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Wow- what a track meet! Terrific game between Loyola and Nevada despite an awful last 10 minutes of offense by Nevada in the first half. Loyola is so well-coached and adept of playing at any pace the opponent chooses.
Now it would be amiss not to bring the issue of Eric Musselman's coaching in this game; I think he gives Chris Mack a run for the money as the goat of this tourney. Mack really did some inexplicable things in the final 30 seconds of Xavier's loss to FSU. Musselman: first, he needed to utilize a timeout or two during that awful end of the first half by Nevada. You've got plenty of timeouts at your disposal in college basketball; your team is totally out of sync: bad shots, bad passes. Enough was enough. Secondly, having a foul to give as Loyola is running down the clock before Townes' shot, can't be. Give a foul. Inexcusable- and as it would turn out, while it still would have been a miracle for Nevada to win, they still had to give that foul with only less than a second remaining, and that sealed Nevada's fate. Of course all of this was oblivious to Chris Webber, who for several years now, I have no idea how he is assigned as one of the four analysts to the regionals. He is not as bad as he used to be, but still not very good. Also he failed to question Musselman's strategy to not foul before Townes' big shot. To that point....
We saw this strategy at the end of the Butler-Purdue game, and ironically Purdue hit the huge 3 that for all intent, clinched that win. Tonight's game, there was even less remaining game time when the shot clock was due to expire. I think the right call is to foul and foul early (after you foul the one you have to give)- extend the game. Foul shooting is very poor in clutch time in college basketball. Your odds I think are better this avenue, then counting on either not getting the defensive rebound on a missed shot, or worse, the ball not being rebounded cleanly, being tipped a round a few times, etc...- and now you've lost several more seconds. None of what Nevada did those last 36 seconds on defense made any sense.
The refs trying to make the UK and KSU game unwatchable. KSU breathes in the direction of a UK player and it's an automatic foul. Awful. I don't care for either team so no bias here, just watching a game.
The refs trying to make the UK and KSU game unwatchable. KSU breathes in the direction of a UK player and it's an automatic foul. Awful. I don't care for either team so no bias here, just watching a game.
And another with the Xavier Sneed fifth foul: terrible call. Could be the difference with him out of the game. Kansas State is much better than I thought- didn't see them much this season, but I don't think anyone expected this sort of game effort for KSU. Mind you too- in Atlanta with mostly UK fans.
NOW my bracket is ruined. Loyola was in my Sweet 16 and I'm not stunned to see them in the Elite 8. But Kansas State?! Kansas State ??? Of all teams in its bracket- UK, Zona, Virginia just on the top half. Who could possibly have seen this happening? And Florida State about to take out Gonzaga! So much for things usually settling down after the first two rounds. My selections for tonight could not have been more wrong. I usually can sniff out Cinderellas, but these mediocre, .500 power conference teams like FSU and Kansas State, Syracuse a few years ago, etc... are just impossible to foresee and there isn't much rationale behind it.
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