Thoughts on Thursday's Games

Ignore the fact that the games on Thursday were generally boring and predictable, it was still the opening day of the NCAA Tournament and was therefore, outstanding. I've really sand-bagged this blog the last couple of days and am looking to come back strong on Friday. But before that happens, here are some thoughts on the opening Thursday of the tournament.

• The good news: One of my Bracket Buster teams (UNLV) advanced to the second round. The bad news: UNLV defeated one of my Bracket Buster teams (Kent State) on their way to the second round, and held the Golden Flashes to 10 points in the first half...10 POINTS!!! Thank goodness Kent State played another one of my Bracket Buster teams, because if they had not, I would look even more stupid than I do right now.
• We should all rejoice that the Stanford vs. Cornell game is finally over. I swear...if I heard one more dumpy announcer making one more stupid comment about the average SAT scores of these two teams, I think I was going to shove an icepick into my ear. You're NOT being funny, you're NOT being clever, and you're NOT going to unseat Bill Raftery or Gus Johnson. So just shut up.
• Lots of chalk with the results from today. Lots of chalk. Remember the days when there were two crazy upsets by the dinner break on Thursday? If you think things have been predictable and boring the last two years...wait until next year...when the three-point line is moved back a foot and the major programs are stacked again with another outstanding freshman class. It's going to get harder and harder for these smaller schools to pull off the improbable in March. Man I'm getting sour! I sound like Bob Smizik! Maybe I need a mini-vacation away from this blog.
• I better give my two cents on the Duke/Belmont "thriller". (I hate how any game that is somehow decided in the last half-minute is hyperrbolically labeled a "thriller". There should be higher standards for the use of such strong descriptive words.) Commentators and analysts have been saying that Belmont "lost" this game more than Duke actually "won" it. I must disagree here. The main reason that Belmont was in the game at all in the final minutes was because their coach, Rick Byrd, was smart enough to substitute players at nearly every whistle, keeping Belmont rested and fresh in order to push the tempo and wear Duke down. And last night we saw that Duke (now to be referred to as: Gerald Henderson and 4 exhausted white guys) can be worn down. Where was their depth? How did this team hang with North Carolina? When is Steve Wojokowski going to rip off his assistant coach's suit and sub himself into the game and show these punk kids how it's done? Both Duke and Belmont had numerous opportunities to step up and make shots in the final three minutes. Neither team took control and both looked nervous. It was just a matter of which team was actually going to execute. This was never Belmont's game to "lose" by any stretch of the imagination. They had a 2 point lead and a 1 point lead for a brief period of time in the second half before losing by a point. Belmont played a hell of a game to make it close and interesting, and for that, I give them all the credit. The one mistake I believe that Coach Byrd did make was calling all of those timeouts in the last minute and a half of the game. His team was playing very well by just rolling with the natural flow of the game. Once he started calling timeouts, he messed up the flow and momentum of the game and of his team. He also slowed them down enough to fixate on the moment, to have enough time to breathe and ponder the fact that they COULD, in fact, upset the #2 seed Blue Devils. Once you start thinking in these games, you're done.
• The Big East was well represented in Thursday's games, going a perfect 4-0. Pitt was the standout team from the Conference, defeating Oral Roberts by 19 points. Notre Dame could only beat George Mason by 18. Pity. How great would it be for the Big East to get all 8 teams into the round of 32? And to think...Pitt won this league's tournament. Good stuff.
• Mississippi Valley State got destroyed by UCLA and only managed to score 29 points, the lowest point total by any team in the tournament since the field expanded to 64 (65) teams. This is embarrassing for MVS and embarrassing for the NCAA Selection Committee. The Committee tried to get too cute here and attempted to be nice and they ended up looking like idiots. Mississippi Valley State deserved to play in the "opening round" game on Tuesday against Coppin State, based on their profile. MVS won the SWAC Tournament with a RPI of 228. That's out of 341 schools mind you. Instead, Mount Saint Mary's (winner of the NEC Tournament) played in the "opening round" game on Tuesday with a RPI of 159. That's 69 points higher than Mississippi Valley State!!! What the hell is going on here?!?!? It seems that there is a certain degree of reverse racism going on in this situation. The NCAA knows that it won't look good if the "opening round" game continually features two schools from historically black conferences. The "play-in" game cannot just feature the Conference Champs from the MEAC, SWAC, or Southland Conference every year (is what the Selection Committee is basically saying). This would be embarrassing to the various schools, players, and fans of these programs. What's embarrassing is that the NCAA is so ashamed of the "opening round" game, it's gone to extensive lengths to protect it's own ass from ridicule about the particular game! Don't try to make the play-in game more interesting by not putting the two worst teams in the game. And don't be hypocritical with the selection process involved with choosing the two teams that play in this game. The two worst teams in the Tournament field should be playing in this game. I don't care which conferences these two teams come from, they should be the two worst teams. Don't try to play hero and attempt to protect the integrity of the historically black conferences. Is there more dignity in losing the "opening round" game by two points, or in scoring 29 points in the first round to UCLA? If the NCAA is truly embarrassed with the play in game (which they are), they should make it interesting by pairing the last team into the field with the first team on the outside of the bubble. This way...every single Conference Tournament champion earns the right to play on opening weekend (no matter which Conference they are from), and the play in game suddenly becomes interesting. A lot more people would have watched Villanova play Arizona State play this past Tuesday night than watched Mount Saint Mary's play Coppin State. I want honesty and consistency from you NCAA. You can't save your ass all the time. And you can't make yourself look better by trying to cover other people's asses out of selfishness and self-interest.
• Mississippi Valley State may have scored the fewest points in the history of the modern tournament...but they still scored more points in each half (16 & 13) than Kent State scored in the first half (10) and Winthrop scored in the second half of their game (11).
• Wow...this column was way too negative and way too wordy. I am verbose, for better and for worse. Enjoy the games on Friday.