Mizzou goes down! Duke goes down! What am I forgetting? Oh yeah, 'Hawks win!
I think that was my favorite 1st Round ever. (Sorry, NCAA, it's the 1st Round, not the 2nd Round. Everybody knows it. Just accept it.)
It didn't occur to me until late last night that Lehigh was the same Patriot League pest that gave us the cold sweats in the 1st Round two years ago. I wonder how many more upsets like this need to happen to Coach K before Kansas stops getting singled out for tourney chokes. (And I also enjoyed seeing Calhoun and co. taking the fall -- all the ESPN pundits kept talking about the "heavyweight" matchup between UConn and Kentucky in the next round, totally ignoring Iowa State, who kicked ass in that game.)
It was a very good round for the Big 12 -- when you factor in the FACT that Mizzou is no longer in the conference. They're done. Good-bye. May their NCAA curse continue for another hundred years.
What am I forgetting? Oh yes, Kansas. The main thing is that Robinson and Withey were bad... ass. We may just have the best front line in the country. Also have to give some love to Elijah, who played like a superstar in the 2nd half, and to the much-maligned (by Deron) bench, which steadied the ship in the 1st half after early backcourt foul trouble.
Good to see us win so convincingly without shooting well from outside. Now we're overdue for a good shooting game, right?
Nobody has anything to say? In March? That's unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteWell, I didn't expect Purdue to be the opponent, but they look to have a similar profile to Saint Mary's in that they don't play much defense. That should... should mean that they can't beat Kansas. Newell at LJ.com is sounding alarm bells pointing out how tough their schedule was, but the thing is they didn't win against that tough schedule. As far as I can tell, their best wins were against Michigan and, well, Saint Mary's.
However, the one thing that does scare me a bit is a comment from Self noting that Purdue plays a motion offense akin to what Knight used to do at Texas Tech. Self's teams often seemed to have trouble getting stops against those Tech teams outside of the Fieldhouse. And Purdue seems to have more talent than those teams did.
Sorry... Franklin's grandparents are in town... should have more to say soon. For now: Rock Chalk!
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