Sunday, March 30, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Final Four

So the Stephen Curry show is finally over. But I have to admit I really enjoyed it while it lasted. Maybe not as much as Gus Johnson (did he say "I touched him?" after Curry went near the press table for a loose ball), but I loved watching the kid play.

I do think Kansas won this game by keeping the ball out of Curry's hands. At a certain point it was clear that he got frustrated and was just jacking it up every time he touched it. He missed 7 straight shots before hitting the 3 that cut the lead to 59-57. In that span Kansas went on a 12-3 run.

But I have to give Davidson a lot of credit, they never got rattled when Kansas turned them over, or outmuscled them for a rebound, and they never really tried to answer Kansas's baskets by jacking up quick shots.

Every time I saw the name Max Paulhus Gosselin, I thought of Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

Because of George Mason people won't talk about Davidson's run years from now, but I'll remember it, and we'll remember Stephen Curry even if he never becomes anything in the NBA.

I think we can all see that the two things that people used to pick against Memphis were way overblown. And we can all remember that I said it before the tournament. Free throw shooting and playing Texas in Houston, no big deal. The free throw shooting is once again a product of who is shooting them. When Rose and CDR are the ones going to the line, Memphis is an average team from the line.

And the homecourt thing is way overdone. Playing in the same state, is seen as a huge advantage? Please, maybe in your arena, but just because you have a lot of fans in the stands, that doesn't mean anything.

Did anyone else like have the court elevated and the benches below it? I kind of liked it. It was decidely old school like clips I see of Pete Maravich.

Derrick Rose is awesome and he's going to make some NBA team very happy next season. Add him to the list of guys coming out this year who I think will be better pros than Michael Beasley.

Before the tournament started I said if ever there was a year when all four number one seeds would make the Final Four, this is the year.

It really seemed to me going in that UNC and UCLA were locks (even though UNC had two tough teams in its region) and the way the field shook out for Kansas, they beat a 16, a 12, 10 and an 8. Memphis looked the shakiest of the #1s but in these two games they dominated in the first half with their superior talent.

I still think UCLA will beat UNC next Monday, but I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can anyone explain how that guy on Davidson got the White Lobster nickname? I loved when Gus kept calling him that.