NCAA tournament winners and losers: Harry Potter, Charles Barkley, John Calipari and more
Sweet 16. Elite 8. Now the Final Four. So many winners. So many losers. So much Loyola. (By Phil Rosenthal, Teddy Greenstein, Phil Thompson and Tim Bannon of the Chicago Tribune)
Winner: Harry Potter
College basketball fans who didn’t know a Gryffindor from a Whiffenpoof now know that Loyola’s handsome maroon and gold scarves have another meaning.
Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago TribuneWinners: Mariah Musselman and Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt
Before the Loyola-Nevada game in the Sweet 16, Nevada coach Eric Musselman’s 8-year-old daughter interviewed fellow tournament darling Sister Jean, 98, for TBS, and the pairing was too much cuteness for America to handle. The only thing missing was a UMBC golden retriever puppy walking on its hind legs.
Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago TribuneLoser: John Calipari
After whining about seeding and Kentucky's placement in a tough bracket, Wildcats coach John Calipari sounded a little cocksure after top seeds Virginia and Cincinnati were lopped off early. “Let’s bring the WHOLE band to #Catlanta! Let’s paint the city blue like we’ve always done,” he tweeted March 17 about South Region host Atlanta. Then in what should have been a favorable Sweet 16 draw, No. 5 Kentucky bowed out to ninth-seeded Kansas State. Cat got your tongue now, huh, John?
Darin Oswald/Idaho StatesmanLoser: John Calipari (yes, again)
For his team’s display of sour grapes in which players walked off the court without shaking hands with their Kansas State counterparts. Calipari’s explanation for this glaring lack of sportsmanship is even worse. “They were turned and celebrating, so I walked off,” he said, according to the Lexington Herald Leader. “There was no disrespect for anything. It’s just that they were celebrating, and I was happy for them.” Even if that’s true, how about you wait?
Chris Lee/St. Louis Post-DispatchWinner: Mass media
TBS analyst Chris Webber said during Saturday’s Elite Eight game between Loyola and Kansas State that there probably would be no school at Loyola the next day if the Ramblers won. Announcer Brian Anderson countered that the next day was Sunday. Neither wondered aloud whether the Jesuit school would take attendance at church services.
Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago TribuneLosers: Dana Jacobson and Leonard Hamilton
CBS’ Dana Jacobson stunned Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton by asking why his team didn’t foul down four points with about 11 seconds to play. He came off as rude and dismissive, and she should have answered when he asked: “What were we down?”
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando SentinelWinners: Dana Jacobson and Leonard Hamilton
Both posted messages Sunday on social media that took the right tone. Hamilton wrote, “I did not initially respond to her questions as I would have liked, and she was doing her job in asking them.” Jacobson thanked the coach for not storming off during the interview, writing, “He was nothing but professional w/me.”
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando SentinelLoser: Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports
Sean McManus, the head of CBS, has nothing against Loyola, per se. Chicago’s a big market, the Ramblers are a good story, and he likes Sister Jean. “But (it’s) not the best of all scenarios,” McManus said in a satellite radio interview, adding Kentucky’s ouster did TV no favors. "From a television standpoint, you really root for the big teams," McManus said as Kentucky’s ouster “was not good for us and not good for TBS at all. Kentucky being the bluebloods that they are, and having the television draw that they have, that really hurt us.”
Darin Oswald/Idaho StatesmanWinner: Big Ten
Only four Big Ten teams made the NCAA tourney this year, three fewer than in 2017. But last year none reached the Final Four. This year Michigan is there — and plays Loyola on Saturday. We know it’s not a big win, but after a disappointing season, the conference could use all the good news it can get.
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles TimesLoser: Charles Barkley
Would it kill you to pick one game right?
Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning NewsWinner: Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The order based in Dubuque, Iowa, to which Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt is a member, will receive proceeds from the sale of the new Sister Jean bobblehead ($33, shipping included).
Brian Cassella/Chicago TribuneLoser: Bob Huggins
We all love casual Fridays, but West Virginia coach Bob Huggins looked like a schlub compared with Villanova’s “GQ” Jay Wright, decked in a $3,000 suit with a baby blue handkerchief. Plus Wright's team won going away.
Hayne Palmour IV/San Diego Union-TribuneWinner: Purdue engineering students
Purdue center Isaac Haas broke his right elbow in the Boilermakers' opener against Cal State-Fullerton. He tried to wear a brace in the next game against Butler, but the NCAA rejected it because the brace had metal in it. Enter Purdue’s enterprising engineering students, who made a unique brace to hold Haas’ elbow in place. Alas, Haas did not play Friday night as the Boilermakers lost to Texas Tech in the East Region semifinals.
Kirthmon F. Dozier/Detroit Free PressWinner: Reverse layups
If the Loyola Ramblers used one reverse layup, they must have used about 680 of them to negate Nevada's height advantage and create opportunities for uncontested shots (not the kind of "rim protection" the Wolf Pack had in mind). No doubt about it, the reverse layup is Loyola's “Philly Special.”
Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
