Some Afternoon NCAA Thoughts

Three games are in the books and all came down to the wire. Notre Dame finished the regular season with a flurry to gain an absurd six seed, but promptly gave it away as they fell to Old Dominion 51-50. Florida had two chances to win at the buzzer, but could not convert and exited with a 99-92 loss to BYU in double overtime. And Jay Wright’s boys just completed their second strait opening round scare as they finally put away Robert Morris 73-70 in overtime. Here are some quick thoughts after watching these games:

-Is calling a set play at the end of games against the rules? Today’s games featured some of the worst end of game execution I can remember. Florida, in particular, ran two of the worst sets I have ever seen.

The first resulted in a Chandler Parsons fade-away, which is obviously the shot you want in that situation. The second apparently called for Kenny Boynton to dribble without purpose and launch a two handed heave from thirty feet. Remember, they came out of a timeout to run that…amazing.

-How did Billy Donovan win back to back national titles? I never thought it was possible to fluke back to back titles, but he may have just done that.

-We are sad to see the career end of Pinkie favorite Luke Harangody, or as we call him, Norm (as in Norm Peterson from Cheers). He didn’t have a stellar day, only 4 points and 7 rebounds, but look on the bright side Luke, you can now look forward to sitting at a bar, drinking beer all day at a bar in Boston with Cliff Clavin. I’m actually envious.

-I’m 3-3 so far in my main brackets. Absolutely no chance that holds.

-Robert Morris put up a great fight against my boy Jay Wright. Unfortunately, you cannot put ‘Nova on the line or they will kill you. Scottie Reynolds is a prime example, he went 2-15 from the floor, but hit 15-16 from the line to keep his squad in the tournament.

-There is no better announcing duo during the NCAA Tournament than Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. Between Verne mispronouncing players’ names and Bill yelling out ‘Onions!’ after a crucial shot, it doesn’t get any better. During the ‘Nova-Robert Morris game, Verne and Bill had this exchange:

Verne: Robert Morris was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence
Bill: You knew him didn’t you Verne?
Verne: Yeah, but I called him Bob

-I cannot wait to hear Gus Johnson scream.

That’s it for now, we’ll have some more ponderances as more games conclude.