Sunday, March 28, 2021

16 Teams Left

Here's the last ticket to the Sweet 16:

3d Region Final (at Owensboro Sportscenter):
Muhlenberg Co. 46, Owensboro Catholic 31

So that gives us the following schedule for the first round of the Sweet 16 (all times Central, all games at Rupp Arena in Lexington).  I've organized the schedule so that you can see the four matchups in the quarter-finals.  Notice that the group of Madison Central, Ballard, Bowling Green and University Heights contains four former State Champions:

Wednesday, March 31:

10 A.M.:  Knott Co. Central Patriots (18-7) v. (4) Elizabethtown Panthers (19-2)
7 P.M.:  George Rogers Clark Cardinals (19-4) v. Oldham Co. Colonels (14-4)

4 P.M.:  Madison Cent. Indians (21-9) v. (5) Lou. Ballard Bruins (19-2)
1 P.M.:  (8)  Bowling Green Purples (23-2) v. University Heights Blazers (15-9)

Thursday, April 1:

4 P.M.:  Boyle Co. Rebels (21-4) v. Paintsville Tigers (15-8)
7 P.M.:  Knox Cent. Panthers (18-5) v. (10) Ashland Blazer Tomcats (20-4)

1 P.M.:  Bullitt East Chargers (15-8) v. McCracken Co. Mustangs (22-6)
10 A.M.:  Muhlenberg Co. Mustangs (19-1) v. Ft. Thomas Highlands Bluebirds (26-4)

49 comments:

  1. OK, this is very exciting. I'm rooting for Knott, GRC, Dominique Hawkins and UHA on Wednesday, and then I'm rooting for Paintsville, AshBlaze, our County Mustangs and the other County Mustangs on Thursday.

    I really like how you've ordered these, and I really appreciate all of your diligent posting throughout our basketball fun.

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  2. Houston leads Oregon State 5-2 with about 15 minutes left in the first half. I'm giving up on the idea that any team other than Gonzaga can run an offense.

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  3. Houston leads 21-10 with 7 minutes left before the half. I think we should seriously consider a rule that if you cannot score 20 points in the first half, you are automatically eliminated from the tournament.

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  4. Houston leads 34-17 at the half. Under my new rule, Oregon State would be eliminated.

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  5. With 6:15 left, Oregon State has sliced Houston's lead to 52-48. Can't anyone (beside Gonzaga) play this game?

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  6. Oregon State actually tied the game at 55-55 with a few minutes to go. The Beavers then stopped scoring again. Houston is on a 9-1 run, and leads 64-56 with 27 seconds left. The Cougars get the first ticket to the Final Four.

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  7. Watching every team but Gonzaga stagger through this tournament, I've been waiting to see someone play well. Baylor has now jumped all over Arkansas, and leads 26-11 with 12 minutes left in the first half. It's good to see a team that actually looks like it knows what it's doing.

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  8. After struggling against Texas Tech and Oral Roberts, I thought Arkansas would come out sharp tonight. But I was wrong.

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  9. Baylor 44-29 with 3:58 left. Here was a typical sequence. Arkansas steals the ball and has a breakout. There's only one guy back for Baylor. He steals the ball and throws it up court for an easy layup.

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  10. Arkansas rallies and cuts Baylor's lead to 46-38 at the half. But the Razorbacks went only 5-10 from the line.

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  11. Baylor up 72-61 with 3:30 left. This game looks almost exactly like the games where a really good UK team beats Arkansas at the SEC tournament. UK jumps out to a huge lead, Arkansas spends the rest of the game scrambling around, never formally gives up, but never seriously threatens. Just a really dull game.

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  12. Of course, by blowing up all the brackets in the first two rounds, we were left with no good matchups in the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8. The only really good matchup in either round was UCLA/Alabama, and that turned out to be a great game.

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  13. On the other hand, if we get Gonzaga/Michigan and Baylor/Houston in the Final Four, those games could be pretty good.

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  14. In the last six minutes of game time, Arkansas has zero field goals. It's been that type of game.

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  15. Baylor 81, Arkansas 72. I've rarely seen Kentucky play an Elite Eight game as dull as the two games tonight.

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  16. I didn't even mention the part where Arkansas's best player fouled out with over 10 minutes to go.

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  17. I'm for Houston against Baylor because of Elvin Hayes.

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  18. On behalf of the other three undefeated teams to reach the Elite Eight since 1976 -- 1979 Indiana State, 1991 UNLV, and 2015 Kentucky -- I hereby declare that any of them would have finished the season undefeated if they'd been drawn into this tournament.

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  19. Indiana State lost to Magic Johnson. UNLV lost to a team that won back-to-back titles. UK lost a revenge game to a team that went 66-12 in two years, and reached two straight final fours. Needless to say, Gonzaga doesn't face that type of challenge.

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  20. But you get the tournament you get; it's not always fair. The 1976 Tournament wasn't that strong either.

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  21. Gonzaga leads 17-4 with 14:27 left in the first half. The decision desk is calling this one for the Zags. The Elite Eight is usually the best round of the tournament, and this one has been almost unwatchable.

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  22. Here are UK's last four trips to the Elite Eight:

    1. In 2014, UK beat Michigan (who had played for the National Title the year before) 75 to 72.

    2. In 2015, UK beat Notre Dame 68-66, after ND missed a shot at the buzzer.

    3. In 2017, UNC beat UK 75-73, after UNC made a shot at the buzzer.

    4. In 2019, Auburn beat UK 77-71 in overtime. That's the fourth time I've seen UK lose in overtime in the Elite Eight (83, 92, 05, 19). One of those game (05) went to double overtime).

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  23. Anyway, I quit watching this game when it was 29-12. Now I'm watching Vandy play Tennessee Tech in baseball. The Dores lead 4-1 in the bottom of the first.

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    1. I cut over to a Seinfeld rerun, which I don't remember ever seeing! In this one, George is trying to get fired by the Yankees to take a job with the Mets; Kramer and Newman are planning competing millennium New Year's parties; Elaine is trying to put out of business a store where she wanted to buy shoes but had a hard time getting the attention of a clerk, and Jerry is dating Lauren Graham. Lauren Graham! How did I miss this one?

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  24. UCLA appears to be in a different -- and much more exciting -- tournament than everyone else. The UCLAn was in the only good Sweet 16 game, and now they're in the only good Elite 8 game. With 6:13 left, UCLA leads Michigan 44-43.

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  25. With 2:26 left, UCLA leads 48-47, but Michigan will have the ball.

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  26. My office features a Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio from the mid-1960s, and I'm listening to the game on the radio. It's great.

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  27. With 35.6 seconds left, UCLA leads 50-49, and UCLA has the ball. Johnny Juzang has 27 of UCLA's 50 points. Scoring 27 points in this game is like scoring 50 points in a normal game.

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    1. I am really happy that Johnny Juzang is having the tournament he is having. He and Gary Braun's daughter represent all of the college students whose apple carts have been upset by the pandemic.

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  28. UCLA did not go to Johnny Juzang. They went to Jaime Jaquez for a game-clinching three-pointer. He was open, but he missed. Michigan has the rebound, and they call time with 19.8 seconds left.

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  29. Amazingly, Michigan also shot a three -- and they shot an airball. Michigan got the rebound and immediately threw up another shot that also missed. UCLA got the rebound and was fouled. But UCLA is not in the bonus.

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  30. After two more fouls, UCLA is in the bonus and Juzang goes to shoot a one-and-one.

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  31. 6.3 seconds left. Juzang at the line with a one-point lead.

    He makes the first.
    Michigan calls time, and I recall that Juzang played a great game for us down in Knoxville last year. I thought he was special then, and I know it now.

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  32. Juzang misses the second free throw, and Michigan has the ball. They call time again. They trail 51-49 and they have six seconds left.

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    1. I was so nervous for Johnny Juzang in this timeout. TBS kept showing him, and I kept looking to see on his face a sense of doom that Michigan was going to hit a three and win because of his missed free throw. But I never saw it. Instead, it looked like his face had a sense of taking in the plan of how to keep Michigan from hitting a three.

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  33. Michigan shoots a three for the win -- they always do that. It misses, and UCLA knocks the ball out of bounds. We have 0.5 seconds left.

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  34. Michigan calls time. Then everyone comes out and sets up a play. Then UCLA calls time. But that's it -- no more time outs.

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  35. Michigan shoots ANOTHER three for the win. They miss AGAIN. Michigan went 3-11 from three-point range, and 6-11 at the line, and they are out.

    Final score: UCLA 51, Michigan 49. The Bruins have beaten Michigan State (in overtime), BYU, Abilene Christian, Alabama (in overtime), and Michigan. They go to the Final Four for the first time since 2008.

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    1. I was so thankful this game did not go to overtime because I was never going to make it. I actually dozed off in this last timeout, and when I woke up my first thought was anger at waking up to a replay of a miraculous Michigan three-pointer for the win. But my nap was not that long--I was waking up to the live play, on which Michigan missed the try (again).

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  36. I have never -- and I mean literally never -- seen UK win a two-point game where the other team missed as many shots in the last five minutes as Michigan did in this game.

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  37. Since 1995, only two teams from outside the Eastern Time Zone have won the title. One was Arizona in 1997. The other was Kansas in 2008. This year another team from outside the Eastern Time Zone will win it all.

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  38. This also means that 1996 will still be the last time that a team from the East Coast lost in the final against a team not from the East Coast.

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  39. I am glad that Gonzaga and UCLA won. I love Juwan Howard ("you da man, you da man"), but I was rooting for UCLA last night because of Johnny Juzang. And now I'm going to root for UCLA to somehow upset Gonzaga. And then I'm going to root for the NC2A to relocate everything down to the Astrodome for the final.

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  40. 47-26, Etown over Knott, getting late in the first half ... I'm pretty sure that Tom Leach just said that Knott's best player was whistled for four fouls in the second quarter ...

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    Replies
    1. I've started a new post on the home page -- let's go over there.

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