Day: March 25, 2022

The 15th-seeded St Peter’s Peacocks, aka the Jersey City Double Dicks, continued to lift themselves out of the Chasm of Obscurity with yet another spectacular upset, this time over 3rd-seeded Purdue. The ‘Cocks were out-rebounded by a mile (37-26) and out-shot (43% to 39%), but that didn’t seem to matter, as they became the first #15 seed ever to make the Elite Eight. (And no 13s or`14s have done it!) Their next game will be against North Carolina, and they have a good chance there because they have already beaten better teams to get this far. Can they make the final four? Is there any sports fan in America not rooting for them?

Their victory was a tribute to sound fundamentals. The Peters pulled off 9 steals, forcing fifteen Purdue turnovers while making only eight, but more important than that, they went to the line 21 times and made 19 of them. If their free throw percentage had been a respectable 70%, they’d have lost, but it was 90%. Practice your free throws, kids. They win games.

#1 Kansas won, but you have to give the kids from Providence credit. They were just frightful at the start of the game. They missed their first eight jumpers, and by the time ten minutes had elapsed, they had not scored from any spot out of reach of the rim. They fell behind 22-10 in the early going, and only scored a pathetic 17 points in the first half. They could have been demoralized by that, but they really took it to Kansas in the second half, and at one point they actually held a 48-47 lead. I was rooting for them to hold on, but, well, Kansas didn’t get that #1 seed out of charity, so the Jayhawks eventually got their tempo back and won. Give Providence a gold star for recovering from that 17-point first half with 44 in the second.

This game was once again a demonstration of poor shooting, as so many have been in this tournament. Providence shot 34% from the field, 17% from three-point range, and got 11 of their shots blocked. Kansas was about the same, even worse from beyond the arc (39%-13%). The two teams combined for 6-for-38 on three pointers, as they competed for the Iverson award.

I turned off the North Carolina game when they were down 56-51 and playing like slugs. I was thinking “I wish I hadn’t predicted their victory,” and regretting all the nice things I said about them. Then I checked the internet to get the final score. WTF? I can only guess that the UCLA players never came out for the last quarter and decided to hit the clubs before they closed. UNC moves on to play the Double Dicks on CBS Sunday afternoon.

Carolina’s Armando Bacot looks like the Rodman of the future. The stats don’t indicate that he got every rebound in the game, but it surely seemed that way.

Miami played their usual good basketball, which they have to do because they’re not going to overpower anyone by playing four guards and a forward. Despite their lack of muscle inside, it’s difficult to believe they were a 10th seed. They are just plain good. As always, they passed to the open man, took smart shots, pressed hard on defense, forced turnovers, made no dumb fouls. Iowa State was awarded only four foul shots in the entire game, making just two, and Miami pulled that off despite the fact that they are constantly harassing on defense. They’ll take it from you slicker than a pickpocket in the Paris Metro.

On the other hand they have the second-worst uniforms in major college hoops.  (Oregon still has to take the top prize.) Why are the Hurricanes playing in their underwear?

If you look at their stats every game, they almost always make fewer fouls than their opponents, force more turnovers, make more steals, make more assists, and almost always shoot for a higher percentage. Jim Larrañaga gets my vote for coach of the year. (Remember when he took the George Mason Mints to the Final Four?) As impressed as I am with Miami’s coaching and discipline, I don’t think they can keep winning. They just get killed on the boards in every game. But I’ll be pulling for those scrappy, undershirt-wearin’ mofos.

Unless they end up against the Double Dicks, of course.

As I noted last week, Jeff Sagarin’s computer system certainly had Houston nailed. His ratings indicated that they were one of the top five teams in the nation, and were therefore radically underrated as a #5 seed. That has been proven. They beat a #4 seed by 15 points, and followed that up by beating a #1 seed by 12. They held Arizona to 33% from the field. End of story.

Arkansas also proved to be a real powerhouse. During the regular season they beat a team (Auburn) that was rated first in the nation at the time. They did it again Thursday with a victory over Gonzaga, which was not just a #1 seed in the tournament, but was also the #1 team in the country. Thursday’s game was almost dead even except for the turnover comparison: fifteen for the Zags, only eight for Arkansas.

Statistical oddity: According to Sagarin’s rankings, LSU was one of the top 25 teams in the country this year, and Arkansas beat them three times!

Duke and Texas Tech see-sawed throughout the game, which Duke finally won with a last-minute switch-up to man-to-man D, coupled with some excellent sharpshooting. They shot 88% from the stripe and 52% from the field, including their last eight in a row. Tech was the one team so far that least deserved to lose, but hey, only one team can win per game. Coach K goes to the elite eight for the umpteenth time. (He has reached the Sweet 16 on 25 occasions, six more than any other coach in NCAA history. He has advanced to the Elite Eight 16 times, the Final Four 12 times, and has won it all 5 times.) The entire college game will seem to have a missing piece when he retires after this tournament. There must have been a time before he was a coach, but I can’t remember it. In fact nobody can, except those Miami players who are in their 53rd year of college.

11th-seeded Michigan gave it the ol’ college try, but their long-shot did not come through. Villanova advances.