Almost For Irish

Question of whether Kentucky would go undefeated in the ACC got answered Saturday night even though they won a great Elite Eight game with Notre Dame the answer is no.  Those of you Roy Williams haters the two big questions for Mike Brey is why did he not double team the Kentucky big man all night.  Why did they decide during the last minute keep the ball in Grant's hand to make one on one moves three straight trips including the desperation heave at the buzzer when all night long they had scored sharing the ball?

Notre Dame was even in rebounding something no one expected.  Every close game there is what ifs every where and the last three trips to the foul line the Irish made only one out of two every time after they had made 9/11 at one time.

Duke has no easy assignment against Gonzaga but They beat the Irish twice by four at Notre Dame and 30 in Durham.  The Irish clipped the Dookies in the ACC Tournament.  So the question must be if Notre Dame takes Kentucky to the wire why can't Duke beat them if they make it that far?  Any tournament teams luck out when somebody else whips the team capable of beating you.

In order for Duke to make it to the final game they have to beat Gonzaga, either Michigan State or Louisville.  Kentucky will have to make it past Wisconsin who if Notre Dame can take Kentucky to the Wire why can't Wisconsin?

You know every great team can have a burst at some  point in every game where they play out of this world.  Friday night Duke had one of those runs that gave them a 14 point lead but with six minutes to go they looked tire and Utah made a come back and that worries me for the Devils.

I think at the start of the tournament I picked Louisville to go out first but they are a good match for Michigan State.  Should Duke and Louisville win that would guarantee the ACC a team in the final game.  Regardless of what happens Sunday the ACC has had a super tournament.  They are 13-3 with two games Sunday

Duke Survives

If you saw the first game when NC State beat Louisville in Louisville the script of the game last night was going just about the same as five weeks ago until Blackshear got his fourth foul.  The team that Louisville finished the game with from that point was a better team that what the WolfPack could do.

Louisville drove almost at will because they were not making anything from outside.  State had just like Carolina that late in the game they had a minute when they to didn't have good shots in fact they had two possible slam dunks mishandled in the lane.  Game becomes catch up late and in order to catch up you need to score every time down and get stops and the Pack consistently got neither down the stretch.

Carolina fans upset with Roy Williams have to remember despite how well he played down the stretch Marcus Paige was hurt the entire year.  Most of this season Carolina didn't look very good and yet they made the Sweet 16.  State was up and down all year and yet they to made Sweet 16.  If everyone that could come back for both next year do come back both could be preseason top 10 next season.

I wish Duke had one more guy inside and they would be in right to the end in this national title race.  I just don't see Duke being as good as Zona or Kentucky.  I think they are just as good as Wisconsin because as good as their big men are outside they are slow defending a quick player driving from outside toward basket.  Duke has plenty of outside shooters who can drive.  Duke Gonzaga will be a great game but I think the Devils will win because they have better athletes just like against Utah.

The ACC has three teams in final eight.  Louisville might have caught a bracket where they may be able to sneak in the final four.  Notre Dame needs to make all their threes and only say nice things about Kentucky.  Duke will have a toughie with the Zags.

A couple of items that I have a hard time explaining .  Why when a game starts at 7:15 and another at 7:37 do both games have time outs at the same time?  I am not really sure referees even called the Duke /Utah game.  I don't understand if you are going to let it be a physical game  and let them play, why would you call fouls whe a player has all ball?  I don't understand this new college game where the team with the lead fouls and the game is extended when the team trailing gets points without the clock running.