It seems to be a pattern in these first two rounds. The first day of games in the round hold no surprises. The games aren’t terrible, but they also aren’t great. The third round games on Saturday, as you already know ended up with the higher seed winning every game. This was a contrast to the night before (Friday) when it was upset city. Because I am such a fan of basketball I still enjoyed the Saturday games, even though I was only able to see a little bit of each game.
The games I was really looking forward to were the Kansas State-‘Cuse game and the VCU-Indiana game. I felt like these two match ups were the best of the night and like I predicted on Friday, I thought these would be the only two upset games of the night. I actually missed the K-State- ‘Cuse game because there was a close friend who had a family member pass. Of course I have done a little research on the game, and the games which followed.
I am not going to lie, Saturday was my third night in a row staying up all night, so I had only had about 4 hours of sleep in 3 days. My memory of the games Saturday night is really scrambled because it was very hard to concentrate and I was in and out of sleep during the games. So I am going to just give my thoughts from what I can remember.
First I am going to talk about the two games I was really excited for. I thought Kansas State had it in them to beat Syracuse after Thursday night where they beat a pretty impressive Southern Miss team. Kansas State had the type of team that rebounded and played stifling defense, which is the perfect anatomy of an upset team. They also have one of the more versatile scorers in the NCAA in Rodney Mcgruder. From the game rewind I saw of the first half, the game looked to be going how I thought it would. Kansas State was down one at half time, but heavily out rebounding ‘Cuse but of course shooting a much worse percentage and turning the ball over more.
Then I heard the analysis and I knew that the game was finished. Rodney McGruder had hurt his ankle and was hobbled a little bit. On a team like K-State who has a hard time finding the bottom of the net at times, its not good when your only real scoring threat is hobbled, especially against a stacked Syracuse squad. I missed the second half of the game because of the aforementioned loss, but it was no surprise that the Orange pulled ahead in the end and moved on to the sweet 16.
This game kind of brought down my spirits because I was really riding K-State; I loved the way they were playing. So my next hope for the night was VCU pulling off the upset of Indiana. I’m not jumping on the VCU bandwagon rooting for them, even though I love Shaka and the way that VCU plays. The reason I wanted to see an upset against Indiana is because I very much dislike the Indiana program[1], Tom Crean[2], and really just the whole state of Indiana[3].
I was in and out of consciousness during this game. It broadcast here between 1 AM and 3 AM so by that time I was quite exhausted even though I was really excited for the game. The game was great though! I missed the end but saw that it was a two-point win for Indiana. What I saw from the game was exactly the reason that I was excited for the game: because these two teams style of play compliment each other to make for a great match up. Indiana fires up shots and uses Zeller in the paint to open up their shots on the perimeter. They don’t play extremely fast or extremely slow, they seem to be able to adapt to the style of play of the other team.
VCU is different than Indiana because they dictate their games to their pace whether or not the other team likes it. They defend hard and they push the rock. They embody to emotion, passion, and intensity of their coach 100% of the game, and they don’t seem to be scared of anybody. I think that Indiana's style of play compliments VCU’s because they take a lot of shots, which equals long rebounds, therefore giving the Rams their chance to get out on the break. On the other hand VCU’s style of play compliments Indiana because they over commit on defense, which allows for the shooters to make easy cuts going to the basket. Also Indiana is a smart and well-coached team, so they have the poise to stay calm against VCU’s pressure.
What I saw of the game was great. Both teams seemed to be playing their games comfortably. I love to watch basketball when neither team on the floor seems to be beating themselves. That is how I felt about this game. Both teams really stuck to their game plan. Indiana won because I think they are smarter players, and they have an All-American big man, which is something that VCU lacked.
Anyway… Lets get on to some of my very hazy observations:
If only… Iowa State could have played the last seven minutes or so the way they played the rest of the game they could have had a shot at Kentucky. I thought they played them well, Kentucky just has too many weapons, and Iowa State became fell in love with that dangerous 3 point arc.
Jae Crowder, Jay Crowder, Jae Crowder…. Just cant wait until you so beautifully rip Florida a new one so that I can watch you play against Sparty. I’m sorry you’ll have to lose that one, but maybe you’ll somehow land with the pistons, then I’ll never have to root against you! Oh ya I see you too Mr. Darius Johnson-Odom.
Saddest thing I’ve come to realize about this years tournament- Is that I cant hope that Marquette makes the final four.
The Big Ten- I am happy that the three big ten teams to play on Saturday won, but really I will not care if none of them are in the elite 8.
White Boy of the Night- I thought it was fun watching Helsip pour in nine trey-pootays. Honorable mention goes to the whole Wisconsin team. Yes, I am definitely calling Jordan Taylor and Ryan Evans white boys.
Teams who will make the Elite 8 from tonight- Marquette, Baylor, and Wisconsin
Players of the night- Ryan Evans, Jae Crowder, Marquis Teague[4], The white shooters- Seehay and Halsip[5], Royce White (In a losing effort), Jared Sullinger, Drew Gordon (injured and in a losing effort)
…And now we are on to last night, or Sunday night if I can’t get this posted until Tuesday. Last night followed the pattern of the tournament so far, and after one very predictable and unexciting night of basketball on Saturday, we were again entertained with upsets and close games. Again I was in and out of sleep this night as it was my fourth night in a row without sleeping, but the pain and agony of trying to keep my eyes open was well worth it.
The games didn’t begin here until 12:30 AM for some reason, which means that I missed the first two games of the day, the NC State- Georgetown game, the State-SLU game, and the UNC-Creighton game. These were actually the three games I wanted to watch most, and each seemed to be pretty good from what I have seen in the box scores. I am happy with the results though as I of course am a SPARTY through and through, but also I have followed CJ Leslie for the past couple years and I really like their other big, Howell.
I was surprised to see that Georgetown lost though. They looked really good in the first round against a dangerous Belmont and my man’s Jason Clark and Henry Sims looked like they had the heart to push their team deep in the tourney. I’m quite disappointed that I missed this game, but I am guessing that the stronger bruisers of NC-State’s frontcourt slowed Sims down.
Nothing good happens after 2 AM…As I have learned time and time again. Ted’s mom was definitely correct and on Sunday night I wish this weren’t true. The two games, which took place after 2:00AM, last night for me, the ones that were broadcast here, were the Purdue-Kansas match up and the Florida State- Cincinnati games.
Disclaimer: I filled out one bracket at the beginning of the tournament, but haven’t looked at it since, and all I know is that my championship game was U of D vs. Sparty, so any predictions I make or sides I take are only for my preference’s sake. My opinions of any of the games in this tournament have not been dirtied by the presence of a bracket.
Anyway, I was pulling to see both Purdue and the Trojans in the sweet 16, and the dance has ended for those two teams as of last night. Both Purdue and FSU looked as if they were going to pull out the victories until they spent their last 50 seconds or so of their 2012 tournament doing everything they could to lose the game. Purdue lost because Matt Payner decided that his senior and probably best player ever at Purdue (if he was never crippled) didn’t deserve the ball in the last possessions of the game. Instead he let Jackson dribble the ball around like he was trying out for the globetrotters just to give the ball to Tyshawn Taylor so that he could see his tournament hopes go down the drain with an emphatic dunk.
In the FSU game they decided to put the team on the back of Loucks, but he was to busy looking up at the megatron which seemed to spend more time focused on his girlfriend[6] then the actual game. With the game pretty much wrapped up with FSU up 4 with less than a minute left, Loucks forgot that Dion Dixon wasn’t on his team and that he shouldn’t pass him the ball for an easy jam.[7]
So if you take anything away from this blog post… Don’t go overseas to watch the tournament because the games are broadcast through the night, and that means that something bad will happen during one or more of the games.
Speaking of bad… NOOOOOOOO KENDAL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Probably my favorite player to watch in college basketball because of his smoothness and knowledge may be done for the tournament with a broken wrist! Sorry UNC, I thought for sure you had it in the bag, but the tides have changed. Really, nothing good happens after 2AM!!!!!
Biggest surprise of the night- University of Ohio. What a terrible state, but I really like the team. The only problem with this surprise is the fact that now they will have national attention, and it will be that much harder for me to sneak into their graduate assistant position.
Jason Williams Award- Whit-Eboy of the night- My man Robbie Hummel. I will definitely miss you.
Big ups to Ohio- Their state makes up for 25% of the Sweet Sixteen. Too bad it will only make up 12.5% of the Elite Eight.
Teams who will advance to the Elite 8: Michigan State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Baylor, and Cincinnati.
Players of the Night- John Henson, Sean Kilpatrick, “The Big Saltine” Freese[8], C.J Leslie (Honorable Mention: Richard Howell), Tyshawn Taylor, Kenny Boyton, DJ Cooper, Draymond Green!
[1] Except Zeller. I saw him last year at the United Center for the McDonalds All-American game, and I fell in love with the way he plays. He plays the pivot like a true post player. He runs the floor, hustles on defense, is quite athletic, is strong with both hands, and is just a very smart player. I’m all for Cody Zeller.
[2] I know that many coaches cheat in basketball behind the scenes, but I cannot respect a coach like Crean who obviously cheats, and there is solid proof that he is a cheater. I don’t care if that is the business, or whatever other excuses anyone wants to use. If you cheat in recruiting, or if you bend the boundaries to get yourself ahead (again, cheat) you lose all respect in my book. That being said, the man can coach basketball, which he has proven, and he is a good recruiter, which has been proven is because he cheats.
[3] Just drive through it and tell me if you still like the state.
[4] I hate saying this because I think he is selfish and overrated, but he had a heck of a night.
[5] Their names aren’t important. All you need to know is that they are white and they shoot, so this tournament is probably the last time you’ll ever hear their names.
[6] And future wife, who they say is also an athlete at FSU a swimmer. She’s definitely a pretty girl, but danggit I want to watch basketball not the face of a girl who seems to be going through the emotions of a wife waiting for her husband to come home from Vietnam.
[7] Dixon did a great job of making it a very emphatic and athletic dunk to putting no doubt in my mind that Cincy now had FSU by the balls despite being down 2 with about 48 seconds left.
[8] Yes I did just make up a racist nickname for him because I don’t know his first name and am too lazy to look it up.
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