Saturday, March 28, 2009

To the Elite 8 We Go....

A flop of a night last night....
  • Louisville takes Arizona behind the woodshed.... literally.... 103-64 shouldn't happen in the Sweet 16...and don't give me the "Arizona is a #12 seed" stuff....they don't have 12 seed talent and they're from a power conference...so stop it....I think this is more embarrassing for Arizona than indicative of how well Louisville played....they played great...but at no point should they be 39 points better than Arizona on a neutral court....blame the Cats for that...THIRTEEN guys scored Louisville...I don't recall ever seeing that lol....at least Chase Budinger showed up...he was the only one
  • Oklahoma picks apart Syracuse....this was "only" a 13 point final score...but it wasn't that close...Oklahoma led by somewhere in the 20s for most of the 2nd half and they were never challenged... Tony Crocker played his best collegiate game (28 points, 6 threes, lockdown D on Devendorf) and ALMOST overshadowed Blake Griffin's 30 and 14 (I kid, I kid)....Griffin was awesome...but that should've been foreseen when factoring Syracuse plays that 2-3 zone...bad matchup...Johnny Flynn tried to carry the Cuse himself despite banging his shoulder early (22 points, 6 dimes) but he wasn't enough to combat Devendorf and Rautins shooting a combined 7-24 and the Orangemen big guys being totally overmatched
  • UNC puts on a show.... Well, I was the one touting Gonzaga...you heard it.... then the first 15 minutes of the game happened....UNC put on quite honestly the best offensive exhibition for that amount of time I can ever remember seeing in College....they shot 67% and scored 45 points in the first 15 minutes...and that's all despite shooting 5-13 from the line during that time....they should've been over 50....that pretty much ended things for the Zags, who actually shot well early...just not well enough to combat UNC....Ty Lawson was everywhere with 19 and 9 (despite only taking 9 shots) and they seemingly didn't even need anything from Tyler Hansborough (Psycho T! lol) who somehow ended with 24 and 10 despite never seeming like he was doing anything....the backbreaker? Gonzaga cut it to 11 in the 2nd half....timeout....then Bobby Frasor takes (and makes) his only 2 shots in back to back trips...suddenly its 17 and its over.....Sadly, I thought Gonzaga played decently (47% shooting, only 12 TO's)....not great by any means...but the fact that they lost by 21 is a testament to how ridiculous UNC's offense was....and it didn't help that UNC converted on nearly every Gonzaga TO (19 points off 12 TOs) and won the rebounding battle 40-28
  • There WAS one good game....Michigan State edged Kansas in a game to the wire.... Kalin Lucas hit a leaning and-1 to cap it for Michigan State and despite shooting 5-15 and not playing well, will now be hyped beyond measure (lol)....Goran Suton was the story for Mich. State carrying them offensively to the tune of 20 and 9 and somehow adding 5 steals from his center spot.... Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich were quite good...but the role players had nothing to offer....however, I appreciated this close game infinitely...lol

To Saturday.... First...The PICKS! (10-8-1 entering Friday, Now 11-10-1)

  • UConn -5.5 over Missouri

That's it for that lol....Previews now....

  • UConn/Missouri.... I love the Huskies here....now, let me tell you where my allegiance lies...I'm openly rooting for Missouri....that's out of the way now....UConn is simply a terrible matchup for Missou...Think of it this way, Louisville coach Rick Pitino loudly proclaims how terrible of a matchup UConn is for them b/c they love to go to the rim and there's that 7'3 guy in the middle....plus, the UConn guards deftly handle backcourt pressure....now....imagine that Missouri is basically a Louisville clone...except less talented...hmmm.... I won't dumb it down that much...and I WAS impressed by Missouri against Memphis...but this is another animal...the only way they hang here is having their big guys take Thabeet away from the rim by making some jumpshots, and somehow rattle AJ Price and company...I don't see it....
  • Villanova/Pitt.... Another good matchup for Pittsburgh (whose bracket just opened up for them).... These teams are familiar with each other obviously and Villanova took their only meeting in Philly this year.... Contrasting styles with Villanova being more up-tempo and guard oriented where as Pitt will grind you to a halt and ride DaJuan Blair...the key for me? Sam Young... He was borderline awful in the Xavier but has a tendency to follow stinkers with solid outputs...he needs to be on tonight for them to win....Villanova has to contain DaJuan Blair.... While Dante Cunningham is a very good player, he's a bad matchup for Villanova b/c Cunningham is lean while Blair can just body him to the rim.... I like Pitt in the game (and not just because I picked them), but it should be entertaining

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