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| IOWA STATE SR. G/F DEONTE BURTON, THE TOUGHEST MATCHUP IN THE MADNESS (Photo Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports via sbnation.com) |
Most people Board Room A on the 33rd
Floor of the Insanity Towers agreed that this year’s crop of Madness teams
dropped down a level as a whole overall that would add to parity in the
Madness. This was apparent as Paulsen pointed out that the 16 seeds really made
the 1 seeds earn their wins today. There were no easy games for any team today!
No real Madness moments today but solid
games. And this bodes well for the Non-Madness of today to balance out tomorrow
for some big madness moments!
The morning games were highlighted with
Gonzaga’s opening round game vs. the upstart South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
Gonzaga were tight for 2/3rds of the game settling for quick treys. They shot
three times more treys than they usually do instead playing their typical offense
with good ball movement into the paint. A lot of their main players were
playing their first Madness game, so the nerves were showing as well as the
elevation affecting them playing in Salt Lake City.
Gonzaga found their stride with ten minutes
left in the game with Sr. C Przemek Karnowski making his shots in the paint and
Jordan Mathew hitting his treys in the second half. Freshman F Zach Collins
sparked the run with his quick feet in the half court and long arms affecting
Jackrabbit jumpers. It’s safe to say that First Team All-Adolph player, Nigel
Williams-Goss played like Nigel Williams-Weak Sauce today, but he’ll rebound on
Saturday vs. upstart Northwestern.
The highlight of the day was the lowlight
of Vanderbilt’s loss to Northwestern. Vandy made a hoop with about 12 seconds
left in the game to go up one and Vanderbilt Jr. Wing Matthew Fisher-Davis
inexplicably fouled the Northwestern player to stop the clock as if they were
down by 1 point. Fisher-Davis’ reaction was pretty nonchalant shrugging his
shoulders saying “my bad”. What the??
J-Dawg said that Chris Webber was forever
left off the hook after that silly play. The thing with the infamous
timeout-technical from Chris Webber was that Webber very frantically called a
timeout that he didn’t have to get the technical foul that clinched the game
and the NCAA title for UNC. That is, he may have caved under the pressure, but at
least Chris Webber was giving a shit!
Hey man, it’s crappy to see Fisher-Davis
and his teammates go through a loss in that manner. But for Fisher-Davis not to
even know the score in a crucial situation and then to shrug it off, shows a
huge lack of hoop IQ and not caring enough! Come on Fisher-Davis!
This is a holier than thou, Monday morning
quarterback statement, but the criticism has to be made on Fisher-Davis. It was
such a dumb dumb move!
For the rest of the games, 14 of the 16 total
games played had the lower seed move on. By the balance of Madness during the 1st
round, one of the two days is packed with upsets. With this many favored seeds
moving on today then expect lotsa upsets tomorrow!!! Whoooo!
Here’s some quick takes:
The good Wisconsin showed up today led by
their big three of Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig and Ethan Happ. Koenig hit some
clutch treys to stop many attempted comebacks by Virginia Tech today. Va. Tech
showed their typical scrappiness today. Buzz Williams is building a great thing
over there. Who knows for how long though with Indiana’s head coach position
opening up today, with the Tom Crean no longer with the Hoosiers.
Florida State won their dunk off vs.
Florida Gulf Coast and showed their huge advantage with their go-go gadget wing
span on the boards.
Maryland didn’t show up vs. Xavier, but if
PG Melo Trimble plays his senior season next year than the Terps will be
goooood, with this years solid freshmen class having a full season under their
belts.
Iowa State looked solid, as did Deonte
Burton who showed his hops and great acceleration. Keep your eye on this guy.
He’s 6-4 and 250 lbs with the quickness of
6-6 slender wing and strength of a 250 pounder! No player can match up
with him.
Middle Tennessee showed some gusto with a
second straight upset as a double digit seed, but they didn’t sneak up on
anybody as they did with their shocking upset of Michigan State last year.
They’re in tough vs. Butler on Saturday who looked solid.today with their win
vs. Winthrop. Well not very solid, as that’s their M.O: not looking solid but
just finding a way.
Northwestern are still wearing their
slippers with the win vs. Vanderbilt. That win was not just due to
Fisher-Davis’ snafu, as PG Bryant McIntosh played great for the Wildcats.
Finally, Arizona looked sharp with all
their studs playing great as they scored over 100 points vs. North Dakota.
Expect Madness tomorrow!
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