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.
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.
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