College Basketball 2012-2013

Not surprised the Cards struggled against a very deserving Shocker squad. Harrell, Henderson and Hancock saved their bacon.
Surprised at the Michigan defeat of the Orange. Thought Syracuse would indeed control the tempo, but Wolverines had the answer.
If the real Louisville shows up, they should cut down the nets.

 

Thought Wichita State played the best of the four teams, but Louisville finally rattled them in the final 5 minutes or so. Luke Hancock comes out of nowhere w/20 points and saves the Ville's bacon. Did absolutely hate the horrible jump ball call at the end when WSU deserved the right to try and tie it w/a 3.

Syracuse's achilles heel is they can't find the basket. Michigan in full control until they looked they wanted to give the game away. Refs get a lot of flack and the charging call could have gone either way. Initially thought it was a charge, on replay it was a block, but not going to call out the zebras like the first game.

The Kevin Wear injury inspired Louisville versus Duke, but they missed him against WSU. Michigan has been transformed ever since they put Mitch McGary into the lineup, and they have the guards to handle Louisville's pressure. I had Louisville losing to Indiana in the Final, so maybe it's appropriate that a different Big 10 wins, but I'll take the VIlle cutting down the nets in a tight one.

 

:handgestures-thumbupleft: What an absolute fantastic basketball game Monday night. First half and the Justin Bieber look-alike was on fire for Michigan, but Luke Hancock went loco to bring the Ville back into it. The Ville's guards (especially Siva) and Behanan (spelling?) were just too much in the second half. Congrats to Louisville, and Pitino in becoming first coach to guide two different schools to the National TItle.

 

Really glad Louisville brought home big trophy Number 3, but almost even more happy that they and Michigan put on a heck of a hoops show for the finale. Love him or hate him, Rick Pitino is one of the greatest coaches in the game, and winning another title the same day as being named to the college basketball HOF must have been very gratifying. Still don't understand why so many Kentucky fans have to be haters when the Cards do well, but I guess that's their issue. This team proved worthy of the overall number one seed despite some pretty glaring weaknesses. That they were able to overcome them and the loss of Kevin Ware, plus some uncharacteristically poor performances by Russ Smith, to win it all is remarkable. I knew their depth was formidable, but it didn't really manifest itself until they became a much better half court offensive team during the tournament, thanks to guys like Luke Hancock, Chane Behanan and Montrezl Harrell. The best part for me is that not only did I get to go to Atlanta to cover it, my son won the student ticket lottery and was also able to be there. Big fun!
Big props to Michigan. They deserved to be there, and Trey Burke is worthy of the Wooden Award. We were very fortunate to beat them.

The Ville is still buzzing, and probably will be until at least Derby Week. Oh, yeah...Pitino has a strong Derby horse this year, Goldencents, who won the Santa Anita Derby about the time his Cards were tipping off against Wichita State in the national semifinals. Somebody ought to compute the odds of THAT happening in the same year.