And Then There Were Two . . .

Evie
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

And Then There Were Two . . .
Saturday’s game came with the results I predicted but they ultimately were huge disappointments for the viewers of everyone who wasn’t a Kansas or Memphis fan or for folks who had those teams in the finals for their office pool (Memphis was of course the #1 seed I thought had the least chance of making it to the Final Four before the thing started). I’ve traditionally thought that UCLA’s Ben Howland was one hell of a game coach but Saturday’s result left me questioning myself. UCLA made a ton of sloppy first half mistakes that you wouldn’t expect from players like Collison, Shipp and Mbah a Boute who had played in 3 previous Final Four games. Howland burned two timeouts right before media timeouts which was horrible because the pace of the game was going way too fast to hope that Love and Westbrook could play without resting. I thought they were really lucky to be only down by 3 points at halftime and really felt the only reason the lead wasn’t 10 was because Memphis, outside of Douglas-Roberts and Rose, through up a ton of questionable shots (Sean Taggart for three!). I figured that UCLA would get the better of the halftime adjustments and take advantage of their lack of foul trouble and possibly steal the game at the end in a free throw shooting contest. When Dorsey and Taggart both picked up quick 3rd fouls I thought that UCLA had a good chance to win the game despite getting down by 7 in the first minute and a half. Instead UCLA abandoned the notion of getting the ball down low to the obviously winded Love and played him mainly on the perimeter where Love’s attempted three’s fell just short. Darren “Stock Dropping Faster Than Bear Stearns” Collison was outmatched on defense trying to guard Rose and offensively he was completely unable to penetrate the long armed defenders of Memphis. Result was a lot of missed mid-range jumpers by a team who lacks anyone who can consistently hit that shot. Westbrook was the only Bruin who could effectively score and almost all his points were on drives to the hoop where he simply outmuscled the entire Tiger defense. Give major credit to Dorsey and Taggart for going so long without picking up more fouls and tiring out Love. UCLA’s best lineup was Westbrook at the point and replacing Aboya or Keefe for Collison who was completely ineffective in this game and committed multiple frustration fouls. Since the Sweet 16 kicked off Memphis has been playing at the level of UNLV 1991 and unless Kansas can get a huge defensive effort from their guards the Tigers are going to become the first non-BCS conference team to win a championship since said Running Rebs of Jerry Tarkanian. Well on to Kansas and UNC – this game started off so badly for Carolina that I DVRed it once the game was 40 to 12 and watched the rest later after Evie went to sleep. As Billy Packer said this was really three games and Huckleberry Hound was asleep at the switch for the first segment of this game because there is no excuse whatsoever for a team as talented as Carolina is to spot any non-NBA team a 40-12 lead. Kansas coming out and playing unreal until they were so tired they started settling for threes every-time down and allowed Carolina back in to the game but the gallant Tar Heel effort was snuffed out because they too were too winded and started putting Kansas on the line where this one was sealed. Congrats to the Jayhawks but now you really have to wonder how much energy they are going to have left after playing the late night game that was played at an unbelievably quick pace. I am hoping for a good game in a tournament that outside of the Friday of the First Round has been lackluster. The Final Four has been a massive disappointment going back the last 4 years so hopefully tonight gives us a classic who’s memories will keep us fans content for the long break from college sports action we are about to undertake.