Mid-90s Masta Aca lyrics provides an ample description to the college basketball conference that I grew up on, that I still follow to this day and with the Bad Boys from the Big East getting half of the 16-team conference into the Big Dance, I will provide my two cents on those teams and others I might have gandered during the year (while you were watching the NBA or SEC basketball)
Midwest: No. 2 Georgetown vs. No. 15 UMBC, Friday at 2:55 in Raleigh, NC
I'm a little upset that the Hoyas didn't get a chance to play in Washington D.C., but what's done is done and was likely due to the loss in the Big East tournament championship game.
GTown lost because they got beat on the boards by a gritty Pittsburgh team that was ranked to start the year and beat Duke on that same Madison Square Garden floor.
Strengths: Roy Hibbert is easily the best big man in the country for all he can do with and without the ball. He's a great passer and is pretty much money deep in the paint. Jessie Sapp, Jonathan Wallace, Austin Freeman and Chris Wright are all great guards, but Jeremiah Rivers is the best defender you never heard of. Yes, his father is Doc and yes, he's one of the reasons the Hoyas have the best defense in the nation.
Weakness: They run a variation of the Princeton offense, I'm sure you've heard. But what that really means is a lot of their shots are off screens or cuts to the basket, unless they dump it to Hibbert in the post. What that really means is they don't draw contact or fouls and that shouldn't matter since they're a horrible team from the line. Also, if you've got aggressive size guys (See Memphis' Jerry Dorsey), you can beat them on the boards.
Outlook: This is highly biased, but I find it hard to not see them reaching the Elite Eight at least...That's if Wisconsin doesn't bore them to death.
East: No. 3 Louisville vs. No. 14 Boise State, Friday at 9:40 p.m.
The Cardinals are America's favorite team...for me to poop on!
No really, they're a nice outfit with Rick Pitino and the boys in red, making people remember Never Nervous Pervis and when Kentucky truly was a two-team state that people outside Kentucky cared about.
Strengths: There is no one in the college ranked truly suited to guard David Padgett. He's 6-11 with post moves and an outside touch, plus he moves well without the ball. The best hope is to get him into foul trouble because if he's on the floor with Edgar Sosa and Jerry Smith, the Cards are tough to beat.
Weakness: Like most Pitino teams, they can fall in love with the three-point shot. They do play excellent defense to make up for that, but how do you explain their quarterfinal exit from the Big East tourney? Oh, they ran into a grittier team that outhustled them to loose balls and rebounds.
Outlook: The dream of a Tennessee-Louisville Sweet 16 matchup looks great, but watch out for Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon...
South: No. 4 Pittsburgh vs. No. 13 Oral Roberts, Thursday at 3 p.m.
They are hotter than LeBron and Giselle on the cover of Vogue. They are gritty (How many times can I use that word?), they are tested, they are angry and they are your dark horse if you have any sense...
Strengths: As I've already stated on this post, Pitt is gritty. They will outrebound you with size (Tyrell Biggs), strength (Sam Young) or just plain wanting it more than you (Levance Fields). They're playing with a chip on their shoulder for a season that had so much promise, was hurt when Mike Cook was lost for the year, then rebounded this past week with four wins in four days.
Weakness: Keep them off the boards and send them to the line early, but not late. If you can get Ronald Ramon off the floor, that will help too, but right now they're playing with very few problems in my eyes
Outlook: This is by far the toughest region, so anything is possible. But this is the type of team needed to stop Memphis...
West: No. 4 UConn vs. No. 13 San Diego, Friday at 3 p.m.
This is a young Husky team that should be thrilled with this seed, since I could easily have seen them drop a little further down, but...
Strengths: As said before, they are young and ready to go 40 minutes strong. Hasheem Thabeet is a 7-3 frame in the post that throws shots away, starting the fast break.
Weakness: They are YOUNG. This team can beat itself real easy, especially since Thabeet isn't a scoring machine inside.
Outlook: They could easily challenge UCLA in the Sweet 16, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were done after the first weekend. Bowing out early in the Big East tourney leaves a foul taste in my mouth...
East: No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 George Mason, Thursday at 9:50 p.m.
This is the one Big East school I didn't see, but it's the same Notre Dame team as always...
Strengths: It's just one and his name is Luke Harangody, the 6-8 Player of the Year in the conference. He's a load inside, like a poor man's e a poor man's Tyler Hansbrough.
Weakness: The difference is, if Hansbrough gets in foul trouble, UNC has weapons to go to. If Harangody can't go, the Irish become a bunch of jump shooters that looked a lot better when they were open from kick outs from the post.
Outlook: I've never liked ND and I don't see them getting out of the first weekend.
South: No. 6 Marquette vs. No. 11 Kentucky, Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
Strenghts: I love their backcourt of Dominic James and Jerel McNeal.
Weakness: There's not much else to like after that.
Outlook: Another tough draw, with the Wildcats slumping into the Dance like the Eagles and the Big Trees awaiting the winner. Tough to see them past the weekend, but I wouldn't be shocked since guard play makes the difference in the Dance.
West: No. 7 West Virginia vs. No. 10 Arizona, Thursday at 9:40 p.m.
Strengths: Joe Alexander is a name you will learn should the Mountaineers move on. He's a 6-8 shooter that can create his own shot and Bob Huggins is a great coach who's been here before.
Weakness: It's been a long time since Huggins won anything, yet alone coached a team on a deep tourney run (1996 with Cincy was his last Elite Eight appearance).
Outlook: In a game of teams that weren't even supposed to be here today, it's possible that Alexander stays hot (loss to Georgetown notwithstanding) and WV makes a run. Then again, it could be a reality check, like there's no way Dante pulls Rosario and they go out early...
Midwest: No. 5 Clemson vs. No. 12 Villanova, Friday at 9:50 p.m.
One of, if not the last team into the dance, the Wildcats can make some noise.
Strengths: Scottie Reynolds can run my team any day of the week and twice on Sunday (which they might need him too). It's real simple - if he gets hot, watch out.
Weakness: Nova has a lot of bad losses because while Jay Wright can coach and recruit, he's got a young team with no seniors. So bad news for other teams next year, but it could mean bad news for Nova this year.
Outlook: If it wasn't a 5-12 game, I wouldn't pick it but as a former Gamecocks employee, I get to pick against Clemson, pick a Big East school and fill the 5-12 quote. Call it a mortal lock, so long as my life isn't on the line...
A couple of notes:
- Don't trust a Big 12 school. While they routinely send teams to the Final Four, the last school to cut down the final nets was Kansas IN 1988 with Danny Manning. That was before it was even 12 teams and the Big West has won a tourney title since.
- The Best Matchup is by far on Thursday at 7:10 and I hope it's a national feed. No. 6 USC vs. No. 11 Kansas State means O.J. Mayo vs. Michael Beasley in a pre-NBA meeting. Catch them now before they change uniforms next year.
- The Big 10 is down, so don't look shocked if Temple beats Michigan State or Arkansas stops Indiana (although I would be shocked on that last one).
- The Pac 10 is up, so don't sleep on Oregon (I'm not just saying that Josh) or Washington State (although I wouldn't be shocked on that last one if they lost to Winthrop)
- And last but not least, there were no snubs this year. Arizona State can complain about Arizona, but neither team was truly worthy and Virginia Tech really isn't that great. Every year, teams can complain and I could argue that margarine is better than butter, but it does nobody no good. The field is set, you're not in it and it's time to move on.
Go win the NIT if you feel so snubbed, so disrespected and the like. Meanwhile, the 34 best at-large teams and 31 conference champions will decide who's the best of them all.
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5 comments:
A couple of things fuckface.
First of all you say "Roy Hibbert is easily the best big man in the country" I guess that means you consider neither Kevin Love or Tyler Hansbrough a big man. Because either one of them would shit on Roy Hibbert's slow half afro ass. All that being said the rest of your assesment on the Hoyas is abvsolutely correct, you forgot to mention they bring off the bench one of the best shot blocking non center's int he country in Ewing, Jr.
Please dont sell me Pittsburgh, I had been on their bandwagon in years past and watched Jaime Dixon coach this team into a torunament loss. I agree that Ramon is a huge X factor, all he does is make big plays (I have been telling people for two years that if you truly want to win you need city tough kids; NY, Chi, Philly, DC, Balt, Dallas, KC, St. Louis, LA, Oakland etc). Also dont fool yourself into believing that Mike Cook's departure hurt the Panthers, it was the best thing for them. He is a team cancer, was so at ECU and is at Pitt, it was like Shockey going down for the Giants.
Don't miss the Marquette-Kentucky match up, 4 of the best guards you will see. Jerel McNeal an outstanding defender going against Joe Crawford maybe the most versatile two guard offensively in the country should be a great battle.
Nova doesn't deserve to be int his field and Clemson does as good a job as anyone in the country at dictating style of play and tempo (Tennessee & Wisconsin also). They will speed Reynolds and the Wildcats up and get them completely off their game and run them right out of the gym.
And yes Martin there were snubs, there are every year. It is dismissive to sya oh this year their were no snubs. Someone got snubbed by the fact that Baylor and Nova got in the field. I dont think Baylor should be in the NIT field for crying out loud.
I'll start my reply with, "No, I don't consider Kevin Love or Tyler big men because at the next level, they would play the 4 or power forward, while Hibbert would be a 5 or center or BIG MAN!" Just because they play big against smaller front lines doesn't make them big men. Yes, they play the center within their team structure, but they are power forwards and I was referring to centers.
That being said, I could have made that more clear and I didn't want to go so in depth about the Hoyas because I could have gone on forever...
And there are no snubs because there would always be snubs. Even if Baylor, ASU and Nova were out and three other teams were in, there would be people complaining about those three teams. This is an imperfect system, so you have to live with the imperfections and quit your crying (Not yours) in my valued opinion.
Were you really listening to Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas?
What happened to you?
Also, didn't Roy Hibbert get his shot blocked a lot in that Pitt game, by smaller guys? Not promising.
Georgetown isn't playing in Washington because the venue being used is their home arena. Maybe they could play on campus and then when the tourney is in DC they could stay at home like UNC.
Kid P
Roy Hibbert blows. Remember in pre-season someone thought I was weird for not putting Hibbert in my list of All-Americans, yeah that was a good call by me.
As for the snubs, if V-Tech, VCU and ASU were in over Nova, Arizona, and Baylor I wouldnt have any complaints. I have seen all of those teams play multiple times and my three snubs are better than those 3 teams in the tournament, so again I wouldnt have any problems. Maybe Dick and Digger would, but not me.
I like Smooth by Rob Thomas and Santana, whats wrong with that you art house goon?
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