U MAD? (Shoutout the homie Matt T.)First your heart broke. Then your sensibilities took a plunge. Now too so is your bracket. While dreaming with a broken spirit began the slow process of becoming a palpable numbness, the NCAA Tournament went ahead expanding along with the universe slowly but surely into madness previously unregistered, even during this time of year.
The previous highest average seeded Final Fours both came in the very recent modern era. 2000 garnered the mark until yesterday averaging a 5.5 amongst 8th seeded North Carolina and Wisconsin, 5th seeded Florida, and ultimate national champion, the lone one seeded Michigan State Spartans. Given the sheer volume of Final Fours, still sort of bizarre to think that remains Tom Izzo's lone title team, no?
2006, the second most unexpected Final Four based on seeding, usually is thought of as the standard bearer for a variety of reasons. Most notably super outlier 11th seeded George Mason's then unheralded run set the tone for a highly unexpected last four. Joining them were 4th seeded LSU, two seed UCLA, and 3 seeded and ultimate national champions, Florida.
So what makes 2011 a beast of its design? Well most notably, besides the average 6.5 seed, it's who's occupying those higher seeds upping that number. In both 2000 and 2006, GMU aside, the rest of the field were teams we could envision in our wildest dreams as being in the mix. And while Butler certainly laid their claim to national relevance last season, the very odds of that team given the losses they experienced on and off the court in the last 12 months and their needing to win their conference tournament to even make it in in the first place? And that's saying nothing of First Four poster children VCU and their losing 5 of 6 games transitioning into the NCAAs. Just absolutely unfathomable.
Accordingly, all of your brackets belong to bust. But that's not to say our bracket contest for phenomenal swag is resolved nicely and neatly. Reo Van Gilder's "Reo's Brackets" is our current clubhouse leader with 690 points to his name. UConn to the Final Four earned him his place atop the leader board, so we'll tip our hats accordingly. However, in position to win if UConn wins their forthcoming Saturday evening affair with Kentucky? G. Katernick and his bracket "Katernick2". But if UConn goes one step further and defeats the winner of VCU-Butler? Mike Thomas and his "mikethomascnu45 1" entry would take the honors. Make fun of him now for picking someone other than Ohio State before he looks way smarter than all of us in about a week.
Hope your Monday is going splendily by the way. In the interest of full disclosure, our Block O bullet points this morning are brought to you by indie/hip-hop act Das Racist front man Himanshu Suri. Heems, as he's known, once was put into twitterjail for unloading over some 200 shoutouts in just under 120 minutes. While this will be considerably less from a sheer volume stand point, sometimes it's good to just pay homage to those deserving it, you know?
Shoutout Waka Shake Flame For Going Hard In The Paint. There may be no (realistically hirable) hotter coach in America than Virginia Commonwealth's Shaka Smart. Besides being the sort of interview that will be an absolute slam dunk to get absolutely any job he wants in the next 1-2 years, he's backing up the wit and candor by putting on a run for the ages. Despite having to play an extra game the Patriots of George Mason couldn't have envisioned even existing a half decade ago, Smart's Rams have not on only won all 5 of their games to this point, they've won four of them by DOUBLE DIGITS. That includes yesterday's beat down of heavily favored Kansas to go along with their previous scalps from somewhat dark horses Purdue and Georgetown. Only Florida State has seemed remotely able to run with the Rams, but despite taking them to overtime, they weren't able to seal the deal nor even so much as slow them down for their next game. In a brief aside, we can pretty much junk the fatigue meme at this point, right? UConn's five days in five games in the Big East tournament hasn't appeared to even remotely hamper them. In fact, the only team I've seen look tired all this post-season in a meaningful way was BYU in their Sweet 16 matchup with Florida once they hit the overtime. Conditioning is a weird thing, no?
Back on track, Smart's earning himself more zeros with each extra game he coaches. While the likes of Oklahoma and NC State are likely dying for a shot to even have him take their calls at this point, he can prove his wits about him (did you think I was going to say show his smarts? C'mon) by holding out for an opportunity more befitting of a rising coaching star of his caliber. Even if the Rams miss the NCAAs next year, having this on his resume and being the kind of coach that he is, he'll get that chance yet. In addition to their play on the court, VCU has shown that the so-called "have nots" certainly don't translate to the motivational front either.
Shoutout Brad Stevens For Doing The Damn Thing As Well (Despite Lacking An Easily Hip-Hop Referenceable Nickname) As bright as Shaka Smart's star is shining right about now, it pales in comparison to supernova coaching force Brad Stevens and his Butler Bulldogs. I'm not sure even the most ardent true believing Kerouacs of the Other 25 would've dare sold you on Butler's realistic chances to make the Sweet 16, much less an unheard of second consecutive Final Four. Yet here we are. And with Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard playing the kind of ball that they are, this team may just push beyond the near miss miracle as time expired against Duke a year ago and write the script for some kind of basketball drama Disney wouldn't even touch. I won't waste any more of your time mincing words and waxing awestruck, however, and instead dish the rock to another Luke to let him explain how arrived at this crazy collision course in the first place:
But Stevens and his assistants had done some shrewd things with the game plan. He studied Florida’s kenpom.com numbers and because they were a top-25 offensive rebounding team, put an emphasis on keeping their big men sealed off the glass. The Gators finished with only eight offensive boards (and a 25.0 OReb%) while Butler had 16 (and a 37.8 OReb%). He and assistant Micah Shrewsberry, who handled the scout of Florida, studied their abundant ball-screening actions and decided that while they’d hedge on Boynton and Chandler Parsons when dribbling off screens, they would trap point guard Erving Walker in order to prevent him splitting defenders. Walker was repeatedly forced to give up the ball, and when he did take shots, they were challenged; he went just 1-of-10 from the field, and 1-of-7 from long range, and finished with eight points.
The low moment of the Bulldogs’ season had come on Feb. 3, when they lost their third Horizon League game in a row, to Youngstown State, a team that would finish 9-21. Stevens stood up in front of the locker room there and told his players the same thing he’d said after the previous two losses: “I’ve got to get better.” Reserve senior guard Zach Hahn sensed this was not enough and stood up and said, with passion, “No, we’ve got to get better.”
His teammates began to follow suit, one by one, making their vows. They had to change then or their season would fall apart. They had to start playing like their old selves, or perhaps beyond their old selves, because this was not the same team as in 2010. They have no NBA Lottery Pick, like Gordon Hayward, and no versatile glue guy, like Willie Veasley. They rallied to go on a 12-game winning streak to reach the Elite Eight against Florida."
I can't think of a more improbable run by really just about anyone in my lifetime. With no real horse in the fight but "not Kentucky", here's hoping that 12-game winning streak ends the year as a 14 game one.
Shoutout Beatwriters For Firing Shots. To cleanse your palet and prepare you for the second course (spring football, duh), I present you, without context, one beat writer addressing another:
To be fair to both, Haney, a South Carolina scribe, had been called an unprofessional moron who (falsely I might add) failed to perform his due diligence in revealing that Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier had a police chief cuff him to demonstrate to his players that being put in handcuffs isn't the same as being arrested, and in certain circumstances, not a big deal. This after the misidentification of South Carolina freshman star Jadeveon Clowney who was briefly detained by police for being thought to be someone else last week. Fellow excellent writer Wes Rucker felt like busting his friend's chops (and was unquestionably also feeling the burn of a beat 48 hours from hiring little heralded though high ceiling Cuonzo Martin as the school he covers' new head basketball coach).
None the less, I suspect we're all ready for controversy of varying degrees to make its way out of lives and more football to makes it way back in.
Gallimaufry. Single ladies? This is how you can make a difference in Japan. Sandra Lee gets Crunk with a capital C. Pretty sure I operate like this constantly. More like Flo Chart Rida, amirite? If you know what's good for, purchase this finely made Ohio State All-Americans t-shirt. All the *desired sex of attraction* will love you.
