NCAA season 2008-2009

[Sebby]

Texas down by 7 but Duke doesn't look that good. Neither do I, I have to go to bed early tonight and it's already 01:15 AM.

At least knock Duke out you Texan guys! :P

[Terps54321]

Memphis was way, way too much for Maryland today. Decent season for the Terps considering the lack of talent on the roster. Vasquez was a one man show all year.

[kerouac82]

One minute left and Michigan is down by 10. It wasn't meant to be.

Maybe Western Kentucky will upset Gonzaga.

A heartbreaker of a loss. Missed free throws and a botched time-out did WKU in. Still, not bad for a team that lost Courtney Lee and Tyrone Brazelton to the pros. WKU will be downright scary this year -- they have good recruits coming in, one of which is in the ESPN top 100.

[bobo81]

Did anyone watch Nova and UCLA? Hahaha collison got dogged...all smiling like they had them then Reynolds robbed him for his ca$h. Will pac10 ever dominate big east...

[Terps54321]

Did anyone watch Nova and UCLA? Hahaha collison got dogged...all smiling like they had them then Reynolds robbed him for his ca$h. Will pac10 ever dominate big east...

If that game was played anywhere other than Philadelphia the score would have been a lot different.

[mvblair]

I picked Memphis to go to the Final Four

Idiot! Idiot!

Missouri rocked Memphis by scoring 102 points.

Villanova destroyed Duke by 23 points. That's a score I'm happy about.

[Sebby]

First Louisville game I watch this season (not that I am an NCAA follower anyways). If they can produce that pressure in every match there I can only see North Carolina challenging them.

Solid display by Michigan State again but they are really unlucky to have to beat Lousiville to procceed to the final four. Can't see that happening to be honest.

I have no idea about Connecticut and Missouri, I am watching their game on Monday so I get a brief picture of the teams. As I said thought, Louisville looked really terrifying tonight... Same applies to Pittsburgh vs Villanova.

And then, North Carolina vs Oklahoma. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Deon Thompson, Ed Davis. Nuff said, what a team. Champions for me...

By the way, what about making a list of, let's say, the top 10 of the this years' games one should watch?

[bobo81]

Wow Oklahoma just silenced the critics. Everyone said how Blake is the only ONE on the team yet their entire team drilled 'Cuse. Even though I put UNC to win over OKA, I really hope OKA wins.

Michigain St. is a smaller cinderella story here. No way they played well this year to get this far.

[Blackie]

In real time it almost look like the big man hit his head on the rim throwing it down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMxar4V9nno

[mvblair]

First Louisville game I watch this season (not that I am an NCAA follower anyways). If they can produce that pressure in every match there I can only see North Carolina challenging them.

Well, I think Louisville is going to give UNC a great game. That would be one of the better games of the tournament. I'm looking forward to watching it.

Solid display by Michigan State again but they are really unlucky to have to beat Lousiville to procceed to the final four. Can't see that happening to be honest.

Yep.

I have no idea about Connecticut and Missouri, I am watching their game on Monday so I get a brief picture of the teams. As I said thought, Louisville looked really terrifying tonight... Same applies to Pittsburgh vs Villanova.

With some of these teams, I just have absolutely no opinion about who will win. It's hard to follow NCAA teams, so it's hard to say who will win.

And then, North Carolina vs Oklahoma. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Deon Thompson, Ed Davis. Nuff said, what a team. Champions for me...

Lawson, Hansbrough, Davis...yes, they are a fantastic team. Those young men are very, very skilled. I still think they'll lose to Louisville.

By the way, what about making a list of, let's say, the top 10 of the this years' games one should watch?

I haven't seen enough games to even make a list!

In real time it almost look like the big man hit his head on the rim throwing it down

Hah, hah!! I did that once.

[JGX]

I didn't get to see it but Michigan State beat Louisville rather easily. Just need someone besides UNC to win the championship and I win the Interbasket pool...

[bobo81]

MSU beating Lville is hard to swallow but things like this happen. Oh well I guess I hope to see a UConn and UNC final.

[mvblair]

I didn't get to see it but Michigan State beat Louisville rather easily. Just need someone besides UNC to win the championship and I win the Interbasket pool...

Just so you know, I'm pointing my middle finger at the computer screen.

[rikhardur]

USA – NCAA Final Four set after wins by Heels, Spartans, Huskies and Wildcats

BOSTON (NCAA) – North Carolina, Michigan State, the University of Connecticut and Villanova are all headed to the Motor City for the NCAA Tournament Final Four after winning their respective games over the weekend.

The game that could go down as the most exciting of the tournament was the Big East battle on Saturday in Boston between Villanova and number one seed Pitt in the Elite Eight.

Pittsburgh, who only narrowly escaped 60-55 in their Sweet 16 clash against Xavier, saw their luck run out against red-hot Nova who claimed a 78-76 victory.

Levance Fields, the hero of Pitt’s win over Xavier, made two free throws with less than six seconds remaining to knot the contest at 76-76.

Reggie Redding, who had just thrown the ball away while attempting a full-court pass on Villanova’s previous inbounds play, this time connected with teammate Dante Cunningham at midcourt.

Cunningham laid the ball off to Scottie Reynolds, who streaked into the lane before making a floater in traffic for the go-ahead basket.

"In that situation, you have four dribbles and a shot,” Reynolds said.

“That's five seconds. All that goes in your head. That's why we practice that every day in practice so we can make an instinct play. We did that. It worked tonight. Only has to work once."

A half-second remained.

After a timeout, Fields caught an inbounds pass, took one dribble and heaved a potential-game winning attempt from three-quarters length of the court but missed.

Villanova will now meet North Carolina in the Semi-Finals after Roy Williams’ Tar Heels cruised past Oklahoma 72-60.

The leading National Player of the Year candidate Blake Griffin scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Sooners but his production wasn’t nearly enough to beat the balanced Tar Heels who got 19 points from guard Ty Lawson and 18 from Danny Green.

On Saturday, the UConn Huskies were made to sweat but they finally overcame upset-minded Missouri 82-75.

Electric guard Kemba Walker had 23 points for the Huskies, who will now take on Michigan State following the Spartans’ surprisingly easy 64-52 triumph over Louisville.

Michigan State is based in Lansing so they should enjoy home advantage with the Final Four at Detroit’s Ford Field.

Goran Suton, who hails from Bosnia and Herzegovina, scored 19 points and hauled in 10 rebounds for the Spartans.

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/p/newsid/29736/arti.html

[mvblair]

Good article to summarize the Final Four, Rik.

Not a good start for Gillispie's second season:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...gBwQAD94F5BIG0

The first post of this season's thread, JGX. Good foreshadowing. Very literary.

UK Pulls the Plug on the Gillispie Era - by Matt May, Rivals.com, March 27, 2009

The UK basketball coach will not return to Lexington for the 2009-10 season after a tumultuous two-year tenure...

...There has been growing concern over Gillispie’s treatment of those involved with the program and understanding of the scope of the job as a whole.

...expectations proved to be entirely too much for Gillispie and his team to handle.

Another humbling home loss to a no-name program - VMI - set the stage for more criticism of Gillispie, but the Cats rallied to win 16 of their next 19 games and spur talk of perhaps going undefeated in conference play. All of that came crumbling down as the Cats lost nine of their final 13 games and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1991-92 season.

As the defeats mounted, concern over Gillispie’s treatment of players and department personnel mounted. The coach had two high-profile run-ins with ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards during games and later told reporters at the SEC Tournament he did not consider being a public figure part of his job description as head coach.

Gillispie arrived at UK with four conference Coach of the Year awards and a reputation as a hard-nosed grinder who overachieved. He leaves with a two-year record of 40-27 record, no NCAA Tournament wins and without an SEC title of any kind.