Michigan played a great 1st half. Up 1. PJ Thompson hit a 2/3 court bomb at the buzzer. The ball didn't come down till both squads were already in the locker rooms.
Butler had an issue with a plane late Dec, pretty serious as they were in the air...They took the bus, supposedly because of inavailabilty of another flight home...bet they couldn't get the players back in the air though! Scary http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18376358/butler-bulldogs-team-plane-loses-cabin-pressure-coach-says-was-scary-had-guys-crying
As Gip said that was a big win for the Irish. UVA has been Kryptonite to the Irish. I'll bet those players said enough is enough!! It wasn't a close at the buzzer win either, Irish were in control the whole game. Next up for the Irish is FSU a team we lost to in a close game at FSU, beat handily at ND....so now the neutral court. FSU has so much depth, talent and front line length...but some how we have matched up well with them. Michael Ojo of FSU looks like Chocolate Superman to me but not to Bonzie Colson!
Congrats Bobda. Was a good game. Free throws did us in at the end. A strength all year. Good luck the rest of the way.
Well Bobby Knight is back in the news....I guess he's still bitter. Gee Bobby do you think your asshole behavior was maybe the real problem?
I agree with Stu. Sink a free throw and Purdue likely wins in regulation. Michigan's hot. Will be a tough out in the NCAA tournament. Re: Bob Knight. Bitter, angry old man. I can't relate to harboring those feelings in one's twilight years.
Thanks Stu. M is a hot team now but still think Purdue will be the B10 team that goes the furthest in the NCAA tourney.
Watched with Crazy John, the Michigan grad...with 15 minutes left we both figured it would go right down to the end...and it did.
Terry...here's the link to the rest of the article for anyone who wants to read it. Sad. http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/longform/throwing-in-the-chair-what-to-make-of-bob-knight/
Sadly, Bobda, He may fulfill his own wish expressed years ago.....to be laid face down in his casket so those he didn't like can "kiss my ass". There will be a long line.
Big Ten Tournament has been turned upside down with the exception of Wisconsin. They are my pick to win the tournament now. Nice win for the Irish yesterday and very surprised to see Vandy upset Florida? Arizona surprised UCLA too.
Vandy really has the Gators number this year. Doesn't really matter Gators still will be a high seed in the NCAA's Mich is the hot B!G team right now, wouldn't be suprised if they won it all in the B1G. KU out, but that won't hurt them either, mainly they'll get to rest up and they'll get that freshman back who was suspended for the game they lost. I read an article about the incident and it is interesting, the KU womens basketball player involved was suspended for several games immediately. Diff coaches of course but I would have thought the Univ would have handled each the same. Texas season mercifully is over. Shaka Smart gets a do over next year but if he doesn't produce a really good team I won't be surprised if he's done. I didn't stay up and watch UCLA vs Arizona, but the lead up promo's were all UCLA. But they lost. 3 really good teams though in the Pac12. Oregon vs Az could be great. Duke was the preseason #1, but injuries early on got them off to a slow start and then there was the whole Grayson Allen deal and they seemed like they would not reach their potential. But now those kids are healthy and the side issues with Allen are in the rear view mirror and watching them beat UNC, they looked like a Final Four team. Irish will have to play their best game of the year, and hope that this being Dukes 4th game in 4 days has them with tired legs.
On the Women's NCAA everybody of course is expecting UCONN to win it's 5th straight and stretch it's winning streak to more than 110. So it shouldn't be surprising that a team that graduated 3 1st team AA's last year has replaced them with 3 new 1st team AA's this year. Unbelievable program, talk about reloading.
Re UCLA: Ball had a thumb injury and Alford was cold. That's a bad mix when playing a team like Arizona who just had their way with us all night. It's funny because the talking heads keep omitting Zona from their 'top 2 seed' picks. Oregon beat UCLA on a last second shot, and then got rolled by UCLA. UCLA has been beaten twice, convincingly, by Arizona this year. All hype and ******** aside, I'm not sure Ball should go to the NBA next year although it appears most have him as a #1 pick. It reminded me of an interview I heard about 3 weeks back in which they were discussing this year's class of rookies as the worst rookie class in 3 decades. They went on to clarify that it wasn't that there aren't great players in the class, but there are too many guys who left college too early playing in the NBA. UCLA manhandled (Coach Cal's words, not mine) Kentucky at Kentucky, so I am not too worried about getting sent back East which I think is a certainty at this point. The Bracket boys seem to have been set on their top 4 regardless of tourney production. It blows, but the great thing about tourneys is that you can run, but you can't hide. What's coming is out there and it's gonna find you sooner or later.
Duke enters the NCAA tourney on a roll, they have the talent and it's now healthy so they are definitely a final four type of team. They talked about whether winning the ACC from the 5 spot is enough to move them to the 1 line, but it seems to me that it's not fair to ignore the rest of the season even if it was marred by injuries early and missing Coach K for 7 or 8 games. Good win though for them over the Irish, who made them work and had their shot to win, but just couldn't get the shots to fall late in the game. Arizona definitely sealed up a #1 seed last night, too bad the Oregon center got injured in the game with UCLA the night before and is done as a Duck. That was a big loss for them. But the Wildcats are another Final Four type of team. Kentucky/Ark today for the SEC and Michigan/Wisconsin for the B1G championship today. Good luck in Don's Bracket Contest everybody! Maybe somebody can stop the Ryckmans!
Bobda, Congratulations on a miracle type finish in the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan fans will long remember this Championship. Amazing performance in light of all the obstacles the team faced.
Every year somebody at UCF releases a study on Black players graduation rates in Basketball. It's down this year. A few teams though are doing well. Villanova and Kansas highlighted 12 teams in the tournament with a GSR of 100 percent. That list also included Duke, Notre Dame, Butler, Bucknell, Creighton, Middle Tennessee, Princeton, Dayton, Vermont and Winthrop. However I'm not sure how that GSR works, as Duke had a bunch of freshmen 1 and done's last year...maybe those guys don't count till future years though.
That was a good run by UM. I have a hard time thinking of them as Cinderella though! Evil Empire..sure, Cinderella can't make the connection!!