2008 ncaa tournament – Rush The Court

Evaluating Ohio State’s Draw in the South Region

Alex Moscoso (@AlexPMoscoso) — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 14:40:40 +0000

With six teams from the Big Ten in the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State finds themselves as the lone league representative in the South Region. Recently, the Buckeyes have flourished in the single-elimination tournament platform. In the previous five seasons, they have either won, or been the runner-up in, the Big Ten Tournament and have made it to either the Elite Eight, Final Four, or Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons. However, these are not the dominant Buckeyes we have become accustomed to. For starters, this year Ohio State lost eight games in the [...]

One Shining Moment

rtmsf — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:47:41 +0000

We were going to save this for our season and tourney wrapup posting, but why wait if it’s already available? Is there anyone in America who hates 1SM? Anyone at all? Not us, we’re just asking… Enjoy.

Reflections on Monday Night

rtmsf — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:05:29 +0000

So we’ve had some time to ruminate on last night’s proceedings in San Antonio, and we keep circling back to the same conclusion. This was a great college basketball game, but it wasn’t a classically great game in the sense that both teams played exceptionally well and the better team won at the end (think the punch-counterpunch of 92 Duke-Kentucky). No, this game represented for us the maxim of: the team that chokes least is the team that wins. This is to take nothing away from Kansas, who made nearly every play (but one on the [...]

One reason to bask in the glow of last night’s collapse

nvr1983 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:54:00 +0000

Normally I am not one to enjoy seeing another team’s fans suffer unless they are a rival in which case I will taunt them mercilessly. However, I did not have a rooting interest (spiritual or financial) in last night’s game so part of me felt bad for Memphis as they choked away the game and the title. I just uncovered something that makes their collapse a little more enjoyable.

Just knowing that Justin Timberlake had to sit through the last 2 minutes of regulation and the inevitable loss in OT will make the replays much more enjoyable for [...]

Perspectives on an Epic Title Game

nvr1983 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:36:18 +0000

I provided my instant (revised) analysis very early this morning and rtmsf will be providing his a little later today. I thought I would provide you with some of the thoughts of various other sportswriters.

–At the Alamo, this was one to remember: Bob Ryan, who most of you may know from his frequent appearances on ESPN, offers his thoughts on the game and the Kansas team, which may get lost in all the talk about missed FTs and Chalmers huge shot.

–It takes more than talent: Stewart Mandel on one of the biggest title game collapses ever.

–The [...]

Maybe Roy Doesn’t Give a Sh!t After All

rtmsf — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:41:47 +0000

What is it with Roy’s sartorial choices this weekend? About seven minutes into tonight’s championship game, CBS indulged us with a shot of ol’ cryin’ Roy sitting in the stands wearing a black shirt emblazoned with a clearly noticeable decal of a Kansas Jayhawk on the front of it.

Let’s repeat this for clarity. The coach at North Carolina was sitting in public wearing a Kansas Jayhawks shirt and rooting for KU at the sport’s biggest event a mere two days after his team was folded, spindled and mutilated by said Jayhawks team.

Has Roy gone completely [...]

The Day After. . .

nvr1983 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:45:10 +0000

In the interest of full disclosure, I had a draft for this ready with a little over a minute left in the game congratulating Memphis for winning the game and making their FTs when it mattered since they had made their last 4 when Chris Douglas-Roberts stepped to the line. . .

After 2 blowouts in the semifinals, we finally got a close game. After a first half that lacked any real flow to it with both teams playing well offensively in spurts but never at the same time, the game took on the character we all expected with [...]

Just So We’re Clear…

rtmsf — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:10:27 +0000

So what you’re saying, Coach Cal, is that you’re not concerned with how your team shoots free throws, right?

Are we understanding that correctly?

Ok, just checkin…

National Championship LiveBlog

rtmsf — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:23:59 +0000

We kinda suck at this, but what the hell, it is the national title game after all. So here goes it…

Pregame – we kinda enjoyed Bill Self’s little pregame speech there. It wasn’t Vince Lombardi or even Norman Dale, but the point he made about tonight being a night the players will remember for the rest of their lives was a good one. We also enjoyed seeing the Memphis warmups stating “March is a Brotherhood” thing – first time we’ve seen those (apologies to MU fans everywhere). The KU fans are ready to explode – [...]

Memphis Chasing History?

rtmsf — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:01:15 +0000

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that we have an affinity for historical context when it comes to college basketball. We like to think about how teams and players match up statistically in the NCAA Tournament given the parameters of greatness already set by precedent. For example, much has been already written about this year’s F4 perhaps being the strongest of all-time, illustrated by the combined 143-9 record coming into last weekend and the four #1 seeds. We love that stuff.

To that end, we could be on the verge of another historic college basketball event the likes of [...]

What’s Up With Roy’s Technicolor Tie?

rtmsf — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:43:32 +0000

We think we’ve figured out what actually caused UNC to come out and play like complete garbage for the first twelve minutes of the game Saturday night.

It was that horrid tie, stupid!

Clearly the Carolina players were so thrown by Roy’s 3D Magic Eye tie (could you see the hidden picture of Dean Smith in there? us neither), that their depth perception was off for a while. This explains the errant passes, the bricks from all over the court, and the general play akin to a drunken soldier on leave for the first part of the game.

One last shining moment for this season. . .

nvr1983 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:05:07 +0000

After Saturday night’s blowouts, we can only hope that tonight’s title bout will give us a great game to finish off the season. I think both teams have too much talent to get blown out, but I never would have expected UNC to fall behind 40-12 before nearly making Billy Packer look like an ass (again).

I’ll offer my take and hopefully rtmsf will add his too later (see below).

Aside from a shaky performance at the free throw line against Mississippi State that made their 2nd round game much closer than it should have been, Memphis has totally [...]

The Gummy Bear Defense

rtmsf — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:10:45 +0000

Hey, if you can’t stop Memphis uber-frosh Derrick Rose using traditional definitions of defense, denial and hard work, why not just make sure he gets an upset tummy off of a diet of gummy bears, starburst and sour straws. Sometimes we forget how old some of these guys are…

From the AP report:

He walked into a scheduled group interview with his fellow starters and coach John Calipari, then went over to Calipari and whispered something to him. They went into the hall together, then Calipari returned alone. “He said his stomach was bothering him,” Calipari [...]

Thoughts on Kansas-UNC

nvr1983 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:13:44 +0000

Wow. If the Memphis-UCLA game gave us a dominating performance, this game gave us a roller-coaster ride. I called one of my friends who is a UNC fan when Kansas was up by 22. He didn’t answer (not a surprise) so I left a message that consisted mostly of me laughing. I kept on expecting a return call from him in the 2nd half, but mercifully that call will never happen.

1) I don’t think I have ever seen a quality team get blown out as decisively as UNC did at the beginning of the game. Kansas was all over [...]

Thoughts on Memphis-UCLA

nvr1983 — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:29:49 +0000

We’ll provide you with a more in-depth analysis later, but we figured we would offer some of our early thoughts.

1) Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts totally dominated this game. UCLA didn’t have an answer for either one of them. It looked like Rose wasn’t attacking as much when UCLA put Russell Westbrook on him, but for some reason Ben Howland decided to keep Darren Collison on Rose for most of the game until Collison fouled out with 2:53 left. As much as we hate to say it, Billy Packer was right when he kept on saying that Westbrook [...]