Believe it or not,
going into the two games this week, I was more concerned about Nebraska than I
was about the Black Birds. In the games
I had watched, I saw what appeared to be an Iowa team that more or less gave up
on home court against Sparty and also a loss to OSU….They looked pathetic and
couldn’t connect on anything…the opposite can be said for Nebraska. They had just defeated Indiana and they
appeared to be hitting on all cylinders and they needed a good road win to
get the NCAA tournament committee to take notice.
Yep…I was worried last
Wednesday and I figured Saturday might be close, but the Wolverines would pull
it out…
Hence is the reason
why I WILL NEVER BET REGULAR SEASON COLLEGE HOOPS! And anyone that tells you they make money betting
college basketball is full of you know what!
So, what’s changed?
With respect to Michigan winning the B1G, not much, really. Defend home court (4 games) and get 2 road wins somewhere
(Purdue and Illinois) and I won’t say it’s a lock, but it’s close. I will say that a win in the only match-up
Michigan has against ohio on Tuesday would be sweet, but somehow, ohio has
figured out how to win basketball games again.
I’m also hoping for this weird “Up-Down” Theory that seems to have
permeated the B1G to also be in effect for Michigan and coming off their worst
defensive performance since Belien’s 4th game in 2007, well, it
means Michigan is due for a MONSTER of a game down in Columbus! Of course, that would mean that they might
suck back in Crisler on Sunday, also, when Wiscy shows up looking for some
payback! Jeez….
REST OF THE B1G
Sparty found out the hard way (again) that winning
at the Troll center is incredibly difficult when you’re at full strength much
less down an Apple(ing). I won’t be the
first to say that I question Apple’s toughness as the Sparty message boards
have pretty much been lit up with that question by the Sparty faithful. But I do think Izzo figured stealing one in
Madison would be tough anyway, so sit the kid.
"All that matters to Izzo is March" is not only a mantra among Spartans,
but I think Izzo would rather trade a B1G championship for a deep tournament
run. Hence, it made sense. Bench Apple till his boo-boo doesn’t hurt
anymore…
Wiscy has at least found bottom. I’m not sure how deep Wiscy will go in this
year’s NCAA, and I’m leaning towards an early out which probably means they
will be an elite 8 or better!
OSU, for all intents and purposes, is hanging on by
a thread in the B1G race. If Michigan can
steal one in Columbus, they’re at best playing for 2nd place.
Iowa – Reasserted themselves as being “In” the B1G
race, but losing at home to Sparty was a disaster for their realistic chances
of pulling of a piece of the B1G championship.
Everyone else is kind of knocking each other around
right now and there’s no real rhyme or reason to any of it.
Tournament Locks: Michigan, Sparty,
Wiscy, ohio
Locked up, but
Trying desperately to Break into the NIT or at least get on the bubble: Iowa
Last B1G Teams In – Minnesota and IU.
Wishing they had
one or two more victories right now or hoping for a final 9 game run: Nebraska,
PSU, NWU
Roaming around
waiting for any other sport to start: Illinois and Purdue
Yes, I know that I have 7 teams in when most of the
other pundits are only calling for 6.
But I believe that Indiana has pictures of someone on the committee that
they pull out every season and somehow find a way into the tournament. Hence, 7 teams.
Bracketology
I know what I said last week, but it’s basketball,
so you can simply wrap up anything you said last week in a used jock strap and
be fine changing your mind this week!
Right now, the 4 number 1 seeds will be:
- Florida (My new “first 1 seed to lose in
the tournament” team)
- Syracuse (This team could win the whole enchilada…they
are better than last year.)
- Wichita State (Haven’t lost since last
year’s Final Four)
- Kansas (Just cause…..)
The 2-4 seeds, in no particular order because it
doesn’t matter that much:
Michigan, sparty, Arizona, Kentucky, Duke,
Cincinnati, Villanova, Louisville, Creighton, San Diego State, Virginia and
TEXAS!!!
So, Sparty has more or less really left themselves
in a big hole by losing to both Georgetown and Wisky within 8 days of each
other, with only a home stomping in between those two losses to show for
it. Unfortunately, if everything you
hear about the committee is true, there’s more “weight” put on the last 10
games of the season. Sparty didn’t do
themselves any favors losing to Georgetown.
The Wiscy loss could have been managed, but now, with 2 losses in the last 3
games…well, they’re gonna drop out of the top 10 and it’ll be tough for them to
rally to a number 1 seed.
Florida is riding the complete lack of ability and
talent that represents the rest of the SEC and they look like giant killers
right now. Hence is the reason I moved
them up. But kind of like Arizona, who I
moved down due to the game loss and loss of Ashley, Florida is also going to be
a team that will be an in vogue pick to lose early. The SEC is really bad after Kentucky and
Florida and the old adage about "moving the top team from the B1G in Football to
the SEC and they would be at best the 4th best team" holds true in
the opposite direction for hoops: Move
Kentucky and Florida into the B1G and they’d probably be sitting right around
the same spot as Ohio and Wiscy, but below Iowa, Michigan and Sparty. Just sayin’.
I had said earlier that, from the B1G, Nebraska,
PSU and NWU had a shot…Now, not so much.
Indiana still gets in and makes it 7 teams from the B1G. All bets are off if someone surprises the
field in the B1G tournament and upsets everyone to get an auto-bid.
The State of the Game
If you are alive and you watch ESPN, you’ve by now
heard of the Smart Incident down at TCU.
If you don’t, Smart is the returning lottery pick sophomore that came
back to Okie State to try to pull a “Trey Burke” – lead his team as a point
guard to the National Title Game.
However, his sophomore year isn’t working out as well as Trey’s and in
the closing minutes of the TCU upset (in TCU), Smart ended up in the stands and
shoved a fan after a brief verbal exchange.
There are various un-reliable sources stating that the exchange included
the “N” word, but I’m not buying it.
There’s too much involved and even in Texas, I just don’t think the
average fan would throw that word into the conversation. Now, he might have said, “Hey, Smart, you suck!”
and that would have elicited the same reaction from Smart. I have not heard that the fan has been
punished, but we have learned that he is a season ticket holder at TCU and his
name is Jeff Orr. He also claims he said
something he shouldn’t have, but it WASN’T the “N” word.
So, the evidence is out there. The big 12 and Iowa State handed down a three
game suspension for the shove. Was it
enough? Too much?? I dunno...
I feel like basketball is SUCH A GAME OF HIGH EMOTION that even as a fan
when you’re sitting that close, you’re involved, whether you want to be or not. Yes, the Ron Artest Incident at the Palace
involved season long suspensions, but
that wasn’t just a shove. That was a
malicious hunting down of the fan in the stands – the wrong guy! – and it was
just plain wrong to expect that kind of reaction from professionals. The suspensions and fines were
warranted. This is college where
emotions run much higher and it was a big upset to boot. Iowa State is probably going to lose a game
or two as a result of this suspension, but Smart will be back for the Big 12
tournament and the NCAA’s.
Whatever you want to believe is fine, but I kind of
agreed with the AD on this one – don’t destroy a kid (or the rest of the team’s
season) for a heat of the moment act that everyone is sorry for and wished
never happened. I’m not saying Smart was
justified at all in the shove…And part of me thinks he should have been
immediately ejected from the game. But I
don’t think he should be dismissed from college basketball….especially if you’re
going to let certain football players fly the double bird in the Big House in
the middle of The Game!!
GAMES TO WATCH
TODAY!!!!!!
Iowa State vs. WVU
7:00PM
Kansas vs. K-State, 9:00PM
SUPER TUESDAY
Florida @ Tennessee, 7:00 PM
SIU @ Wichita State, 8:00 PM
Michigan at suckeyeland – 9:00 PM
WEDNESDAY
Syracuse at Pitt – 7:00 PM
Dook @ North Carolina (Must win for Heels) 9:00 PM
Kentucky @ Auburn
- 8:00 PM
THURSDAY
Kitty Kats @ SPARTY – 7:00PM
Gophers @ Wiscy – 9:00PM
FRIDAY
Arizona @ ASU, 9:00 PM
SATURDAY
Iowa @ PSU – 1:00PM
NC State @ Orange – 3:00PM
Florida @ Kentucky – 9:00PM
Maryland @ Duke – 6:00PM
SUNDAY
Wiscy @ Michigan – 1:00PM
Nebraska @ Sparty – 3:00PM
Villanova @ Creighton – 5:00PM
2 comments:
As a fan most likely to illicite a violent response from an opposing player or coach (I tried my best back in the day) I will weight in on behalf of Smart (although the playing of the race card is disgusting). I heard of the incident prior to seeing it and I was underwhellmed after seeing it. It was a shove! Not even a double fist to the chest shove but a mild open hand shove with no leverage put into it. If the guy wasn't fat and old he probably wouldn't have even fallen, and he fell in a rather controlled way; further proof that Smart didn't really go after him. This is a perfect example of what is wrong with our culture. It sounds like the fan regrets whatever comment he made. So he should offer an apology to Smart and TT, and Smart should say, "Right back at ya"; and it should be done. Had Smart tried to hurt the guy or thrown a punch then all bets are off and the kid needs to be harshly repramanded; but that is not what happened.
Amazing what can happen when you care and have pride Of course, we really played like crap in the first half, but at least it looked like we were trying. I fear that GRIII is going to make payne(in the ass) look like a first round NBA pick on the 23rd. How many 8 inch shots from above the rim can one guy miss???
So we only played 28 good minutes and still beat the suckeyes on their court. Of course, it was nice that they decided to start launching threes rather than jogging up to the hoop like they were doing in the first 10 minutes. Did we really close off the lane or did they just stop trying? I did not see much difference in how we were defending. There may be an affect similar to golfing with someone that is out driving you by 20 yards. Even if you are winning, it might get to you and cause you to try to over-hit. That may be what inspired the suckeyes to go long. After completely dominating us and scoring at will in the paint for the first 10 minutes, they look up and are only up by single digits because every third trip down we nail a three. That probably grates on a team.
Switching to the cheeseheads victory over the slime; had the slime pulled it out it would have been yet another last second gift from officiating types to the slime. (State players of all sports should just assume that rules do not apply to them if the game is almost over. The Desmond tackle, the blatant holding on the famous one second left game, the tainted BIG hoops championship over Purdue as Steve Sheffler was just tackled in the waning seconds of the game and now the projectile shove of the would be cheesehead rebounder into the stands. That was the game right there, ending any chance of a miracle slime comeback, but NO CALL!!! If you have it on the DVR (ahem) re-watch it and see how obvious this shove was. Thankfully, the slime were unable to parlay this gift from the officials into a W, no pun intended
I must also congratulate the cheesheads on a terrific sports weekend. The sweep of the #1 ranked skating Gophers was spectacular (and in stark contrast to our embarrassing 4-0 loss to the winless mountain lions.
All Wolverines should send a little HATE to ESPN for the nice segment on “suckeye dominance of M” where they displayed the records of Football, Men’s hoops and WOMEN’s hoops for the last several years. Really, women’s hoops, not men’s Hockey, not baseball or softball, not wrestling or swimming or volleyball or gymnastics. Don’t try and tell me that women’s hoops is a bigger draw than hockey! But hey ESPN, don’t let facts destroy a storyline that you want to push. Also, I’ve about had it with the football dominance crap. I do not recall counting clocks and repeated hype by the general media when we were in the midst of the decade of dominance that immediately proceeded the decade of despair. It’s as if the 90’s never happened. Switching to hoops, while the suckeyes have a surprisingly rich basketball tradition, they were doormats for the bulk of a thirty year span that didn’t end until Thad showed-up. OK, they had a few good years in there but come on with the suckeye cheerleading. They have been VERY successful in football and basketball for the last decade, why can’t THAT be the story.
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