My Beloved 105 Bloggees:
Two years ago Shaka Smart was an assistant coach at Florida and then left after the 2008-2009 season. After watching the Gators advance to the Sweet Sixteen on Saturday, do you think he wished he did not leave Gainesville so he could have had this March Madness experience? Of course not. Shaka took the head coach job at VCU and he will be joining the Gators in the Sweet Sixteen after an amazing week when the Rams defeated USC, Georgetown and Purdue.
How about a tip of the hat to former VCU coach. Anthony Grant. who left Shaka with a bunch of talent including point guard Joey Rodriguez, the high school teammate of UF's Chandler Parsons . NEXT
Orien Greene. That is a name that will forever be remembered by Gator fans for failing to inbound the ball with a two-point lead and less than 30 seconds left in double overtime in their eventual loss to Creighton in the first round of the 2002 NCAA tournament. University of Texas fans, including bloggee Kevin # 2 and bloggee Rich, will have a similar memory from Sunday's 70 - 69 loss to Arizona, when the Horns' Cory Joseph could not inbound the ball with a 2-point lead when there was less than 15 seconds left in the game.
Subsquently, Arizona's Pac-10 Player of the Year, Derrick Williams, made a tough basket and was fouled with 9.5 seconds left. He converted the game-winning free throw as Texas soon after, missed a game-winning contested shot in the paint. Here is a video recap of the tension-filled game http://rivals.yahoo.com/video/college-basketball/NCAA-Tourney-Arizona-vs-Texas-1093852 .
What a painful loss for the Longhorns....I can feel their pain, thanks to my experience with Orien Greene (However, to Greene's credit he was able to overcome the stigma after transferring to Louisiana Lafayette by subsequently playing in the NBA including as recently as February of this year http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/greenor01.html He now plays in China http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2011/3/15/2051474/orien-greene-courtney-sims-china-nba-d-league. NEXT
A tip of the hat must go to Coach Leonard Hamilton of FSU. His team is playing tough, tough defense in spite of his top player, Chris Singleton, returning from an injury and not being able to provide significant minutes. On Sunday 10-seed FSU limited 2-seed Notre Dame to 30.6 % shooting on 19 for 62 and just 7 for 30 from downtown or just 23.3 % http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201103200423 . The Seminoles defense continues to be suffocating and when shooting 9 for 19 from deep themselves, they are extra difficult to beat.
With VCU being the next Seminoles opponent, Kansas fans need to pull for the Rams to win, otherwise, the Jayhawks may be victims of the FSU pesky defense (of course assuming they defeat 12-seed Richmond in the Sweet Sixteen) in the Elite Eight game to determine who goes to the Final Four. NEXT
Both North Carolina and Duke have to be breathing a sigh of relief escaping with victories on Sunday in Charlotte against Washington and Michigan, respectively. In a weekend of memorable bonehead plays, the Heels' John Henson inexplicably touched a Huskies' missed three-pointer to tie as it was going out of bounds with about a second left, giving Washington one more chance to even things up. Fortunately for Roy's Boys, Isaiah Thomas's attempt went awry plus he had his foot on the 3-point line and North Carolina won its 25th straight NCAA game in its home state 86 - 83 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201103200413 .
Duke's pessimistic fans must have had the "we're doomed" thought that one has when your team is up by 2 and the opponents have the ball with about 8 seconds to score......"we lose if they make a three". That was the situation yesterday when Duke's Noland Smith missed a free throw, and Michigan's Darius Morris ended up with the ball and instead of taking the potential winning three, he unsuccessfully put up a runner in the lane to tie that clanged off the rim and Duke escaped 73 - 71. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201103200173 . Here are the highlights http://rivals.yahoo.com/video/college-basketball/NCAA-Tourney-Duke-vs-Michigan-1093814 . NEXT
Samford's women were overmatched in its NCAA first-round game against much-bigger FSU 76 - 46 http://samfordsports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/2010-2011/sam0320.html . Blog-favorite senior Emily London led the Bulldogs with 14 points and on the national stage nailed all four of her free throws (I saw each of them and they all were "string music"). She finished 117 for 125 or 93.6 % for the year. By the way, among the thousands of NCAA men and women in Division I, II and III, Emily had the second best free throw percentage only to be eclipsed by Ryan Martin of Div III Keene State (NH) who was a whopping 99 of 103 for 96.1 % .
Meanwhile, I hope you got a kick out of following Emily's free throw shooting prowess throughout the blogs.If you are a baseball fan, it was similar to keeping track of a player's hitting streak, each day you are curious to find out if the streak continues (or in Emily's case if she made her free throws). THAT'S IT.
Enjoy.....Bama in the NIT Monday night against New Mexcio on ESPN at 8:00 CDT....interesting coaching matchup with the Tide's Anthony Grant against the Lobos' Steve Alford.....Gators play at 6:30 CDT on TBS on Thursday....can't get Jimmer out of my mind....imagine if you are the Florida basketball braintrust,
Barry
No comments:
Post a Comment