Week in Review - 02.07.11

 Well that was pretty thoroughly depressing.  Ohio State completely controlled that game the whole way and, just in case you were starting to suffer from delusions of grandeur, reminded you that the Gophers are completely mediocre, and nothing more than first round fodder for a good team to take down.  Chip Armelin played his ass off and made me love him even more than I already do, Hoff always plays hard, and Mbakwe is still a beast, but god most of these guys drive me crazy.  Ralph had a good statistical game, but I swear he suffers from some sort of modified form of narcolepsy where instead of falling asleep he just falls into a general malaise, and I think Rodney Williams sometimes forgets he's actually playing a basketball game for real and isn't just messing around with some buddies at the gym.  And for a "tough guy" Iverson has periods where he's as soft as new born baby.

Terrible defense yesterday, too.  How many open layups and dunks did Ohio State get, my god.  And most of those were off of poor decisions or poor effort.  And did they really need to double-down every time anybody got the ball in the post?  Ohio State shoots way too well for that.  And why did Hoff disappear for about 8 minutes of game time in the middle of the second half?  I just don't get how this game unfolded.  Yeah, Ohio State is far more talented and just an overall better team, but the Gophers didn't even bother to put up a fight, and just gave the damn thing away.  I think the upside for this season has now shifted to a first round NCAA win.  Let's hope they can get that done.  And also maybe pick up a point guard from somewhere.

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Florida Gators.  Pretty much gotta be the team of the week, and for good reason.  If you can admit that Tennessee and the whole SEC West sucks then there are only three good teams in the conference:  Florida, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.  And guess who Florida beat this week?  Yep, Vandy and Kentucky.  Both wins came at home, so it isn't an earth-shaking pair of victories, but it's always nice to assert yourself and win at home.  I still think Vandy is probably the best team in this conference, but I think Florida is probably better than Kentucky.  Those two chuckers they play at guard make me awfully nervous, but I think Chandler Parsons, though having the name of a rich gay guy, is the kind of all-around player who can step up and help carry a team in March.  Assuming they aren't completely shot out of the game those two chuckleheads.

2.  Arizona Wildcats.  Guess who's leading the Pac-10?  It's not Washington because they suck, but Arizona was able to take care of business this week, winning both games on their North California swing versus Stanford and Cal.  It's not really any great shakes beating either of those squads, especially when it takes you triple OT to beat the Bears, but they were able to win two road games, something those donkeys from Washington couldn't handle.  Derrick Williams is a really, really good player, but he doesn't have much help which means Zona is heading towards a nice first round exit come March.  But at least that first round exit will happen in the NCAAs, not the NIT.  Probably.

3.  Harrison Barnes.  He started as a well-publicized All-American as a freshman, quickly became the poster child for overhyped, overrated, freshmen who get too much press despite not having accomplished anything yet, but at this point he's finally starting to look like he might be getting it, and the Tar Heels are clicking.  Barnes helped lead UNC to a big road win over Boston College earlier this week, scoring 26 points on 9-16 shooting, and then followed that up with a nice 17 and 10 outing against Florida State - an excellent defensive squad (and those come after a 25-point night against NC State last week).  With him coming around and Kendall Marshall filling in nicely as the starting PG after Larry Drew's departure (he had 16 assists in that FSU game), the Heels are suddenly looking like a threat, and making the Gophers' March resume look better.  

4.  Wisconsin Badgers.  I don't much like to praise anything or anybody from, affiliated with, or who has heard of Wisconsin, but it's time to give credit to the Badgers who, after beating Purdue and then soundly thrashing Michigan State have laid out a pretty convincing case to be the #2 team in the conference.  Looking back at their record their three losses were on the road against a very hot and dangerous Penn State (except this weekend against Michigan, LOL), on a neutral court against a now top-10 Notre Dame, and in Vegas against UNLV - potentially all three NCAA teams, although it looks bleak for the Nittany Lions right now.  And all this with only two players who don't trip over their own feet at least three times a day.  Maybe Bo Ryan really is some kind of wizardly grinch.

5.  Syracuse Orange.  What's a damn good way to stop a four-game losing streak that followed an 18 game winning streak and included a home loss to Seton Hall?  How about going up to Storrs, Connecticut and beating the #7 team in the country in their own place?  Rick Jackson had another double-double (his 16th), but Scoop Jardine and Fab Melo still sucked, and then those two still sucked against South Florida on Saturday, even thought the Orange won.  So even though this entry is about how awesome Syracuse was, I'm also saying that unless Scoop remembers how to shoot or they get anything out of Melo, they aren't really a March threat. 


WHO SUCKED

1.  Washington Huskies.  Way to go, dingleberries.  The easiest road trip in the Pac-10 is to Oregon, where the Ducks and Beavers might be the second and third worst team in the conference (Ariz State is #1, hands down), so what does Warshington do on their trip this week?  Drop both games to fall out of first place, losing by 13 to Oregon State and 5 to the regular Oregon.  Special shout out to Isaiah Thomas, who shot 2-11 with 7 turnovers against State, practically giving the game away single-handedly.  Maybe he's the one who's point-shaving?  With five home games left and just two roadies (the Arizona trip) their still in good shape, if not to overtake Arizona at least to grab an at large bid in March thankfully, because there's not much that's more fun than watching Washington circus ball. 

2.  Michigan State Spartans.  What else is there left to write?  They lost to Iowa by 20, and then got smoked by Wisconsin by almost 30.  I don't know what you call it when you fall further than rock bottom, but whatever it is that's where you'd find Sparty right now.  I can't imagine being a fan of there's right now, must be brutally frustrating.

3.  Demetri McCamey.  You guys know this guy sucks, right?  I know his overall numbers for the season look good, but in his last seven games he's shot 20 for 69, turned it over 22 times, and basically kicked away the game a handful of times.  I can't get over it, and mostly I can't get over how at the end of the Indiana game they used Brandon Paul to run their offense instead of their "point" guard.  I am going to be everything I own against them in March.

4.  Baylor Bears.  Seriously?  I mean seriously?  An elite 8 team last year that brought in one of the best freshmen in the country, and you can't even beat Oklahoma or manage a better than .500 record in the Big 12, which has like, 3 good teams?  Iowa State's only conference victory is over Baylor, and they haven't beaten anybody with a pulse this entire year, generally preferring to not even compete.  Damn it, this team was set up for a very successful season.  They only player they lost was Tweety Carter, and he can't mean anything since the only person nicknamed Tweety who every mattered at all was this chick from my high school who got her nipple pierced and then let me see it.  Just so frustrating.  I thought getting them at 30-1 to win the whole thing was a steal.  Turns out, 30-1 to make the tournament at all might have been poor odds.  And yes I know they helped themselves out with a nice win over A&M on Saturday, but I already wrote all that so it stays.

5.  Texas A&M Aggies.  Speaking of A&M, they did a hell of a job of making sure nobody would make the mistake of thinking they were an elite team ever again.  They were ranked 10th before losing at Nebraska last week, but had a couple of big home games this week that could have helped to cancel that one out.  First they had a huge chance to make a statement with a home game against #3 Texas, but apparently couldn't get up for their hated rival and got blown out 69-49, helped out by their stud Khris Middleton going 0-9 from the floor.  Then they followed that up by losing, again at home, to the basically worthless Baylor Bears.  Just an ugly week, and now they go on the road to Texas Tech and Colorado, games they should win, but then again this could be the beginning of their shame spiral.  Not too dissimilar to the Gophers actually.


Pretty good little Super Bowl, too.  Even though I hate Wisconsin and everything in it, this version of the Packers is easily the least offensive I can ever remember, so their win doesn't kill me inside like it did last time they won.  The only Packer I really hate now is A.J. Hawk, who completely sucks at football but saw how good Clay Matthews is and decided to copy his girlie hair so instead of pointing out how bad he was, maybe people who start referring to them as a tandem and Matthews could save his career.  And it worked.  Way to go, girl.

No, it didn't bug me that they won, and it was a pretty good and entertaining game that I made a little money on (for the second year in a row I lost my game bet but more than made up for it on props - Orange Gatorade, baby!), so I'm pretty satisfied with that part.  The overall production though?  Oof.  The halftime show was completely brutal and other than the Darth Vader commercial overall they were pretty lame, but the worst part of the night was by far how this:

has somehow morphed into Cyndi Lauper.  Seriously, her transition from dream girl to no thank you is nearly complete.  Won't someone step in to prevent this national tragedy?