The Sports Brewery

Notes from Sweet 16/Elite 8 Weekend

Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 at 2:56 pm by 3D in Basketball, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Tournament

Another surprising weekend in the 2010 NCAA tournament.  Very surprising.  Those who had Kentucky as champion and figured they would cruise into the money in their pools: eh – wrong!  So, I give you a few other random thoughts from the weekend’s past:

- Butler looked downright dominant.  In both games, they took far superior athletic teams well out of their comfort zone.  Neither Syracuse nor Kansas State could get anything easy on the offensive end, especially Kansas State.  Much of their offense involved lofting it to the rim and hitting the offensive boards like mad men.  Butler stopped penetration and after a 50 minute thriller two nights before, K-State didn’t have the rhythm or legs to play well.  Honestly, would you be surprised to see Butler take out a man-down Michigan State then either Duke or West Virginia for the title?  Not I, not after how they beat the 1 and 2 seeds last weekend.

- I am going to keep hating Duke until they lose.  As I have thrown out how much I despise what they embody as well as their #1 honk, I keep eating crow.  Fine, so they beat Baylor.  I’ll just point out how they give up penetration at will and go streaky cold from the 3 point line.  Mark my word, those will be their dieing problems this coming weekend.  But I do think big ass Zoubek (too lazy to Google the spelling or the actual name but I know it starts with a Z) clogs the hell out of the lane and is a much bigger factor then his 0 statistical output.

- When the score was 13-6, I thought West Virginia was going to lose by 20.  Kentucky looked awesome at that point.  WV couldn’t make a shot, leading to easy runouts (when did that become the new basketball term for fastbreaks?).  In the end, this was a classic college game – decided by the 3 point line.  Kentucky (mainly coach Cal) was stupid for letting this game being decided there anyway.  Hey: when you’re 2-25 behind the line 35 minutes into the game, it might be time to let Wall and Cousins take over inside.  I dont’ know!

- Thank GOD Michigan St and Izzo took out my new least favorite player to watch: JP Prince.  This guy is a disgrace to watch.  What do I hate more, his post-dunk salute?  Watching him cry on every foul called on him or his teammates (he was surprisingly tame on the final call against MSU)?  How he GOES AND GETS THE DAMN BALL AFTER EVERY MADE BASKET!  Hello, you’re not the poing guard!  Fine, you show me his length and hustle, and I’ll show you 50 NBA players like that who will see to it that he stinks in the League. 

Fin

Tags: 2010 ncaa basketball tournament