Saturday, March 31, 2012

Tournament Thoughts - Final Four

Louisville has no scorers to go to.
Gorgui Dieng can't catch the ball and he missed at least two dunks and it still was a great game by his standards, 7 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks.

Russ Smith shoots too much (4-15).
Peyton Siva dribbles as if he's getting paid per bounce.

Steve Kerr kept complaining that Louisville's uniforms were more orange than red. He even called them Syracuse at one point.



Anthony Davis is freakin awesome, did you see that one-handed jam when the lob was tipped. Amazing.

Here's a good look at his unibrow.



Kentucky is so good but so undisciplined. Several times they took bad chances or pushed the action too much. That, and lazy defense allowed Louisville to make a comeback.

After the game, John Calipari said Davis could play point guard. And if he comes back for another year, he would let Davis do just that. Cal is a funny and charming guy. You can see why he always gets the best recruits. That, and the bags of cash the boosters provide really explain it quite well.

Ashley Judd has lost her fastball.



A lot of college teams struggle in the half-court. They can only score on fast breaks, 3-point shots or drives to the basket. That is why Thomas Robinson is so good. He can get the ball in the low post and either score or kick it out. Sullinger too. But I think I like Robinson a little more. But I'd take Sullinger in the NBA, over Robinson. But Sullinger did have a lot of problems with Withey in this game, shooting only 5 of 19.

That was a very weird scenario at the beginning of the game when the refs didn't call a foul on Robinson though he blatantly whacked Sullinger. It was almost like the refs were trying to protect him from getting in early foul trouble, but the TV crew kept pushing it so they had to reverse the call. How would the referees possibly get #0 and #24 confused?

Shooting percentage is not about ability. It is about the shots you take. At the beginning of the game Kansas was rushing shots, missing them and fell into a big hole. Because once you miss a few and get behind the tendency is to forgo patience and shot 3s, or shoot early in the possession. The same thing riddled Ohio State at the end.

Ohio State lost, but it is not Aaron Craft's fault. He made two huge plays, a steal, and then a clean strip on Robinson to protect an easy layup. Clutch plays, that could have tilted the game for Ohio State. But he totally fucked up on that missed free throw. Everyone knows the shooter can't enter the lane until the ball hits something. When you're trying to miss you need to nail it hard off the front rim or backboard so it bounces long, past the front line of rebounders.

1 comment:

Damino said...

So funny and true re: Calipari. I find him very charismatic and likeable but he's such a shady snake oil salesman.