Well, the college basketball season is finally over and what a great NCAA tournament/season it was. After a few down years (when the high school kids first started coming out), college basketball is definitely back in a big way. Last night's game was a classic and even one shining moment (which CBS has been butchering for about 5 years now) was very well done. .
Kudos to Illinois for making the game close up until the last 3o seconds. They could have laid over and died (it was close to becoming a yawner like the much hyped BCS title game between USC/OU) when they got down fairly big at the beginning of the 2nd half, but their guards would not let them go down without a fight. The backcourt of illinois (brown, williams, and head) will be remembered by Illinios fans for a long time. Amazing, compelling storylines can arise when you settle things on the playing field (wake up college football). Tons of great games and despite what bowl apologists may say that a playoff system only lets one team go away as a winner. I think fans in Morgantown, Champaign, Louisville, East Lansing, Milwaukee, and wherever the hell bucknell is are all celebrating their great seasons this summer.
Once again this season has to be considering a smashing success for college basketball and despite kids leaving early, the sport has adapted very nicely.
My top 5 Memories from this tournament:
1 ) Illinois / Arizona and the entire regional final weekend-- This season was scripted almost too perfectly for Illinois. A perfect regular season up until a meaningless loss at Ohio St. Then a picture perfect path to the final four in their own backyard of St. Louis. On the verge of being completely foiled by a game Arizona team. Lute Olsen really had his team ready to play this tournament (he is very hit or miss come march) and they looked to be moving on to St. Louis before a furious Illinois comeback and winning the game in OT. Of course, we'll disregard that I missed the entire 2nd half.
2) West Virinia -- What a great story. These guys were in jeopardy of not even making the tournament until a trip to the big east final ensured their birth. They then proceeded to squeak by Creighton ( I had them in my tourney auction so i was pissed), but the next 3 games were all classics. An unbelievable double OT win against Wake (maybe the best game of the tournament), and then a nail biting low scoring affair (beating the Gengeral). And finally, the absolute classic regional final against Louisville. I will remember the names Pittsnogle and Gansey forever.
3) Crazy Friday night of the opening round games -- My bracket was looking TOO good. I had every region (with the exception of Albuquerque) 100% right until the 6 pm games on Friday tipped off. By the end of the night, Syracuse (I had them in the finals) AND Kansas had lost and order was restored. And by Saturday night, my champion (wake forest) had lost as well.
4) Washington -- While my boys may have gone down in the sweet 16, this was a great season with a great group of players. They just ran into a buzzsaw called Louisvilee and had their season ended sooner than expected. I will always have a spot in my heart for Nate Robinson.
5) Final Game -- While the semifinals didn't quite live up to its billing, the final was a classic that will not soon be forgotten. Great work by my hometown of st. louis hosting the event.
Here are some good links that I will start to post from time to time:
Bob Strum's blog from the Ticket -- This guy is my favorite personality on the Ticket and his blog is pretty informative:
http://sturminator.blogspot.com/
Great minor league baseball website from guy named John Sickels. Well respected in the sabremetrics (aka baseball nerd community):
http://www.minorleagueball.com/
If you are intersted in golf at all, you should do this masters pool run by Johnny Mackovic's son:
www.masterspool.net
That's it for today.
Go Rangers!
Back to work........
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