Sunday, March 24, 2013

23 Games to Go

The Round of 32 at the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament wraps up today.  Here are today's games (all times Central):

Dayton, Ohio:
11:15 A.M.:  #4 Ohio St. (27-7) v. # 33 Iowa St. (23-11) (CBS)
1:45 P.M.:  # 3 Indiana (28-6) v. # 63 Temple (24-9) (CBS)

Kansas City:
4:15 P.M.:  # 9 Kansas (30-5) v. # 25 N. Carolina (25-10) (CBS)
6:40 P.M.:  # 29 Mississippi (27-8) v. # 49 LaSalle (23-9) (truTV)

Austin, Tex:
5:10 P.M.:  # 1 Florida (27-7) v. # 18 Minnesota (21-12) (TNT)
7:40 P.M.:  # 13 Miami (Fla.) (28-6) v. # 35 Illinois (23-12) (TNT)

Philadelphia:
6:10 P.M.:  # 28 San Diego St. (23-10) v. # 107 Fla. Gulf Coast (25-10) (TBS)
8:40 P.M.:  # 6 Duke (28-5) v. # 16 Creighton (28-7) (TBS)

I think it's funny that they have stuck Ole Miss and LaSalle on truTV, but I think it's petty to force those teams to play after KU and UNC, thus ensuring that they will play in a gym that is mostly empty.

This will be the third time since 2007 that KU and UNC have met in the NCAA Tournament.  Kansas won in both 2008 and 2012, and reached the tournament final both times.

Any further observations will go in the comments.

44 comments:

  1. Iowa State, who impressed me last year when UK played them, is giving Ohio State fits. At the half, the Buckeyes lead by only 38-36.

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  2. I thought Ohio State had this game under control -- the Bucks were up 69-56 just a few minutes ago. But Iowa State is on a 10-0 run, and O-Hi-O leads by 69-66 with 4:07 remaining.

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  3. Ohio State misses a free throw, and the Cyclones make an old-fashioned three-point play to tie the game at 69 with 3:50 left!

    Ohio State responds with two free throws from Deshaun Thomas to take a 71-69 lead with 3:34 to go.

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  4. But Iowa State nails a three-pointer to go up 72-71 with 3:08 to go! And now Ohio State has turned the ball over!

    With three minutes to go, Aaron Craft commits a foul. Iowa State makes one of two FT's, and the Cyclones lead 73-71 with 3 minutes left.

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  5. Craft, the OSU point guard who has struggled down the stretch, makes a great move to get to the rim. He scores and is fouled.

    With the game tied at 73 and Craft about to take his FT, OSU calls time.

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  6. Craft makes his free throw, and the Bucks lead 74-73 with 2:30 to go.

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  7. Craft goes for a steal, almost gets it, and in the scramble for the ball OSU is called for a foul out by the half court. The crowd boos, but Clark Kellogg thinks it was the right call.

    ISU makes both free throws to take a 75-74 lead with 2:20 to go. What a game!

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  8. OSU does that thing where you just dribble the ball for 20 seconds and then run a play. But when Craft kicks the ball out to a shooter, OSU walks.

    Now ISU has the ball and the lead with 1:59 to go.

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  9. Iowa State drives and hits, but Craft draws an offensive foul. OSU ball. The Bucks trail 75-74 with 1:34 to go.

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    1. By the way, this should have been a blocking call on Craft.

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  10. As usual, OSU does nothing for 20 seconds and then Craft drives to the basket and is fouled. He goes to the line for two shots with 1:14 remaining.

    He misses the first FT, his third big miss from the line down the stretch.

    He makes the second, and the game is tied at 75 with 1:14 left.

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  11. With a minute to go, DeShaun Thomas intercepts an ISU pass. Ohio State has the ball.

    After the usual 25-second delay, Craft tries to penetrate. He cannot do so, and is forced to shoot from the top of the key. He misses, but Iowa State, desperately seeking the rebound, knocks the ball out of bounds.

    OSU will have the ball with 29.9 seconds to go. They call time.

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  12. Craft dribbles, and dribbles, and dribbles. With 7 seconds to go, everyone expects him to do something. But he just keeps dribbling. Finally, with 1 second left, he fires up a three-pointer -- AND NAILS IT!

    OSU leads 78-75 with less than a second remaining.

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  13. Iowa State kept expecting Craft to drive, which is why he was able to get off a three without too much defensive pressure.

    Of course, we all remember seeing Brandon Knight make a last-second shot over Craft to eliminate OSU two years ago. Now Craft has paid back Iowa State.

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  14. With 0.5 seconds left, Ohio State guards the in-bounds pass. ISU cannot get off a good shot, and Ohio State returns to the Sweet 16 for the fourth year in a row.

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  15. With 1:40 to go in the game, Indiana and Temple are tied at 52.

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  16. Temple misses a three-point shot, and is then immediately called for a blocking foul.

    Victor Oladipo misses the first FT, and Temple calls time with 1:19 to go. When we come back, Oladipo will take his second FT.

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  17. IU is 3-12 from three-point range, while Temple is 3-22 from three-point range.

    Oladipo makes the second FT.

    Indiana leads 53-52.

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  18. Like most teams do these days, Temple simply wastes the first 25 seconds of their possession. They call time with 10 seconds left on the shot clock and 54 seconds on the game clock.

    Temple is 7-8 from the line. IU is 14-18 from the line.

    Jim Nantz assures us that not every championship team can run roughshod over the field like UNC in 2009.

    Temple, having wasted so much of the shot clock, cannot get off a good shot and shoots an airball. IU ball with 44 seconds left.

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  19. IU wastes almost all the shot clock as well, but for reasons that I will never understand, Temple completely fails to guard IU's best player. Oladipo -- who is a deadly shooter in these circumstances -- is left all alone just beyond the three-point line, and he nails a three-pointer to put IU up 56-52 with 14 seconds to go. Game over.

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  20. IU wins 58-52. They were down 52-48 with just over two minutes to go.

    Jim Nantz says that Pitino and Kentucky had the Unforgettables. But to Nantz, this generation of IU players are the "Indelibles."

    So in case you were wondering about CBS's storyline for this tournament, Nantz just made it clear.

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  21. I didn't see much of this game, but here's the comment from "Alumni Gym" over at Rupp's Rafters:

    "Temple was ROBBED of this game by the officials. No one that watched it can claim otherwise. It was obvious. IU, you needed help today in order to win. Pretty sad."

    Based on the small part I did see, my guess is that I would have agreed with Alumni Gym.

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  22. On the other hand, here was the comment from "Blue63Madison" on Rupp's Rafters, under the headline "Nice Choke Job, Temple":

    "The refs carried Indiana for the first 38 minutes, but with 2:00 to go it was still Temple's game to win. They flat out choked. Bigtime. Indiana got a gift."

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  23. A great line from "catzfanjim," who posts: "I know the officials have striped shirts but I didn't think they were red and white stripes."

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  24. If Ray Harper leaves for Florida now that UCLA has (effectively) hired Billy Donovan, then I hope WKU hires Jim Larranaga.

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  25. SmartMom watched one of her few games of the year last night, as we enjoyed the victory of Florida Gulf Coast over San Diego State. SmartMom says everyone should play like FGCU, and it's hard to disagree with her.

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  26. This is the third time in the last six years that UNC's season ended in the NCAA Tournament with a defeat by Kansas.

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  27. Ole Miss went 26-44 (59.1 percent) from 2-point range against LaSalle last night, as the smaller Explorers could not handle Ole Miss on the inside. But the Rebels went 4-19 from three-point range (Marshall Henderson was 4-15 by himself), and 10-21 from the line, so they were eliminated 76-74.

    I am really, really angry with Ole Miss for blowing such a winnable game -- especially as that would have put two SEC teams in the Sweet 16. But for whatever reason, they were more interested in being the Marshall Henderson Traveling All-Stars than a basketball team, and last night they finally paid the price.

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  28. Meanwhile, Tubby Smith proved once again that rebounding and defense are not enough to win the NCAA Tournament. You always run into a hot team at some point, and you're done if you can't keep up. Florida went 10-20 from three-point range, and cruised to an easy 78-64 win that looked like almost every game between Florida and UK in 2006 and 2007.

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  29. The last time Jim Larranaga coached a game in the Verizon Center, he was taking George Mason to the 2006 Final Four. This week, he'll be taking Miami to D.C., where he hopes lightning will strike twice.

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  30. I am very excited to see how Billy Donovan will game-plan FGCU.

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  31. Over the weekend, there were two potential stories that got a lot of hype, but were never actually going to happen:

    1. Cyprus was never going to be kicked out of the euro. The EU came up with its usual last-minute deal to preserve the status quo. Basically, the Cypriots are still going to tax bank deposits -- despite their vote last week not to do so. (In the EU, votes are just another form of negotiation.) They just tweaked things to exempt depositors with less than 100,000 euros, and place a heavier tax on depositors with more than 100,000 euros.

    2. Creighton was never going to beat Duke. As Verbal Kint says in "The Usual Suspects": "How do you shoot the Devil in the back? What if you miss?" Creighton learned all about that last night, as they went ice cold: 2-19 from three-point range and 16-53 from the field.

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  32. I am happy that LaSalle gets the Philadelphia media (mostly) to itself this week.

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  33. I can't remember another year with so many intriguing match-ups in the Sweet 16.

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  34. Ken Pomeroy went 12-4 in the Round of 16 -- he missed Oregon, Wichita State, LaSalle, and FGCU.

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    1. I went 12-4 and that is without resetting every round the way Pomeroy does. So there.

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    2. Also, you're on a hot streak in the HP fantasy-golf league.

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    3. I was really happy with some of these predictions.

      Predicted: Louisville 81, ColSt 55
      Actual: Louisville 82, ColSt 56

      Predicted: Kansas 77, UNC 65
      Actual: Kansas 70, UNC 58

      Predicted: Marquette 70, Butler 67
      Actual: Marquette 74, Butler 72

      Predicted: Miami 67, Illinois 66
      Actual: Miami 63, Illinois 59

      Predicted: Duke 76, Creighton 62
      Actual: Duke 66, Creighton 50

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    4. These are excellent! Would you care to divulge your formula?

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    5. No, but I am thinking that by next year I want to have a site in place where people can go and use my app to generate brackets.

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