Why the Long Face? You Won

Congratulations to Reissberg on his victory in this year's Tournament Challenge group. His 1440 points put him in the top 2.6% nationally, tied for 166,057th place. He was one of 10 (nearly half our group) to pick the champion correctly. He narrowly edged out Dylan, whose brother Evan would have won if Kansas had pulled off the upset.
In third place is some random entry followed by Mrs. Poop in 4th.
Mrs. Poop is a force in this contest, winning in 2011 & 2009.
2008 was another heart-breaking year for poor Evan, who lost to his father when Kansas (those bastards) pulled off a miracle against Memphis.
In 2007, Michael was the champion. The once great Michael has fallen to embarrassing levels, finished 20th out of 21 this year.
I did not keep accurate records so I don't know who won in 2010. But from now on I will post the list so we can look back at past performance.

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.

Tournament Thoughts Elite 8

Why final scores are misleading. Kansas beat North Carolina by 13 points, Kentucky beat Baylor by only 12.

But the UNC-Kansas game was a great game. In the words of a noted UNC scholar, "both teams played hard man."

Harrison Barnes made a free throw after the under-4 timeout to make the score 68-67. Kansas scored the next 12 points.

That is when they could have used Kendall Marshall. It is a real shame he got hurt. I really believe North Carolina would have won this game if he had been at full-strength.

In some ways its worse than what happened to Syracuse because at least Syracuse kind of deserved it because Melo was a dope, and no one helped him or covered up for him. North Carolina has nothing to blame but bad luck.

Baylor had a great season and they have a lot of promise on the horizon because they've increased spending on their athletic performance. But they laid down like dogs in the is game. Quincy Acy was the only guy busting ass during the stretch when Kentucky took a 40-20 lead.

Why did Calipari bring Anthony Davis back in once he got hurt? That does not make sense. They were up by 15, give the kid a break, don't risk him re-injuring his knee.

Kentucky and Syracuse were undeniably the two best teams in the country this season. One loss each. They had three common opponents: St. John's and then Louisville and Florida. The last two lost 19 games combined in the regular season, 7 of those losses were to Syracuse and Kentucky.

That was a really horrible loss by Florida. They really choked this game away.

Did you see that dunk by Patric Young? Dude is nasty. His arms are ridiculous. He looks like a young Kevin Willis.



Billy Donovan can't beat Rick Pitino. 0-7 lifetime. Yikes!

Peyton Siva has been around a long time, you think he would be more mature by now. His 5th foul was really stupid.

Syracuse vs Ohio State

I was in too much pain and anger to write this after the game so I decided to sleep on it and maybe I would feel better about it in the morning. Didn't turn out that way, still crushed.

This game was marred by officiating. Don't skip the rest of this paragraph thinking it's just going to be a bitter Syracuse fan bitching and being sour grapes. I am not saying there was a conspiracy against the Orange. I'm saying the game was poorly officiated because it was called way too tightly. There were some phantom calls, but mostly it was just every tiny bit of contact was a whistle. 48 fouls in all. Five fouls in the first two minutes of the second half. It was just too much, and it had more of an adverse effect on Syracuse than it did on Ohio State. Partially because SU had less depth up front, partially because Ohio State adjusted better. Sullinger allowed two easy layups in the second half because he backed off on defense. Syracuse never made an adjustment. But it also hurt the Orange because they were trailing and wanting to play an aggressive trap, and every time they did an Ohio State player stepped into a Syracuse player and they called a foul.

But there were other reasons Syracuse lost. Offensive rebounding hurt again. Ohio State had 13 offensive rebounds.

Dion Waiters picked a bad time to have his worst game of the season. 2 for 8 from the field and almost zero other contributions. He plays aggressive defense and only played 20http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif minutes due to foul trouble. It was likely his last game for Syracuse.

We know Kris Joseph won't be back, and he went out with a whimper as well. I really think he regressed this year as other players improved and took more of the scoring load away from him.

Scoop Jardine however ended his career on a better note. He didn't play great but he made some big shots and his drives created some easy baskets for Christmas and Keita. For five years Scoop has given everything he had to this program. And like Shane, I just want Scoop on my team still.

Syracuse also lost because they missed lots of layups early. Then in the second half they took some bad shots without passing and working the offense. And then came the finishing stretch late in the game.

Sullinger had just made 2 free throws to put Ohio State back up by 4. The next three possessions were three turnovers, one by Scoop and 2 by Kris Joseph. Ohio State opened it back to 7 with 3 minutes left and the game was over.

I really wish Syracuse would have driven the ball into the lane more. It was working because Sullinger was backing off to avoid pikcing up his third foul, but they got away from it.

Sullinger is awesome. He's a little like Tim Duncan. He really knows how to use the glass on his post moves (like that one he banked, hit the rim, bounced off the backbohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifard again and in) and that makes him very effective.

Aaron Craft is a total pest. Not a good player just a total pain in the ass. He fouled out and I thought he could have been called for even more fouls.

It's a shame that one of the greatest seasons in school history had to end without a National Championship, without even a Final Four appearance. And it's even more disappointing because of all the what ifs, especially what if Fab Melo had just been able to stay eligible.

But as I discussed before the tournament (and before Melo's suspension) this was a great season. It was very enjoyable to dominate the entire country all year. It was great to have the longest stretch at number one we've ever had. It was great to reload the RPI page and see Syracuse on top for basically the entire season. It was great to watch Scoop's last hurrah, to watch Waiters become a star, to live and die with every chucked 3 by James Southerland. And it was fun to watch the development of Fab Melo, while it lasted.

It was great so beat UNC-Asheville despite all the internet hate. It was great to dominate Kansas State in the second half. And it was great to survive Wisconsin, a game where they played to the maximum of their potential and Syracuse was just a little bit better.

The 2003 team is of course the best team in school history. 1987 and 1996 are special. But this season will also be special to me for the wonderful journey these players took me on. Even if we didn't reach the destination.

Tournament Thoughts - Sweet 16 Friday

Xaiver needs to start better. They got back in it but Baylor isn't Lehigh. Couldn't come all the way back.

Quincy Acy is nasty. Did you see that dunk off the inbounds play?

Baylor has two guys named Quincy and two guys named Jones. But there's only one Quincy Jones.

After a ridiculous performance against Colorado Brady Heslip was cold in this game, but he nailed 4 big free throws down the stretch.

Xavier almost made the comeback thanks to an incredibly fluky play at the wrong time. A loose ball was tipped around by several guys such that the referees could not determine who touched it last. They ruled a jump ball which gave Xavier possession though replays showed it likely should have been Baylor ball.

During the course of the game a play like that doesn't seem like a big deal. But in the final minute it could decide a game. Maybe that should be added to the the plays eligible for replay review, but maybe only in the final minutes.

I don't know why CBS made such a big deal out of Clark Kellogg watch the Ohio game on a separate monitor. It's almost like they wanted it to be an added sideshow to the game. Why not assign him to a Thursday/Saturday region? I get that Kentucky is the big draw, but if the guy wants to watch his kid that badly, let the poor guy do it.

A really close call for North Carolina. The first overtime game of the tournament. And you got the feeling when it went into overtime that North Carolina was going to win. The longer talent has to compete against a lesser team, the more likely talent will prevail.

A great game by Walter Offutt. I could tell it was Walter Offutt because the names on the back of the Ohio jerseys are in the same size font as those books for old people Papa Poop borrows from the library.

Imagine what Ohio could have done if Cooper and Baltic shot a little better than 5 for 30 from the field. Or maybe if they just shot less.

But speaking of what ifs, what if the Tar Heels had gone to Tyler Zeller more. He had 20 points and 22 rebounds because he had a huge advantage inside. They should have pressed that advantage even more.

I think the turning point of this game was when Ohio was up 57-53 with under 4 minutes to go and DJ Cooper got a steal. On the breakaway he got blocked from behind by Henson. If he could have made that shot and made it 6, or slowed it down and burned some time (and maybe got a better shot off) this game could have ended differently.

I did love Ohio's end of game strategy, go hard at the basket right away. Yes, they gave Carolina a final shot (which they squandered by trying to kill every single second left on the clock) but they got themselves in the best position to score to tie the game.

It's a real shame that North Carolina lost Kendall Marshall though I still hope he can play Sunday. Their offense just wasn't the same without him. Nor was their defense with Stillman White.

But Marshall's absence didn't make Harrison Barnes shoot 3 of 16 from the field.

Jim Nantz is the worst announcer ever. Clark referred to a player as an Allen wrench because he has one only purpose, in this case shooting 3s. Nantz then referred to Cody Zeller's two fouls as a "wrenching" situation. Earlier Gay Nantz referred to a reach-in foul as a reach-around.

Then he jinxed Christian Watford. And before he said he noted that it was going to be a jinx. He'd hit 30-something free throws, Nantz said it, and he missed the next one.

Smart move by Calipari to leave Davis on the bench with two fouls the entire first half. He didn't even waiver when Indiana made a run.

Without Davis Kentucky can still score, but their defense is horrible. Oladipo was driving the lane with impunity.

Cody Zeller had a good game, but not as good as his brother. A few bad turnovers and those two fouls right in a row.

I wonder what the Zellers did. Did one parent go to one game and one parent to another? I'd think that's what you would have to do. Unless they went to Indiana's first weekend and UNC's second.

Speaking of families. I love the Harbaughs. So funny that their sister also married a coach.

Wow did Kansas almost blow this one. You do not foul the 3-point shooter, especially when it is Scott Wood. They did this twice and he made all 6 free throws. But then Wood made a big mistake shooting a 3 when they were only down by 1 point.

And a horrible skip pass that carried Wood out of bounds. They on late game situations is don't turn it over, get a shot up. Give yourself a chance for a foul or a rebound, don't try something that could end in a turnover.

Jeff Withey had 8 points, 5 rebounds and 10 blocks. Rarely do you see a guy with twice as many blocks as rebounds.

Is it just me or do Bill Self and Mark Gottfried kind of look alike?

Syracuse vs Wisconsin

After defeating Wisconsin 64-63 Jim Boeheim said it was one of the greatest games he ever coached in. I think he was right. There were very few turnovers (12 combined), very few fouls (25 combined) and few missed shots (50 misses, for a 49% success rate). It wasn’t marred by bad officiating (though there was one late horrible foul called on Scoop Jardine) and it came down to the end, one final shot. A wonderful game to watch, and even better because Syracuse won it.

And something else rare, I will give Boeheim credit for coaching a great game. On defense the strategy was to pressure the ball to make Wisconsin speed up their passes, which he hoped would lead to turnovers and fast breaks. Syracuse got too aggressive, began over-rotating to the ball and leaving wide-open shooters. Once Wisconsin nailed 6 3s in a row, Boeheim called timeout and he seemed to make an in-game adjustment. The rest of the game they did a better job of staying home and forcing Wisconsin to work really hard. They burned a lot of time, and still not get open shots.



He also had a good strategy on offense, drive to the hoop. Triche and Jardine set this tone early and it was the reason CJ Fair also had a great game (7-9 shooting, compared to 2-17 in the previous 4 games).



They drove to the basket, which had dual effects. It got Berggren and Bruesewitz in early foul trouble. But it also resulted in a lot of easy baskets. Poor outside shooting is often cited as a weakness for SU, and it’s true but only to a point. I think the low 3-point shooting percentage is more likely a product of bad shot selection than limited ability. And especially in games when opponents are bombing 3s, that’s when Scoop, Waiters and Joseph want to answer with 3s of their own. Discretion was the better part of valor as SU hit 5 of 9 from 3, a higher percentage than Wisconsin which made “only” 14 of 27.

But I beg Boeheim, somehow, someway, teach these kids to make free throws. I don’t understand what he is doing wrong, but for years Syracuse has always sucked at free throw shooting and it almost cost them last night when Joseph missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Eerily similar to the 1987 championship game with DC on the line.

Speaking of DC did you see him high-fiving Scoop’s dad?

They talk about the importance of good guard play in the tournament and this was evidence last night. On the first series, Triche drove the ball to the hoop, scored the basket and got fouled. That sent the tone for what SU would do the rest of the game.



I didn’t think I would ever write this sentence: Baye Keita played a great game. He is a non-factor on offense, 4 points is a lot for him, but he held down the middle on defense, though I wish he wouldn’t foul so much. But his biggest contribution was getting rebounds on defense. Wisconsin had only 8 offensive rebounds, and it was not a factor in the game.

But I don’t understand why Boeheim benched Rakeem Christmas. I hope it was just a factor of Keita playing well and not some kind of issue with Rak. I guess he just got himself into foul trouble and Boeheim stuck with Baye.

James Southerland also hardly played but I think that’s because he’s now become a 2-man power forward platoon with CJ Fair. Fair played so well that he played 37 minutes, no time for Southerland.

Wisconsin has one black guy and this is what he looks like? He's got an early-90s high-top fade?



A lot of people are criticizing Bo Ryan for not calling a timeout on the final possession, especially because he didn't get Berggren in the game. I normally like letting the game flow naturally and giving your players the opportunity to make a play. Ryan says he didn't want to waste the extra time needed for a timeout. He also says since they didn't need a 3 he didn't think it was a big deal not to get Berggren in. I also think he didn't want to be left with zero timeouts. What if they couldn't inbound the ball? What if Syracuse was able to trap the ball-handler? People are asking what he was saving his last timeout for. That's what, and that's why Ryan did the correct thing.

It didn't sound that way on TV but all tweets I read from inside the building depicted the crowd as heavily and vociferously pro-Orange.



The long and storied Syracuse career of Scoop Jardine continues for one more game. Great picture of him exultant when the final shot missed, offset by the dejected Wisconsin bench.

Tournament Thoughts - Second Round Sunday

They're doing it again. Now the announcers are saying the brawl in China helped bring Georgetown together as a team.

Georgetown came out hot then basically played lax for 12 minutes between the two halves, and NC State went on a 30-9 run that gave them a lead they basically never relinquished.

Though they almost blew it by missing 4 free throws in the final minute. Georgetown even had a chance to chuck up a game winning 3-pointer. Because NC State did not foul. Under 5 seconds off a rebound, far from the basket (no chance of shooting foul), up by 3, you should foul. It would almost be impossible to lose, but coaches are afraid of a made free through, purposeful miss, rebound and putback. What are the chances of that happening?

Love Draymond Green. Maybe everyone is getting a little sick of him and the story about Magic Johnson calling him, but he really is a special player.

I love Rick Majerus, but the end of the game was brutal. His fouling strategy at the end of game made it simultaneously boring and exciting. Exciting because it almost worked, boring because it took half an hour.

John Henson's wrist might still be hurting. He was really furious when a guy took a swipe at it.

If two guys were so good at Ames High School how come The Mayor didn't get either? I guess it makes sense, McDermott wanted to play for his dad and Barnes was the #1 recruit in the entire country.

North Carolina just has too much talent for Creighton. They can beat themselves at times, but when they turn it on, Creighton has no chance.

Everything about Gregory Echinique is impressive, except his glasses.

For all who root for upsets, this is what you get. A 25-0 run by Florida. Upsets very often lead to bad games in the next round.

I loved Norfolk State's win, but I kind of what have liked to see Missouri-Marquette.

The Norfolk State cheerleaders remind me of Bring It On, when they stole the routine from the black school. And a 27-year-old Gabrielle Union played a high school cheerleader.

This is the problem when a team plays great defense and focuses on defense. South Florida couldn't get a bucket when they needed one.

As soon as the Ohio game ended I switched to Xavier-Lehigh and they showed Jim Nantz delivering the news to Clark, and he was visibly nervous and excited. Very nice moment.

And I hope he enjoys it because they have no chance against North Carolina. That game will be 60-30 at some point during the second half before Roy Williams calls off the dogs.

But Kendall Marshall broke his wrist. Non-shooting hand so he will surely be able to play. But between him and Henson they are going to have a tough time because this is where the tournament gets tougher. First three games against Vermont, Creighton and Ohio. But last three games could conceivably be against 3 top 10 teams out of the group of Kansas, Syracuse, Ohio State, Michigan State and Kentucky. Hard to win three straight against that competition with two key players at less than their best.

Lehigh had an incredible run and a big lead against Xavier, but once it started to go wrong they seemed to start to lose confidence. And Xavier took advantage. They kept feeding Kenny Frease because he had 3 inches and 50 pounds on Gabe Knutson. Frease had 25 points on 11 of 13 shooting and is the reason Xavier won. Let's see if he can do that against Perry Jones III. Though PJ3 is skinny.

I like Lehigh's uniforms, you don't see many teams with brown in their color scheme.

We still have not had a buzzer beater or an overtime game in this tournament. I guess the Kansas game was the closest thing we got.

A shame for Robbie Hummel. What a star-crossed career. At least he ended it on a good note.

And down goes another trendy Final Four team. Even though I did horribly in round 1 I did not fall into the Missouri and Florida State traps.

Every team left plays in the eastern time zone except Baylor and Kansas who are in the central. Ohio has 4 teams left (Ohio, Ohio State, Cincinnati and Xavier). Half of the teams remaining are from the Big East or Big Ten, the two best conferences.

Tournament Thoughts - Second Round Saturday

Jared Sullinger hits 3s? Jeez

Gonzaga has John Stockton's son. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I love the way Gonzaga plays offense, lots of driving, passing and moving without the ball. That's how Gonzaga made that late game run. Drive and kick and nail the 3s. But then the shot stopped falling.

The refs are letting them play, no calls in a couple questions block/charge scenarios.

What's scary about Ohio State is that when Sullinger was in foul trouble Thomas and Craft stepped up. But when they absolutely need a basket they went to Sullinger, and he made the shot. One problem they had, their starting 5 played pretty much the entire game.

Fun game between Murray State and Marquette. Both teams looking to run off every missed shot. Both teams full of midsized athletic players who can shoot, dribble and pass and no big men to slow it down.

Verne Lundquist called Jae Crowder's brother fat. He is, but how come its ok to say it about him, but not the Lehigh cheerleader?

I really like these guys on Marquette, DJO, Crowder, Junior Cadougan. I should hate them since they beat Syracuse last year but they are good players who are fun to watch and have been around forever.

Wisconsin is such an interesting team. Tons of big guys, and they all shoot from the outside.

Vander Blue sounds like the name of a gay porn star.

Buzz Williams might want to yell a little less. That was the best post-game interview ever.

Because of the staggered starts I'm really only seeing the second halves of these games. Wisconsin's started just after Marquette ended, then on to Indiana-VCU.

Wisconsin's defense definitely did thwart Vanderbilt's 3-point shooting. Festus Ezeli got his points but their big outside shooters, Taylor and Jenkins (7-24, 3-14 from 3) struggled. Vandy's comeback started when they worked that high-low game. Ezeli and Golbourne setting a pick and rolling to the basket.

Wisconsin sealed this one with two deep 3s, one from Brusk and one from Taylor. And two big offensive rebounds on that possession.

I just don't know why Jenkins took a 3. Get in there and shoot a 2. Get fouled or something. Why force a 3 to try to win when you don't need to.

I hope Rick Pitino saw that. The benefit of guarding the inbounder. 20 years later and I still can't believe what a huge mistake that was.

And down goes a very trendy Final Four pick. I'll admit I had Vandy in the Elite 8, but I was skeptical of the whole "hot team" thing. Winning a conference tournament is no guarantee of tournament success.

I normally don't freak out about teams playing where they have a lot of fans. But Kentucky is basically playing a home game. Oh well, they earned it.

Does Jae Crowder wash his hair in the shower after games? He can't can he? But Crowder didn't even have the best hair in his game. That honor goes to Edward Daniel whose afro is the best thing I've seen in this tournament.



Fantastic finish to VCU-Indiana. But VCU had a Notre Dame-esque final minute. If you have the ball and a 3-point lead with a minute to go you need to win that game. First there were the 2 missed free throws by Burgess. Then there was the foul on Oladipo which led to an and-1 that tied the game. Then there was an early 3 in a tie game. Why? I know its open, but there's a reason they're giving you that shot. Then Indiana got the ball and pushed it (no timeout, good coaching by Crean) and hit the baseline jumper which became the game winner.

Still impressed by VCU but I think this time Shaka Smart will leave.

Kudos to Iowa State. They are playing in a hostile environment against a much better team and every time Kentucky makes a run they answer. Two huge comebacks by Iowa State, the second one tying the game early in the second half.

But Kentucky is just too good. They just get out on the fast break and you can't stop em. They get dunks they hit 3s. Just too much talent. After they tied it at 42, Kentucky went on a 20-2 run.

Kid Gilchrist sounds like a Depression-era Irish boxer.

Very thoughtful analysis from Ashley Judd. But it got so loud because the Mayor went nuts, you couldn't here anything they were saying.

Cool play in the Baylor game. Carlon Brown drives the lane, falls on his wrist and hurts it. He has to leave the game. The rule is, if the fouled player can't make his shots, the opposing coach gets to pick the player to shoot, from the other four guys who were on the floor. Brown shoots 73%, Andre Roberson shoots 60% so Scott Drew chose him, and he made both shots. And then he nailed a 3.

Remember when I said I liked it when both teams wore uniforms of color? Well not when one of them is Baylor. At least Colorado has no chance of passing to the wrong team.

Brady Heslip nailed 6 3-pointers (on 6 attempts) in the first half. Reminds me of Gerry McNamara in the title game in 2003. Heslip was so hot I thought he was an autistic kid who got put into the game out of sympathy.

Pierre Jackson also played a great game, hitting some incredible shots both in the lane and from way beyond the arc.

This game was a lot closer than the final score indicates. Baylor just got hot from deep late.

And there goes another team that won their conference tournament, Colorado.

Half of Quincy Acy's buckets in his career are dunks. Baylor has a really deep balanced team. I like the upsets and everything but I really want to see Baylor vs. Kentucky in the regional final.

Now Louisville has everyone talking, are they this year's UConn? Is the Big East Tournament some kind of breeding ground for champions?

The Big East now has 3 in the Sweet 16, three out and three playing tomorrow.

Syracuse vs. Kansas State

I'm not surprised Syracuse won, I'm surprised at how easy it was, especially after that first half.

Kansas State was dominating on the glass, just throwing it up and getting the rebounds. But for some reason they didn't do that as much in the second half, and the back line of Christmas and Southerland did a great job rebounding. For the game, SU got 23 defensive rebounds, and Kansas State had 22 offensive rebounds. Just for the record, getting two-thirds of your opponents misses is bad, getting only half is terrible.

Or turrrrrrrrible as Charles Barkley might say. During halftime he said the zone is the easiest defense to play against because you can do exactly what K-State was doing, penetrate then get the rebounds. Kenny Smith agreed. And I have been saying it for years.

But Syracuse won despite that weakness because of other things, mainly, shot-making. Scoop Jardine did make 6 turnovers, but he also made all 3 of his 3s, including 2 in the run that took the lead from 2 points to 10. Jardine also showed great hustle diving over the scorer's table for a loose ball. Yes, those are his feet.



All season we wondered why Boeheim bothered to start Rakeem Christmas if he was just going to pull him from the game and never put him back. Now he see his real potential. He did a great job inside, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks and then he got going on offense, with those three straight layups when he got open inside and the point guards found him.



The other charged with making up for Fab Melo's loss is James Southerland. An incredible all around game with 6 rebounds and 3 blocks and a couple other good hustle plays, including a big save on a loose ball. And he contributed his normal shooting, adding 15 points and making both his 3-point attempts. Wait, Southerland played also those minutes and only attempted 2 3-pointers? Yes, and that was a big difference, because he is realizing he can contribute in other ways.



My only complaint about his game is that he had his socks pulled all the way up to his shorts. He looked like Payne Stewart out there.

Those three guys were key, but you can't overlook Dion Waiters who continues to be exceptional. Joseph had a rough shooting game but he made his free throws. Those thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwo hit 14 of 15, and as a team SU made 80% from the line.

Billy asked me who was the crazy guy with the beard they always show at SU games, it's Scoop Jardine's father:



The other crazy guy was Joe Biden. What's he doing there? I know he went to Syracuse but still.

After Thursday's disputed game I think SU did get some unfavorable calls (no foul on Christmas on a missed dunk, Henriquez jumped backwards, was called for a travel and then it was changed to a foul, and a play in the first half when I yelled "make a video of that and put it on the internet" but now neither Bill nor I remember what it was), but I don't think it was a makeup. Referees' calls like everything else come in streaks and even out over time.

But I have never seen so many jump balls in as there were in the game. Not saying good or bad, just every time there was a contested play, they called a held-ball.

Thank Frank Martin halftime speech was bullshit. He was all calm and quiet, you know he erupted on them as soon as the camera crew left.



At least Syracuse cheerleaders are cuter than Lehigh cheerleaders.



Glad those big-head Boeheim idiots make the trip. But who are these guys? Normally you'd think people who have enough money to get these tickets and pay for hotel and airfare might be a little more sophisticated than to were a cardboard faux-face. But I guess not.



My guess is we'll seem them in Boston, just like we will see all of you.

Tournament Thoughts - First Round Late Friday

I am starting to get exhausted from watching four games at once for 12 hours a day for two straight days. I love the staggered starts so games don't end all at once but all these games are good and I can only see two at a time. I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow when the most there will be is three simultaneous games.

Let's start with St. Louis and Memphis. There isn't a bigger contrast in coaches than Rick Majerus, fat, old, grumpy and frumpy and Josh Pastner, young, curly-haired, energetic. St.Louis hit a miracle bank shot at the end of the first half and Rick Majerus credited the fact that St. Louis is a Catholic school.

Memphis went incredibly cold from 3 for a spell (I think it was 11 misses in a row) and that gave St. Louis the chance to get enough of a lead that they were able to salt it away with free throws.

Then I put Michigan-Ohio (a rivalry dating back to the Battle of Toledo) on the TV and Duke-Lehigh on the computer.

Ohio was really in control of this one throughout. They never seemed worried or flustered that Michigan would make a comeback. I do like Tim Hardaway Jr, very good player.

Whenever an announcer says a player got a good look at a shot, I always think he is going to say a t-bone steak.

At Duke, even the black kids (Seth Curry, Austin Rivers) are privileged upper-crust assholes.

I like when the home team wears colored jerseys. I like this yellow versus green in Michigan vs. Ohio.

Ohio's Alex Kellogg is the son of CBS's Clark. I wonder what would happen if by some miracle they made the Final Four. Would Clark be able to do the games? It's a shame Clark can't see his son play. I remember Big John Thompson demanded that Westwood One assign him to Georgetown's region or he wouldn't do any games. No one had the balls to tell him that calling his son's games was not a good idea. He did call the Georgetown-Belmont game today.

Terrible crucial late possession by Michigan. Killed 20 seconds and ended up jacking a bad 3. And even when they got another chance Smotryce blew it. And the three possessions before that weren't too great either. They panicked too early and it led to another major upset. Wow.

Peter King (Ohio) made a bet with Rich Eisen (Michigan) and he refused to take points. Now I think Eisen has to sing the Ohio fight song on NFL Network.

Somewhere I can hear Focks screaming. And blaming Lloyd Carr.

Damino has been saying it all year, this is not a traditionally good Duke team. They have good players but lack a certain something. I like Austin Rivers as a player, think he is tougher than the rest of the Duke pussies, but he seems way too arrogant given how little he's actually accomplished.

Why did Lehigh keep fouling Rivers? Get out of the fuckin way.

Wow this officially became the biggest day for upsets in the first round in a really long time. This could be the most surprising upset in first round history.

Lehigh's coach doesn't even look happy.

The Lehigh cheerleader looks happy. Little does she know she is getting ripped on Twitter. Poor thing. Fat Lehigh cheerleader might be trending.



And while all that was happening Purdue held on for a win against St. Mary's. Good for Robbie Hummel who had so many injuries and bad luck in his career.

Holy shit, there's still four games left tonight.

South Florida is putrid. 3 out of 27 (11%) from the field. And they're only down 4 points. 34 points scored total by both teams. If I didn't have this as a 12-5 upset I would not watch the second half.

Where is Fran Dunphy's mustache?



The opposite would be Notre Dame vs Xavier which is one of the best played games I've seen over the past two days. Very few turnovers (only 18 turnovers), great passing (29 assists on 47 baskets), good outside shooting (14 of 31 from 3), movement without the ball. The only reason isn't wasn't very high-scoring is that both teams were very deliberate in passing the ball around to get the best shot.

I guess everyone at the game was a Duke fan because no one stuck around for this game.

Michigan State finally pulled away and put LIU away. LIU has some good athletes and good shooters and it was impressive they stayed in as long as they did.

All of you who laughed at me for my exuberance over Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans. Draymond Green really is special. He can do everything. Maybe not well enough to be a good NBA player but certainly good enough to lead his team to a long tournament run.

Similar story for Kansas which let Detroit hang around and then Thomas Robinson started to be too much.

Notre Dame had the worst choke job in history. Not only did they blow a 10-point lead, they still had a chance to win before an epic meltdown. With 41 seconds left Notre Dame had the lead and the ball. Xavier didn't seem to want to foul so ND could have run it down and made Xavier shoot a game-winning shot with just a few seconds left. When the double team came, Notre Dame tried a cross-court pass that went out of bounds. Terrible stupid move. Then with 3 seconds left Notre Dame had 2 free throws to tie. And they violated the lane. And if there was even a prayer left, they grabbed a jersey and got an intentional foul. Worst meltdown ever.

Every year I pick a 2 seed that won't make the Sweet 16. I almost always get it right (like Duke this year) but I always get the team to beat them wrong (this year Xavier).

At least my first round ends with me getting a 12 over a 5 correct. After 22 straight misses in the first South Florida got hot in the second to knock off Temple.

Tournament Thoughts - Early Friday

Texas scored two points in the first 12 minutes of the game. Yes I picked them.
They were absolutely putrid, shooting 1 of 16, and even missing two free throws.

I can't believe the announcers are making the brawl with Xavier into a positive for Cincinnati. I don't believe getting into a violent brawl is ever a positive.

Texas made an amazing comeback once they started driving the ball with Myck Kabongo and J'Covan Brown. They split the defense and kicked out for 3s. They would have won the game but they gave away some possessions. Missed a dunk, a bad pass, a jacked 3 and one possession where the ballhandler looked up and got his pocket picked. You just can't make those mistakes when you want to overcome a big deficit.

Look at Creighton, they were down big to Alabama, made a run, then the Tide opened it up again. But Creighton stayed patient, worked the ball inside, never shot bad 3s, and ended up taking the lead. But then they missed a bunch of free throws and gave Alabama one last chance. Until Anthony Grant (the first impressive young black coach from VCU) overcoached, called 2 timeouts in 2 seconds and cost his team a chance at a good look.

I picked 2 #11s over #6s. And that's exactly what happened. Except I picked the wrong ones. Why does this happen to me every year?

I guess I didn't pay enough attention to conference tournaments. Both Colarado and NC State earned their way in and both those teams pulled off upsets.

Wow Florida State held on just barely. A great ending with both teams nailing threes. The key was the backtap on the missed free throw. That was huge for FSU. Even though they won (which is all that matters) this showed the problem with Florida State, if Snaer has a bad game (he did not score, missed all 7 shots) where does their offense come from? Should be a meat grinder of a game against Cincinnati on Sunday.

No real problems for Georgetown or North Carolina. Good move by Roy Williams sitting out Henson, no need to risk it.

And Boom we have our upset. Missouri a trendy final Four pick vanquished by Norfolk State.

Norfolk State was not intimidated and had a few guys get hot at the right time. Only five of their players scored. But Williams and McEachin combined to hit 8 of 12 3s.

And Kyle O'Quinn was dominant. 26 points, 14 rebounds and one key play that didn't show up in the box score. He tipped that missed free throw resulting in a held ball givinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif NSU another possession.

It must be the luck of the Irish before St. Patrick's Day. I mean Kyle O'Quinn has to be Irish right?



Rough game for Kim English who is normally an excellent player. Marcus Denmon also didn't have a great second half. The Pressey Bbrothers played well and in case I wasn't the only one wondering, yes, they are the sons of former Milwaukee Buck Paul Pressey.

The Norfolk State band played former Song of the Week "I Do" by Young Jeezy during a break in the action.

Now I don't want to brag too much because I am so horrible about picking games, but my defense is when I pick teams I know, I do a little better evaluating them.

In my Initial Bracket Breakdown I said I liked Michigan State to use its size against Missouri. That's what happened, except not by Draymond Green, by Kyle O'Quinn. That's why I picked Missouri to lose to Marquette in all of my brackets.

As opposed to JLeary who said this: Missouri is going to be a tough out I think. I pick them in the final 4. And then he ended up picking Missouri to win it all.

But God must love idiots, cuz he made so many, look what Damino said "Agree with Jleary re: Mizzou. Arguably the best offensive team in the country."

Sorry guys, I have nothing else to brag about with these brackets.

Just for the record this is the 5th time a 15 has beaten a 2 in the first round, but the first time in an odd-numbered year.
Richmond over Syracuse in 1991
Santa Clara over Arizona in 1993
Coppin State over South Carolina 1997
Hampton over Iowa State in 2001
Norfolk State over Missouri in 2012

Stop the Whining

I will be the first one to admit Syracuse played badly and got lucky to beat UNC-Asheville but the the cries that the game was fixed and the referees handed them a game they surely would have lost otherwise are completely false, and I have the video evidence to prove it.

Here is the disputed free throw by Scoop Jardine that was reshot because of a lane violation:



Look carefully, the guy on the left has his foot in the lane while the ball is still in Scoop's hand. Reggie Miller got confused because of where the referee pointed. And because he's a moron. But this is a clear lane violation and I don't want to hear that it's never called. It was a violation and it was the right call.

And here's the Brandon Triche out of bounds play:




Yes, the ball went out of bounds off Triche, and yes the call was wrong, but if anything it was in Asheville's favor. They should have called a foul and put Syracuse's best shooter on the line. Even though the foul occurred after the ball ricocheted off Triche's hand, it was still a clear foul and it happened before the ball landed out of bounds, so it was still in play.

Yes, the refs missed a goaltending in the first half. But they also screwed up the Triche call at the end of the half. He was clearly fouled with a second on the shot clock but they wiped the entire play off.

Yes there were some bad calls and unusual plays. You could even say SU got the benefit of the calls. But you can't say it was the only reason they won. And you can't say there was a vast right-wing conspiracy to keep the reeling Orange in the tournament and prevent poor little UNC-Asheville from making history.

Tournament Thoughts - Late Thursday

Now that is how a #1 seed is supposed to play. Let the little guy hang in there then beat his ass. I actually saw one play where a Hilltopper took it to Anthony Davis and scored over him. Shortly after that, Kentucky went nuts.

Footnote to earlier game: Apparently Southern Mississippi band members chanted "where's your green card" at Kansas State's Angel Rodriguez. He's from Puerto Rico which is of course a US protectorate. But USM apologized and you can hear the chant faintly about 10 seconds into this video:

Great game between Wichita State and VCU. Always getthing those 12-5 upsets wrong. Usually when an upset pick is popular it does actually happen. I just thought the Shockers were underrated and underseeded.

There was an awesome sequence at the end of this game when the teams traded 3 3-pointers in a little over a minute.

Wichita State lost because they could not take and keep the lead. Having the lead completely changes strategy. When Garrett Stutz missed that layup and gave VCU the ball back with the lead, that's when their fate was sealed.

Shaka Smart really is awesome. He deserves a big time job. I'm just not sure if Illinois is the place. Reminds me of Dan Monson whom we saw earlier. Was awesome at Gonzaga, went to Minnesota couldn't turn it around, probably no fault of his own. Now Monson back at a mid-major and doing well.

A total no-show by West Virginia, what an embarrassment.

Robert Sacre could be this year's big guy who does well in the tournament, gets drafted high and is never heard from again. Previous winners are Patrick O'Bryant and Rafael Araujo.

Baylor got off to a slow start against South Dakota State then went on a huge run. But give the Jackrabbits credit. They fought back in the second half. They really gave Baylor all they could handle. And if they had been a little more careful with the ball at a few points of the game maybe they could have pulled off the huge upset. Maybe because of their great fan support.



Those Baylor uniforms are blinding. If you watch in vivid color and high definition they literally hurt your eyes.



UConn pulls off another no-show by a Big East team. They made a brief run at the end of the first half, but never got it under 6 points. I don't think this will be Calhoun's last game. He just won't quit. They are going to have to pull him out of there, probably in a body bag.

Amazing comeback by UNLV. But they fell short because they fell in love with the 3-point shot a little early.

Add the 11 over 6 upset to another thing I can never get right. I'm 1-4 in games involving those seeds so far. And I have USF over Temple and Texas over Cincinnati tomorrow.

Two of UNLV's best players (Mike Moser and Chace Stanback) came from the dysfunctional UCLA program. Both guys had bad games tonight (7-27 FG) and that really hurt UNLV. I thought they were an excellent team all season they just had a bad game at the wrong time.

And Colorado on the other hand is getting hot at the right time. They wouldn't have even been in the tournament if they hadn't won the Pac-12 Tournament and now they have an NCAA Tournament win to go along with it.

Easy victories for Indiana and Ohio State push the Big 10 to 3-0. They can easily go 6-0 with Michigan State, Michigan and Purdue (this will be the tough one) tomorrow. The Big Ten has years of coming up short, but this year it was probably the best conference in the country, so let's see if this success keeps up in round 2.

By the way, I will never call the round of 64 anything other than the first round until they expand to 96 or maybe even 128.

First Round - Early Thursday Thoughts

Colorado State has a beast named Pierce Hornung. He must be Paul Hornung's grandson. Lesley Visser interviewed him and he looked terrible and sounded worse.

Colorado State led by 1 at halftime and coach Tim (not Les, thanfully) Miles tweeted, "win the half, win the game." Good call coach. Maybe old farts will say a coach shouldn't be tweeting at halftime, but what harm can it do, really? How long did it take, 10 seconds? Then his team shit the bed scoring only 17 points in the second half. Might wanna skip the tweet next time coach.

Rodney (I wanna call him Scooter) Magruder was on fire. Kind of reminds me of when Jacob Pullen was bombing away for K-State a few years ago.

I really missed Larry Eustachy. His firing really was bullshit. A few pictures with co-eds? Big deal. No wait now I'm remembering more details, yeah it was pretty bad. Glad he bounced back though.

Louisville has really gotten better as the season's gone on. They could be dangerous against Michigan State.

Marquette is another really good team. I think Missouri is a favorable match-up for them if they both get that far. Murray State also isn't a team that can overwhelm Marquette with size. Maybe this is the year the Big East doesn't disappoint with a bunch of big teams going out early.

Long Beach State vs New Mexico was the best game of the early session, such as it was. No really exciting games. This one was back and forth most of the way. Casper Ware is one of those players you never get to see but is really fun to watch. But he did hurt The Beach down the stretch with some bad shots. And New Mexico nailed its free throws.

In the last 11 years, 12 seeds have won 2 games in 10 of them. So how come I always get those games wrong?

What a comeback by Harvard. They just got behind by a little too much with too little time remaining. A 14-3 run in 3 minutes, but Vandy hit their free throws.

Syracuse vs. UNC-Asheville

Of course, even without Fab Melo there is no way Syracuse should lose this game. Or even allow it to be close.

The biggest advantage the 1s have over the 16s, other than talent and size, is what Mike Tyson used to have. Opponents are awed by your size and feel defeated before the fight/game even begins.

In all NCAA tournament upsets, the little guy has to feel like he can win. Asheville probably had a false sense of confidence coming in just because Melo was out. Then they came out and starting hitting 3s and taking the lead. They really believe they can win.

Rakeem Christmas and Baye Keita can't catch a pass. A black hole on offense. Speaking of black holes, James Southerland is actually passing a little bit.

I still can't believe Asheville made a 4-point play.

I think Kevin Harlan just likes saying Dickey.

Dion Waiters is awesome. He's making a lot of shots, because he is taking good ones.

It never ceases to amaze me how bad Syracuse can be from the line. And missing the front end of 1-and-1s just kills you.

Asheville has Bruce Hornsby's son. If he could read the above line he would say "some things'll never change. That's just the way it is." Yikes, Bruce Hornsby's hair is terrible.

Asheville had 5 3s in the first half, almost all of them the result of defensive laziness. Syracuse missed 12 3-pointers (on 13 attempts) almost all the result of poor shot selection.

Looks like that play at the should have been ruled a foul. Triche was smacked on the arm with 1 second left on the shot clock.

But SU clearly got away with a goaltend on what should have been an And-1.

Asheville went to the Jim Boeheim Memorial no points offense with a one point lead and ten minutes left.

This is what starts to happen when 1s trail 16s. The 16 gets tight and plays not to lose. And the 1s start to play more aggressively.

Syracuse got very lucky on that lane violation, though I think there really was a foot in the lane. Good strategy to foul Scoop when in the 1-and-1 because he is only a 49% shooter.

Syracuse also got lucky on the out of bounds play with Triche because it was clearly off his hands, but they did not call the obvious foul when the guy ran him over, even though the ball had already bounced away.

I have never seen a team with a lead at the end of a close game foul as often as Syracuse. 6 points in the last two minutes for Asheville with the clock stopped.

For all the Scoop haters out there, and I know you are reading this, remember it was Scoop who scored 7 points early in the second half to get the game back under control. And it was Scoop who hit 4 straight free throws to prevent a miraculous comeback.

Great game by James Southerland, maybe the best of his career given the circumstances. 15 points, 8 rebounds, 3 of 5 from 3.

Kris Joseph and CJ Fair shout 4 of 17. Dion Waiters did nothing in the second half except commit bad fouls. But this is how the team has played all season. Someone has a bad game, someone else picks him up. And then carries the team in the next game. Syracuse is going to have to play a lot better against Kansas State. But if they played this bad consistently they wouldn't be 32-2.

Initial Bracket Breakdown

I applaud the committee for giving Michigan State the 4th number 1 seed because they played a murderous schedule, including losing their first two games to North Carolina (on an aircraft carrier) and Duke.

I don't normally get into the debate over which bracket is toughest or easiest (at least not to the extent that the committee did something nefarious to help or hinder certain teams) but if Michigan State is the 4th Number 1, how did they get paired with Missouri? The committee chair admitted Missouri was 8th, punished for playing an embarrassingly weak non-conference schedule (3 teams above 300).

That said, I do understand that the committee has lots of masters to serve when filling out these brackets, meaning they wouldn't want (if it could be avoided) Duke and UNC or Michigan State and Ohio State in the same region.

As far as the bubble goes, Iona and BYU were clearly the last two teams in. With RPIs of 40 and 45 they are ahead of every other bubble team. Every team in the Top 40 got in, #44 Marshall was the highest RPI not to get in. For argument's sake let's say Seton Hall was the first team out, which means they were eliminated when St. Bonaventure beat Xavier in the A-10 tournament.

Iona's best wins were St. Joseph's and Nevada. But they were only 0-2 against the RPI top 50.
BYU beat Gonzaga and Oregon but went 1-6 against the top 50.
Seton Hall beat Georgetown, VCU, St. Joe's and UConn. 3-7 against the top 50. I think what really did Seton Hall in was a 5-10 finish, that's two solid months of .333 winning percentage play. And it included losses to Rutgers and DePaul down the stretch at the crucial time when one win could have put them in.

As always, there are ways to quibble with the selection committee. But if their biggest omission is a team with all those black marks on their resume than I guess they did a pretty good job.

But I don't understand why one pair of at-large teams plays into a 14th seed (the aforementioned BYU and Iona) while South Florida and California get to compete for a 12 seed, a much better first round match-up. I understand that all the 13-seeds were automatic qualifiers but couldn't one of them been slid down to the 14 line to make this play-in experiment a little more equitable.

Speaking of play-in games, Lamar gets to play against Vermont for the chance to be slaughtered by North Carolina.

Everyone always makes jokes about Lamar (and Robert Morris and Oral Roberts and William & Mary) because it's an entire team against one guy? Especially when the one guy is Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds.



But don't sleep on Lamar. They haven't lost a game since Pat Knight's epic rant about the worst group of seniors who are stealing scholarships.



I wish the committee had a better sense of humor. Why couldn't they bump Xavier down to an 11 for losing to St. Bonaventure and make them play Cincinnati in their first round game?

I hate to see Wichita State versus VCU. Both teams have big spoiler potential. But this was unavoidable because 3 of the 5s, and 3 of the 12s are mid-majors.

I think they did a better job though with this than in past years where it seems like they purposely matched mid-majors against one another to save the big conferences some potential embarrassments. Southern Miss vs. Kansas State, St. Mary's vs. Purdue, Creighton vs. Alabama, Xavier vs Notre Dame and Gonzaga vs West Virginia are all chances for the little guy to knock off the big guy.

I think Murray State and Harvard each should have been seeded one line higher. Murray State doesn't just have a great record, they have 3 top 30 wins and Harvard has a win over #11 Florida State.

A lot of people are picking against Michigan State but I love their bracket. Marquette and Missouri are both small teams, yes they can run and they can shoot, but if Michigan State can control tempo they can use their size, (Draymond Green anyone?) to beat either of those teams in the Elite 8. Louisville in the Sweet 16 might be a bigger hill to climb.

As for me, I will not pick against Tom Izzo. He has taken Michigan State to the tournament for 15 straight seasons. In those previous 14 years Michigan State was a 1 or 2 seed 4 times. They went to the Final 4 all four of those times. And twice more as a 5 seed. I will not bet against Tom Izzo.



I am also picking Kentucky based on talent, and I would love to pick North Carolina if Henson is healthy, but could be persuaded to go with Kansas.

You know I won't take all 4 number 1s, so you know I am not picking Syracuse to the Final 4, to find out way stay tuned for my Syracuse post later this week.