Four Elite 8 games over the next two days and baseball’s Opening Day the day after that.\u00a0 I’m relaxing on Spring Break and ready to watch it all, so I’ll be dropping in periodically over the next 55 hours or so (up through the Phils-Braves game) with some thoughts.<\/p>\n
SATURDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n 4:32: <\/strong>Syracuse and Marquette to kick things off from our nation’s capital.\u00a0 This tournament started off in embarrassing fashion for the soon-to-be-dead Big East.\u00a0 Georgetown beat by FGCU, Notre Dame blown out by Iowa St., Pitt blown out by Wichita St.\u00a0 But here we are with three Big East teams in the final eight.<\/p>\n Funny though, because all three of the teams will be in separate conferences next season (Louisville will remain in the “old” Big East for one year before joining Cuse in the ACC).<\/p>\n 4:40: <\/strong>Interesting (to me, at least) that Syracuse was a five-point favorite coming into this game.\u00a0 Marquette finished three games ahead of them in the Big East, beat them (in a close game at Marquette) in late February, and is obviously playing well at the moment.\u00a0 I know Syracuse has been more impressive in the tournament so far, and advanced to the Big East tourney title game, but I don’t see why they should be more than a two-point favorite.\u00a0 Smart money is grabbing those five points, I’d say.<\/p>\n 5:02: <\/strong>Brandon Triche is similar to Khalif Wyatt.\u00a0 For a high-level, DI guard, he has almost no quickness or burst, but he knows how to use his body, how to find seems, and can make an open three.\u00a0 We’ve seen a bunch of games in this tournament where one team just can’t score in the 1st half and posts 15 or 17 points.\u00a0 Marquette looks headed for that.\u00a0 They obviously have seen this zone before, but the Orange are playing it perfectly so far.<\/p>\n 5:13: <\/strong>When facing Cuse’s 2-3 zone, it’s so important to have a big guy that can camp out at the free throw line, catch it in the middle of the zone, and then make an entry pass or knock down a jump shot.\u00a0 It looks like Davante Gardner might be able to fill that role.\u00a0 If nothing else, his two jump shots and an assist will force Cuse to collapse in on that gap and leave them exposed in other places.\u00a0 Great development for the Eagles.<\/p>\n 5:14: <\/strong>And just as I post that, he makes another and Mr. Verne Lundquist points out that he was 7-7 when they beat Cuse in February.\u00a0 The Orange better find an answer. 21-18 Syracuse.<\/p>\n 5:54: <\/strong>Some coaching questions for both of these programs going forward.\u00a0 How much longer will Boeheim coach?\u00a0 His longtime top assistant, Mike Hopkins, is said to be a top candidate for USC.\u00a0 Will he stick around to be Boeheim’s successor?\u00a0 For Marquette, Buzz Williams is becoming one of the most respected young coaches in the game.\u00a0 He’s only 40.\u00a0 It seems like he’s there for now, but the Texas native could maybe be tempted if Rick Barnes ever exits from UT.\u00a0 Other jobs in that area, like Baylor, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma St., could also appeal to him down the road.<\/p>\n 6:16: <\/strong>8 minutes left, Marquette down 11.\u00a0 If they don’t make a little run very soon, they’ll be entering “need a miracle” territory.\u00a0 Cuse has really been in control this whole game, but so was Kansas last night, and they went home.\u00a0 Let’s see if Carter-Williams can keep everything under control and take his team to the Final 4.<\/p>\n 6:39: <\/strong>Can’t say I root for Syracuse, but regardless, they’re back in the Final Four for the 9th time, and final time as a Big East member.\u00a0 If they win it all, does Boeheim hang it up?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 Another strong year from Marquette.<\/p>\n 7:10: <\/strong>Wichita St. and Ohio St. up next, playing in LA.\u00a0 I may have missed a lot of predictions for Conference Players of the Year at the beginning of this month, but I did say this when talking about the MVC and Wichita St.: “They have two forwards, Cleanthony Early and Carl Hall, who\u2019s names you just may hear in March.”\u00a0 And here they are in the Elite 8.\u00a0 It’s a cliche to say it at this point, but Wichita may be in\u00a0 a “mid-major” but they have major conference talent, for sure.\u00a0 Ohio St. is and should be the favorite, but this is either team’s game to win.<\/p>\n 7:22: <\/strong>Deshaun Thomas has been the ONLY reliable scorer for Ohio St. this whole year.\u00a0 If you’re going to have only one guy that can put it in the bucket, he’s definitely one of the best to have.\u00a0 He can score in every way possible.\u00a0 He’s off to an 0-5 start, but with two other threes hit, the Buckeyes are only down 1.\u00a0 Also, LaQuinton Ross has emerged as that second scoring option in this tournament.\u00a0 He comes off the bench, so we’ll see if he still has the hot hand.<\/p>\n 7:39: <\/strong>Thinking back to that Syracuse game, you can see some parallels to their championship team of ten years ago.\u00a0 They’ve had some years since then where they were ranked #1 in the country and a couple where they were a #1 seed, but didn’t make it past the Sweet 16.\u00a0 In ’03 they were a 3-seed, this year a 4-seed.\u00a0 They really outclassed a very good Marquette team today, and maybe they’ll pull it off again ten years later.\u00a0 I can’t compare Carmelo to Carter-Williams, but he is the best player on the team, and a guy that was buried on their bench for most of last year, so it’s really his first year getting any minutes for them, just as it was Carmelo’s first year.\u00a0 Ok, maybe reaching a bit there.\u00a0 Give me a break, it’s a live blog.<\/p>\n 7:43: <\/strong>Headline writers everywhere get excited as the Shockers go up by 10 after back-to-back threes.\u00a0 This just looks like the team we’ve been watching all tournament.\u00a0 Ohio St. has veteran leadership with Thomas and Aaron Craft.\u00a0 This hole won’t faze them, but it’s obviously a great start for Wichita.<\/p>\n 8:11: <\/strong>All credit to Wichita, but yet another game where we see a team that just can’t score.\u00a0 Thomas is 4-13, Craft is 1-6, Ross is 1-5.\u00a0 Ugly half for the Buckeyes.<\/p>\n 8:52: <\/strong>Domination by the Shockers!\u00a0 Not the best day of ball, it appears.<\/p>\n 9:16: <\/strong>Deshaun Thomas: “It’s not over yet!”\u00a0 WSU by 10 with 4 to play, but will the pressure of the big stage and the bright lights of Hollywood get to the Shockers here?\u00a0 And, even if it does, can the Buckeyes just get the ball in the hoop enough times for it to matter?<\/p>\n 9:29: <\/strong>What a great comeback by OSU.\u00a0 Still down 4, but impressive even if they fall short.\u00a0 What a clutch three hit by Cotton of WSU just now.<\/p>\n 9:50: <\/strong>The Cinderella baton has been passed from FGCU to Wichita St.\u00a0 Impressive run by them.\u00a0 Let the speculation of Greg Marshall’s coaching future begin.\u00a0 Deshaun Thomas is probably off to the League, and Craft will be back for one more go ’round in Columbus.\u00a0 Back tomorrow for the next two games!<\/p>\n SUNDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n 2:05: <\/strong>Louisville-Duke is clearly THE game of the day, but this Florida-Michigan game is pretty awesome, as well.\u00a0 Yes, L’ville-Duke is a 1 seed vs. 2 seed (vs. a 3-4 in the other game), it has the favorite and one of the teams in the small pack of accepted contenders (while very few have picked Florida or Michigan to win it all), and it has two sure-fire Hall of Fame coaches squaring off in the tourney for the first time since the Laettner Shot of ’92.<\/p>\n But Michigan was also ranked #1 at one point this year, and they have a leading candidate for National Player of the Year, in PG Trey Burke.\u00a0 Meanwhile, many computer efficiency metrics have had Florida as the CLEAR top team in the country for virtually the entire season.\u00a0 It should shock no one to see either of these teams cut down the nets in Atlanta next week.<\/p>\n The game is a classic contrast of styles, but not what you may think for a Big Ten vs. SEC matchup.\u00a0 The Big Ten team is actually the one loaded with athletes that want to get up and down the court.\u00a0 The SEC team wants to force the Wolverines to execute in the halfcourt and keep the tempo slow.\u00a0 It’s a very young Michigan team vs. a veteran Florida team.\u00a0 Should be a good one.<\/p>\n 2:42: <\/strong>Stop me if you’ve heard this before: one team just cannot score here, as Florida has all of 5 points nearly a quarter of the way into the game.\u00a0 It doesn’t much matter if you’re controlling tempo if you can’t make a shot.<\/p>\n 3:21: <\/strong>In the month of December, Nik Stauskas was making close to 4 3’s a game, and shooting over 50% on those attempts.\u00a0 And nobody beat them.\u00a0 He hasn’t been quite the same since, making a total of three 3’s in the first three games of this tournament.\u00a0 He’s 5-5 from there in the 1st half, has 19 points, and that’s obviously a huge reason why the Wolverines just put 47 points in the first half against one of the best defensive teams in the country.<\/p>\n 3:58: <\/strong>Florida was keeping themselves within striking distance, but that burst by Michigan to go back up by 20 with 10 minutes to play has pretty much put this one to bed.\u00a0 The Wolverines have had all the answers in this one.<\/p>\n 4:04: <\/strong>Michigan’s two leading scorers (Burke and Hardaway) are combined 8-28 from the field, and they lead Florida by 19 with 6 minutes left.\u00a0 That’s pretty scary.<\/p>\n 4:22: <\/strong>Well, in my bracket pool, 15 of the 16 entries are now 0-3 on Final 4 picks.\u00a0 One person had Michigan.<\/p>\n 4:40: <\/strong>No live blogging for the Duke game.\u00a0 As it may be the last Duke game where I live in here in Durham, I’m heading out into the world to see the game at a local establishment.<\/p>\n MONDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n 8:52 AM: <\/strong>Opening Day!\u00a0 Well, sort of.\u00a0 For some reason, MLB decided to kick off the season last night with a game in Houston?\u00a0 Was that something the Astros demanded before agreeing to go to the AL?\u00a0 Anyway, in a classic show of the old phrase “hope springs eternal” (see #11 in MLB preview below), the Astros, a team that many are predicting will be one of the worst in baseball history, soundly beat a good Rangers team in the first game of the 2013 season.<\/p>\n Before we turn our sights to the diamond, some last thoughts on the Elite 8.\u00a0 SI’s Luke Winn wrote a good piece on the Louisville-Duke game<\/a>.\u00a0 The Kevin Ware injury overshadowed another dominant Cardinals performance.\u00a0 They look no less impressive, coming in as the favorite and rolling to the Final 4, than Kentucky did at this point a year ago.<\/p>\n I get that it was cool that Kevin Ware told the team to “go win the game” and, yeah, maybe he would’ve left without saying anything to them, but what was he supposed to say, “Hey guys, I’m hurt so everybody into the locker room, get on the plane, head home, season’s over,” or “You know, finish out the game and everything, but keep in mind that this injury shows that winning isn’t everything so don’t worry about beating Duke, just play pretty hard and don’t hurt yourselves.”<\/p>\n 11:06 AM: <\/strong>For all of you out there overly worried about the Phillies, here’s some interesting things coming in from the today’s lineups that are being released.\u00a0 Vance Worley is the Opening Day starter for the Twins.\u00a0 Nate Schierholtz is batting 5th for the Cubs.\u00a0 Ben Francisco is the DH and batting 6th for a little club called the New York Yankees.\u00a0 Things aren’t so bad for us, huh?<\/p>\n 12:59: <\/strong>There may have been a game last night, but the real start of the season has to be a day game, and it’s about to come from Yankee Stadium in a couple minutes.\u00a0 This may be the NEW Yankee Stadium and the Yankees and Red Sox may finish last and second-to-last in their division this year, but I’ve definitely been successfully brainwashed by the East Coast-biased media to think this is game is a big deal.\u00a0 But, my god, it’s shocking how unimpressive both of these lineups are.<\/p>\n 1:14: <\/strong>Victorino vs. Sabathia, and ESPN doesn’t even show the grand slam he hit off him when Sabathia was with the Brewers in the ’08 playoffs.\u00a0 Jerks.\u00a0 Here you go, readers:\u00a0 http:\/\/tandem.wordpress.com\/2008\/10\/03\/video-victorino-hits-grand-slam-off-sabathia-nlds-game-2-10208\/<\/p>\n 1:45: <\/strong>The announcers talked about it a lot, but that was an incredibly impressive walk by Jackie Bradley.\u00a0 As a lefty against Sabathia, to lay off two of those sliders and foul one off with two strikes, in his first ever career at-bat, in Yankee Stadium on Opening Day.\u00a0 Just impressive.\u00a0 And his reputation is a guy with that plate discipline that will hit for a high average.\u00a0 Then Victorino comes up with the bases loaded and they STILL don’t show the highlight of his grand slam in ’08!\u00a0 Ridiculous.<\/p>\n 2:01: <\/strong>Good God.\u00a0 Bryce Harper has 2 home runs in 2 at-bats.<\/p>\n 3:41: <\/strong>Phils lineup for tonight has been announced:\u00a0 Revere 8, Rollins 6, Utley 4, Howard 3, Young 5, Brown 7, Mayberry 9, Kratz 2, Hamels 1 vs. the veteran righty Tim Hudson.\u00a0 Big story is Revere leading off and not Rollins.\u00a0 Not a big surprise, but it wasn’t clear if Rollins would be staying at the top or not.\u00a0 Also, slightly surprising that Mayberry gets the nod in right over Laynce Nix, but also not a big shock.<\/p>\n 7:51: <\/strong>I had to laugh as that Freddie Freeman 2-run homer went over the wall, picturing all the people all over the Delaware Valley that were groaning and saying, “Well, that’s how this season’s gonna go. Time to get rid of everybody.”\u00a0 Can’t wait to move back, haha.<\/p>\n 8:01: <\/strong>Saw Ben Revere a couple times this spring, and he had a lot of base knocks and a lot of stolen bases.\u00a0 As the numbers suggest, he really is a young Juan Pierre offensively.\u00a0 Haven’t seen him flash the leather much yet, but apparently that’s in his arsenal, as well.<\/p>\n 8:12: <\/strong>Cole just doesn’t have his command tonight.\u00a0 Not a big deal.\u00a0 He’ll have 30-some more starts and there’s no reason to worry about him.\u00a0 The Braves have even missed a couple mistake pitches.<\/p>\n 8:28: <\/strong>Obviously, great to see Utley smack a high fastball over the wall in dead center.\u00a0 Target stats for him this year should be clearing 20 homers and a .370 OBP.\u00a0 That’s what we need if he’s gonna stay in the 3-hole.<\/p>\n 8:50: <\/strong>Alright, alright.\u00a0 A lot of nice things here in this inning.\u00a0 Revere works an 11-pitch walk, J-Roll rips a nice single, Utley delivers the big 2-run hit, J-Roll with the nice baserunning, getting to third on the play.\u00a0 Utley seems to be seeing the ball well.\u00a0 Now the Big Piece gets his first lefty of the year.<\/p>\n 10:15: <\/strong>A lot of positive things from the offense in this one.\u00a0 Hamels had an off-game and Chad Durbin struggled in his return to the team.\u00a0 Game 1 in the books, 161 to go.\u00a0 Baseball is back, spring is here, and this 2.5 day live blog is complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four Elite 8 games over the next two days and baseball’s Opening Day the day after that.\u00a0 I’m relaxing on Spring Break and ready to watch it all, so I’ll be dropping in periodically over the next 55 hours or … Continue reading