Weekend Review - 8/16/2010

Seriously folks, if the crowd can walk in it, it's not a bunker.  

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Brian Duensing.  I don't think anyone is exactly shocked or anything since Duensing has looked like a very good pitcher since he was called up last year, but it was awfully nice to see him put up a 3-hit shutout so soon after joining the rotation.  I wouldn't expect this out of him regularly (his BABIP and strand rate are pretty much unsustainable), but he's shown himself to be a good middle-of-the-rotation type who throws strikes and induced groundballs - so he's your typical Twins pitcher.  He'll get knocked around some, and he doesn't miss a ton of bats, but he's much better than Nick Blackburn, even if that isn't really saying much.  So now they can just cut Blackie - except, of course, for the $13 million they owe him over the next three years.  Awesome contract.


2.  Kevin Slowey.  I suppose if I'm going to highlight Duensing here I should throw some props at Slowey as well since he just went out and threw 7 innings of no-hit ball on Sunday.  I guess I'm just much more impressed with Duensing's outing because we've seen this brilliance from Slowey before, and he can't ever sustain it - maybe Duensing can.  And I'm fine with Slowey getting pulled after 7 innings even though he had a no-hitter going.  It was a 1-0 game, and at this point in the pennant race winning the game is more important than getting Slowey some personal glory.  Additionally, he was over 100 pitches already and they just had to skip a start of his due to a sore elbow, no sense in risking re-injury.  I disagree with just about every game decision Gardy makes, but I'm with him on this one.

3.  The PGA Championship.  Now that was one fantastic tournament.  Sure, there were parts that sucked pretty bad:  Nick Watney's collapse (more on this later), Dustin Johnson's ridiculous penalty that knocked him out of the playoff, Bubba Watson's dumb decision that lost him in the playoff, and the fact that Martin Kaymer won despite a bogey on the last hole.  Overall though, this was great.  There were 10-20 different golfers that could have ended up winning on Sunday with just a couple of different shots so there was drama all the way to the end, and any tournament that ends up with a playoff is a good one.  Perhaps the best was the way the course played (outside of sand traps that aren't sand traps, right Dustin?).  There were opportunities to make shots and grab birdies, but there were also plenty of ways you could screw yourself with a poor shot or poor decision.  Unlike some of the other majors that are set up where par is a major achievement, this course was set up with the perfect combination of risk/reward.  Just a fantastic tournament and a great, great venue.  Hard to believe it was in that shithole of a state, Wisconsin.

4.  R.A. Dickey.  You ready for this one?  R.A. Dickey threw a 1-hit shutout on Friday.  Yes, R.A. Dickey.  And not against some crap team, but against the Phillies.  You want to know why he's good all of a sudden?  He's basically given up on everything else and is only throwing knuckleballs.  He used to throw the knuckler about 2/3rds of the time, but this year he's thrown it 83.7%.  He's also given up on throwing a curve, slider, or change, because his fastball makes up the 16.3% of his pitches.  The results of this change have been an increase in ground balls and fewer of the fly balls going over the fence, mainly due to getting batters to chase more pitches out of the zone.  So, yeah.  That'll do it.

5.  Cole Aldrich.  My sources tell me that Cole was in town this weekend.  My same sources also tell me he's a pretty nice guy.

         


WHO SUCKED


1.  This Justin Morneau situation.  I won't even say Justin Morneau sucks any more, just that this whole situation sucks.  Supposedly he's getting better, but still can't make it through an entire day without showing symptoms, and as such was unable to travel with the team to Chicago because apparently airplane travel makes people who have had recent concussion's heads explode like that dude in scanners.  Instead, he stayed home and didn't get better, and is still unable to play.  In fact, he's unable to play so hard that there is officially no longer a time table for his return, which is causing all kinds of speculation that he won't be back this year.  Which would suck pretty bad.  This team might win the division without him, but they aren't going any farther.  So if he can make it through the day I say the get him in the lineup.  If he's walking around at home after the game and keeps bumping into things because he's all dizzy, well, I'm sure he can afford to replace whatever knick-knacks and porcelain dolls he breaks.  The team needs his bat, because he's not a pitch man.

2.  Nick Watney.  As I mentioned above, Nick Watney had a pretty epic collapse on Sunday.  After shooting the first three rounds all in the 60s, and being the only player to do so, Watney went into the final round with a 3 shot lead, only to double bogey the first hole to cough that up, tripled seven, followed that up with back to back bogeys, and then after a par tossed up another double, this time on a par 5.  Suffice it to say, it wasn't a good round.  That sucks too, because Watney has been one of my favorites and the reason is he seems to always be cool, always keep it together no matter what, so I was more that a bit surprised he went off the deep end here and ended up shooting an 81 to end up in 18th place.  I guess he's like every other golfer (other than Tiger and Louis Oosthuizen) and can't handle the pressure of being the leader after 54 holes.  Sucks, man.

3.  Memphis basketball.  Do you guys remember a few weeks ago when I talked about how Will Barton, Memphis's #1 recruit for this year and #11 on the Rivals150, wasn't going to be playing this year due to academic issues?  Well it seems that isn't the only issue the Tigers are going to have to deal with this year.  It also turns out that neither Chris Crawford (#72 Rivals) nor fellow freshman Hippolyte Tsafack have been cleared by the NCAA to play yet.  Finally, it turns out Jelan Kendrick (#15) didn't travel with the team on their Bahamas trip this weekend, dealing with "personal issues" and their are now rumors that he might not rejoin the team.  So Memphis had one of the best recruiting classes this year, but nobody can play.  I guess Pastner didn't learn enough tricks from Coach Cal.  Of course, they still have Joe Jackson (#18) and Tarik Black (#54), so I think they'll be just fine.  Unfortunately.


4.  Tim Lincecum.  It's not like he's been awful this whole season, and his numbers are ok overall (2nd in strike outs, 3.62 ERA) but after dominating to start the year he is fading and fading hard, and was knocked out in the fourth inning Sunday against the Padres.  And this follows up his last start when he didn't make it out of the fifth.  I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but this Giant team is winning with their pitching, and even though Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and Madison Bumgarner are all very good, Lincecum is obviously the most important member of that staff, and they aren't going anywhere if he doesn't get it together.  This could just be a blip, but he's lost a full MPH off his fastball from last year and is 3 off from 2 years ago, and his curveball seems to have lost some of its effectiveness.  Stay tuned.  Or don't, it's just the stupid NL after all.

5.  J.J. Putz.  When your closer is Bobby Jenks you're pretty much screwed.  And since Jenks has been little more than a fat batting-practice pitcher they turned to J.J. Putz.  Putz had been lights out as a set-up guy all year, and was a dynamite closer a few years ago when he was with Seattle.  Seems like it would make sense that he'd be pretty good closer for the Sox, right?  Wrong.  First on Saturday night he came into the game against Detroit in the top of the ninth with the Sox up 2-1, gave up a 2-run homer to Alex Avila, and walked away with the loss.  Then, Sunday afternoon, he came into the game in the top of the 8th, the Sox leading 7-6.  A single, triple, and error by Andruw Jones later and the Sox were down 9-7 and on their way to their sixth lost in their last 8 games.  Awesome.    


Also Happy Birthday to The Bear.  Way to be born, douchebag!

Fantasy College Basketball Update

Ok, I have some more details about this Fantasy College Basketball League I'm going to be in.  We are going to be using the six main conferences (Big Ten, Pac 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Big East - suck it, A-10), and a few other teams (Butler, BYU, Creighton, Dayton, Gonzaga, Memphis, Nevada, Siena, Tulsa, and Xavier). 

Scoring is:

1 pt per point scored
2 pts per assist
1 pt per rebound
3 pts per steal
3 pts per block
-2 pts per turnover

And we start 2 centers, 4 forwards, and 4 guards, with a total roster size of 16, and weekly games (so if someobdy is playing 2 games in a week and someone else is only playing 1, you would play the 2 game guy).  We don't start until December 14th, but the draft is going to be taking place soon and it's a slow draft, like a pick or two per day kind of thing.

We roll some internet dice thing for draft pick, with highest going first, and with about half of the league (12 members) having rolled I'm sitting at 90 right now - currently the #1 pick.

I think the real key here is the 3 points per steal and per block.  It's easy to focus on the main three stats, and actually the only fantasy college preview I've found does just that, but that is a lot of points for playing defense. 

For example, last year Damian Johnson would have averaged 28 points per game, despite just 10 points and 4 rebounds per game.  A guy like Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell, who was tenth nationally in scoring at 23 per game and is an early pick in this kind of thing, averaged only 31 points per game.  I'm guessing I could snag DJ ten or more rounds later than Hazell, depending of course on how much everyone else is paying attention - and that will be the key.

Like, Harangody and Brackins are kind of the top two guys, and last year they averaged 41 and 35 per game, but thanks to Cole Aldrich's three blocks per game, he averagd 36 - more than Brackins and would be the #2 player and that's if he doesn't improve.

Basically, those are the top three and I don't know if there's anybody else you could argue should be included, and if I end up with the #1 Harangody is the smart pick, Brackins is the fun pick, and Aldrich is the intriguing pick - I'd probably end up going Aldrich or Harangody, and would be much happier with Cole.

Any thoughts?  Sleepers?  Defensive guys I'm missing?

Here's What Happened - 4/14/2009

WHO WAS AWESOME

1. Denard Span. Don't look now, but when nobody was paying attention Span turned into the perfect leadoff hitter, or at least a pretty damn good one. He started the game with a ten pitch at bat (that ended in a groundout), then got the team's first hit and scored the first run, and later got an infield hit and stole a base. I'm just completely enamored with him right now. A .324 average, with 7 walks (to just 4 Ks) to bump his OBP to .439, with just a little bit of power and enough speed to beat out infield hits and steal bases (3 steals on 3 attempts). He's everything I ever wanted in a leadoff hitter and I just can't get enough of him. I could have gone with Crede for getting the game-winning hit to snap the world's longest losing streak, but I can't get over Span. I think I'm developing a serious crush.

2. Kansas Jayhawks. Ok, this actually happened on Monday, but I'm just now getting to it - both Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich of the Jayhawks said they are coming back to school for another season. I have seen in a couple places where Kansas is now considered the favorite to win the National Title this year, and why not? Collins and Aldrich were one of the top inside/outside combos last year, and will probably be the best this season with another year of experience. They went 14-2 in conference last year, and are losing nothing but end of the bench, Kevin Payton types. Soon-to-be-sophomores Tyshawn Taylor, Marcus Morris, Travis Releford, and Markieff Morris - all top 100 incoming freshmen last year - will only continue to get better, and the Jayhawks have two newcomers for next season who rank in the top 30 freshmen. Even without Aldrich and Collins, the cupboard wasn't going to be bare, but with them it looks like Kelly Clarkson's secret junkfood drawer at fat camp.

3. Nick Swisher. I wrote about Swishy pants in my weekend review this week, about how he's tearing up pitchers like he tears up the broads. Then on Monday, he hit another home run, his third of the year, not to mention pitching a shut out inning in relief, but I figured I probably shouldn't write about him two days in a row, at least as long as he refuses to grow back his sexy locks. Then yesterday, he hits another bomb and adds a double, raising his average to .458 and a league-leading slugging percentage of 1.208. Leading the league in slugging and sporting a 0.00 ERA? Could Swisher be the reincarnation of Babe Ruth? I think it's pretty obvious.



WHO SUCKED

1. Marco Scutaro. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Marco Scutaro has always sucked. Why is this news, assface?" Well jerk, in case you missed it Scutaro actually started out the season hot, going 10-23 and adding in a couple of home runs, and everybody suddenly decided he was the sleeper of the year at shortstop. Well guess what morons? He's a career .262 hitter with a career OPS+ of 88 and a highs of .273 and 96. Do you really think he's going to suddenly become the next Cal Ripken? Welcome back to earth Mr. Scutaro, who after going 0-4 last night is now in an 0-11 slide, bringing his average back to a normal, though still too high, .294. And no matter what Dawger says, Ripken is one of the greatest players ever - Scutaro not so much.

2. Rays Bullpen. Remember last year, how the Rays pen was so good with Balfour (that one hurts), JP Howell, and Danny Wheeler? Not so much last night, with both Howell and Wheeler blowing up to lose the game for Tampa against the Yankees. Howell, who was nearly unhittable last season with a 1.13 WHIP and 2.22 ERA, picked up the loss last night giving up two hits and a run in his inning of work and has been less than impressive this year, racking up a WHIP of 1.88 and ERA of 4.91 in his four appearances. Wheeler had been fine this season up until yesterday, when he got rocked for four hits and four runs to run his season ERA to 12.00. I wouldn't exactly panic or anything just yet, but if those two (and Balfour whose ERA is over 20 right now) continue to struggle, it's going to be a real problem.

3. Cleveland Indians. Sitting at 1-7, it's suddenly looking like the Tribe's problems are not all Cliff Lee's fault. They lost last night to the perky Royals 9-3 despite a decent outing from human disabled list Carl Pavano (longer at least than the one inning he lasted in his previous start), mainly thanks previously unhittable reliever Rafael Perez giving up three walks and four runs in just over an inning pitched. There are plenty of reasons the Indians suck this year, and Sizemore's .176 average doesn't help, but it's pretty hard to look past a league worst team ERA of 8.46 - that is not a misprint - and a team WHIP of 1.8. Think about it, that's almost two opposing runners on base in EVERY SINGLE INNING. It's early still, but it's awfully hard to think they can turn it around without a single pitcher who can throw a good game and a suddenly shaky bullpen.


Tonight I will be in attendance at the Twins' win over Toronto in Scott Baker's triumphant return. Or to see him throw 1.1 innings and leave in pain, then see Phil Humber get knocked around the yard. In any case, the daily post probably won't be up until the afternoon tomorrow, so you'll have to find some other way to get through the morning at your dead-end job. Try this article, sent to me by Snacks this morning.

Weekend Review

Hello all, back from Chicago and we all made it home alive. It was an excellent weekend that involved watching Dayton beat West Virginia at a Dayton bar and realizing all Dayton fans are idiots like the guy who usually sits next to us at Williams, playing Yahtzee for three hours at the bar, a lot of discussion of westerns, trainwrecks, boxcars, and other deviant behaviors, some excellent wings, several threatening text messages from Mama Dawger, a Madden draft, Dawger passing out at the bar by 9pm the first night, me losing two elite 8 teams in the first round, Bogart going 5-0 on his $100 bets but still barely breaking even due to his inability to get an OVER/UNDER right, and playing Madden on a 12 foot TV.

I won't spend much time breaking it down, but I do want to relay one specific story, however, and it's the way the trip kicked off. Dawger and Snake came to the airport together, although Dawger was on a different flight than Snake and I. I was surprised when I saw Dawg because I thought he was flying Southwest, and they fly out of the Humphrey terminal. So I said, "Aren't you flying out of Humphrey?" and I get a look back like I'm an idiot and a "No, dummy." well guess what? Yep, he ended up having to run all the way to what he thought was his gate at Lindbergh because he waited too long to head down there, and then they told him he was supposed to fly out of Humphrey. This was about 10 minutes before his flight was scheduled to take off.

So he's got to run all the way to the shuttle, take the shuttle from terminal to terminal, and then get through security again and get to his gate. Naturally, that's impossible. So instead he had to pay to switch to a later flight. Then, when Bogart picked up Snake and I at the airport, we decided not to wait around for Dawger to finally show, so he had to take a cab to Bogart's mansion. He pretty much spent somewhere in the ballpark of $100, all because he's an idiot. Good stuff.

On to the sports,

WHO WAS AWESOME

1. The Big East. Seven teams invited to the tournament, five in the sweet 16 with a sixth (Marquette) who took a third-seeded Missouri team right down to the wire without it's possibly best player. Every said the Big East was the best conference, and that put a lot of pressure on the teams to play up to that standard. They certainly have. Although unlikely, because Syracuse would have to beat not only Oklahoma but also likely North Carolina, we could be heading for an all-Big East Final Four. Louisville, UCONN, and Pitt have the inside track, but Villanova could also surprise.

2. Cole Aldrich. Just in case you didn't already feel enough pain every time you hear his name mentioned, Aldrich got to play in the Metrodome for the first two rounds and put on a show in front of the home crowd. He had a good game in the Jayhawks ten point win over North Dakota State with 23 points and 13 rebounds, and then followed that up with a dominating 13 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 blocks in a stomping of Dayton to put Kansas in the sweet sixteen. It was just the sixth triple double in NCAA Tournament history since steals, blocks, and assists became official stats in 1986, and the first since Dwayne Wade in 2003. Interestingly, both of the last two were at the metrodome, both had Snacks and Old Man W in attendance, and both I went out of town instead of going to the game in person.

3. Blake Griffin. I don't know if you noticed or not, but this guy is really, really, good. Seriously, it's like watching old footage of Wilt Chamberlain dominated poor slow white guys when you watch Griffin play. His combination of size, strength, athleticism, pimpitude, and speed is rarely seen, and if he's not the first overall pick in the NBA draft it'll automatically become the worst pick ever. Griffin put up 28 points and 13 rebounds in the Sooners' opening round win over poor little Morgan State, and he then followed it up with 33 points and 17 rebounds in their surprisingly tough 73-63 win over Michigan. He's so good, the over/under line for his total rebounds was set at 14.5 for the Michigan game. Crazy Papa Griffin (have you seen this guy? Yikes) must be so proud - until he looks over at older brother Tito Griffin.

4. Orlando Mendez-Valdez. Enough of the big guys, let's talk point guards. One of the most impressive guys we watched over the weekend was Mendez-Valdez, aka Taco Hawk aka Magic Taco, the point guard for Western Kentucky who almost single-handedly knocked Gonzaga out of the tournament. He had a good game in the first round upset of Illinois, going for 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, but then torched Gonzaga in round 2 with 25 points (including 7-10 on three pointers) and 7 assists to just one turnover. Unfortunately the Hilltoppers couldn't quite pull off a second upset, as Jeremy Pargo hit a leaner at the end to finish WKU's run, and Taco Hawk's career, with the Bulldgos pulling it out 83-81. Godspeed Magic Taco. We hardly knew you, but you will be missed.

5. A.J. Price. Watching UCONN destroy Chattanooga 103-47 and then Texas A&M 92-66 one thing is clear; the rest of the country is damn lucky Jerome Dyson got hurt. Even without him, the Huskies might be the favorite to win the whole thing, and point guard AJ Price is a big reason. He lit up Chattanooga for 20 in just 27 minutes, and then followed it up by hitting A&M for 27 points and 8 assists. UCONN will have a very tough elite 8 game against either Missouri or Memphis (assuming they beat Purdue) but if I had to pick all over again, they would be my choice to win - which pretty much guarantees a Purdue upset.


WHO SUCKED

1. The Pac 10. Honest to god, I didn't watch nearly enough Pac 10 games this year because if I had realized they played this piss poor of defense I would never had picked even one team to advance. Watching UCLA give up layup after layup to Villanova was like watching team of retarded fourth graders play the globetrotters. Also had a chance to watch Arizona State against Syracuse, and they were just as bad. Ugly. The Pac had six invites, and only the team that probably shouldn't have gotten one, Arizona, made it out of the weekend.

Cal was seeded higher than Maryland but let the Terps shoot 49% and lost. UCLA beat VCU thanks to them having zero idea what to do down 1 with ten seconds left and the ball, but then got the absolute shit kicked out of them by Nova, giving up 46% shooting which should have been higher but towards the end the Wildcats just started chucking up anything for fun. Washington was one of only two teams seeded #4 or better to not make it out of the weekend, thanks to a loss to Purdue, and even though USC and Arizona St won their first games and were then expected to lose their second, the way these guys play out west is soft and weak. Really wish I had known that before I put ASU and UCLA in the sweet 16.

2. James Harden. Speaking of Arizona State, other than their piss poor girl style defense, they also had no chance of winning thanks to James Harden, likely a top five pick in the NBA draft who refused to show up this weekend. They won their first round game over Temple despite Harden, who shot just 1-8 and scored only 9 points. They were then bounced by an infinitely better Syracuse team, with Harden once again not showing up, going just 2-10 and scoring just 10 points. Unacceptable, especially since he led his team with 20.1ppg in the regular season, and shot over 50%. Even more troubling is that Harden scored 10 points or less six times this season and three of those are in the Sun Devils last three games. Maybe he's a choker, or maybe he's broken, but if I'm going to draft him into the NBA, I'm very nervous.

3. Wake Forest. The only top four team to lose in the first round, the former #1 ranked Demon Deacons not only got beat by Cleveland State, but they straight up got their asses beat, losing 84-69 in a game that honestly probably wasn't that close, ending the year on a 2-game losing streak after losing in their first game of the ACC tournament as well. How ugly was it? Wake's 18 turnovers weren't even the worst part, nor were the 7 by Jeff Teague alone. Wake's defense was the truly awful part, allowing Cleveland State to shoot 48% from the floor, when they shot just 43% for the season, and turning them over just 10 times when they averaged 14 per game during the season. Even worse, the 84 points the Vikings scored was their highest total this season. With Teague, Al-Faroque Aminu, and Josh Johnson all possibly going pro, who knows what direction the program is heading.

4. The State of Utah. Three NCAA bids for the six Utah D-I teams, which should have been four if Weber State hadn't choked in the Big Sky Tournament, and zero wins, zero teams advancing. Utah State looked like absolute garbage other than a little run towards the end when it was pretty much too late, losing to Marquette while refusing to make a shot and not giving it to the Big Ginger enough. Utah, although catching a bit of a bad break by getting the best of the 12 seeds, was still a favorite and probably shouldn't have let Arizona shoot 55%, and BYU was a favorite over Texas A&M (8 over a 9) but got rolled 79-66, losing to the Aggies in the first round for the second year in a row. I'd also like to point out once again that the state of Utah has six division I basketball programs, and Minnesota still has just the one for some reason.

5. Clemson. It wouldn't have been too hard to just include the ACC here, since Wake (see above), Clemson, Florida State, and Boston College all managed to disappoint with first round losses, but Maryland's nice win and the success of UNC and Duke will keep them from being labeled a disappointment - at least for now. Clemson, however, is most definitely a disappointment and continues to come up short, year-after-year. This year, the 7th seeded Tigers, who started 16-0 and at one point were ranked 10th in the country, lost to who we know is a pretty bad Michigan team to end their season early. This season is similar to last year, when they Tigers started 12-1 and were ranked as highly as #15, then limped to a 5 seed and lost to Villanova in the first round. Which was similar to the previous season, when they started 17-0, were ranked 14th, and then crashed and missed the NCAA tournament altogether. Which was similar to the previous season when they started 11-0 and didn't make the tournament. Seriously, I think it's time to just stop taking them seriously.


That's it for now. I head to New Jersey for two nights tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll be back writing one if not both of them. Stay tuned.

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.