Good afternoon everyone. Sorry I’ve been away, but I continue to get ready for the hurricane season, and also some things that I didn’t get a chance to get around to during the course of the busy season. Anyway, I thought I would take some time out to first briefly mention that the GMCBCA Senior All-Star Game is set for Thursday night, April 17th at Perth Amboy High School. GMC Hoops plans to be there, and will have more details on this shortly. However, I wanted to talk about the NCAA Tournament for a little bit. If you listen to the sports radio talk shows in the area, or actually took in a great deal of the tourney on TV, you would probably be in agreement that the Road to San Antonio hasn’t been a fun one for those, who are big fans of March Madness.
Other than the Round of 32 on the first Sunday of the tournament when you had riveting games between Texas and the University of Miami, Butler and Tennessee, Western Kentucky and San Diego, and of course, the big upset of Davidson knocking off Georgetown, the 65 team field has been marked by blowout after blowout. The only saving grace was that for the first time since the 64 team field was created in 1985, all top seeds in each region made it to the Final Four. In addition, each of those teams entered the National Semifinals with a combined record of 143-9 including Memphis (38-1), North Carolina (37-2), UCLA (35-3), and Kansas (35-3). Memphis, which actually won its semifinal game against UCLA, set an all time record for most wins by a men’s college basketball team with 39. The previous mark had been held by four different teams: 2005 Illinois (lost to North Carolina in the National Championship), 1999 Duke (lost to UConn in National Championship), 1987 UNLV (lost to Indiana in Final Four), and 1986 Duke (Lost to Louisville in National Championship).
Despite having these four high caliber teams in the Final Four something that this tournament was hoping to make this year still memorable, the two National Semifinals were uneventful for the most part with Memphis handling UCLA easily by the score of 78-63, and bursting Bracket Boy’s Bubblehead (not that it was burst already!), and Kansas rolling out to a 40-12 lead in the first half, and then withstanding a charge by North Carolina that put the tourney’s top seed to within four points in the second half before pulling away to another easy semifinal win, 84-66. The only saving grace out of these two games was the fact that the Jayhawks, which had perhaps the most difficult time getting to San Antonio thanks to a fierce struggle with upstart Davidson in the Midwest Regional Final in Detroit, not only stunned the Tar Heels, but dominated and outworked them for the most part.
You would have thought that a team like Memphis, which plays largely a weaker schedule than most of the team’s it played during the tournament, would have had at least a few tougher matchups during its run. However, the Tigers, which are making their first Final Four appearance since 1985 when it lost to Cinderella Villanova with Eddie Pinckney, Gary McLain, and legendary coach, Rollie Massimino, routed four of its five opponents to get here including a 92-74 win over Michigan State in the South Regional Semifinal, an 85-67 defeat of Texas in the Regional Final in what was essentially a road game, and then the 15 point victory over UCLA. Similarly, Kansas has beaten four of its five tourney opponents by at least 15 points or more. Throw in North Carolina, which smashed Mount St. Mary of the NEC in the opening round, Arkansas in the second round, and Washington State in the East Regional semifinal, and you get the picture here. Bottom line is that this year, March Madness up to this point, has been March Sadness. Hopefully, the National Championship game will be an entertaining one, but if Memphis continues to play the way they’ve been playing, especially on the defensive end, I don’t think that will happen.