National SemiFinal #2

I'm still basking in the glow of the world's greatest fantasy baseball draft, but I'm also basking in sitting in my bed with a Michelob Golden Draft Light 12 oz. can and watching the basketball game on a 19 inch television and since I'm here I see no reason why I should hide my most intimate thoughts with you, dear friend.  Keep in mind that I have made my biggest bet ever on this game, a 15-unit wager on WVU +2, so I care more than I probably should.  I also know that Snacks is "All in" on West Virginia.  I don't know how much money that actually encompasses after the Michigan State loss left him a broken man who stopped watching at the ten minute mark, but at least he's on my side.  I also know that Bogart has 5 units on WVU scoring first.  Let's get to it.

20:00 - Oh, I also have 5-to-win-15 that the first basket of the game is a 3-pointer.  Had the same bet in the first game and it hit, so if it hit here it would just be gravy.

20:00 - I hate Duke so much.  Other than this chick, I mean;

20:00 - Stay with me now, perv.  Eyes up top.

20:00 - You realize the Gophers beat Butler, right?

20:00 - I just read something where the guy was saying that Butler winning is terrible for CBS.  What?  That's the best thing that could have happened.  The only people who care about Michigan State are their own fans, die-hard college hoop junkies who were going to watch anyway, and gamblers.  Causal fans are going to be interested in the Butler story.  Hell, I told Mrs. W about Butler and even she's interested.  And I can tell you this month, like every March, she is so sick of college basketball right now she's probably strongly considered taking a croquet mallet to my cubes.  And yet, she perked up a bit when I told her about Butler and all the blah blah crap.  So, in conclusion, that guy who wrote that thing is an idiot.

20:00 - I hate it when they don't tell you the major of the players when they do the intros.  I bet at least 4 out of 5 WVU starters are majoring in African American Studies and the other guy is in Communication.  And what do the Dukies major in?  Like, is Singler majoring in Bio-Chem and Nolan Smith in Genetic Engineering?  Or are they in Communication too?  I seriously want to know this.  Someone go look it up.

20:00 - AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGgghhhhhhhhhh!  Sorry, I thought there was a gigantic female chicken running lose.  It was just Singler.  My bad.

19:49 - 5 second call on Mazzulla to open the game.  They already miss Bryant.

19:12 - WVU with a blocked shot on Singler and a offensive rebound already in the first minute.  They're going to athletic Duke to death. 

18:54 - And Mazzulla throws his layup attempt over the backboard.  It might be time to sit him down for a few minutes, ask him why exactly he's attempting to take over the game when he averages like 6 points per game.

18:10 - Easy lay-up for Wellington Smith to tie the game at 2.  If Huggins doesn't melt down WVU could end up running away with this, they look far better than Duke.  And there's a third blocked shot by the Mountaineers.  This is like that scene in Rushmore where Bill Murray rejects that dumb kids shot.

16:39 - Well somehow Duke is up 7-4 after a Scheyer three.  And since I know you're wondering, no, Scheyer didn't close his mouth at any point, and he's seriously threatening Tyler Hansbrough's NCAA record streaking of never ever closing his mouth. 

15:12 - Between this Robin Hood movie and Clash of the Titans I am as amped for movies as I have ever been.  I think the only times I've been more exited were when Lord of the Rings were coming out (happy about the result), the Star Wars prequels (so-so), and Jurassic Park 3 (kill me in the neck).

14:41 - Shot clock violation on Duke for being gay.  Time for WVU to get after it.  And there you go, they go inside and get a foul.  Kevin Jones misses both, of course, but at least they got the ball inside.

13:57 - Jesus Duke is just shredding the WVU defense at this point.  They can't stop penetration (like your mom) and can't seem to figure out a high pick-and-roll.  This does not bode well.

13:26 - At least Singler is still shooting like that guy at the Y who sucks but thinks he's good so he always shoots no matter what even though he hasn't hit a shot in a month.  And as I say that WVU throws up an airball from 15.  You can tell they're feeling a lot more pressure than the Dukies right now, even though the pressure should be the other way around.  Because all of the media really want to give the Duke players handies if they win, and the Duke players really want handies, so that's why.  Feel free to re-arrange that sentence into something more coherent.

12:30 - That perimeter handoff is not supposed to result in any easy layup for Duke.  Everybody runs that play, and unless you are the Gophers and you're playing Wisconsin it doesn't ever work.  Until tonight.  It's only 13-9 Duke but I think this one is over, and I'm going to have to root for freaking Butler.

11:05 - And the big giant chicken hits a three.  18-11 Duke.  The Blue Devils are hitting everything, and it's not luck, it's just piss poor defense.  Huggy Bear needs to do something here (he called timeout), but I think we're in trouble folks.  Huggins isn't exactly what I consider a great good mediocre adequate fair in-game coach.  God I hate Duke.  More like Puke, am i right?

10:55 - You know one thing I hate about summer?  Those people who are a little too into grilling, you know what I mean?

7:50 - A second three of the game for WVU's Flowers and it's 23-21 Duke.  Flower si s aguy who was something like 6-20 from three on the season, but that makes both Duke and Kentucky who basically played defense on him by backing off in the lane and daring him to shoot, and he hit a huge one against Kentucky and like I said that's now two tonight.  I don't get it.  He's 6-20, not 0-0.  It's obviously not a huge weapon of his, but he's not worthless out there as if he was Al Nolen or something either.

6:16 - This is the worst game I've seen WVU play all year.  Poor defense, tentative offense, just sick.  Duke now up 31-21, and Huggins is barking at his players which means this one is done.  Almost not even worth watching.  I'm going to try to hedge my bet a bit with a live bet on Duke.

5:47 - God Mazzulla is basically Al Nolen without the defense.  He can drive, but he just jump stops and picks up his dribble with no idea what he's doing.  And then Duke misses, offensive rebounds, and hits a three.  Ugh.  Can't this at least be entertaining?  37-24 Duke. 

3:44 - Alright let's move on to 2011.  I'm predicting Michigan State to win it all.  And speaking of winning it all, have you heard about me and Snake's fantasy baseball team?  Wow, just crazy good.  Want to hear our starting pitching staff?  Greinke, Hamels, Billingsley, Tommy Hanson, and Matt Garza.  Wow.  And waiting in the wings we have have Strasburg, Homer Bailey, and Madison Bumgarner.  Yeah, we're loaded.

3:40 - 5 seconds on Duke trying to inbound.  This is the break we need.  LET'S GO MOUNTAINEERS.

3:22 - Ebanks with a nice move for two, 37-28 Duke.  I feel a run coming except then instead Nolan Smith found a wide open layup.  I can't get over this suddenly shitty WVU defense.  It's just awful.  Duke currently shooting 59%.  Ridiculous. 

2:54 - Ebanks with another nice move and a three-point play.  He's single-handedly keeping this from being a blowout.  Where the hell is Butler?  1-4 for two points.  Nice job assface.  You're telling me he can't score on Lance freaking Thomas?  Disgusting.

0:47 - Christ, Zoubek must have 10 rebounds already.  I have no idea what is going on.  This West Virginia team is not the same team I saw all year and bet on.  Huggins you killed yet another talented team somehow.  This guy is a bigger choker than Darius Washington.


0:00 - 39-31 Duke at half.  I'm no so much worried about the score, but the defense of WVU is just crap right now.  CRAP I SAY!!!

20:00 - Ok I'm back.  Took a short break there to watch an episode of the Office ("Frame Toby", hysterical) and grab a couple of Stroh's Lights out of the fridge.  Yep, Stroh's Lights.  WVU doesn't deserve better right now.

19:49 - Da'Sean Butler and Nolan Smith are basically complete opposites of each other right now. 

19"17 - Mazzulla hits from 17.  I guess he's not like Nolen after all.

18:59 - Wide open jumper for Singler.  And I mean WIDE open.  This is baffling.

17:27 - I can't quite give up on WVU as Wellington hits a three to make it 36-43, but they need to get their defensive scheme figured out in a hurry because Duke is one short run away from blowing them out.

16:04 - Duke just not missing.  This is like the opposite of watching Trajan Langdon in a Final Four.  WVU hanging in, but right now if feels like when the Gophers played Xavier and you knew they were basically just holding on for dear life and any moment they were going to be out of it.  WVU just hanging on by a thread.

15:21 - Another open Sheyer three wins me my OVER 14 threes for the game bet, but that is pretty meaningless considering I have 15 units on WVU.  This sucks.

13:43 - Another Duke layup and it's 51-42.  This is like watching the Gophers play defense.  I probably won't post anything else.  Game over.  I suck.

12:41 - Huggins completely melting down and just started screaming at Flowers.  If it wasn't over already (it was) it's over now.  Guy is really not a very good coach.  I have no idea why I was backing him so hard.  Pretty sure it was nothing but anti-Duke bias coming through. 

11:44 - Looks like Nolan Smith took a nice shot to the nads.  Of course it would happen to the only duke dick that I don't hate.  I would pay good money for somebody to take a shot at Singler's giblets.

11:44 - Technical on Duke for hanging on the rim after dunking back a miss.  Butler shoots the free-throws and makes both, which is one more field goal than he has on the night.  That should tell you what kind of night it is.

10:35 - I just took the Yankees to win tomorrow night for a unit, just to make me feel better. 

10:02 - I'm sad.

8:59 - I'm almost positive Huggins is trying to make out with Da'Sean Butler who is down after some kind of knee injury.  This probably actually a good coach/player moment but it looks really creepy on TV.  Also Duke is up 63-48 and I'm guessing with Butler now out and being carried off that takes whatever energy/motivation WVU might have had left and kills it.  Duke's going to win by 25.

6:37 - It upsets me greatly that Duke is going to win the National Championship.

0:00 - Well that ended up being pretty boring.  At least they hit the over.  I can't believe I'm going to be rooting for Butler.

Final Four Picks

I'm not going to get into a whole analysis at this point because to be honest I've somewhat checked out and am in full on baseball mode now.  I still care who wins and will still watch and enjoy the games and root against Duke, but with the Twins getting going and our fantasy baseball draft last night I'm way more in hardball mode.  And we just rocked the draft.  Just killed it.  Sorry, Elk, but it's true.  We're easily the favorite to win the whole thing, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise if we went undefeated.

I'm not going to dwell on it too much because I'm pretty sure I'll go into a little more depth later, but let me give you a few highlights:  Matt Kemp in round 3.  Cole Hamels and Chad Billingsley in 5 and 6.  Garza in the 8th.  Wieters in the 11th.  Kubel and Billy Butler in 13 and 14.  Michael Young in the 17th.  Strasburg in the 18th.  Madison Bumgarner and Homer Bailey with our last two picks.  Yes, we really made all those picks in those rounds.  I know it seems hard to believe.  Team Taco Hawks is loaded for complete and total domination.

Ok, now that that's clear here are the Final Four picks, in order of confidence:

WVU +2 vs. Duke, 15 units (yes, 15)
Butler -1.5 vs. Mich State, 4 units
WVU/Duke OVER 133, 4 units
Butler/MSU OVER 126, 2 units
Summers -2pts vs. Hayward, 1 unit
Summers +2.5pts. vs. Mack, 1 unit
K. Lucious UNDER 2 three-pointers, 1 unit
Nolan Smith OVER 1.5 three-pointers, 1 unit

Also I want to point out that the line on Roy Halladay wins right now is 16.  I would highly recommend putting several units on the OVER.

GO MOUNTAINEERS!

Championship Game

Predictions:

1. Memphis wins

2. Rose and CDR once again get to the rim over and over in transition, as Kansas has no answer.

3. As easily as Russell Westbrook scored on the Tigers Saturday night, Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers will do the same as this game is dominated by the guards on both sides. Dozier, Dorsey, Taggart, Arthur, Kaun, and Jackson are relegated to mostly just rebounding and second chance points - expect possibly for Arthur who can get out and run and might be able to score on the break.

4. Cole Aldrich heads back to the bench and plays less than three minutes, if at all.

5. The game goes over the posted total of 148.5, and will be more like 160.

6. Will go pretty much down to the wire, with Memphis pulling ahead in the final minute to win 83-78.

7. Most Oustanding Player: Chris Douglas-Roberts

Semifinal Review

Unfortunately, the location I was in yesterday during the games was not the most conducive to reviewing basketball, but I was still able to watch quite a bit and can give you some thoughts. I'm sure you're thrilled.

- I was wrong. Nobody can stop Derrick Rose. I've pretty much underrated him most of the year. No more. Despite the Jayhawks' athletic guards and good defense, they won't have an answer for Rose either. I would still take Beasley over him in the NBA draft, but you can't go wrong either way. Really depends on team needs, and for the Wolves I think Beasley is more what the need.

- That Memphis/UCLA game was a game for athletes, and nothing symbolized that more than CDR's dunk over Kevin Love, see below:



Except it wasn't really even over Love, because it didn't have to be. CDR (the athlete) had the body control and ability to swerve around him in mid-drive and hit the dunk anyway, while Love (the non-athlete) couldn't get there quite in time, and when he did was completely irrelevant to the play, other than trying to take a Chris Paulus-like dive. It pretty much symbolized the whole game. The guys who played well for UCLA were their best athletes Russell Westbrook and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. I would put Collison in that athletic group too, but he couldn't get it going at all. Meanwhile guys like Shipp and Love struggled, and the Bruins had no answer on defense for CDR or Rose, or the Memphis fastbreak in general. Pretty much a thorough ass-kicking.

- I won $43 rolling dice with Theory, Dr. Acula, and Pee Wee. Go me.

- I don't know that I've ever seen a team play better than Kansas last night, particularly the opening 8 minutes in jumping out to a 33-10 lead. Offensively they were perfect, and defensively they were perfect. It was such a thorough beating that senior peon Jeremy Case even got to play in the first half.

- Cole Alrich is a beast. Played a season-high in minutes last night, scoring 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in the final four. Nice. That was his second highest scoring game of the year, and third highest in rebounds. More importantly, he smacked Hansbrough around and kept him off his game, helping to limit him to just thirteen shots while Ellington and Green kept chucking from the outside. They got hot for a bit and made a game of it, but taking away Hansbrough made the game an easy KU win. With Kaun and Jackson graduating this year, and Arthur probably 50/50 to enter the draft, Aldrich is going to be a key for the Jayhawks next year, and will be an absolute stud.

- Early Prediction: Kansas takes the final. But it's going to be a hell of a game.

Stuff about Things

1. First and foremost, the final four kicks off tomorrow. With all the hubbub about baseball starting up, I haven't spent much time thinking about it. But really, there's not much to think about. You have the four best teams in the country left, so it's not really even about matchups at this point, it's more about how well the teams play and execute. I think UCLA will take down Memphis and Kansas stops UNC.

I'm not sure why in the first game. I even had in the scrolling text up above that I was picking Memphis, but not anymore. I think Love will get Dorsey in foul trouble early, and I think Westbrook/Collison can handle Rose. CDR is the guy I'm worried about, not sure how they'll handle him. As far as the Bruins go, I think Love will destroy Dorsey by out smarting him, and their overall defense will slow down Memphis. Remember, just because UCLA generally plays a slower game doesn't mean they don't have the athletes to handle a team like Memphis - they do. Memphis also won't have Andre Allen, who got kicked off the team for smoking the ganj, a top defensive player.

In the second game, two of the worst big game coaches square off. Kansas has certainly looked more vulnerable in the tournament so far, but I think they have exactly what is needed to take down the Heels. Big men to handle Hansbrough (Arthur and Jackson), somebody quick enough to deal with Lawson (Chalmers, Collins, and Robinson), good defense (#3 defensive efficiency), the ability to run with the heels (check), and good overall athleticism (check). Look for the Jayhawks to take 'em down.

2. Took in the Twins game yesterday with Dr. Acula, and we decided it was a great way to spend a day, but once that outdoor stadium was here it will be even better. Interesting how our tickets were $7 but a 20 ounce glass of 3.2 beer is $6.50. Overall, this team is really boring, just because the offense is so anemic. Slowey was taken out in the fourth (which I predicted) due to a biceps strain (which I didn't.) He'll skip his next start, but should be back. Sidler's guy Kubel hit a homerun, which he just destroyed, but it didn't really matter as Torii Hunter hit one as well to lead the Angels to a 5-4 victory. The good news being the Twins doubled their total run about put, adding that 4 to the 4 they had in the first three games combined. On pace now for a total of 324 runs this season. It's going to be a long year.

3. Congratulations to Ohio State for running through the NIT on the way to the title. I guess they were a decent team after all. They probably should have gotten some of those quality wins during the season and made the tournament. Is a first round loss in the NCAA tournament better than an NIT championship? Yes, yes it is.

Meanwhile, the CBI championship was forced to a deciding game three with Bradley's win over Tulsa on Wednesday night. That was just weird to type overall, and no, I don't know when the final game is and I'm not going to look it up.

Fine, it's tonight at 8pm.

4. In NFL news, Chris Henry is still an ass, he got arrested again and released this time, and Brett Favre is an attention whore. It doesn't even matter if he is or isn't interested in coming back, the story is out there, and either he or his agent was the catalyst behind this. He just can't stand not being the top story, it's pathetic. Combined with the dance of will he/won't he retire for the last three off-seasons, and this douche is doing everything he can to keep his name in the paper. What an ass. He's even more like the Pete Rose of the NFL now.

5. Caught the College Slam Dunk and Three Point Contest. Best part of the night was when New Mexico's J.R. Giddens hit his first dunk, and did a spot on impression of the Carlton from the Fresh Prince dancing impression. LaSalle's Darnell Harris beat out Tennessee's Chris Lofton in the three point contest, and Arkansas's Sonny Weems won the dunk contest. Weems was a top JuCo player two years ago, so let's add Dunk Contest Winner to the possible upside for Devron Bostick.

6. "My better is better than your better" is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Plus Nike's shoes fall apart.

7. Look out for Johnny Cueto

We're Going to San Antonio!

Well, it's pretty clear the Gophers are on their way to the Final Four and beyond in 2008. After the 45 point win over Nicholls State (a win so thorough Travis Busch managed to score six points), there's no doubt the Gophers are the #1 team in the country.

The current #1 team, North Carolina, has also played Nicholls State. The Tarheels won by 10 AT HOME, while the Gophers won by 45 at a neutral site. Thus, the Gophers are 450% better than North Carolina. If you're curious, this means the Gophers would beat Kentucky by 40, Ohio State by 49, and Nevada by 162. And North Carolina would lose to Florida State by 63.

If you don't buy that the polls are a good representation of who is the best (and I agree), let's look at who is best mathematically, using RPI. The leader in RPI is Arizona. Well, the Gophers are pretty clearly still the best here as well. Arizona was defeated by Virginia who was defeated by Seton Hall who was beaten by St. Mary's who was beaten by Southern Illinois who beat St. Louis who beat Detroit who defeated Central Michigan who the Gophers beat by 18.

It's really quite simple.