Stanford walk-on heroically holds back teammates after winning shot by Lopez

ANAHEIM - Stanford coaches and players praised little-used back-up center Tyler Daniels for the job he did holding back his teammates on the bench after Brook Lopez's jumper with 1.3 left in overtime to give the Cardinal an 82-81 win over Marquette in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

"In the time out before the last play, our No. 1 concern wasn't drawing up a play - it was making sure that someone kept our bench players off the court when we made it," said Stanford assistant coach Doug Oliver. "Tyler's been waiting all season for just this moment, and he made the most of it."

Several of Daniels' teammates, lost in euphoria of Lopez's shot, jumped out of their seats at the end of the bench in a way that looked like they might storm the court in spite of the game not technically being over. Daniels, however, was ready, having extended his arms to full reach before the shot even went up in anticipation of such a situation.

"I spend an hour each day after practice working on my technique - spreading my arms out really wide, blocking any access to the floor by overexcited teammates," Daniels said after the game. "You put in all that hard work for an opportunity like this. It feels great to know that after four seasons and 15 total minutes, I could contribute something when the game was on the line."

Lopez, for his part, said it was "a highlight of his career" at Stanford to be able to make the shot and help set up Daniels' heroics.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 4:01 PM 0 comments  

Bracket, heart busted

I'm done with watching the NCAA tournament. OK, not really, but my heart's not going to be in it anymore. Not after watching USC pull an epic tank job against Kansas St. in their first round game yesterday. I guess for all the hype about OJ Mayo vs. Michael Beasley, USC forgot that Bill Walker is, in fact, a pretty good player as well. If only there was someone on the Trojans who was familiar with Walker and could have helped create a good scouting report to stop him.

Oh wait...

Actually, I don't blame OJ Mayo - he basically single-handedly lead the team back in the second-half from a double digit deficit to a brief lead. The problem is that, at least on offense, he had no help. Dwight Lewis made a couple of big shots, but other than that...nothing. I guess that is what happens when all three of your big men wind up playing most of the second half with four fouls. Although fouls or not, Taj Gibson was a mess yesterday - passes getting fumbled out of his hands and out of bounds, missed free throws, blown shots from two feet away...and always with the whining to the refs after every call or non-call. He's done that since he came to USC two years ago, and it needs to stop - it's embarrassing to watch.

Here's the bottom line - instead of being a Great, Program-Changing Season, this year's team simply turned out to be good, but not as good as last year's team. Even with someone as talented as OJ Mayo, there just wasn't enough scoring options and (ultimately) team cohesion to match what last season's team brought to the table. And with anywhere from one to three starters leaving after this season (Mayo, Gibson and Davon Jefferson could all declare early for the NBA draft), next year's team is going to have the same issues with coming together as a young team.

But hey, at least Lil' Romeo's going to be there next season, right? Maybe I can get him to autograph my bag of "BBQing with my Honey" flavored Rap Snacks...

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 9:28 AM 0 comments  

Counterpoint: An Open Letter to ASU Basketball Fans

Dear ASU Fan,

I'm guessing you're still in shock. Yeah, I know some of you might have seen this coming, but I also personally know that a lot of you didn't. Either way, I know that it doesn't feel any better the day after to be left out of the NCAA Tournament than it did right after the announcements were made yesterday afternoon. If anything, the shock is starting to wear off, and the pain is starting to get more real.

And I want to sympathize. I honestly do. As a fan of a PAC-10 team, I want to see our conference get as much recognition as possible. I'll always root for a PAC-10 team versus any other team (provided that PAC-10 team isn't UCLA - I pretty much hope every day that their team, to quote a Kids in the Hall sketch, dies in a warehouse fire). It would have been great to see seven teams from the conference make the tournament.

But here's the thing...it was never, ever going to happen. Seven teams out of a 10-team conference was just absurd, a pipe dream. And if one team was going to be left out, it was always going to be you.

Of course, the No. 1 problem is here: take a look at the end-of-season RPI numbers and try to find Arizona St. You'll have to scroll down a bit, since they are way down at No. 83, directly behind teams that had no chance of getting an at-large bid like San Diego St. and Ohio. And why is that number so low? Because you played a lousy, terrible non-conference schedule, leading to you having the No. 77-ranked Strength of Schedule in the country. Versus Arizona and Oregon (the other two PAC-1o "bubble" teams that got in), which had RPIs of 38 and 58, and SOSs of 2 and 37, respectively.

"But Duke, why should it matter if you play a tougher schedule if you don't win the games?" I've heard this a lot the past 24 hours from ASU fans (all three that I know). But, if we're being honest - yeah, it does matter who you play, even if you lose. Because if you scheduled patsies instead of difficult games, that would be one or two extra wins on your record. Suddenly, Oregon and Arizona both look a lot more like tournament teams according to their records. By the way, here are each team's records against the Top 100 in RPI:

Arizona: 10-12
Arizona St.: 7-10
Oregon: 8-11

Not that I'm thrilled with any of those records, but Arizona St. had the worst record of the three teams. And that's something you can control.

But the bigger picture issue that most ASU fans don't want to deal with is that they weren't being judged against Arizona, or Oregon. They were being judged against all Division I teams. Whether they beat Arizona twice wasn't as important as where both team's resumes fit into the grand scheme of all Division I teams. And if you let the Sun Devils in the field, how are you going to tell the afore-mentioned San Diego St. and Ohio, not to mention the host of teams ahead of Arizona St. in the RPI, that they don't deserve to go?

And let's not bring up "Hey, we beat Xavier!" One win against a quality team does not an NCAA tournament resume make. Hell, how about Stephen F. Austin, then? They beat Oklahoma on the road, and finished 22-5. Charlotte went 5-5 against the RPI Top 50, and no one is bitching about them not making it.

The bottom line is: if you think Arizona St. was the last team out, that means that they would have (in theory) been in with one more win. And there were plenty of chances to get it. Blown call or not, Arizona St. had USC on the ropes in the PAC-1o tournament and then basically stopped scoring for the final 10 minutes of the game. They lost to a lousy Illinois team by 23 and a not-very-good Nebraska team by 15. Win one of those two games you should have won, and we're not having this discussion.

And oh yeah, going 5-10 in your last 15 games isn't really a great way to convince anyone that you are tournament-worthy. Not that it would have mattered much: as Pat Forde pointed out on ESPN.com, it's been seven years since a team with an RPI lower than No. 70 has won an NCAA tournament game. So, you probably just saved yourself a drubbing in the 6-11 game. Enjoy the NIT and a couple of extra home games, and don't worry about what the big boys are doing - it doesn't concern you.

Best,
The Duke of Kickball

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 3:55 PM 2 comments  

Why Gonzaga vs. San Diego matters

If you are a fan of a team currently on the men's NCAA basketball tournament bubble (such as Arizona St., Arizona, Texas A&M, Kentucky), you should make sure you are watching the West Coast Conference Championship between Gonzaga and San Diego tonight on ESPN. And, it wouldn't be a bad idea to flip back to the Southern Conference tournament final between Davidson and Elon on ESPN2, either.

Why? Because the favorites in both games (Gonzaga and Davidson) have very legitimate chances of receiving at-large bids into the NCAA tournament even if they lose tonight and don't get the automatic bid (Gonzaga is pretty much a lock, Davidson would be firmly a bubble team). And if they get in with at-large berths instead of automatic bids, that's two spots that won't be available
to current "bubble" teams like the ones I mentioned.

If you love basketball, it would be fantastic to see some upsets in these conference tournaments and a few Cinderella teams make it to the Big Dance. But if you are a fan of a bubble team, you have to resist that urge with all your will and be the Ugly Stepsister who hope Cinderella gets crushed under the wheel of that pumpkin carriage.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 9:51 AM 1 comments