Michigan handling the madness at the Sweet 16
ANAHEIM, Calif. (WOOD) — If you didn’t already know what the madness part of March was all about, all you had to do was step foot in the Honda Center Wednesday. It was on full display.
It came in the form of the four seeds in the West taking their first shots at the rims in Anaheim, California, one day before their Sweet 16 matchups.
But the real madness was dressed as Sherlock Holmes – or maybe Inspector Clouseau? If you watch late-night TV, you probably know him as Guillermo from Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“Is Gonzaga a fake school or no?” Guillermo asked one of Gonzaga’s stars, Rui Hachimura.
When asked if he knew who Guillermo was before Wednesday, Hachimura responded with a laugh.
“I actually didn’t know,” he said.
“I don’t even know who that is, to be honest,” Zags junior forward Brandon Clarke added. “But I heard he was a funny guy.”
Guillermo wasn’t around by the time Michigan took the court for practice. Having been through a deep run just a year ago, the Wolverines know both ends of the madness spectrum — the agony of losing in a national championship game and the thrill of reaching one.
“Last year when he (Jordan Poole) hit that shot,” Michigan sophomore Isaiah Livers, a Kalamazoo native, recalled. “Dude was all in his face and a routine three that he usually shoots in practice or just by himself, that’s how you know it’s March, when someone just makes a crazy shot.”
So Jordan Poole has already had his moment. Will he have another one? Will it be Livers? Or somebody else wearing maize and blue? Or perhaps it will be someone from their opponent, Texas Tech? That’s the beauty of this tournament. You just don’t know.
But we do know that sometime Saturday night, somebody will climb the ladders and cut down the nets.