Last week, the more annoying yelling heads on ESPN and its affiliates were all making a big show of brushing off the complaints of NCAA fans who felt the tournament was missing something due to the lack of a “Cinderella” team from a small conference making it to the round of 16. This was just foolishness from people who know nothing about basketball, they said. The chalk-y nature of the tournament was a Good Thing because it produced “compelling match-ups” in the second weekend.
And ten of the twelve games just sucked. There were really only two games that had any drama at all, both involving Pitt. Several of the games were flat-out blowouts, particularly the losses by Memphis and Syracuse, both of whom got run out of the gym. Louisville’s end yesterday wasn’t exactly the stuff of legend, either.
On top of that, the crowds were just flat at a lot of the games. The worst were the UConn games (played in Arizona), where the arena seemed half full, and the fans in the arena appeared to have no interest in the proceedings. The only really good atmosphere I saw was the Villanova-Pitt game in Boston, which isn’t surprising, as it was two Big East teams playing in what was a Big East town until recently.
— The Syracuse game was shameful, but not surprising. I picked them to beat Oklahoma in the pool, because I thought they could win if they played the way they’re capable of playing. Unfortunately, there are two ways to take this phrase, and they opted for the negative sense.
This has been their failure mode all season– they didn’t hit shots, and Devendorf played like a knucklehead, slow-jogging two sure lay-ups into blocked shots, and not getting out on shooters in the zone. Andy Rautins couldn’t put it in the ocean, which happens with him, and the big guys couldn’t hit a lay-up.
Put that together with a first-rate performance by Oklahoma, and, well, you get a blow-out like you saw Friday.
— Louisville decided to follow the Orange example, and just lie down in the second half of their game yesterday. They weren’t helped by the fact that the game was apparently being refereed by blind elementary-school children, but they did themselves no favors.
Michigan State going to the Final Four in Detroit is a nice story, and all, but their game against UConn is going to be UGLY, I mean cover-your-eyes, hide-the-children goon-ball. They should make this the late game, so people can just go to bed and read about it in the morning.
— Both of my championship game picks (UConn and UNC) are alive in the one bracket I’m following closely. I would not be surprised to see Villanova vs. Michigan State next Monday, though– the Final Four is a home game for the Spartans, and ‘Nova is playing really well at the moment.
Happily, though, this isn’t the BCS, and we’ll get to see how it all falls out on the court.