Heading into the Final Four we have a 3 seed, a 4, an 8 and 11. Wow! Who picked VCU, Butler, UConn and Kentucky? I know in my pool we have 3 of 129 with a chance at picking a winner and that is UConn. If Connecticut loses there are 0/129 who would have the winner. Needless to say I am long gone in that pool...and now long out of it from an interest standpoint as well.I hope some of you read my NCAA preview a few weeks back. I called that there would be no 1 or 2 seeds in the Final Four. What can I say....I was due for a correct pick after about a dozen consecutive misses. A couple of things to leave you with relative to this tournament:
Butler may be the best story in NCAA basketball history. Yes, better than the '83 NC State Cinderellas and better than the '85 Villanova story. True that those teams won the title, but the Butler story is ridiculous! I am talking the story combining last year and this year of course...the final game last year, losing a tight one with a 45 foot shot that nearly falls to Duke, and then this year going to the Final Four as an 8 seed. Several pundits say that heading into the last stretch of the year, Butler was firmly on the bubble of getting in at all. They lost Gordon Hayward from last years team to the NBA, certainly a rare feat having a pro from a school the size of Butler (enrollment 4200 and smaller than Ozarks Technical Community College). Their young but cool Coach Brad Stevens may get carded buying lotto tickets, but calmly directed the Bulldogs to wins over the likes of Pitt, Wisconsin and Florida. Butler is from the Horizon League. Not the Big East or any other power conference. I may be crazy but it will be a long time before you see a team the size of Butler ever repeat their success in the NCAA tournament. Take for instance the talent and program like Kansas has. The Jayhawks with all of the advantages cannot get to the final game to the final four in consecutive years. And that leads me to my last thought of the 2011 NCAA Tourney:
Something has to change at the University of Kansas with the hoops program. I like Bill Self, but you simply cannot lose in the tourney to the likes in years past of Bradley, Bucknell, Northern Iowa, and this year Virginia Commonwealth. I know they won it all in 2008, but if you recall that year they almost got beat by Davidson. Speaking of '08....their road to the final four: a 16 seed, an 8, 12 and 10. They hit a shot against a good Memphis team...but my point is, if you are perennial powerhouse....what is the expectation? Is it to win 90 percent of your games and fold in the tourney? If so, let's stay the course. I have to admit that I am glad this year is over. I was embarrassed all year of the Hawks behavior and attitude on the floor. I almost had to dodge all my buddies that are MU and KSU fans because what could I say about the Morris twins and their cheap shots every game? I have to ask why Bill did not address that immediately and correct the behavior? I even recall one instance in a game following the Cal game that it happened, they got a tech, and he didn't even bench the one who threw the blatant elbow! I am done with the Morris twins and this whole outfit....take Tyshawn Taylor too. If it were me, I may be shopping for someone who runs a respectable team and instills courage in his team. It seems to me, when the going gets tough, the Hawks go fishing. Beyond the tournament choke job this year, look at what Coach did with Mario Little. Nothing. Little really contributed nothing. Josh Selby lost all confidence being benched for every turnover. If Self benched people for turnovers, how did Taylor play the minutes he did? You can congratulate VCU and say they played well and shot it lights out...but if we cannot win that game against that opponent??? Speaking of Coaches who run a nice program, who instills courage in his people and perform under pressure....please see previous paragraph. Is Brad Stevens available?
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