Fantasy March Madness: Cliffs Notes

As the college basketball regular season wound down, the reality of an eight month off-season began to sink in. Everyone was struggling to cope with how to pass the time until next year's draft. "If only the season could last a little while longer..." they thought. And that's when it hit me... something that would force you to watch nearly every game with even more intensity than ever before. It was a match made in heaven between fantasy college hoops and the greatest postseason event in all of sports. Even after the draft, absolutely no one knew how to feel about their team. Sure, some opinions... *cough* Chalmers Chiefers *cough* were stronger than others. But every owner felt they had a legitimate chance to win it all. So here's the Cliffs Notes version for the inaugural season of Fantasy March Madness:

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Fantasy March Madness: National Championship

While watching the game at Boilers' house and rooting against Duke more than anything else, I had a hard time believing this was the National Championship. Especially after the media's season-long obsession over the star power on Syracuse, the NBA roster on Kentucky, or the balance at Kansas. This year was a clear example of Krzyzewski's mastery of coaching at the collegiate level. With one NBA caliber player and only six logging major minutes, Duke definitely went against the grain to get their fourth ring.

As for the game... Big Cat had two of the five active players. Kyle Singler (19pts, 9reb, 2ast, 2blk, 1stl) and Brian Zoubek (8pts, 10reb, 1ast, 2blk) both narrowly missed double-doubles. But when you end up winning by over 200 points, little things like that don't seem to matter.

Chalmers Chiefers almost felt guilty for taking Jon Scheyer (15pts, 6reb, 5ast, 2blk, 1stl) in the first round. But not anymore, as he finishes as the league's #2 overall scorer.

But the story of the tournament has to be the play of Butler's super sophomore Gordon Hayward (12pts, 8reb, 1ast, 1stl), WGP's 4th round pick. As the highest scoring non-Dukie, Hayward also had two chances to be the hero in the final seconds. And so begins one of the longer off-seasons in recent memory...

Here's a look at the final scoreboard.

Fantasy March Madness: Saturday - Final 4

While WGP appears to have 2nd place wrapped up, Gordon Hayward (19pts, 9reb, 2blk, 2stl) and Butler set the table for a 'David v. Goliath' matchup on Monday night. The Bulldogs overcame a scoring drought of over 10 minutes and a horrendous 30.6% shooting effort (15-for-49) to knock off Sparty.

Heading into the Final 4, Big Cat's stranglehold on the league title is tighter than ever. With a 75+ point lead in hand, Big Cat possesses 1/3 of the remaining field of active players. Fresh off the worst performance in his collegiate career, Kyle Singler (21pts, 9reb, 5ast) looked like a lottery pick against West Virginia. Singler and his backcourt teammates, Jon Scheyer (23pts, 2reb, 6ast, 2stl) and Nolan Smith (19pts, 1reb, 6ast), combined for 12 three-pointers, and better than 80% of Duke's 78 points.

The Pink Jellybeans were like a black cat during March Madness. After Kalin Lucas ruptured his achilles earlier in the tourney, Da'Sean Butler (10pts, 3reb, 2ast, 1stl) tore his ACL with 9:00 left in the biggest game of his career. Your heart has to go out to the kid, who was in noticeable agony while laying on the court for several minutes. Widely considered a first round pick in the upcoming NBA draft, Butler's status is now a huge question mark.

Here's a look at the current scoreboard.