Four More Games, Four More Blowouts

Alright, I’ll admit it. I was wrong. I’m man enough to eat my words when I have to. On one side of things, I completely fouled on two of last night’s games, picking Wisconsin to beat Davidson and going with Michigan State over Memphis. I really thought Wisconsin would lock down Curry and the boys seeing as how they lead the nation in scoring defense, giving up 52.9 points per game throughout the season, and I was equally convinced Memphis was going to crap out. But alas, the Memphis team that won 30 games this year showed up rather than the Memphis team that almost lost to Mississippi State, and Curry proved he is possibly Superman with yet another 30 point performance.

One the other hand, I was eerily correct about the other two games…

In a not-so-surprising outcome, Kansas absolutely demoralized Villanova en route to a 15 point victory. It wasn’t even a fair game, and Kansas probably could have run up the score, but they didn’t. Instead they resorted to throwing forty thousand alley-oops including one off the backboard to Brandon Rush which was the play of the day as far as I’m concerned. Kansas just has too much talent on the floor for most teams to match up with, and God willing, if UNC beats Louisville and has to play Kansas in the Final Four, it could be a very good game.

Watching the Texas-Stanford game was like watching the words I wrote come to life, complete with commentary from Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas. I said Texas’ guards were too much to handle. I said that if Texas could somehow neutralize the ginormous Lopez brothers inside and shoot effectively from outside, it could turn into a runaway. I was right. After one of the towering twins went out for a break, Texas ripped off a 20 point run, lead by DJ Augustin, and never looked back. Augustin finished with 23 points and was followed by a few more Longhorns in double figures. If things work out the way I slated them to in my bracket, that would mean Texas would meet Carolina for the title game, and I really don’t know how to gauge that matchup. UNC would have to D up more than they have all year in order to keep Augustin and AJ Adams in check, which is no easy feat. Also, they would have to keep tabs on Connor Atchley and Damion James, who is hot as of late. The thought scares the hell out of me to be quite honest.

With respect to all four games as a whole, it was a relatively uninteresting night of basketball. Wisconsin kept it close for a while, but eventually Davidson just ran away with it. The closest game of the night was the 15 point drubbing Kansas laid on Villanova, and believe me, the score makes it seem closer than it was. The only thing that stands out to most fans is the fact that there is now a 10 seed in the Elite 8.

I’m expecting better things from the next round. Tonight’s games pit a couple of three seeds against a couple of one seeds. My picks are as follows:

• (1) North Carolina over (3) Louisville. Ty Lawson is really coming around since returning from injury, and Tyler Hansbrough is being Tyler Hansbrough. If the team can make the easy shots and avoid turning the ball over more than about a dozen times, I really think they’ll be in good shape. On the other hand, Rick Pitino is a smart man, so Louisville could end up laying in the weeds the first half and come out firing in the second half. Since I’m a UNC fan, I can do nothing but pick my team to win and cheer accordingly.
• (1) UCLA over (3) Xavier. JK said it best the other night when he said “No one locks down like UCLA does.” They do play really tight defense and I think they have way too many weapons for Xavier to keep tabs on. As fate would have it, ESPN just showed a graphic that said Xavier has never won an Elite 8 game in school history, going 0-8 thus far. Look for Kevin Love and Darren Collison to each contribute as they have been all year, and look for this one to be over early enough for you to catch the back end of whatever lame movie USA is showing tonight.

I’ll be back tomorrow with reactions to tonight’s games as well as my picks for the two remaining Elite 8 matchups. As for tonight, since tomorrow is the first day all week I don’t have to be up at 7:30 (or 4:30, like today) I might go find some kind of an establishment that serves my favorite ale and consume one or two … or nine. I fully expect to reach Stage 5 of Drunkenness tonight my friends. I hope you have a marvelous Saturday.

One love,

10

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Tags: Davidson, Elite 8, Kansas, March Madness, Memphis, Michigan State, NCAA, Stanford, Sweet 16, Texas, UNC, Villanova, Wisconsin

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