Saturday, March 19, 2011

More Thoughts on the NCAA Tournament

I was ecstatic after George Mason's close victory over Villanova. Nova was on their game, particularly in the first half. Mason is a second half team, but waited until rather late in the game to turn it on. Once Mason guarded the three and took the ball to the paint, the tide turned.

Ohio State is a good team. Sullinger is going to be difficult to defend. But Mason can make him a liability when the Patriots have the ball. Mason's big guys are adept at driving to the hoop from the elbow. The key for Mason will be defensive rebounding and guarding the three.

During the Mason-Nova game, the thought that VCU was a better team than Nova entered my brain. When VCU went on a three-point shooting tear, they kept it up throughout the game against Mason in the conference tournament. Villanova's defense was effective early, but Mason eventually figured it out. VCU kept switching up its defense against Mason, which was far more effective.

I want to wish Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, and Julian Vaughn well. Georgetown's loss was sad. But VCU is that good. There's been talk that VCU's performance has been a surprise. As a Georgetown fan who watches the Colonial, I was very worried about this game. Some of the ESPN analysts who argued that VCU shouldn't be in the tournament will try and tell you that these wins don't change their initial point, that VCU didn't deserve to get in; once in, sure they are capable of winning.

It's a stupid argument. If they win two games, how can you argue they don't deserve to be in the tournament? It's nonsensical. Guys like Dick Vitale, Digger Phelps, and Jay Bilas should just admit they were wrong. They didn't watch VCU; they should've. They'll do better next year. Maybe they should stop questioning when a #11 seed from the Colonial is selected as an at large bid.

Spero Dedes made so many mistakes, it was embarrassing. I'm not a guy who dumps on announcers. Good announcers make watching the game better and I like most of the guys who do the NCAA Tournament. But Dedes is terrible. He went on and on about Akron's conference tournament final against Iona. I was virtually certain Iona wasn't in the MAC. But he kept talking about this non-existent game. I'm a Miami (Ohio) fan, but I felt the need to look it up (I was devastated after Akron beat Miami in the conference quarters, so I couldn't watch the final).

Of course, Akron beat Kent State in the MAC final. Iona is in the MAAC, which I was sure of as well. They lost to St. Peter's in the conference final. Dedes said that the Aggies were up by 7 when the Seminoles were and later that the Seminoles were up by 5 when they were clearly up by 7. He said that the Georgetown-VCU game had reached the midway point of the first half at the 15:00 mark. His partner, Bob Wenzel, who I like, made the unforgivable mistake of saying Mason made the Final Four in '05. Of course, it was '06.

They should get one of the litany of ESPN broadcasters (except for Brad Nessler, Dave O'Brien, and Mike Patrick) that are good. John Sciambi, Sean McDonough, Dave Pasch, or Dan Shulman would be better, just to name a few.

Wenzel made a great point when he said, "we'll learn about some of these cinderellas in the coming days." It's so true. Broadcasters have no idea about midmajors. It's ridiculous. It's why they thought VCU didn't belong in the tournament. They didn't see them play. How could they know? But they should watch the midmajors and not just Butler and Gonzaga. It's their job to be an expert on college basketball.

It would be like if a kidney doctor only knew some diseases involving the kidney. Or if a southern African specialist couldn't tell you a thing about Namibia. And if these bigwigs won't do it, I'd love to.

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