2009 NCAA Tournament Picks

Yes, the NCAA tourney is here again, and it’s time to start filling out those brackets. While I’ve largely gone silent this year for reasons due mostly to my own laziness, tourney time is no time to stay lazy. So I’m again posting my tournament picks for the world to see. Those of you who've in any way relied on me in the last few years are readily aware that I'm no expert. Despite my general failings in the ways of bracketology, though, I'm still willing to offer my opinion to friends of mine that watch little to no basketball. I may be wrong, but I try to a least have an amusing reason for picking the way that I did.

Before I get to the picks, though, a restatement of my general rules for filling out NCAA tourney brackets:

1) Don’t just completely steal my picks (or anyone else’s, for that matter). I don’t mind it personally, but what fun is that for you? Think of it this way–what’s going to be more fulfilling to you: telling the guy in the cube next to you that you “totally called” Dayton knocking off Wext Virginia, or telling him that some guy whose picks you followed got it right that Wester Kentucky beat Illinois. Advice is great when it’s coming from your doctor or your financial advisor, but this is the NCAA tournament–live a little!

2) Don’t go crazy with upsets, particularly in the first two rounds. This is particularly tempting this year, since the top teams are more flawed than usual, but resist the urge. The NCAA selection committee knows more than you, and they’ve seeded these teams for a reason. Sure, you’re no fun if you don’t go out on a limb here or there, but picking 14 first round upsets isn’t just bold, it’s stupid. Yeah, you’re probably going to have a friend that picks that miracle 10-seed that made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and he’s not going to shut up about it. He’s probably not talking so much about the 5-seed and the 7-seed that he had in the Final Four who both lost the first day, though. My picks are notoriously and painfully boring, and I make no apologies for that, even though someone inevitably mocks may lack of creativity every year.

3) Have fun and make some picks for goofy reasons. There are 64 teams in this tournament, and unless your name is Jay Bilas, you probably haven’t seen all of them. So go ahead and pick Akron to win a game because your favorite uncle lives in Akron, or pick against Syracuse because you dated a girl who went there and was totally wrong for you. After all, last year wasn’t your pool won by that guy in your office who just picked teams based on the ferocity of their mascot? See, you need some quirks, too.

On to the picks. As always, winners are in bold.

FIRST ROUND

Midwest

Louisville (1) vs. Play-In Winner (16): Each year, rather than actually talk about this game, I like to use the space to note how much I hate the play-in game. Tomorrow night, a low-level conference champion will lose their final game of the year, and won’t get the chance to fly to a regional site and play in the real tournament. Sure, the school will get a banner for its gym to denote an NCAA tournament appearance, but everyone will know that they only played in the tournament in the most technical sense. It’s a bit tougher for me to hate this game this year, since it may have been the reason that Wisconsin got into the tournament. If the NCAA needs to screw over Morehead State or Alabama State for the Badgers to get into the tourney, though, I’d frankly rather see an NIT game at the Kohl Center.

Ohio State (8) vs. Siena (9): While they’ve been playing better ball over the course of the last month, I’m just not buying Ohio State this year. If you’re going to tell me that it’s unfair for me to hold a low opinion of a team that eliminated my favorite squad from its conference tournament and then went on to nearly win the conference tournament itself, I won’t disagree with you. But that doesn’t change the fact that I'm just not feeling the Buckeyes (maybe it was all the overblown BJ Mullens hype?). So Siena it is.

Utah (5) vs. Arizona (12): Arizona shouldn’t be in the tournament, but they’re going to win this one just to tick people off. Heaven knows they have the talent to do so if they feel like it.

Wake Forest (4) vs. Cleveland State (13): Wake Forest is a team that was ranked #1 for a brief time earlier this year. Cleveland State is a team that lost to a relatively average UWM squad earlier this year. I’ll take the former #1 here.

West Virginia (6) vs. Dayton (11): A Dayton alum was instrumental in getting me tickets to one of the regional finals this year, and I really hate Bob Huggins, so there was really no other way to go here. Even if my brain does tell me that Bob Huggins teams don't lose early tournament games.

Kansas (3) vs. North Dakota State (14): I would never pick a 14 seed over a 3 seed. There’s just too much to lose. But if ever there was a time to think about it, it would be here. Kansas has lost two out of its last three games to teams near the bottom of the Big 12 standings, and North Dakota State has spent the last few years sneaking up on power conference teams (and has a head coach that just last week I advocated as a potential future head coach of Wisconsin). I’m not a bold enough man to make the call, but I wouldn’t blame you if you did.

Boston College (7) vs. USC (10): USC’s a hot pick here due to the Trojans’ strong finish to the regular season. But BC is one of those teams that I never know much about and always ends up putting together a solid year in the ACC. So I'm picking BC here, and making a promise to actually pay attention to them next year.

West

Connecticut (1) vs. Chattanooga (16): No team whose nickname is “The Mocs” is winning a game in the NCAA tournament.

BYU (8) vs. Texas A&M (9): Two years ago A&M was my “team of destiny” and they let me down after I picked them to win the NCAA championship. I’m still let down by that, and seeing as I know nothing about either team, BYU looks fine to me.

Purdue (5) vs. Northern Iowa (12): You have to respect a team when its best player spends the season playing through a fractured back. The Boilermakers build on their Big Ten Tournament championship and notch a first round win here as Robbie Hummel continues to feel better. Hopefully Northern Iowa hangs around in this one long enough to get Green Bay native and Panther star forward Adam Koch some good publicity.

Washington (4) vs. Mississippi State (13): If Washington hadn’t lost to Arizona State in the Pac-10 tournament, the Huskies may have been looking at a 2-seed. If Tennessee hadn’t played an inept second half against Mississippi State in the SEC championship game, the Bulldogs wouldn’t be here. I think you see my reasoning here.

Marquette (6) vs. Utah State (11): This will be a popular upset pick because Utah State, with 30 wins, was going to be a popular upset pick against anyone heading into the tournament. The fact that Marquette has dropped five of its last six feeds further into Utah State’s upset-darling status. But don’t buy into the hype. The Golden Eagles were a special team before Dominic James went down, and I would only downgrade them to excellent now. Their collapse down the stretch was more a by-product of playing five of the best teams in the country than anything else. Marquette will make some noise in this tournament.

Missouri (3) vs. Cornell (14): Is this a joke? Is the Ivy League really being represented by a team other than Princeton or Penn? If so, I have to go with Mizzou.

California (7) vs. Maryland (10): A cousin of mine went to Maryland, and one of my best friends from high school went to grad school at Cal. I've seen my cousin more recently, so I'll give the Terps the nod. The winner's just going to get pummeled by Memphis, so I'm not stressing too much on this one.

Memphis (2) vs. Cal State Northridge (15): Being from Conference USA, Memphis is used to beating up on inferior teams, so the Tigers should feel right at home in this contest.

East

Pittsburgh (1) vs. East Tennessee State (16): Do you think that the NCAA just set this game up because of the fierce regional interest that a potential East Tennessee State vs. Tennessee second round matchup would draw? No, me neither.

Oklahoma State (8) vs. Tennessee (9): Bruce Pearl coached teams are remarkable in their ability to beat anyone if they're playing well, or lose to just about anyone when they're not hitting their shots. There's been a whole lot more of the latter type of play this season. If you watched the Vols in the SEC championship game, you know why I can't pick them here.

Florida State (5) vs. Wisconsin (12): I want to pick the Badgers, but this just feels like one of those times when I find myself wringing my hands over the fact that the ACC-Big Ten challenge isn’t going my way (that would be every year, for the record). A Badger win isn’t out of the question, but ultimately, I’m just happy to be in the tourney.

Xavier (4) vs. Portland State (13): I’m going with Xavier here, simply because I’m mildly annoyed at how it seems to have become the trendy thing for people in their mid to late 20s to move to Portland.

UCLA (6) vs. VCU (11): UCLA finished second in a conference that received six tournament bids. That's good enough for me.

Villanova (3) vs. American (14): Back when I was a young lad applying to colleges, I chose the schools that I applied to largely on the basis of whether I would be able to watch good basketball. I also applied to American because they had an interesting looking major focused on government. At the time, I didn’t even know they had a basketball team.

Texas (7) vs. Minnesota (10): Tubby Smith will wait to totally break through until next year, particularly since he’s got a tough Texas team standing in his way right now.

Duke (2) vs. Binghamton (15): Duke will win this one, but the real issue for me is what t-shirt I’ll wear while watching the game. One of my best friends has ties to Duke. My grandparents are Binghamton natives (in fact, I spent this past Christmas with them in Binghamton). Consequently, Duke and Binghamton apparel occupies more space in my dresser than that of any other school school (aside from Wisconsin, of course). I’m thinking that I’ll probably wear my grey Binghamton ringer t-shirt just to be contrarian (and because it’s probably the coolest t-shirt I own). Great as the shirt is, though, it will be tough to root for the Bearcats after reading the scathing New York Times article about the Binghamton program.

South

North Carolina (1) vs. Radford (16): Even if Ty Lawson had turf toe on his right hand, the Tar Heels would still win this one.

LSU (8) vs. Butler (9): Butler is nothing but freshmen, and will be truly scary in two years. Particularly once they have a chance to break down what went wrong in this game.

Illinois (5) vs. Western Kentucky (12): When this game was announced during the selection show, I immediately knew I was picking Western Kentucky. Western Kentucky is one of those mid-majors that’s good year in and year out. Last week I told a friend that based on games that I had seen, I felt like Penn State was a better team than Illinois. And that was before the Illini lost Chester Frazier, the heart and soul of the team, to a broken hand. I implore you–take the Hilltoppers here. You won’t be sorry. I've seldom felt so adamant about an upset.

Gonzaga (4) vs. Akron (13): I’m not in love with Gonzaga this year, but it’s tough to imagine them being conquered by a team known as the “Zips.”

Arizona State (6) vs. Temple (11): Hey N.C. State? How’d that running Herb Sendek out of town thing go? That’s what I thought.

Syracuse (3) vs. Stephen F. Austin (14): Here’s a prediction–Syracuse will need less than six overtimes to dispose of Stephen F. Austin. I’m hoping that Stephen F. Austin is actually a school, and not just one dude who conned his way into the tournament.

Clemson (7) vs. Michigan (10): This one’s tricky. I feel like Clemson’s better than a 7-seed. At the same time, Michigan is one of those teams that runs hot and cold, and can put up a fight with anyone if things are falling right (they do have early season wins against UCLA and Duke, after all). Seeing as I’ve seen more of the bad Michigan than the good Michigan this year, I’m giving the edge to the relatively more consistent Clemson Tigers. (...and Clemson fans begin shaking their head in confusion at how little I understand their team).

Oklahoma (2) vs. Morgan State (15): Blake Griffin’s rebound total my surpass Morgan State’s leading scorer’s point total in this game. Why do I feel like I may actually have the chance to make that choice in ESPN's Streak For the Cash?

SECOND ROUND

Midwest

Louisville (1) vs. Siena (9): Here's the thing about Louisville--just based on what my eyes have seen, I'm not blown away by Louisville. In fact, I think there are plenty of teams just as good, if not better than, the Cards. But the fact is, no matter what they look like, they just keep winning. So I guess they'll do that again here.

Wake Forest (4) vs. Arizona (12): Arizona’s talent will return to being disinterested after they win a game and feel like they’ve proved they belonged in the tournament.

Dayton (11) vs. Kansas (3): Dayton, worn down from taking forearm shivers from Bob Huggins’ roster of toughs in the first round, falls to a team of guys eager to play deep into the tournament after sitting on the bench last year when their teammates won a national championship.

Boston College (7) vs. Michigan State (2): I’m somewhat of an oddball Wisconsin fan in that I have tremendous respect for Tom Izzo and the way that his teams play. That said, I feel like the only reason that Michigan State racked up so many wins this year was that virtually every other team in the Big Ten was solid, but unspectacular (I've told friends repeatedly that I felt like almost every team in the Big Ten should have been ranked 24th in the country this year). BC pulls the upset here, and Michigan State makes a big run next year.

West

Connecticut (1) vs. BYU (8): While Syracuse was heading back to onto the court on Friday and Saturday night, Connecticut was relaxing, healing, and getting ready to make a run in the real tournament. The Huskies advance easily.

Purdue (5) vs. Washington (4): Washington’s under-ranked, and Purdue’s the second-best team in a conference that was severely overrated by the media this year. The Huskies advance.

Marquette (6) vs. Missouri (3): Overlooked while Marquette was losing games at the end of the season was the fact that they were staying close with top-10 teams using two guys that hadn’t logged big minutes until Dominic James went down. Now that the rotation has had time to mesh, what would have been a near miss just weeks ago will be a win.

Maryland (10) vs. Memphis (2): It’s easy to pick on Memphis because they don’t play anyone of consequence in Conference USA. But they don’t let you down in the tourney.

East

Pittsburgh (1) vs. Oklahoma State (8): Pitt’s the best team that I’ve seen this year, so I’m not picking them to lose this early.

Florida State (5) vs. Xavier (4): Consider this pick an example of me openly disrespecting the Atlantic 10.

UCLA (6) vs. Villanova (3): It’s easy to forget about Villanova in the Big East with Louisville, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh hanging around. Factor in the disproportionate coverage of Notre Dame and Georgetown, and then sprinkle in Syracuse winning a six overtime game, and virtually no one's thinking about the Wildcats. If they were in any other conference, you'd know a lot about the Wildcats, though. And by the end of the tournament, odds are that they'll have made you pay attention to them.

Duke (2) vs. Texas (7): Seeing as I wore a Binghamton t-shirt during the first round, Duke’s going to need to give me a few more opportunities to wear my Blue Devil apparel.

South

North Carolina (1) vs. LSU (8): At the start of the season, I thought the ‘Heels had the best chance of going undefeated of any team I’d ever seen. That proved not to be true, but them not seeing the Sweet 16 would still be shocking.

Western Kentucky (12) vs. Gonzaga (4): Western Kentucky would actually be a nice sleeper pick to be that one low-seeded team that makes it to the Sweet 16, but as you know, I'm notoriously boring in my picks. The risk-reward factor of picking a 12-seed to the Sweet 16 is just too great. No, I obviously don't love Gonzaga this year. Historically, though, the Bulldogs typically do the opposite of what I expect in the NCAA tournement, so you should probably pick them through to the Final Four.

Arizona State (6) vs. Syracuse (3): It’s tough to pick against Syracuse when you see how good the Orange can be (as the world did in the Big East tournament). But ultimately playing the equivalent of five games in four days this past week catches up with them as they take on an ASU team with a solid coach (Sendek) and a legit star (James Harden).

Clemson (7) vs. Oklahoma (2): Two of Oklahoma’s five losses came when Blake Griffin was concussed. Clemson’s a scary 7-seed and a nice sleeper pick, but I still think they’re going home unless Terrence Oglesby hits Griffin over the head with a folding chair.

SWEET SIXTEEN


Midwest

Louisville (1) vs. Wake Forest (4): Like I said, I wish I was more wowed by Louisville. Wake Forest does have that "wow" factor when you see them play, even if they've been iffy down the stretch. Picking against the team that just seems to win all the time is typically a bad idea, but I just can't help myself here.

Kansas (3) vs. Boston College (7): I’m picking Kansas, though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about picking a team that I’m not sure can win either of its first two games.

West

Connecticut (1) vs. Washington (4): Jon Brockman puts up shockingly good numbers (at least to those who've never seen the Huskies) against Hasheem Thabeet, but Connecticut’s guards pull out the victory. I’m hoping that a stipulation will be added that the loser of this game has to give up its claim to the “Huskies” nickname.

Marquette (6) vs. Memphis (2): I've picked Marquette through to this point because I feel like they're unfairly looked down upon right now because of their inability to win at the end of the season when they faced nothing but elite level teams. And while I think that Marquette can beat most good teams, it is true that they haven't been able to take down any of the elite level teams that they've faced recently. And guess what? Memphis is and elite level team.

East

Pittsburgh (1) vs. Florida State (5): I’m iffy on Florida State winning its second game, and I think Pitt’s the best team in the tournament. Easy call here.

Villanova (3) vs. Duke (2): I honestly have a tough time deciding this one. Both are among my favorite teams in the field. I can't get a good read on Duke, though, since every time I watch them play they seem to have a new point guard. And have we decided yet whether Brian Zoubek is a solid contributor or a guy to make fun of? It seems to change every game. So I'm going with a Villanova team that I trust more. But this will be one of the best games of the tournament.

South

North Carolina (1) vs. Gonzaga (4): North Carolina absolutely pummels the Bulldogs, proving that while Gonzaga had a nice draw that got them to the Sweet Sixteen, they don’t belong on the same court with the elite teams this year.

Arizona State (6) vs. Oklahoma (2): The Sun Devils had a nice run, but destiny dictates that the next round must feature a Tyler Hansbrough-Blake Griffin showdown. If this was the NBA, the refs would dictate it, too.


ELITE EIGHT

Midwest

Wake Forest (4) vs. Kansas (3): I’ll pick Wake, just because I’m so iffy on Kansas even making it out of the first two rounds.

West

Connecticut (1) vs. Memphis (2): Connecticut's experience in the Big East proves useful, as Memphis finds itself unable to draw from any lessons learned during its "big" games against Tulsa and UAB during the conference season.

East

Pittsburgh (1) vs. Villanova (3): Villanova won the earlier meeting between these two teams during the regular season, and Pittsburgh will be extra motivated to settle the score.

South

North Carolina (1) vs. Oklahoma (2): As I said in the beginning, North Carolina looked on paper to be the best college basketball team assembled during my lifetime. But they’ve faltered throughout the year, and I simply don't trust them at this point. Factor in questions about Ty Lawson's ailing toe, and it becomes even tougher to count on the Tar Heels to make a great run. Thus, the team that I thought would go undefeated doesn’t even make it to the Final Four, and Jeff Capel gets to put yet another accolade on his surprisingly impressive coaching resume.

FINAL FOUR

Connecticut (1) vs. Wake Forest (4): After finishing off Washington and Memphis in previous rounds, getting Wake Forest in the semi-finals feels like a day off for Connecticut.

Pittsburgh (1) vs. Oklahoma (2): I still think Pitt’s the best team in the country, so why not throw them in the national championship game?

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Connecticut vs. Pittsburgh: Last time the two teams met, DeJuan Blair threw his co-Big East Player of the Year opponent Hasheem Thabeet around like a rag doll and the Panthers notched the victory. The toughness and muscle of Pitt once again outdoes the athleticism of Connecticut. And the Big East proves its superiority this year, as two teams who didn’t even win the conference championship battle it out in the national championship.

Syracuse vs. UConn

And that, friends, is the greatest basketball game that I've ever watched. If my Syracuse-loving grandfather was capable of staying awake for this, he'd be pretty happy right now. I guess he'll just have to enjoy Sportscenter tomorrow.

As for those notes I was thinking about jotting down from the Menomonee Falls-Waukesha North game that I attended tonight, I think I'm going to pass. I'm going to bed.

A Suggestion For Your Pointless Conversation

One of the most annoying conversations that I hear every year is the one about who's going to take over coaching at Wisconsin when Bo Ryan eventually retires. Trying to use today's information to figure out what to do at a point that's an undetermined number of years away, when the landscape of basketball and list of available candidates will have undoubtedly changed, is a waste of time. Unless I've missed something and Bo Ryan has made concrete plans to retire in the next two years, no one has the tools to answer this question right now.

That said, if people feel that they must keep speculating about former Wisconsin staff members heading back to Madison when Ryan decides to hang up his sport coat, don't we need to start including Saul Phillips in the discussion? I originally meant to comment on this after North Dakota State took down UWm on Bracket Buster Saturday a few weeks back, but now that Phillips has taken the Bison to the NCAA tournament during the first year that they're eligible (and just his second year as a head coach), it's officially ridiculous to ignore him.

I know it's easy to have the usual two man discussion involving Rob Jeter, whose likeable personality and local presence alway keep him on the radar, and Tony Bennett, a guy who's both a legendary former player from the state and a coach who racked up a bunch of coach-of-the-year awards last year at the most remotely located school in the Pac-10. But in just two seasons, Phillips has managed to take a division one newcomer school in a state that virtually no one actually lives in to the NCAA tournament. I obviously haven't seen enough of North Dakota State to truly understand what Phillips has his teams doing, but if you're just looking at his numbers, it's tough not to be impressed.

I'm not necessarily saying that Phillips is better than Bennett or Jeter, or that any of these three guys is necessarily the right choice for the Wisconsin job some day (remember, virtually no one was looking to hire Bo Ryan back in 2001). What I would ask, though, is that if you're going to have this insanely pointless hypothetical discussion, please at least make Saul Phillips part of it. After what he's done, it's only fair.

Marquette vs. UConn: The Injury Bug Bites

It was a rough night for Marquette last night, losing not only a big game, but also one of its key players for the rest of the year. There was a buzz of excitement in the air last evening that is rarely seen at a basketball game around here, and it’s a shame that things didn’t turn out better than they did. But even so, it was still a fun night. Some reflections below:

1) Obviously the story of the night is not the loss to UConn, but the loss of starting point guard Dominic James for the year with a broken foot. Losing a four year starter always hurts, but it hurts a bit more with James, who this year finally seemed to be figuring out how to best help his team. After an incredible freshman year where James was showered with accolades and talked about as an early first-round NBA draft pick, his subsequent sophomore and junior seasons felt at times like they were merely vehicles for him to prove to scouts that he could shoot from the outside (ironically, he ended up proving that he still couldn't shoot from the outside). But this year he seemed to actually relish his role as a defender and distributor. Sure, I still cringed when he pulled up for three-pointers this year, but that was more a conditioned response from the past, since his shot selection was now much improved. James will undoubtedly be missed by Marquette down the stretch. It remains to be seen, however, whether his injury will turn the Golden Eagles from a special team to a merely excellent one.

2) Very impressive showing by the two gentlemen who broke out a choreographed dance routine to the song "Thriller" that was playing during the Jumbotron dance competition that takes place every game. As always, the winner of the contest won a $250 gift certificate to Bubb's Barbeque, sponsor of the contest. I've been sort of thrown by this contest all season long for two reasons. First, outside of their sponsorship of Marquette games, no one that I know has ever heard of Bubb's Barbeque. Second, $250 seems like it would buy one hell of a lot of barbeque. For a place that no one's heard of, it almost seems like a desperate type of prize to give away. Part of me wonders if Bubb's Barbeque doesn't actually exist, but is simply a fake sponsor designed to bring more excitement to the game.

3) While the drama of the game was outstanding, the seating conflict in my section may have been almost as amusing. My section was located behind one of the handicapped seating areas. One gentleman in the handicapped area with a family member spent a good portion of the game standing up to cheer on Marquette. Several people in my section took exception to this and yelled at him to sit down and stop blocking their view. Eventually the usher was asked by one of the people in my section to intervene. The usher spoke with the standing gentleman and the complaining parties without actually resolving anything, and then called for more Bradley Center personnel to further sort things out. As an impartial observer, it was unclear whether the usher had actually taken a side in this matter. For the second half, as many as five, but at no time fewer than three Bradley Center employees maintained a presence at the entrance to our section. At various times the employees would talk to the standing guy and then talk to the complainants. The standing guy continued to stand from time to time (at certain times, I suspect, just egg on the loudest complainers), the complainers kept complaining, and none of the five representatives of the arena ever did anything to even come close to resolving the situation.

My take on the situation? Aside from viewing it as the most mind bogglingly ineffective usher moment ever, I think that pretty much everyone involved in the situation was an idiot. The complainers were idiots for complaining about a guy who was probably no closer than 8 feet to any of them and who blocked only a small percentage of the view in our section (not to mention that no one in my section last night seemed much interested in standing, themselves. No one has a right to an absolutely unimpeded view. The standing guy was an idiot for frequently standing in the designated handicapped area and acting in an openly defiant manner to those who questioned his right to stand there. And obviously, the Bradley Center staff is at the top of the idiot list, for involving five employees in the situation without even coming close to solving the problem. (Unfortunately, this was not the grandest display of idiocy I would see on the evening, as later, while grabbing post-game drinks at a bar, one of my friends nearly came to blows with another gentleman over a game of pool that neither of them were participants in. Brilliant, guys.)
4) For all of the fear about Hasheem Thabeet, I thought he turned out to be just about what was expected against Marquette. He had some highlight-reel blocks, his mere presence altered a lot of shots, and he had the occasional moment where someone dumped the ball into him on offense at a spot above the heads of everyone else on the floor (I think I even saw one botched "Kenny George" moment, where a player just randomly tossed the ball up in the lane and waited for Thabeet to go get it). I don’t know what Thabeet is thinking about in terms of NBA future, but I hope he sticks around another year. As is well known, his offensive game needs some work, and I’d say he’s a textbook example of a big guy who hurts himself by needlessly bringing the ball down below his waist in the post. Stop the rhythm dribble, Hasheem!

5) At one point in the first half, I actually theorized that Marquette would have an easier task shooting the ball in the second half because Connecticut was dunking so much that it would lead to a loosened rim.

6) I’d like to give the Lynn Greer Memorial Award (In honor of former Temple guard Lynn Greer, who put on the most frightening offensive display I’ve ever seen in person against Wisconsin back when I was in school. Contrary to what the name implies, Greer is not actually dead.) to A.J. Price. Wow. It’s one thing to go off for 36 points and hit eight 3-pointers in a night, but it’s another thing to do it with a defender like Jerel McNeal chasing you around for much of the night. At a certain point, all I could do was shake my head in amazement.

7) Just a pet peeve of mine that has been building all season, but next year can we do away with the rule where refs get to stop the game and look at a video replay to check if a player’s feet were behind the three-point line? I’d gladly accept an occasional missed call if we end the practice of breaking the flow of the game three times per night to look at the video monitor to confirm a call. It was a noble idea, but it just doesn’t work.

8) While he obviously doesn’t completely replace Dominic James, Maurice Acker gave Marquette some good minutes last night. I was never totally sure why he had recently become essentially the seventh man in a six man rotation, because he’s never been a guy that makes me concerned when he’s out there. Clearly I’d rather not have him playing 30 minutes per game, as he may do from here on out, but Acker doesn’t give you the major drop-off in the rotation that you would see if you dug into the guys after him on the bench.

9) Speaking of the guys on the bench, it’s going to be very interesting to see how Buzz Williams goes about using his rotation from here on out. While he was basically just using six guys before, with James out of the picture, he literally has just six guys that have played meaningful minutes in the last few weeks. Now’s not a great time to work a new guy into the mix, but it seems almost implausible to go another month by just riding things out with one sub now that the team is down to three stellar players instead of four.

10) It was a nice night of signs at the Bradley Center. Two favorites of mine were the giant ("not a") Dimes with Jim Calhoun’s head on them, and the "We’re Buzzed" signs made by a couple of students that inexplicably made it onto the Jumbotron. Those crazy kids and their drinking...

11) I heard a radio host earlier this week talking about how much unnecessary gloom and doom he had seen surrounding Marquette of late, with people getting overly worried about this final stretch of games. I saw a lot of that last night. One of my friends was talking last night about how this loss likely ruined Marquette’s seed for the NCAA tournament. Whoa there, calm down! Last night was tough, but in the grand scheme of things Marquette played well enough to beat 90% of the teams in the country and hung in with arguably the best team in the country. And they did so after losing a four-year starter roughly three minutes into the game. I simply can’t be too despondent over that.

So it wasn’t a great night for Marquette. I’m still optimistic going forward. Last Tuesday I predicted to some friends that Marquette would go no worse than 3-2 in their final five-game stretch. While James’ injury changes things, I still believe that my earlier prediction will prove to be correct. Marquette’s going to play three more outstanding teams, but what people seem to be discounting a bit too much now that we’re at this point in the year is that Marquette’s a pretty outstanding team, too. Things will work out.

Tonight will be a bit of a change-up for me, as I will go from rooting for Marquette, to rooting vehemently against Marquette. Marquette High School, that is, as Marquette battles Tosa East for the Greater Metro conference championship. Two historically fierce rivals, each with one defeat, battling for conference supremacy in the final game of the year. You couldn’t script this one much better. Marquette won the first one. How will the second game turn out? However it does, it will be fun...

Three Minutes of Ineptitude

While I’ve been to plenty of entertaining games over the past several weeks, for some reason it was not until last evening that I was moved to actually write about something that I’ve seen (actually, that’s not totally accurate, as below I also had the chance to recap the Marquette-Seton Hall game). I didn’t make it down to the UWM-Butler game last night for a variety of reasons (Mostly I was pouting over the fact that I couldn’t find anyone to go to a rock concert that I wanted to see last night.) But that ended up being a good thing, because it allowed me to watch the game on TV and witness something so comically bad that I had to talk about it.

Some of you are probably thinking that I’m talking about the clock mix-up at the end of the game, where controversy ensued over when the game clock started on Butler’s final possession of the game. But I’m talking about something far worse–the announcing of Daron Sutton.

I’ve never been a big fan of Sutton’s broadcast work on UWM games (I frankly don’t know enough about baseball to comment on his baseball announcing skills), but a 2-3 minute stretch last night Sutton and his broadcast partner took things to a new level of ineptitude. With about 2:30 left on the clock in the second half, James Eayrs got tangled up with Butler’s Matt Howard while trying to reign in a loose ball and Eayrs was whistled for an intentional foul.. You could tell that Eayrs foul was an intentional because the referee making the call immediately ran to the play with his hands crossed above his head, the signal for an intentional foul. Sutton and his partner (whose name I wish I could recall, so that I could include him in this shaming) apparently missed the referee in the center of every replay that they watched making one of the most clear hand signals in the game of basketball, as they spent the next 2-3 minutes talking about how offsetting fouls had been called on each Eayrs and Howard. No mention was made of an intentional foul call.

I actually began to question whether I was misinformed about something at that point. I wondered to myself "Is the hand signal for a double foul the same as the hand signal for an intentional foul? Maybe this just happens so infrequently that I don’t know the signal for it." After all, the television crew is presumably fairly close to the scorer’s table and likely hears a lot more referee chatter than I, the home viewer, am privy to. Maybe I just didn’t have all of the information.

As the referees sorted things out and the television reply of the referee clearly signaling an intention foul showed for what seemed like the 15th time, Sutton and his broadcast partner continued their maddening chatter about the double foul that they believed had been called. When Howard eventually stepped to the foul line with no one around him, they briefly speculated that UWM had been whistled for a technical foul before finally figuring out that an intentional foul had been called on Eayrs. As abruptly as this hit them, I can only speculate that some nearby sports writer got tired of overhearing their misreading of the play and finally piped up and said "Hey morons–it was an intentional foul. Were you even watching the replays?" However they eventually figured out what had happened, I was just happy that I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. I was not insane, and had I not been listening to the television announcers, I’d have known exactly what was going on. I guess I was wrong in assuming that the announcers would always be helpful in understanding the events of the game.

Of course, I would be unfair to Sutton and his partner if I didn’t point out that the intentional foul on the play in question was a horrible call. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an intentional foul called in a situation like that. Had I not seen the referee running towards the play with his arms crossed, I’d have been confused by the whole affair, too. But confusing as the call was, that doesn’t excuse the fact that the broadcasting team either didn’t notice the guy in stripes making the intentional foul signal, or didn’t know what the signal meant. That two minute stretch last night was truly a low point for sports broadcasting.

Looking on the bright side (as I always like to do), I feel a lot less upset now about not having the Time Warner Sports Channel at home, and those thoughts that I occasionally have about switching back to Time Warner Cable have subsided a bit. So maybe I should be thanking Daron Sutton and his pal for saving me some hassle.

Marqutte vs. Seton Hall: A Surprising Entertaining Game

Ah, it’s been awhile. I’ve actually had some great game-watching experiences over the past few weeks, be it my trip to Iowa, my evening in Madison watching the Badgers end their losing streak, or this past Saturday when I managed to catch much of the UWM game on the radio before watching the Marquette game in person and shuttling home to watch Wisconsin on my DVR. But my documenting of games has been non-existent. I could throw some crazy excuse at you about lack of time or computer problems (actually, my work computer has been basically dead for the past two weeks), but ultimately my absence has come down to laziness. No promises that I’ll start writing more, because as history has shown, I’m pretty good at breaking promises, and I probably won’t ramp things up too much even as March approaches. But when there’s a surprisingly amusing game like last night’s Marquette-Seton Hall contest, I can’t help but make a few notes. And for today, here are those notes.

1) It was Milwaukee Public Schools Night at the game last evening, a fact that was first brought to the attention of the crowd when the Milwaukee Riverside swing choir was brought out to sing the national anthem. They did a nice job, but I couldn’t help but be a bit taken aback to learn that Milwaukee Riverside has a swing choir. I also couldn’t help but think that it must take some courage to be a part of the Riverside swing choir. High school was a long time ago for me now, but I seem to recall that people in the swing choir took a lot of crap from their peers. I can only assume this level of crap quadruples when the swing choir is in a city school, rather than a soft, suburban school setting.

2) Did my brain completely atrophy for a short time, or did the public address announcer completely fail to announce Seton Hall’s starting lineup? I know that usually there’s a quick introduction of the opposing starters where the announcer makes a point of sounding as if he’d rather be water boarded than read the names of the interlopers from another school. But at least there’s a small degree of courtesy there. Just glossing over the other team altogether seems a bit harsh. Then again, as I said, I’m not even sure that things went down like this, so maybe there were intros for Seton Hall. I sure don’t remember them, though.

3) It has been back for five of six games by now, but I like seeing the return of the classic "Where the Streets Have No Name" player introduction sequence for Marquette. I’m always mildly bothered by the fact that this sequence was almost certainly conceived of in part because of Tom Crean’s intense love of U2. But I’m willing to look beyond that because however it originated, it just feels right when the things get going. The crowd knows what to do, and gets excited every time that the music starts up. Perhaps the only thing that would make things better in my mind is if they brought back Jumbotron shots of the players doing ball slaps and looking angry as the music starts up.

4) A few comments to the guy sitting two rows behind me last night. One, the refs were not blind when they failed to call those over and back and out of bounds calls that you thought they missed. They merely understand the rules better than you. Two, do you really need to question every foul call? You’re sitting in row W of the second deck of Bradley Center and the refs are on the floor. I’m guessing that occasionally, they may have a better angle than you. Three, again, you’re sitting in row W of the Bradley Center, so when you scream at the top of your lungs to the ref that he should either open his eyes or get some glasses, he probably can’t hear you. My head’s five feet from yours, though, so I hear you loud and clear, and I don’t think that you’re nearly as amusing as the nearby giggling women who aren’t directly in front of your mouth do.

5) The first half was, for both teams, one of the sloppier halves of basketball that I’ve seen all year. There was a solid five minute stretch where I had trouble counting the number of times that Marquette players threw passes directly into the legs or barely outstretched arms of Seton Hall defenders. Most of the time Big East basketball is more exciting to watch than Big Ten basketball, but for a good portion of last night I found myself just wanting to see a team that could take care of the ball.

6) It’s not every night that you get to see three technical fouls in a game. None of the T’s handed out seemed like they were for particularly egregious offenses. Then again, as I would probably have told the guy behind me in row W, it’s pretty tough to hear what the players and coaches are saying when you’re sitting at the top of the Bradley Center.

7) The last couple of times that I’ve been to the Bradley Center I’ve seen a small banner bearing the image of Martin Luther King, Jr. displayed in a lonely corner, away from all of the Marquette, Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Admirals banners. Is this banner there for Black History Month? And if so, why is it so darn small? Because frankly, with as tiny as it is in comparison to every other banner in the building, it looks like someone just forgot to take down a decoration that was hung during an MLK Day tournament.

8) My friend Dez asked the very valid question of where Patrick Hazel was after the game ended. I suppose that Hazel wasn’t really needed last night, seeing as Marquette pulled away from Seton Hall easily in the second half, and one of the Pirates’ frontcourt players fouled out with nearly 15 minutes to go. But with Hazel finding his way completely out of the rotation of late, it seems official–Marquette’s not even going to fake like it has forwards on its roster from here on out. Even though Hazel has looked good to me in limited minutes, I suppose I can’t really argue with holding him out too much. After all, the way things are going so far, it appears that Buzz Williams knows what he’s doing (don’t take that as a full endorsement of Williams, though, as I’m not passing judgment on him until the 2010-11 season).

9) During a break in the action in the second half, it was announced that Wesley Matthews had become Marquette’s all-time leader in made free throws, and that Jerel McNeal had become Marquette’s all-time steals leader. I think we’re finally at the fun part of the season where milestones like this will be reached every game by someone. I guess this is what happens when you’ve got three of the better players in school history starting together for four years.

10) Last evening featured the Milwaukee King drum line performing at halftime as part of the festivities for Milwaukee Public Schools night. I’ve seen various drum lines from Milwaukee public high schools at events like these, and I’m always wildly impressed. I’m glad that we get to see groups like this from time to time. Because for as many bad things as we hear about Milwaukee Public Schools, it’s nice to see a group of kids that can do something that seems to take a remarkable amount of skill, discipline and commitment. Dare I say that they were even more entertaining than Saturday’s entertainment, the magical super-fast clothing changing duo, Quick Change.

11) I’m not sure what amazed me more on Jimmy Butler’s thunderous alley-oop dunk late in the second half–the height that Butler got on his leap, or the precision with which Wesley Matthews tossed the ball from halfcourt.

Post game, I passed on drinks with friends (the economy is affecting us all, it seems) and headed home. It was time to start thinking about the UWM-Butler game the next day. And its never disappointing to hear the Marquette post-game radio show. Things start to get interesting with Marquette’s trip to Georgetown this weekend to kick off their brutal five-game stretch. I, for one, am really looking forward to seeing them exceed expectations.

Finally...

Had I known that all it would take for Wisconsin to end its losing streak was for me to attend a game in person, I'd have headed to the Kohl Center long ago. It's not a great season, and last night wasn't a marquee game, but I can recall few happier drives home after a game. Here's hoping for a few more pleasant trips to Madison in the coming weeks.

I'd say more about my excellent night (the fact that I'm the world's worst purchaser of scalped tickets needs to be touched on at some point), but I'm about 10 minutes away from heading to Iowa to watch some division three basketball this weekend. Good chance that I'll actually get off my ass and write something in a few days when I get back...