March Madness has once again proved to be my favorite time of year, so of course I'm going to continue to go on and on discussing it. 

Be sure to check out my recent updates so you can call me out on all of my horribly wrong selections:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Some of you will be excited to hear some more hoops thoughts from me, and some of you will be THRILLED to know that next week I will FINALLY talk about something other than college hoops for a change.  Without further adieu, my final NCAA thoughts:

Quick thoughts:

Let me take the time to give a STANDING OVATION to the Davidson Wildcats, who defeated Gonzaga, Georgetown (Big East champ), Wisconsin (Big Ten champ), and VERY NEARLY upset Kansas (Big 12 champ) in a run for the ages.  Stephen Curry LIT UP the opposition to the tune of THIRTY TWO points per game against some of the best defenses in the country.  The dude has the sweetest stroke in college basketball, and it was phenomenal watching him decimate some bigtime teams while earning most outstanding player of the Midwest Region.  Jason Richards was dishing out a plethora of assists and Andrew Lovedale was banging down low with some of the toughest players in college hoops.  It was quite a memorable run and one that we as fans won’t soon forget. 

Now that I’ve gotten over my Davidson lovefest, let me add one more thing – WHY DIDN’T CURRY TAKE THE LAST SHOT?!?!?!?!  Before the game started, all I wanted was for my man Curry to have a shot to beat Kansas at the end of the game.  I pictured the time out huddle going something like this (you have to replace Jimmy with Stephen):

Come on, you know you were picturing the same thing – the small school trying to upset the HUGE POWERHOUSE on the biggest of stages.  Stephen Curry could have hit a shot for the ages.  Can’t you just picture all of his teammates as Coach McKillop calls the play for Curry to be the decoy, and all of his teammates looking totally dejected and defeated?  More than anything, I wanted Stephen to have his Jimmy Chitwood moment, and announce to his team and the world – “I’ll make it.”  I feel cheated, not by anything Davidson did, or by the greatness of the game itself, or even how Stephen Curry played.  I feel cheated in that he didn’t take the shot.  He should have taken the shot. 

On a related note, it was a very odd decision by the coach to bring a screen to the top of the key for Curry.   Since Kansas’s only goal on the final play HAD to be to get someone, ANYONE other than Curry to take the final shot, bringing another defender near him was SHEER STUPIDITY.  Of course, as soon as the defender got close, he left Thomas Sander alone (did anyone NOT predict that?) and ran directly at Curry.  This eventually led to a play where Curry was eventually forced to give the ball up, and Richards ended up with an attempt from 27 feet at the buzzer.  I highly doubt that’s what the coach had in mind during the timeout. 

In spite of having a lot of high seeds playing each other in the sweet 16 and the elite 8, there were a lot of TERRIBLE games on television.  I had to STRETCH just to get 5 “good” games onto my list. 

AWFUL games to watch:

UNC/Washington State – UNC dominates.
Tennessee/Louisville – About 75 total turnovers.
Kansas/Villanova – Nova was never really close in the 2nd half.
Memphis/Michigan State – 50-20 at the half.
Texas/Stanford – Comically easy win for Texas, as predicted by Homsher last week. 
Memphis/Texas – Thorough crushing by Memphis.
UCLA/Xavier – UCLA wins a complete cakewalk.

Decent and/or good games to watch:

Davidson/Wisconsin – 2nd half score, Curry 22, Wisconsin 20. 
UCLA/Western Kentucky – Western Kentucky makes a FURIOUS run, but falls short.
Xavier/West Virginia – Alexander hits the big shot, misses the free throw, then fouls out.
UNC/Louisville – UNC pulls away late in a hard fought game.
Kansas/Davidson – Davidson falls one play short of the upset.

Memphis absolutely SLAUGHTERED a solid Michigan State team and DECIMATED an exceptional Texas team in a virtual road game in Houston.  Derrick Rose certainly proved me wrong when I claimed that DJ Augustine was the “better college star”.  He took over the game and led Memphis to a dominant victory.  Right now, they and UNC are both playing such incredible ball that it is hard to envision any other title game combination.  However, before the tournament, I went with UNC over UCLA, so I guess I better stick with my guns.

I thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective on my thoughts over the past few weeks.  Let’s take a look back at my comments and picks:

The good:

Ty Lawson is the key to UNC’s success.  He has been playing fantastic, and UNC has coasted into the final 4.

Stephen Curry is the best shooter in college basketball.  I’ve been giving him props since my first college hoops rant. 

Greg Paulus, Roy Hibbert, and Drew Neitzel are overrated and overhyped.  All 3 showed up small in the tournament (except Neitzel in round 2 against Pittzburgh).

Teams that can win it all are Tennessee, UCLA, UNC, Kansas, and Memphis.  Now that the Final 4 is set, I’m already guaranteed to be correct. 

Davidson is a sleeper team.  I can’t say I had them in the elite 8 at the start of the tournament, but I told anyone who would listen that they would win some games and give lots of trouble to any opponent.  I even took them to upset Wisconsin behind another 30 point barrage from Curry. 

Baylor is absolutely terrible and will get crushed in the first round. 

The bad:

Chris Lofton is a star.  He played absolutely dreadful basketball in the tournament.  

Arizona, UCONN, and USC will be sleepers in the tournament.  Yea…that one didn’t work out so hot for me. 

Texas will beat Memphis in the Elite 8.  It would be hard to be more wrong about anything than I was about that game.  Memphis flat out CRUSHED them. 

“The four #1 seeds NEVER make the final 4.  NEVER.”

Final thoughts:

Although we don’t have any great underdog stories in the Final 4, we should have some fantastic games.  UNC/Kansas should feature two of the best offenses in the entire country.  Memphis and UCLA are both riding major winning streaks.  Both Saturday games and the title game on Monday should be extremely competitive.  It might be the most competitive Final 4 in years.   

March Madness might be coming to an end, and to cap off the NCAA season, Stephen Curry deserves some more love from the manrants crew.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.