NCAA hoops 2014-2015

[Harold Baines]

Thanks! They kept their poise. And Sammy Dekker, man, the guy lives for the big moment.

[jon abbey]

that's the comparison for him, fuck Keith Van Horn. he might be Robert Horry, dude has megacojones.

[jon abbey]

I'm not really that comfortable with the thought of either Duke or Wisconsin winning it all, but I guess I can look at it like if Duke wins, then I win the pool, and if Wisconsin wins, at least Duke lost.

[The G Man]

Are Final Four officials chosen on merit? The no-flagrant foul call on Trey Lyles and the no shot-clock violation foul were both horrible on an epic scale. At least they cancelled out. Beyond that, there were fouls for no-contact, offensive fouls that should have been blocking fouls and vice versa, all in the final few minutes.

[jon abbey]

yeah, the end-game officiating, the seeming decision by Kentucky to stop running an offense for the last five minutes or so, and the hideous uniforms of Wisconsin ended up knocking that out of what had a shot to be the best college game I've ever seen. so many terrible calls at the end, I'd like to see someone go through and document every one, for both teams.

[The G Man]

The Harrison twins were heralded 5* recruits out of high school and potential NBA lottery picks. It was a big blow to Terps fans when they chose KU over Maryland. They did not come close to living up to expectations. Both shot under 40% from the field as sophomores. They are expected to go mid-second round in the draft.

[Captain Hate]

The Harrisons have bailed Cal out more times than not, this season and last, with clutch shots at the end after stinking up the joint for the entire game. I'm sure Gordon is correct on how the NBA currently regards them but I could imagine either or both having productive pro careers in the right setting. But yes, they are wildly inconsistent.

I think KY suffered from how shitty the rest of the SEC was this season. Some of the games I commented on during the season certainly didn't prepare them for a long run to the top which their talent level almost attained anyway. In recent years I've praised Cal's coaching but I don't think he got nearly as much out of the team as he should have.

Congrats Dupre but there's still one major hill to climb and this is a K team which is oddly not overly enamored with the three pointer. And congrats to the B1G and Bojangles conferences.

[Jason Bivins]

Awesome win! Congrats, Chris.

[walto]

Agree with Jon about the Wisconsin uniforms. Look like women's bathing suits from the 1920's. I'd have been embarrassed to go in front of company with those on.

And agree with everybody that the calls were terrible. Carol was ready to call a district attorney somewhere about the game being fixed--until the shot clock thing.

[walto]

BTW, re the I Hate Music Pool results, I wonder if anybody would be interested in changing the scoring to 1-2-4-6-8-10 next year, retaining the 1 point for upset picks. I believe that with that in place, Jon would win whatever happens tomorrow, as I think he should, having got so many games right. It would also help front-runners like me who can never get the 1 v 2 games right, and would make the upset bonuses meaningful. I mean, unless a bunch of people are bunched up at the end (which is unlikely with so few people in it), two or three points isn't going to matter much when the championship game is worth 32.

Just a thought. (I think I might have made this pitch before, though....)

[The G Man]

The Harrisons have bailed Cal out more times than not, this season and last, with clutch shots at the end after stinking up the joint for the entire game. I'm sure Gordon is correct on how the NBA currently regards them but I could imagine either or both having productive pro careers in the right setting. But yes, they are wildly inconsistent.

I think KY suffered from how shitty the rest of the SEC was this season. Some of the games I commented on during the season certainly didn't prepare them for a long run to the top which their talent level almost attained anyway. In recent years I've praised Cal's coaching but I don't think he got nearly as much out of the team as he should have.

Congrats Dupre but there's still one major hill to climb and this is a K team which is oddly not overly enamored with the three pointer. And congrats to the B1G and Bojangles conferences.

You know me, I had to look this up.

OT win vs. Miss.- Aaron was a key clutch factor, Andrew didn't play.
OT win vs. Texas A&M- Aaron shot 4-20, Andrew 2-10. Their suckiness is why the game went to OT.
2 point win vs. LSU- Aaron shot 1-8, Andrew didn't play.
2 point win vs. ND- Aaron shot 2-7, Andrew 0-2.
Loss vs. Wisconsin- They shot 5-11 and 5-10 but were not heroic in the clutch.

Point spread is pick'em for Duke-WIsconsin.

[walto]

I wonder whether this was a year/team in which Cal's "get 'em ready for the pros" philosophy is what prevented them from having a perfect record. In order to be "fair" to each prospect, he never had a clear batch of starters or finishers. Different units were on the floor all the time, and nobody played as much as 30 minutes. I really think that if he wasn't quite so "fair" he'd have had an actual team that might have won the whole thing. But that promise of "fairness" might have been required to get so much talent there. Some of those guys likely wouldn't have gone to Kentucky if they were going to get only 5 or 10 minutes a game.

Just a thought.

[Harold Baines]

This is the Sconnie home radio call synched to highlights. Interesting that Matt LePay's commentary doesn't differ from his regular season approach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oNCgH57co8&sns=fb

[Captain Hate]

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I had an unfortunate mule incident that resulted in me losing my front and bottom two teeth. The Duke and Wisconsin fans were horrible to me. God forbid someone from Kentucky is missing a tooth. I will never return to another game outside of Rupp.

[walto]

Hahaha!

[jon abbey]

the Harrisons seem pretty stupid, on the court anyway. maybe they'll be back of the roster players in the NBA, we'll see.

[Harold Baines]

Of course it's the kid from Apple Valley who beats them.

[jon abbey]

I wonder whether this was a year/team in which Cal's "get 'em ready for the pros" philosophy is what prevented them from having a perfect record. In order to be "fair" to each prospect, he never had a clear batch of starters or finishers. Different units were on the floor all the time, and nobody played as much as 30 minutes. I really think that if he wasn't quite so "fair" he'd have had an actual team that might have won the whole thing. But that promise of "fairness" might have been required to get so much talent there. Some of those guys likely wouldn't have gone to Kentucky if they were going to get only 5 or 10 minutes a game.

Just a thought.

well, I watched the majority of Kentucky games this year, and I'd say that very few of them earned 30 minutes consistently, maybe just Towns. Ulis and Booker were a better backcourt than the Harrisons probably, but they would have worn down over the course of the season at full minutes, I think. when John Wall was there, he was so good that Calipari could barely take him off the floor even with Bledsoe backing him up. Lyles also looked very good very often, but he disappeared against Wisconsin, and the one thing they lacked was a real distributing PG to make sure the ball keeps moving each time down the floor. that killed them in the end, also the weak competition all year probably didn't help.

so Duke had a pretty sick freshman class of their own, huh? all we heard all year was Okafor but Winslow just kept getting better all year and of course Allen was massive tonight. sorry, Chris, but that was a helluva year. I think finishing that one off would have given Wisconsin the best trio of wins ever (topping that Miles Simon Arizona team), Arizona, Kentucky and Duke, but they couldn't quite finish it.

[jon abbey]

60 of 68 points for Duke by freshman, that is a championship game record, more than any of Calipari's teams. that is one loaded class, Allen was the slam dunk champion in last year's McDonald's game and evidently has the highest vertical leap of anyone on Duke, I had no idea.

[walto]

Dekker fell back to earth in this one--I think he missed every J he took, most badly. But the real problem for them was the athleticism of Jones and Allen off the dribble. Are those guys both staying in college?