Follow up story from the trip to the 1st round of the tournament. After watching the first game, one of my friends decided he was going to go buy some swag from the merchandise booth. He claimed he was going to get a hat. To this day I'm not sure why he made that decision. I'm sure we would all love to have a 2008 NCAA Tournament Hat to wear around. Within two weeks, that thing will be sitting on his shelf collecting dust.

Even better was his other decision. When he came back to the seat, he made a point to show off the pennant that he just bought. Within two seconds, he realized from the looks on our face that he had made a poor decision. I can't think of any possible reason why a 30 year old man should have a pennant, especially one that says 2008 NCAA Final Four on it. Even better, after we shot down the notion that it would be placed in his office, he claimed it would go in his son's room. That would be a great idea, except his son is a year and a half old.

Maybe he was caught up in the all 80's American University theme, I'm not sure. I never got to the NCAA tournament swag table, but I'm assuming he passed over the following items:

Foam Finger

Mini-Cheerleading Megaphone

Glow Stick

Poster with the 2008 Bracket on it

Luther Vandross "One Shining Moment" CD

San Antonio or Bust T-shirt

On second thought, good call on the Pennant. You could have done much worse.

By Sunday afternoon, I was fed up. Every game was a blow out and you just expected Kansas to run Davidson out of the gym, I mean football stadium. We at least got one good game and had an added bonus as Gus Johnson was calling the game. (Side note: I loved the way he kept saying Sasha Kahn's name. I sure did sound like Chaka Kahn.)If Curry had taken the ball in the lane and sent the game into overtime like he should have, I believe Johnson's head would have blown off his body. It would have been too much for him to handle. Since most of the games were terrible, here's some random thoughts/things we learned going into the Final Four.

• Memphis has apparently been on cruise control the whole season. That team should never have won a game by less than 40 against any Conference USA team this season. And how in the world did they lose to Tennessee at home?


• UCLA plays great perimeter defense. They may struggle on offense at times, but they will always be in the game because of their defense.


• Derrick Rose vs Darren Collison. I can't wait to watch that match-up.


• Umm, Ty Lawson is healthy.


• And Kansas doesn't have anyone that can keep up with him.
• If there is ever a steroid/HGH scandal in college basketball, North Carolina should be the first school investigated. Those guys are ripped.
• If North Carolina and Memphis play in the final game, will the shot clock ever hit 15?


• Apparently I missed the memo that says every team must wait until there is 5 seconds left on the clock to run their "last possession" play. Seriously, why is everyone waiting so late and then starting from 10 feet behind the three point line? To defend, all you have to do is stay close to the man with the ball and he'll throw up an awkward shot, because he doesn't have time to make a pass. If you're going to start at the half court line, why can't you start at 12 seconds left and run a play?
  
• And finally, if your man has the ball and he's a good three point shooter, can you please stop going under the screen and fight over it? Wouldn't you rather have him drive into the lane, where you will have help, than have him shoot a wide open three? It's happening to often and it's the real reason Xavier got back in the game against West Virginia in OT. Everyone will remember the wide open three pointer on the inbounds play, but Xavier hit two three pointers before that. Both times the defender went under the screen which allowed Xavier to have wide open three point shots. Not sure what I'm talking about, fast forward to 1:27 in this clip. If you want to see a team defend the screen effectively, just watch UCLA. It's a thing of beauty.

There was a time when you penciled in Duke as one of your Final Four teams every year. If they didn't make it, they would at least make it to the Elite Eight. Well, it appears the Duke has lost a little bit of its swagger in the tournament. Consider the Blue Devil's performance since they last won a championship in 2001.

'02 - Sweet 16

'03 - Sweet 16

'04 - Final Four

'05 - Sweet 16

'06 - Sweet 16

'07 - 1st Round

'08 - 2nd Round

Obviously, the trend is going in the wrong direction, but let's not get too hateful on Duke. Many schools would love to have this resume. In fact, there are several "top tier" teams that didn't make the tournament in the last five years. (UCLA - '03 & '04, Florida '08 &'04, UNC '03, and Memphis '05). Also, had Duke won the recruiting battle for Patrick Patterson this year, they would have probably made it further this year.

But let's be honest. Duke is not the same team in the tournament they were in year's past. In fact, it appeared Belmont lost the game more than Duke won it. Also, with the exception of Gerald Henderson, it doesn't appear that they are a very athletic team. They may have been a little over rated this year as the ACC was not very good this year.

For years, many analysts referred to the NCAA tournament as the "Duke Invitational". Since some would argue that Duke has become a mediocre tournament team the last few years, who gets the name?

Florida won the last two tournaments, however they didn't even make the Big Dance this year. If you're not in the tournament, you can't have it named after you.

Texas has made a decent run over the last few years. (FF, S16, 1st, Elite Eight, 2nd Round). That's not enough Final Four appearances and they haven't won a championship yet.

Memphis has made a run to the Elite Eight the last two years. But they didn't make it in '05. Also, no trips to the Final Four hurts them.

UCLA has made the Final Four the last two years. However, they were not in it in '03 and '04 and they were one and done in '05. But Ben Howland wasn't coaching them until 2005, you protest. I understand, and if they continue this run over the next couple of years, there is no doubt we'll be calling this the UCLA Invitational. They'll need to win one to get some credibility as well.

Kansas has had a solid run. (Final Four, Elite Eight, 1st Round, 1st Round, Elite Eight) The two 1st round losses bother me, and they really need some more Final Four appearances. They look pretty good this year, but would you really say that the NCAA Tournament is the "Kansas Invitational?". Also, they need to win one too.

You could probably make the most convincing argument for North Carolina. (2nd Round, Champ, 2nd Round, Elite Eight) The 2nd Round losses are bothersome, but if they were to win the championship this year, who would argue with you? Still, does this run with North Carolina feel the same as Duke's run? It's obviously the closest so we'll have to give it to them.

Unfortunately we have a problem calling it the Tar Heel Invitational. For some reason, you are either "for" the dominant team, or you "hate" the dominant team. There is no middle ground. Duke has been that team for so many years. If you were on the "I hate Duke" bandwagon then you have always rooted for North Carolina due to the fact that they weren't the dominant team. What do you do now? You can't go back to Duke and now you're a fan of the top dog.

I guess we'll have to wait for Duke to make a run again...

I haven't found the video yet, but I'm sure it's out there. Check out what happened to Memphis's Joey Dorsey during the second round game according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

As Dorsey prepared to shoot a pair of free throws with 3:31 left and the Tigers nursing a 68-61 lead, he was partially distracted by light coming through a transparent curtain atop the lower bowl at Alltel Arena.

Dorsey said that fans sitting near the curtains partially opened them to allow even more light from the late-afternoon sun through. The rays were visible on Dorsey's face as he shot -- and made -- the first of his two free throws.

"If I could have thrown the ball at them, I would have," Dorsey said. "Somebody told them to open the curtain when I was shooting." Dorsey complained, and there was a brief delay as officials waited for the curtains to be closed. That might have been a mistake as far as the Tigers were concerned, for Dorsey missed his second attempt.

"I made (the first one)," he said. "I should have told them to open it again so I could make the second one."

Also, I recognize that Calipari is probably being funny here (at least I hope he is), but check out his post game quotes regarding free throws:

"We won it with a free throw, Chris' [Douglas-Roberts ] free throw,"said Calipari, whose team was 15 of 32 from the line. "So all that stuff about our freethrow shooting now goes out the window, I guess."

How pathetic is that. If they had just shot 70% from the line they would have scored 7 additional points. The game would have been over and Memphis wouldn't have been worried about a last second shot from Mississippi State. You can get away with that stuff in the Conference USA and against a 9 seed, but they won't have that room for error when they play Texas or Kansas or North Carolina or UCLA.

With all of the focus from the national media (and informed sports blogs like this one), the free throw issue has to be getting in their heads. I mean, curtains? Really?

There is enough pressure at the end of the games when a player is shooting free throws with the game on the line. Oh, and I read all the articles about how they worked on it last week and they were getting better because they were making free throws fun again. Sure looks like that worked (15 of 32). It's obviously in their head and will come back to bite them in the end.

And finally, yes, their lack of free throw shooting is one thing that's killing them this year, if you can really criticize a one loss team. But their real problem is the lack of an outside shooter. Everyone will go zone on this team, stop the penetration and they can't do anything about it. If you think about it, they're just a spot up shooter away from looking just like Florida from last year.

It seems a lot of folks are ready to crown the Tar Heels as national champs. Hey, if you want to crown them, then crown them. There is no doubt that North Carolina is playing good basketball right now. Any team that wins two games like they did this weekend in the tournament cannot be overlooked. But I'm not sure we should crown them as champs just yet.

Let's consider prior history. In the last seven tournaments, we have had six number one seeds win in convincing fashion in the first two rounds. Only one of those teams has gone on to win the national championship. Ironically, that is the 05 UNC team, who won their first two games by 28 and 27 points respectively.

Here are some teams that didn't make it:

07 UNC - 21 & 14

04 Duke - 38 & 28

03 Kentucky - 31 & 30

01 Illinois - 42 & 18

01 Michigan State - 34 & 16

Obviously, the first and second round results don't necessarily guarantee that they will win it all. It doesn't mean that it won't happen either, with the 05 Tar Heel team as proof.

Consider why this happens:

1. The number one seed plays a chump (16 seed) in the first round. Many times the 8 or 9 seed was just happy to make the tournament and even happier to win one game. The number one seed, on a mission, can cruise to victory because they haven't played a quality team yet.

2. After dominating two games, the number one seed is the talk of the nation. Suddenly, the number 4 seed and other future opponents (much better teams than a number 9 seed) have to hear about how great their future opponent is. Then everyone plays the lame "Nobody gave us any respect" card and they pull off an upset.

3. Everyone loves to see the Goliath go down. I documented yesterday how easy this happens in the tournament. The number one seed finds themselves in much larger gym for the regional finals with a larger crowd rooting against them.

4. Other number one seeds, who are flying under the radar, end up coasting through to later games. Is anyone really talking about Memphis or UCLA right now?

All this to say, I felt like the Tar Heels could make a run if Lawson was healthy. Looks like he might be. Having seen UT and Louisville in person, I think Louisville might be the only team that can hang with them in their region. Also, playing in your home state will negate point number 3 for the Tar Heels. So they should make it to San Antonio.

I'm still sticking with UCLA. Can't change now....

Obviously, if you've read my posts, you realize my love for basketball. So it was with pure joy, that I got a free pass from the wife to spend all day at the Birmingham regional Friday. Sure, the games weren't as good as Tampa, but it's still nice to see quality basketball live. Especially when the team you pull for stinks. Also, this might be the last time the tournament is close, so I had to go.

Seeing teams play live, you get such a better feel for them than you do in person. I took wrote down random thoughts while I was at the game, so here they are...

Tennessee is really big and athletic. I'm not sure why so much of there game revolves around the perimeter. They were fortunate to get by Butler today, but I don't think they'll get by Louisville.

Speaking of Butler. They would have run Oklahoma(the 6 seed) out of the gym. Why in the world was this three loss team a 7 seed? Also, it's amazing to see a 28 year old coach get on the referees. They don't take him seriously do they?

American University apparently didn't notice that it's 2008. Here are the songs that their band played in no specific order. Journey's Don't Stop Believing, Twist and Shout, YMCA, Theme from Rocky, Sweet Caroline and the Final Countdown. Also, their theme song was straight out of the movie Hoosiers. Finally, I observed a fan waving a foam finger.

If you don't know about the St. Joe's Hawk, you can read about him here. An argument broke out among the four of us as to whether the Hawk is mechanically aided or not. After spending the whole 1st half searching on the I-Phone, the lone advocate for the mechanism had no further proof. We really didn't watch any of the lousy game. You just get mesmerized by the Hawk, thinking at any moment that he's going to mess up.

Louisville is as athletic as Tennessee and, I think, will beat them next week. They are well coached and don't seem to take plays off like UT does. My metro sexual friend Justin, was extremely upset with assistant coach Walter McCarty, because he wore light brown shoes with a navy blue suit. An NBA veteran should know better.

It's interesting to see how easy it is for an upset to happen. Probably 75% of the fans in attendance are either locals (like us) or fans of a school that is playing at a later time. It's natural for fans to root for the underdog. Thus when an underdog makes a run, that 75% starts pulling for them. It helped American stay in the game against UT and happened in every other game.

Why in the world wouldn't the NCAA play broadcast other games on the JumboTron between games at the current site? Instead, they have TV's broadcasting the other games out in the lobby. During the start of the Butler - South Alabama game, approximately 5,000 were watching the finish to the Western Kentucky game. When they hit the shot at the buzzer, the roar from the lobby was incredible. It's just crazy.

It helps to have knowledgeable basketball fans rooting for your team. In the tournament, timeouts can be a real momentum killer. Due to the setup, teams have to take turns letting the band and cheerleaders out on the court. Here's what tends to happen. A team will go on a run and their fans will be cheering in loud support. A timeout will be called and it will be the other team's turn to send the cheerleaders out on the court. For some reason, many fans (I calling you out UT fans) will just relent to this and stop cheering. Louisville fans knew what to do and just started their own chants over the band. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon.

It's fun to watch the players come out of the locker room after the game. The UT players won the award for best look. The had the hats, IPOD's, cell phones, backpacks. They just oozed cool. I wish I could have seen Louisville come out (they were the last game), I bet they would have given UT a run for the money.

I brought a camera with me to take some shots, but I couldn't get enough quality to shots to post on here. I would like to thank my buddies who knew that I had my wife's camera and took random shots of cheerleaders and women when I went to the concession stand. However, I do have one photo that deserves it's own post tomorrow.

Attended the Birmingham regional yesterday. Just wanted to go on record with these quick thoughts.

For a quick refresher, here are the games I saw.

Tennessee - American

Butler - South Alabama

Oklahoma - St. Joseph's

Louisville - Ball State

Butler is the best #7 seed I've ever seen. They were better than several SEC teams that I saw this year. I'm going to go on record and predict that they will beat Tennessee on Sunday.

Also, Louisville is good. They'll run Oklahoma out of the gym.

Much, much, much more on everything that happened in a post tomorrow.

For those of you that have been regular readers on this site, you know that I've been giving you my theories as to who will win the tournament. For reminder's sake, here are the factors:

Free Throws

Balanced Play

Efficiencies

I never got to the fourth factor. Which is having a "go to" guy. Regular readers of this site know that I'm not a big fan of Memphis, however, they actually have a leg up in this area. They have two guys that have shown that they can take over when needed. Chris Douglas Roberts and Eric Rose. Just to be clear. I think Memphis is a good team, I just don't think they are a championship team.

When you take a look at all of the factors, three teams stand out. North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas. Unfortunately, I see small problems with all three teams.

For North Carolina, Ty Lawson still hasn't gotten completely healthy. If he's completely healthy, I think they are hands down the team to beat. Tennessee will not be able to compete with them on the inside, but it would be fun to watch both teams run up and down the court.

If you take a look at all of the factors, Kansas seems like the obvious choice. However, when you watch them, do they really have a "go-to" guy? Rush would qualify as the guy, but it sure seems like he can be shut down. Also, you don't hear to many folks talking about the great coaching job that Bill Self does.

UCLA also meets all of the criteria. But the injuries to Mbah a Moute and the "injury" to Love have to scare you off a little bit. Also, it sure seems like they've been having a lot of close calls recently. That can be a good thing (they can win close games) or a bad team (they can't finish games).

Side note: the funny thing about Memphis is even though they come up poorly in all of the factors, so does everyone else in their bracket. The more I look at the bracket, the more I feel they might make it. Also, it was funny to watch John Calipari defend/excuse his team's free throw shooting during his PTI segment yesterday. In the end, I don't have them making it to San Antonio.

Georgetown (no go-to guy), Tennessee (no inside game, takes stretches off, poor free throw shooting), Duke (no inside game) and Texas (defensive efficiency struggles) all have flaws in their game.

So, I'm going to go with UCLA. Why? I'm not sure really. I like their coach and they have a balanced team. They play great defense and they've made it to the Final Four the last two years. The injuries and close games really scare me, but since everyone has a flaw, I've got to go with someone right? Oh yea, and I want to look like I know what I'm talking about.

Have you ever been in a situation in public when someone has something in their teeth and you don't have the heart to tell them. When you talk to them, you're so disturbed that you won't even make direct eye contact with them. In fact, you pull what I call, a Clark Kellogg.

Over the years, I have become fascinated with one element of Clark Kellogg's work in the studio. For some reason, CBS's studio analyst refuses to look at the camera when he talks. And for some reason, CBS (which is broadcasting the tournament to millions of viewers in the U.S.) continues to allow him to do it. The picture to the left is a perfect example.

When most studio analysts make a point, even though they are talking to the host, they speak directly towards the camera. Not CK! He speaks directly towards the analyst at all times.

With the addition of Seth Davis the last couple of years, he has started turning his head in both directions now. It appears that CBS has tried to coach him to look at the camera, but he'll look for a moment and then revert back to his old ways.

So when you think or the pregame is going to be boring, fear not. Just play the "Will Clark look at the Camera Game?". It will make the halftime go by so much faster.

Also, here's some video evidence.

I'm a day late and a dollar short on this one, as Bobby Knight picked them to win it all on Sportscenter last night. However, I don't think they'll win it all. I just think they're going to make a solid run in the tournament.

Since Knight stole my thunder, I'll just give you my abbreviated case for Pitt.

They play great defense. In the Big East tournament, no team scored over 70 points and only Georgetown shot over 40% against them.

They are 18-1 with a healthy lineup, including wins over Duke and Georgetown on neutral courts. If they had had Fields all season, they probably would be a 2 seed,

The number 1 seed they face in the sweet 16? Memphis. If you've read this site any, you know I'm not a big fan of the Tigers. It's the perfect match-up for Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, Pittsburgh is becoming the trendy team to pick. You know what that means. They're destined to fail. Now, instead of being a team that no one knows about, everyone (especially Memphis) will have their guard up against them. They won't sneak by anyone now, and thus will not make it to the Final Four.

I could kick myself for not writing this last week and looking like a genius.

You'll remember my post last month about how Tyler Hansbrough reminds me of Mark Madsen.

For those of you that have been stuck in your basement and haven't seen the Tyler Hansbrough celebration after hitting the winning shot against Virginia Tech, here it is...



He couldn't go with the "we're number one" celebration.
He couldn't go with the "I'm too cool to act like this matters" celebration.
He couldn't even go with the "Pound the Heart" celebration.

No, he had to go with this awkard celebration.

Goofy white boys across the country just hung their head in shame as every one of them has held this celebration inside for so long. Next thing you know, you're going to see Psycho T doing this:



or this:

For the spin doctors out there, you'll hear that this year's SEC tournament was one of the most remarkable ever. A #6 seed, Georgia, ran the table (including winning two games in one day) to win the tournament. They'll tell you how balanced the league is and they'll talk about how there were three overtime games and several others that went down to the wire. They'll even point to the fact that the SEC got 6 teams into the tournament.

But the reality is, the quality of play was poor in the SEC this year. The NCAA confirmed it with their seedings:

Tennessee (Regular Season Conference Champion) - #2 Seed. And the lowest two seed at that!

Vandy - #4 Seed

Mississippi St. - (Western Division Champ) - #8 Seed

Arkansas - #9 Seed

Kentucky - #11 Seed

Georgia (Your SEC Tourney Champs!) - #14 Seed

The Georgia Bulldog run through the tournament was an incredible story. But they were fortunate that they didn't get a charging call on the inbounds play against Kentucky. And Alabama showed them that Mississippi St. couldn't hit a shot from outside to save their life. They also avoided Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

Look who Georgia had to beat to get win the tournament - Ole Miss, Kentucky, Mississippi St and Arkansas. There's several teams in other conferences that would have killed for the chance to have that "Murder's Row" of teams to play.

As for conference savior Tennessee. All year long that have shown that they will allow their opponent to make a run sometime during the game. For a 5-10 minute stretch, they play awful. Obviously, this will not work in the tournament. Look for them to struggle against Louisville.

(Side note. What does this say about Memphis? They couldn't beat the top team from a weak conference on their home floor. I'll have more about the team that will upset them tomorrow.)

So how did the SEC get so bad. There are a couple of factors for this year.

1. Florida had to start all over. When you lose all 5 starters from the defending champs, you're not going to be very good.

2. Kentucky has been down for a couple of years. You're finally seeing the effect of Tubby's poor recruiting.

3. Several teams suffered injuries this year. Auburn, LSU and Alabama lost key players for the year. Although, Alabama should not have been counting on Ron Steele, he should have been in the NBA. However, the fact remains, if he were playing this year, Alabama would be much better.

4. The SEC didn't seem to bring any "big time" freshmen into the conference this year. Patrick Patterson for UK is good, but there was no one as good as O.J Mayo, Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose and Kevin Love

Just remember this when you're filling out your brackets.

With all of the "bubble" teams losing early in the tournament, it's time for a team to step up. Villanova, Arizona St., Baylor and Syracuse all didn't help their cause in the last two days. Finally, in the Florida - Alabama game a bubble team got a win.

Wait a minute, you say. Didn't Florida lose 80-69?

Oh yes, but the win really helps Alabama, who's currently on the NIT bubble. Check out their impressive NIT resume:

RPI - 115

SOS - 53

Record in last 10 games - 4-6

Record against RPI Top 100 - 3-11

Record on the road - 3-10

Conference record - 4-12

Overall record - 17-15

Isn't that the definition of a NIT bubble team?

And tonight, they did all the things an NIT bubble team would do. They let a 28 point lead sink to 6 points before finishing off the game. Shot 12-23 from the free throw line in the second half. Had the advantage on the boards (45-29), however they turned the ball over 17 times.

Another classic sign of an NIT bubble team. Every single fan I spoke with felt like they were going to blow the 23 point lead at halftime. Think about that, Alabama fans did not have confidence in a 23 point lead against a team that had lost it's last 3 games and was 3-7 in their last ten. That's a true sign.

Obviously, they'll need to beat Mississippi State to secure a bid. But hey, as the coach even said at halftime, "Our team played hard!"

It's fascinating how everyone is worried about the bubble teams. Most of those teams barely make it out of the 1st round and, if they do, they rarely make it to the Sweet 16. So why not focus on who will win it all.

We've already talked about the importance of hitting free throws and we've talked about the importance of a strong inside/outside game. I have two more factors, one that I'll discuss tonight and one more tomorrow night. Then we'll take a look at the brackets and make a prediction based on these factors.

Since we've been using stats to come up with these factors, I'll give you one more tonight. Tomorrow, I plan to give you a non-stat related championship factor.

I have been fascinated with Ken Pomeroy's website. Not only does he give you the RPI rankings, but he has several other stats that tell the real story about a team. For instance, defensive efficiency is essentially the number of points allowed per 100 possessions. Offensive efficiency is the number of points scored per 100 possessions.

Ken only provides these stats back to 04, but there is an interesting trend going on with the champions. Three of the last four national champions ranked in the top 3 in Offensive Efficiency. And the fourth, was still in the top 10.

Florida '07 - 1

Florida '06 - 2

North Carolina '05 - 3

UCONN - ' 04 - 10

These same teams ranked in the top 20 defensively as well. Since the name of the game is scoring the most points, it stands to reason that the teams that are the most efficient at scoring will have better success. However, you can't just light it up and not play any defense.

So, which of the "top" teams fit the mold this year? I'll list several teams with their offensive efficiency score first and their defensive efficiency second.

Kansas - 1 - 3

UNC - 3 - 34

UCLA - 8 - 8

Texas - 9 - 79

Duke - 14 - 15

Tennessee - 19 - 57

Memphis - 21 - 1

Georgetown - 33 - 12

Louisville - 80 - 7

Obviously, Kansas jumps up to the head of the class. You can see that UCLA also fits the mold and UNC's defensive stats are interesting. It would be interesting to see what their ranking would be had Lawson been healthy all year. As with the other factors, it seems like the same teams are on the outside looking in. Predicting our potential champion is becoming much clearer.

The most interesting case is Memphis. They sure do have a high defensive ranking, but their offensive efficiency is below the top 10. Past #1's in defensive effeciency were Kansas, Iowa, Holy Cross and Louisville. However, most of those teams had offensive efficiencies that were well below Memphis's ranking. But again, three of the four past champions were ranked in the top 3, so Memphis may be on the outside looking in.

Tomorrow, we'll look at factor number four.

So let me get this straight. Everyone is up in arms because Ray Ray McElrathbey is no longer on scholarship at Clemson. Why would everyone be up in arms about this? Surely you'll remember the saga about Ray Ray taking care of his then 11 year old brother. And now, everyone believes that Tommy Bowden released his scholarship because he has depth at running back and he oversigned with his current recruiting class.

It seems that everyone is overlooking one bit of information. This quote regarding Ray Ray: McElrathbey had a difficult relationship with his coaches, reportedly because of academic setbacks and spotty attendance at team functions. During spring drills last year, he was suspended for four practices because Bowden said he was "having a tough time juggling academics."

Reading that quote makes me think Ray Ray didn't feel like the rules applied to him. I acknowledge that he had a tough family situation, but the team has rules for a reason.

In today's day and age of second chances, do you really think Bowden didn't give Ray Ray a little latitude. Bowden, for his part, has not commented on the situation, which has only fueled the fire. What's he going to do, bash Ray Ray? The guy has had a tough life. There is no need to pile on to his troubles right now.

Also, with all of the PR that Ray Ray has gotten over the situation, would he really let him go just to free up a scholarship? Surely if that was the case, they have an unknown lineman on the team that no one would notice if he was let go. What kind of fool would let Ray Ray go when you know that he is one of the most recognizable players on the team? Maybe Bowden is, I just highly doubt it.

Isn't it funny how the media will go after any public figure that won't give them the information they want? Since Bowden won't give every detail, which might just be in Ray Ray's best interest, everyone will assume that Bowden is heartless and cut the kid.

I'd love for Clemson to have some controversy ruin their program. My team opens up against them next season. I just don't think that any coach is dumb enough to make that move.

Here's a couple of quick thoughts about last night's game.

I think the game proved what I said last week about needing a good inside/outside game. The only thing that really saved Duke in the second half was the fact that the referees apparently decided to not bring out their whistles in the second half. Otherwise, UNC's strategy of dumping it inside and getting Duke's undermatched players in foul trouble would have worked.

Speaking of referees, have you ever seen a game where the referees called the game quite so different from one half to the next? In the first half, it seemed like every Duke player that got close to UNC's big men were called for a foul. By the end of the half, Coach K was calling out some of the Cameron Crazies to play quality minutes. In the second half, some of the things the Duke players were allowed to get away with are considered crimes in certain cities. This obviously allowed Duke to come back in the second half.

I realize that Coach K has 800 more wins than I do, but it sure seems like he overcoached in the second half. For some strange reason, he decided to have his players slow up the tempo once they had the lead. Duke overcame an 11 point deficit by moving the ball quickly up the court. Suddenly they get up 2 points and Coach K slows them down? It just seemed to kill their momentum.

If Lawson gets back to 100%, and that's a big if, UNC will be hard to beat. They need him to be able to play a 35 minute game and be able to get some timely baskets when their opponent goes on a run. Also with Green coming off the bench and giving them quality play, that just makes them that much better.

Duke will be done once they have a cold shooting night. That was obvious last night.

I have followed a certain coach who thinks his team always plays hard. All he needs to do is get the game tape from Saturday night's game and he'll see the definition of playing hard.

Just for fun, take a look at Coach Mark Gottfried's comments following several losses this year. See if you can find a pattern.....

Alabama v LSU – 03/05

I am so proud of our guys," Gottfried said. "I think we did so many things well, executed as efficiently as you have to. (But) sometimes, games come down to making a shot, and they hit a tough, contested, elbow-down-your-throat jump shot."


Alabama v Auburn – 02/24
“I thought those two guys, Hargrove and Prowell, were the difference for them,” Gottfried said. “The story was their ability to make some key shots and our inability to make open shots. When they are running a triangle-and-two, that means there are two players they aren’t guarding. That left us with a lot of shots we couldn’t make.”


Alabama v South Carolina – 02/16
'Their guy just made a tough shot,' said Alabama coach Mark Gottfried.. 'He was three or four feet beyond the 3-point line. Sometimes in basketball, the game comes down to one play and he just made an unbelievable shot.'


Alabama v Kentucky – 02/09
The Crimson Tide’s last gasp probably came with 10:43 remaining. Alabama had cut the UK lead to three points, 38-35, on a steal and dunk by Mykal Riley. On the ensuing possession, Coleman blocked a shot attempt by UK freshman Patrick Patterson but the ball bounced to Ramel Bradley, open beyond the 3-point arc. He hit the 20-footer as the shot clock expired, upping the UK lead to 41-35. Alabama was never able to pull to a one-possession game after that.“That was a big shot, a momentum shot,” Gottfried said.


Alabama v Georgia – 01/16
“Then we had some good looks at some shots and never seemed to make a big one. They made some of those.”


Alabama v Florida - 01/08
“They had a great stretch,” coach Mark Gottfried said. “I think we took a couple of quick shots, but again, they made the big shots right there.”
“They made every big shot they needed to make. Every time they needed a basket, they made the shot. Some of them were well-contested and some of them weren’t. I thought the way they shot the ball in the second half is the name of the game.”


Alabama v Texas A&M – 11/28
Texas A&M made key shots at key times,” head coach Mark Gottfried said. “Their experience showed at those moments, and our inexperience showed.

There is no need to comment further. These ridiculous quotes stand by themselves....

Back in January, I showed you the importance of a team to make free throws to succeed in the tournament. At the time, you'll remember that I said you need to shoot over 70% from the line as a team to win the tournament. Here's where some of the front runners stand right now.

Memphis - 59%

Tennessee - 65%

Louisville - 66%

Georgetown - 67%

Texas - 68%

Duke - 69%

Kansas - 70%

UCLA - 74%

North Carolina - 76%

As you can see, even leaving a little room for error, that leaves Texas, Duke, Kansas, UCLA and UNC in the hunt.

But obviously the NCAA tournament is not a free throw shooting contest. So there has to be other factors that go into who will win the tournament. Today, I'd like to give you factor number 2.

Every year you hear from the experts that you need solid "guard" play to succeed in the tournament. While this is true, it's only half the battle. Actually you need a balanced effort to win the tournament. Take a look at the last several teams that have won the tournament.

Florida - Brewer and Green as guards/ Horton and Noah as Big Men.

UNC - Felton at guard/ May on the post

UCONN - The combo of Gordon and Okafor

You could go on and on. But it is obvious that the majority of these teams had a solid inside/outside combination.

Using this logic, let's look at this year's teams and see who will fall short.

Memphis - Dominated by guards

Tennessee - Same

Texas - Same

Duke - Same

When you lack a solid go-to post player, all it takes is a poor shooting night and they are out of the tournament. That's why you have to have more than solid guard play. Obviously, you can look at UCLA, UNC, Kansas and Louisville as teams that have a solid inside/outside combination.

So if you take free throws and the inside/outside combo into consideration, that leaves three teams in the running. UCLA, Kansas and North Carolina. UCLA has become the trendy pick as of late, but we were on the bandwagon when you weren't hearing much about them. Remember, while we generally have upsets all over the tournament, you very frequently have a Cinderella win the whole thing. We'll keep an eye out on these teams and give you another factor in the coming weeks.

By now, I'm assuming most of you have seen Michael Beasley play. He's a 6-9 freshman for Kansas St. and most folks are projecting him to be the #1 pick in the NBA draft this summer.

There is no doubt he is a good player, he's averaging over 20 points a game and he has K-State (who?) playing decent ball. But I'm having a hard time seeing him as a #1 pick.

I think this profile of him on nbadraft.net says it best.

Weakness: Defense and effort. He occasionally coasts through entire games

He's always the last one down the floor and he seems to play with this "coolness" about him. As if he's too cool to show up on time and he wants to show up fashionably late. And that will work in college, where he has so many skills he can get away with it.

Contrast that with the NBA. When you see Kobe and Lebron get after it, they don't go at half speed. Watch an NBA game and then watch Beasley. You'll see he moves to slow right now. It's as if he's one of those real slow Drew Bledsoe like QB's that are oudated in the NFL

The amazing thing is Beasley can move quite well with the ball. So he is capable of moving quickly all the time. You might argue that he's just playing down to his competition right now. But the question would have to be asked, can you name any star player in the NBA that plays down to their competiton?

If you haven't seen him play yet, check him out and let me know what you think. I do have a rule about number one draft picks. Anyone who has had their lay-up blocked by Sasha Kahn must automatically be dropped down at least twenty spots.

Been down with the flu for a couple of days. Look for a new post tomorrow night.