Taj79 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 When faced with equal physical talent, the Flyers had no real answer or no real basketball skills yesterday to get slammed by the Jayhawks. If Kansas had shot better, it might have been a 30-point blowout but let me give defensive credit there to the Flyers on that one. ESPN said the TV mikes on the Dayton rim were amplified on high, making their brick laying efforts seem even louder on TV. We did not get the game here in the Baltimore/DC area as we were subjected to a a day of Big East feeds --- likely because of Georgetown's local proximity (Saturday was ACC day around here with Nova being the lone exception to the Maryland, North Carolina and Duke feeds). The Flyers shot 22.2% from the field by going 16-of-72 and another blistering 21.1% from three point land. Their 4-of-19 effort from beyond the arc saw not a single starter make a three with three of the four made by freshmen. Whle making two treys, Luke "Freakin'" Fabrizius was 2-for-7 overall and all seven of his shots were threes. The next Steve Novak has arrived folks. Fabrizius took those 7 shots in 11 minutes of playing. Shy he's not. Better find him the minute he steps on the floor the next three years. Cole Aldridge posted a triple double with 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. Marcus Johnson shot a blistering 1-for-11, Chuck Little shot 2-for-10 in his senior moment, and Chris Wright cemented returning for another year to the Triple D by shooting 4-for-16. Short of my favorite, London Warren, making 2 of his 5 shots, Wright's 25% led the Flyers' starters. Mickey Perry, coming off hte bench, hoisted 12 shots as well. In a reversal of typical fortune, the Flyers shot 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Warren, who's known for his inability to shoot but for his ability to defend, allowed Sherron Collins 25 points from the counter point guard position. Brian Gregory's halftime adjustments resulted in Dayton scoring less in the second half of the game than the first and allowing Kansas to score more as well. Not shy, the Flyers hoisted 72 shots in 40 minutes. Almost a two shot-per-minute rate. I guess they were intent on crashing the boards for this win but Kansas' frontline was atypical of that that the Flyers are used to. At least Xavier held sway for the A10. So with 16 teams left, how's it going? Big East/BCS = 5 teams. Pac 10/BCS = 1 team. Big Twelve/BCS = 3 teams. Big Ten/BCS = 2 teams. ACC/BCS = 2 teams. Leaving one team each for CUSA, A10 and West Coast. Which is an 81/19% split. In close games, USC got close to Michigan State. Washington was close to supplanting Purdue. Ditto for Marquette against Mizzou. Texas neared Duke. And Western Kentucky almost took out the Zags. If they had, it would have supplanted one non-BCS team for another. But even in all the close ones, one BCS team would have been supplanted by another. And we wonder why more and more BCS teams are getting the At-Larges? Sure, it was the greatest four days of college basketball once again, it always will be. But cinderella is close to going up in flames nonetheless. Pitt will be favored over Xavier but I can't wait to see that one. And Carolina will be a heavy favorite over the Zags. But even of those three non-BCS teams, is there any surprise out there right now? Xavier and Gonzaga are commonplace Sweet Sixteeners right now. X has to win to keep pace with last year's standard. Gonzaga has been doing this since 1999 or so. And Memphis has never really been a non-BCS school since Mister K and Little Tubby. So the riff-raff is gone. There will be no Cinderella at the ball in two weeks. No Bradley. No Mason Nation. What former-#1 team this year is still NOT alive outside of Wake Forest (they were, frankly, too young to stay at an elite level looking back)? I see Pitt. UCOnn. Louisville. North Carolina. Oklahoma. two full brackets ---- where the 1, 2, 3, & 4 --- all survived in the east and the South. Only a 12 (Zona) and a 5 (Purdue) upset the overall apple cart. Yes, we all might love the madness and get zone din during these four days, but in the long run, the strong do indeed survive. Will there be aberations? Always. this is an aberation year in that form held true, I think. And Western Kentucky was a nice story. But going back to my sign-in year, 1979, the year of Bird-versus-Magic in the final, the other two teams were DePaul and Penn. Given that I'm 51 now, and being generous with say another 20 years life expectancy to look forward to, I sincerely doubt that I will see another non-BCS school win a national title in my lifetime. SINCERELY doubt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 And --- YEAH! -- no more having to watch Grevious "F*cking" Vazquez here at Maryland. I like passion in a kid as much as the next guy but this idiot ran his mouth constantly and re-invented the word "hot dog." I will give his teammates credit for covering his back, his arse, whatever ---- he said in the day before the Memphis/Maryland game that if Memphis played in the ACC, they wouldn't be a .500 team. I think he was not dissing Memphis, but rather Conference USA. He just said it wrong. You could see all his teammates and even Gary Williams try to cover for him. Williams went so far as to say it was a "translation" issue ---as if the kid didn't say it in English but Spanish (he's Venezuelan) and the reporter lost something in that translation. But the kid was on TV quoted clear as day. Anyway, thank goodness he is gone. I don't think he's coming to an NBA arean near you but don't be surprised if, in the next Olympics, there is a new hero running around wrapped in a Venezuelan flag. There was an interesting column here yesterday by local writer David Steele on the tournament. Usually, I don't care much for Steele because I think he writes too much along racial lines, but I read him nonetheless. Thought-provoking reading is alwyas good in my book. Anyway, he noted that he is waiting to see who this year's tournament flash in the pan is. Who will see their star shine brightly or be created to shine brightly, and then flame out when they try to take it to the next level. Who will be that failure? Who will be the next Adam Morrison? The next Joakim Noah? JJ Reddick? Emeka Okafor? Shane Battier? Scott May? Scottie Thurman? Bobby Hurley? Some player who flies thorugh March 2009 and then becomes the talk of the town leading up to the NBA Draft, which pretty much marks the end of his being relevant. His choice ---- Tyler Hansbrough. Frankly, he's got a point this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConkShell1 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Who will be the next Adam Morrison? Honestly, do we need another Adam Morrison? I can't stand the Kevin Youkilis-wanna-be on Gonzaga's present squad. There's always one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 I'm just looking forward to the next "Batista with the CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" call from Gus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConkShell1 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 I'm just looking forward to the next "Batista with the CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" call from Gus. Youtube "Gus Johnson Fort Minor Remix." It's worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satrap Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 His choice ---- Tyler Hansbrough. Frankly, he's got a point this time. I dislike Hansbrough as much as the next guy- which obviously means alot as he is probably the least popular player of the last decade. But I always thought likely-future-NBA-success-or-lack is the most bizarre way to think about a player, since what TH has done at, and for, UNC is simply humongous. Who REALLY cares what he does as a Washington Wizard or Western Australia Fire???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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