I know that the ven diagram of: 1. people who care about the Mizzou game and 2. people who watched the Mizzou game for themselves is one circle, but I'll give my thoughts on today's contest anyway. It was a bizarre game, in which Mizzou looked as good as I've seen them in the first half, were a total trainwreck in the second, led at one-time by 16 and trailed later by 4, and finally made just enough plays and got just enough breaks to vanquish Marquette, 83-79.
- I think it's cheap to blame referees for the course of basketball games even if it's one of the things KU fans do best. There's little doubt that basketball is far more at the mercy of officials than any other sport and I'll admit as a partisan I didn't agree with today's crew on some calls, including a phantom 'tie up' call when Matt Lawrence had the ball downlow in the second half (a call that was not reciprocated in a similar situation when Marquette had the ball a few minutes later). However, I'll say this much: on the two biggest calls of the game - the Marquette shot-clock violation and the Marquette in-bounds infraction - they called it right the first time, and replay backed them up.
- Hayward stepping over the in-bounds line might have been a ticky-tack call, but it is a rule (and not some obscure, never practiced rule) and frankly it was a dumb, dumb, dumb mistake that killed Marquette's chances.
- Reading the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, some seem to think the game ended "controversially."
Part 1: Take this sentence construction:
"Tiller landed hard and, claiming he'd suffered an injury to what appeared to be his right (shooting) wrist, was removed from the game."
Now, if you read that like me, and any intelligent person, the use of the verb "claim" here seems to imply that whether J.T. Tiller was injured or not came into question. As we know, Kim English came in and hit the two free-throws in Tiller's stead. That was in accordance with the rules. Here's the thing: Mizzou gained nothing by Tiller leaving the game. Tiller is a better % free throw shooter than Kim English and he is a more experienced player to have at the line in an uber-pressure situation. Better yet, Tiller is the team's best defender. Tiller's exit with injury meant that English had to stay on the floor during Mizzou's most important defensive possession of the day.
Part 2: "MU got the ball to Acker on the inbounds and he worked his way to the top of the key where he appeared to be fouling shooting a three-pointer, but no whistle was blown."
It did appear that Acker may have been fouled by DeMarre Carroll on his three pointer, but there are extenuating circumstances:
1. He took an awful - awful - shot and he missed it. His team was down 4 points so 3 free-throws does nothing. He needed to make the shot to have any hope to tie.
2. The absolutely ridiculousness of his shot and his absolute desperation to draw a foul while doing so may have convinced the refs to "swallow" their whistles.
I will say on good thing about CBS color analyst Bob Wenzel: he was correct when he said that Marquette wouldn't give up. And boy, did he say it over and over again. I will now say numerous bad things about him: I understand his only pseudo-successful coaching gig was at Rutgers and everyone has been loving up the Big East this year, but this guy had me wondering if at any second he might leap the broadcast table and start making out with Jerel McNeal. Broadcasters should be impartial but this guy, he LOVED him some Marquette, even when they were trailing by double digits and getting pummelled. "MARQUETTE THRIVES IN OPEN SPACE," "MIZZOU'S DEFENSE PLAYS RIGHT INTO MARQUETTE'S HANDS," "MARQUETTE WON'T GET TIRED," "DON'T EVER LOSE HEART, DON'T EVER LOSE HEART" (nice knock off of both Churchill and Jim Valvano, Bob), "THIS MARQUETTE TEAM HAS HEART," and so on it went all game long. Even when play by play man "Storming" Craig Bolerjack would say something positive Mizzou/negative Marquette, Wenzel would feel the need to counter. Yeah, it turned out Wenzel was right but Mizzou's second half incompetence (can I get a defensive rebound for $200, Alex?) helped his "golden" Eagles along.
- I have no idea what possessed Kim English to score 15 points in less than 5 minutes in the first half, and I have no idea where he got the ice water in his veins to make the two clutch free throws in the second half. Especially for a guy who's been cold as ice in the season's last half. The Tiger Radio guys gave the Junkyard Dog player of the game honors, but I don't know how they could deny Kimmie for this performance.
- I did have Mizzou making the 16 and then losing to Memphis (knock on wood.) We'll discover that on Thursday night. My own personal bracket is somewhere at the bottom of Lake Superior with the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I only have 11 of the Sweet 16 correct, and at absolute best I can only get 6 of the Elite 8. My final 4 is intact but every team in it has had at least one shaky performance.
- I think it's cheap to blame referees for the course of basketball games even if it's one of the things KU fans do best. There's little doubt that basketball is far more at the mercy of officials than any other sport and I'll admit as a partisan I didn't agree with today's crew on some calls, including a phantom 'tie up' call when Matt Lawrence had the ball downlow in the second half (a call that was not reciprocated in a similar situation when Marquette had the ball a few minutes later). However, I'll say this much: on the two biggest calls of the game - the Marquette shot-clock violation and the Marquette in-bounds infraction - they called it right the first time, and replay backed them up.
- Hayward stepping over the in-bounds line might have been a ticky-tack call, but it is a rule (and not some obscure, never practiced rule) and frankly it was a dumb, dumb, dumb mistake that killed Marquette's chances.
- Reading the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, some seem to think the game ended "controversially."
Part 1: Take this sentence construction:
"Tiller landed hard and, claiming he'd suffered an injury to what appeared to be his right (shooting) wrist, was removed from the game."
Now, if you read that like me, and any intelligent person, the use of the verb "claim" here seems to imply that whether J.T. Tiller was injured or not came into question. As we know, Kim English came in and hit the two free-throws in Tiller's stead. That was in accordance with the rules. Here's the thing: Mizzou gained nothing by Tiller leaving the game. Tiller is a better % free throw shooter than Kim English and he is a more experienced player to have at the line in an uber-pressure situation. Better yet, Tiller is the team's best defender. Tiller's exit with injury meant that English had to stay on the floor during Mizzou's most important defensive possession of the day.
Part 2: "MU got the ball to Acker on the inbounds and he worked his way to the top of the key where he appeared to be fouling shooting a three-pointer, but no whistle was blown."
It did appear that Acker may have been fouled by DeMarre Carroll on his three pointer, but there are extenuating circumstances:
1. He took an awful - awful - shot and he missed it. His team was down 4 points so 3 free-throws does nothing. He needed to make the shot to have any hope to tie.
2. The absolutely ridiculousness of his shot and his absolute desperation to draw a foul while doing so may have convinced the refs to "swallow" their whistles.
I will say on good thing about CBS color analyst Bob Wenzel: he was correct when he said that Marquette wouldn't give up. And boy, did he say it over and over again. I will now say numerous bad things about him: I understand his only pseudo-successful coaching gig was at Rutgers and everyone has been loving up the Big East this year, but this guy had me wondering if at any second he might leap the broadcast table and start making out with Jerel McNeal. Broadcasters should be impartial but this guy, he LOVED him some Marquette, even when they were trailing by double digits and getting pummelled. "MARQUETTE THRIVES IN OPEN SPACE," "MIZZOU'S DEFENSE PLAYS RIGHT INTO MARQUETTE'S HANDS," "MARQUETTE WON'T GET TIRED," "DON'T EVER LOSE HEART, DON'T EVER LOSE HEART" (nice knock off of both Churchill and Jim Valvano, Bob), "THIS MARQUETTE TEAM HAS HEART," and so on it went all game long. Even when play by play man "Storming" Craig Bolerjack would say something positive Mizzou/negative Marquette, Wenzel would feel the need to counter. Yeah, it turned out Wenzel was right but Mizzou's second half incompetence (can I get a defensive rebound for $200, Alex?) helped his "golden" Eagles along.
- I have no idea what possessed Kim English to score 15 points in less than 5 minutes in the first half, and I have no idea where he got the ice water in his veins to make the two clutch free throws in the second half. Especially for a guy who's been cold as ice in the season's last half. The Tiger Radio guys gave the Junkyard Dog player of the game honors, but I don't know how they could deny Kimmie for this performance.
- I did have Mizzou making the 16 and then losing to Memphis (knock on wood.) We'll discover that on Thursday night. My own personal bracket is somewhere at the bottom of Lake Superior with the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I only have 11 of the Sweet 16 correct, and at absolute best I can only get 6 of the Elite 8. My final 4 is intact but every team in it has had at least one shaky performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment