So many upsets on day 2 of the NCAA tournament. Missouri going down to Norfolk State murdered a lot of people's brackets, including mine. Lehigh beating Duke was better than sliced bread, sex etc. Suck it Coach Krybaby!!! Duke was overrated all year long. It was so enjoyable watching them get slapped around pimp style. Ohio beating Michigan did not get much attention but was still surprising.
What a painful loss for St. Mary's and my bracket. St Mary's was just awful for 35 minutes; down between six to ten points most of the 2nd half. Finally they made a last run and hit a 3 to put them up one. Then after Purdue missed, a timeout was called. The kid for St Mary's ran the baseline trying to inbound the ball, which is a traveling violation. Total brain fart, and that kid will never forget that play for the rest of his worthless life. There were 31 seconds left and Purdue would've had to foul. You can only run the baseline after a made basket, not after a timeout. I had St Mary's winning 3 games so my bracket took a shit in my mouth.
I've been victimized by picking the wrong upsets. I took risks but it's hard to take a 15 seed, and forget about 2 of them. Since the tournament expanded in 1985 only four 15 seeds had beaten a 2 seed. For it to happen twice on the same day is like some end of the world Mayans prediction type shit. I was stunned by Belmont's performance against Georgetown. They looked awful. In fact, a lot of the mid majors who shoot the 3 well just drew blanks. The key to mid majors being successful is a fast start. Norfolk State and Lehigh jumped on the higher seeds early and made them think a little. You can only watch so much game film on teams in this tournament. When you get out there and play a team you are often surprised by what they can actually do.
Duke and Missouri started to realize that their opponents were for real. Then they got tight. Never forget these are kids between the ages of 18-21. They start thinking about it and doubt themselves. And in the process the other team grows more and more confident. I was at work watching the Missouri game and I said if Missouri trails with under 4 minutes to play--they will lose. I looked up at the clock and with 4 minutes to play they trailed by 3. I ripped up my bracket. Everyone said there's too much time left. I didn't care. I could see the Missouri kids were nervous and Norfolk State answered every Missouri run and never faltered.
Conversely, Belmont, who a lot of people had beating Georgetown, including myself, came out flat and struggled. Belmont came into the tournament averaging over 80 points per game, but couldn't make any three's and finished with just 59. Georgetown was also too tough and dominated the paint. Same for Vanderbilt against Harvard. Now Harvard fought back and got within 5 after being down 18, but for a good portion they were just dominated on the glass.
I will never buy into the Mountain West Conference again the way I did. UNLV and San Diego state lived by the 3 most of the year but in this tournament died by it. Somehow UNLV found themselves down 18 to Colorado. They battled pack with great defense but down by 3 took a another 3 that missed. While San Diego State looked over matched against a very inconsistent NC State team.
It bothers me when people say a team is hot at the right time, therefore take em. A bubble team like NC state was a bubble team for a reason; they were very inconsistent. So just because they finished the season strongly doesn't mean they can't revert back to bad habits and get taken out. Now I was warned about the lack of size San Diego State had versus the dominant front court of NC State, and I opted to ignore it based solely on how inconsistent the wolf pack was all year. I was wrong and now I say fuck you mountain west conference.
I know I dismissed the Knicks 42 point victory over Portland the other night. However, I will not dismiss what was a 30 point lead over a team higher in the standings. I will even ignore giving up 42 4th quarter points. The game was over after the third and the effort defensively was gone. For 3 quarters the Knicks looked as good as they have looked all year.
The Pacers are a good team and the Knicks forced them into so many bad shots. This was a maximum effort from the Knicks on both sides. Now having Jared Jeffries back was a huge plus defensively. They even survived a mediocre 4-12 shooting night from the so-called star. This was an eye-opening performance.
The only question is how long will this great effort last from certain players? Clearly they want to play hard for the new coach. I just need to see it for a few more games before I say this system works better than the previous one. Nobody is saying the Knicks don't have the pieces to compete night in night out; it has more to do with the effort defensively from both Amar'e and Melo.
If Woodson can get the effort everyone gave the last two games over the next few weeks, well, then the Knicks will be a dangerous out in the postseason. I just want to see what happens after a loss. Does the dog come back out in certain players? Everyone is all smiles when there's no adversity. We shall see what unfolds.
Only bad news to come from the win was Baron Davis leaving the game with a tight hamstring. Woodson already announced Davis will not travel with the team to Indiana for Saturday's game. I warned everyone about Davis and his injuries. Ya never know when or what body part he will hurt. I will be surprised if he doesn't miss a week with this hamstring issue.
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