Note: This column was written by Alex Pennycook. Word.
Top Game of Each Round
First Round: Virginia Commonwealth over Duke 79-77
The first round was fairly uneventful until VCU upset the team that everyone loves to hate. I loved VCU’s style of play and won’t forget Eric Maynor’s final shot anytime soon, but I think we’ll be remembering this game as the start of the downfall of Duke basketball. Their best player Josh McRoberts, who isn’t that great in the first place, is bolting for the NBA, leaving the team to DeMarcus Nelson and Greg Paulus. Their recruiting class of Taylor King, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith doesn’t exactly have a Durant or Oden either. Look at these guys, King and Singler look like they’ll immediately be able to fill the role of dorky white guys on the end of the bench and I think I have more street cred than Smith. Paulus’ supposed QB vision will go to waste if he doesn’t have anyone to pass the ball too. A couple more subpar seasons and Coach K will start paying more attention to the NBA offers and Duke basketball as our generation knows it will be over.
Second Round: Texas A&M over Louisville 72-69
This game was the coming out party for another point guard from the Bronx. Freshman Edgar Sosa’s brilliant play was overshadowed by two late missed free throws and a deep three that could have given Louisville a late two-point lead. This game was close and back and forth the whole way, all in all one of the better games of the tournament. Sweet Sixteen: Ohio State over Tennessee 85-84
Looking back at Ohio State’s run to the championship game, they could have easily lost every game not played against Central Connecticut State. I still can’t believe Tennessee blew a 20 point lead considering for the game they hit 16 3-pointers and Greg Oden’s foul trouble, but OSU just shot better in the second half. Kind of reminded me of how West Virginia lost that game to Louisville in the Elite Eight a couple years back after torching the Cardinals in the first half. Everyone wanted to know why Chris Lofton didn’t have the ball in his hands for the final shot, but that doesn’t change the fact that Oden made the big play with everything on the line.
Elite Eight: Georgetown over North Carolina 96-84 in OT
I am a huge Georgetown fan so obviously I was thrilled with this comeback, and there was no way Jeff Green traveled in the Vandy game. It was a very well played game by both teams, featuring a lot of NBA quality talent. I didn’t like the fact that Wayne Ellington of all people took the final shot in regulation for UNC and felt they should have tried to pound the ball down low to Hansborough to draw a foul, or got it to Reyshawn Terry if they wanted the ball out on the perimeter. Actually I didn’t like Ellington all year because he stole my boy Wes Miller’s starting spot and minutes. Georgetown had all the momentum going into OT and despite all the depth, UNC showed some fatigue after the Southern Cal game and just couldn’t get anything going.
Final Four: Ohio State over Georgetown 67-60
You won’t be seeing either of these basketball games on ESPN Classic anytime soon, but OSU over Georgetown was definitely the more entertaining of the two. Unfortunately neither Oden nor Roy Hibbert could stay out of foul trouble, and Jeff Green didn’t do anything spectacular other than having Oden almost throw down a vicious dunk on him. The best part of the game was the play of guards Mike Conley Jr. and Jonathan Wallace. Despite the foul problems, Hibbert showed that he could definitely stick with Oden and should go in the lottery if he declares (fingers crossed that he doesn’t). The UCLA game was over as soon as Afflalo picked up his third foul. Everyone knew that UCLA’s problem was that they wouldn’t be able to stop other top teams’ big men. Horford and Noah didn’t put up great numbers, but that was because UCLA kept having to bring perimeter guys down to double on the blocks which freed up Brewer, Humphrey and Green for open 3s. The only reason UCLA stayed in the game early was because Florida couldn’t hit anything, but as soon as Brewer caught fire the game was over.
Championship: Florida over Ohio State 84-75
Looks like it’s actually two Shining Moments for Florida. I’m sure everyone watched this game, so no need to go into too much detail about the game itself. The difference was clearly OSU’s atrocious 3-point shooting. Aside from two late 3s, for the game OSU was about 2 for 20 while Florida knocked down 10 of 18. The only reason why the game was close enough to keep watching was due to the performance of Greg Oden. I had the turning point of the game at about the midpoint of the first half when OSU cut the lead to 25-24 and Florida responded by knocking down three successive three balls to open up an 11 point lead. They never looked back from that point. I’m on exchange in Australia right now, so I watched the game through an ESPN affiliate with some very interesting commentary throughout the game. Apparently they didn’t have access to the stat book, but luckily we kept getting updates from the color guy estimating how many blocks Greg Oden had (with about 6 or 7 minutes left he felt Oden had 5). The best part of the game for me, without a question, was when Joakim Noah ran up into the stands and the play-by-play guy said “I think we all know he is looking for his father”, but then he stopped to hug his apparent girlfriend with the color guy chiming in with a “there are just some things a father can’t do” followed by a long awkward pause.
Poor Showing by Canadians
Normally every tournament some Canadian puts up decent numbers and builds a lot of local hype heading towards the NBA draft. This year’s pool of players disappointed greatly and here is a look at my all-Canada team (as unspectacular as it was)
Levon Kendall, Pittsburgh: Easily the best Canadian in the tournament, Levon struggled in the tournament for a Pitt Panther team that played below expectations the entire year. A mainstay on the national team, Kendall put up a 0 spot in the point column in a Sweet Sixteen loss to UCLA.
Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes, Gonzaga: PMAC had a tough year that had him go from starter for a solid mid-major program to the end of the bench where he saw only 1 minute in the Bulldogs one and only game of the tourney. Hopefully he can pull things together next year.
Tristan Blackwood, Central Connecticut State: Blake’s boy knocked down 4 3-pointers in his one and only game against Ohio State. Blackwood averaged 17.3 ppg through the season and hopefully he can lead the team back to the tourney next year.
Maurice Joseph, Michigan State: The most attention Joseph got this year was for the tinted glasses he wore while playing. This year Joseph played close to 20 minutes a game averaging about 5 ppg. A solid swingman with a few years of eligibility left, should be able to help Michigan State with the rebuilding process.
Ryan Wright, UCLA: I thought this could have been a breakout year for Wright. How could you not get significant minutes as a big man on a team that starts Lorenzo Mata at center? Somehow Wright managed to work his way down the depth chart and only received sparse minutes in the tournament.
Terrible Free Throw Shooting
I know that generally free throw shooting at the collegiate level is mediocre at best, but I don’t remember so many games decided by it. In the aforementioned Texas A&M vs. Louisville game, Edgar Sosa missed late two free throws with the team down one point, and when they fouled A&M’s Joseph Jones to try and get the ball back, he missed both as well. Xavier’s Justin Cage could have iced their game against Ohio State, but he missed the second FT attempt with 10 seconds left and they went on to lose in OT. Pitt’s Levance Fields missed both of his two attempts in their second round game against VCU with the game tied at the end of regulation. His second attempt was nowhere close to going in but luckily they pulled out the win in OT. The only game I can recall where a team came through by hitting free throws was Memphis’ Antonio Anderson against Texas A&M.
Looking Forward
It’s obviously hard to gauge what will happen next year with not knowing who is declaring for the NBA draft yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t speculate.
Florida would have to be the favorite once again if all 4 juniors returned once again, but realistically I think we can only expect Taurean Green to be back. There will be a transition period with Green and Walter Hodge the only returning players from their core rotation, but there is still a lot of talent and Florida should remain in the top-tier of the SEC.
Ohio State will lose two senior starters plus Greg Oden, but as long as Mike Conley Jr. stays I see them remaining the team to beat in the Big Ten. Wisconsin will have a down year after seeing their best players graduate. Maybe Michigan State can contend with Drew Neitzel (aka Nitro) leading the way, but it will probably be a down year for the Big Ten.
North Carolina will remain the top team in the ACC. They had the deepest team in the nation this year meaning that even though Wes Miller and Reyshawn Terry are graduating and Brandan Wright is a likely one and done candidate, they still have a ton of able bodies to replace those minutes. As I said above, Duke will have a down year, maybe Georgia Tech can get things together and contend next year, but UNC’s primary competition will probably come from the Virginia schools.
Out in the Big 12, like UNC, Kansas should easily be able to recover from any early entries they suffer (they had no seniors on the roster this season). The team to watch out for in this conference next year is Kansas State, who barely missed out on the tourney this year, even though their best player Bill Walker was out for most of the season. They have one of the year’s top incoming freshmen in Michael Beasley, which should make for a dynamic duo.
The Big East will have another down year I feel, as both Georgetown and Pittsburgh will be losing their top players. Both teams remain talented but will not be able to repeat this year’s success. Louisville is my early pick for Big East champs as they return their core group of players and look for Syracuse to bounce back next season. I expect them to beef up their non-conference schedule, and although they lost a lot up front, anticipate my main man Paul Harris to have a breakout season.
Lastly out west, the battle for supremacy in the Pac-10 will be between rivals UCLA and USC. The same questions about Aaron Afflalo remain and he seems determined to win a championship so I see him coming back for one more run. USC is probably going to lose Nick Young because his stock is high after his strong tournament showing and his stats will probably go down with the arrival of O.J. Mayo. These teams match up well against one another, exhibited by two extremely close regular season games this year, and expect this rivalry to grow next season.
Note: This column was written by Alex Pennycook. Word.