A TON of Luck

TON knows about a lot of things: raising fish, body hair maintenance, sheet rock, computers, porn, computer porn and even sports like volleyball and MMA. But he will even admit college basketball is not his game. He'd be lucky if he could distinguish Peyton Siva from Peyton Manning. But TON used his head to pick Louisville to win it all and his heart to pick Syracuse to make the Final Four and his 1220 points put him in the top 1.8% nationally and at the top of our group.
Honorable mention should be given to Damino who was the only one in our group with 3 Final Four teams, and also the only one to have the title game participants correct. He was in the top 2,000 overall heading into the final game and probably would have been in top 2 or 3 hundred had Michigan won. But they didn't. So TON got the 320 points, and beat Damino by 10. But the following is not a list of people who did really well but fell short. It's a list of winners, and TON's name will go on it. Next year maybe you can add your name.

2012: Reissberg
2011: Mrs. Poop
2010: Vacated (I forgot to keep accurate records)
2009: Mrs. Poop
2008: Pa Beers
2007: Michael

Sherman Had a Better Time in Atlanta

When Billy and I were skyping during the Syracuse-Marquette regional final (as we often do during Syracuse games) and it became clear Syracuse was going to Atlanta, we debated whether we should join them. Billy was gung-ho and steadfast on going solo if I didn't join him.
Eventually I was persuaded and we immediately hopped on vividseats to get our tickets. Vividseats is a little better than stubhub and generally has cheaper ticket prices. We decided to spend a little more to get seats in the 200 level. Our seats were $305, and after the ridiculous, borderline-criminal fees, they came out to $390, but I think stubhub would have been similar.
Then I booked my flight, which I got for $550 because I was willing to stop and change planes in Charlotte. For the record, Billy drove to Baltimore to get a cheaper flight, but he flew direct.

I took the NJ Transit train, switched at Secaucus, and went right to the airport. It actually was pretty convenient and a lot easier than finding someone to drive you.

Flight to Charlotte was delayed slightly but I still had plenty of time to catch my plane. I found my gate and it was easy enough to spot because everyone there was wearing either orange or yellow. The gateside seating area was literally segregated. One creepy 30-ish Michigan guy was kicking it to every young Michigan girl who looked like a student. Unfortunately the seating on the plane was not as well-designed. I was in a 3-person row on the window, with a fellow Syracuse person on the aisle, but a fat dude with a yellow hat sat in between us. The conversation was mostly pleasant and there was no incident.

We go to the airport and hopped on the shuttle to our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott. Little did we know there was a Courtyard North, South and West, all in the area by the airport. So we got on the wrong shuttle, to the wrong hotel but eventually got to the correct one, checked in quickly and headed right back town. That required getting back on the shuttle to the airport and taking MARTA from there.

Marta is pretty good as big city mass transit systems go. Everything is arranged around a junction called 5 points, everything meets there. The airport is south, so you gotta go about 15 minutes north through College Park (made famous by Luda) to 5 Points, then one stop over the Georgia Dome, Phillips Arena, Olympic Centennial Park and CNN Center.

So we got off there and went to the game, which you can read about in a separate post.

After the game, downtrodden and devastated we went back to Marta, caught two incredibly packed trains and made our way back to the airport to catch a shuttle to the hotel. The train was absolutely packed, so much so that we got delayed because someone was blocking the door. At least that's what they told us the first time. Then they said someone was leaning on the door. Then they said police were conducting business on the train. Huge delays in a packed train, after midnight, after losing the game. Unpleasant. It took about an hour to get back to the airport at which point we engaged in a pushing and shoving match with a huge crowd to get on the shuttle back to our hotel. I won and got a nice seat in the back, Billy lost and barely made it on the bus.

I was seated next to a couple of SU students who had driven down on Friday (18 hours in one day). They relayed to me their horrible experience at the game. Each team had a big student section right behind the basket, and when the first game ended they cleared out Wichita State's and brought in Michigan's and Syracuse's moved to where Louisville's was. So during the first game, the Syracuse students were herded into a convention center across the street and given tickets. Towards the end of the first game they were let into the Georgia Dome into an empty section. When the game ended the students ran for any seat regardless of assigned ticket. This poor girl, from the Five Towns (so probably one of ours) didn't get a seat and had to stand under the basket to watch the game. But she said, it would have all been worth it had they won. That must have been a miserable 15 hour car ride back to Syracuse.

The next morning Billy and I tried to salvage some semblance of fun from our trip so we headed back downtown to find a Waffle House. A real Southern tradition, Sunday morning breakfast at the Waffle House. We found one that looked nice enough but the neighborhood must not be that great, because the menu said we would be charged a 20% security fee on our bill. And Billy and his tiny bladder had to be buzzed into the bathroom.



Our waitress was so nice, and I felt badly that she had to work in what I presumed was an unsafe hellhole, so I gave her a 100% tip on my $5 meal. People definitely are different down south. Everyone was so much nicer. Low wage, menial task employees in New York would have been rude and disinterested. In Atlanta everyone we saw was friendly and helpful, going out of their way to help us, including the Waffle House employee who walked outside with us to show us how to get to CNN Center.



Obviously I had heard a lot about the place in my 8.5 years there, but had never visited it, so it was a cool experience, even though I wasn't able to connect with any friends for a behind the scenes tour. CNN Center has a mall on the ground floor where there was a giant bracket.



There was also a Braves team store. Braves fans are so stupid they need a t-shirt to teach them how to do the tomahawk chop.



Then we walked through the shops and bought a little souvenir for Mrs. Poop and AliNatPro.



Then we went into the huge convention center where they were hosting Bracket Town, basically a huge fanfest. $10 to get in, but well worth it, because we got to:

See Christian Laettner, but we didn't have time nor motivation to wait on line for his autograph.



Pretend to cut down the net (scissors were glued shut)



Posterize me (I let Billy be the dunker, even though his pit stain is repulsive)



Pose for a picture with the rest of the team



But then it was time to go home. We took the train back to the airport and parted right before security, the lines for which were ridiculous. I was actually late to my flight, one of the last people on, so late that they stewardesses had a list of people missing, it was me, and the two people next to me. Just when I thought I might have the entire row to myself a woman gets on with a 1-year-old kid, and a 4-week old baby. And she didn't have the car seat. So she had to hold the baby and and a stewardess had to hold the older boy. For the whole flight this stewardess did nothing but hold this lady's kids. And why the fuck would you take a 4-week old from Atlanta to St. Louis? What the fuck is so important? Thankfully the kids didn't cry and disturb the entire flight.

When I got to Charlotte I had almost two hours to kill, so I sat down for some traditional carolina BBQ. That thing next to my cornbread is a fried pickle.



There was an EA Sports store and it had a Robert Griffin III jersey shirt for $20, so I bought it. I didn't notice a tiny hole on the shoulder. Tried to contact the company and they didn't respond. Never buy shit at the airport.

I made it home safely and spent the last week or so contemplating the trip. It sucked because they lost. No getting around that. I would not have gone had I know they were going to lose. But I didn't know, I took a chance. I had a nice time seeing a city I had never seen before, rooting on my team in an important game, experiencing something I may never get to experience again. And I did it all with my best friend.



So I guess the trip wasn't that bad.

The Hurt Has Subsided Now

It's been a week and the hurt has finally subsided enough for me to rewatch the Syracuse game and write a post about it. I'll start with everything that happened from the time we got to the Georgia Dome about 5pm Saturday night, until the time we left, around midnight. The rest of the trip to Atlanta will be covered in a separate post.

We got to the Dome more than an hour ahead of time and had a chance to walk around the plaza in front of the building where they had concessions and beer stands (no beer for sale inside the arena). It was a nice day and pleasant to be outside and thousands of people were milling about. The security line was huge, but he used a gate on the outside and made it in quickly. We bought out seats through vividseats, which is like stubhub all the way down to its exorbitant and borderline criminal fees ($85 on a $300 ticket), and we didn't even get a ticket. Billy swiped his credit card through a reader and it printed a small stub with our seats on them.

Billy and I decided to drop the extra money (which amounted to $60 - $75 each) to get 2nd level tickets. This turned out to be a great idea for two reasons. First, our seats, though far from the action, had a great line of sight, and were much closer than the back rows of the 300 level which were so much higher and farther away than we were.

This picture taken without zoom.



This picture was taken with Billy's panoramic.



The second was the food. There were two concourses on our level, the regular one, right behind the seats with your typical arena fare. Then a nicer almost restaurant quality one, where there were carpeted spaces with tables and chairs, and better food.

I started out with the turkey leg, no surprise there.



And right before our game I got an Italian ice (only $5, not bad considering today's normal arena prices) and I got lemon and creamsicle. I prefer cherry but I thought I needed to get something orange since I had told Chase to eat an orange and an orange candy after dinner that night.



The first half was bad. And as much as I want to (and I will) dissect the second half and the little plays that could have made the difference, Syracuse really lost this game in the first half. They couldn't make a shot (especially James Southerland who got viciously swatted on a fast break) and they didn't play the aggressive defense that had been their calling card through the first four games of the tournament, allowing Spike Albrecht to nail a couple 3s and Michigan had an 11-point halftime lead, the biggest deficit Syracuse faced all season.

But before I start ranting about bad calls and bad coaching let me first say that Syracuse should not have been able to come back in this game. Michigan went to the John Beilein Memorial No Points Offense (what is it about coaches witrJB as their initials?) way too early, and they missed a ton of free throws. By the end of the game I was screaming "miiiiiiiiiissssssssssss" during each Michigan free throw and they missed so many (5 out of 9, not including the lane violation) in the last minute or so, my voice was getting hoarse.

Now onto the three plays that decided this game:

First, a minute-40 left, the score is 53-49. McGary just passed up an inside shot and kicked the ball way out to Hardaway who got trapped and ran over Michael Carter-Williams and they called a block. It was a horrible call. You generally have to be set to draw a charge, but it doesn't mean that the ballhandler can just run the defender over. MCW has as much right to a spot as TH Jr does. Hardaway ran him over, and used his arm to do it. It was a horrible blocking call, just horrible.



Next Syracuse gets the ball with 28 seconds left, down 2 points, and Triche puts his head down and drives right to the basket. Jordan Morgan gets in his way and they call an offensive foul on Triche. Three things about this play. First, this is why I barely watch the NBA very much anymore. The whole league has turned into this at crunch time, give the ball to your best player, tell him to dribble right into someone and hope to get the call. LeBron does this more than anyone and it ruins the NBA for me. It's not basketball and it's not fun to watch. Second, Jim Boeheim should have called timeout and designed a better play than this. Even if this was a called play, I still don't like it because it was totally telegraphed. Michigan knew exactly what he was going to do, that he wasn't going to pass so all they had to do was get in Triche's way. Third, it was a bad call. Many people think the block/charge call is based on a defender's feet. It's not. It's based on his body from hips to shoulders. In order to be set your body has to be in the spot at the moment the ball handler makes upward motion to the basket. Morgan was not. This should have been a block. But it was a very tough call. Much closer than the horrible one on MCW.



But still, because of Michigan's poor free throw shooting Syracuse got one more chance, down 3 with 10 seconds left and they gave it to Trevor Cooney. Trevor Cooney? Really? That's what the Hall of Fame coach drew up? First of all they should have shot a 3. The chances of making one shot versus making a 2, fouling, getting a miss and making another two are so remote, even a bad 3-point shot (one with a 25% chance of going in) has a better expected win percentage (I'm guessing) than coming through with all those eventualities.

I know Southerland hadn't done too well in this game, missing his first 7 (including one that could have tied it at 48), but he had hit his last two and I would have put the ball in his hands. But alas, the genius of Boeheim entrusted the game to Trevor Cooney.



But the real reason they lost is because only CJ Fair had a good game. James Southerland shot poorly, and became hesitant, turning the ball over a few times. Brandon Triche didn't have his best game, and Michael Carter-Williams was horrible. I'm sure the tears he shed after fouling out were more out of disappointment with his own performance than anything else.



I don't know if it was nerves, or Michigan was better than other opponents, or Syracuse just picked a bad time to have an off night, but it was a subpar performance for a team that had turned in some great ones in March.

Only one team gets to hoist the trophy and the other 67 teams (not to mention the other 270 or so who don't make the tournament) leave with disappointment. It was still a great season, with one bad stretch, and an exciting and thrilling run through the NCAA Tournament that I was glad to have been able to witness in person.



And maybe now that I have finally deleted the game off the DVR, I can start the healing process and get over this horrible defeat.

Worst-Dressed Father?

During the NCAA title game, and throughout the tournament, 2 players' fathers embarrassed their sons by looking like idiots on the sidelines.
First, there was Peyton Siva's father who looked like he was wearing a bed sheet which he fashioned into a sleeveless t-shirt and emblazoned some Kevin Ware message on it.
Then there was Tim Hardaway and his winter hat. It wasn't the hat that was so bad, but the way he wore it. He barely pulled it down, so it looked like he was wearing a condom with a reservoir tip.
So which article of clothing was worse, Peyton Siva's father's shirt or Tim Hardaway's hat?

Cardinals Win

In a tournament of wild upsets, the favorite takes it all. It's the second straight year the overall number one seed took it all. And the second time in 3 years that the Big East Tournament Champion continued its winning streak all the way to the national championship.

It wasn't easy for Louisville had to keep coming back from huge deficits, barely surviving against Wichita State and again against Michigan. What makes Louisville so good is their pressure. When they start playing defense and turning you over, their offense becomes better and all of they sudden they are scoring points in bunches, flying around the court and making opposing coaches call timeout.

The first half was an incredible shooting display by a couple of white guys, Spike Albrecht for Michigan which made these fans happy, and Louisville's Luke Hancock.



Albrecht didn't score in the second half, Hancock had 6 more points, including a dagger that gave Louisville a 10-point lead, and he was named MOP of the Final Four.



Here was the crucial play of the entire game. 5 minutes to go, Louisville up 3, Trey Burke gets a clean block on Peyton Siva and it's called a foul. A horrible call, and it gave Louisville 2 free points.



Bad calls happen. Michigan got some favorable ones against Syracuse, and this one, and maybe a couple others went against it in this game. It was a horrible call, but it probably didn't determine the game. Louisville was just a little better on this night and that's why they got their "One Shining Moment."



I've seen just about enough of Kevin Ware. Yes, I know the guy got hurt, in a very horrific way in a high profile game. But it's just a broken leg. Serious, but not deadly. The coverage and the t-shirts and the slogans makes it seem as if the poor kid is in a hospital bed fighting for his life. He's gonna be fine. Glad he seems to be recovering, now let's all relax.

One of the Most Gruesome Sports Injuries of All Time

By now you've seen it (so you don't need to comment "I saw that") but I thought I would write something here, for the record, especially since I have posted several gruesome sports injuries (they have their own tag) and I would be remiss if I didn't include this one.

Kevin Ware's injury was so nasty (his leg snapped and the bone poked through the skin) that Louisville players were reportedly vomiting, or at least wretching, on the sidelines. I thought Duke's Tyler Thornton had been poked in the eye. He was wiping away tears. CBS showed a woman in the stands crying. Mrs. Poop thought it was Ware's mom, then they showed three other women doing the same thing.





Ware is already out of the hospital, and on crutches.





Doctors (though not those who treated him) say injuries like this can be repaired and they expect Ware to be ready for next season. I think that a broken bone like this, though gruesome, is easier to repair than a torn ligament like an ACL. And usually has a very good chance of returning to normal form. I hope that will be the case.

Many people are calling this the worst sports injury ever, and it certainly is up there. But I have two I think were a little bit worse.

Houston Cougars wide receiver Patrick Edwards broke his leg in a similar fashion, but what made it worse to me, is that he did it by running into a cart, that never should have been parked there.



But the worst one in my opinion is Corey Hill, a former UFC fighter, who snapped his leg in a similar fashion while delivering a leg kick. What makes his worse is that he's hopping around as another guy is trying to punch him, and his broken bone is wiggling around inside his skin. Joe Rogan is shrieking "stop the fight! stop the fight!"

It's Only Money, Right?

I am going to Atlanta to watch Syracuse in the Final Four!

It was another suffocating performance by Syracuse's 2-3 zone. I know people always talk about how the Big East teams are familiar with the zone and know how to beat it, and it does better in the tournament when teams are unfamiliar with it. There's some element of truth in that, but the bigger issue was on display in this game: it's not what you do, it's how you do it.

Everyone has seen the 2-3 zone on tape. Everyone knows how to attack it, ESPN does that feature during every Syracuse game. The problem is, when you have guys as long and athletic as guys like Michael Carter-Williams and CJ Fair you can be good at the zone no matter what. And if guys don't get out on shooters, and box out on rebounds then you will get killed. It's that simple.

Syracuse got a good match-up against Marquette because they are a bad 3-pont shooting team. They missed and they kept firing. Despite having some success early in the first half by getting the ball to Davonte Gardner, they continued to rely on the outside shot to their own detriment.

Syracuse won't have that luxury against Michigan because Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr and Nik Stauskas all shoot better than 38% from downtown.

But since Syracuse is going to be there, and I don't know when I am going to get this chance again, I decided to go. Billy and I got our tickets on vividseats.com, which has slightly cheaper tickets prices on average, and both sites have ridiculous fees. Because of the set-up of the Georgia Dome for basketball we opted to pay a little extra money to be in the lower level (200s) instead of the upper level (300). With $85 of ridiculous fees tacked on, we paid $390 each. But that actually seems cheap compared to what tickets are selling for right now. As of this writing the cheapest 200 level ticket on Vivid is $537.

Flight was a bit of a hassle, because I had to fly out Saturday and come back Sunday (couldn't take two extra days off work), and I have to change planes in Charlotte both times. I thought the cost $550 round-trip was a bit too high, but about what I was expecting.

So we're looking at two crazy days, $1000 down the tubes and hopefully a chance to see the Orange win their 4th straight national semifinal.

Tournament Thoughts: Syracuse vs. Indiana

This is one of the biggest wins in the history of the program. It almost undeniably the biggest NCAA Tournament upset under Jim Boeheim.

I am going to give Boeheim a lot of credit for this win, something I seldom do. Well it's not that I don't give him credit for wins, I usually just blame him for losses. I think he had a good game plan on offense, to use the size of his guards, as evidenced from the first play of the game when they posted up Michael Carter-Williams, something I hadn't seen him do all season. Triche and Carter-Williams did what they were asked, effectively, and they dominated this game.



I don't think Tom Crean had his team ready to play against Syracuse's zone. Syracuse came out very aggressive and forced turnovers, Indiana's outside shots weren't falling, and they seemed to get away from the plan which should have been to get the ball to Zeller at the foul line and let him kick out to open shooters. I normally don't buy into things like momentum or emotion, but it certainly seemed like Indiana was discouraged by Syracuse's big early run and never got their confidence back to make a real serious run.

Syracuse's defense was really awesome, 19 turnovers forced and 10 blocked shots (thanks to the officials for letting them play).



I think Baye Keita really has turned into Mark Price. I want him handling the ball late in close games. But nasty fall he took. I hope that thing on his head doesn't develop into a hematoma.



Seeing Juli Boeheim in the stands just isn't the same now that I've met Amanda Enfield.

I don't want to hear a single word about that game being played in front of a pro-Orange crowd. First of all, while there definitely were SU fans there, it was hardly overwhelming by any means. Second of all, it was about 7 - 8 hours away from campus. We can't help it if we have a strong alumni base on the east coast. Third of all, if this shit really mattered, then we got a bad draw on the first weekend, and a good one on the second weekend. That's called fair.

Speaking of Fair, how did he miss that huge dunk. Syracuse missed a couple of dunks and layups and blew some fast breaks, could have easily won this game by more.

This game provides zero comfort at all to assuage the pain of 1987. Nothing will ever take that hurt away. And of course they had to show the Keith Smart shot in the first time out. Thankfully, they didn't show DC's missed free throw. But it is nice to get a win against a hated opponent.

In 2011, Marquette was an 11 seed, Syracuse a 3, and they knocked us off in the second round. Would be nice to get revenge for that one too.

What Do You Give Me For Tyrone Garland and Kel Mitchell?

Many people have noticed the resemblance between LaSalle's Tyrone Garland and Kel Mitchell from Good Burger.

I've Got Gulf Coast Fever

It all started off innocently enough. We were at the Syracuse-Seton Hall game in February and I mentioned to Pizza Parlor Derek that I thought (at the time) that Miami deserved to be ranked #1. PPD said no one who loses to Florida Gulf Coast should be number one. I can't remember my exact words but it was something to the effect of "they're better than you think" or "don't sleep on Florida Gulf Coast." I said this because I knew they had an RPI in the 90s (good for a school of FGCU's caliber) but they lost 5 times to teams with RPIs above 200, twice to Lipscomb.
I am not saying I was convinced FGCU would go on this type of postseason run but that conversation certainly did put them on my radar. And then came the story that put them on everybody's radar: Mrs. Enfield. The smoking hot coach's wife who use to be a bikini model.



Then I watched them play. They have a great style, they press, they run, they throw alley oops and they have a great time doing it. They are fun to watch.

And they are having incredible success. They are only the 7th 15-seed to beat a 2 in the first round. And the first one to win its next game and go to the Sweet 16. Reminding a lot of people of the 1986 Cleveland State Vikings who in the 2nd year of a 64 team field beat Bobby Knight's Indiana team and went to the Sweet 16. A 14 seed made it that far only one other time since. So that's another reason to root for Florida Gulf Coast.

But now I also have skin in the game. For years I have been collecting coke caps and redeem the codes for rewards points (I've netted $200 in Nike gift cards plus other assorted prizes). This year the rewards program added an ancillary game. For each Coke Zero cap you redeemed you got a team, since it happened prior to the tournament I was given "15 seed C."

The rules are, when your team wins you win. If your teams wins the national title you get $100,000 if it's a 1 seed, a trip to next year's Final Four if it's not. Coke is smart, they made 1.25 million caps for this contest. 1 for each of the 1 seeds, 5 for each of the 2s, and 90,000 for each of the 16s.

But my "15 seed C" turned into Florida Gulf Coast. So far I've won a free 20 oz Coke Zero, and 5 mp3 downloads. Next up is $20 in concert cash from Live nation. And if Florida Gulf Coast makes the Final Four I get a $100 Best Buy gift card. If they make the title game the prize is $400 in hotel or airline travel. And in the very very very extremely unlikely event they win it all, I'd be in a drawing for the Final Four tickets.



Not a bad couple of weeks for a school no one had ever heard of until the coach's hot wife's bikini pictures broke the internet.

No Small Feat

In my bracket breakdown before the tournament, I made this prediction: "The committee did do a good job of matching big conferences and mid-majors in the 8/9 and 7/10 games though. 5 games like that among those and I will guarantee the mid-majors win at least three of those." They did better than that, they won all five (Colorado State over Missouri, Creighton over Cincinnati, Wichita State over Pittsburgh, San Diego State over Oklahoma and Temple over NC State).

But before we say this proves the small guy doesn't get respect, look at this: of the 8 teams seeded 11 or 12, 4 were from big conferences, 4 were from small conferences. The big guys (Oregon, Ole Miss, Minnesota and California) all won their games, the 4 from the smaller conferences (St. Mary's, Belmont (damn them) Akron and Bucknell) all lost.

And one more stat of the 12 teams seeded 1, 2 or 3, 10 were from big conferences, 2 were from mid-majors. The big conference schools were 18-1 (they all advanced save Georgetown), while New Mexico and Gonzaga went 1-2, both monumental upsets.

If you choose to study this more there is an excellent Wikipedia page devoted just to tournament victories by teams seeded 11 or worse.

I'm not writing this to make any judgment because I really don't know what it all means. I thought New Mexico and Gonzaga were great teams. I don't know why they lost. Maybe you could see the Pac-12 was underseeded and that's why Oregon and Cal won their games, but I really thought that league sucked, especially compared to the Mountain West which has zero teams remaining.

Things like this are what makes the NCAA Tournament so great. One never knows what the fuck is going to happen.

Tournament Thoughts- Second Round Sunday

Aaron Craft, ONIONS!!!!



I don't like the guy, I don't think he's a very good player, mostly just a bruiser. I was celebrating because Iowa State went on a 19-6 run in five minutes late in the second half to take the lead, and they did so because of Craft. He missed 3 free throws (two on the front end of a one-and-one), committed a turnover and a stupid foul. But he made up for it by nailing the game-winning 3-pointer with no time left.

So the last three times Ohio State played in Dayton in the tournament they lost twice and then narrowly escaped. Remind me again about that home court advantage that comes with playing somewhere in your home state.

Ohio State is the luckiest team. This is the second straight year they have the road to the Final Four paved for them. Last year Syracse lose Fab Melo, greatly weakening them for Ohio State, now Gonzaga and New Mexico have been eliminated so it's Arizona and then some other Cinderella in the Elite 8.

I knew I remembered Korie Luscious from somewhere. He started at Michigan State but got kicked off the team so he transferred to Iowa State.

The officials did get the call wrong, the one that was ruled a charge, but should have been a block on Craft. The announcers blew it too, saying he wasn't in the restricted area because his foot was off the ground above the line. That is not the rule. That restricted area line extends all the way to the ceiling, unlike the rest of the boundaries on the basketball court. I don't blame the refs there, very tough call, but it did make a huge difference in this game.

It is always nice to hear the band play "Hang On Sloopy" though.

Now it's Oladipo with the onions though it was actually a bad shot. Indiana didn't need the risk of a 3 there, should have shot the best 2 and hoped to take a 3-point lead with ten seconds left. But he nailed it and clinched the game.

Some effort by Khalif Wyatt. He's a damn good college player. He made 12 of 24 shots, the rest of his team went 9 for 38, yikes.

Now we have to watch the replay of Keith Smart's buzzer beat 100 times between now and next week's game.

Speaking of things that have been beaten into the ground, this Kansas-North Carolina matchup and Roy Williams stuff. I wish they could replay the soundbite of Roy saying "I couldn't give a shit about North Carolina right now."

Bill Self must have given one hell of a halftime speech. Kansas outscored UNC 33-10 to start the second half, and they did it on defense, especially Withey. UNC couldn't make a shot and they never got back in it.

Florida, meanwhile just pounded Minnesota from the beginning and barely ever let them back in the game. I'm sure they are hoping to see Florida Gulf Coast in the next round.

But don't sleep on FGCU. They are a good team. And coached by a guy with a lot of confidence, a lot of money, and probably a big dick.



I love everything that FGCU is doing. They play fast but not too fast. They had a lot of fast breaks and they were under control, not blowing the layups in haste. And they shoot 3s, but almost always in rhythm. Enfield didn't feel the need to pull the plug when they got a big lead because he trusted his team to make the right decisions with the ball.

They really are a great team. A balanced group of guys who play together. They are a lot of fun to watch. They pulled off two major upsets and neither of them was even close. Gonna be a tough game against Florida but I wouldn't count them out. They don't play like a Cinderella. They are not playing a slowdown game, they are not chucking 3s, they're just playing better than their more touted opponents.



I really don't like Marshall Henderson. I hate guys who shoot all the time. I hate guys who overdo the celebration, seemingly trying to get all the attention from themselves. But I could overlook that were it not for other parts of his life. Henderson was arrested for trying to buy pot with $800 of counterfeit money. While on probation he tested positive for alcohol, pot and cocaine. TO me that shows a guy who takes no responsibility and has never been forced to faced the consequences of his actions. He sure can shoot though.



I don't mean to be insensitive to Ramon Galloway's father, but isn't it a waste to give a blind guy a ticket?

Great drive to the basket by Garland. Don't bleed the clock too far, take it to the hole hard and make the shot. Great game, one of the best of the tournament so far.

You will never convince me that playing the extra game is an advantage, simply because mathematically it's harder to win an extra game. But the first year they did it VCU went to the Final Four from the playin game. Now LaSalle is a 13 in the Sweet 16 and could easily get to the Elite 8 by beating Wichita State.

Lots of neon shoes on the court foe Illinois and Miami.

Yes Trey Larkin is Barry's son. No, Tyler Griffey is not Ken's son.



A horrible blown call marred this game however. The ball was clearly out off Kadji's hand which should have given Illinois another chance. Not sure I'd be in favor of replay review for every call like that in the last two minutes of a game, but if it means the wrong team advances, maybe we should consider it.

Impressive game by Duke. They didn't get their best performances from their best players but they played great defense hectoring a good Creighton team into a poor shooting night (2-19 from 3), and they got just enough from the second tier players to cruise to an easy victory.

Tournament Thoughts: Syracuse vs. California

They keep talking about all the Cal fans who are making the short trip to San Jose. But I definitely heard a sizable contingent of people doing the stupid Syracuse stand and clap til the first basket thing.

When Baye Moussa Keita catches the ball down low his first instinct is to do a pump fake. Go up strong!



Incredibly sloppy game. Tons of turnovers in the first half, horrible shooting in the second half. Tons of fouls also.

James Southerland has to learn to play better interior defense without fouling. He's lazy and late a lot of times and makes up for it by fouling. And Boeheim again left him in with 3 and he picked up his 4th, same as happened against Louisville in the Big East final which set up their huge run.

Putting Southerland on the bench takes away a major weapon on offense and it makes it harder for everyone else to drive, or cut. On defense though, I think Southerland plays better defense when he's in foul trouble because he doesn't reach or grab.



Syracuse should have won this game by 20, or could have lost it. They didn't play their best and Cal played even worse. And it's also very troubling how Syracuse consistently blows leads. Stupid turnovers, foul trouble and bad free throw shooting. This one didn't get really close, but it certainly could have. SU made 2 bad turnovers late, but both times Cal gave it right back.

Maybe my inexplicable love for James Southerland clouds my thoughts about this team, but I love CJ Fair. He is a great player and really won this game for us. He is great playing the zone, and the reason his rebounds are so good, especially for someone his size, is because he is always in the right position, crashing the boards, boxing out when the shot goes up. I love the dimension Southerland provides, Michael Carter-Williams has the most potential, and Brandon Triche is the team leader, but CJ Fair is the best player on this team.



So now comes the winner of Indiana-Temple. I know Temple already beat us this season on our pseudo-home floor at MSG but I would much prefer a rematch to a game against Indiana. I just don't see any way the zone can contain Oladipo and Zeller.

And I'm glad we put to rest the myth of the home court. There were certainly some Cal fans in the crowd, but that didn't make the slightest bit of difference.





I don't recall seeing Mrs. Boeheim on camera once that entire game. She must be pretty jealous of Amanda Marcum Enfield.



I've got school spirit.