Sweet 16 Thoughts

The Game Room
1

Well, the absolute BEST sports weekend has come and gone - the first two rounds of March Madness. The dust has settled, Cinderella is working on her second ball gown, and we’re down to 16 teams. So let’s hear your thoughts!

East Region - Chalk Central

(Disclaimer - Tar Heel fan here since fertilization…)
With that out of the way, Carolina was easily THE most impressive team of the weekend, drilling its two opponents by 39 and 31 points, while being the first team in two decades to break the 100 point mark in each of the first two rounds. An interesting game looms on Thursday when Washington St. tries to sloooooow down the Heels. Even if UNC doesn’t run as much as they’d like to, I can’t see WAZZU holding UNC to under 75 points, and that’s still too fast for the Cougars to feel comfortable.

Louisville-Tennessee will be the other game in the East, and that should be a barn burner as well. UT needs to find a PG, and find it quick or they could be going home. As a UNC fan, I actually hope UT wins, as the Volunteer’s press would be eaten up by Tywon Lawson and the Heels. I mean, Mt. St. Mary’s and Arkansas tried to run with Carolina, and gave up 113 and 108 respectively.

Midwest Region - Cinderella Region

Kansas is the other #1 seed to have not struggled in the first two rounds. They are facing a Villanova squad in the S16, and should be more athletic and deeper than the Wildcats.

On the other side of the bracket Stephen Curry leads the Davidson Wildcats into the S16 to face Wisconsin. Again, Wisconsin is favored on paper, but then again so was Georgetown. Davidson won’t have a rabid North Carolina fanbase supporting them this weekend though (which was a huge factor in their upset of Georgetown - all the Heels fans in Raleigh jumped on the Davidson bandwagon. Watching Georgetown get upset was particuliarly satisfying in light of the Elite choke-job UNC pulled against the Hoyas last year.)

South Region - Almost Chalk Region

Memphis faces Michigan St, while Texas and Stanford play for the right to advance to the E8. Memphis had problems with Miss. St in Rd.2 , and Mich. St. will present many of the same looks as Miss. St. Will this be the round Memphis’ lack of foul line accuracy catches up with them? My gut feeling is that it will.

Texas and Stanford should be a good game, with the Lopez twins battling Texas’ dazzling backcourt of Augustin and Abrams. Since the game will be played in Texas, I’m leaning toward UT.

West Region - UCLA and the Three Dwarves

UCLA gets Western Kentucky after escaping Texas A&M in Rd.2. And after seeing the (mugging) no-call the Aggie’s pg got as he was driving for a potential game tying basket, UCLA continues to live a charmed life. Now that the sour grapes have been dealt with - Love and Collison took over the game down the stretch and refused to let the Bruins lose. I don’t see them letting WKU drop them now.

Xavier gets West Va, slayer of Duke in the S16. I know Joe Alexander is playing inspired ball, and Xavier struggled with Georgia. Other than that, I got nothing.
My revised Final 4 picks - UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA. Kansas-UNC would be the game of the tournament, but Carolina has been playing its best ball of the year right now. Kansas doesn’t play THAT well away from Lawrence, while UNC has yet to lose a road/neutral game. I feel the collapse vs. Georgetown last year has focused the Heels on winning it all, and coaches who are making their first Final 4 rarely win the title. Carolina over Kansas in a nail-biter.

Texas actually has the guards to beat the Bruins. UCLA has a distressing tendency to go into scoring droughts, and at this level that can be fatal when your opponent has the offense to be competitive with your defense (see - Florida 2006, 2007.) I think with a San Antonio crowd, Texas could beat UCLA.

And finally, I just have a gut feeling that this is UNC’s year. Carolina has been tested with a major ankle injury to Tywon Lawson, and have had to overcome several 2nd half deficits this year. The Tar Heel team I have seen play has shown extraordinary mental toughness, and has ground out 34 wins so far, and is now getting everyone healthy. They certainly don’t have the easiest road to the title, and anything can happen in a one and done setting. But my call here is for a Tar Heel victory in San Antonio.

2

I actually had the same final four you do from the start (UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA) with UCLA winning it all. After seeing UCLA struggle with A&M and remembering how awful Texas’s coach is (really, how does he still have that job…), I’m thinking the winner of the UNC/Kansas game will win it all. And I agree, that will be a hell of a game, should it come to pass.

For this weekend, I think Kansas has the clearest shot to the Final Four. North Carolina could face real test in Louisville - they are playing inspired ball right now. UCLA probably has the second-easiest path, but either Xavier or WVU could give them a game. And Texas, well, I’m no longer convinced they will make it - I think it’s either Memphis or Stanford out of the South.

3

It already happened once this year, and it was with a Los Angeles Crowd. Texas could certainly do it again?

Probably because he brings in more talent than anyone that’s ever coached here could dream of, and he’s been to the Sweet 16 5 of the last 7 years. If he could be bothered to actually try to win the conference tournament he’d be looking great.

Why does everyone hate on Rick Barnes? Is it because of the annoying slow-the-offense-down-to-hold-the-ball-for-30-seconds-and-take-a-bad-shot routine he seems to pull every game when Texas is up by 17 with 8 minutes left? The most exciting thing about the coming weekend for me is that Texas probably won’t get up big enough against Stanford, Memphis, or MSU to pull that crap and try to blow the game like they did against Miami.

4

That’s part of it, but my personal problem with him is bringing in so much talent and then misusing it. His inability to get Durant more involved last year is one example. This year he seems to have gone with a 7 or 8 man team, keeping the guards out to play the full 40 minutes. That can work in the regular season, but Augustin seemed gassed at the end of the game on Sunday (witness his airball foul shot…).

Also, his in-game management leaves a lot to be desired. I watch a lot of Big-12 baseketball, and he seems to have little handle on the flow of a game (when to call timeouts, substitutions, when to speed up/slow down, etc…). This can be seen by the large runs that teams seem to go on against Texas (like the one that got Miami back in the game).

No doubt he brings in great players, and he has been successful. But then again, he’s at Texas - of course he brings in great players. I’d just argue that considering the talent he has brought in, he could have done more if he were a better game-time coach.

5

Well, this year both Barnes and Self are well positioned to shed the ‘Can’t win the Big One’ / ‘Best Coach Never to get to the Final Four’ label.

6

Well, before he came to Texas, the idea that a McDonalds all-American and future lottery pick from the East Coast would even consider Texas was a pipe dream. Heck, 5’9" point guard (sorry - " 6 foot ") from Houston that would go on to win the Wooden award? No way he’s coming to Texas, maybe LSU, maybe Oklahoma. Texas as a 1 seed? Texas in the Final Four? “You’re dreaming” type propositions. Basketball at Texas before Barnes came in was a different animal than it is today. Now, granted, a lot of the changes may be from the fact that the Big XII is about 100 times the conference for basketball the SWC ever was, but it’s not like Texas has a track record or history of doing better in the past.

I give him a pass on “not doing more with the talent” (boy that’s a common theme for coaches at this school - is Texas supposed to go undefeated in every sport?), since the only “more” he can do is win trophies, and there’s a large bit of luck involved in that. Maybe he could do more if his best players of the past few years weren’t playing in the NBA All Star Rookie Challenge.

But- The man can’t draw up an offense though to save his life. If Texas needs a set shot of an inbounds with 2 seconds left, I doubt he could do it. And it seems he was so comfortable with the short bench he inherited in 1998 because he doesn’t use subs anyway.

Well, enough derailing. For this weekend, I see UCLA and UNC with no problems, KU getting a scare from Wisconsin, but if they can avoid being bored to death advancing comfortably, and Texas surviving Stanford but losing to Memphis by about 20 with ice cold shooting.

7

Wasn’t Barnes coaching Texas when they went to the Final Four in 2003?

8

Yes. I assume there’s supposed to be a “, respectively” in that sentence.

9

Replace “Wisconsin” with “Davidson” and I called this one pretty good.