The first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament is over; 48 games in 4 days make for quite a smorgasbord. With the help of our DVR and streaming coverage on the computer, I was able to see some of every game even though my long-suffering wife accepted a social invitation on Saturday evening. Thirty years ago – - before the technology of videotaping and/or the DVR was routinely available – - that would have been unacceptable. Here are capsule comments from the games I saw…
On Saturday, UCLA and Villanova began the action. I have been on record for at least the last 10 years saying that no team should be allowed to play an NCAA first or second round game within 150 miles of their campus; were I in charge, Villanova would not have played in Philly. Notwithstanding my objection here, there was a column in the LA Times by Bill Plaschke complaining – - what’s new for Plaschke there? – - that UCLA was screwed by having to play on this non-neutral court.
Memo to Bill Plaschke:
1. You were not writing in LA 45 years ago when UCLA got all kinds of advantages from things like short-fields in the NCAA Tournament and actually playing Final Four games in Pauley Pavilion.
2. But you do have Google, so you should know that happened.
3. Those years of scheduling favoritism forbid anyone associated with UCLA or the LA media from complaining for the next 200 years. Stuff a sock in it.
The “home court” disadvantage for UCLA sure did not show up early in the game. The Bruins had already made 6 foul shots in the first 5 minutes of the game – - when they managed to sink their first field goal of the game. The UCLA teams of the past three years that made the Final Four all featured really tough defense; this team is no better than average on defense and I am being very kind here.
Here is the most impressive thing I garnered from this game:
Jay Bilas is THE best color analyst doing basketball on TV – - bar none!
In the Maryland/Memphis game, it was obvious after about the first three minutes that Memphis was bigger, stronger, faster and better on defense than Maryland. The announcers said Maryland “needs a big day from Hayes” to be in the game and Maryland “needs Vasquez to have a big game.” Actually, what Maryland really needed was a fairy godmother with a magic wand. Play this game 100 times and Maryland might win once.
UConn smothered Texas A&M making all of the Saturday afternoon games pretty boring. It was 10-0 at the start and 70-48 with 12:45 to play in the second half. UConn could have named the score… At this point, I almost didn’t mind having to go to our social event…
In the Gonzaga/Western Kentucky game, here is a note I made early in the first half:
“W Ky has decided to live by the jump shot. If they lose, they will die by the jump shot.”
The Zags were bigger and stronger; Western Ky was faster. Usually that makes for a close game and this one did not disappoint; the game was decided with less than 2 seconds left to play. Finally, a good game for the day.
In the Duke/Texas game here is a note I made early in the first half:
“Looks like we get 2 good games today…”
Texas guard AJ Abrams showed up on Saturday night; he did not always show up for Texas during the season and he was the best player on the floor for this one game. I have a rhetorical question for you to ponder:
Putting aside whether or not you like Duke basketball, can you name for me 5 players in college basketball who get more positive results from their level of God-given talent than does John Scheyer?
I cannot.
Sunday’s games started off with Syracuse/Arizona State. I liked that Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel had the national game in that time slot; as I have said frequently, I think they are grossly undervalued assets at CBS. They did a very good job in this game. I feared a slow and tepid game because both teams play a sound zone defense but the score was 41-32 at the half so I was glad to be wrong in that fear. Syracuse had lost a lead to Louisville in the Big East Tournament and had played very poorly in the second half against Steven F. Austin on Friday so when they started the second half with 2 turnovers; I thought this game might be close. Forget that; when Pendergraph went to the bench for ASU and had to be replaced, ASU was playing 4-on-5 on offense.
Xavier and Wisconsin was a boring game; it was 2-2 after 4 minutes of play and there were lots – and I do mean lots – of bad shots in the game. It was not until 10:04 remained in the first half that either team managed to crack double digits on the scoreboard. Here is the equation that describes this game:
Good Defense + BAD shooting + Slow Pace = BORING!
Early on in the Kansas/Dayton game, both teams were running frenetically up and down the court with little to show on the scoreboard for all the energy expended. Dayton started out the game shooting 1-13 from the field; nevertheless, Kansas was not up by a huge score at that point. Finally, Kansas put them away because Kansas had too many good players for Dayton’s frenzy to overcome.
Cleveland State/Arizona was a “vindication game”. If Cleveland State had won, people would have said it showed that mid-majors can play with the big boys and more should be in next year’s field. Now that Arizona won, people can say that Arizona – the putative last team selected for the field – really deserved to be there and all those snubbed mid-majors can stuff a sock in it. Whatever…
Pitt/Oklahoma State was an excellent game. Both teams played tough defense and ran solid disciplined offenses that produced points. It was 49-49 at the half. One very telling statistical difference was the rebounding; Pitt grabbed 41; Oklahoma State had 21.
The Selection Committee sure seeded the East properly. Surviving to the regional semis are the teams seeded #1, #2, #3 and #4…
Dominic James returned for Marquette today – - at least in spirit. He scored no points but perhaps his presence provided some leadership and inspiration. Missouri led by 16 in the first half but Marquette closed the gap and actually led by a point with 4 minutes to play. Nevertheless, in the end Missouri won by 4 points.
USC and Michigan State stayed close to each other for 40 minutes. I do not recall either team leading by more than 5 points – - but I did not keep a running score of the game.
Sienna made a game of it in the second half against Louisville but they just did not have enough to win the game. I made a note that this should be called a “Dry Cleaner’s Game” – - there is a whole lot of pressing going on…
At 7:05 EDT I made a note that all three of the late games had scores with 2-point spread’s or less at that point. The weekend games on Saturday afternoon may have started out badly, but the late Sunday games were ending interestingly.
Next week sometime, I will go over some of my notes about a few of the annoying ads that ran over and over again all weekend long.
Finally, after Kansas beat North Dakota State on Friday, that allowed the Jayhawks to continue on to defend their national title from last year. Meanwhile, the Bison of North Dakota State went home to Fargo. Isn’t that a bit harsh on those kids just for losing a basketball game?
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…