If you're referring to the 5-second call / attempted TO in the Texas game, I have trouble calling that a mistake. Watching video, 1) the referee speeds up his count, and 2) the kid calls TO before the referee signals 5. I have no particular affection for UT, but they got fucked.
Sorry, I meant calling the timeout off the rebound, which eventually led to inbound that incurred the 5 second violation.
They replayed that several times on the post-game show and it was about as close as you can get. They counted it and timed it. Remember, the rules say that you cannot call a timeout after the ref's count has reached 4.
Despite being repeated by CBS's crew and others, this rule simply does not exist. It is nowhere in the NCAA rule books, and Seth Davis has since corrected himself accordingly.
You absolutely call that time out. You do so in order to get the ball into your best free throw shooters hands, that being J'Covan Brown, a perfect 25-25 at the line in the tourney. This also allows you to set up your defensive scheme after the shots ("if we're up 3 we do this, up 4 this, etc"). Texas had horrendous execution throughout the game, especially towards the end, but 100 times out of 100 you call that TO to get the ball into the hands of the shooter you want. The end result was fucked by haphazard screening on the inbounds, a mental mistake by Joseph (you call the TO when your mental clock gets to 3.5), and an inability to guard the pick and roll yet again.
As a Tarheel fan, I can't believe Washington was a 7 seed. Their resume alone should have gotten them a 6, or even a 5 seed. I'm glad we pulled it out. And the Big East has and always will be overrated. Red dot me for this, but I'm tired of listening to ESPN suck their cocks...but I do love when tournament time rolls around and they choke repeatedly. Past 20 years, how many titles? 3. ACC? 8. The SEC has won as many times as the Big East. The Pac-10 has I believe 2... I can't believe they got 11 teams into the tournament this year.
The Big East has 7 teams that have made a FF in the last 10 years (and that doesnt include Pitt who has been a consistent top 10). The ACC has 4, the SEC 2, the Pac 10 2. The conference's biggest strength is their biggest weakness. Tons of very good teams, but rarely any great ones. Contrast that to the ACC where you have Duke, Carolina and then nobody. Same with the SEC. The conference as a whole disappointed in the tournament, sure. But the fact that they got 11 teams in wasn't because the BE was that much better this year, it was cause the rest of the country was worse. Seriously, name teams that should have been in over the BE teams. Don't randomly pick the bubble burst crew, cause Marquette, the last BE team in, wasn't gonna be swapped out for Bama, Colorado, St Marys, etc... Ripping a conference for lack of titles in a 1 and done tourney is dumb. C-USA has more championship game appearances in the last 3 years than the BE. Does that mean its a better conference? No, it means it had a dominant team in Memphis. Just like the fact that despite UNC and Duke being better than any BE team, that doesnt automatically mean the ACC is a better conference.
Florida State screwed me this weekend. This is the first year since middle school I didn't do a bracket (I was out of the country and couldn't fill one out) so I decided to do a fun bet on Sunday - 5 team parlay with UNC, Duke, Ohio St, Kansas and Notre Dame. Went 4 for 5 and almost made some money, but then Notre Dame decides to score 50 points and get crushed by Florida State. Apparently Florida State is good? I watched the game and they looked just like Syracuse - long, athletic and played zone. They looked awesome considering they were a 10 seed. I can't wait for Thursday and Friday - so much basketball to watch.
I had some satisfaction from watching the women's team wax Louisville. Hold on a sec, I dropped a bullet while loading the revolver. On the plus side, we've got something to look forward to next year. Yeah, it's a rebuilding year, but Henry Sims, Nate Lubick in the post, Hollis Thompson at the 3 (where he always should have been), Jason Clark and Markel Starks at guard? There's some upside there. More so when you consider that we're getting Jabril Trawick at SF, and may yet have a shot at Otto Porter. As long as JT3 stops with the three-guard-clusterfuck that meant we couldn't defend the perimeter worth shit, I'll be happy with my lowered expectations. Anyways, next year is the last chance I'll get to watch from the student section, so I'm hoping for an overachieving squad. Quoted for truth. Big East basketball is still the best basketball in the country - but individual Big East teams haven't been very dominant.
In the past 15 years the Huskies have been a pretty dominant team. Since 99 they have two championships and another Final Four. They would have had another in 2006 but all the players had their heads up their asses getting ready to go to NBA when they lost to George Mason.
I don't like UConn...but damn, Kemba. Also, via Bill Simmons: He's definitely not 100% wrong about that. Jimmer led the nation in percentage of his team's shots. If he's dating this, there's no way that's true.
No, he's not 100 percent wrong, but Simmons is still an idiot that doesn't understand one major difference; Jimmer is playing on a largely untalented BYU squad. If he doesn't score the hell out of the ball, they will lose. Meanwhile, Iverson played on an insanely talented Georgetown squad with numerous quality players, and wasn't yet as much of a ballhog then as he would later become on the Sixers.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to Sixers-era Iverson. If Iverson didn't score in the NBA, were George Lynch and Theo Ratliff gonna put up 25 a game? FWIW, Jimmer attempts more shots than college era Iverson. And almost as many as NBA-era Iverson (in six fewer MPG). Even his own coach has stated that Jimmer regularly takes terrible shots; he just makes quite a few of them. In that regard, he's not unlike Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson. To paraphrase Ken Pomeroy, Jimmer's bad shots are often a better bet than some of his teammate's good ones Odds are the same people cheering on Jimmer were critiquing Iverson as he willed the 2000-1 Sixers to the NBA finals. We tend to love ball hogs who put up gaudy numbers when they're in college, then malign them when they put on a pro uni.
Which makes perfect sense, if you think about it. Everyone in the NBA is talented and capable of scoring. Meanwhile, playing on BYU in the Mountain West Conference, Jimmer is the only quality, let alone elite scorer on his team. Believe me, if he was even playing on a team like...Florida, his offensive production would be greatly curtailed. As usual, Simmons is comparing apples to oranges.
These guys on Arizona can fucking jump, it's incredible. Some of these dunks are amazing. I haven't watched them play all year but they're fun to watch.