Gameday: Miami at North Carolina

It's awesome baby with capital A! It was the first all-star Gameday with the one and only Dookie Vitale, but it seems that the priority was the destination, not the actual game, as ESPN picked an expected Tar Heels win over Miami. But expected it was not during the first quarter of the game, as the BC-TarHeels showed up.

Eventually though they woke up, and Ellington (yes, he was on the roster the last few weeks) hit six three-pointers in a row to seal the game for UNC.

And while initially it may have looked like the Zeller and Ginyard injuries would not have been a major issue, well, it looks like they were after all. Zeller would have given them an actual seven-footer to go against other centers, while Ginyard would have given them someone who locks down on defense all the time. Ed Davis is going to make lots of money on basketball, but this season he is too skinny/weak to wrestle with the big guys down low. Notice how the ball gets taken away from him on offense. Imagine if he adds strength to his other skills!

Miami feels under-appreciated by the basketball people. Well, they are probably under-appreciated at their own football school, so they have to earn it the hard way. And as we have seen in the past, teams with Iversonesque guards don't always have a lot of team success (Virginia/Singletary anyone?) Nevertheless Frank Haith looks like he has exceeded expectations so far, and he is bringing in talented recruits. But if all else fails, he can always "Steve Robinson it" with a high-profile assistanship :)

Doug Gottlieb's epic VIOLA fail

One funny tidbit from the Saturday games that just shows how "educated" our dear Doug Gottlieb is. He TRIED to use the french word "voila" in a sentence and instead he said "viOla". V-I-O-L-A! Such a tiny little thing, yet so revealing about one's cluelesness. Because you can't mispronounce it like that. It means that all this time he was READING the word as viola! Oh boy!

Granted, the "basketball analysts" are not hired to replace George Will or Peggy Noonan, but come on now, V-I-O-L-A!

Pitino strikes again, beats Pitt Nemesis

Three years in a row the upstart Jamie Dixon and the non-stop-fouling Pitt Panthers kicked the celebrated PitinoVille out of the Big East tournament. Three years in a row. Finally, the Cardinals get revenge by beating the #1 and undefeated Pitt Panthers and kicking them out of the both ranks.

Pitt of course is yet another team that can make the case for six fouls or unlimited fouls as their beastly DJ Blair was riddled with fouls. Come on now, we want the players to play, not sit on the bench and watch! This is one of the many rules that really need to be looked at and CHANGED. Change we can believe in!

Without being able to foul on every possession and without their space-eater, the Pitt Panthers were "exposed" as yet another Big East team. However, DJ Blair is the game-changer. As long as he is in the game, Pitt is transformed into a Final Four potential team.

Pitino on the other hand added another line in his Hall of Fame resume, beating an undefeated #1 team, five seasons after the December 2003 victory over #1 Kentucky. But it's not a bed of roses for the Cardinals either. This was a hard-fought victory, and the team has its issues (and moods). Despite the fact that Louisville has strung a few wins in a row, they don't look as good as their recent record may seem to indicate.

Rules committee: You MUST add the semi-circle under the basket

Game after game, we see stiffs stand under the basket and take charges and deny the offensive player a made basket. This is PLAIN STUPID. The game should be decided by basketball skills, not by bodybuilders who like to stand under the basket and take body blows.

The game is BASKETBALL, not wrestling, not football, not human pinball, not dodgeball!

So rules committee, please wake up and FIX IT NoW :-)

One "safe" solution is to add the semi-circle the NBA has added. This has already been tried and tested in the NBA and it should be "safe" to add to the college level.

North Carolina wakes up in Virginia

There was no Pete Gillen to take all the time-outs before half-time, but the Tar Heels sort of woke up from their not-so-"championy" run and managed to take the lead and not led the Cavaliers back in the game.

But there's no doubt, the aura and era of invincibility of this UNC team is OVER. Other than Danny Green and Ed Davis, all the other players appear to have been overrated. Fanny Fatzilla (as UNC fans will call him tonight) did not make any friends at UNC tonight with his analysis of the UNC team. Then again, there's nothing more powerful than the truth!

Virginia has promise, lots of promise, but so did the Pete Gillen Virginia team. The odds are in favor of the Calhoun protege however, although breaking out of the pack in the ACC is no easy task.

So, for both teams, we have to wait and see. How can UNC do when they play with a Sweet 16 and beyond team? Bring on the Dookies and ...Clemson!

Week #7 of the BlogPoll is out: The Rise of the Undefeated

It's Week #7 of the BlogPoll and the undefeated teams have risen to the top! Except of course for Clemson which has a rather long history of epic February/March meltdowns. We'll know more about Clemson on Saturday afternoon, after they host Wake Forest on ABC!

While Big East has many teams, it's the ACC that has four of the top eight teams in the poll. More and more people are making the argument that the ACC is actually stronger at the top than the Big East. Oh my, how did the East-coast-bias media allow this to happen? ;-)

Monty and his California Experiment is going quite well, they are in the Top 25 already, probably 2-3 years ahead of schedule. Which only goes to show how clueless Ben Braun was. But perhaps he was smoking the lettuce with the UCB brass, so they let him hang around for years and years ;-)

Mid-week funnies: White Men Can't Jump, Duke edition

Jay Bilas made the astute observation that the 7-footer Duke center (Zubek) did not jump center, but instead the 6'5" Henderson did.

Georgia Tech, please beat Duke! That would make it an awesome day for the Yellow Jackets! First getting Derrick Favors, and then beating the Dookies!

Make my day, beat the Dookies!!!!!!

Move over NBA, college players can score 54 too!

Kentucky's Jodie Meeks became the lead-story at SportsCenter last night as he managed to score 54 points on the troubled Tennessee Vols at the Pat Summit court. Ouch for Bruce Pearl. This also means that there will be at least one ranked SEC team next week!

For wall to wall coverage of Meeks-54, be sure to check A Sea of Blue.

Big Monday recap: Notre Dame at Louisville

It was the start of Big Monday, with the Improv Trio (Raftery, Bilas, McDonut), and the Reece-Digger duo in the studio. The big guns at ESPN, sans the divas, Vitale and of course Bob Knight.

It was an exciting up and down game, just like college basketball should be played. Notre Dame showed how they can beat any team and lose to any team. Certainly with a 7-player rotation, overtime games put them at a disadvantage.

Louisville fans may be pointing out that they actually won the game at the end of regulation, but they probably liked the end-result better, with a solid performance in overtime against the tired Domers.

Louisville is loaded with talent, they have three game-changing players, but Earl Clark needs to improve a lot on decision making and shot-selection, and Samardo Samuels needs to watch A LOT of Elton Brand video before even thinking of leaving college before 2012.

Talent is not enough however, and Pitino needs to continue blending and mending them as a team.

Notre Dame on the other hand has the winning formula - they can beat teams by scoring fewer field goals because they are raining three. So that can keep them in many games they shouldn't be in. But the 7-man rotation may be a limiting factor for a March run, and the Fighting Seven may get worn out before the Big East conference season is over.

The way things are, it may be harder to win the Big East than win the National Championship!

Monday Funnies: Don't beat Oregon State

Memo to the Pac-10 teams: If you are planning to ask for Government cheese or bailout funding, make sure you don't beat Oregon State! Make sure you lose to Oregon State in an exciting game. Otherwise, your chances of getting any type of funding ...diminish!

North Carolina at Wake Forest recap

While not topping the January 2005 game (Chris Paul vs Raymond Felton in three overtimes), this was a "game of the year nominee" in our opinion. In the grand scheme of things, the outcome may have been favorable for both teams.

Wake Forest gets the big bright spotlight win that now matches their record. North Carolina was able to stay in the game despite horrible performance shooting wise and with some of their stars being invisible/erased by the defense.

Two losses in a row will "open the ears" of the UNC stars to more "coaching" and at the same time lower expectations for the season and post-season.

Wake Forest on the other hand shows that they are indeed for real, this is no Clemson who crumbles the moment they play a Sweet16-capable team. They certainly have a versatile rotation with players they can mix and match depending on the situation.

The unassuming Dino Gaudio has done a great job in carrying on the tradition of the beloved Skip Prosser, and the future looks bright for the Deacons.

The absence of Ginyard and the injury of Zeller actually had an impact on this game, as UNC badly needed a fourth big body when Wake was playing big, and they needed someone taller/longer to harass Jeff Teague who made a lot of future-money today. Ironically adding Ishmael Smith to the line-up allowed UNC to put a taller player on Teague than Lawson, but by the time they figured that out it was too late.

Lawson was once again "exposed" as an NBA prospect and so was Hansbro when facing the trees, although Hansbrough is not likely going to be facing triple-teams in the NBA. The Wake Forest trees simply blocked him and shut off his water.

Danny Green has once again shown why he is the MVP of this team, while from the Wake Forest side, LD Williams is a very versatile player who (because of his size/width) can create mismatch against smaller/bigger players.

But obviously the star of the game, the star with a capital S was ...Jeff Teague!

This is not basketball, let's clean it up!

I am talking about two high profile games on Saturday that turned out to be ugly slugfests with free throws and fouls galore. I'm talking of course about Duke at Florida State and Kansas at Michigan State. This is just ugly. You coaching idiots are ruining the game by turning these games into a painful slugfesting experience!

And how about that sour loser Bill Self? What's next? Start fouling at tip-off?

Time for the "guardians of the game" (as coaches call themselves) to take responsibility and clean things up! And stop jumping from job to job if someone offers them 5% more, and at the same time, DEMANDING loyalty from their players.

"Be loyal to me for four years, I'll be loyal to you until a bigger check comes along".