Kentucky lost to UCLA. UCLA lost to Monmouth. Monmouth lost to Dayton. Dayton lost to La Salle. La Salle lost to Drexel. Drexel lost to Division II Alaska Anchorage. By the transitive property, Alaska Anchorage is better than Kentucky (yes, I took the time to plot all of that out). Maybe Mikhail Prokhorov and the Nets should consider offering Alaska Anchorage head coach Rusty Osborne a 12-year, 120 million dollar contract instead of John Calipari.
College football has been dominated by a few schools over the past couple decades. Urban Meyer and Nick Saban have won 8 of the last 13 National Championships and continue to be greedier than Meryl Streep at an award show.
However, the college basketball world has become increasingly "flat" as Tom Friedman would like to suggest. Here is a Russell Wilson level cliche: any team can truly beat any other club on a given night in college basketball. Obviously, that is not to say that powerhouse programs like Michigan St., Kansas, North Carolina, and Duke are out of the title picture. Overall, though, the top of college basketball has never been so close to the middle tier of teams in the country, as the middle class of college hoops has improved while the top teams in the country all have significant flaws.
There are anywhere from 10 to 15 teams that could win the National Championship this April in Houston, and for the life of me, I cannot remember a year with this much game-to-game uncertainty. A little less than a month ago, Clemson shot 27.1% from the field in a 23-point loss to Georgia on the road, and yet they just started ACC play with victories against Florida St., Syracuse in OT, Louisville, and Duke. How do you explain Kentucky getting totally outplayed by Ohio St. at the Barclays Center, a Buckeyes team that was so bad earlier on in non-conference play that UT-Arlington came into Columbus and beat them? Everybody was high on Virginia's prospects for a run despite losing Justin Anderson to the NBA after they beat West Virginia, Villanova, and California in consecutive games, but the Cavaliers then lost to Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech in ACC play. Teams in the top 25 losing games left and right has now become an accepted occurrence in college basketball.
The top teams in the nation are not strong enough this year to win on their off nights, and now it is just about figuring out when that evening will come for each squad. College basketball is just about as predictable and consistent as Cuba Gooding Junior's acting career because North Carolina can "show you the money" and beat Maryland behind flawless games from Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, but they can also have a Boat Trip like performance and lose to teams like Northern Iowa.
Looking back at some of the past NCAA tournaments, the highest aggregate seeding for the four National Semifinalists was 26 during the wacky 2011 tourney. Eventual champions UConn were a 3 seed and only received that spot because they won 5 games in 5 days in the Big East Conference Tournament after going a mere 9-9 in conference play. Butler was an 8 seed, the first eight seed to get to the Final Four since North Carolina and Wisconsin in 2000 and the first eight seed to get to a title game since Villanova won it in 1985 against Georgetown. Kentucky was a 4 seed, and cinderella darlings VCU were a 11 seed, at the time joining LSU in 1986 and George Mason in 2006 as the only double digit seeds to make it to the Final Four. I think we could definitely see something wild unfold this March once again, but hopefully at the end of it we will get a better title game than the 53-41 National Championship game stinker we got back in 2011 (the worst title game I have seen since UCLA never got close to Florida back in 2006).
Why does college basketball lack a more typical top-heavy nature this season, a sort of structure that gets Bernie Sanders so upset?
One explanation is that some of the non-perennial hoops powers have not lost a lot to the NBA over the past few years and their players have continued to develop their games as upperclassmen. Whereas Duke had to replace Jahlil Okafor, Justice Winslow, and Tyus Jones, five of the seven players that get double-digit minutes for Butler are juniors and seniors. People sometimes overemphasize the role returning starters and upperclassmen play in the success of a team because if a team struggled with them as freshman or sophomores, they are not going to be better with them as juniors and seniors. However, for the Bulldogs to bring back all-conference caliber players like Roosevelt Jones and Kellen Dunham, it levels out the playing field against some of the bigger programs in the country. Seniors Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker are the reason why Wichita St. has won 7 NCAA Tournament games over the past 3 years, Buddy Hield is a scoring machine for Oklahoma and has dramatically improved as a shooter over his 4 years in Norman, and Kris Dunn came back after having late lottery potential and is now a definite top 5 pick (Providence could get back to its first Final Four since the Rick Pitino-Billy Donovan combination got them there in 1987). All three of those guys are leading experienced and upper-class heavy teams, especially Hield with Oklahoma because they have a very short bench and four of their five starters are juniors or seniors.
At the end of the day, you need talent to win games. The need for experience in college basketball to achieve success is often a media narrative (I feel like Ted Cruz when he was attacking the New York Media at the debate in Charleston last night), but it is an advantage to have a supremely gifted player with more a better feel for the game than a freshman who is still trying to figure it out (look at the difference between Brice Johnson and Skal Labissiere).
Another explanation for the parity in college basketball is that transfer rates are at an all-time high, and players at lower-level schools are now transferring to mid-level and second-tier programs. While Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas continue to go after the nation's top recruits, teams like Oregon, Pittsburgh, and even Louisville, who missed out on some of the top freshmen they were going after and ended up with just one top 30 recruit, have looked to established players from smaller schools to bolster their roster. The influx of transfers into tournament caliber teams, particularly but not limited to power conference schools, have allowed teams like Iowa St. to compete with programs like Kansas. Despite Fred Hoiberg leaving to go to the NBA and pestering Bulls fans by not being able to figure out the best big-man combination between Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic, and Bobby Portis, nearly 14 percent of players still transferred in college basketball in 2014 (not all of them could go to Iowa St. anyway). Damion Lee, who transferred from Drexel, and Trey Lewis, who transferred from Cleveland St., and are now far and away the two best players on a Louisville team that ranks at the top of Ken Pomeroy's adjusted defensive rankings. Lee and Lewis are both really quick and Lee is absolutely fearless, especially when he starts to get into a grove from three.
Some of the non-traditional college basketball powerhouses, like Butler and Wichita St., have been able to offer playing time and larger roles to guys at bigger schools that were never given the opportunity to shine or never quite fit in with their team. Conner Frankamp went from 8 minutes a game as the 9th or 10th guy on Kansas in 2013 to a key part of a good Wichita St. team, and has given the Shockers a 43 percent shooter from three. Tyler Lewis, a former McDonald's All-American and top 50 recruit, never found his place at North Carolina St. and is now a really productive pass-first point guard for Butler. The same kind of story goes for Kuran Iverson, who left Memphis after two years to play for Rhode Island and have a bigger role. Dylan Ennis, who averaged nearly 10 points a game for a 33 win Villanova team last year, left the school to go to Oregon to handle more of the basketball with highly touted freshman Jalen Brunson coming to play for the Wildcats in the backcourt with Ryan Arcidiacono. Unlike in the past, where many players would sit and wait for their opportunity at a big-time school because they thought they could only be recognized by NBA scouts from a few programs, players know that getting onto the floor is the most important thing for their future. As Robert Sarver would say, millennials want instant gratification or else they move on (I say that half-jokingly).
Finally, the quality of freshman that came into college basketball this season pales in comparison to the past, hurting the top programs that have continually replenished their talent each year through strong freshmen classes. LSU's Ben Simmons (a player so good he gets shout outs from Barack Obama), Duke's Brandon Ingram (his wingspan is as long as Giannis and Kawhi), Henry Ellenson from Marquette, Diamond Stone of Maryland (had a 39 point, 12 rebound game in his first ever Big Ten contest against Penn St.), Caleb Swanigan from Purdue (forms a monster front line duo with A.J. Hammons), Arizona's Allonzo Trier (unfortunately is out with a broken finger), Dedric Lawson of Memphis, and Florida State's duo of Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley have certainly all stood out for their respective teams. However, equally as disappointing have been Kentucky's Skal Labissiere and Isaiah Briscoe (one NBA scout way too harshly eviscerated Labissiere recently), Cheick Diallo of Kansas, Chase Jeter of Duke (Coach K has no trust in him at all), Justin Simon of Arizona, and Antonio Blakeney of LSU.
Moreover, for whatever reason, it seems as though the destinations of the top recruits were more spread out in 2015. Ben Simmons went to LSU, Cuonzo Martin and California got two top ten recruits with Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, Henry Ellenson, a Wisconsin kid, stayed home and went to Marquette, and Ben Howland and his slow pace, let me control my team's entire motion offense landed Malik Newman at Mississippi State. In 2013, all but one of the top 12 recruits went to Kansas (Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid), Duke (Jabari Parker), Kentucky (Julius Randle, Andrew Harrison, Dakari Johnson, James Young, and Aaron Harrison), Arizona (Aaron Gordon), or Florida (Kasey Hill and the biggest college basketball disappointment in a long time with Chris Walker) according to ESPN. The next year, half of the top 18 recruits on ESPN went to either Duke, North Carolina, or Kentucky (Okafor, Jones, and Winslow went to Duke, Justin Jackson, Theo Pinson, and Joel Berry landed at North Carolina, and Trey Lyles, Karl Towns Jr., and Devin Booker went to Kentucky). This year, of the top twenty recruits according to ESPN, seven of them went to schools that did not even make the NCAA Tournament in 2014, creating a diversification of talent in college hoops.
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Showing posts with label Louisville Cardinals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louisville Cardinals. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2016
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Looking Back - The Things That I Regret Saying About Kentucky Before The 2014 NCAA Tournament
Note: This is a post that I began to write after the brackets for the 2014 NCAA Tournament came out in March and Kentucky was placed as a 8 seed in the extraordinarily difficult Midwest Regional with Wichita St., Louisville, Duke, and Michigan. Thankfully, I did not post it and forgot about the article (kinda like how everybody in the world has forgotten about Jimmer and his shooting ability, which I am still holding onto), but it is pretty funny to look back at and see how ridiculously wrong I was about Kentucky (never become skeptical of Big Blue Nation, Kevin Love's capacity to miss out on the playoffs, Chris Bosh's three point shooting capabilities, the power of Game of Thrones to shock you, or Jack Bauer's ability to escape certain death every episode). I was making fun of the Wildcats for having such a bad season after such high expectations (they had the worst regular season for a team ranked pre-season number 1 since either the UConn team in 1999-2000 with Khalid El-Amin that finished 25-10 and lost in the second round to Tennessee or the 1979-1980 Indiana team with Isiah Thomas, Butch Carter, and Mike Woodson that is the only club other then this Kentucky squad to fall out of the top 25 after being the pre-season number 1) and then they of course made a run to their second NCAA Championship Game in the last three years and their third Final Four under John Calipari since 2009-2010. Kentucky also became just the fifth 8 seed to reach the Final Four along with North Carolina and Wisconsin in 2000 (lost in the National Semifinals to Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleaves, and Michigan St. and Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Florida respectively), Butler in 2011 (lost to Kemba Walker and UConn in a very poorly played title game), and Villanova in 1985 (beat Georgetown and Patrick Ewing in the famous championship upset by Rollie Massimino). The Wildcats are also now only behind North Carolina and UCLA in terms of Final Fours by school (Tar Heels have 18, Bruins have 17, UK has 16) and are tied with the Bruins for the most National Championship game appearances in college basketball history (both teams have 12). To summarize, I couldn't have been more wrong (this is a statement that Billy King, Ernie Grunfeld, and Reggie McKenzie must have felt like saying over and over).
It seems like yesterday that the college basketball season was just about to begin and some people actually thought that Kentucky could become the first team since the 1975-1976 Indiana Hoosiers team of Scott May, Kent Benson, and Tom Abernethy to go undefeated. Across the Bluegrass state, fans everywhere outside of Louisville and the KFC Yum Center were buying 40-0 t-shirts in honor of the Wildcats (people also thought that the Falcons could finally break through and win their first Super Bowl in franchise history after three straight seasons with more than 10 wins and yet they finished 4-12 in 2013, their fewest wins since 1996, so don't ever listen to pre-season predictions). Obviously, the Wildcats had a really strong recruiting class coming into the season with the likes of Julius Randle (a mix of Zach Randolph and Chris Webber), James Young, Darkari Johnson, the Harrison twins, and Marcus Lee. In the history of college basketball, there have been a lot of really great recruiting classes that have changed the course of the game for the next couple of seasons. In 1965, UCLA brought in Lew Alcindor, Lucius Allen, Ken Heitz, and Lynn Shackelford (a class so good that they beat the varsity team that went 18-8 by 15 in a scrimmage at Pauley Pavilion when freshmen were not allowed to play in their first year in college) and in 1979, Isiah Thomas, Jim Thomas, and Randy Whittman all came to Indiana to play for Bob Knight. Cincinnati's recruiting class when they brought in Oscar Robertson in 1956 or LSU's class when they got Pete Maravich in 1967 are right up there with the best of all-time because those two guards were just that good on their own. Other great classes in the modern era include Michigan's Fab Five of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson from 1991, the 1999 Duke class of Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams, and Mike Dunleavy, Jr., the 2002 North Carolina class of Sean May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and David Noel, Florida's group of Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Taurean Green, and Joakim Noah from 2004, Ohio State's class of 2006 of Greg Oden, Mike Conley, David Lighty, and Daequan Cook, and finally Calipari's own class of Anthony Davis, Michael-Kidd Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Kyle Wiltjer from 2011. No matter how good Kentucky's 2013 recruiting class was made out to be by the high school recruiting experts or the pressure that would be taken off their backs by the return of the super athletic Alex Poythress and the shot-blocking Willie Cauley-Stein, to put them in that conversation without even stepping foot on the floor in Lexington was more absurd than The Plague by Albert Camus. In fact, Kentucky's pursuit of perfection lasted as long as Billy Donovan's coaching career with the Magic, or more aptly, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries's marriage.
(You can't even feel bad for Kris Humphries. Why didn't he look at Reggie Bush? From 2007 to 2010 when the USC Heisman Trophy winner - excuse me, the 5-year Heisman Trophy winner before he gave it back - was with Kim Kardashian, Bush never even reached 600 rushing yards in a season with the Saints despite being just the second running back along with Ronnie Brown to go in the first two picks of the NFL draft since 1996. Without the Kardashian syndrome in the last three years, Bush has finished each season with more than 975 rushing yards, one of only six running backs to do so along with Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, and Chris Johnson. I'm calling this the Kardashian effect, which is the adverse repercussions that an athlete can face from dating a high profile celebrity, a list that includes Tony Romo, Amar'e Stoudemire, Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, and Diego Forlan. Bush's improvement likely has more to do with the fact that he left the Saints and their group of running backs that is as big as the Spanish Armada and has gotten more than 215 carries every year since then with the Dolphins and Lions, but I refuse to believe that Kim doesn't factor into this equation. However, you can feel bad for Kris Humphries for getting completely Mozgoved by Blake Griffin earlier this season in January, which is a list that now pretty much includes Humphries, Mozgov, Gasol, Perkins, Ibaka, and is expending as fast as the NFL playoffs. The best part about watching Blake's dunk over Humphries over and over is looking at DeAndre Jordan's reaction to the dunk because he looks like he just saw Lincoln get shot by John Wilkes Booth).
Anyway, not only did Kentucky lose in their third game of the season to Michigan St. in the Champions Classic, and end their very short flirt with perfection that so many fans predicted, but they then lost 9 more times after that game in Chicago in the regular season. Their defeats included two losses to Arkansas (the first time Calipari has lost to one team twice in a season at Kentucky before the Wildcats fell three times to Florida later on in the season), once to a team in South Carolina that may have finished six games under .500 because their coach is so scary that they are probably afraid to do anything on the floor, and finally to a LSU team that the Wildcats had not lost to since they had Billy Gillispie as their head coach in 2008-2009 (any Kentucky stat that comes with the line since Billy Gillispie is just destined to not end well unless you consider their most losses in one season since 1989-1990 a step in the right direction). To make matters worse, the Wildcats were 1-6 against ranked opponents with losses to Michigan St., Baylor, North Carolina, and Florida three teams, had only one victory over a team inside the RPI top 40, which came against Louisville at Rupp Arena in December, and were a dismal 5-6 in true road games with their first loss in Columbia, South Carolina since the 2009-2010 season. Even after the Wildcats knocked off Pitino's Cardinals for the 5th time in their last 6 meetings, which is sometimes viewed as more important than the season itself (just ask Bill Curry about the importance of rivalries to a head coach, as the former Alabama coach had to leave Tuscaloosa to coach at Kentucky because despite having a 26-10 record with the Crimson Tide in three seasons and leading them to their first SEC title since Bear Bryant was the coach of the team in 1981, Curry was 0-3 against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, the worst streak against the Tigers since they lost 5 games in a row all the way back from 1954 to 1958), there was a vibe of dissatisfaction and almost sulking coming out of the Kentucky team.
You can look at so many different reasons why this Kentucky squad became just the 15th Wildcats team in the last 83 years dating back to when Adolph Rupp took over the program in 1930 to lose at least 10 regular season games in a season (just for fun, in comparison, Northwestern has had 73 regular seasons with at least 10 losses since 1930 including every year since 1958-1959. I'm not sure what is worse for the Collins family: Doug losing the Gold Medal to the USSR in that very controversial 1972 Olympic Game in Munich or Chris having to coach Northwestern). Obviously, this season was the year of the freshmen with everybody falling in love with the standout first year players from across the nation including Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Wayne Selden from Kansas, Jabari Parker of Duke, Aaron Gordon and Rondae-Hollis Jefferson from Arizona, Tyler Ennis at Syracuse, and Noah Vonleh from Indiana, which may have factored into people overrating just how good Kentucky's freshmen really were from the start of the season (other freshmen classes that can compete with this year include the 1979 class of Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, and Quintin Dailey, the 1981 class of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ed Pinckney, and Sam Vincent and the 2007 class of Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, and Michael Beasley).
Aside from Julius Randle, whose college basketball leading 24 double-doubles as a freshmen has only been surpassed by a first year player once since 1980 when Michael Beasley had a NCAA record 28 double-doubles for Kansas St. and Bob Huggins in 2007-2008, Kentucky's freshmen class was nowhere near what most people expected from it. For as much hype as the Harrisons got for being the best twin combination since the Sedins, the Barbers, or the Bryans, Andrew and Aaron played much more like the Morris or Collins twins than the Arsdale brothers with Kentucky this season. Andrew does more of the ball handling for the Wildcats at point while Aaron plays more so on the wing, but the Wildcats back-court pairing was often exploited by top guards like Keith Appling and Gary Harris from Michigan St. (scored a combined 42 points against the Wildcats), Marcus Paige from North Carolina (scored 23 points versus the Harrisons), and Scottie Wilbekin and Michael Frazier II from Florida (held the Harrisons to 18 combined points in their game in Gainesville). Andrew had the lowest assist-to-turnover ration among any player in a major college basketball conference and averaged nearly 3 turnovers per contest, and Aaron was not very assertive and refused to attack the rim in becoming purely an outside shooter, as in the 11 games where he scored 10 points or less, he shot a terrible 8-44 (18.1%) from three. Although the Harrisons both possess tremendous size for perimeters players and their 6-6 frame allows them to be disruptive defensively when they set their minds to it, they were often times not explosive enough to get by players and make plays offensively. Meanwhile, James Young is a good three point shooter for the Wildcats, but only Marshall Henderson from Ole Miss, Sean Kilpatrick from Cincinnati, Michael Frazier from Florida, Brady Heslip from Baylor, Ben Brust from Wisconsin, and Trevor Cooney from Syracuse took more threes than Young this season from teams in major conferences, which is somewhat concerning because Young morphed into solely a jump shooter, much like Aaron. Although Young does have a quick release to get his smooth looking jump shot off before defenders can close down on him, he can't really create his own shot, which hurts the Wildcats because Andrew often struggles to put his teammates into good positions to make plays. Marcus Lee dunks everything he can get his hands on off the backboard, but he has not seen a lot of action this season and Darkari Johnson is a big 7-footer that does have a basis for a good post game, but he is still developing and is only 18 years old.
It also seemed as if the Kentucky players thought that they would just roll through teams during the season and that when that didn't happen, they lost confidence because the Wildcats did not have the same fight that Calipari's 2011-2012 team so often showed and that was more reminiscent of the disaster that happened in Lexington last season with the unreliable Archie Goodwin leading the way. The thing that made the Anthony Davis team just so good, aside from the fact that they had Davis and everybody else didn't (there were some real good teams that year if you remember with Scoop Jardine, MCW, Dion Waiters, C.J. Fair, and Kris Joseph on Cuse, Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Reggie Bullock, Harrison Barnes, James McAdoo, and Tyler Zeller down in North Carolina, Aaron Craft, Deshaun Thomas, Jared Sullinger on Ohio St., and the Kansas team of Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor, and Jeff Withey), was that everybody in that UK group worked so hard defensively for one another. Whether it was defensive rotations, MKG switching onto a big man and having to guard him in the post, or Darius Miller taking on the opposing teams best player every night, that Kentucky team did whatever it had to do. However, this year's Wildcats squad has some real defensive deficiencies, as James Young is not particularly quick on the perimeter or strong enough to guard players inside at the four position and for as good as Julius Randle is offensively and in his mid-range game, he does not have real good ball awareness and he is not the best interior defender. The Wildcats rely to much on Willie-Cauley Stein and their length to block and change shots around the lane, which can work on occasion because Kentucky is just flat out more athletic than every team they play (the Wildcats are 10th in the nation in blocks per game with almost 6 each contest), but constantly letting guys into the paint is not a recipe for success no matter what. LSU is the only team in the SEC that allows more points from 2-pointers than Kentucky and despite their unmatched athleticism and size, Kentucky is 300th in the nation in forcing their opponents to turn over the ball, ahead of only Tennessee and Missouri in the SEC.
It has been an incredible college basketball season, one of the best in recent memory (I feel like I say this every year, but I actually mean it this time. Nonetheless, I guarantee you I will say the same thing next season when Coach K has his best Duke team since the days of Jay Williams and Carlos Boozer with his recruiting class of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, and Grayson Allen, Kansas brings in Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre to go with Wayne Selden and Perry Ellis, Kentucky reloads with whatever freshmen come back along with recruits Trey Lyles, Karl Towns, Devin Booker, and Tyler Ulis, SMU brings in a player that is better than anybody Larry Brown coached with the Bobcats from 2008-2010 with 6-5 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, and Arizona and Wisconsin return loaded cores). We were able to see the individual greatness of players across the nation, including Doug McDermott, who now ranks behind only Pete Maravich of LSU, Freeman Williams from Portland St., La Salle's Lionel Simmons, and Alphonso Ford of Mississippi Valley State in career points in division I history, and also the outstanding play of freshmen like Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Tyler Ennis. We were also fortunate enough to watch a team like Virginia win the ACC regular season and post-season titles and have their best year since the days of Ralph Sampson and Wichita St. become the first team since the 1990-1991 UNLV squad of Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, and Elmore Spencer to enter the NCAA tournament with an undefeated record. It was a great year for college basketball fans across the nation, except for in Lexington, where pre-season expectations of a 40-0 season have changed to people not being surprised if the Wildcats lose to Kansas St. in their first game of the tourney, and Calipari falling for the first time in the big dance since his Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, and Doron Lamb squad lost in the Final Four to Kemba Walker and UConn back in 2011.
Note: After spending around 2,500 words bashing Kentucky for their disappointment of a season in going 24-10, they of course proved me wrong and taught me to never count out a team that has a starting line-up where every player is at least 6-6 and a McDonald's All-American. I should have known better then to think that Kansas St. could actually beat UK because the Wildcats have only won more than one game in the tournament once since 1989 when they made the Elite Eight with Jacob Pullen in 2010 (even the Mets, Jets, White Sox, and Michigan St. think that Kansas St. is a pretty obvious little brother to Kansas). I'm still not sure how Kentucky beat Wichita St. in their second game of the tourney in the 1-8 match-up, a game that was undoubtedly one of the best played NCAA tournament contests over the past few decades (Kentucky's win marked the fourth year out of the last five that a one seed has lost before the Sweet 16 with the others being when Northern Iowa knocked off Kansas in 2010, when Butler beat Pittsburgh in 2011, and when Gonzaga fell to Wichita St. in 2013). UK somehow knocked off the undefeated Shockers despite the fact that Wichita St. shot 55.1 percent from the floor, the 4th highest for any opponent against Calipari since he came to Lexington in 2009-2010, made 10 of 21 three pointers, averaged a ridiculously high 1.215 points per possession, the 2nd highest rate against Kentucky's defense all season long, and had Cleanthony Early score a season high 31 points on 12 of 17 shooting. Kentucky then turned to Aaron Harrison, who somehow morphed into Bryce Drew/Christian Laettner/Kenton Paulino/Drew Nicholas overnight and not once, not twice, but three times saved Kentucky with late three point clutch jump shots, all of which came from nearly the identical spot on the left side of the floor. Against Louisville in the Midwest Regional semifinals, down by one point with under a minute left, Russ Smith left Harrison open in the corner and he took a pass from Randle and knocked down the three to give UK the victory. In the elite eight against Michigan, with the game tied at 72, Aaron took a hand-off from his brother and hit a three over Caris LeVert with 2 seconds left to send the Wildcats to the Final Four. Finally, in the National Semifinals versus Wisconsin and with Kentucky down by two with 5 seconds left, Aaron hit literally the exact same three pointer to give the Wildcats the lead and the eventual win (if you want to see deja vu, don't watch the movie with Denzel Washington, but watch the final minute of Kentucky's games against Louisville, Michigan, and Wisconsin). The Wildcats run did come to an end when they were not able to get enough offense in the title game against a deserved National Champion in Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels and UConn, but they proved to never count a team out until they have been knocked out. With that knowledge in mind, I think the Pacers growing dysfunction will be the reason why they will lose in the winner-take-all game 7 against the undermatched Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference first round, but there is a pretty good chance that I will be writing a piece in June with the title, "Looking Back - The Things I Regret Saying About The Indiana Pacers Before The Eastern Conference Semifinals Even Began."
It seems like yesterday that the college basketball season was just about to begin and some people actually thought that Kentucky could become the first team since the 1975-1976 Indiana Hoosiers team of Scott May, Kent Benson, and Tom Abernethy to go undefeated. Across the Bluegrass state, fans everywhere outside of Louisville and the KFC Yum Center were buying 40-0 t-shirts in honor of the Wildcats (people also thought that the Falcons could finally break through and win their first Super Bowl in franchise history after three straight seasons with more than 10 wins and yet they finished 4-12 in 2013, their fewest wins since 1996, so don't ever listen to pre-season predictions). Obviously, the Wildcats had a really strong recruiting class coming into the season with the likes of Julius Randle (a mix of Zach Randolph and Chris Webber), James Young, Darkari Johnson, the Harrison twins, and Marcus Lee. In the history of college basketball, there have been a lot of really great recruiting classes that have changed the course of the game for the next couple of seasons. In 1965, UCLA brought in Lew Alcindor, Lucius Allen, Ken Heitz, and Lynn Shackelford (a class so good that they beat the varsity team that went 18-8 by 15 in a scrimmage at Pauley Pavilion when freshmen were not allowed to play in their first year in college) and in 1979, Isiah Thomas, Jim Thomas, and Randy Whittman all came to Indiana to play for Bob Knight. Cincinnati's recruiting class when they brought in Oscar Robertson in 1956 or LSU's class when they got Pete Maravich in 1967 are right up there with the best of all-time because those two guards were just that good on their own. Other great classes in the modern era include Michigan's Fab Five of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson from 1991, the 1999 Duke class of Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams, and Mike Dunleavy, Jr., the 2002 North Carolina class of Sean May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and David Noel, Florida's group of Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Taurean Green, and Joakim Noah from 2004, Ohio State's class of 2006 of Greg Oden, Mike Conley, David Lighty, and Daequan Cook, and finally Calipari's own class of Anthony Davis, Michael-Kidd Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Kyle Wiltjer from 2011. No matter how good Kentucky's 2013 recruiting class was made out to be by the high school recruiting experts or the pressure that would be taken off their backs by the return of the super athletic Alex Poythress and the shot-blocking Willie Cauley-Stein, to put them in that conversation without even stepping foot on the floor in Lexington was more absurd than The Plague by Albert Camus. In fact, Kentucky's pursuit of perfection lasted as long as Billy Donovan's coaching career with the Magic, or more aptly, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries's marriage.
(You can't even feel bad for Kris Humphries. Why didn't he look at Reggie Bush? From 2007 to 2010 when the USC Heisman Trophy winner - excuse me, the 5-year Heisman Trophy winner before he gave it back - was with Kim Kardashian, Bush never even reached 600 rushing yards in a season with the Saints despite being just the second running back along with Ronnie Brown to go in the first two picks of the NFL draft since 1996. Without the Kardashian syndrome in the last three years, Bush has finished each season with more than 975 rushing yards, one of only six running backs to do so along with Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, and Chris Johnson. I'm calling this the Kardashian effect, which is the adverse repercussions that an athlete can face from dating a high profile celebrity, a list that includes Tony Romo, Amar'e Stoudemire, Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, and Diego Forlan. Bush's improvement likely has more to do with the fact that he left the Saints and their group of running backs that is as big as the Spanish Armada and has gotten more than 215 carries every year since then with the Dolphins and Lions, but I refuse to believe that Kim doesn't factor into this equation. However, you can feel bad for Kris Humphries for getting completely Mozgoved by Blake Griffin earlier this season in January, which is a list that now pretty much includes Humphries, Mozgov, Gasol, Perkins, Ibaka, and is expending as fast as the NFL playoffs. The best part about watching Blake's dunk over Humphries over and over is looking at DeAndre Jordan's reaction to the dunk because he looks like he just saw Lincoln get shot by John Wilkes Booth).
Anyway, not only did Kentucky lose in their third game of the season to Michigan St. in the Champions Classic, and end their very short flirt with perfection that so many fans predicted, but they then lost 9 more times after that game in Chicago in the regular season. Their defeats included two losses to Arkansas (the first time Calipari has lost to one team twice in a season at Kentucky before the Wildcats fell three times to Florida later on in the season), once to a team in South Carolina that may have finished six games under .500 because their coach is so scary that they are probably afraid to do anything on the floor, and finally to a LSU team that the Wildcats had not lost to since they had Billy Gillispie as their head coach in 2008-2009 (any Kentucky stat that comes with the line since Billy Gillispie is just destined to not end well unless you consider their most losses in one season since 1989-1990 a step in the right direction). To make matters worse, the Wildcats were 1-6 against ranked opponents with losses to Michigan St., Baylor, North Carolina, and Florida three teams, had only one victory over a team inside the RPI top 40, which came against Louisville at Rupp Arena in December, and were a dismal 5-6 in true road games with their first loss in Columbia, South Carolina since the 2009-2010 season. Even after the Wildcats knocked off Pitino's Cardinals for the 5th time in their last 6 meetings, which is sometimes viewed as more important than the season itself (just ask Bill Curry about the importance of rivalries to a head coach, as the former Alabama coach had to leave Tuscaloosa to coach at Kentucky because despite having a 26-10 record with the Crimson Tide in three seasons and leading them to their first SEC title since Bear Bryant was the coach of the team in 1981, Curry was 0-3 against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, the worst streak against the Tigers since they lost 5 games in a row all the way back from 1954 to 1958), there was a vibe of dissatisfaction and almost sulking coming out of the Kentucky team.
You can look at so many different reasons why this Kentucky squad became just the 15th Wildcats team in the last 83 years dating back to when Adolph Rupp took over the program in 1930 to lose at least 10 regular season games in a season (just for fun, in comparison, Northwestern has had 73 regular seasons with at least 10 losses since 1930 including every year since 1958-1959. I'm not sure what is worse for the Collins family: Doug losing the Gold Medal to the USSR in that very controversial 1972 Olympic Game in Munich or Chris having to coach Northwestern). Obviously, this season was the year of the freshmen with everybody falling in love with the standout first year players from across the nation including Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Wayne Selden from Kansas, Jabari Parker of Duke, Aaron Gordon and Rondae-Hollis Jefferson from Arizona, Tyler Ennis at Syracuse, and Noah Vonleh from Indiana, which may have factored into people overrating just how good Kentucky's freshmen really were from the start of the season (other freshmen classes that can compete with this year include the 1979 class of Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, and Quintin Dailey, the 1981 class of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ed Pinckney, and Sam Vincent and the 2007 class of Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, and Michael Beasley).
Aside from Julius Randle, whose college basketball leading 24 double-doubles as a freshmen has only been surpassed by a first year player once since 1980 when Michael Beasley had a NCAA record 28 double-doubles for Kansas St. and Bob Huggins in 2007-2008, Kentucky's freshmen class was nowhere near what most people expected from it. For as much hype as the Harrisons got for being the best twin combination since the Sedins, the Barbers, or the Bryans, Andrew and Aaron played much more like the Morris or Collins twins than the Arsdale brothers with Kentucky this season. Andrew does more of the ball handling for the Wildcats at point while Aaron plays more so on the wing, but the Wildcats back-court pairing was often exploited by top guards like Keith Appling and Gary Harris from Michigan St. (scored a combined 42 points against the Wildcats), Marcus Paige from North Carolina (scored 23 points versus the Harrisons), and Scottie Wilbekin and Michael Frazier II from Florida (held the Harrisons to 18 combined points in their game in Gainesville). Andrew had the lowest assist-to-turnover ration among any player in a major college basketball conference and averaged nearly 3 turnovers per contest, and Aaron was not very assertive and refused to attack the rim in becoming purely an outside shooter, as in the 11 games where he scored 10 points or less, he shot a terrible 8-44 (18.1%) from three. Although the Harrisons both possess tremendous size for perimeters players and their 6-6 frame allows them to be disruptive defensively when they set their minds to it, they were often times not explosive enough to get by players and make plays offensively. Meanwhile, James Young is a good three point shooter for the Wildcats, but only Marshall Henderson from Ole Miss, Sean Kilpatrick from Cincinnati, Michael Frazier from Florida, Brady Heslip from Baylor, Ben Brust from Wisconsin, and Trevor Cooney from Syracuse took more threes than Young this season from teams in major conferences, which is somewhat concerning because Young morphed into solely a jump shooter, much like Aaron. Although Young does have a quick release to get his smooth looking jump shot off before defenders can close down on him, he can't really create his own shot, which hurts the Wildcats because Andrew often struggles to put his teammates into good positions to make plays. Marcus Lee dunks everything he can get his hands on off the backboard, but he has not seen a lot of action this season and Darkari Johnson is a big 7-footer that does have a basis for a good post game, but he is still developing and is only 18 years old.
It also seemed as if the Kentucky players thought that they would just roll through teams during the season and that when that didn't happen, they lost confidence because the Wildcats did not have the same fight that Calipari's 2011-2012 team so often showed and that was more reminiscent of the disaster that happened in Lexington last season with the unreliable Archie Goodwin leading the way. The thing that made the Anthony Davis team just so good, aside from the fact that they had Davis and everybody else didn't (there were some real good teams that year if you remember with Scoop Jardine, MCW, Dion Waiters, C.J. Fair, and Kris Joseph on Cuse, Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Reggie Bullock, Harrison Barnes, James McAdoo, and Tyler Zeller down in North Carolina, Aaron Craft, Deshaun Thomas, Jared Sullinger on Ohio St., and the Kansas team of Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor, and Jeff Withey), was that everybody in that UK group worked so hard defensively for one another. Whether it was defensive rotations, MKG switching onto a big man and having to guard him in the post, or Darius Miller taking on the opposing teams best player every night, that Kentucky team did whatever it had to do. However, this year's Wildcats squad has some real defensive deficiencies, as James Young is not particularly quick on the perimeter or strong enough to guard players inside at the four position and for as good as Julius Randle is offensively and in his mid-range game, he does not have real good ball awareness and he is not the best interior defender. The Wildcats rely to much on Willie-Cauley Stein and their length to block and change shots around the lane, which can work on occasion because Kentucky is just flat out more athletic than every team they play (the Wildcats are 10th in the nation in blocks per game with almost 6 each contest), but constantly letting guys into the paint is not a recipe for success no matter what. LSU is the only team in the SEC that allows more points from 2-pointers than Kentucky and despite their unmatched athleticism and size, Kentucky is 300th in the nation in forcing their opponents to turn over the ball, ahead of only Tennessee and Missouri in the SEC.
It has been an incredible college basketball season, one of the best in recent memory (I feel like I say this every year, but I actually mean it this time. Nonetheless, I guarantee you I will say the same thing next season when Coach K has his best Duke team since the days of Jay Williams and Carlos Boozer with his recruiting class of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, and Grayson Allen, Kansas brings in Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre to go with Wayne Selden and Perry Ellis, Kentucky reloads with whatever freshmen come back along with recruits Trey Lyles, Karl Towns, Devin Booker, and Tyler Ulis, SMU brings in a player that is better than anybody Larry Brown coached with the Bobcats from 2008-2010 with 6-5 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, and Arizona and Wisconsin return loaded cores). We were able to see the individual greatness of players across the nation, including Doug McDermott, who now ranks behind only Pete Maravich of LSU, Freeman Williams from Portland St., La Salle's Lionel Simmons, and Alphonso Ford of Mississippi Valley State in career points in division I history, and also the outstanding play of freshmen like Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Tyler Ennis. We were also fortunate enough to watch a team like Virginia win the ACC regular season and post-season titles and have their best year since the days of Ralph Sampson and Wichita St. become the first team since the 1990-1991 UNLV squad of Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, and Elmore Spencer to enter the NCAA tournament with an undefeated record. It was a great year for college basketball fans across the nation, except for in Lexington, where pre-season expectations of a 40-0 season have changed to people not being surprised if the Wildcats lose to Kansas St. in their first game of the tourney, and Calipari falling for the first time in the big dance since his Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, and Doron Lamb squad lost in the Final Four to Kemba Walker and UConn back in 2011.
Note: After spending around 2,500 words bashing Kentucky for their disappointment of a season in going 24-10, they of course proved me wrong and taught me to never count out a team that has a starting line-up where every player is at least 6-6 and a McDonald's All-American. I should have known better then to think that Kansas St. could actually beat UK because the Wildcats have only won more than one game in the tournament once since 1989 when they made the Elite Eight with Jacob Pullen in 2010 (even the Mets, Jets, White Sox, and Michigan St. think that Kansas St. is a pretty obvious little brother to Kansas). I'm still not sure how Kentucky beat Wichita St. in their second game of the tourney in the 1-8 match-up, a game that was undoubtedly one of the best played NCAA tournament contests over the past few decades (Kentucky's win marked the fourth year out of the last five that a one seed has lost before the Sweet 16 with the others being when Northern Iowa knocked off Kansas in 2010, when Butler beat Pittsburgh in 2011, and when Gonzaga fell to Wichita St. in 2013). UK somehow knocked off the undefeated Shockers despite the fact that Wichita St. shot 55.1 percent from the floor, the 4th highest for any opponent against Calipari since he came to Lexington in 2009-2010, made 10 of 21 three pointers, averaged a ridiculously high 1.215 points per possession, the 2nd highest rate against Kentucky's defense all season long, and had Cleanthony Early score a season high 31 points on 12 of 17 shooting. Kentucky then turned to Aaron Harrison, who somehow morphed into Bryce Drew/Christian Laettner/Kenton Paulino/Drew Nicholas overnight and not once, not twice, but three times saved Kentucky with late three point clutch jump shots, all of which came from nearly the identical spot on the left side of the floor. Against Louisville in the Midwest Regional semifinals, down by one point with under a minute left, Russ Smith left Harrison open in the corner and he took a pass from Randle and knocked down the three to give UK the victory. In the elite eight against Michigan, with the game tied at 72, Aaron took a hand-off from his brother and hit a three over Caris LeVert with 2 seconds left to send the Wildcats to the Final Four. Finally, in the National Semifinals versus Wisconsin and with Kentucky down by two with 5 seconds left, Aaron hit literally the exact same three pointer to give the Wildcats the lead and the eventual win (if you want to see deja vu, don't watch the movie with Denzel Washington, but watch the final minute of Kentucky's games against Louisville, Michigan, and Wisconsin). The Wildcats run did come to an end when they were not able to get enough offense in the title game against a deserved National Champion in Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels and UConn, but they proved to never count a team out until they have been knocked out. With that knowledge in mind, I think the Pacers growing dysfunction will be the reason why they will lose in the winner-take-all game 7 against the undermatched Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference first round, but there is a pretty good chance that I will be writing a piece in June with the title, "Looking Back - The Things I Regret Saying About The Indiana Pacers Before The Eastern Conference Semifinals Even Began."
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Midwest Regional Breakdown
The Midwest region is undoubtedly the most daunting section of the NCAA tournament. While Louisville highlights the region as the number 1 overall seed in the whole tourney, Duke is a very formidable two seed, as the Blue Devils are 18-1 with Ryan Kelly in the lineup, which includes a non-conference win over Louisville in the Bahamas. As a three seed, not only does Michigan St. have size inside with Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix, but any team coached by Tom Izzo is a dangerous threat in the big dance. To cap off the top four seed line in the region, Saint Louis is one of the hottest teams in the country, as the Billikens have won 15 of their last 16 games with their tenacious defense and pertinacious playing style. The team that comes out of the Midwest region and advances on to the Final Four will certainly have to go through a rigorous path to get to Atlanta.
Key Players To Watch:
Missouri's Phil Pressey:
Phil Pressey, who led the SEC and was 8th in the nation in assists at more than 7 per game, is one of the quickest and most effective guards in the country. Although Pressey is undersized at 5-11 and is sometimes turnover prone by forcing the ball into the lane, the point guard is one of the best passers in all of college basketball. His ability to penetrate and attract defenders allows the Missouri big men like Laurence Bowers and Alex Oriakhi to finish with easy baskets at the rim. Pressey could cause Colorado St. a great deal of trouble in the round of 64, especially if Dorian Green, the Rams second leading scorer, is not fully healthy due to his right ankle injury.
Creighton's Doug McDermott:
Every college basketball fan has become accustomed to watching the panoply of moves that Creighton's Doug McDermott possess. The 2-time Missouri Valley Player of the Year can stroke the three ball, overpower smaller defenders in the post, use his mobility and quickness as a 6-8 forward to score around defenders, as well as get to the free throw line for easy points. Most importantly, McDermott, who is coached by his father Greg, knows how to get open, as his movement without the ball frees him up for isolations and easy baskets. Although the Blue Jays have some nice complimentary scoring pieces like three point threat Ethan Wragge and slasher Grant Gibbs, McDermott, who was second in the nation in points are more than 23 per game, will have to carry a bulk of the team's offense. Creighton and Cincinnati will prove to be an intriguing round of 64 match-up because of the contrasting style of the two teams. While the Bearcats heavily rely on their three guard attack of Sean Kilpatrick, Cashmere Wright, and JaQuon Parker, the Bluejays like to pound the ball inside with McDermott.
Possible Round of 64 Upsets:
#12 Oregon over #5 Oklahoma State:
Considering the fact that Oregon are massively under-seeded, their round of 64 encounter with Oklahoma St. should prove to be a tight contest. Although the Ducks did not receive much respect from the selection committee, the Pac-12 tournament champions should not be underestimated or deprecated. While Oregon can rely on E.J. Singler for a key shot in crunch time, the team is predicated on their balanced offensive attack, as six Ducks averaged at least 8.5 points per game during the season. If Oregon want to pull off the upset, their back court of Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis will have to try and contain the Cowboys dynamic duo of Marcus Smart and Markel Brown. Although Smart's size is often an issue for smaller back courts, Dotson is one of the biggest guards in the country and he shouldn't be pushed around by the highly rated NBA prospect. If the Ducks are able to neutralize the Cowboys back court, their front-court of Tony Woods and Arsalan Kazemi could be too much for the Cowboys big men.
#11 Saint Mary's over #6 Memphis:
Although Memphis went undefeated in Conference USA and won 30 games for the first time since 2009, the Tigers have not proven that they can beat high quality opponents. With their only three RPI top 50 wins coming over Southern Miss, Memphis is a team that could face a scare from a hot shooting Saint Mary's team. While the Tigers are much more athletic than the Gaels and could pose a problem on the glass, Matthew Dellavedova is the biggest scoring threat on the entire floor, as the Australian point guard is one of the best shooters in the country. Although Dellavedova struggled from three in the WCC tournament (1-18 in three games), the all-conference first-teamer found his stroke in the Gaels first four win over Middle Tennessee, as he nailed 5 of his 7 three point attempts. Saint Mary's will miss shooting guard Jorden Page, who is out with a knee injury, but Jordan Giusti is a solid defender and will be able to irritate Memphis guards Joe Jackson, Chris Crawford, and Geron Johnson. The Gaels should also be in a nice rhythm after getting some of their early tournament nerves out in their first round victory. However, the x-factor in the game will be Adonis Thomas because if the versatile small forward shows up to play, he is a match-up problem for Saint Mary's.
Key Players To Watch:
Missouri's Phil Pressey:
Phil Pressey, who led the SEC and was 8th in the nation in assists at more than 7 per game, is one of the quickest and most effective guards in the country. Although Pressey is undersized at 5-11 and is sometimes turnover prone by forcing the ball into the lane, the point guard is one of the best passers in all of college basketball. His ability to penetrate and attract defenders allows the Missouri big men like Laurence Bowers and Alex Oriakhi to finish with easy baskets at the rim. Pressey could cause Colorado St. a great deal of trouble in the round of 64, especially if Dorian Green, the Rams second leading scorer, is not fully healthy due to his right ankle injury.
Creighton's Doug McDermott:
Every college basketball fan has become accustomed to watching the panoply of moves that Creighton's Doug McDermott possess. The 2-time Missouri Valley Player of the Year can stroke the three ball, overpower smaller defenders in the post, use his mobility and quickness as a 6-8 forward to score around defenders, as well as get to the free throw line for easy points. Most importantly, McDermott, who is coached by his father Greg, knows how to get open, as his movement without the ball frees him up for isolations and easy baskets. Although the Blue Jays have some nice complimentary scoring pieces like three point threat Ethan Wragge and slasher Grant Gibbs, McDermott, who was second in the nation in points are more than 23 per game, will have to carry a bulk of the team's offense. Creighton and Cincinnati will prove to be an intriguing round of 64 match-up because of the contrasting style of the two teams. While the Bearcats heavily rely on their three guard attack of Sean Kilpatrick, Cashmere Wright, and JaQuon Parker, the Bluejays like to pound the ball inside with McDermott.
Possible Round of 64 Upsets:
#12 Oregon over #5 Oklahoma State:
Considering the fact that Oregon are massively under-seeded, their round of 64 encounter with Oklahoma St. should prove to be a tight contest. Although the Ducks did not receive much respect from the selection committee, the Pac-12 tournament champions should not be underestimated or deprecated. While Oregon can rely on E.J. Singler for a key shot in crunch time, the team is predicated on their balanced offensive attack, as six Ducks averaged at least 8.5 points per game during the season. If Oregon want to pull off the upset, their back court of Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis will have to try and contain the Cowboys dynamic duo of Marcus Smart and Markel Brown. Although Smart's size is often an issue for smaller back courts, Dotson is one of the biggest guards in the country and he shouldn't be pushed around by the highly rated NBA prospect. If the Ducks are able to neutralize the Cowboys back court, their front-court of Tony Woods and Arsalan Kazemi could be too much for the Cowboys big men.
#11 Saint Mary's over #6 Memphis:
Although Memphis went undefeated in Conference USA and won 30 games for the first time since 2009, the Tigers have not proven that they can beat high quality opponents. With their only three RPI top 50 wins coming over Southern Miss, Memphis is a team that could face a scare from a hot shooting Saint Mary's team. While the Tigers are much more athletic than the Gaels and could pose a problem on the glass, Matthew Dellavedova is the biggest scoring threat on the entire floor, as the Australian point guard is one of the best shooters in the country. Although Dellavedova struggled from three in the WCC tournament (1-18 in three games), the all-conference first-teamer found his stroke in the Gaels first four win over Middle Tennessee, as he nailed 5 of his 7 three point attempts. Saint Mary's will miss shooting guard Jorden Page, who is out with a knee injury, but Jordan Giusti is a solid defender and will be able to irritate Memphis guards Joe Jackson, Chris Crawford, and Geron Johnson. The Gaels should also be in a nice rhythm after getting some of their early tournament nerves out in their first round victory. However, the x-factor in the game will be Adonis Thomas because if the versatile small forward shows up to play, he is a match-up problem for Saint Mary's.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Kentucky Wildcats - Louisville Cardinals Final Four In-Game Analysis
#1 Kentucky Wildcats vs #4 Louisville in the Final Four in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Superdome:
First Half Score: #1 Kentucky 35 - #4 Louisville 28
All things considered, Rick Pitino should be pleased with his teams first half performance, as the Cardinals trail by just 7 at halftime. Although throughout the first half it felt like Kentucky was controlling the game and had a commanding hold on the lead, Louisville was able to stick around and keep the game tight. The Cardinals have kept themself within striking distance of the Wildcats, which is all they could have hoped for after the first frame.
Louisville is having trouble securing the basketball, as they turned the ball over 9 times in the first half. The Cardinals turned the ball over just 6 times in their entire West Regional Final against Florida. Although the Cardinals need Peyton Siva to get into the paint to get some open looks for his teammates, Siva over penetrated during the first half. He got too deep in the lane and struggled to pass or score over the length of Kentucky's front court. Siva failed to score in the first half, while he turned the ball over 3 times.
Although Kentucky got a solid performance out of Kyle Wiltjer during the first half, as he was able to stretch Louisville's match-up zone with his three point shooting ability, the Wildcats could have really used Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Gilchrist picked up his second foul with 13:47 remaining in the half and wasn't able to be a major factor because of his limited playing time. Gilchrist was scoreless and attempted just one shot during the half.
Finally, Louisville will have to do a much better job of stopping Kentucky's dribble penetration. The Wildcats were 15 of 25 (60%) from the field because must of their field goals were coming on layups after drives to the bucket, especially from Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb. When Louisville was able to keep Kentucky out of the lane, the Wildcats shot just 1 of 5 from behind the arc.
Final Score: #1 Kentucky 69 - #4 Louisville 61
Kentucky showed an incredible amount of resilience and grit in their victory over Louisville. After it appeared that the Wildcats were going to run away with the game as they began the half on a 11-6 run to extend their lead to 12, Louisville came roaring back to tie the game at 49 with a little over 9 minutes to play. Despite the fact that Kentucky's wasn't getting things to go their way including on the glass, which Louisville dominated in the second half, they kept making plays to keep the lead.
Although everybody rants about the outstanding freshmen and sophomores that Kentucky has, their senior Darius Miller proved to be huge in the second half. Miller had 9 points in the second frame and hit a huge three to put the Wildcats up by 7 with just over 5 minutes remaining in the game. Miller's three deflated the Cardinals, who had been fighting the entire half to get back into the game, and put an end to their comeback effort.
The Wildcats were led by their two outstanding All-American freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist down the stretch. They combined for 17 of Kentucky's final 26 points and Anthony Davis's length and shot blocking ability caused Louisville all sorts of problems when they tried to score in the lane in the final 5 minutes. Davis had 3 blocks to go along with 7 rebounds in the second half, as he did a much better job of keeping Chane Behanan and especially Gorgui Dieng off the offensive glass in the final few minutes of the game. Louisville had just one offensive rebound in the final 6 minutes.
Kentucky can now say that they own the Bluegrass state after knocking off their heated rivals in their first ever Final Four meeting.
Louisville now has a record of 2-7 in the National Semifinals including 0-2 in their two appearances in the Final Four with Rick Pitino.
The Wildcats will be making their 11th appearance in the NCAA championship game and their first since Rick Pitino led them to the National Championship 14 years ago back in 1998. Kentucky's 11 NCAA title game appearances are the second most all-time and are just one behind UCLA's 12 final appearances. Kentucky is now 11-4 in school history in the National Semifinals.
The Wildcats are now just one win away from capturing their 8th NCAA Championship.
First Half Score: #1 Kentucky 35 - #4 Louisville 28
All things considered, Rick Pitino should be pleased with his teams first half performance, as the Cardinals trail by just 7 at halftime. Although throughout the first half it felt like Kentucky was controlling the game and had a commanding hold on the lead, Louisville was able to stick around and keep the game tight. The Cardinals have kept themself within striking distance of the Wildcats, which is all they could have hoped for after the first frame.
Louisville is having trouble securing the basketball, as they turned the ball over 9 times in the first half. The Cardinals turned the ball over just 6 times in their entire West Regional Final against Florida. Although the Cardinals need Peyton Siva to get into the paint to get some open looks for his teammates, Siva over penetrated during the first half. He got too deep in the lane and struggled to pass or score over the length of Kentucky's front court. Siva failed to score in the first half, while he turned the ball over 3 times.
Although Kentucky got a solid performance out of Kyle Wiltjer during the first half, as he was able to stretch Louisville's match-up zone with his three point shooting ability, the Wildcats could have really used Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Gilchrist picked up his second foul with 13:47 remaining in the half and wasn't able to be a major factor because of his limited playing time. Gilchrist was scoreless and attempted just one shot during the half.
Finally, Louisville will have to do a much better job of stopping Kentucky's dribble penetration. The Wildcats were 15 of 25 (60%) from the field because must of their field goals were coming on layups after drives to the bucket, especially from Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb. When Louisville was able to keep Kentucky out of the lane, the Wildcats shot just 1 of 5 from behind the arc.
Final Score: #1 Kentucky 69 - #4 Louisville 61
Kentucky showed an incredible amount of resilience and grit in their victory over Louisville. After it appeared that the Wildcats were going to run away with the game as they began the half on a 11-6 run to extend their lead to 12, Louisville came roaring back to tie the game at 49 with a little over 9 minutes to play. Despite the fact that Kentucky's wasn't getting things to go their way including on the glass, which Louisville dominated in the second half, they kept making plays to keep the lead.
Although everybody rants about the outstanding freshmen and sophomores that Kentucky has, their senior Darius Miller proved to be huge in the second half. Miller had 9 points in the second frame and hit a huge three to put the Wildcats up by 7 with just over 5 minutes remaining in the game. Miller's three deflated the Cardinals, who had been fighting the entire half to get back into the game, and put an end to their comeback effort.
The Wildcats were led by their two outstanding All-American freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist down the stretch. They combined for 17 of Kentucky's final 26 points and Anthony Davis's length and shot blocking ability caused Louisville all sorts of problems when they tried to score in the lane in the final 5 minutes. Davis had 3 blocks to go along with 7 rebounds in the second half, as he did a much better job of keeping Chane Behanan and especially Gorgui Dieng off the offensive glass in the final few minutes of the game. Louisville had just one offensive rebound in the final 6 minutes.
Kentucky can now say that they own the Bluegrass state after knocking off their heated rivals in their first ever Final Four meeting.
Louisville now has a record of 2-7 in the National Semifinals including 0-2 in their two appearances in the Final Four with Rick Pitino.
The Wildcats will be making their 11th appearance in the NCAA championship game and their first since Rick Pitino led them to the National Championship 14 years ago back in 1998. Kentucky's 11 NCAA title game appearances are the second most all-time and are just one behind UCLA's 12 final appearances. Kentucky is now 11-4 in school history in the National Semifinals.
The Wildcats are now just one win away from capturing their 8th NCAA Championship.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Louisville Cardinals - Florida Gators West Regional Finals In-Game Analysis
#4 Louisville vs #7 Florida in the West Regional Finals in Phoenix:
First Half Score: #7 Florida 41 - #4 Louisville 33
The first half was all about the three point shooting of Florida. The Gators high-powered offense attack, which ranked 2nd in the SEC only behind Kentucky in scoring per game during the season, was predicated on the three point ball. During the regular season, the Gators were 4th in the NCAA in three point attempts per game at 25 and led the nation in three point makes at just under 10 per game. The Gators caused Louisville so many problems from behind the arc because they spread the floor with all of their three point shooters. Erving Walker had 2 three pointers, Kenny Boynton hit two threes, Bradley Beal opened the game with two early three point field goals, and Florida's versatile forward Erik Murphy added two threes during the first half. The Gators were 8 of 11 from three point land and shot the ball at a ridiculously high 72.7 percent from deep.
Although Florida deserves a lot of credit for knocking down their jump shots, Louisville needs to do a much better job of identifying and closing out shooters. During the half, Erving Walker hit two three pointers from the top of the key within a minute of each other and both times there wasn't a Cardinal defender in sight. Florida is way to good of a shooting team to be getting wide open looks from three. The Cardinals also need to stop getting sucked in by penetration and leaving open three point shooters.
Louisville's full court pressure forced 5 Gator turnovers but it also led to open three point field goals in transition for Florida. Although the Cardinals forced 15 turnovers against Michigan St. in the regional semifinals with their backcourt press, they may need to loosen up the pressure to prevent the Florida three point shooting.
The Cardinals may also need to get out of their matchup zone and instead just play man to man defense.
Louisville's full court pressure forced 5 Gator turnovers but it also led to open three point field goals in transition for Florida. Although the Cardinals forced 15 turnovers against Michigan St. in the regional semifinals with their backcourt press, they may need to loosen up the pressure to prevent the Florida three point shooting.
The Cardinals may also need to get out of their matchup zone and instead just play man to man defense.
Louisville really struggled offensively when Peyton Siva went to the bench with his 2nd foul with 6:45 remaining in the first half. Siva did a terrific job of creating open jump shots and layups for his teammates by penetrating into the lane and attacking the rim. Siva had 5 points and 5 assists before he had to go to the bench for the rest of the half. When Siva went out, Louisville was down 22-21. By the end of the half, Florida was leading 41-33.
If Florida continues to shot this well from three, they will make their 5th Final Four appearance in school history and their 4th under head coach Billy Donovan.
Final Score: #4 Louisville 72 - #7 Florida 68
After being red hot from three during the first half, Florida severely struggled from behind the arc during the second half and this led to prolonged scoring droughts for the Gators. After a Patric Young dunk with 8:14 remaining in regulation put the Gators up 65-54, Florida scored just three points for the rest of the game and made just one field goal on 12 shot attempts down the stretch. The Gators were 0 for 9 in the second half from three, as their offense spurted without the long ball.
Although foul trouble to Peyton Siva, Kyle Kuric, and Chane Behanan plagued the Cardinals, they were able to overcome the foul issues and get major buckets in the second half, especially from Russ Smith and Chane Behanan. Smith had 10 points in the second half including two huge free throws with 16 seconds left to put the Cardinals up by three and force the Gators into taking three point attempts in the final seconds to try and tie the game. Smith and Behanan combined for 24 of Louisville's final 26 points and led the 26-14 Cardinal run in the final 12 minutes.
For their fourth straight tournament game, Louisville and their pressure defense forced a ton of turnovers. They forced Florida into 8 turnovers in the second half and frustrated the Gator guards by guarding them tight up and down the floor and giving them no space to dribble penetrate.
Rick Pitino has done it again. Pitino, who is the only coach to ever lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four, will be returning to the National Semifinals for the 6th time and the 2nd time at the helm of Louisville. Pitino joins Denny Crum (6), Tom Izzo (6) Adolph Rupp (6), Roy Williams (7), Mike Krzyzewski (11), Dean Smith (11), and John Wooden (12) as the only coaches to have reached at least 6 Final Fours.
It will be Louisville's 9th Final Four appearance and just their second in the last 26 years since 1986. Louisville joins Ohio St. (10), Kansas (13), Kentucky (14), Duke (15), North Carolina (18), and UCLA (18) as the only schools to have reached at least 9 Final Fours.
The Cardinals will be looking for their first National Championship since 1986 when Pervis Ellison became the second player, at the time, to ever win the NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player award as a freshman joining only Arnie Ferrin when he did so in 1944 for Utah.
If the Kentucky Wildcats are able to knock off the Baylor Bears in the South Regional Finals, it would set up an unbelievable Final Four matchup between the hated rivals from the Bluegrass State. It would be the Kentucky rivals 5th matchup in the tournament and 1st in the Final Four and 1st since they met in the 1984 Sweet 16.
If Florida continues to shot this well from three, they will make their 5th Final Four appearance in school history and their 4th under head coach Billy Donovan.
Final Score: #4 Louisville 72 - #7 Florida 68
After being red hot from three during the first half, Florida severely struggled from behind the arc during the second half and this led to prolonged scoring droughts for the Gators. After a Patric Young dunk with 8:14 remaining in regulation put the Gators up 65-54, Florida scored just three points for the rest of the game and made just one field goal on 12 shot attempts down the stretch. The Gators were 0 for 9 in the second half from three, as their offense spurted without the long ball.
Although foul trouble to Peyton Siva, Kyle Kuric, and Chane Behanan plagued the Cardinals, they were able to overcome the foul issues and get major buckets in the second half, especially from Russ Smith and Chane Behanan. Smith had 10 points in the second half including two huge free throws with 16 seconds left to put the Cardinals up by three and force the Gators into taking three point attempts in the final seconds to try and tie the game. Smith and Behanan combined for 24 of Louisville's final 26 points and led the 26-14 Cardinal run in the final 12 minutes.
For their fourth straight tournament game, Louisville and their pressure defense forced a ton of turnovers. They forced Florida into 8 turnovers in the second half and frustrated the Gator guards by guarding them tight up and down the floor and giving them no space to dribble penetrate.
Rick Pitino has done it again. Pitino, who is the only coach to ever lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four, will be returning to the National Semifinals for the 6th time and the 2nd time at the helm of Louisville. Pitino joins Denny Crum (6), Tom Izzo (6) Adolph Rupp (6), Roy Williams (7), Mike Krzyzewski (11), Dean Smith (11), and John Wooden (12) as the only coaches to have reached at least 6 Final Fours.
It will be Louisville's 9th Final Four appearance and just their second in the last 26 years since 1986. Louisville joins Ohio St. (10), Kansas (13), Kentucky (14), Duke (15), North Carolina (18), and UCLA (18) as the only schools to have reached at least 9 Final Fours.
The Cardinals will be looking for their first National Championship since 1986 when Pervis Ellison became the second player, at the time, to ever win the NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player award as a freshman joining only Arnie Ferrin when he did so in 1944 for Utah.
If the Kentucky Wildcats are able to knock off the Baylor Bears in the South Regional Finals, it would set up an unbelievable Final Four matchup between the hated rivals from the Bluegrass State. It would be the Kentucky rivals 5th matchup in the tournament and 1st in the Final Four and 1st since they met in the 1984 Sweet 16.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
NCAA Tournament Second Round Close Games and Buzzer Beaters
Parody is once again lurking its head in this years NCAA tournament. The second round saw 14 games decided by single digits including 10 of those games being under 5 points.
Last years national runner up Butler beat the Colonial Athletic Association tournament champion Old Dominion 60 to 58 in a southeast region 8-9 matchup. Last year Gordon Hayward's half-court three pointer for the NCAA championship at the buzzer came up short for the Bulldogs. However, this year Butler was on the right side of a buzzer beater. After two made free throws by Kent Bazemore to tie the game with 32 seconds left for Old Dominion, Butler held for the last shot. There was a scramble for a rebound and the ball landed right in Butler forward Matt Howard's hands. He finished the game with a tip-in at the buzzer. Howard said on his game winner, "I was not looking at the clock. I actually assumed there wasn't going to be enough time. I tried to shoot it as quickly as possible. It seemed bang-bang as soon as I shot it. It sounded like the horn was going off, so you never know. Fortunately we had just enough time to get that shot off." The game was incredibly close and highly contested with the largest lead in the game only being at six points. Shelvin Mack once again struggled from behind the arc going 3 for 10 but he had 5 assists and is going to be very important if Butler wants to advance to the sweet sixteen with a win over Pittsburgh.
In the biggest upset of the first round, the 13th seeded Morehead St. beat the 4th seeded Louisville Cardinals 62 to 61 in the southwest region. Kenneth Faried lived up to all the hype surrounding him with his 17 rebound performance including 5 on the offensive end of the court. The surprise of the game was the ineffectiveness of Morehead State's 16 point per game scoring guard Demonte Harper. He was just 2 of 9 from the field including 0 of 5 from three and only had 5 points going into Morehead State's final possession. Elisha Justice of Louisville had just missed a one and one to try and extend Louisville's lead by more than 2 points. With 24 seconds left on the clock, coach Donnie Tyndall called a timeout. He told his star guard Demonte, "I know exactly who I'm going to. I'm going to put it right in your hands, Demonte. At 6 seconds, I want you to attack and pull up and hit the shot." Demonte pulled up to hit a go ahead three with four seconds remaining in the game. Kenneth Faried blocked a Mike Marra three point shot at the buzzer to secure the upset for the Eagles. Peyton Siva's foul trouble and inability to get going on the offensive end, only making one of his six shots, was key to the Eagles success in the game. The outcome may have been different if all Big-East second team performer Preston Knowles didn't have to leave the game with an ankle injury with 8:51 left in the second half. Following Knowles leaving the game, Morehead St. went on a 13 to 4 run in the next 3 minutes and 35 seconds. The Eagles will face the Richmond Spiders who pulled another upset in the southwest region over Vanderbilt.
In the battle of Pennsylvania schools, Temple knocked off Penn St. 66 to 64 in a west region 7-10 matchup. Penn St. looked to be in trouble when their star forward Jeff Brooks dislocated his shoulder a minute into the second half. However, the play of Taylor Battler kept the Nittany Lions in the game including converting an extremely deep three point jump shot to tie the game at 64 with 16 seconds left on the clock. Although Ramone Moore had went 10 for 16 from the field and had 23 points in the game, Temple coach Fran Dunphy decided to put the ball in the hands on his guard Juan Fernandez. Fernandez capped his season high 23 point game with a game winning shot with 0.4 seconds remaining. Tim Frazier, who was guarding Fernanedez commented on the final shot after the game by saying, "He [Juan] drove, picked up the ball. I closed out high end so he wouldn't be able to shoot over me. He made a great move, pivoted a couple of times and then stepped through. It was a great shot." The win is the first for Fran Dunphy in the tournament as the coach of the Owls. Temple missed out on the tournament in 06 and 07 and lost in the first round the previous three seasons. Dunphy is looking for his second tournament win with a victory over the second seeded San Diego St. Aztecs.
Brandon Knight only had one game all season where he didn't score in double digits. However, in his first game in the NCAA tournament against Princeton, the star point guard was 0 for 7 from the field with 0 points going into Kentucky's final possession. Coach John Callipari of Kentucky had said about Knight, "I have all the faith and confidence in the world in him." Callipari showed it, as he gave his young point guard the ball for Kentucky's last shot with the game tied at 57. Knight didn't disappoint his coach as he hit a running layup with 2 seconds remaining in the game. Callipari said, "He's not afraid to make a play. Guys like him aren't afraid to miss." The production from Darius Miller and Josh Harrellson continues to get better and better as they combined for 32 points and 14 rebounds. Kentucky will have to have a better game from Knight and fellow freshman Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb in order to get by the 5th seeded West Virginia Mountaineers.
On February 19th Arizona beat Washington as the Pac 10 player of the year Derrick Williams blocked Darnell Gant's attempt to win the game for Washington with 2.2 seconds left on the clock. With five seconds left in the Memphis-Arizona second round matchup, Memphis point guard Joe Jackson missed a free throw but Wesley Witherspoon picked up the rebound. However, Williams came out of nowhere to once again save his team with a late game block in the closing seconds of the game to secure the win for the Wildcats. Williams once again played an outstanding game with 22 points including hitting all 9 of his free throws to go along with 10 rebounds. He made all the big plays for Arizona when they were struggling to score in the second half. The two point win for the wildcats helps them advance to a matchup with Texas in the third round. Wildcats coach Sean Miller said,"He just has a way of making big plays and finishing the other team off. He did it here again tonight." Even Memphis's coach Josh Pastner was marveling over the play of Williams. He said, "Derrick's really good. Like I've said, I voted for him for national player of the year. My vote doesn't change after today's performance because he's really good." Williams was helped by the strong game of guard Lamont Jones who scored 18 points and hit two huge free throws with 8 seconds left in the game to extend Arizona's lead to three points.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Louisville vs. Marquette Analysis
Louisville vs Marquette
Star Watch:
Marquette: Darius Johnson-Odom
Louisville: Preston Knowles
Starting Lineup for the three seed Louisville Cardinals:
PG: Peyton Siva - 1st half: 6 points, 2nd half: 2 points, Total: 8 points, Assists: 9
SG: Preston Knowles - 1st half: 6 points, 2nd half points: 9 points, Total: 15 points, Assists: 7,
Rebounds: 8
G: Chris Smith - 1st half: 0 points, 2nd Half: 5 points Total: 5 points, Rebounds: 11
G: Kyle Kuric - 1st half: 9 points, 2nd Half: 2 points, Total: 11 (3-10 from three), Rebounds: 7
F: Terrence Jennings - 1st half: 0 points, 2nd Half: 12 points, Total: 12 points
Key Bench Players:
G: Mike Marra - 1st Half: 11 points 2nd Half: 11 points Total: 22 points (6-10 from three)
Starting Lineup for the eleven seed Marquette Golden Eagles:
G: Darius Johnson-Odom - 1st half: 3 points, 2nd half: 10 points, Total: 13 points (5-14 from the field, 3-7 from the free-throw line)
G: Dwight Buycks - 1st half: 4, 2nd half: 0, Total:4
G-F: Jimmy Butler - 1st half: 7, 2nd half: 7, Total:14
F: Erik Williams - 1st half: 2 points, 2nd half: 0 points, Total: 2 points
C: Chris Otule - 1st half: 0 points, 2nd half: 0 points, Total: 0 points
Key Bench Players:
Jae Crowder 1st Half: 8 points, 2nd Half: 2 points, Total:10 points
Junior Cadougan 1st Half: 5 points, 2nd Half: 2 points, Total: 7 points
1st Half Analysis (- mark is the minute the event occurs at)
Louisville is starting out the game in zone with men principles
Louisville may have trouble in the zone keeping in front of marquette with their ability to shoot the three and get behind the zone with Crowder
Marquette started out the game up 8 to 1 in first the first 3 minutes -16
Louisville going to have trouble with length of Marquette with their short lineup starting four guards and having the 6-4 Kuric at the four.
Channing Crowder hits two early threes
Peyton Siva can penetrate any defense
Very high tempo game so far - 15
Marquette up with the score 11 to 5 at the first TV timeout - 15
Back and forth, shooting a lot of threes
Louisville pressing on most missed shots
Kyle Kuric has really turned up his game recently
Channing Crowder looking good getting to the rim and shooting threes
Louisville 9-0 run in last 2 minutes -13
Louisville up 14 to 13 -13
Siva is getting in the lane drawing the defenders and dishing
started 0-6 from field but is now 3-4 -13
Marquette is settling for too many threes
Mara is hot and has 3 threes
2 early fouls for Odom could come back to hunt Marquette - 12
Jae Crowder 2 fouls not good for Buzz -10
Very quick hands from Stephan Van Treese who has looked active on defense -10
15-14 Marquette 10 minutes to go -10
Preston Knowles works to get shot off - 9
Rick Pitino one of the best developmental skilled coaches, kids get better and better every year
Jimmy Butler has worked on his mid-range game and paid off -9
Louisville is making some great hustle plays leading to offensive rebounds and easy baskets -7
22-17 in favor of Louisville -7
4-10 from deep for Louisville -7
Kyle Kuric hotspot are from the corners -6
Louisville up 6, 25-19 -6
Kyle Kuric very improved
Mike Marra has been good on the defensive and offensive end blocking shots and shooting threes
D.J-O and Jimmy Butler really keeping Marquette in the game.
31-24 Louisville -4
Louisville is averaging 10 steals in last 5 games. Great hands on defense and forcing Marquette into bad turnovers
Louisville is just working harder than Marquette on both ends -2
Kyle Kuric getting lots of rebounds, in last 9 game stretch averaging 6 rebounds and no different today with 4 rebounds in the first half.
Louisville has stretched the lead out to 7, 33-26 -2
Marquette has really slowed down since the first 5 minutes when they jumped out to a quick lead -2
Everybody is going in the paint after the shot to rebound for both teams -2
Channing Crowder has slowed down since his early start -2
Kyle Kuric is hot from three, 3-4 form deep
Junior Cadougan played fantastic against West Virginia with 15 but is struggling right now with only one field goal in the game -1
36-3, Louisville but Marquette cut the lead to 5 at half
2nd Half (- mark is the minute the event occurs at)
A lot of great plays by the bench for both Louisville and Marquette in the first half
Defensive transition by Louisville is tremendous, and they aren't giving up no easy buckets. Marquette has had to earn every point today. -18
D.J.O fighting for all his points with his tough layup to bring Marquette to within three points at 36-33 in favor of Louisville - 17
Mara playing with great confidence with dishing some great passes - 16
Siva went by the defenders like they were standing still. Great passing to set other guys up including the pass to jennings for the flush -16
Siva has a great ability to see the floor -16
40-33 Louisville is up -16
Louisville feel and deal - going in the lane knowing where teammate are and the no look pass for better looks
Notre Dame will get winner of this game tomorrow
Jennings playing very nice in last couple of minutes after a scoreless first half - 15
Butler is an underrated post up player and works very hard -15
Marra hits another three. It is just falling down for him as he is now 4-8 from three
Louisville always have their bench scoring a lot of points to compliment the starters
Mike Marra makes another three now 5 for 9 from deep -14
48-36 Louisville up by 12 on a 12 to 5 run since the 17:38 -14
Marra is a very streaky shooter
Not a lot of penetration from Marquette like they usually do one reason and is one reason they are losing and beginning to have the game slip from their hands -13
Marra makes another three. That's 6 for 11 from threes, a new carrer high now going -12
Knowles makes another three has been silent tonight but Marra has stepped up big -12
54-39 for Louisville, their biggest lead of game -12
Marra could be on Notre Dame right now the way he is nailing threes!
Points in the paint: Louisville has been killing Marquette. Also, 10 for 25 from downtown 40 percent
54-41 Louisville -10
16-24 from the line for Marquette, only thing keeping them in the game -10
Louisville is 4-8 from free throw -10
Marquette coming back as they are only down by 9 due to good defense and dribble penetration -9
getting behind Louisville's zone -9
D.J.O has 3 fouls -9
Unnecessary fouls hurting Marquette's chances of coming back need to pick up momentum and not slow down the game - 9
Siva again draws in the lane, and kicks to Smith for three. Siva steals and gives to smith for the layup -8
Marquette hope of coming back are really hurt after 5 quick points from Siva to Smith. - 8
59-44 in favor of Louisville -8
Another transition basket due to great defense and hustling up and down the court for Louisville as they are starting to pull away -7
Louisville is up 66-48 -6
Marquette has lost all their timeouts with 6 minutes left because of Louisville's latest run -6
I want to see Notre Dame and Louisville have a team 3 point contest, whose the better shooting team?
Louisville has 22 assists on 26 field goals
Louisville has done what Marquette does drive in the lane and dish -5
Marquette is settling for threes -5
Louisville is up 70-48 -5
Louisville is well rested and Marquette looks like they have no gas left -4
73-50 Louisville -3
Louisville bench is playing great lead by Marra -2
Terrence Jennings having a nice 2nd half as well with 12 points -2
24 to 6 assists is key to Louisville being up on Marquette
79-54 Louisville -1
Mika Marra career high for threes with 6 was key to their runs in the second half.
81-56 Louisville. They outscored Marquette by 20 in the second half scoring 45 points.
Moving on the play Notre Dame in the semifinals in a highly anticipated matchup
Star Watch:
Marquette: Darius Johnson-Odom
Louisville: Preston Knowles
Starting Lineup for the three seed Louisville Cardinals:
PG: Peyton Siva - 1st half: 6 points, 2nd half: 2 points, Total: 8 points, Assists: 9
SG: Preston Knowles - 1st half: 6 points, 2nd half points: 9 points, Total: 15 points, Assists: 7,
Rebounds: 8
G: Chris Smith - 1st half: 0 points, 2nd Half: 5 points Total: 5 points, Rebounds: 11
G: Kyle Kuric - 1st half: 9 points, 2nd Half: 2 points, Total: 11 (3-10 from three), Rebounds: 7
F: Terrence Jennings - 1st half: 0 points, 2nd Half: 12 points, Total: 12 points
Key Bench Players:
G: Mike Marra - 1st Half: 11 points 2nd Half: 11 points Total: 22 points (6-10 from three)
Starting Lineup for the eleven seed Marquette Golden Eagles:
G: Darius Johnson-Odom - 1st half: 3 points, 2nd half: 10 points, Total: 13 points (5-14 from the field, 3-7 from the free-throw line)
G: Dwight Buycks - 1st half: 4, 2nd half: 0, Total:4
G-F: Jimmy Butler - 1st half: 7, 2nd half: 7, Total:14
F: Erik Williams - 1st half: 2 points, 2nd half: 0 points, Total: 2 points
C: Chris Otule - 1st half: 0 points, 2nd half: 0 points, Total: 0 points
Key Bench Players:
Jae Crowder 1st Half: 8 points, 2nd Half: 2 points, Total:10 points
Junior Cadougan 1st Half: 5 points, 2nd Half: 2 points, Total: 7 points
1st Half Analysis (- mark is the minute the event occurs at)
Louisville is starting out the game in zone with men principles
Louisville may have trouble in the zone keeping in front of marquette with their ability to shoot the three and get behind the zone with Crowder
Marquette started out the game up 8 to 1 in first the first 3 minutes -16
Louisville going to have trouble with length of Marquette with their short lineup starting four guards and having the 6-4 Kuric at the four.
Channing Crowder hits two early threes
Peyton Siva can penetrate any defense
Very high tempo game so far - 15
Marquette up with the score 11 to 5 at the first TV timeout - 15
Back and forth, shooting a lot of threes
Louisville pressing on most missed shots
Kyle Kuric has really turned up his game recently
Channing Crowder looking good getting to the rim and shooting threes
Louisville 9-0 run in last 2 minutes -13
Louisville up 14 to 13 -13
Siva is getting in the lane drawing the defenders and dishing
started 0-6 from field but is now 3-4 -13
Marquette is settling for too many threes
Mara is hot and has 3 threes
2 early fouls for Odom could come back to hunt Marquette - 12
Jae Crowder 2 fouls not good for Buzz -10
Very quick hands from Stephan Van Treese who has looked active on defense -10
15-14 Marquette 10 minutes to go -10
Preston Knowles works to get shot off - 9
Rick Pitino one of the best developmental skilled coaches, kids get better and better every year
Jimmy Butler has worked on his mid-range game and paid off -9
Louisville is making some great hustle plays leading to offensive rebounds and easy baskets -7
22-17 in favor of Louisville -7
4-10 from deep for Louisville -7
Kyle Kuric hotspot are from the corners -6
Louisville up 6, 25-19 -6
Kyle Kuric very improved
Mike Marra has been good on the defensive and offensive end blocking shots and shooting threes
D.J-O and Jimmy Butler really keeping Marquette in the game.
31-24 Louisville -4
Louisville is averaging 10 steals in last 5 games. Great hands on defense and forcing Marquette into bad turnovers
Louisville is just working harder than Marquette on both ends -2
Kyle Kuric getting lots of rebounds, in last 9 game stretch averaging 6 rebounds and no different today with 4 rebounds in the first half.
Louisville has stretched the lead out to 7, 33-26 -2
Marquette has really slowed down since the first 5 minutes when they jumped out to a quick lead -2
Everybody is going in the paint after the shot to rebound for both teams -2
Channing Crowder has slowed down since his early start -2
Kyle Kuric is hot from three, 3-4 form deep
Junior Cadougan played fantastic against West Virginia with 15 but is struggling right now with only one field goal in the game -1
36-3, Louisville but Marquette cut the lead to 5 at half
2nd Half (- mark is the minute the event occurs at)
A lot of great plays by the bench for both Louisville and Marquette in the first half
Defensive transition by Louisville is tremendous, and they aren't giving up no easy buckets. Marquette has had to earn every point today. -18
D.J.O fighting for all his points with his tough layup to bring Marquette to within three points at 36-33 in favor of Louisville - 17
Mara playing with great confidence with dishing some great passes - 16
Siva went by the defenders like they were standing still. Great passing to set other guys up including the pass to jennings for the flush -16
Siva has a great ability to see the floor -16
40-33 Louisville is up -16
Louisville feel and deal - going in the lane knowing where teammate are and the no look pass for better looks
Notre Dame will get winner of this game tomorrow
Jennings playing very nice in last couple of minutes after a scoreless first half - 15
Butler is an underrated post up player and works very hard -15
Marra hits another three. It is just falling down for him as he is now 4-8 from three
Louisville always have their bench scoring a lot of points to compliment the starters
Mike Marra makes another three now 5 for 9 from deep -14
48-36 Louisville up by 12 on a 12 to 5 run since the 17:38 -14
Marra is a very streaky shooter
Not a lot of penetration from Marquette like they usually do one reason and is one reason they are losing and beginning to have the game slip from their hands -13
Marra makes another three. That's 6 for 11 from threes, a new carrer high now going -12
Knowles makes another three has been silent tonight but Marra has stepped up big -12
54-39 for Louisville, their biggest lead of game -12
Marra could be on Notre Dame right now the way he is nailing threes!
Points in the paint: Louisville has been killing Marquette. Also, 10 for 25 from downtown 40 percent
54-41 Louisville -10
16-24 from the line for Marquette, only thing keeping them in the game -10
Louisville is 4-8 from free throw -10
Marquette coming back as they are only down by 9 due to good defense and dribble penetration -9
getting behind Louisville's zone -9
D.J.O has 3 fouls -9
Unnecessary fouls hurting Marquette's chances of coming back need to pick up momentum and not slow down the game - 9
Siva again draws in the lane, and kicks to Smith for three. Siva steals and gives to smith for the layup -8
Marquette hope of coming back are really hurt after 5 quick points from Siva to Smith. - 8
59-44 in favor of Louisville -8
Another transition basket due to great defense and hustling up and down the court for Louisville as they are starting to pull away -7
Louisville is up 66-48 -6
Marquette has lost all their timeouts with 6 minutes left because of Louisville's latest run -6
I want to see Notre Dame and Louisville have a team 3 point contest, whose the better shooting team?
Louisville has 22 assists on 26 field goals
Louisville has done what Marquette does drive in the lane and dish -5
Marquette is settling for threes -5
Louisville is up 70-48 -5
Louisville is well rested and Marquette looks like they have no gas left -4
73-50 Louisville -3
Louisville bench is playing great lead by Marra -2
Terrence Jennings having a nice 2nd half as well with 12 points -2
24 to 6 assists is key to Louisville being up on Marquette
79-54 Louisville -1
Mika Marra career high for threes with 6 was key to their runs in the second half.
81-56 Louisville. They outscored Marquette by 20 in the second half scoring 45 points.
Moving on the play Notre Dame in the semifinals in a highly anticipated matchup
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