Oh, What A Night!

Between Duke's loss (due to an 3-18 shooting performance by J.J. Redick in the final game of his championship-less career), West Virginia falling on a tremendous, no-doubt-about-it buzzer beater by Texas, UCLA’s furious 11-point end-of-game run that stunned Gonzaga and both Redick and Morrison spending their final collegiate moments crying like pansies on the court, it was pretty much a perfect night of basketball.
Some thoughts from each of the three contests:

LSU 62 – Duke 54
* One week ago, Iona put up 64 points on LSU. A week before that, Vanderbilt notched 73 in a loss to the Tigers. Duke, the #1 overall seed in the Tournament; Duke, with National Player of the Year and "greatest jump-shooter ever" in J.J. Redick; Duke, with the so-called Landlord dominating the paint; Duke, with six McDonald’s All-Americans on their rosters; Duke, with (allegedly) a possible top-five pick in their froncourt; Duke, with the (for real) best coach in college basketball history; and Duke, with all their prestige, media-love and loser fans, couldn’t even crack 55 points in a Sweet 16 game in the NCAA Tournament against those very same Tigers. It defies belief.
While we’re on beliefs, let me debunk a popular one: LSU didn’t play the perfect game to beat Duke. In fact, it was far from it. This was no Villanova over Georgetown situation.
Over a stretch of 8:02 in the middle of the second half, the Tigers scored three points and saw a six-point lead turn into a five-point deficit. They were missing open shots, dropping assignments on defense and looked totally lost. But Duke couldn't fully capitalize.
At various points during Duke’s run, J.J. Redick had wide-open looks and bricked them in every way possible (long, short, off Shelden William’s gargantuan head).
The sequence of the game came with 8:47 left, with Duke leading 45-40. After a DeMarcus Nelson missed free throw, Josh McRoberts came down with the rebound and kicked it to J.J. Redick, who had no defender within four feet of him. His entire career, Redick has made back-breaking shots exactly like that and, even with a poor shooting day thus far, it seemed this one would be no different. Except the shot was short and caromed into Magnum Rolle’s hands. On the subsequent possession, Darrel Mitchell nailed a three, ending LSU’s drought and cutting the Duke lead, which could have been eight just seconds before, down to a manageable two.

* Why did Duke stop going to Shelden Williams inside during the second half? I thought I was watching a Wake Forest game. How did that happen? Williams was dominating the interior and Davis and Thomas were in major foul trouble. (At halftime I asked the Wolfman when he thought Davis and Thomas would pick up their third fouls. He said before the under 12 timeout, I said before the under 16. We were both right, but oh so wrong. It took just 109 seconds for LSU’s frontcourt to get their third fouls in the second half. And this was a Duke game that, for all intents and purposes, was actually called fairly evenly.)
Anyway, I still don’t understand why they stopped going to Williams. My college buddy Obaza placed the blame on one rat-faced individual:

It blows me away that Coach K REFUSES to alter his gameplan during a game. He gets outcoached quite frequently in the NCAA tournament and last night is a great example. Shelden Williams should have touched the ball every time down the court. He was the only one generating any consistency for them on offense. Even if he wasn't scoring they double teamed him and it opened up three pointers (not like they were making any). Coaching is about putting your players in a position to succeed and Coach K did not do that last night.

Ouch. And that’s from a Duke fan. (Yes, he went to Wake Forest, but that’s a whole other can of worms.)

* In the comments section from last night’s euphoria-induced post, Craig made an interesting point. He thinks the ACC officials that give Duke all the calls during the regular season are actually doing the Blue Devils an injustice (as well as the team the refs are screwing over).
The theory is this: By calling every game in favor of Duke, the Blue Devils get an overinflated sense of their ability. They also can’t adapt when a game is called normally. It’s like the old counterintuitive tale of the coddled high school student whom everybody helped out along the way and when he finally gets to college he realizes he’s not as smart as everybody told him he was. Or the tale of a coddled college student getting inflated grades and going out into the real world and realizing that not everybody kisses your ass like in Durham. (Wait… Too specific?)
You can use Shelden Williams last night as an example. Unless he’s just a really good actor, Williams looked like he was really shocked when officials whistled him for his fourth foul. (On the play, Williams ranged over and threw his body into a driving shooter.) In the ACC, the officials never called that because it would earn a 45-second staredown from Mike Krzyzewski and maybe a hit-order from the Polish mafia. But in the NCAA’s, they correctly called the infraction and Williams was stunned. Defensively, he was never the same, playing too cautious, even for a guy with four fouls.

* Greg Paulus: Man, he ain’t too good.

* Once again; Duke has been a #1 seed in eight of the last nine NCAA Tournaments. They’ve lost before the Final Four six of those eight times, including in the Sweet 16 the past two years. Paging Bob Huggins. Paging Bob Huggins. What’s next, Coach K recruiting at Sing-Sing and forgetting his ABC’s during routine drives? (And I don’t care how much your basketball team sucks. How can any university with any academic or social conscience hire Bob Huggins. If I thought Kansas State actually existed (think about it: Have you ever met anybody who went there?) I’d be appalled.)

Texas 74 – West Virginia 71
Seven Reasons I Loved This Game
1) West Virginia beat Wake Forest last year in the NCAA Tournament. This was an indirect way of payback, but, boy was it sweet. (You want to know how indirect: Rick Barnes coached under Gary Williams, who coached under Tom Davis, who once coached with Bones McKinney, who coached Wake Forest. Plus, somewhere along the line, I'm pretty sure one of them dated Kevin Bacon.)
2) There were no timeouts taken in the game’s final, furious seconds.
3) Kevin Pittsnogle’s Scotty Thurman-esque three. I don’t know about anybody else, but I thought that thing was about six inches short when it left his hands. Instead, it was a thing of beauty. Much like that yellow basketball tattoo on his arm.
4) The fact that there was no doubt Kenton Paulino’s three was going to fall. Unlike the Pittsnogle shot, which was easy to misjudge, Paulino’s was true the second it left his hand.
5) Sad hillbillies are my reverse-Kryptonite.
6) Texas’ win gives me a glimmer of hope in my pool (although if your enjoyment of last night’s games were ruined by your pool, you might have a gambling problem. Send me $50 and we can talk about it.)
7) Seriously, if you aren’t a Wake fan, I don’t think you could understand just how much I hate those WVU hillbillies.

UCLA 73 – Gonzaga 71
* You know a game sequence is amazing when you can’t remember exactly how it happened immediately after it happened. Until CBS showed the replay of UCLA knocking the ball out of J.P. Batista’s hands (on what would be the Bruins’ go-ahead possession), I didn’t know if Batista had thrown it away, dribbled off his foot or had the ball taken, knocked, or jostled from his hands. All I could remember was that Jordan Farmar ended up with the ball and dished it to a guy whose name I can’t spell (Luc Richard Mbah a Moute) who then made an awesome play (more on that in a second). Then Gonzaga inbounded again, had it stolen (again) and had to foul UCLA in order to have a chance at a nice-look buzzer beater.
It wasn’t until after the game that CBS was able to show the full replay and I saw Farmar (I think) just knock the ball clean out of Batista’s hands. (My buddy Horo made a point of praising the officials for not calling a foul on that, as there was some contact on an otherwise-clean steal. For as crappy as the officiating had been all night (the waved-off basket in particular), they did deserve credit for that.)
What an unbelievable finish to the game. Almost as unbelievable as Adam Morrison beginning to cry when the game was still in doubt! When Redick cried, the game was still going on, but the result wasn’t in question. Morrison began crying (and what self-respecting Rage Against the Machine fan cries anyway?) with 2.6 seconds left on the clock with his team down by only one! Hmm... Giving up late in big games. Maybe he'll get drafted by the Eagles.

* The catch-and-shoot by long-name-man was fantastic. Many players would have fumbled the pass, or tried to put the ball up immediately. But long-name-man caught the ball, stopped, hesitated, and shot, an amazing show of patience in a game that frantic.

* Did anybody else think the Arron Affalo should have missed the second free throw at the end of the game? By making it, he gave Gonzaga a chance to inbound and, thus, get a good look at a potential game-tying (or game-winning) shot. If he had missed, it would have been nearly impossible for the Zags to get off a reasonable attempt.

* If J.P. Batista’s final shot had fallen, I thought there was a very good chance Gus Johnson would spontaneously combust. I recorded the end of the game (after the fact) just so I could listen to Johnson’s call of the craziness of the last few seconds. Let me transcribe: “AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH -UCLA STEAL – AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH - GONZAGA LOSES THE BALL AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH – UNBELIEVABLE - AAAAIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHH”
Meanwhile, Len Elmore was absolutely ripping the officials during the game and, at the end, even got a little excited himself. Elmore was the color guy during the Laettner shot and barely said peep that night. Yesterday he was going crazy. I’m just glad Gus Johnson didn’t eat him in all the excitement.

Tonight’s Picks

East Regional Semi-Finals
#1 Connecticut over #5 Washington
Whereas some teams (Bradley) spent all their energy just getting to the Sweet 16, UConn seemed to expend as little as possible. Tonight, I think they turn it on.

#7 Wichita State over #11 George Mason
Mason gets about 3,500 people per game at the Patriot Center. Tonight they’ll be playing in front of 20,000, a majority of whom will be rooting for them. All week they’ve been the toast of nation’s capital (even more than Georgetown), have had ESPN cameras following them (which I never like. Look what it did for Tennessee) and have done interviews with every publication known to man. I think it will catch up with them tonight.
Both Mason and Wichita State are thrilled to be in the Sweet 16, so the “we’re just happy to be here” argument can’t really be used when comparing them. But this is the equivalent of a National title game for Mason. Playing an evenly-matched team in front of a home crowd for the chance to play in front of them again on Sunday with a Final Four berth on the line is about as pressure-packed a situation as there is out there.
I’m pulling for Mason, but think the Shockers will advance.

Midwest Regional Semi-Finals
#1 Villanova over #4 Boston College
The first time I hear “Boston College is the only ACC team left in the Tournament” I’m going to throw a hissy-fit the likes of which ye have only heard in tale.

#7 Georgetown over #3 Florida
Expect CBS President Les Moonves to be in the ears of the officials if there is the possibility of a Villanova-Georgetown Elite Eight match-up.