Sweet Sixteen Ponderings
Mar 28th 2008eCollege Basketball
—Foget Luc Richard Mba a Moute and Kevin Love, last night’s game made it clear the key to the UCLA defense is Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook. Once both of them got four fouls the Hilltoppers started scoring at will. It means either they’re both great defenders, or they were prevented from taking their usual liberties with hand-checking regulations.
—How about that Xavier game? Thirteen lead changes in the last 10 minutes. Four more in overtime. Twenty-Three straight minutes of seemingly do-or-die possessions. This Xavier team has played more high intensity minutes than any team in the tournament. I was at their first round game against Georgia and the atmosphere was extremely tense for almost the entire 2nd half. Their 2nd round game was close throughout. And then you have this game. Who knows whether it will end up being good or bad for them. There is a chance it will lead to one of those “we can’t lose” mentalities and I think those are generally a good things (see: Wildcats, Davidson or Hiltoppers, Western Kentucky).
—It’s so hard to come back against North Carolina because they run the whole game. That’s what makes them dangerous. In order to come back from a 10+ point deficit a team needs to hit shots, get stops, and then run back the other way. Teams can’t do that against UNC because when they hit a shot the Tar Heels run right back at them. And UNC is better at it than everyone else. The pace becomes too frenetic, and the trailing teams runs out of gas before they can really push the ball up the floor.
The big question for the Tar Heels has been whether they’re a dominant enough offensive team to make up for their defensive deficiencies. That was the case in 2005. Right now I’d have to lean towards saying yes, but they still have three more games against three very good defensive teams.
—I hate to say this, especially after yesterday’s rant about cliches, but Tennessee just seemed soft to me. They got pushed around. Louisville just powered through the their defensive pressure. In hindsight it looks like Tennessee was simply the best team in a bad conference who was overrated because they played their best game of the season in their biggest game of their season.
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