2015 NCAA Tournament thread

Ah, Sulaimon. This is indeed a rousing story of triumphing over the adversity of looking the other way on rape allegations until you were sure the freshmen could handle his minutes.

 

Wisconsin played awful. Travon Jackson just sucks. Every time he was on the court he practically handed Duke 4-6 points.

Kaminsky looked very tentative. His best play was getting Okafor in foul trouble, but he didn't drive to the hoop much, even when Okafor was on the bench.

It was an exciting game, but not very well played.

 

Joe DeRosa

Sucked for 22 years in the NBA. Sucks just as bad in College.

 

I can't think of many title games I'd describe as well-played. The players are just too amped up and are forcing themselves to go past their limits of control. Kaminsky had 21 points and 12 boards, which doesn't seem that tentative. Wisconsin's guards were just outmatched when on defense, and Dekker's poor night was a fatal blow.

 

If you watched the earlier games of the tournament, Kaminsky definitely was not his normal self, which does not mean he was bad, but stats aside, not one of his best games. To be fair, Duke always plays great defense and that was definitely part of it.

 

Jones, Allen and Cook were terrific on defense, especially helping to deny entry passes. That's a big part of why the Wisconsin guards stood around dribbling so much.

 

Good Christ, that was an unwatchable game. Maybe Wisconsin can stand around more and miss more shots?

 

I am a proud UW grad and there were a few questionable calls however Duke won this game because they were the better team. I have to chuckle a bit when I hear Bo Ryan and his players (primarily Hayes and Koenig) complaining about foul differential. Wisconsin benefited from a couple of horrible calls in the Kentucky game but I didn't hear Bo alluding to those in the post game presser. Maybe Bo should have discussed how Duke ran the high ball screen action the entire second half just as they did in Madison earlier in the year and he did nothing to change things up. I salute Sam Dekker as he put the loss on himself. Clearly he wasn't as good as he was in the previous games but he was not the sole reason they lost. Sam showed more leadership and class than his 68 year old coach.

 

Dead solid perfect, Badger.

I'll take you for a tap of Point in 2086 when they're back in the finals.

 

Catching up on this thread has been a delight.

We had no rooting interest outside of hoping for a Duke loss, but we both screamed at the TV every time Travon Jackson went into the game. For a supposed man of basketball genius, that was some poor decision making on Bo Ryan.

The consensus opinion at my house was we thought Wiscy could win but didn't know how much they had in the tank after beating Kentucky. The looked drained, especially down the stretch late in the second half.

I don't have much thought about the officiating as it was bad, but bad for both sides as the game was full of weird calls.

I save my conspiracy theories for the selection committee and how they stack the brackets to get a desired outcome and I do think they were in the tank for Duke from the start and were pushing, hard, for a Kentucky-Duke final.

They also gave Wisconsin, the same team the committee thought was the fourth best in the tournament, the hardest possible path to the finals. It is also the same reason why I think Izzo isn't some coaching genius but a good coach who benefits from selection committee shenanigans.

 

Yeah, Izzo clearly benefited from getting a No. 7 seed after losing in overtime of the Big Ten title game.

 

It isn't about the seeding, it is about the matchups of players and styles of play.