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.
Addendum: Harrison Barnes reminds me a lot of former Tar Heel Marvin Williams. Both are incredibly gifted athletically but seem to lack a single basketball skill. Both had a lot of hype and failed to meet those expectations. Neither became a go-to guy and instead relied more on teammates in big moments.
ReplyDeleteAs we discussed on Twitter, I think this is a really astute comparison.
ReplyDeleteLook at Barnes' numbers (a) before Kendall Marshall took over at PG last season and (b) after he went down with injury this year. They are very pedestrian at best. Barnes cannot create his own shot; he has a suspect handle, and his shooting is streaky.
He is overall a good player but Marshall, Zeller, Henson and McAdoo are better than he is. The Heels could've lost Barnes to injury and won this whole tournament, but without Marshall they were doomed.