Go ahead, I fuckin' dares ya. Look at my predictions for this quartet of games. Aside from being massively, superhumanly wrong on Stanford and Texas, my predictions are at least apt, and sometimes, scarily prescient. Bask in the Wonder of the Big Blue Monkey. C'mon. Do it. Bask. Just a little. Just to make me happy.
Let's review.
Wisconsin got their dog walked by the fightinest Wildcats in North Carolina, the Davidson Steven Currys (Curries?). Key stat? Oh, about this one? "Curry, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, outscored the Badgers all by himself in the second half, 22-20. He finished with 33 points on 11-of-22 shooting, including six 3-pointers. "
What did I say about this game? Oh, right: "No big comeback for Davidson this time. They will take the lead in under 10 minutes and never surrender it."
Texas stole Stanford's lunch money. I didn't see much of this game, as it there were Big 10 doings here in both the early and late games, and who in Minnesota gives two poops if a Big 12 teams roughs up a couple of nerdy PAC-10 Twins? I totally got this one wrong, so I won't quote myself here. I will link to Mike Freeman, who so beautifully ripped the supersized catamite crushes of Dick Vitale et al on Tyler Hansborough. His take on the game (which I assume he got to watch) is that the Lopez Twins disappeared in the second half (not literally, of course).
Kansas destroying Villanova isn't much of surprise. But they did destroy Villanova. I will not link to myself here, because predicting that isn't anything to brag about. But I have a hard time resisting bragging. OK, quick quote of myself, then: "Kansas in a romp that makes the other #1's romps look like Fischer v Kasparov." That may have been a bit of hyperbole. It might have not. I have no idea what it means. I think it references chess, though, so it makes me look smart.
The least regarded #1 seed in this tournament, despite returning the entire team that made it into the Elite 8 last year, Memphis was like a kitty named Pablo batting around a green ball of yarn named Michigan State. They shut down Drew Neitzel (2-8 from the field). They got into passing lanes for easy baskets. In the half-court, with Michigan State deciding to run a 2-3 zone that forced Memphis to shoot from outside, they hit 3-pointers, early and often. Oh, and the notoriously awful free-throw shooting Tigers hit almost 75% from the charity stripe, with Chris Douglas-Roberts leading the way with 11 of 12.
They played a total team game--4 of 5 starters hit better than 40% from field, and three hit better than 50%. I'm unsure why this team made into so few Final Four brackets--they made it in on all of mine. Memphis is for real, ya'll. If you had asked, I would have told you that months ago when they spanked Georgetown. When everyone was predicting upset, what did U say again? I don't quite remember...Oh, right, "Memphis has too many skilled players where Michigan State relies upon time-eaters. I'll take Memphis by at least 9 points."
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