College Hoops 2014-15

The Lady Tigers of Princeton lost to the #1 seed Terps to finish the year 32-1. A little unlucky they weren't seeded higher. Good last few years for the Ivy's in men's & women's hoops as the league champ has won games in the tourney.

 

Probably not an understatement to say tonight's NIT game in Norfolk is the biggest athletic contest in school history for Murray State. Old Dominion should have gone dancing as well, and a trip to MSG awaits the winner. I'm worried because we played, and shot the ball, awfully well in Tulsa Monday night. Yeah, that's a REALLY short turnaround for any team,
but we'll see. The Racers in NYC. That possibility trips me out. Regardless of how the season ends, Steve Prohm will probably be moving on. Someone will wave a contract with many digits after a dollar sign in front of him, and he's a new dad. Just going to enjoy the ride while it lasts, which will hopefully continue tomorrow. GO RACERS!

 

You're giving away your age there Jump. The Not Important Tournament doesn't hold the same cachet that it once held. Now, it's playing for 69th.

I'd maintain the 2 biggest games in school history remain the 2010 & 2012 shots at the sweet 16, regardless of what happens in the NIT this year.

 

A great season for the Tigers. I believe they only had one senior starter, so they should be good again next year. At #13 in the polls , I would have thought they'd have a higher seed than 8, which might have delayed the inevitable another round. With no athletic scholarships and high academic standards, Ivy League schools aren't likely to get enough talent to win a championship, so simply winning a tournament game is cause for celebration. Bill Bradley came from a family that could afford it, and was good enough to lead the team to the Final 4, but there aren't too many players like that. The mens team was a 5 seed the year after their famous upset of UCLA. If the womens team can continue their great play next year, maybe they could get a higher seed too.

 

I think I'm gonna puke....

 

That's a heartbreaking ending to Murray's season Jump.

 

Feel your pain James. Xavier tough...As usual, but Zona tougher. .BEAR DOWN!!!

 

It will matter not if they don't cut down the nets in Indy. But, yeah, they could have gone scoreless in the second half and still won by 5, I think. To quote Marko Ramius, they were well motivated.

 

That win tied the largest margin of victory, 39, set by Louisville when they beat (sorry, Joe) Arizona 103-64 in '09. Louisville was the 1 seed & Arizona made it to the Sweet 16 as a 12. Louisville lost to 2nd seeded Michigan State 2 days later.

This is the 4th time a team lost by 30 or more in the Sweet 16 since '85. Incidentally, it was Kentucky who did it the other 2 x's, giving the state of Kentucky ownership of the 4 worst beatdowns. In '93 they beat Wake 103-69 but lost in the Final 4. In '96 they smashed Utah 101-70 en route to the National Championship.

This is the first time a team has been doubled up in the Sweet 16.

 

Rick Pitino's at it again. He's taken a less than stellar Louisville team that nobody gave a chance in hell of getting out of the first weekend and gotten them to another regional final. He's a prick, but he's also an awfully good basketball coach. And it's quite conceivable they could not only make it to the Final Four, but to the championship game. Sparty, Duke and the Zags are not significantly better than the Cards, but they ARE better. Still, they've got a reasonable shot at it. But no matter how far they get this season, nobody's beating Kentucky. But this town would go bonkers if Louisville got there....

 

Always takes a few days to digest a tough loss, and this one was especially brutal since I liked the Cats chances at halftime. It was almost comical (10 of 12 from behind the arc in the final 20 minutes) the way Wisconsin shot the ball in the second half. 4th elite 8 loss in the last 9 tournaments is a tough pill to swallow for all Zona fans. From the adding salt to the wound dept. coming back from Phoenix I walked by a man that had to be Sam Dekker's dad at the Ontario, CA airport (Identical, but 25-30 older and geared up with Wisconsin garb), Dekker's shooting along with Frank the Tank is why they are playing in Indy.

Notre Dame had Kentucky on the ropes, but couldn't deliver the knockout punch. Misuse of the time-outs came back to haunt when they didn't have any left with 6 seconds to go.

I know James is in my boat about his Louisville, after they lost a heartbreaker. When the kid made the first FT with the crazy bounce I thought he'd make the second one for sure, but unfortunately he missed and it went to overtime. Sparty and Izzo just seemed to peak annually in March.

 

Sparty vs. the Dookies and Wisconsin vs. Kentucky. How many of you had all four in your bracket? I only had the Wildcats, and the Irish darn near got 'em. Gotta say that I think the Final Four would be a lot more interesting if Louisville had managed to get in. Even though they were a 4 seed, most of us agreed that was too high. In the end, they reverted to the worst of their many bad habits, one on one offensive basketball, poor, challenged shots and shaky free throw shooting. Yet they still almost got there. Most here consider it a successful season. But today, in addition to the expected departures of Harrell and Rozier to the pros, Anton Gill and, possibly, Shaqquan Aaron and Chianu Onuako are transferring. So you won't recognize next year's Louisville team, most likely. Rick's got his work cut out for next year. As for next weekend in Indy, I still don't see Wisconsin and whomever survives the other semi between Duke and Michigan State giving the Wildcats much trouble. Joe, nobody shoots like that two games in a row. Zona just caught them on a really, really good shooting day, even for them. I don't see them repeating that against UK. I think the scare against the Irish was probably the last real challenge they'll get. All of which means Michigan State will probably win.

 

Saw it HD, and like you said it's well done..and he was an @$$!! Plus a clutch performer. Amazing how times have changed. It's incomprehensible that today entire student sections would chant homophobic slurs at Laettner like LSU students did. I remember those Duke-Michigan games, the amount of trash talk allowed back then relative to today is night and day. That UNLV team they beat is still my most favorite non-Arizona squad, and it took Laettner's iron will to propel Puke (along with Greg Anthony fouling out). One thing I don't miss. .Billy Packer and his pro-ACC rooting commentary.

They've done some other excellent 30 for 30's on college hoops. The ones about the aforementioned Fab 5, NC State's miracle run, Boston College point shaving scandal, and Hank Gathers collapse at Loyola Marymount are all terrific.

 

Without Bias was a good one. As a Terps fan, his death is one of those "remember where you were when you heard it" moments. Watching that doc, while sad, also reminded of just how incredible a player Len was. His death was a huge blow to the Celtics as well. This was going to be Boston's version of the Spurs getting Tim Duncan.

Another good one is Requiem for the Big East. What Gavitt was able to build with (mostly) small, intercity, private schools, and the speed with which it happened, was visionary & remarkable. It especially resonates with Mullen going back to St John's.

Not sure if Rob Lowe doing the narration was the best choice in trying to make Laettner more sympathetic. Then again I'm biased and, as a Terps fan, will carry my hatred for Duke to the grave. That winner over Kentucky was another of those "remember where you were" moments, though.

 

Speaking of Laettner, is it just me or does anyone else think that he doesn't fit in/belong in the AT&T commercials with Shaq, Dr. J and Clyde? It seems to me, the career disparity there is vast and AT&T may have had to slide down the white guy list after the likes of Larry Bird passed on the project.

 

Indeed it was Matt, and indeed I do. I was in The Spectrum, but NOT in the bowl of the arena. I was outside the Kentucky locker room, waiting to shoot video of them entering it from the playing floor exit. It was located off of a hallway across from a portal that had a limited tunnel vision view of the visitor's bench. I had no real idea what had happened, only that they had lost, judging from the reaction of the blue clad players and coaches on that bench. The NCAA and CBS forbids us from shooting any video inside the arena that has a clear view of the playing floor. I had flipped on a camera mounted battery light when Pitino led them up the tunnel to the hallway across from the locker room door. When he got there, he told me to "turn that off." I switched off the light, but , of course, NOT the camera. There is an NCAA mandated 10 minute "cooling off period" after the door is shut when the final authorized person is inside the locker room. Calvin Hill, the great Dallas Cowboy running back and, of course, Grant's dad, came up to the security guy guarding the door and asked to be allowed in well before the 10 minutes was up. His request was politely denied with the relevant explanation, but he was unmoved. He then demanded to be allowed in to say something to the team, but the guard stood his ground. Calvin got angry and tried to intimidate his way in, playing the "oh, that's right, you're from Philadelphia" card. That didn't work, either. Felt sorry for the guard, who I had engaged in some small talk about how the Flyers were doing that season (not well). Ended up eventually getting a quick interview later by myself with Laettner in the Duke locker room after almost everyone else had left (they were playing Indiana next, so I wanted to ask him about that). Before that, while we were interviewing John Pelfrey in the UK locker room, someone asked him a question that he just shook his head at, shuffled his feet for a couple of seconds, then slowly turned and retreated to the back of the showers, where he leaned onto the back wall and just buried his head into the crook of his elbow. Sometimes 10 minutes ain't enough...

 

Seeing as it's an ad about the NCAA Tournament, he's actually the most credible person in the ad. He's the only one in the group to win a National Title (twice). Clyde came up on the losing end in 2. Shaq never reached the Sweet Sixteen in 3 tries & Dr J never even played in the Tournament (although that was a different era with a much different format).