My Beloved 108 Bloggees:
For Gator fans, there were two pieces of good news after the exhilirating 83 - 74 overtime victory over BYU http://stats.gatorsports.com/cbk/boxscore.asp?gamecode=201103240210 . The first was Billy Donovan will be taking the Gators to his 4th Elite Eight. The second is the Gators will never, ever have to play Jimmer Fredette again. That guy just scares you when he has the basketball.
A tip of the hat to the gutsy, defensive play of Kenny Boynton on Fredette....Boynton was like syrup on a waffle. Don't forget Kenny missed the last few minutes of the previous game and some practice this week due to an ankle injury. Scottie Wilbekin, who should be playing high school basketball because he graduated a year early, also did a phenomenal job guarding Fredette who did score 32 but it was on 11 for 29 including just 3 for 15 from deep, deep. I remember one of those threes was from "Goudelock" range (see blog # 70), while another clanged the front of the rim and the "iron was kind" (thank you Tim Brando) as it bounced into the hoop.
Alex Tyus didn't just have a double-double, he had a serious double-double with 19 points, on 8 for 9 shooting (including just his second three-pointer of the year) and 17 rebounds. The Gators somehow managed to win shooting 45.5% from the charity stripe with Vernon Macklin the primary culprit...a painful 1 for 5. (Paging Samford's Emily London....are you available as the leading Division 1 free throw shooter to provide some tips to Macklin and his teammates before Saturday's crucial game against Butler?)
Click here to watch the post-game celebration in the locker room http://www.http//www.utsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2007-2008/ut0323.htmlgatorvision.tv/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=762179&db_oem_id=6500 . As always, bloggee Kevin # 1 was there covering the game for the Gainesville Sun. Here is his written recap http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20110324/ARTICLES/110329652/1136?Title=Gators-move-on-to-Elite-Eight-after-overtime-win-over-BYU . If you want to watch Kevin give his analysis of the Jimmer farewell game, click here http://www.gatorsports.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage?tc=ar . NEXT
Florida plays last year's finalist Butler on Saturday at 3:30 CDT in a rematch from the 2000 first round of the NCAA tournament when Mike Miller had a buzzer-beater in overtime to defeat the Bulldogs 69 - 68 (Gulp, that was 11 years ago, Mike Miller, You Make Me Feel Old) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/college/2000/ncaa_tourney/east/news/2000/03/17/butler_florida_ap/ . Florida went on to the Final Four that year. The winner, this year, will definitely be going to the Final Four.
Butler's senior 6' 8 forward Matt Howard is an experienced winner as evidenced by his double-double, 20 points and 12 rebounds, in last night's 61 - 54 win over Wisconsin http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201103240657 . I remember seeing Howard three years ago in Birmingham when Butler lost in overtime to Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA tourney http://www.utsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2007-2008/ut0323.html . He shot only 1 for 7 and fouled out in 23 minutes. He has since become wiser and has limited his fouls. Maybe Florida will challenge that and pound the ball down low to draw fouls from him and starting center 6' 11 Andrew Smith.
What Butler possibly has on its side is destiny. A buzzer-beater win in its first game against ODU and the miraculous second round win against number one-seed Pitt after almost giving away the game with a foul 45 feet from the basket with 1.4 seconds left and a one-point lead, makes me think Florida might have to deal with some intangible obstacles. I know it is voodoo, but tell me a fan who doesn't give stuff like that a thought. We might have to come up with another mantra similar to "Jimmer will have an off night" to contend with it. NEXT
I love when one-seeds who I don't pick to win in my bracket, lose like Duke did last night to Arizona 93 - 77 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201103240173 (sorry if you had Duke) . It has been a long time since a Duke team has been dominated in a half the way Arizona did after intermission, 55 - 33. A friend of mine spent the last two months in Tucson, AZ and he warned me about the Wildcats' Derrick Williams. He was right. The 6' 8 241 lb forward had 32 points on 11 for 17 shooting, 5 for 6 from the perimeter along with 13 rebounds.
Williams scored 25 of his points int he first half keeping his team in the game. Then his colleagues took over and put on a dunking and rebounding exhibition giving Coach K plenty of time to give interviews during the rest of the tournament, something he refuses to do during games that he coaches. However, he did make a rare exception during the Arizona game last night http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Did-Coach-K-s-halftime-interview-jinx-Duke-in-se?urn=ncaab-wp1150 NEXT
Connecticut will be too tired after playing five games on consecutive days to win the Big East tourney. Do you know of a crazy blogger who wrote that? Hasn't he heard of the great Kemba Walker?
Kemba was just being Kemba last night when he scored 36 in knocking out for the first time a Final Four pick of mine, San Diego State 74 - 67 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201103240498 . Because this was not the "primary" early game in my household (some other game took place at the same time in which I was somewhat interested) I was only able to see highlights like these http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/recap/NCAAB_20110324_CT@SDGST/walkers-36-lead-uconn-past-sdsu-to-regional-final .
Freshman 6' 5 guard Jeremy Lamb (from Atlanta suburb, Norcross....nice recruiting job, Jim Calhoun) contributed 24 points on 9 for 11 from the field including perfection on his 3 long distance tosses. Now if my arithmetic is correct, there was not much scoring from the other 8 Huskies who played....just 14 other points! Can you say unbalanced? THAT'S IT
Enjoy.....my favorite basketball analyst, Bill Raftery, had the greatest line when after of Arizona's players blocked a shot during their explosive second half, "That's not a message, that's a novel." .... he is the best,
Barry
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