Final Four/Championship Game

I think it's safe to say that the Final Four and the championship game were a huge disappointment, at least from an entertainment perspective. The only drama in the last game was seeing how much UNC would win by.

-Kudos to the Tar Heels for putting the kibosh on a tough Michigan State team. Even though I hate them, especially Tyler "get me some tissues I'm crying again" Hansbrough, I have to admit they deserved it.

Not what I wanted to see...

-Danny Green is one of my most feared players in basketball. If I'm rooting against UNC, every time this guy so much as glances at the rim I get a little hot under the collar. I swear, I've seen him miss maybe 10 threes over the course of his career.

-The Villanova-UNC game brought up a debate I find myself having each time I watch a game where a team that normally makes threes is struggling. If you're Jay Wright,and your team can't make a shot, do you encourage the guys to keep shooting or do you try to figure out something else? There are solid arguments on both sides. On one hand, if you've advanced to the Final Four because of great shooting, it seems antithetical to go away from what has worked in the past. At the same time though, sometimes the shots you normally make just don't fall. I tend to side with the latter argument, depending on the situation. In that particular game, Nova would have given themselves a better chance if they started taking it to the bucket more. Lawson, Hansbrough, and Green were all in foul trouble. There comes a point in the game where you have to say, "We're not making threes. The seasons on the line. Let's try something different."

-Clark Kellog was atrocious throughout the tourney, especially in the Nova/UNC game (I missed the other game due to a tennis match). He seemed to be pulling phrases out of thin air. During one stretch, he referred to Ty Lawson's "rush hour handle." Umm, what? I'm guessing he's talking about the perturbing traffic situation and not the Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker series of films, but no one is sure at this point. During the same stretch, Kellog called Lawson a "high level custodian." I've conducted a number of informal polls and have scoured the internet, and no one has been able to explain to me how being a "high level custodian" is a positive characteristic of a basketball player. Also, in the championship game, he claimed that a player can't back up while boxing out. From my admittedly rudimentary understanding of the concept of boxing out, backing up is the prime component. Granted, my forays into boxing out are few and far between, so I could be dead wrong here.
-Bobby Frasor inexplicably pulled down an absurd amount of offensive rebounds in these two games. Actually, check that it's not inexplicable at all. The teams focus so much on keeping guys like Hansbrough and Deon Thompson that it's easy to forget about the squirrely little white guy.

-Good job by MSU to get to the title game, but what a poor showing in the championship. The Spartans turned the ball over on 21 of 89 possessions and were never in any position to win the game. I can't figure out if they just played that badly or if UNC is just much, much better.

-This year's One Shining Moment was sub-par. They showed the Scotty Reynolds shot against Pitt too early, for one thing. It also seemed like there was an excessive amount of Blake Griffin as well. To be fair, it's tough to work a Final Four that was essentially devoid of drama into a quality One Shining Moment.

Nothing could live up to the greatness of the 2002 One Shining Moment. I don't know why, but I love this one...


-I've had some horrible brackets before, but this year my level of incompetence reached an all time high. I'm in dead last in both of the brackets I had on Facebook, despite picking a completely different Final Four in each one. Ditto for the two brackets I actually put money on. Not one of my better efforts, but I feel confident about next year.

Anyway, I'm taking a break from writing about sports for a while, probably until the NBA playoffs start. Coming soon: a bunch of random shit and possibly a review of Watchmen if I get around to seeing it again. Speaking of film, very excited about Adventureland. I'm not going in hoping for the Citizen Kane of comedies, but for a spring release it looks solid. Ok, bye.