NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

Hey, it could have been worse. At least it wasn't 7-0 at halftime.

 

Who cares about college basketball when you have a post like this on the board. Nice work, Starman. One steaming moment, indeed.

 

Brian - one post after claiming that guys like roy williams and calipari don't teach dribbling, shooting and fundamentals at their practices and instead run pick-up games, you then take exception to the fact that people are tired of guys like you making it like butler is the only team that plays the right way.

That is asinine and I'd be willing to be calipari works on shooting and dribbling and rebounding as much or more than any coach in the country including stevens.

But you can't sit here and suckoff a team as much as you have for three weeks then whine when you get called out for it.

I probably could stomach butler more if it weren't for cheerleaders like you who act as if this is the only team that plays defense, works on fundamentals, plays hard and are good kids. It is total bullshit and yes, they made a nice run through a field many people believe is the most watered down and least impressive in ncaa tourney history.

Oh and one other thing - congrats to UConn for doing something last night that only nine other teams did this year - beat the greatest and most fundamentally sound team in basketball history....

 

Michael Gee -- to your point about having an individual who can take over, the turning point of the game was Calhoun running plays for Lamb -- who took only two shots in the first half -- instead of Walker. Butler could match up with Walker, but it had no one who could match up with Lamb. Also, using Lamb to match up with whomever brought the ball up for Butler paid dividends, too. If Calhoun had never made those adjustments with Lamb, it might have been possible for Butler to shoot 19 percent and win, given how UConn was playing.

 

There was a point with about eight minutes to play and UConn led by five or seven points, I think, when Butler missed a bunny layup and they showed Stevens on the sideline. He had a look on his face that said, "I've done all I can, these guys just need to make a fucking shot. Well, maybe next year."

Butler wasn't that far behind at that point, but you could see Stevens knew it was over. I actually wanted to make this post right then, but my bracket was riding on a UConn victory and I didn't want to jinx anything.

Speaking of brackets, does anyone know how many total entries there were for the CBS sports bracket challenge? I couldn't find that info last night. I finished 875th overall.

 

Where do I claim Roy Williams doesn't teach fundamentals? I never claimed, nor would I ever claim, that Butler is the only program in the country where there is coaching or where a team game is played. Just like I never claimed that no Americans get coaching, but you'll argue that that's the argument all day.

 

Rece Davis was hilarious after the game. Digger Phelps said UConn went on a 20-3 run and Davis interjected, saying, "Wait, wait Digger. There were no runs in this game. It was a 20-3 crawl, a slow walk." When the people in Connecticut knock a game that UConn won, that is just great. I'm glad nobody sugarcoated it (besides Dookie V, but that's expected).

 

Greg Anthony said, "I'm sorry we all had to watch this." I enjoyed that immensely.

 

We do know Cal doesn't give a shit about free throws -- see Memphis vs. KU in the title game and Kentucky vs. UConn in the semis.

And in both games his team made mental errors regarding fouling late.

Love seeing that slime lose.

 

UConn won the national title scoring 109 points in its last two games. That's hard to do. And it's impossible to do without playing two games that were very painful on those spectators who didn't either go to or wager on UConn.

 

Michael it is not hard to win scoring that few points these days in college basketball where goon ball has become known as "tough, hard nosed, physical defense" and where teams like butler, like Pitt have figured out you can win a lot of games and never get blown out by slowing the pace and turning every fucking game into a fucking "slugfest" and then bragging about winning ugly because officials allow it to go on.

People can talk about one-and-dones, the scholarship limitations and everything else but one of the big reasons college hoops sucks to watch these days is that officials don't call fouls and don't officiate games the way they should be.

Like I said, david stern realized how bad the pat riley knicks-heat thug ball teams were for the NBA, especially since so many teams began copying that formula, and he made a point of emphasis with officials - get the defenders hands off guy they are guarding, start caLling the chipping and hedging what it is -usually illegal screens or reaches - and the game became enjoyable to watch again.

And it is really bad in the big east right now as most of those games are unwatchable.

If the ncaa wanted to make the product better it could start by pushing officials to start calling games the right way and call a foul based on the rules of the game.

If that happened,the game would become instantly better and teams could still play defense the right way

 

Youngstown State was a horrible team, horribly coached, which got incredibly lucky one night.