March Madness 2010

[naiwf]

K-State just got robbed by the officials. That miss on the Clemente foul attempt just screwed them of having the chance to ice the game at the free throw line in regulation. Credit to the Xavier player for making all 3 free throws with 5 seconds left on the clock, but if they end up winning the game because the ref swallowed his whistle on a blatant foul attempt there will be a lot of controversy.

[sahyder1]

K-State just got robbed by the officials. That miss on the Clemente foul attempt just screwed them of having the chance to ice the game at the free throw line in regulation. Credit to the Xavier player for making all 3 free throws with 5 seconds left on the clock, but if they end up winning the game because the ref swallowed his whistle on a blatant foul attempt there will be a lot of controversy.

Yes, there will be controversy but major kudos to that kid from Xavier. Hitting 3 FTs there with a timeout thrown in between is very clutch.

[Mofoticon]

These 2 guys for Xavier are cold-blooded

[sahyder1]

Wow! So Jordan Crawford is no longer just famous for "dunking on LeBron" at a Nike camp. What a clutch shot!

[naiwf]

These 2 guys for Xavier are cold-blooded

Pullen's pretty nasty too. I don't ever remember seeing so many big shots like this falling at the end of an NCAA tourney game. I think there have been about 6 or 7 "ARE YOU KIDDING ME'S!" from Gus Johnson since the foul call issue.

[livid]

Wow, I didn't necessarily think St. Mary's would win but I thought the game would be a helluva lot closer than that.

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, Baylor took those religious boys virginity last night. That was just a shame.

[naiwf]

Here will be the headline of about a few hundred newspaper/internet articles in the next 48 hours: The Butler Did It.

I have no idea how they're still standing because they've shot horribly against Syracuse and K-State and yet they're still alive. It didn't hurt that the Wildcats had to play a double overtime game in the second game on Thursday night, but at this point I've got to say they're probably the favorite in their next game regardless of who wins. With their victory we're guaranteed either a 5 or 6 seed in the title game. So much for the "Big 3" teams this season.

[JStarr]

I've been pondering this most of the night, and it's hard for me to come up with anyone else who has the same kind of unique homecourt advantage in a Final Four that Butler has this year.

Lucas Oil Stadium is literally just five miles from Butler's campus. The players might get to sleep in their own beds before the games, go through their normal home game routine, etc., not having to worry about bundling into a hotel. I really can't think of any other schools that are Final Four caliber that have a stadium in their cities that would be big enough to host a Final Four (i.e. an indoor NFL stadium these days).

Maybe if Georgia Tech made a run one year when the Final Four was at the Georgia Dome, or Minnesota building enough to make a run at the Metrodome, but those are about all that come immediately to mind.

And every time I look at Brad Stevens, I feel ridiculously old. Christ, there are now coaches my age. This is sort of distressing. Doesn't help that he looks barely old enough to drive.

[Meacon Keaton]

My wife thought Brad Stevens was an injured Butler player. She didn\'t believe me when I said it was the coach until the post game interviews.

[Lowerdeck]

I wonder when was the last time anyone had a "home court" advantage in the Final Four.

And boy, this is going to be a strange Final Four this year. West Virginia, Butler, either Tennessee or Michigan State. If Baylor wins, it's four teams of "where the hell did they come from"

[Hajjhowe]

I heard a fair few people predicting Butler in the Final 4 before the year started. West Virginia has been one of the better teams the last few years too and Michigan State is always hanging around.

[Hugar Twriker Eats Spam]

Well yesterday killed my bracket. Oh well.

[naiwf]

What do you think the odds were that Duke would be the last #1 standing before the tournament began? Just for the sake of continuing this insane ride, I'd like to see Baylor and Tennessee win. I don't think anyone would have predicted that WVU, Butler, Baylor and Tennessee would have been the Final 4, and it would be cool to see someone other than one of the nationally known elite programs win for the first time since the UNLV days.

[JStarr]

Tennessee was Top 10 in the preseason, but everyone sort of tried to stick the fork in them once Tyler Smith got booted from the team. One of my radio co-hosts is totally rabid for them, and he's likely been dancing with joy for two days now.

If UT makes it to Indy and he wants to gloat about how Purdue didn't, he'll have his mic cut off pretty early.

[naiwf]

After watching that game I have two questions. How is MSU winning close games in the tourney without their best player/starting PG? How does Izzo not get more credit for being the best coach in college hoops when he basically gets to the Final Four every couple of years on average? He also does it without big name future NBA prospects too.

[livid]

Because nobody gives the Big Ten credit for anything since most of the teams in the conference play a "boring" style of basketball.

I agree though, Izzo is sorely overlooked as the best coach in college basketball. They put a stat up that over the past 12 years, he's lead Michigan State to 6 Final Four's.

[thuganomic]

This was easily the worst MSU team to reach a final four. Izzo does this by motivating them to excel and play beyond their talents. He finds scrappy guys who've been overlooked by other teams and are willing to crash the boards and hit the deck. I hope he never leaves East Lansing.

[naiwf]

Because nobody gives the Big Ten credit for anything since most of the teams in the conference play a "boring" style of basketball.

There's Wisconsin boring, and there's "every Spartan player who has played for four years under Izzo has made the Final Four" boring. Ever since they made the NCAA's under Izzo they have been to the Final Four 6 times, while they've failed to get that far only 7 times. For comparison's sake Duke and their annual recruiting classes of McDonald's All Americans have only made it that far three times (would be four if they win the next game) in that same time frame and the media basically acts like Coach K is the greatest coach in the game.

I guess when you live in NYC and hear how Boeheim is a bum because Syracuse has only won one championship under his watch and come up small in the tourney on a regular basis it's amazing to see how little respect some of the coaches like Calhoun and Izzo get, while people prattle on about the greatness of Coach K and Roy Williams.

[HailtotheYo]

When it comes to coach K, I really think people have forgotten or are too young to know what he did at Duke before the last five years.

1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004 - Final Fours Oh, and then this year too.

^ that is literally averaging a Final Four every other year for 20 years. That's the exact avg pace that Izzo is on. Oh by they way though, there's 3 titles and 4 other title game showings out of those Final Fours. So not only did he take Duke to the F4 every other year, he got to the title game 7 times. In his tenure the longest drought of F4's ... is five years (oddly enough I think that's a reference from the first sentence of this post ).

There's also the 18 Sweet Sixteens, most ever tournament wins, complete and utter domination of the ACC (24 conference titles split 12/12 with regular season and tourament - to include 9 of the last 12 tournies). Oh, 11 times he's won 30 games and 25 times he's won 20. Also, only once has Coach K not taken Duke to the tournament. 26 tournies and only 7 times has he not made the sweet sixteen.

Coach K is in no way overrated. In fact, there are very few coaches that can post that kind of resume. Yeah, there are some guys out there that are well on the pace/track to do this, but they aren't there yet. And it isn't like Coach K has quit coaching ... he's still taking Duke to the F4. He also always seems to get the most out of teams that everybody labels "not quite Duke" ... interesting.

Izzo is fantastic and he's one of the few reasons I pay attention to anything outside of Big12 and Kentucky basketball. He's got a little catching to do still though. I do agree however, that he does more with less .... but please quit making it out like the guys going to Mich St are f'n chumps.

Edited March 29, 2010 by HailtotheKing