Saturday, March 24, 2012

Sweet Sixteen!


Thursday


After watching the games through the night of Thursday I am more depressed than I ever have been in my life. Not only did every team that I want to win lose, but Sparty bowed out and even worse I had to watch the last seconds of Draymond Green’s career. I’m sure that Dancing Bear will be playing basketball somewhere in the future, and I hope the NBA, but I’m not sure he will thrive in the NBA and will probably end up playing somewhere overseas where I wont be able to watch.

So before I get into a recap of what I saw I want to pay tribute to the 4 beautiful years of basketball Dray played in East Lansing. When he came in (before I saw him play) I thought he was some bigheaded Mr. Basketball from Saginaw that was overweight and was only Mr. Basketball in high school due to his size. Very quickly I saw differently. Even though he wasn’t a superstar as a freshman, he was good and he showed a lot of potential. He was fast for someone his size, very passionate when he played, had quick feet, and good touch next to the rim along with a pretty good mid range jump shot. Throughout his career he developed all those skills even more, and lost weight to become 2012’s Big Ten Player of the Year and a NCAA Player of the Year. If Anything I think he deserves the Senior Award, and if anyone else gets that I will be very disappointed, no one deserves it as much as him.

Anyway, Draymond has grown into one of the most versatile players in college basketball. He is a great leader with his passion and intensity. If there is any example I would ever want to give to players I coach I would show them Draymond Green. Even though he would play outside of his game sometime, he never did it in a stupid way; he would just do it because he was so aggressive. The mistakes that Dray makes aren’t due to a lack of knowledge or heart, but they happen due to him wanting to win so badly that he tries to do too much. I love that guy! Anyway, I can see him being somewhat of a Big Baby Davis in the NBA at best, or go play over in Spain, China, or Turkey never really to be heard from again in the States. I know that I will be a lifetime fan though, and no matter what country he ends up in I will know his career.

So lets get onto the games…

The night began with probably the best game of the night: Syracuse vs. Wisconsin. I must say that I was hoping that the buzzcuts would pull out the upset, but that’s because of the Big Ten affiliation and that I have not been impressed with the Orange’s uninspired play so far. The game proved to be an impressive one.

Wisconsin of course slowed the game down and was very patient against the zone. One thing that surprised me while watching the game was how poorly Boehiem’s 2-3 rotated. Wisconsin really put on a barrage of three pointers from all angles, but I didn’t think Wisconsin really worked too much against the zone. A lot of their 3’s came from the wing, of course in the waning seconds of the shot clock, but in a lot of possessions the ball never made it into the high post or short corner. The guards would just move the ball for about 30 seconds on the perimeter and than jack one up. This is surprising that ‘Cuses zone was so vulnerable without the ball really every penetrating the zone at all. It’s the poor defense of the Orange and good shooting of Wisconsin that kept the game close.

Of course Syracuse scored in all different ways and Wisconsin never took away C.J. Fine’s left hand allowing way too many easy layups. Syracuse played how they are expected on offense and they were able to pull out the W. The best part of the game for me was listening to Boeheim at the end of the game. He gave an interview that sound like he was saying, “This Wisconsin team is the best team we’ve seen in a long time.” It made me laugh because Wisconsin is a good team, but I wouldn’t even put them in the 10 best teams in college basketball, and Boeheim better prepare well for their next match because it will prove harder than the Badgers match up for sure.

For other thoughts on the game that really sum up the last play of the game (which I don’t have enough time or space to into), read this great article from grantland, http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7726923/bo-ryan-wisconsin-syracuse-sweet-16

Finishing right after the ‘Cuse-Buzzcuts game was the Lousiville-Michigan State game. From the beginning of the slugfest I knew Sparty was in trouble. The game from the very tip resembled more of a street fight than a basketball match. This wasn’t a good omen for MSU, as Louisville plays way more grimy than Sparty. State plays grimy in a very organized fashion under Izzo, but the Cardinal play a very in your face grimy under Pitino.

The game looked wide open in the beginning of the first half as both teams played lock down defense and neither team could put the ball in the hoop. The point at which Louisville began separating themselves is when they began knocking down threes with about 6:00 minutes left in the first half. Going into half time I think the Cardinals hit four three pointers to put themselves up 23-18 as the teams header to the locker room. Now I missed the first part of the second half because I was watching the Buzzcuts three point barrage, but I have heard and can imagine what happened. Louisville began throwing more refined hooks and uppercuts by Dieng protecting the rim on defense and Behanan hitting the offensive boards hard. Michigan State usually isn’t known for it’s stellar offense, but it is known every year for its work on cleaning the glass, but Louisville dominated them on the glass. When I saw the stat recap about half way through the second I saw State losing the rebounding battle by about –10 I knew that the game was over.

The next two games: Ohio State-Cincinnati and Florida-Marquette games were two that I was very excited for because I knew anything could happen in the games. Cincy looked strong for the first little bit of the game, but the more talented Buckeyes really handed it to them after letting them stick around in the first half. Ohio State’s scoring came from everywhere. What’s surprising is that their best scorer in my mind, Will Buford, was the only starter not to score over 10 points. Cincy, other than the beastly Yancy Gates, was just too undersized to match up and play good defense against Ohio State.

The Florida- Marquette game went differently than I thought it would. I really thought that Marquette was the better team, and even though I knew Florida is much better than their seven seed ranking the Gators proved to be the better team. I thought that the only way that Florida would win the game would be if the Golden Eagles threw the ball away a lot, and really just beat themselves. The game actually was one where both teams played average games. Neither team did anything to lose the game or put themselves ahead o the other team by a lot. This is why I think Florida proved themselves to be the better team.

Bradley Beal showed that he is one of the best guard NBA prospects in college basketball as he went for 21, 6, and 4. His size and skill really make him someone who I think will go high in the draft, maybe top 5. Like I said though, there is no real statistic that can show why Florida won the game, but they shot a little better, had a couple more rebounds, and played a little bit better defense. Even though statistically the Gators and Eagles were pretty close, Florida came out on top by 10 points.

Most disappointing fact of the night: We will not be able to watch Draymond Green and Jae Crowder go at each other in the Elite Eight.

Senior of the night: Even though it kills me to not pick Draymond, Jordan Taylor showed that he is the most experienced point guard in the country and is the only player that I think should give Green a run at the Senior award.

Best player to watch run back on defense after scoring on offense: Next year watch Derrick Nix run back on defense after a put back. He looks like Don Vito freaking out after getting abused by Bam. He’s probably the goofiest in this category, just ahead of Shaq Daddy.

Funnest player to watch play of the night: Justin Jackson from Cincy was great to watch; getting some great hustle blocks on unsuspecting Buckeye victims. It was just exciting watch him run all over the court without abandon.

Players of the Night: Gorgui Dieng, C.J. Fair, Bradley Beal, Lenzelle Smith Jr.

Final Four teams of the night: Louisville and Ohio State

So that was Thursday…

Friday night I missed watching all the games because I started getting sick from not sleeping, and its not the greatest thing in the world to be sick in Africa. So I decided I needed to sleep last night and hoped to catch replays of the games, but of course there was no electricity during the day, so I had to settle for box scores. Today is a sad day for Matthew as I saw what I expected: two great games in the UNC-Ohio game and the KU-NC State game. I’m just sad that neither NC State or Ohio pulled out the upset. Instead of me blabbering on about what I think about games that I didn’t even watch, I will just get on to the teams that I think will win in the Elite Eight and make it to the Final four, and it should be no surprise.

Final Four teams of the night: Kentucky and North

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