College Basketball: Rambling Thoughts

I have spent the last four days absorbing as much college basketball as possible. Just a few random thoughts on the tourney so far:

Rick Barnes is still a really poor in-game coach.

Evidence: Late in their second-round game, Texas trailed Duke 69-72. With 11 seconds left to play, the Longhorns fouled Duke's Elliot Williams, a 46% free-throw shooter. He missed the first - meaning that one more miss would give Texas an opportunity to tie.

Texas had two timeouts left. Rick Barnes could have easily subbed-in his best rebounding squad to ensure that Texas would collect a missed free-throw. As soon as the ball was in Longhorn possession, Barnes could call timeout and litter his lineup with three-point bombers.

Williams did his part - Barnes did not.

Williams bricked the second free-throw off the back of the rim, but to my dismay, Barnes had inexplicably left Dexter Pittman - the 6-10, 300lb center - on the bench. Needless to say, Duke came down with the offensive-rebound, made a couple of free-throws and ended the game.

Genius. Absolutely genius.

(Sidebar: Rick Barnes is looking more and more like Burns from the Simpsons. It's getting a little creepy!)










Over-Officiating

Over the weekend, I watched a really good Pittsburgh-Oklahoma State matchup. The downside? Both teams were in the bonus at the 10-minute mark of the first half. This situation continued a trend that has been apparent to me throughout the tournament.

Duke-Texas: Dexter Pittman was in foul trouble throughout the game. He had averaged 29 minutes/game over the last four - but foul trouble limited him to 22 against the Blue Devils. Texas lost by five.

Arizona State-Syracuse: The Sun Devils' big man, Jeff Pendergraph, fouled out with 10-minutes remaining. Pendergraph logged 24 minutes during the game - 9 minutes below his season average. ASU lost by 11 points.

Villanova-UCLA: both teams were in the bonus with 10 minutes left in the first half.

Maybe I am just trying to justify why my bracket has failed so miserably - but I don't want to watch every team's backups for 20 minutes/game. I want to see the best against the best. I am with Dick Vitale - the college game needs to join the NBA and allow six fouls per contest. It's just too difficult for big men in the college game to avoid getting in foul trouble. Fans want to see the big guys on the floor - not cheerleading from the bench.

Solid Goldy Gold

Jim Nance is a solid announcer. He does a good job on everything that he covers. He makes it interesting, entertaining...he is well-researched, he isn't cheesy. He is just solid.