85 Expansion Bracket Challenge - www.85expansion.com
Villanova Enthusiast
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