Aimless Thoughts While Waiting For NCAA Bracket

If you've watched any Syracuse games, you've probably heard that Gerry McNamara was recently voted the most overrated player in the Big East by Sports Illustrated (he also was voted the biggest crybaby in the Big East). That led to an obscenity laden tirade by coach Jim Boeheim (must not have asked which coach is the biggest crybaby since nothing says class like dropping the F bomb at a press conference) in which he said Syracuse would not have won 10 games without McNamara (it's tough to find a 36% shooter with a 2-1.1 assist to turnover ratio). I hope the other players thanked Jimmy for his confidence in their abilities. Does this mean that Syracuse fans should get ready for a 10 win season next year? McNamara has played well in the Big East tournament, but his disappearing act in big games during the regular season is one reason Syracuse went in as a bubble team. However, let's look at the poll. To begin with, McNamara actually tied with Rudy Gay as each had 27% of the vote. Who did the voting? One player from each Big East team, but it wasn't 16 voters because the five teams playing their first year in the Big East (Louisville, Marquette, etc) didn't get a vote because of the conference scheduling, they hadn't played every Big East team yet. What that means is the "poll" that got everyone in a tizzy was actually three players saying McNamara was overrated. I can't take a poll seriously that only includes 11 people. It looks even worse when you consider that Uconn was voted the team with the most respect for its coach even though that coach, Jim Calhoun, was voted the coach they would least like to play for.

I like ESPN's Pride of the Program blurbs. However, I don't like it enough to make a point of figuring out when everyone is on. So, it would be nice if they would at least list which moment they used for each program. I understand if they don't want to reveal a particular moment until it airs, but you would think that they could keep a running tally after they show it. Yet, if you go to ESPN's website, you wouldn't even know this programming exists. Plus, I want to know who is picking the moments. I was watching the one on Utah State, and they picked a three overtime loss to UNLV. Sure, Utah State set a record for most points in a loss, but I remember a few years back when 12th seeded Utah State knocked off Ohio State in the NCAA tournament. Do they really think Utah State fans are prouder of a high scoring loss in a regular season game than a big upset in the Big Dance?

I said in a previous post that ESPN should not have let Dick Vitale call Duke games from the moment he admitted to a magazine that Duke is his favorite team. It's one thing for a local basketball broadcast to have a certified homer on it, but ESPN is national and should avoid having an active booster of a school call their game. Especially when his loudmouth act got old years ago. The Duke/Wake Forest semifinal game was the perfect example of just how embarrassed he should be. I had just flipped over to the game just in time to miss the actual play, but hear Vitale declare that the refs made a wonderful call when they ruled a foul intentional. He said that the Wake player never went for the ball. Then, they showed the replay. Yes, a foul occurred because the Wake player did wrap his right arm around the Duke player, but he not only was going for the ball with his left hand, he actually stripped it out. You would think a competent announcer would have backtracked after seeing the replay, but not Dick. He went right ahead with his belief the call was intentional. Even better, he later followed that up with a theory that was ingenious. Wait. That's not the right word. Incredibly stupid fits much better. He addressed the midseason controversy about Duke seemingly getting favorable treatment from game officials and actually had the nerve to declare that the calls go against Duke because they are so good. I guess we shouldn't focus on how the critical calls always seem to go their way in close games, and just be happy that Duke is able to overcome such adversity.

Glad to see Rick Pitino changed his mind about going to the NIT (or had it changed for him). If he has players who are hurt, don't play them. The NIT doesn't mean much in the standings, but for an inexperienced team, it's extra practice time and at least one more competitive game. Pick up some more experience and maybe UL will score more than two points in their first ten minutes of the Big East tournament. Actually, the only reason that I could see why Pitino didn't want to play in the NIT is that it would be his second trip in his five year UL career, and he didn't want it on his resume. UL isn't paying him the big bucks for NITs.

CBS coverage is friggin' joke. At the end of the SEC championship game, they never showed a replay of Florida's Joakim Noah's block with seconds left and South Carolina down two. It looked like there might have been some contact to it (there wasn't), but CBS acted like it never happened. They showed Noah's go-ahead put back, and then showed the Florida bench reaction to it. ESPN was getting ready to show it, but they cut back to the ACC title game (which makes sense), but ESPN2 didn't cover themselves in glory either. They were talking bracketology at the half of the Southland title game, and were still talking about what a possible win by South Carolina would do to selections. Nobody thought to tell them that the game was over five minutes ago? If it was on tape, that was poor decision making, because they had to know that the game was close to ending.