Monday, February 28, 2011

MMBSD: Close to the Madness

Only 1 more week of regular basketball before the conference tourneys start up (less for a number of the Mid-Major tournaments). The one constant this year has been don't be ranked #1 as that makes you oddly more likely to lose. This week is was Duke, nd Texas falling to bubble teams (at best) and Pitt getting upset by Louisville. The signs and portents are that its going to be a particularly unpredictable Madness infused March.

  • A few teams to keep an eye that seem to be playing better of late: UCLA and K-State. UCLA dominated Arizona early in the week to move into a tie for the Pac-10 lead. The other is K-State who had a disappointing season until recently. In the past 2 weeks they've knocked off KU and Missouri. They play Texas this coming week and a victory could signal dark horse to the sweet 16...something unthinkable earlier in the year.
  • Two teams that I found very disappointing this week was BYU and San Diego State. Undisciplined, bad shot selection, ugly fouls, horrible smelling fans... I'll be surprised if either of these highly ranked teams make it to the second weekend of the Madness.

ESPN Controversy
Well kind of. Turns out that several ESPN on-air personalities have shoe endorsement deals. If ESPN even pretended it had anything to do with journalism then this would be disappointing. But ESPN is in the entertainment business. It would be nice if they labeled their product as such much like professional wrestling refers to itself as sports entertainment. Also it would be nice if Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit occasionally got punched in the face but that's an unrelated issue....




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1 comment:

Gutsy Goldberg said...

1) UCLA has been playing fantastic since PAC-10 play began. Interestingly, they've also beaten BYU, St. John's, and now Arizona.
2) K State is finally playing up to its pre-season billing. Jacob Pullen is playing much better now. If they beat Texas they could be a darkhorse lower seed.
3) BYU and SD St were shockingly awful. It's one thing to rely on one player. It's another thing when that player (Fredette) looks like a ballhog, isn't fast enough to escape defenders, and isn't a good enough passer to always get out of a jam. He can shoot very well, but if the other team they face has a quick PG who can play one-on-one defense... BYU is going down. This is in sharp contrast to last year's team, where Jimmer deferred to some extent to another senior (who's name escapes me) and to the amazing Lloyd Jr (who off the bench saved them in the 1st round last year). Sadly, Lloyd Jr has transferred and this is a complete one-man team. Unlike Curry (on Davidson) or Wally (on Miami(OH)), I don't believe Jimmer has the speed or savvy to take BYU far.

8:31 AM

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