Five Things We Learned (From Day 4 Of The NCAAs)

2009-03-24T14:57:15-04:00

2009-03-22T23:49:51-04:00

2009-03-23T11:39:41-04:00

Gaines

Cary 149073

13 Thank you, Lex from NorCal. You did three things in one sentence ("Duke is a true cinderella of this tourney."). One, made possible the most ill-informed statement in basketball history. Two, made me laugh hysterically. Three, completely discredited anyone from the West Coast who ever whines about "East Coast Bias" again. Dude, no No.2 seed is EVER Cinderella. Period. End of discussion. 4778868

2009-03-24T14:57:15-04:00

1673

OkieHomer

San Diego 534959

Dude, no No.2 seed is EVER Cinderella. Period. End of discussion.

28 THis. I thought ESPN was bad talking (after the 1st weekend games) of teams 3 and below who could run. I guess if they get to Detroit, UCONN will be a Cinderella (being the last #1 and all...) 4797267

2009-03-24T01:59:19-04:00

Southwest Orange Fan

Santa Fe 738249

27 Oh, and we also learned that the selection commitee got it right by taking just four mid-majors with at large bids. Butler didn't prove to be the best team from their conference (thank you Cleveland St. for helping out my bracket! I knew your win over Syracuse earlier in the year wasn't a fluke). The Mountain West proved it is still a basketball backwater conference. Utah and BYU both looked like they were playing in mud. The best mid major turns out to be the A-10. I suppose Temple took away an at large bid to one of the other mid majors who also would have lost in the first round, but so it goes. 4789502

2009-03-24T01:48:51-04:00

Southwest Orange Fan

Santa Fe 738249

26 One thing we all learned is that the Big East is no doubt the best conference in America. When you look at the three conferences that had seven selections, the Big East, Big Ten, and ACC, the number of teams remaining is 5, 2, and 2, respectively. The ACC is showing once again that it is the most overrated conference in the country, while the Big East is the most underrated. And one can't say that it has to do with the size of the conference- taking away Louisville (formerly of C-USA), the other four schools are original conference members. Of the two teams who lost, Marquette lost by two to Mizzou (who will lose to Memphis) and West Virginia by just six. We all know, my friends, that size does matter, and the Big East has got it! 4789511

2009-03-23T10:10:32-04:00

benebenebnebbe

Miami 580935

4 lol so hard at anyone who picked pitt 4777203

2009-03-23T21:59:19-04:00

CCCCC

Pittsburgh 743027

lol so hard at anyone who picked pitt

25 Um....why??? Last time I checked the scores, Pitt won both of their games and are still in the tourney, headed to the Sweet Sixteen. What's so funny about that? There are no style points in March Madness, only "W"s and "L"s. 4788021

2009-03-23T17:54:48-04:00

Thomas101

Kansas City 742928

24 Sorry about the double-post, the message I received at first said something to the effect of "you are not authorized to do that", so I went and confirmed my email then did it again. 4785849

2009-03-23T17:53:09-04:00

Thomas101

Kansas City 742928

23 How about an article on the hardest route to the Championship if Missouri can get there. We'll forget about Cornell for now and start with Marquette. Marquette lost James early in the first half of a loss to Connecticut at home. A loss where Marquette was tied with only a few minutes left on the clock. It was their first home loss. Then they followed it up with a loss at the wire to Louisville. At the time of the first loss, Marquette was ranked #10. If they hadn't lost James, they most likely would have been #2 or #3 in the country (go back and look at the rankings if you don't believe me) by the time the Big East tournament started. Even with a loss in the tournament, Marquette would have argueably been a #1 seed. James was back for Missouri but not at full force, so let's mark them up as a #2 seed caliber team. Next up is Memphis. Should have been a #1 seed over Pitt. They had the record. Because they aren't in a BCS conference, they didn't get it. Next: UConn....nothing to say, a true #1 seed. Next: Michigan State, Louisville, or Kansas. Michigan State had a legitimate gripe at not being a #1, but was probably seeded correctly. Louisville is a true #1 seed. Kansas could at this point be better than Michigan State and Louisville. They were full of young kids and those kids have matured each and every week. Guaranteed they learned from the loss to Baylor in the Big 12 tournament and will be playing more like a #1 than a #3....especially if they face Missouri. Then they'll be playing like an NBA franchise. Point is, odds are against Missouri, but I don't see them backing down from the challenge. 4785891

2009-03-23T10:15:10-04:00

Keith316

Sudbury 32255

5 Missouri may take Memphis (I'm going by Memphis struggling to a 2-2 record against BE teams, and one of those losses being at home to a SU team without its starting SG)... but Mizzu should be thankful they are still playing... a wounded Marquette team was very, very close to taking you out and I would say Memphis, and especially UConn are better teams than them. 4777280

2009-03-23T17:42:41-04:00

Thomas101

Kansas City 742928

Missouri may take Memphis (I'm going by Memphis struggling to a 2-2 record against BE teams, and one of those losses being at home to a SU team without its starting SG)... but Mizzu should be thankful they are still playing... a wounded Marquette team was very, very close to taking you out and I would say Memphis, and especially UConn are better teams than them.

22 Yeah, well Marquette should have been very thankful also. Thankful to the refs for keeping in them game. The controversial calls didn' t come at the end. They came all throughout the 2nd half and they all went Marquette's way. If it's Memphis and the refs against Missouri, Memphis will win. If it's just Memphis against Missouri, Missouri might pull it out. Missouri's been overlooked all season. We don't mind you overlooking Missouri too. Subpar Big 12 teams took a number one and a number 2 down to the wire already. Let's see what the top 3 can do now that the fun has started. 4785775

2009-03-23T10:15:10-04:00

Keith316

Sudbury 32255

2009-03-23T17:38:50-04:00

Thomas101

Kansas City 742928

21 Yeah, well Marquette should have felt thankful to the refs for still being in the game at the end. The controversial calls didn't come at the end. They came throughout the 2nd half. And they all went Marquette's way. If it's Memphis and the refs against Missouri, I pick Memphis. If it's just Memphis, it should be a good game and Missouri might come out on top. 4785719

2009-03-23T15:11:48-04:00

McGruff713

358160

20 I think Duke making it this far is a Cinderella story...look I'm a Duke fan...but with the way we've been playing down the stretch the last 5 years, especially in the tourney....the fact we made it out of the 1st round is something. We almost lost to Belmont last year!!! As a Duke fan I thought the comment was funny..spot on Lex. 4783277

2009-03-23T11:29:54-04:00

FDW

Louisville 742753

11 Three lines of text for T-Will of the Louisville Cards? Overall number one seed and most of this page is about all the other lower seeds. Who writes this stuff? 4778669

2009-03-23T14:27:46-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/508/221/thumb/lawson.jpg 499 AB

McI

Fort McMurray 508661

Three lines of text for T-Will of the Louisville Cards? Overall number one seed and most of this page is about all the other lower seeds. Who writes this stuff?

19 Article is titled 'Five Things We Learned (From Day 4 of The NCAAs)' What was learned was that T-Will can come up big in the scoring department if needed. What else did we learn? That they are good? I'm assuming you already knew that cuz the rest of the country did. 4782461

<div class="photo_container image_center" style="width: 615px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/29821/atd.uscmsu.si.jpg" alt="Atd" width="614" height="350" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Like many of the top seeds the tournament's first weekend, Michigan State had its hands full with lower-seeded USC. John Biever/SI</div> </div> MINNEAPOLIS -- Five things we learned on Day 4 of the dance: 1. It was the weekend of The Scare: Forty-eight games rife with near-upsets that resulted in no real carnage in the bracket. On Sunday, there was Louisville, the top seed in the field, trailing No. 9 Siena by six with 7:52 to go, needing this reminder from coach Rick Pitino during a timeout huddle: "You're the No. 1 team in the country. If you think it's a cakewalk in this tournament, you're wrong." Earlier on the same court, in Dayton, there was Pittsburgh, a national-title pick on many a pool sheet, fearing that its rebounding force, DeJuan Blair, might be knocked out with an injury against Oklahoma State -- "I had everybody scared for a minute," he said, "and I was scared myself" -- and fearing that the team might get knocked prematurely out of the dance. There was No. 3 Missouri, needing help from an over-the-line misstep by Marquette inbounder Lazar Hayward in the final minute in Boise, and No. 2 Michigan State, needing help from glue guy Travis Walton at the Metrodome when its stars couldn't score on USC. Spartans coach Tom Izzo said he felt "fortunate," rather than ecstatic, to win, and this summed up the feeling of the majority of favorites emerging into the Sweet 16. First scared, then fortunate. When the NCAA volunteers in charge of the giant bracket backstage at the Metrodome were done pasting up the survivors' names on Sunday night, all 12 of the Nos. 1-3 seeds were still alive, for the first time in the history of the Field of 65. Balk at chalk if you must, but this will make for a strong second weekend. Would you rather have had North Carolina-Western Kentucky than Carolina-Gonzaga? Or Villanova-Texas rather than Villanova-Duke? Or Syracuse-Michigan rather than 'Cuse-Oklahoma? I think not. 2. The only top seed to avoid The Scare was UConn -- which means we shouldn't be shocked to see the Huskies make a run to the title game. They were the last team on the top line of the selection committee's S-curve, and a debatable pick for a No. 1, but no team was more dominant than the Huskies on the NCAA tournament's first weekend. They were unfazed by coach Jim Calhoun's hospitalization during their first-round game, and blitzed Chattanooga, 103-47; then they treated Texas A&M like a low-major opponent in the second round, winning 92-66. "This should be a message sent," said senior guard A.J. Price, "showing that we're a good team." The strong play of Stanley Robinson, who scored 27 in the first round and then helped lock down A&M's Josh Carter in the second, is a reason to be more confident in UConn than we were coming into the dance. If they don't lose momentum heading into Glendale, they'll be able to overcome Memphis, and potentially set up a Monday-night showdown in Detroit against North Carolina, which should  be at full strength in Memphis after point guard Ty Lawson has another week to heal. 3. The 1-3 seeds wouldn't have gone 12-for-12 to the Sweet 16 without surprise heroes. Izzo, when reflecting on the performance of Walton, who scored 18 points -- just two shy of Kalin Lucas, Goran Suton and Raymar Morgan combined -- said this: "I told my team the other night [that] I talked to a friend of mine and he said, 'One play can make the difference in a game, and one game can make a difference in a season.' When I talk to my team now during tournament time, I always try to go over things that have happened. Because when I talk about [Mateen] Cleaves, I talk about Magic, all the things in the past, some of these guys weren't born then. So when you can get right to the point, and the point I used was the kid from Memphis [Roburt Sallie] the other night. He's averaging 10 minutes a game and 4.4 points and hits 10 threes. If he doesn't hit those, they lose. And I said, 'That's what the tournament is all about. Somebody has to step up and somebody has to do something they're not capable of doing in some people's minds.'" Walton and Sallie, whose 35-point effort against Cal State Northridge really did save the Tigers, weren't the only ones who rescued top seeds. • Kim English, the Missouri freshman who was pulled off the bench to "pinch-shoot" free throws in place of an injured J.T. Tiller with 5.5 seconds left in a tie game, came up big. English hadn't shot a free throw all day, but stepped to the line and calmly sank two. • Jon Scheyer, the Duke guard who starts but rarely ever stars, made a huge play to corral a loose ball -- and keep it alive by heaving it downcourt -- in the final seconds of the Texas game on Saturday. "Those are plays that you think of Magic Johnson making," Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said -- and then turned to Scheyer to add, "You never thought I'd compare you to Magic Johnson, right?" • Terrence Williams, the Louisville point forward who wants to be compared to Magic, stepped out of his normal distributor's role when the Cards needed him to score to fend off Siena, and finished with 24 points -- nearly double his average of 12.5. 4. Kansas' Cole Aldrich is turning into a Hasheem Thabeet-like presence on defense. After Kansas had beaten Dayton on Sunday, a KU official escorted Aldrich -- who had just completed the first triple-double in school history with 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocks -- over to a courtside CBS interview. Announcer Gus Johnson walked up to the official and said, "Do you know that's the first triple-double with blocks since 1992, since Shaq did it?" It had gone down somewhat quietly in the course of a 60-43 rout, but Aldrich made history at the Metrodome, and caused Jayhawks coach Bill Self to say, "As a head coach, I've never coached anybody that good as a true five. You know, Big Country [Bryant Reeves] was pretty good at Oklahoma State. But [Aldrich] has a chance to be a fabulous player and even an All-American-type player." The All-America thing would come next year, but for now he's just a dominant force in the NCAA tournament. Dayton shot just 22.2 percent on the game, and forward Charles Little credited part of that to Aldrich: "One of our greatest strengths is attacking the basket," Little said, "and you get past the first guy and you look up and there's a mountain in the middle of the lane." 5. Russ Pennell and Arizona deserve credit for salvaging their season, but don't call the Wildcats a Cinderella. As of Valentine's Day, they were headed for a No. 6 seed in the dance; just because they underperformed down the stretch, losing five of their last six and slipping to a No. 12 seed, doesn't make their story a fairy tale. Recall that this is a team that, in the regular season, beat No. 3 seed Kansas, No. 4 seeds Washington and Gonzaga, and No. 6 seed UCLA. And it's also a team with two first-round NBA draft picks on its roster in Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger. Making the NCAA tournament, then beating a Mountain West school (Utah) and a Horizon League school (Cleveland State) is what Arizona is supposed to do, right? I'd prefer to limit the definition of Cinderella, for future tournaments, to either 1) low-to-mid majors or 2) BCS-league teams that only qualified for the dance through an improbable run through their conference tournament -- like Georgia did in 2008.

Luke Winn

New York 4563 58781 <div class="photo_container image_center" style="width: 615px;"> <div class="photo"><img src="http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/29821/atd.uscmsu.si.jpg" alt="Atd" width="614" height="350" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align:right;">Like many of the top seeds the tournament's first weekend, Michigan State had its hands full with lower-seeded USC. John Biever/SI</div> </div> MINNEAPOLIS -- Five things we learned on Day 4 of the dance: 1. It was the weekend of The Scare: Forty-eight games rife with near-upsets that resulted in no real carnage in the bracket. On Sunday, there was Louisville, the top seed in the field, trailing No. 9 Siena by six with 7:52 to go, needing this reminder from coach Rick Pitino during a timeout huddle: "You're the No. 1 team in the country. If you think it's a cakewalk in this tournament, you're wrong." Earlier on the same court, in Dayton, there was Pittsburgh, a national-title pick on many a pool sheet, fearing that its rebounding force, DeJuan Blair, might be knocked out with an injury against Oklahoma State -- "I had everybody scared for a minute," he said, "and I was scared myself" -- and fearing that the team might get knocked prematurely out of the dance. There was No. 3 Missouri, needing help from an over-the-line misstep by Marquette inbounder Lazar Hayward in the final minute in Boise, and No. 2 Michigan State, needing help from glue guy Travis Walton at the Metrodome when its stars couldn't score on USC. Spartans coach Tom Izzo said he felt "fortunate," rather than ecstatic, to win, and this summed up the feeling of the majority of favorites emerging into the Sweet 16. First scared, then fortunate. When the NCAA volunteers in charge of the giant bracket backstage at the Metrodome were done pasting up the survivors' names on Sunday night, all 12 of the Nos. 1-3 seeds were still alive, for the first time in the history of the Field of 65. Balk at chalk if you must, but this will make for a strong second weekend. Would you rather have had North Carolina-Western Kentucky than Carolina-Gonzaga? Or Villanova-Texas rather than Villanova-Duke? Or Syracuse-Michigan rather than 'Cuse-Oklahoma? I think not.