Gopher Basketball
* The matchup against the Bearcats should be a pretty spirited game. I did not see them play against Charlotte, but have seen them play a lot this season, and have come away very impressed with their grit and talent, as regular readers of the Ramble probably have noticed. Vincent Grier vs. James White on the wing is a matchup of super athleticism and Hicks banging against Stamper/Puchtel down low should be fun too.
* The Big Ten-ouch! Prepare for the national media to pummel them all week and the computer rankings that had the Big Ten as the top conference. A strong argument can be made that the matchups for Ohio St., Illinois, and Indiana were tough challenges, but nonetheless, there’s no Big 10 teams in the Sweet Sixteen, not a good reflection on the conference.
* With their loss to George Mason on Friday night, can we mark this season down as Michigan State’s most disappointing under Izzo? The Spartans haven’t won the Big Ten title in quite awhile, but they always seemed to redeem themselves in the post-season, but not this year. Their mediocre season was among the more surprising occurences of the season for me, watching them in Maui, I thought we were looking at another Final Four-type squad.
* I don’t care how poorly it reflects on the Big Ten-a day where Iowa blows a huge lead and gets upset by a 14 seed and Sconny gets blown out of the gym from the get-go is a good day in my book.
* The Missouri Valley Conference represents, represents! They got a lot of attention this season and as Selection Sunday stated, they had a lot to live up to with their four teams in the tourney. I thought Wichita State would advance, and Bradley intrigued me (picked them up in the auction draft), but never thought they’d have two teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Nice job from the “little” conference in the midwest.
* Team of the weekend? I give my nod to George Mason. Not only do they advance against two of the NCAA titans, but they do so when their second leading scorer and top perimeter threat is out against Michigan St. I saw them beat Wichita St. at Wichita and came away very impressed, but didn’t think they could beat Michigan St. without Skinn. Was I wrong, and it may be sacrilige to say, but with the way UConn is playing, they could spring the classic David vs. Goliath upset. You heard it hear first, but please forget everything I said if Wichita St. beats them and/or UConn finds a pulse.
* Last week, I picked Allen Ray as my Final Four Most Outstanding Player-I did so because I figured he’d start out slowly in recovering from the gruesome eye injury. From these first two games of the tournament, you’d think the injury improved his eyesight. Randy Foye gets attention as the best pro prospect on Villanova, but I have to think Ray’s got a spot in the NBA too.
* The Big 12 should be thankful they have Texas representing them, otherwise they’d be right in line with the criticism the Big 10 will receive. Pretty poor performances by Kansas and OU.
* The Utes were not served this weekend (I’m not talking about Utah, rather affecting Joe Pesci’s speech in “My Cousin Vinny”). I was gunshy on picking either Kansas or UNC to go too far because of their green squads, and my logic was rewarded. People frequently sight the Fab Five of Michigan when claiming that young teams can advance deep into the tourney, but the parity of college basketball has made it more difficult for these callow squads to make such a mark.
* Speaking of Kansas, there were several Jayhawk fans at the bar I was at on Friday night and as Bradley was advancing, it was painful to watch the KU faithful, as I saw tears welling in eyes. Talk about some passionate fans and two straight seasons of early exits to Bucknell and Bradley cannot make Self too comfortable right now.
* Watching UNC get beat by George Mason today, I was struck at how unathletic their guards (Fraser and Miller) are, and did not do anything to dissuade me that the ACC was pretty weak this season. I still think Duke is very vulnerable, and I’m hoping that vulnerability is exposed by LSU in the next game.
* As for Boston College, I’m still not impressed. I can’t get too wild about any team’s performance in conference tournaments (if you ask why, look at how Iowa, Syracuse, Kansas have parlayed their success into. . .nothing), and their path to the Sweet Sixteen was paved against Pacific (a double OT escape) and Montana. I’m thinking Villanova will end their run.
* How bout the SEC? I’ve been flogging them for the past few years, but except for Tennessee, every team that made the tourney has done very well (Bama and Kentucky took UCLA and UConn to the brink). Florida and LSU are two of the more exciting and intriguing teams left in the field.
* Some Sweet Sixteen matchups I’m really looking forward to: UCLA vs. Gonzaga; Duke vs. LSU; Florida vs. Georgetown; and Texas vs. West Virginia.
* Here’s a short list of seniors who we’ve seen the last games on a college court from: Gerry McNamara, Greg Brunner, Jeff Horner, Carl Krauser, Marco Killingsworth, Steve Novak, Squeaky Johnson, Dee Brown, James Augustine, David Noel, Hassan Adams, Joab Tucker, Maurice Ager, Paul Davis, Terrence Dials. One of the things that occurs in the NCAA tourney with so much action, so quickly is these guys who’ve given so many memories over the past few years leave the stage almost as an afterthought.
* Is there a broadcaster out there more enthusiastic than Gus Johnson? I love listening to this guy, I think they should tap him for some golf tournaments, just to liven things up a bit.
* I can’t get “Big Bucking Chicken” out of my head. . .I just searched for it on ITunes to no avail. Whoever’s running the Burger King ad campaign these days is on a roll, between the King spots during the NFL season and now this.
* A shout out goes to the Rochester Community & Technical College Yellowjackets, who finished 5th in the NCJAA Division III finals in Dehli, New York this weekend. It was RCTC’s first appearance in the national tournament in about thirty years. RCTC’s head coach used to spend junior high science classes with me, where we would quiz each other on various college basketball players and which university they played for. Perhaps because of this, neither of us turned out to be molecular biologists but he’s certainly parlayed his basketball interests into success. Congrats, Coach LaPlante.