Poly/FFZ March Madness

[-Jrabbit]

I'd say Lousiville's 2nd half is a pretty solid example.

[ColdWizard]

I wasn't paying enough attention then. I now hope for a Louisville-Syracuse final so the Big East can go out with a bang before I switch loyalties to the... Big East.

[-Jrabbit]

Wichita St NOT rolling over for Louisville... 12 pt lead with 13 min to play... probably too much to ask for...

[snoopy369]

Yeah, that's gone now. But still a pretty good showing for Wichita State whether they pull this off or not. Pitino is starting to show some cracks - making some questionable decisions going away from his team's strengths.

[ColdWizard]

Questionable jump ball call.

[-Jrabbit]

It was a pretty quick whistle, but actually a good call, especially under the circumstances.

But it was that one 3-minute stretch with 5 turnovers... kind of a shame, but not a surprise.

Ultimately, Louisville won because of their bench depth.

[-Jrabbit]

I think it's odd that Michigan is favored in the second game.
Much as I'm a Big 10 fan, i expect Syracuse to win with superior muscle, length, and coaching.

[snoopy369]

Questionable jump ball call.

I'm not a NCAA Basketball expert by any means, but I agree 100% - seemed like a bad whistle. Perhaps this is how they normally call it, but that doesn't make sense to me - a tie up should be when there is some actual length of time tied up, not just a defender briefly getting a hand on the ball.

[snoopy369]

I think it's odd that Michigan is favored in the second game.
Much as I'm a Big 10 fan, i expect Syracuse to win with superior muscle, length, and coaching.

Michigan is favored because Syracuse wins with very good defense, which works against teams with college players on their team. Michigan has at least three NBA players on the team. NBA players are NBA players because they can still play offense when faced with good defense (which every NBA team outside of Charlotte and whichever team is currently coached by Mike D'Antoni has better defense than Syracuse). Thus, Michigan is favored, and will likely win by double digits (I say with a double digit lead at 16 minute mark, but you saw how useful that was for Wichita State).

[-Jrabbit]

Hey, I hope I'm wrong. They look great.
All it takes is a quick look at the brackets to see my level of prognostication genius...

[ColdWizard]

I'm not a NCAA Basketball expert by any means, but I agree 100% - seemed like a bad whistle. Perhaps this is how they normally call it, but that doesn't make sense to me - a tie up should be when there is some actual length of time tied up, not just a defender briefly getting a hand on the ball.

I'm not sure it's bad, necessarily. Just seemed awfully quick to determine that the ball was tied up. Even after the replay I'm not sure it was tied up. Of course, I haven't seriously watched basketball of any sort for years.

[snoopy369]

Way closer game than it ought to be right now, thanks to some atrocious free throw shooting on the Wolverines' part.

[-Jrabbit]

Free throws. Free throws. They are FREE throws. NBA talent makes them; these are college kids.
If Michigan shoots even 50% from the line down the stretch, they win easily.
Still, they win.

Somebody check on Guynemer. He may have exploded.

[snoopy369]

Probably so. Admittedly some of the guys shooting them are bigs and/or not really experienced (the last guy was 17/24 on the _season_) ... but still, yes. Should absolutely make more than that. Shaq maybe could give them some pointers for the Louisville game? Any bets on how many FTs coach makes them shoot at practice tomorrow? 1000?

[-Jrabbit]

They was mostly getting their 80% guys to the line, including Burke and the white guard who was only in the game for ball-handling and foul-shooting.
McGary was very good from the line early, then looked like a deer in headlights late. (Of course, Syracuse spent most of the second half beating the hell out him.)