NCAA Thoughts

Hello Again Everybody,

I've been in the Basement for a couple weeks. As opposed to Rome when he goes in the basement (a.k.a unreachable because he is on vacation) I've been swamped with Cold Calls, Baby Showers, getting Married, and all the other things life throws in our way. So here's a few Basketball thoughts.

I hate brackets.
I made a handful of intelligent choices in my bracket this year. I picked some solid upsets, some worked and some didn't, I thought I was on course to have a solid bracket this year. What happened? A trained monkey would be doing better than me. Who honestly, and respectably puts four #1's in the Final Four, it has never happened and it practically promotes a BCS formula for the NCAA Tournament. And 4 #1's are in the Final Four. Dan Patrick had a poll asking if this was good for basketball, the majority said yes, I say no. It buries the cinderella idea despite the showing of Western Kentucky and Davidson (2 of the 5 upsets I picked in the first round I'll have you know).

Arizona Basketball
Ok so Arizona Basketball got bounced in the first round (1 of the 3 first round upsets I didn't get right). 2 weeks removed from the loss and here are my thoughts. I constantly had problems with some of the things that KO did as the coach. Those things are Lack of Bench inclusion and lack of Assistant Coach inclusion. Yes I am a Kirk Walters Honk. I love Big Nasty. He was coming out strong a couple years ago, go brought down by injuries and mono. We needed depth, especially big depth, especially with J-Hill enjoying fouling so much and winding up on the bench for large chunks of the game and Big Brett Brielmeyer going down with a shoulder injury. Unfotunately for whatever reason KO decided he didn't think much of the Nasty One through a good portion of the season and by the time the Cats needed him he was worth less (not worthless) because he had no confidence, no stamina, no nothing, because he had ridden the pine all season. I'm not saying he was a viable starter, but he was one step away a couple years ago, and if I were him I would be pissed. I've been shafted by a coach before, and it is bad. The only hope is that Bayless and Budinger are going to stick around another year because they wanted to play for Coach O, and weren't able to, which leads me to my next point.

Arizona Basketball...Again
Coach O is returning. KO actually did a half decent job with a team that was bound to struggle. would Coach O have taken them further in the tournament? Probably. I'm not saying that they would have beaten West Virginia because you can't stop shooting like they had. But they wouldn't have been playing West Virginia, they would have been a 7 or 6 seed somewhere because they would have had a few more wins during the regular season. They for sure would have beaten Stanford and UCLA in those games that were close. They would have beaten ASU at least once, most likely both times. My only hope is that this disappointing season (as I mentioned) leads to the return of Bayless, Budinger, and Hill. A starting line-up of Wise, Bayless, Jennings, Budinger, and Hill, with some serious talent coming off the bench, coupled with the possible loss of Pac-10 players like Mayo, Collison, Love, and the Lopez's, Arizona has a serious shot at a 1,2, or 3 seed and the Pac-10 crown. Call me a homer, I don't care.

Texas
I had Texas in my Final Four. They were playing at home the entire tournament. Augustine is good, really good. It was one of my intelligent choices. It looked solid until about 4 minutes into the game against Memphis, apparently despite their (prior) smart, efficient play, they couldn't take down the Tigers. I'm looking at best 2nd place in both my brackets, at worst, let's not talk about it. Also, to school administrators in Texas, how bout a call back? I've been leaving messages for all of you for over a week. It's a 2 hour Webinar on April 16th, I promise, it's worth it.

Coach O's Presser
I just got back from a bar (lunch break) watching Coach O's Press Conference. The loser in the Blue Button-up shirt, what the hell were you thinking. I swear to God, every 5 guestions it was his turn and he asked the dumbest questions, and was immediately dismissed by the Hall of Famer. You are a disappointment to many. Also looking back at this season, if Coach O can get back all of his guys, they WILL win 23 games next year AT LEAST and Coach O will further prove that he is one of the best coaches of All Time.

Ok that's just a sampling of recent thoughts. And as I said, Duke was WAY over rated, and I can't wait for them to flail about and lose in the first round in each of the next 6 tournaments.