Saturday, March 29, 2014

3/29 Elite Eight Quickie

*This Kentucky team reminds me of the 1992 Michigan team where the "Fab Five" earned a 6-seed and zipped all the way to the title game. UK now claims the top TWO best games of the tournament.

*I clearly should have picked my Elite Eight by including the two teams that beat Florida this season (Wisconsin, UConn) and the one that came closest (Kentucky in SEC tourney title game).

*So Mike Trout will be entering free agency at age 29? His deal will make Miguel Cabrera's look modest. Unlike Cabrera, he'll still be worth it.

-- D.S.

Monday, March 24, 2014

3/24 Sweet 16 Quickie

*"The Best Round of 32 Game Ever" -- college basketball immortality, frankly -- was worth the (presumably) premature dispatch of Wichita State, against (a clearly underseeded) Kentucky.

*I celebrate the outcome: I am mostly a "process over outcome" person, but in this exceptional case: If Wichita State was going to get bounced in the Round of 32, isn't it amazing that they did it in an insanely hard-fought game against an insanely talented team that finally put it all together?

*Compare that to the brutal ending for Creighton, which was never in their game and got annihilated by 30. For all of Doug McDermott's brilliance, it makes the ending all the more ignominious.

*Stanford's upset was remarkable: They made zero 3s and played with no true point guard. In that case, YOUR team (in the Tournament or not) has no excuse not to make it to the Sweet 16.

*Let's reset for the Sweet 16:

- Louisville vs. Kentucky is great but UL will throttle UK.

- The best match-up is Dayton-Stanford. One of these teams will be one win from the Final Four.

- The most dangerous team is Tennessee; it's an open question whether four days off is going to cool them off.

- Things are lining up for a Final Four of Florida, Michigan State, Arizona and Louisville -- just like... well, most of the country predicted.

-- D.S.