Running 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament thread

I have always joked that they would have ended the movie right there. Pretty poor fundamentals from the hicks if you ask me.

 

Sort of. Howard, Hahn and Hayward are all from Indiana (along with Smith, who played a couple minutes). Mack is from Lexington, while Veasley is from Freeport, Illinois. Those are all local or a bordering state. But Nored is from Alabama, Jukes from Georgia and Vanzant from Tampa. So, they are much less Hoosier than they've been portrayed all along the way.

I went to the game last night just as a fan who wanted to see a big event. It's been a long, long time since I've done that. I was somewhere between courtside and the upper reaches of Lucas Oil Stadium (which by the way had many empty seats way up in the nosebleeds) and it was a really cool atmosphere. I'd sort of forgotten what it was like to just kick back and watch a big game in person.

 

Gotta say, the "act like you've been there before" line in response to a team celebrating a national championship was an all-time classic.

 

I don't know. I was in the nosebleed section at the Superdome in '82, when Jordan hit the last shot for Carolina, and I thought the atmosphere that night was just fine.

 

I understand that the cynics are coming out, and I don't disagree with a lot that has been mentioned on here, e.g. that teams of 20 years ago would beat these teams, that Butler capitalized on a down year, etc.

But I've seen a lot of games in my life, because of what we do, to the point that 99.9 percent of them, even the good ones, are completely forgettable. I would say last night's game will be one of the top five, at least thus far, that I'll actually remember. Year. Winner. Final sequence. Location. All of it.

 

Also: Football should take note.

When is the last time we had a football national title game that rich with storylines and drama? Maybe Texas-USC in the Rose Bowl, but I'd argue Miami-Nebraska in 1983.

 

I think you will see Butler start to get more interest from future college players. The Gonzaga reference is an apt one here. Gonzaga used to be the mid-major that would kill teams' chances in the first two rounds of the tournament. Now Gonzaga is one of the bigger schools and they're the ones getting upset at times... but the floodgates opened when Gonzaga started doing well. Before then, how many people did you hear say "I want to play at Gonzaga".

I was very impressed with Butler and how the team overcame the Duke entitlement mentality. I was also impressed with Dickie V and Jay Bilas during the second half of Sportscenter last night. They were Dookie cheerleaders in the first half with their praise for coach K and the team, but then they did a 180 and gave huge compliments to Butler. I was expecting a blowout; I didn't get it. Kudos to the Bulldogs for not knuckling under.

 

Definitely Texas-USC. That's an all-timer and one of the great college football games ever. It had great players and great plays throughout.

 

That was a hell of a game. You had big guys in foul trouble, a lot of lead changes, I wish that last shot never came down. Butler had their chances. But they got killed on the boards when they needed them and Duke's shot blocking was unreal. Really impressed with Butler's coach. Not to mention the pick that laid out that Dukie before the final shot. Of the three Final Four coaches, Sherman seemed the most poised.
And isn't it about time Coach K stop dyeing his hair?


Wilbur 'Shooter' Flatch: Clete, you tell him. Sectionals of '33, one point down. Five, four, three, two, one, let 'er fly... in and out. Yeah, well, I was fouled..

 

I'll agree with you up to a point. Calling Butler's penultimate shot "badly missed" is a bit of a hyperbole. He almost made it, which is so impressive because it wasn't a good look. But you're right that Duke didn't have to do anything amazingly on defense on that play. A little help defense was enough since there was zero ball movement. All in all, I didn't think there was amazing defense played in that game. I'm not saying the opposite, that it was horrible defense. Just that I think some people are overrating the quality of D. There was a good out of ugly offense, that I'm sure the nerves of a big stage had a lot to do with. Still, it's picking nits. It was a fantastic game to watch.

 

Also, there have been plenty of snooze-fests in the basketball title game, too.

 

I've no idea what game you were watching. There were only six seconds left when Hayward took that shot, so I don't know where you seem to have gotten this idea that they had plenty more time to work for a better shot.

Let's see, with only a few seconds left, their best player beats Singler off the dribble and finds a path to the basket. Damn straight he should've taken it. Highly unlikely they would get a better opportunity than that in the next few seconds. Instead, with the way Duke was defending, quite likely they would've only been able to hoist up a long prayer or perhaps get no decent shot at all. Unfortunately, Zoubek did a damn good job coming to help and Hayward was met by a 7'1" behemoth with arms extended when he got there, and thus had to adjust with a fallaway. But it still was a good decision to take that alley to the hoop. If he hadn't, guys like you would instead be whining and bleating today about how he passed up that opportunity and they ended getting no shot at all.

And if you think Butler wasn't setting tons of screens and working hard without the ball to get guys open, then I have no clue what game you were watching. And if you think Butler is a team that hoists up shots too early in the shot clock, I have no idea what team you have been watching.