Dang- there's the UNC game. Time to go to mmod with my other laptop (yes, I have 2 laptops and a tv in front of me)

SI

UNC-Gonzaga off to a fun, fast start :)

SI

about 3 seconds after tipoff, the storm picked up and direct TV went out. This is not funny.

As someone said previously, please do not say a player has "taken a blow" (Aldrich, just now). I don't want to see that on tv, kthx

SI

Is anyone else's HD feed for Kansas/MSU pretty shitty? It's lagging it seems like.

Mine's fine.

Boy, he got that shot off at the half by the slimmest of margins. Very pleased with the first half for Kansas :)

SI

North Carolina just can't miss. 0 TOs and 65% shooting with 6 to go in the first half.

SI

For a casual fan who watches March Madness to see close games and a few nice upsets, this tournament has sucked hard. All 8 games this week have been/are unwatchable to this point. It wil take a helluva final 7 games to make up for the overall boredom of the past couple of weeks.

The Syracuse loss probably ends any shot I had at winning the FOFC Yahoo pool :)

Carolina players clearly watched too much of the mizzou/memphis game, the shitty free throw shooting is rubbing off on them. 7/16, ugh.

Well I'll certainly take an 11 point halftime lead. Gonzaga did a nice job at the end when UNC had pushed it up to 17 to keep it from totally getting away from them.

Zags, you can't hit a 13 pointer so quit trying to take 3's every time down the floor :(

SI

I certainly appreciate them trying. Good timeout by Few to put a stop to that right away.

Kansas and MSU have sure gone cold.

uh oh - if collins is gone then KU has no chance

Gonzaga goes on a 12-2 run over 2:30 and gets the lead down to 11. Carolina responds by scoring 9 in 45 seconds to get it back up to 20.

I would hope that Missouri would not be cheap with Mike Anderson.

Take it to the basket

Great finish for the MSU/KU game. MSU takes the lead on an AND-1!

Elmore sounds like he is about to cry. He isn't a KU guys is he? He sure sounds like it tonight. I have never heard so much praise for a lot of standard plays by KU or such lack of emotion for that big play by MSU. I have no stake in this except for not liking KU but I don't think I am wrong here.

How is that an and-one? Contact occurred before he left his feet, let alone before he released the ball.

I'm so nervous.

travel. Not a good call.

No foul. We got lucky...

SI

it takes 3 replays to show the announcers they cant spin this one at all.

Yes you did

Bullshit. No trip.

Oh well.

Seriously, quit going back to the stupid ass Gonzaga-UNC game. It's 16 and I like having my game in real time not 1 minute delayed

SI

Those referees are whistle happy

WTF? Foul? Damnit.

Woot

Looks like ballgame.

Dat does it

Congrats to MSU. That wasn't even a nice game by you guys and you beat us. Good luck going on :)

SI

The trip was caused by the MSU player.. nobody trips over their own feet like that. His leg got hit on the way back, thus causing his leg to move far enough over to hit his other leg. SOMETHING has to be called, unfortunately.

Good game Spartans. Should be a fun one Sunday for them.

Great game by Kansas.

That should be that

heh - KU just really didn't close that game out at all

Shitty game by my Spartans, but a win is a win.

Congrats to the Jayhawks for playing a very good game.

Elmore is an ACC guy. He was an all american at Maryland in the early 70s and does a lot of ACC games for the Raycom network. I have the UNC game here and didn't have the sound on for MSU/KU most of the time but what I did hear, it sounded like Gus was throwing him off a bit.

Yeah- that's the thing. You guys were clearly not on your game and still beat us. Very nice. I still think Louisville will win it all but you should be able to give them a good game and I wouldn't be shocked if you won.

SI

What is Hansbrough still doing in the game?

Also, with that silly little non-foul and then the chippy little foul on Collins- I wouldn't have wanted to win that way.

SI

I don't know what it sounded like. I watched it on my comp with the sound off, and swore a lot. Luckily, my wife and daughter are at "Escape to Witch Mountain", because I would have scarred my kid for life.

What about the lame non-trip that was called for a foul? It all adds out, at least, I think it did tonight.

I'm looking forward to Blake Griffin vs UNC's inside guys. Hansbrough doesn't really do anything but play position defense and fall down a lot, but they can through Thompson, Davis and (gag) Zeller at him too. I really think UNC matches up better with OU than with Syracuse. I'll probably feel more confident Sunday than I did going into tonight... whether that's truly warranted or not we shall see.

That's what I meant. I felt they were trying to keep the game close with the fake non-foul that they honestly had no idea about and then that stupid little foul against Collins (where he bricked the FT anyways) that shouldn't have been called. You guys were getting screwed there in the last minute and I wouldn't want to win that way.

We just ran out of talent this year. When Collins and Aldrich are cold- we don't have enough to make up for it. Next year will be different if everyone comes back :)

SI

Let's all feel good about Mr. Hansbourogh driving to his kid's game for only the 3rd time in his college career. Too bad there wasn't a division I university (That you were a basketball player for!) about 3 hours from your house that you could drive to more often. Oh that's right Mizzou is... Fuck you!

:D

Tyler Hansbrough and the PS3 competing for the excessive love of MBBF would probably be far more than this universe could sustain.

I'm with panerd. I'd rather have had occasional instances of outright hatred for Hansborough than an everyday hatred. Familiarity breeds contempt (unless it's an ACC official being familiar with Hansborough, in which case it's 100% man-love). :D

What's been hilarious to me really is that a couple of my closest friends are huge Missouri fans. They're beaten down and bitter in general after a lifetime of 5th downs and Tyus Edeny's, they hate Roy Williams from his Kansas relations, feel beaten down by Hansbrough's success at UNC(and both claim, possibly quite correctly, that if Quin had not been at Mizzou he would have gone there, so they hate Duke too), and then, this year, Larry Drew II, son of Mizzou great Larry Drew, goes to UNC too.

If I didn't feel sorry for them already because they root for such a cursed program, I really don't know how far I'd go rubbing their noses in it constantly. But honestly, I can't bring myself to do it, I just feel bad for them.

Gonzaga :(


I really thought they had what it took to hang with an elite program. Now it's just a bunch of teams I don't care about playing each other. I may watch the championship game at a bar somewhere, but otherwise, I don't give a shit about any of these eight boring teams left.

You know that cliche of "if X plays their best game, they can beat anyone". Team X is probably UNC this year and that pretty close to their best game, especially in the first half. I mean, how do you beat a team who hits 65% and has 0 turnovers through the first 14 minutes of the game? Gonzaga hung with them for a while but were just outclasses since Carolina brought their A game.

SI

Not at all. Mizzou has already floated a 1.3M-1.4M contract with incentives that would push it to near 2M if he met all incentives. It will be announced shortly after the season is over.

Also, don't forget that Anderson is still one of the top three being considered for the Georgia job. There's not a chance in hell that he'll want that job, but he can still use it as leverage.

FYI in regards to the previous conversation about Mizzou's rebounding. The system that Mizzou runs almost guarantees that they won't have good rebounding numbers because Mizzou always puts up many more shots than their opponent, resulting in many more defensive rebounds for their opponent.

On the other side, Mizzou often forces many more turnovers than the other team. The coaching staff uses a different measurement of efficiency that uses both of those stats. They take the rebounding margin and add it to the turnover margin. Anything that ends up with a net of zero or better is considered very good. So if Mizzou is -6 on rebounding margin but is +8 on turnover margin, the staff is going to be very happy with that.

Another thing fans of other teams notice is that Mizzou gives up more inside shots than most teams. That's going to happen when your defense is pushed out further than most. On the flip side, most fans would be shocked at how many fast break points MU gets after a made basket. Mizzou always has guards releasing and when a guard drives inside and makes a basket, Mizzou is able to outlet quickly and beat them down the floor.

Most Mizzou fans are used to hearing these criticisms of the system by now. After a few years of watching it, you start to see just how well it can work. Conversely, some of the stats it produces appear so foreign to what most teams want. As a result, people assume that it's not working. It's just a whole different system and conventional statistics can't be judged the same way as other teams because it can be a winning system that produces some numbers that don't match the results.

What exactly is so "boring" about the 8 teams left? Probably 8 of the best 10 teams in the nation are left which means this weekends games should be fantastic.

Looking foward to Pitt-'Nova tonight. I do think 'Nova has a chance to upset Pitt, but they need to get Blair in foul trouble, contain Young on the wing, and and protect the ball.

If they can do those three things, we have a shot.

My instincts tell me from watching Mizzou/Kansas that Mizzou struggles against the good shot blocking big men and that Mizzou may struggle against Thabeet in the middle. Is this a fair observation?

I'll come out and admit I was completely wrong in my stating that there would be a good chance that the Big 12 wouldn't send any teams to the Sweet 16. I viewed all of the teams losing to each other the last few weeks of the season in a pessimistic light, and thinking it was a sign of overall conference weakness.

Looks like we had 3 high quality teams this year and A&M, Texas, and Okie State all won their first round games. Sounds like a good showing to me :)

SI

Generally, bigs aren't a problem on their own for Mizzou. MU thrives on trapping at any opportunity possible. I think Mizzou struggles against a team like KU just because they do an excellent job of spacing out, which means that the trap man has to come from a greater distance.

Bill Self not only does a great job of teaching the spacing, but his players also do a great job of actually implementing that spacing. They are well-conditioned too. All the coaches Mizzou plays tell their players to spread out, but not all of them in the up-tempo pace are disciplined enough to do it when they start getting tired. It's even tougher when you only have 24-36 hours to prepare for it.

I like Tyler and I believe if Mike Anderson was the coach at that time, Hansbourogh would have been a Tiger.

At least he went to my 2nd favorite team, UNC.

I'm sure you know already, but that's exactly what would have happened. If Mizzou wouldn't have gone on probation, there's no question Hansborough (sp?) would have been a Tiger.

I've heard that, but I didn't know if that was 100% accurate. Not taking anything away from this years team.. but could you imagine adding Tyler to this lineup? :eek:

How are you feeling today? I'm psyched.. heading over to a friends house to get rowdy. :D

M-I-Z

I think you're definitely right about that. Unfortunately, out of the 1 seeds, I think UNC is also the most likely team to just not play any defense for 40 minutes and allow a team's best player to cruise to 30 points and a victory. If they continue to work hard on defense, I think they're the best team in the nation. But I don't think one can count on that to happen.

Ginyard being out all year has allowed Danny Green to develop into a very nice player, but every loss UNC has had is due to defensive lapses, usually allowing the opponent's best scorer to put up ridiculous numbers. If their shutdown defender is on Tyrese Rice, or Jeff Teague, or Grievis Vasquez, or Toney Douglas, I think they're 35-0 right now and that preseason hype has a legitimate shot at coming true.

Of course, I shouldn't bitch about a 31-4 season, just wishful thinking about how good this team is now with its best defender on the bench all season hurt.

I've decided that I'm just going stop watching all of the talking head "experts". All I've heard all year is "State's not good enough", "State's fragile", "State won't win the Big Ten", State won't get out of the first round", "State won't beat *fill-in-the-blank*". Now apparently MSU has zero chance of beating Louisville.

All the Spartans do is win. I'm not usually one for the whole "no respect" thing, but in this case, I don't think anyone can argue that it's true.

Good luck to the Cardinals, but I think this team is determined enough to beat them.

As a Mizzou fan, welcome to the club.

Well put me in the Mizzou bandwagon for one game atleast.

LETS GO MIZZOU

not as great start for Mizzou to say the least

UConn has some elite players in Thabeet and Price (plus Adrian is damn good, too). Should be interesting.

amazing job by Mizzou to get back into it

Don't tell MBBF but this Mizzou team is pretty easy to get behind.

True. I find myself rooting for them as the game goes on as I love their play style.

Screw it all, I'm rooting for Mizzou.

I can't believe all these people who are going to the dark side...Darth MBBF has fooled you all!

GO GO GO MIZZOU!

Missouri really should be leading here, just so many good looks that are rimming out.

I'm starting to get that sinking feeling in my gut about the outcome of this one, but it's all good.

I wasn't expecting a win against UConn. Fervently hoping for, yes, but if their last win of the year was that game against Memphis, it's a good high note to go out on.

That was a big 4 point stretch there for mizzou. All they need is 1 or 2 three pointers to fall :(

What is wrong with the picture on the front page of ESPN?

haha that's a nice empty stadium behind them.

How many times are they going to say that one UConn player is "from the Bronx"? What's so interesting about that?

only tough people survive the bronx man

Like Jo from "The Facts of Life". She was hardcore.

grats uconn, great season for mizzou, the future is definitely bright there. Its frustrating that Mizzou had so many open shots just rim out, I don't want to say "they should have won" but they were right there and easily could have won.

There does seem to be very little love from the media/announcers for the Spartans. Hopefully Izzo's team shoves it down their piehole.

So far in the tourney they have looked sloppy, I think the team is still young and needs to find its rhythm, especially on offense. They seem in the general offense to be nervous, then a timeout gets called, Izzo draws up something, and they put together a nice play.

The good thing is I think the games have been getting progressively harder, so I'm hoping these kids got enough sense beat into them by the time they hit Louisville that they clean up their errors (particularly stupid turnovers from sloppy passing).

Also Suton has earned my respect these last two games. He's scratching out stuff from no where and working his ass off, standing out through hustle even if he is not a famous name. I always root for those sort of players.

Kansas would have probably won the game given how sloppy we were out of the gate, if they had more than Collins/Aldrich to work with. Spartans are as good as any team at focusing and shutting out team's key players at crunch time, but I see plenty of depth in the remaining games so we can't come out sloppy.

I really thought Mizzou had worn out UConn at about the 11 minute mark- they were dragging like crazy and the game was tied or maybe a 2-point game. But somewhere between there and about the 5 minute mark, the Huskies got their legs back and then some- Thabeet came back in and there were some tv timeouts- and they just outhustled Mizzou the rest of the game. Mizzou was cold from the field most of the game- did they even shoot 40%- but it was still close.

SI

I feel like Nova is outplaying Pitt for the most part, so it going in down 2 is a bit of a downer. Nova has played well on defense for the most part, but their offensive efficiency is way down from Duke/UCLA(no suprise). I think they are going to have a hard time getting this game accelerated (Fields is too experienced to let the force Pitt into a quick game). I think that bodes for a close game late, where either team can win it.

I thought that Dixon did a nice job changing defenses, if only for a couple of possessions, when Nova was rolling early on and up ten.

It is really fun watching Blair rebound - it just seems like the ball is drawn to his hands.

Traveling is just not called anymore is it?

Keep feeding it to Blair. He's not going to miss.

I don't know who to root for.

Big spot here for Nova. One thing which I think bodes well is the foul line seems to be a mystery to Pitt. I think that could come back to bite them down the stretch.

Blair is a gorilla out there.

This tourney, I've really noticed that a third step is ok now. It's sad

SI

Looking at NBA draft.net, I don't get why Blair isn't rated higher. Maybe it's just not up to date, but considering how bad this draft is, teams could do a lot worse than a good defender, good board guy who already has NBA size.

SI

He's only 6 7'

Wow, what a dumb foul.