Elsewhere in the NCAA's
- Thread starter the Blades
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I watched that play a couple times and I think the trapped Virginia player on the baseline should have called a TO rather than heave that wild pass that got intercepted. The kid who was playing safety on the press by Furman really made that play, first by intercepting the wild pass and then by wasting no time hitting a teammate who was wide open behind the 3 point line for the winning 3. Was just a really good and well conceived defensive scheme by Furman that worked very well for them.
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Arizona was outscored 9-0 to end the game............you put kids in these high pressure late game situations and you never know how they will react. Last night, Filipowski of Duke was throwing up all through the first half, even though Duke was winning convincingly at the time, and ended up winning convincingly.
Big East 4-0 so far.....it's up to Providence to beat Kentucky to make it a Big East 1st round sweep.
Watched #16 Fairleigh Dickinson stun #1 Purdue, the 2nd 16 seed to ever do so. Just a brutal and depressing loss for Purdue, which passed up numerous open 3s in the last 5 minutes after shooting 11-14 on dunks and layups but 8-37 on all other shots. Playing scared is not a recipe for victory in the NCAA tournament. You could see and almost feel the pressure on the Purdue kids. As. Seth Davis said, it was painful to watch. The Purdue train slowly derailed in the last 5 minutes of this game, and you knew you were watching a train wreck that finally smashed off the rails.
Just glad UConn did a better job responding in the first half of their game after also playing with some jitters.
Just glad UConn did a better job responding in the first half of their game after also playing with some jitters.
Big East 5-1 after Xavier 84-73 win over Pitt. Marquette, UConn and Creighton need to keep it going.
Marquette losing to Michigan State was the one disappointment. I watched some of the game and it looked like Michigan State's physical defense really bothered Marquette and threw them off. Going into this game I thought that Michigan State was a team that could give Marquette trouble, but I was surprised at the extent to which they made Marquette look extremely uncomfortable. I also thought Michigan State somewhat underachieved in the regular season. I saw them earlier in the year and I thought they would be better than they were regular season.
Still, 7-2 is very good for the Big East.
Still, 7-2 is very good for the Big East.
UConn re-seeded #5 among 16 Sweet 16 teams:
www.espn.com
Reseeding the men's March Madness Sweet 16
More top seeds have fallen -- who's stepped into their place for the second weekend of the men's NCAA tournament?
www.espn.com
FWIW, and not sure if this will be the kiss of death, but all 3 ESPN "experts" are picking UConn to beat Arkansas:
www.espn.com
I think Arkansas talent level is just as good as UConn's. They were ranked higher in preseason polls, but had injury issues (notably with Nick Smith Jr. not playing a number of games) and had a disappointing regular season. As everyone knows Musselman is a great coach. He was head coach of 2 NBA teams and has the second highest career winning percentage in the old CBA. If Arkansas plays together and takes good shots, they certainly have the athleticism to beat UConn. They are way, way more athletic than either Iona and St. Mary's and Sanogo will not be operating with the same freedom he did in the first two rounds against clearly inferior defenders.
Experts predict every men's March Madness 2023 Sweet 16 game
We're salivating over these second-weekend matchups. Who wins out in the regional semifinals, and by how much?
www.espn.com
Hurley will also have to protect the team from the Fox hype monsters:
Fox Sports did their own re-seeding of the Sweet 16 and has UConn #2, 3 spots higher than ESPN:
In Vegas odds, UConn now the #3 betting favorite:
Based on Golden's analysis I hope Hurley might be open to playing some zone, or Clingan/Sanogo together, if needed. We have to see how the game goes. I suspect Musselman will look at tape of UConn's losses and see that some of the teams that beat Upon (notably St. John's in UConn's worst defensive performance of the year) were able to beat UConn with athletic players dribble driving to the hole. In that game Hurley didn't go to a zone until it was too late, and failed to play Clingan and Sanogo together to discourage the dribble drives. Arkansas will be one of the most athletic teams UConn has seen this year. Off the top of my head, I do not think they faced a more athletic team than Arkansas. So I would keep those options open if they hurt UConn with dribble drives. Against Kansas, Arkansas shot 3-15 on 3s and 41.4% FGs overall, but outrebounded Kansas and used an athletic D to take away Kansas's outside shooting. If UConn doesn't play zone, at least play off the perimeter players, pack the defense in, and encourage them to jack up jump shots. Last night that's how the UConn women won. Baylor made 5 3s in the 1st quarter, kept jacking up shots and eventually went cold in the second half, which is what usually happens when teams get hot early but get gassed late by having to defend good offense. The legs get heavy in the second half. As the Baylor coach said:
“I think we settled for too many jump shots,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said. “We don't want to be 50% of our shots from three. But when they have that size and they're backing up, there's a time and place. Sometimes that's the best shot you're going to get against them.”
“I think we settled for too many jump shots,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said. “We don't want to be 50% of our shots from three. But when they have that size and they're backing up, there's a time and place. Sometimes that's the best shot you're going to get against them.”
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Nice article on Yarin Hasson from the Times of Israel:
It'll be interesting to see if the 2 late addition overseas imports can step up in the future. Hasson is the younger of the 2, who came in as a 17 year old, while the kid from Greece is already 19. So I guess this was like a prep year for both, albeit vs. way better comp in practice everyday. ( Similar to what Karaban did for half a year)
Hasson in that article is quoted making a confident statement about his future:
“I have invested all of my life into basketball. I know at some point I am going to be on the big stage. So, when you are 18, and you come to this huge program, I feel very lucky to be here, but I also feel I deserve it too.”
Big week for Big East:
Meanwhile is it true that Michigan State is the only one of the Big 10 teams left in the tournament?
Meanwhile is it true that Michigan State is the only one of the Big 10 teams left in the tournament?
UConn #1 in Elite 8 re-seed- is this a kiss of death?
Creighton up by 5 at half with Jay Wright praising MacDermott's strategy of picking guys not to guard, a strategy that encourages bad shots by players who aren't shooters, as we have seen him do against UConn.
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Creighton is playing their starters heavy minutes- not much of a bench- and their legs are getting heavy on the outside shots. 0-10 on last 10 3s. This game is going down to the wire!
Creighton beaten by 1, by a very good defensive performance by San Diego State and no legs to shoot late in the game. SDSU looks like a pretty good team.
Well my 2 cents is those 3 refs should be done for the tourney and be sent home. SD St. was the more physical of the 2 teams, who seemed to foul alot but the zebra's let it go. Which is fine if that's the way you want to call it.
So I agree with Jay Wright's view on this, REFS shouldn't suddenly decide to call a foul with a sec. to go on a questionabl play they either let go all game long, or where to bad to see most of the time. It's gonna suck for Jalen Gaffney and FAU, if the NCAA allows this type of inconsistent reffing in the FF. Seeing that FAU is an extreme small ball team with no rotation guys more than 6-0 to 6-4, except their 5 men Golden / Rosado. If SD St. is allowed to play hack ball the way they did vs. Creighton, I don't see much chance for the Owls.
Although I wasn't looking forward to the possibility of facing Texas in Houston, nor do I look forward to having to face a Jimmy Larranuega coached team- again. We all remember what he did to UConn in the Elite 8 with George Mason in 2006. Now he has much better athletes. Miami has nobody over 6'7", which sounds like a "mismatch city" type game, but ask Duke about that. Duke started 2 7 footers and a 6'9" dude and suffered the worst beatdown I have ever seen any Duke team take down at Miami earlier this year.
Jimmy Larranuega is the master of small ball and he will play the same way he did in 2006 with George Mason- 5 guys who can handle and shoot and create ball pressure, except now he has thoroughbred athletes. Huskies better buckle up because this is a team like Marquette somewhat, maybe better athletes but all can handle and they can also play D and shoot. Really good team. That's why they are in the Final 4 fellas.
Jimmy Larranuega is the master of small ball and he will play the same way he did in 2006 with George Mason- 5 guys who can handle and shoot and create ball pressure, except now he has thoroughbred athletes. Huskies better buckle up because this is a team like Marquette somewhat, maybe better athletes but all can handle and they can also play D and shoot. Really good team. That's why they are in the Final 4 fellas.
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Like HC Golden's interview from Florida, I posted up above, who actually coached vs. Arkansas. God job by Jared @ CT SB Podcast with another interview from someone with real insight to offer, since he coached in the ACC:
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Pastner says when the offense breaks down, Miami still have 3-4 guys who can score. I saw some evidence of this when they played Duke. UConn really needs to go hard at Omier and get him in foul trouble. That's also what caused Miami to lose the ACC tournament game to Duke- Omier went out early in that game with an injury, and then Duke feasted inside.
Here is a breakdown of the Final 4 teams by recruit ranking. Miami actually has a much higher recruit ranking than UConn:
Still work to do going forward, but here's a look back at some previous years in the NCAA's by our Huskies.