We have had a player pool since 1979. I try to enliven it with some amateur sports writing. Passing on last night's entry for anyone who might be interested in a brief distraction before the Pitt game.
****
Half the Sweet 16 is set. Princeton in, Kansas out, as expected.
The clock struck 12 for Furman shortly after noon. San Diego State was far too physical for the Paladins, leading to the question why Virginia wasn’t. The answer to that may have come in the second game. If San Diego State looked like men, Tennessee looked, as Kenny Smith put it tonight, like “a G-League team.” Some of them were more game than others, but it was clear early on that Duke’s talented kids were too soft to hang with the athletic and aggressive adults Tennessee brought to Orlando this afternoon. There are teams that may highlight Tennessee’s offensive limitations, especially with its point guard out, but Duke is not one of them. Maybe the ACC was down this season after all. We will know for sure tomorrow.
Speaking of older athletes, they were at the center of the third game of the afternoon, the game of the day, as Arkansas overcame a double-digit deficit and a virtual home crowd for Kansas to dethrone the national champions in a game that, once again, featured some world-class swearing by yours truly, all in the name of right and justice of course. With Arkansas’s two projected lottery picks, Nick Smith, Jr. and Anthony Black, combining for four points, it was left to veterans Devo Davis and Ricky Council IV to spark a stirring comeback. Davis went off for 21 in the second half and, after he fouled out, Council IV took over with some clutch buckets and some even more clutch free throws. This presumably was gratifying to Council’s older brothers, Ricky Council II and Ricky Council III, each of whom played college basketball. Davis and Council IV were supported by a gritty effort by the glabrous Jordan Walsh, who will not be going in the lottery, but who was the best freshman on Arkansas this afternoon.
While that drama was unfolding in Des Moines, out in Sacramento, the Princeton Tigers were making inexplicably short work of a Missouri team that had beaten a somewhat similar Utah State team with relative ease on Thursday. I did not see much of this game. What I did see I watched through the lens of a failed pool pick, as Hodge of Missouri, who had scored 23 for Da Pigs on Thursday, stood contentedly in the left corner, far from the action, except on the occasions when he stood contentedly in the right corner. When I checked in after the dramatic Arkansas win, Princeton was cruising by double digits and Hodge was still in that corner. He may be there still.
The one thing CBS does that does not outrage me is to time the game endings to roll out over the course of the day. Next up was Houston at Auburn in Birmingham. With Purdue and Kansas out and Auburn up 10 at the half and playing a virtual home game, it looked like a third 1 seed was headed for the exit. Then Houston responded with a stunning statement, a 50-23 second half to win going away. This impressive performance was fueled first by Marcus Sasser, who came back much earlier and more effectively from his groin injury than expected (or at least expected by me) to score 22, and then perhaps even more surprisingly, by Travon Mark, averaging 9.7 a game, who went for 26. Sasser and Mark were aided by freshman forward Jarace Walker from York County, Pennsylvania, another projected lottery pick, who scored modestly for Da Pigs but broke the Houston school record for blocked shots in an NCAA tournament game with six, a noteworthy accomplishment at a school that sent Elvin Hayes and Hakeem Olajuwon to five Final Fours.
Tonight featured courageous comebacks by the Big Ten overachievers, Penn State and Northwestern, that fell short against strong Texas and UCLA squads. For Penn State, the shots were there but they just weren’t falling at the end, especially for Funk. Timmy Allen did a better job with Pickett than Texas A&M or the teams in the Big Ten tournament, Dylan Disu, averaging 8.3 but in the sights of Da Pigs as a rising star before the Pineapples scarfed him up, went off for 28 and Marcus Carr, the source of my doubts about Texas, played under control down the stretch. But Penn State played good basketball to the end and they will be, for better and worse, a team to be reckoned with as long as Coach Shrewsbury is there.
For Northwestern, their veteran guards, Boo Buie and Chase Audige, woke up at half-time and brought Northwestern back to a tie. The ‘Cats had chances down the stretch, but UCLA’s own veterans, Jaime Jacquez (24 points) and Tyger Campbell (0-7 from the field, 12-12 from the foul line) were a little too much. So Mick Cronin, the Nikita Khrushchev of college basketball, lives to glare another day, but the Bruins appeared to suffer yet another major injury with 20 seconds left in the game, a nasty looking ankle sprain to David Singletary, who had hit a huge three pointer down the stretch.
In the last game Alabama beat Maryland handily. That’s about all I will say. To me, the Alabama situation is a cloud over this whole tournament. I resist the temptation to moralize. It is painful and sad to see young people make horrible errors in judgment that destroy lives. But if the University of Alabama, its coach and CBS have moved on and adopted the position that there is nothing to see here, I have not. So I will report the Alabama results and that’s all.
Turning to the pool, the only thing that seems sure is that, like Kansas, Da Pigs will be able to put aside any remaining aspirations of defending their title and focus their full energies on the Panthers against the feel good story that is Sean Miller.
Tip in 11 hours. Let’s Go Pitt
****
Half the Sweet 16 is set. Princeton in, Kansas out, as expected.
The clock struck 12 for Furman shortly after noon. San Diego State was far too physical for the Paladins, leading to the question why Virginia wasn’t. The answer to that may have come in the second game. If San Diego State looked like men, Tennessee looked, as Kenny Smith put it tonight, like “a G-League team.” Some of them were more game than others, but it was clear early on that Duke’s talented kids were too soft to hang with the athletic and aggressive adults Tennessee brought to Orlando this afternoon. There are teams that may highlight Tennessee’s offensive limitations, especially with its point guard out, but Duke is not one of them. Maybe the ACC was down this season after all. We will know for sure tomorrow.
Speaking of older athletes, they were at the center of the third game of the afternoon, the game of the day, as Arkansas overcame a double-digit deficit and a virtual home crowd for Kansas to dethrone the national champions in a game that, once again, featured some world-class swearing by yours truly, all in the name of right and justice of course. With Arkansas’s two projected lottery picks, Nick Smith, Jr. and Anthony Black, combining for four points, it was left to veterans Devo Davis and Ricky Council IV to spark a stirring comeback. Davis went off for 21 in the second half and, after he fouled out, Council IV took over with some clutch buckets and some even more clutch free throws. This presumably was gratifying to Council’s older brothers, Ricky Council II and Ricky Council III, each of whom played college basketball. Davis and Council IV were supported by a gritty effort by the glabrous Jordan Walsh, who will not be going in the lottery, but who was the best freshman on Arkansas this afternoon.
While that drama was unfolding in Des Moines, out in Sacramento, the Princeton Tigers were making inexplicably short work of a Missouri team that had beaten a somewhat similar Utah State team with relative ease on Thursday. I did not see much of this game. What I did see I watched through the lens of a failed pool pick, as Hodge of Missouri, who had scored 23 for Da Pigs on Thursday, stood contentedly in the left corner, far from the action, except on the occasions when he stood contentedly in the right corner. When I checked in after the dramatic Arkansas win, Princeton was cruising by double digits and Hodge was still in that corner. He may be there still.
The one thing CBS does that does not outrage me is to time the game endings to roll out over the course of the day. Next up was Houston at Auburn in Birmingham. With Purdue and Kansas out and Auburn up 10 at the half and playing a virtual home game, it looked like a third 1 seed was headed for the exit. Then Houston responded with a stunning statement, a 50-23 second half to win going away. This impressive performance was fueled first by Marcus Sasser, who came back much earlier and more effectively from his groin injury than expected (or at least expected by me) to score 22, and then perhaps even more surprisingly, by Travon Mark, averaging 9.7 a game, who went for 26. Sasser and Mark were aided by freshman forward Jarace Walker from York County, Pennsylvania, another projected lottery pick, who scored modestly for Da Pigs but broke the Houston school record for blocked shots in an NCAA tournament game with six, a noteworthy accomplishment at a school that sent Elvin Hayes and Hakeem Olajuwon to five Final Fours.
Tonight featured courageous comebacks by the Big Ten overachievers, Penn State and Northwestern, that fell short against strong Texas and UCLA squads. For Penn State, the shots were there but they just weren’t falling at the end, especially for Funk. Timmy Allen did a better job with Pickett than Texas A&M or the teams in the Big Ten tournament, Dylan Disu, averaging 8.3 but in the sights of Da Pigs as a rising star before the Pineapples scarfed him up, went off for 28 and Marcus Carr, the source of my doubts about Texas, played under control down the stretch. But Penn State played good basketball to the end and they will be, for better and worse, a team to be reckoned with as long as Coach Shrewsbury is there.
For Northwestern, their veteran guards, Boo Buie and Chase Audige, woke up at half-time and brought Northwestern back to a tie. The ‘Cats had chances down the stretch, but UCLA’s own veterans, Jaime Jacquez (24 points) and Tyger Campbell (0-7 from the field, 12-12 from the foul line) were a little too much. So Mick Cronin, the Nikita Khrushchev of college basketball, lives to glare another day, but the Bruins appeared to suffer yet another major injury with 20 seconds left in the game, a nasty looking ankle sprain to David Singletary, who had hit a huge three pointer down the stretch.
In the last game Alabama beat Maryland handily. That’s about all I will say. To me, the Alabama situation is a cloud over this whole tournament. I resist the temptation to moralize. It is painful and sad to see young people make horrible errors in judgment that destroy lives. But if the University of Alabama, its coach and CBS have moved on and adopted the position that there is nothing to see here, I have not. So I will report the Alabama results and that’s all.
Turning to the pool, the only thing that seems sure is that, like Kansas, Da Pigs will be able to put aside any remaining aspirations of defending their title and focus their full energies on the Panthers against the feel good story that is Sean Miller.
Tip in 11 hours. Let’s Go Pitt
