Comparing Teams

I tried to watch that basketball slug fest called Big East Basketball yesterday between Pittsburgh and Villanova. Then the game last night between Carolina and Duke. Basketball can be played many ways and success can come with execution.

Regardless of what happens for the remainder of this season this has to be one of Roy Williams' favorite teams. They have come a long ways in a short time to be on top after the start they had. Carolina has as good of inside game as any team in the country while their guard play gets better every day.

Duke has trouble with big inside teams like Carolina or a Pittsburgh. If they are hitting their three point shots they will go far but like last night they never made anything outside and they trailed by ten the entire night.

Teams that play half court games, walk the ball up tend to never score enough points to put another team away. Dave Odom use to say he wanted a chance to win in the last few minutes of every game. I thought back in the Duncan era that playing in the fifties kept everyone in the game. Half court teams also never press all over the court and when they get behind it is hard to catch up.

We have come a long way from the day when if you touch another player it was a foul. The half court game is all about how far I can push you. Nova struggled to score fifty. Last night in a more up tempo game Duke struggled to score 70. The NCAA tournament is all about playing your game . Playoff match ups are about the team that plays their game and not fall into the other teams tempo.

Everyone has said the ACC is down and out this year. We are now reaching the point in the season where we will find out how down the league is. If only four make it to the NCAA tournament then those four have to last a while. The Big East might get 11 teams in but how long will they last playing half court games.

I have to admire Brigham Young University for their stance when one of their players who broke the schools honor code. All I have heard is look at what they did. They lost the very next game by 20. I wish their every institute whether it is a college and university or court system in our country lived by a standard.

We have standards that are allowed to be broken every day whether it is an athlete caught taking drugs or DUI convictions allowed to be right back out on the road. Some where along the way we have decided excuses are good enough to not live our lives the right way.