Archive: March, 2008
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
On the hardwood, Memphis and Kansas won to complete the first ever Final Four field with all top seeds. Off it, the college basketball landscape arrived at another intersection that it had never before reached.
For as long as I can remember, the Final Four and national championship game have taken place on the same weekend as the beginning of the baseball season. And on the biggest day of all, the first Monday of April would transform itself gradually from the first day of spring sports to the last night of winter sports.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
If anything, UCLA's domination of Xavier was more surprising given the Bruins' early-game struggles the last few games.
What we do know, though, is that the better team won both games. Should that happen again today, we will have the first ever Final Four with all No. 1 seeds. And if it does, we will surely end up with the best Final Four in history.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
K. Love |
33 |
7-11 |
3-4 |
2-4 |
5 |
5 |
10 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
29 |
19 |
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
T. Hansbrough |
38 |
12-17 |
4-5 |
0-0 |
7 |
6 |
13 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
33 |
28 |
For today's video, I've picked three clips: one of UCLA and two of Carolina. In addition to Kevin Love's big game, Bruins forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute also posted a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds. Here's the basket that got him into double digits in scoring, preceded by a pretty passing sequence:
Next we have Hansbrough's follow-up slam that cut off a Louisville run early in the second half. The lead was down to four points when Hansbrough came flying through the lane with authority to put back Danny Green's miss. Watch how far he comes from, and how fast he gets to the basket:
And finally, the game's killer shot. The Tar Heels were up by seven with just under two minutes ago, and after running some clock the ball came to Hansbrough. Just as impressive as the length of the jumper was the dribble fake that preceded it:
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
The only question now is whether Davidson can keep Bill Self's Final Four jinx going on Sunday. You have to think that given how well the Jayhawks did guarding Scottie Reynolds, they should be able to do it to Curry. But who knows.
With that out of the way, here are my top four performances of the night.
4. Derrick Rose, Memphis. Memphis' win over Michigan State was such a demolition that a lot of it seemed to be garbage time. So this spot was almost a tie between Rose and Davidson's Jason Richards, who recorded 11 points and 13 assists in the Wildcats' very impressive win over Wisconsin. I went with Rose in order to give some kind of props to the Tigers' blowout.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D. Rose |
26 |
10-16 |
6-7 |
1-3 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
28 |
27 |
3. Brook Lopez, Stanford. Even though the Cardinal as a whole shot only 33.8 percent from the field, the big man left quite an impression. I've heard talk of him being ready for the NBA, but I really hope he stays on the Farm. Stanford could be among the elit again next year if he stays.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B. Lopez |
33 |
10-22 |
6-6 |
0-0 |
5 |
5 |
10 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
24 |
26 |
2. D.J. Augustin, Texas. The orchestrator of the Longhorns' blowout win. He was one shy of recording half of Texas' total assists tonight.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D.J. Augustin |
37 |
9-17 |
1-2 |
2-4 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
26 |
21 |
1. Stephen Curry, Davidson. Could it be anyone else?
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
S. Curry |
37 |
11-22 |
5-5 |
6-11 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
36 |
33 |
I'll hopefully have some more video in the morning.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Including what you think of this guy:
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
After working four straight days at 6 a.m., I decided to just go to sleep after last night's games ended at 12:30 in the morning.That gives me a lot of ground to cover in this post, so let's get going.
Dick Jerardi was in Charlotte for last night's games. He recaps North Carolina's rout of Washington State and Louisville's chaotic win over Tennessee.
4. James Keefe, UCLA. With Alfred Aboya and Lorenzo Mata-Real limited to a combined two minutes on the floor, the 6-foot-8 sophomore stepped up in a big way. His reward was a career night and the honor of being the biggest reason why the Bruins never lost their lead during Western Kentucky's comeback.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
J. Keefe |
26 |
7-9 |
4-5 |
0-0 |
6 |
6 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
32 |
18 |
3. Tyrone Brazelton, Western Kentucky. Coming into the tournament, the attention on the Hilltoppers focused on guard Courtney Lee. But Lee's backcourt partner stole the show in all three of Western Kentucky's games, and capped it off by almost upsetting UCLA last night.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
T. Brazelton |
34 |
10-21 |
5-7 |
6-10 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
22 |
31 |
2. Earl Clark, Louisville. Much was made of Tennessee's paltry 5-for-20 three-point shooting, but the most important stat might have been the Cardinals' 22-for-36 performance (61.1%) from two-point range. Clark was a big part of that.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E. Clark |
28 |
7-10 |
3-4 |
0-1 |
2 |
10 |
12 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
30 |
17 |
1. Kevin Love, UCLA. If the Bruins beat Xavier and advance to the Final Four, Love will surely have the lead in the race for Most Outstanding Player honors when he arrives in San Antonio.
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
K. Love |
38 |
10-14 |
9-12 |
0-2 |
4 |
10 |
14 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
41 |
29 |
Finally, last night's video highlight. Western Kentucky was charging back with a full head of steam, and had cut UCLA's lead to 63-59 with 5:39 left in the game. But after Keefe hit two free throws, this Josh Shipp three-pointer as the shot clock expired all but snuffed out the Hilltoppers' momentum.
Bonus points given because of how much Shipp struggled in the first two rounds, and for the awkwardness of the shot itself.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
I have a lot of other projects to work on today, so I don't have time to do too much writing.
Rich Hofmann has a column on Corey Fisher, Bob Ford has a column on Dante Cunningham and Philly.com's sports page has a poll on which 12-seed has the better chance of pulling the upset: Western Kentucky or Villanova.
Dick Jerardi puts rumors about Phi Martelli going to Providence to bed. My take is that it would make our lives a lot easier if writers would state that certain coaches would do a good job at a school, instead of listing them as "candidates" when they actually aren't.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
It's the last round of regionalized broadcasts, and the affiliate clearances for Thursday's games have been announced.
The problem is, there are no maps. So the guy behind the curtain at HD Sports Guide created his own. For some reason, there are three tiers: "constant," "primary" and "swing."
Constant means you stay with the game the whole time; primary means you start with it and have free reign to get moved to the better game; swing means you stay with the game unless the other one gets really good or close.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Believe it or not, there are people out there who actually like listening to me talk.
The student radio station at Neumann College in Aston, Pa., invited me onto its sports show to talk about the NCAA Tournament. I'll be on the air at around 7:00 p.m.
You can listen by clicking here.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Word from the Daily News this afternoon that Casiem Drummond has a broken ankle and is done for the year. Wow. We all saw his injury on Sunday, but it didn't look that bad at the time.Also, Inquirer photographer Sarah Glover was on the Main Line this afternoon and put together a video of Jay Wright addressing the media. Check out those glasses.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
I have a craving for scrambled eggs today. It was one of those weekends, no doubt. But since I'm at work, I'll have to settle for a roundup of today's top stories.
Let's start with Villanova, and a gripe I'd like to air. Why exactly do people think this team is a Cinderella? Yes, the Wildcats are a 12-seed, and were more than likely the last team in the field. But they come out of the Big East, which has three teams in this year's Sweet 16 -- tied with the Pac-10 at the top.
If 'Nova got lucky about anything, it was the path they got to Detroit. After rallying against a psychologically shaky Clemson team, the Wildcats got a Siena squad that was clearly out of mojo.
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
