After watching countless hours of college basketball this year and texting back and forth between friends about said games, here is a few revelations that I have made.
1) John Beilein is one of the worst coaches I have ever seen. Michigan was tied with #1 UConn on the road with 12 minutes left in the game and proceeded to piss the game away. How you ask? Well they shot 12 3's compared to 5 shots inside the arc. They made 4 of those, but 2 were prayers by Stu Douglass at the end of the game. They were 9-29 in the game behind the arc. Is it too much to ask to see a little pick and roll with Manny Harris and DeShawn Simms? Michigan fans will have to use "We beat Duke and UCLA" for the next 3 years until they fire Beilein.
2) Yerk made a great point one night when he mentioned that Marquette's guards are really similar to the Illini trio of Dee, Deron and Luther. Marquette is 9-1 in the toughest conference in America. Don't be surprised at all to see them in the Final Four and Tom Crean wandering the streets of Bloomington, Indiana talking Adam Sandler gibberish to himself in a bath robe and slippers.
3) Has anyone ever done less with more talent that Rick Barnes at Texas? I understand that he had 2 players leave after one great year with LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant, but he should have made more than 1 Final Four. Texas has been the Anti-UCLA the past 8 years. Since 2000 they have been a #1 seed, #2 seed twice, #3 seed, #4 seed, #5 seed #6 seed twice and #8. By not being less than an #8 seed the last 9 years you would expect more that 1 Final Four, 2 Elite Eights, and 2 Sweet Sixteen finishes.
4) I am really glad that Notre Dame is tanking lately because Luke Harongody is on of the most over-rated basketball players in college in a long time. Yes he averages 24 points a game, but he shoots 20 times a game. He makes no one around him better, and if anything has held back Notre Dame because he is a black hole. He gets double teamed constantly, yet only averages 2 assists a game. Shooting 47% for a post player is not very efficient, but I will give him rebounding, because he is great at that. Jodie Meeks averages more points on less shots.
5) I think the ACC has a rule that you can't stop dribble penetration. No one in this league will defend the dribble. When Duke has 4 players on the floor that can get to the lane with the dribble any time they want, then you know that this is not an area of emphasis for the conference. They do have great guards, but even average players can get to the hoop. Don't be surprised when only 2 or 3 teams from the ACC make the Sweet Sixteen.
6) The Big East also has a lot of dribble penetration, but they bully their way into the lane, and everyone can finish with contact. If there is a match-up with a Big East vs. ACC take the Big East, unless it is against Duke, because Coach K will get at least 5 "bitching" calls and the complexion of the game will be changed in the first 10 minutes.
7) At the start of the season the question was will anyone beat UNC. Now the question is will anyone beat UConn? They have better players at pretty much every position than UNC does. I am praying for this match-up in the tourney, because it will be awesome.
8) Teams like Memphis and Gonzaga should have their seeding determined by who they played in their Non-conference vs. their overall record. Both of their conference schedules are what amounts to Non-conference schedules for major conference teams. By that I mean the entire line-up is cupcakes with maybe 2 tough teams thrown in there. Both teams will run the table in the their conference and finish with probably 3 and 5 losses respectively. Memphis' toughest games were against Xavier, Syracuse and Georgetown, and they lost to all 3 of them. They have beaten Cincinnati, Seton Hall and Gonzaga. Gonzaga has beaten Tennessee twice, Maryland and Washington State. They lost to UConn, Utah, Arizona, and Portland State. Yet even though they have that terrible resume, they will keep climbing the polls because every other team is playing tough conference games.
Memphis is ranked #10 and Gonzaga #21. Considering that they won't play another tournament team again, how can you justify the top 4 seed that both of these teams will get? Utah State will probably got a top 5 seed also, even though they have not played one ranked team. Memphis and Gonzaga are guaranteed Sweet Sixteen births because of the crap conferences that they play in which is an absolute travisty. The only hope is that they both win their conference tournament so that a team that deserves an at-large bid doesn't get bounced. Every top 5 team in the ACC, Big Ten, Big East and probably the Top 3 teams in the Pac-10 and SEC would have the exact same if not better records than these 2 teams if they played their schedule. Both teams will be ranked in the top 15 by the end of the year, but neither will make it past the Sweet Sixteen.
9) The Big East needs to drop at least 4 teams. 16 teams are absolutely absurd for a major conference. Geographically speaking, DePaul and South Florida make no sense at all, and how do you really do seeding for the tournament when you have such an unbalanced schedule. Each Big East team plays 3 teams twice and then everyone else once. If you are not going to drop the extra teams then either add 3 more teams and play everyone once, or just play in Thanksgiving tournaments and 5 non-conference games. Sound dumb? Well those are probably the options that the Big East/Midwest/South are considering. A more simple conclusion. Divide the conference into 4 divisions. Each team in the conference plays each other 2 times, and everyone else once. The top 3 teams from each division are seeded into a 12 team conference tournament, with #1 seeds getting byes, or just do a 16 team tournament. This way you create division rivalries, yet you still have the semblance of a conference. It is much better than picking games out of a hat which is what I believe their method is now. Here would be the divisions:
Midwest: Notre Dame, Marquette, DePaul, and Cincinnati
South: South Florida, Louisville, West Virginia, Georgetown
North: UConn, Providence, Villanova, Pittsburgh
East: St. John's, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Syracuse
Each conference is pretty even except for the East, and you maintain rivalries that exist between close schools, such as Nova and Pitt. This seems like it would be an easy fix, but so does losing the BCS.
10) Steve Lavin should replace Jay Bilas on the Gameday crew. I think Bilas is good, but he is too much of a homer for the ACC, way too opinionated when he doesn't agree with something, and more importantly he has no personality what so ever!! Steve Lavin would fit the Kirk Herbstreit roll much better than Bilas. Plus I think he would knock Digger Phelps of his high horse. I love Lavin, but he actually has been getting a little too catch phrase driven lately. Bilas does an excellent job on analysis during games. However this gets trumped if Lavin is teamed up with Brent Musburger, because those two are amazing together. Every announcer should take a page from Lavin and Musburger and relate to their audience by mentioning alcohol and gambling, since 90% of the people watching are partaking in both of those vices.
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