Even if they helped ruin your bracket, you have to be pleased to see teams like Butler and VCU make it to the Final Four. But now the proponents of expanding the field have some ammunition. And I'm concerned that we'll see even more expansion in the 2012 tournament.
The problem is, for every VCU, there will be ten UABs. Remember that 70-52 UAB/Clemson play-in game? It was kind of sad to watch. And Clemson's not even that good. Do we want to see more games like this? A mediocre team clobbering a sub-mediocre team?
Do you want to see Colorado State battle St. Mary's? Or how about Harvard vs. McNeese State? Actually, I wouldn't mind these small conference teams getting in, but imagine an NCAA tournament that gave the ACC 8 berths? The opening rounds would just be too filled with bad teams playing bad basketball.
Let's just jump right into it. I came up with some award winners for tournament performances, both team and individual. Unlike most who give out awards, mine are not entirely contingent on winning (mostly because I don't want to give many awards to Duke players!). Here they are...hopefully they'll generate some comment discussions.
Best Individual Performance (Single Game): Jimmer Fredette, #7 BYU vs #10 Florida Check out this vid! Apparently this song is some kind of a remix by his brother, TJ, and about Jimmer.
I realize we're going way back to day 1 here, but so what? In every game the season is on the line, and this dude flat out filled it up against Florida. He finished with 37 on the day, and was virtually unstoppable late in the game when he single-handedly took over and led BYU to round 2. He was the talk of the tourney early, and I think would have been the news Steph Curry had BYU been able to win one more. Plus, he gets bonus points for having an unusual name. Mormons.
Best Team Performance (Single Game): #14 Ohio University Bobcats, 1st Round victory over #2 Georgetown.
The Bobcats, weren't even supposed to be in this dance, and yet they managed to take out a Hoya team who many had pegged for at least the Elite 8. They shot an astounding 67% from the floor in the 2nd half to pull away, and shot over 56% from deep for the game. Luck ran out for Ohio though, as they were stomped back into oblivion by Tennessee in round 2.
Best Game: #5 Michigan State vs. #4 Maryland
There were so many too choose from. Going back to day 1 with FLA/BYU, UNI/UNLV, WFU/TEX, ODU/ND and UT/SDSU. That was just the first day 1! The action was non-stop, and K-State/Xavier will probably be many people's choice. But to me, this MD/MSU game gets the nod, just for the fact that it had two buzzer beaters. This is the one game that I actually jumped off the couch at. (I think I even spilled something). Greivis Vasquez, a favorite of Jesus, had just hit a runner from about 12 feet to seemingly seal a victory for the Terps, but the Spartans came down and Lucious got a great look at a 3 and buried it to steal the win for Michigan State! They would ride that momentum all the way to the Final Four.
Best Team: Butler Bulldogs
This may be the trendy pick, but I really don't care. I've come full circle on this team. What is NOT to like? They're gritty, tough, unassumingly athletic, fundamental and feature a 6'9" ballhandling forward with a plethora of moves. They will forever be remembered for this run, and really couldn't lose that game against Duke. Even though they LOST, no one expceted them to win and it was a miracle run anyway. Duke on the other hand will not be remembered for this victory. I think more people might remember that Butler was in the final. Who won the year George Mason made the Final Four? Exactly. I think it was UNC, but I don't even know without looking it up. And you don't either unless you're a UNC fan or that fat guy on ESPN who knows every piece of sports trivia. Butler made this tournament memorable.
Coach of the Tournament: Tom Izzo, Michigan State
What can I say? Izzo took a group of good but not great players, they certainly underachieved this year, all the way to the Final Four, after losing his best player in the 2nd round. They employed a sort-of point guard-by-committee and made great success with it. He reached his 6th Final Four in a dozen years! That's unreal. I don't care about Coach K winning it all. He had a cakewalk to the championship and beat Butler in the final game. (I know Butler beat MSU, but at that point no Lucas had caught up with them.) MSU's run to me was a very impressive and deserving effort. Honorable Mention: West Virginia, Butler, St. Mary's
Tournament MOP (Most Outstanding Player): Evan Turner, Ohio State
Yes, his team bowed out in the sweet 16 against Tennessee. But , it certainly was no fault of his. He finished with 31, 7, and 5 in that game. He averaged 21.3 7 and 8 in OSU's three games. Not too shabby. He is electric and as pure a scorer as colelge basketball has right now. John Wall might go #1 but I think Turner has a chance of being a better pro.
Now for the not so good...
Worst Choke Job: Texas Longhorns
With a sizeable lead and under two minutes to play, Texas did the improbable and choked away a victory to Wake Forest. Missed free-throws, bad possessions, turnovers, bad fouls, coach ineptitude. All were to blame. This was a choke job for the ages. What made it worse was that they probably thought they'd done enough to survive until Ishmael Smith took it coast to coast and buried the jumper to down the Longhorns.
DST Team(Dog Shit Taco): I stole this award from my fantasy baseball league. It goes to the worst performer of the week. We'll use it here for the worst team performance and individual performance. Villanova Wildcats
I don't think I really need to explain, but clearly this was a team not playing its best ball at the end of the year. Scottie Reynolds looked hung-over maybe even drunk and Villanova suffered an embarassing loss to St Mary's.
DST Individual (Dog Shit Taco) Denis Clemente, Jacob Pullen - Kansas State backcourt Coach Martin was NOT thrilled.
We're actually going to double team this one and give it to both. They managed one FG between the two of them in the first half against Butler. Granted, they were fresh off the double-OT win against Xavier in which they were dynamite, but their team needed them and they looked like they spent the wee hours of the morning with strippers.
Obama and I have the nearly the same elite eight (swap West Virginia and New Mexico) and the same final four: Obama’s Final Four: Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky and Villanova. His Elite 8: Georgetown, Syracuse, West Virginia, Duke.
Hopefully I can overcome my losing streak to BMack, and now that I know the President has got my back I'm golden. Jeezy take us to 11:30:
It never ceases to amaze me how accurate the odds makers are in any sport really. Everytime the line looks ridiculous, I laugh and then when the game is decided within 5% of said line I thank god I didn't bet my true feelings.
Have a look at the Sweet 16 lines for Thursday and Friday's games. There are a few that are just screaming for you to jump all over them -
Now, most of these appear to be reasonable. No problems with the Pitt, Louisville, MSU or UNC lines. The two that jump right out at me as easy winners are UConn and Villanova. UConn has dismantled its two opponents as if they were playing against high school kids. I know one was a 16 but it doesn't matter, the Huskies are on a mission. AJ Price has been absolutely on fire since the Big East Tourney game and when he's shooting like that UConn is untouchable. The fact they are laying only 6.5 points is unfathomable. I'm looking at them to win by 15 or 20.
As for Nova/Duke, how can Duke even be favored here? I never pick against the Blue Devils but compare the quality of play in the first two rounds and the quality of conferences the two schools hail from. No brainer. Nova is going to win and it shouldn't even be much of a struggle.
You want easy money, double up on UConn and Nova. The Dueling Couches Guarantee says you cannot go wrong.
Every year it happens like clockwork. Some dumbass who's seen 20 minutes of college basketball in their life wins the big bracket pool. Either that, or the office secretary picks teams with the cutest mascots, and she wins the big prize. So this year, instead of thinking about my picks, I'm going to select these games based strictly on non-basketball criteria. My goal is to make the worst looking bracket ever, therefore creating the perfect one, and winning $1 million on Yahoo. Here are my picks for Friday's games:
Game 1: #14 Stephen F. Austin vs. #3 Syracuse Pick: Stephen F. Austin Why?: Two words, or one word and one number: Austin 3:16.
Game 2: #9 Tennessee vs. #8 Oklahoma State Pick: Tennessee Why?: Adorable mascot, cool fight song, better team name. This is a blowout.
Game 3: #11 Utah State vs. #6 Marquette Pick: Utah State Why?: Fuck Wisconsin
Game 4: #14 North Dakota State vs. #3 Kansas Pick: North Dakota State Why?: Better hockey team
Game 5: #11 Temple vs. #6 Arizona State Pick: Arizona State Why?: Girls gone wild...
Game 6: #16 East Tennessee State vs. #1 Pittsburgh Pick: Pittsburgh Why?: I've never heard of the state of East Tennessee
Game 7: #14 Cornell vs. #3 Missouri Pick: Cornell Why? Bruins forward Byron Bitz is Cornell '07, and I was Ithaca College '07. So much in common.
Game 8: #11 Dayton vs. #6 West Virginia Pick: West Virginia Why?: Pat White is Mr. Excitement
Game 9: #12 Arizona vs. #5 Utah Pick: Arizona Why?: There's too many teams from Utah in this tournament. One's enough. Plus...
Game 10: #10 Southern California vs. #7 Boston College Pick: Boston College Why?: Fuck Pete Carroll and those who employ him.
Game 11: #13 Portland State vs. #4 Xavier Pick: Portland State Why?: I once got into a bar in Portland (Maine) when I was 19 with my friend's ID, even though he went in before me (two Tom's with the same birthday).
Game 12: #9 Siena vs. #8 Ohio State Pick: Siena Why?: Sienna Miller's cute, and any team that names their mascot after the fucko who assassinated Julius Caesar is lame.
Game 13: #13 Cleveland State vs. #4 Wake Forest Pick: Wake Forest Why?: The motorcycle
Game 14: #15 Robert Morris vs. #2 Michigan State Pick: Robert Morris Why?: Ithaca College's club hockey team, who sucked BTW, once played and beat Robert Morris 23-0. Robert Morris had 10 players, including their one goalie. It's payback time.
Game 15: #12 Wisconsin vs. #5 Florida State Pick: Florida State Why?: Who's hotter? Brigid Mullen (Wisconsin) or Jenn Sterger (FSU)?
vs.
Yeah, it's Sterger
Game 16: #16 Morehead State/Alabama State vs. #1 Louisville Pick: Morehead St./Alabama St. Why?: Two teams are better than one
St. Mary's won 26 games and didn't get into the tournament. Boo fuckin hoo hoo. I'm tired of hearing about them. They don't deserve a shot at the national championship (remember, that's what the tournament actually is). Or at the very least, they didn't do enough to CLEARLY deserve one.
They played Seattle Pacific, a Division II side. 5 days later, they played Vanguard, an NAIA team. And how about that bullshit win against Eastern Washington? Even St. Mary's doubted themselves so much, they find a 12-17 cupcake team in Eastern Washington (who finished 7th in the 9 team Big Sky Conference), then put them on their schedule AFTER they got raped by Gonzaga in the WCC tourney.
Take those 2 non D-I teams, and that artificially added game out, and St. Mary's has a much less impressive 23 win season.
Then you get the whining and complaining about Patty Mills getting hurt. Well what about Davidson? How come nobody's griping about Davidson being in the NIT. And guess what, St. Mary's had Mills when they lost to Gonzaga by 25 points.
65 teams get in. Somebody has to be #66 and not get in. At that level, there will always be debate, because how much separation can there really be from 65th to 66th?
Every year it happens like clockwork. Some dumbass who's seen 20 minutes of college basketball in their life wins the big bracket pool. Either that, or the office secretary picks teams with the cutest mascots, and she wins the big prize. So this year, instead of thinking about my picks, I'm going to select these games based strictly on non-basketball criteria. My goal is to make the worst looking bracket ever, therefore creating the perfect one, and winning $1 million on Yahoo. Here are my picks for Thursday's games:
Game 1: #9 Butler vs #8 LSU Pick: LSU Why?: Butlers are paid to dress nice and serve rich people. That's not what winners do.
Game 2: #15 Cal State Northridge vs. #2 Memphis Pick: CS Northridge Why?: Baseball is only 2 letters from basketball, and CS Northridge has a sick baseball team. Memphis, meh, not so good.
Game 3: #9 Texas A&M vs. #8 Brigham Young Pick: Texas A&M Why?: Two reasons. Junction Boys and Mormonism is about as silly as a religion can get.
Game 4: #12 Northern Iowa vs. #5 Purdue Pick: Purdue Why?: I like Perdue chicken
Game 5: #16 Radford vs. #1 North Carolina Pick: Radford Why?: Hmmmmmm, why would I pick the Radford HIGHLANDERS? Maybe because there can be only one!
Game 6: #10 Maryland vs. #6 California Pick: Maryland Why?: At the University of Maryland, they have classes on Star Wars.
Game 7: #16 Chattanooga vs. #1 UConn Pick: Chattanooga Why?: Two reasons... I hate Yukon Cornelius, and this song:
Game 8: #13 Mississippi State vs. #4 Washington Pick: Washington Why?: Fewer letters, easier to spell
Game 9: #10 Minnesota vs. #7 Texas Pick: Texas Why?: Nicer weather
Game 10: #10 Michigan vs. #7 Clemson Pick: Michigan Why?: Better law school
Game 11: #14 American vs. #3 Villanova Pick: American Why?: I'm American. America... FUCK YEAH!
Game 12: #13 Akron vs. #4 Gonzaga Pick: Gonzaga Why? Akron looks too much like Akon, and I hate Akon
Game 13: #15 Binghamton vs. #2 Duke Pick: Binghamton Why?: In Rounders, they go up to Binghamton to hustle a NY State Police poker game, then get stomped on. Classic sequence.
Game 14: #15 Morgan State vs. #2 Oklahoma Pick: Morgan State Why?: I once knew a cute lesbian named Morgan
Game 15: #11 Virginia Commonwealth vs. #6 UCLA Pick: Virginia Commonwealth Why?: Two reasons: I live in a Commonwealth, and VCU has fewer letters than UCLA
Game 16: #12 Western Kentucky vs. #5 Illinois Pick: Western Kentucky Why?: Isn't it obvious?
Not than anyone care, and the fact is I wouldn't care either unless it was for Candace Parker and I love her. But Tennessee won their second National Title in 2 years with Candace. The other Candice, Candice Wiggins had 14 points on the losing effort. Candace Parker finished her last college game with 17 points and 9 boards and is sure to be the number 1 pick in the WNBA draft in like a week.
Derrick Rose lived up to his hype tonight with 25 points and has proved to be a very intelligent basketball player that can excel at the next level, his teammate CDR had 28 points for also. Memphis let UCLA hang around basically until the second half, but thats when Memphis took off. UCLA scored only 7 points in a 4 minute span in the second quarter and that is where Memphis solidified their lead. For UCLA Kevin Love scored 12 points and 9 points and may be his last game he plays for the Bruins. Memphis shot 20-23 from the fee-throw line, shutting me up again.
Well in the fuck Dave Pearce NCAA Tournament, the Memphis Tigers beat the Texas Longhorns. Looking back on this tourney I should have just picked all the number 1s. I should have said fuck "free-throws", Memphis is just a really good team. Derrick Rose looked like Jalen Rose in having 21 points and Chris Douglas-Roberts finished with 25 points and was the real game changer. The most surprising stat was the fact they shot 30-36 from the charity stripe (that's a free throw line Bob) which is 83 percent, and that is very impressive. As for Joey Dorsey he had 11 points and 12 boards, however he remains a total douche bag.
As for Texas, the couldn't get it going. D.J. Augustine had 16 points but only shot 4-18 and at times looked foolish with the ball, and A.J. Abrams had 17 points. The Longhorns shot 36 percent for the game, while Memphis shot 50 percent.
What it came down to is Rick Pitino coached better than Bruce Pearl. You could see it all the time through their defensive sets. Also, UL dictated the pace and style of play the whole game. For UL 5 players scored in double figures which included: Williams, Padget, McGee, Smith, and Clark off the bench. For Tennessee, both Smiths and Lofton scored in double figures. I realized that Tenn was extremely overrated, Lofton shot 7-33 this whole tournament. It was my fault for putting so much faith into him.
Is it me, or do leads not matter this tournament. Xavier started this game strong and fast 28-10. Then West Virginia came back from great play from Joe Alexander and De'Sean Butler, however Josh Duncan and Drew Lavender were too much to handle at the end. Xavier lost the lead at the end of the game, than Drew Lavender hit a very timely three, when West Virginia missed some crucial free-throws, which caused this game to get into overtime. In overtime, West Virginia started off quickly, then fizzled and had some bonehead defensive plays at the end of the game which led to B.J. Raymond hit the dagger three pointer.
Dave's Bracket Well my bracket is officially busted, but hey, at least Georgetown wasn't up 15 with 15 minutes left. Bob's Bracket Hanging in there, I need NC or Memphis to lose to get back into it. However, Bob and I had 18 points in the second round and tied over-all with 40 points each.
My bracket is officially busted. Georgetown not only lost, but lost in devastating fashion. They lost after having 17 point lead into the half. Stephan Curry decided to be God again and finished the game with 30 points. Oh yea, only 22 of them were in the 2nd half, asshole. As for Georgetown, no one had over 14 points. Roy Hibbert finished with 6 and fouled out. I am sad, depressed and right now.... MAD: Box Score
This game was another surprising game that strengthens the arguement anything can happen during this tournament. Texas all game looks as if they were going to coast to a sweet 16 bid, but Miami had other plans.
With some unlikely 3's from Raymond Hicks (Miami) and a near meltdown from D.J. Augustine (Texas) at the free-throw line, Miami nearly stole this game from Texas. For Texas, A.J. Abrams had 26 points, and three others had double digits points wise. Miami's leading scorer was Jack McClinton had 18 points. This also leads to speculation that the ACC is an over-rated conference with another loss and North Carolina being the only team left.
