Dirty Dookies, Sour Losers And there you have it folks, the Dookies are exposed once again this time on national TV on CBS. Coach K went into spin control as usual and the ACC conference office (Coach K's puppets?) went into bobblehead mode (once again) and agreed with him. As usual most of the TV analysts are also scared of offending Coach K so they danced around the issue, however Doug Gottleib pointed out that an "Aaron Brooks"-like punishment would be fair (suspending Gerald Henderson for the 2007-2008 Duke game at Chappel Hill). Len Elmore, one of the most knowledgeable and level-headed basketball analysts astutely pointed out that someone with the athletic ability and precision of movement of Henderson should have been able to not deliver such a blow to Hansbro's head unless he intended to do so. The CBS cameras caught Henderson mouthing "my bad" while on the bench, while the refs were reviewing the TV footage. If you review the footage from various angles it looks like Henderson probably did this before and planned the approach/angle so it would look like he was going for the ball. Perhaps Coach K has a practice drill for this? ...The only reason the game was that close was because Duke won the hassle plays. However, this incident may fire up the Carolina players who haven't always played with fire this season. Imagine if all ten Carolina players increase their intensity. If they meet Duke again in the ACC final, and if all ten Carolina players play with intensity, they are probably going to beat Duke by 40 (revenge factor). Perhaps that's why Ole Roy wasn't as upset about this incident. This may be the trigger that gets North Carolina the 2007 national championship... This also brings up another topic: It is time to clean up rough play and make basketball basketball again instead of wrestling and boxing and pushing and shoving and stop allowing players to use the "respect" card when they commit flagrant intentional and combative fouls. This is Basketball, not the international fight league.
Daily Bubble Talk
March Madness comprehensive TV listings
More NCAA automatic bids: The Dana Altman Funky Bunch (Creighton)
More NIT automatic bids: Marist with triple-double waiting to happen Jared Jordan (watch him as a sleeper in the 2007 NBA Draft), and South Alabama with a rising star coach. This brings the total of NIT automatic bids to 4 with 28 remaining in the at-large pool. The pool is likely to shrink even more as conference tourneys continue. More on the NIT at the NIT Central
Guess who's back??? George... MASON! George... MASON! Tonight at 4pm/7pm ET/PT on ESPN! A win will send the unlikely Cinderella back into the Dance.
Three degrees of separation: Duke beat the Zags, the Zags beat Carolina, yet Carolina beat Duke twice!
How the mighty have fallen segment... Duke is the #7 seed in the ACC tournament, yet the various Duke worshipers think they should get a #3 or #4 seed in the NCAA tourney. This was a funny ACC regular season seeding-wise. Carolina would have dropped all the way to #5 if they lost to Duke, and gotten the #1 with a win. No middle ground! ... The Bobby Perry Show wasn't enough to get Kentucky a much-needed road win at Florida. The numbers continue to stack up against: Kentucky lost to the same conference team for the sixth time in a row for the first time ever, and Kentucky has yet to beat a ranked team (first time since the Dark Ages of KY basketball).
Coming Soon: Coaching Carousel Spring Edition
more coming soon...
Daily Soup
New NCAA March Madness Drinking Game: Every time Jim Nantz says "Billy". Maybe he is contractually obligated to end every other sentence with "Billy". (Billy being Billy Packer).
And for a change of mood and pace, here are some inspirational stories at Good News in College Sports including Kay Yow, a Florida volleyball player, a father/son team part of the Louisville band, and many more.
Wooden Award nominees and profiles
Performance of the weekend: Al Thornton of Florida State scoring 45 on Miami when his team needed them the most.
Embarassing moment: UCLA's starting wrestler (oops starting center) Lorenzo Mata tackled Washington's A. Oliver to prevent a fast-break. This time however the refs actually penalized him for his wrestling moves. It is very embarassing for the storied UCLA program to have a wrestler-bully as a starting center. Nothing against Mata, he is who he is, the problem is with Ben Howland and for turning UCLA Basketball into UCLA Wrestling. As long as he is successful people won't complain loudly but once he starts losing games, he'll find himself on the hot seat real fast. Go back to Pitt or the Big 10 (Michigan and Minnessota may be hiring) and let a basketball coach take over UCLA.
TV Listings: Monday March 5, 2007 - all times PACIFIC!
4pm, Colonial (CAA) final, George Mason vs VCU, ESPN. Prediction: George Mason!
430pm, 7pm, SunBelt semifinals, ESPN Full Court
6pm, WCC final, Santa Clara vs Gonzaga, with Rick Majerus, ESPN. Prediction: Santa Clara wins and gets Dick Davey the perfect retirement gift, an NCAA bid!
6pm, MAAC final, Niagara vs Siena ESPN2
9pm, 9am, College Gamenight, 20-minute version, ESPN
Repeats - all times PACIFIC!
4pm, 1130pm, ASU at Cal, CSN
5pm, SoCal High school hoops: Mater Dei vs Artesia, Fox College Sports, with Marques Johnson. Must see TV! as a number of touted recruits including the Wear twins, Taylor King, James Harden, and many more are playing.
430pm, 5am, Boston College at Georgia Tech, Fox College Sports
1130pm, 5am, Sunshine State conference tourney final, a division 2 conference in florida, Fox College Sports
11am Tuesday, 1995 SEC final, Arkansas vs Kentucky, ESPN Classic. Nolan Richardson vs Rick Pitino!
2 comments:
Len Elmore is only all of those things in matters not related to former BC guard Troy Bell.
When has Coach K ever taken responsibilty for his players' misactions? Anyone recall of one Christian Laettner purposely stepping on a Kentucky player? Later that game, he then proceeded to hit one of the most memorable shots in NCAA Tournament history.
Exactly! The cloud of near Sainthood extends to his assistants and players as well. Coach K's team can't possibly do anything wrong because he they didn't do anything wrong. (I doubt this technique would work in a court of law though)
I don't recall the Len Elmore/Troy Bell situation. What did he say?
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