It's kind of ironic that the entire Final Four experience was more or less a tremendous let down, given that our total lack of upsets throughout the early stages of the tournament supposedly lay the groundwork for an absolutely sublime level of basketball that was to follow this past weekend. But that only really happened to a small degree - the first half of Georgetown/OSU and Greg Oden's performance last night.
Seriously, if you're (or I'm) going to be a sanctimonious asshole and drop "sublime" in a college basketball column (Note: I'm aware I already have) then I think it might be only acceptable to use it when describing the way Greg Oden floored all over the court on offense, defense and general bad-assness. Is it his fault that the rest of the Buckeyes more or less stunk up the gym? Nah. In fact, I don't think they even played that bad, but more likely it was the immense level of talent, drive and desire that consumed the entire Florida team throughout the final month of the college basketball season.
They didn't even really ever come close to losing. Not once. SEC Tourney and NCAA Tourney - they plowed through both of them like Pete North at Porn Film Festival. And even though I hate to follow up on a point that has ever been made by the dreaded duo of Jim Nance and Billy Packer, but it really does say something that all five of the starters for Florida average over 10 points a game but not over 15; they also reached 1,000 career points within two weeks of one another. Normally, if a team's full five starters averages double digits, it's because they play in a shoddy conference or run an offense that requires them all to just jack threes. Florida, obviously, has five guys who could be number one or two options on any team in America, and they just enjoy playing with each other. Hence, a championship run that was nothing short of dominant.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Wrapping up the NCAA
Friday, March 30, 2007
Keep It In Your Pants, Kentucky
This Billy Donovan business has gone way past the point of being absurd by now. The state (and general commonwealth area apparently) of Kentucky, long known for their "passionate" (read: rabid) fan base when it comes to basketball, gave Tubby Smith such shitty treatment--you know he's won a f'ing national title right?--that he picked up and rolled to Minnesota. Minn-e-freaking-sota. It's cold as balls in Minny, their mascot is the Golden Gopher, and they play in the Big Ten, which, pardon me or saying so, is boring and kind of sucks. Why doesn't he just come back to High Point U and coach his alma mater? Seriously--it's not that far of a reach.
But I digress--the point here is not what a downgrade of a job Tubby was willing to take because the fans are such lunatics, it's the fact that the University of Kentucky had the gall and stones to announce, during the week of hoopla before the Final Four, that they were going to offer Billy Donovan close to 3 mill a year to leave Florida and come to Kentucky. If the season were over, I don't have [that much of] a problem with this. Kentucky considers themselves the most important school to the sport of college basketball, and even if their consistent over-seeding doesn't completely prove them wrong, I don't take issue with at least letting them go on believing whatever they want. But, first off, we're talking about a fellow SEC school. Granted Donovan coached with Pitino there, so there's a clear connection, but the only time you should be allowed to go after a coach in the same conference as your school is if 1) he's an alumni of your school and 2) if the University that he currently coaches at is basically trying to run him off (I call this the TOB rule).
Instead, we have Billy D, who an basically do whatever he wants in Gainesville, less than eight hours away from coaching his team towards back-to-back title games and possible National Championships. So maybe Kentucky is just jealous? Do they blatantly want Florida to lose this game (or the next) even though it would mean plenty of shared revenue for the SEC, and at least give some credence to the notion that the SEC isn't a faded power conference? (Note--I'm not saying they are, but it's not the ACC we're talking about here, kids.) Who the fuck knows. All I do know is...
KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS, KENTUCKY. Just wait one more effing week before you let the world know that you're going to try and hire Billy Donovan away from Florida. And not just because it's the right thing to do, or because trying to jinx an arch rival school like this is just Bush League, but because I'm sick and tired of having to listen to eight straight hours of "Should He Stay Or Should He Go...Now" yamming as every single talking head out there prattles on about their personal opinion on whether Billy should take the job or not.
NO ONE has mentioned that what Kentucky did is just sad and we're so busy being caught up in Donovan's response that we can't see there's literally zero way for him to win in this situation. He's doing the closest thing he can to not saying anything that commits one way without shutting a door, and that's all he can do. If all his guys leave for the NBA, screw it, go coach Kentucky if that's what you really want to do--it'd be a huge mistake considering that he owns the program in Florida and, as Dickie V pointed out, all of his close family has just recently moved to Gainesville. Billy is just going to pull a standy, get-me-a-huge-raise move by briefly considering the swap to Hicksville before cashing in on a big payday/lifetime contract in Gator Country.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Part Duex - Or, Waiting for the Basketball to Start
What does it say about women's college basketball that I'm currently watching Caddyshack II? Although, I suppose a better question would actually be, what does it say about me that I'm watching Caddyshack II? Probably not good things. For either. Not gonna lie though, a Women's Regional Final between Arizona State and Bowling Green is not gonna pique my excitement a whole lot. What will the ole' Elite Eight juices rolling though, is a UConn (the number one seed and the closest thing women's college basketball has to an "Evil Empire") - NC State (Kay Yow is recovering from her third bout with cancer and brought this team out of a tailspin to make a legitimate run at something special in this tournament) matchup. And before you judge me, just know that I need my underdog fix okay? 'Cause the men's tournament hasn't exactly been lower seed friendly, with the "worst" seeded team in the Elite Eight the "Mighty" Ducks of Oregon.
The Ducks do represent the serious lack of appreciation that myself and the rest of the country gave to the PAC-10 this year; granted it's not the toughest conference top to bottom by any means, but they should have landed three teams in the Elite Eight, had Tim Floyd and the Trojans not managed to choke away an 18 point lead. Choke is a tough word though, the Tarheels are pretty freaking gross, and with Gibson on the bench with four fouls, USC had no shot at either rebounding or stopping the lockjob third pick in this year's draft that is Brandan Wright. Siggggggh. (He's just blatantly staying one more year, that's why the sigh.)
On tap today:
#1 Ohio State v. #2 Memphis. Has there ever been less said about a number two seed that has looked great on it's way to an Regional Final run than Calipari's Tigers? I think not. These guys are the closest thing to a darkhorse (Oregon doesn't have a prayer tomorrow) in this tournament, just solely based on lack of hype but I don't know that they can deal with the Buckeyes. Greg Oden is really starting to break out and two (or three) more big games from him and you can pencil him in for that top pick in the draft. Whenever the Celtics don't get it. Conley, Jr. is underrated given the amount of frosh talent in the NCAA's this year and the Buckeyes sport so many longballers that I don't see them losing again. Until they meet the Hoyas.
#1 Kansas v. #2 UCLA I hate UCLA. They're just not exciting and I wish Indiana had dumped them off. I also had equally unexciting Pittsburgh beating them so, um, yeah, my bracket is Donecakes. This game should be relatively low scoring--both teams sport very stout defenses, but I'll take Kansas by double digits based on their ability to score at will. Great test of Howland's defense coming tonight.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I've Got A Fever....
No seriously. I wish I had a Will Ferrell joke to throw in here. It would make my life much easier. Instead, following one good day of basketball in a four day span, I'm sick as dog d***. Or so fucking sick. Whatever you want to call it.
Maybe the cause of my infirmity is the easy-to-hoe road that the Tarheels have somehow landed to the Elite Eight. People around here (and by that I mean North Carolinians that hate the Heels) are terrified that they're marching towards a National Championship, but I don't think they're winning it all. But that's mainly because I've got Georgetown winning it all in my brackets. Which might be the secondary cause of my malaise.
Are we on an every other year type of favorites domination thing here? Last year's Tourney was maligned for being boring but what the hell is better than a year when George Mason marches to the Final Four? Watching Texas get run on by SoCal? Um, nosir. I know this idea has been beat to death by most of the media out there, but there really was only one good day of basketball all weekend. Thursday was wishful anticipatory thinking, Friday just wasn't that exciting and Sunday was chock-full of blowouts. Saturday on the other hand, was freaking sublime. I couldn't flip my remote fast enough and there were countless overtimes.
I'm going to try and cover these next set of games more in depth if I can get well and clear everything off my plate before Thursday.
Don't forget to check out the Cardiac Pack Part Duex on ESPN tonight in the NIT Quarterfinals. Sid Lowe may or may not be sporting a red blazer but this is one of the most well coached teams in the nation. GO Pack!
