The good, the not-so-good, and the crazy....
Wow, what a crazy weekend. The University of Louisville men snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at West Virginia, the University of Kentucky men snatch victory from the jaws of the road at Tennessee, and both schools' women's teams show well at their respective conference tournaments.
First, the U of L men.
The Cards got shoved around like grade-schoolers against the Mountaineers, who outrebounded U of L by a whopping 25. Yet U of L still led by five points inside the last minute, but Peyton Siva missed a crucial free throw with seconds to play, and he and Kyle Kuric made defensive gaffes that allowed WVU's Casey Mitchell two clear looks at three-pointers, the second of which tied the game with 8.2 seconds to play.
Then there was Preston Knowles' ill-advised attempted trey with four ticks left, which led to a mad scramble for a loose ball and a Knowles foul with :00.6 on the clock. Why you even risk a foul deep in the backcourt in that situation is beyond me. Even though 99 percent of the time the officials will deem it incidental contact, attention to time and score would dictate leaving well enough alone and settling for overtime.
And no, I haven't forgotten that egregious out-of-bounds call in front of the West Virginia bench. Despite what the play-by-play person said, at no time was Knowles touching the ball with his foot on the sideline. The ball bounced off his ankle, THEN he went out of bounds, and he re-established himself inbounds before the whistle blew.
Lest we forget, another blown OOB call cost U of L a chance to win last year's game in Morgantown. That one elicited an official apology from the Big East Conference, but I don't expect that to happen again.
Nevertheless, once is unfortunate; twice is a pattern.
Wow, what a crazy weekend. The University of Louisville men snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at West Virginia, the University of Kentucky men snatch victory from the jaws of the road at Tennessee, and both schools' women's teams show well at their respective conference tournaments.
First, the U of L men.
The Cards got shoved around like grade-schoolers against the Mountaineers, who outrebounded U of L by a whopping 25. Yet U of L still led by five points inside the last minute, but Peyton Siva missed a crucial free throw with seconds to play, and he and Kyle Kuric made defensive gaffes that allowed WVU's Casey Mitchell two clear looks at three-pointers, the second of which tied the game with 8.2 seconds to play.
Then there was Preston Knowles' ill-advised attempted trey with four ticks left, which led to a mad scramble for a loose ball and a Knowles foul with :00.6 on the clock. Why you even risk a foul deep in the backcourt in that situation is beyond me. Even though 99 percent of the time the officials will deem it incidental contact, attention to time and score would dictate leaving well enough alone and settling for overtime.
And no, I haven't forgotten that egregious out-of-bounds call in front of the West Virginia bench. Despite what the play-by-play person said, at no time was Knowles touching the ball with his foot on the sideline. The ball bounced off his ankle, THEN he went out of bounds, and he re-established himself inbounds before the whistle blew.
Lest we forget, another blown OOB call cost U of L a chance to win last year's game in Morgantown. That one elicited an official apology from the Big East Conference, but I don't expect that to happen again.
Nevertheless, once is unfortunate; twice is a pattern.
* * * * * * * * *
Now, on to UK.
This team is much too good to justifiably finish 1-7 on the road in Southeastern Conference play, and thanks to a 64-58 win at Tennessee, it won't. The Wildcats' win ensured the No. 2 seed from the SEC East and its accompanying first-round bye in the SEC tournament.
And in case you were wondering, it causes me no pain to write good things about UK. When the Cats aren't playing the Cards, I root for them; what's more, save for the Lady Vols and Pat Summitt, I loathe all things Big Orange. So it was highly gratifying to me to see the Wildcats mend their road woes in Knoxville.
One thing troubles me, though. For all the growth this team has shown, freshmen big man Terence Jones still shows a distressing tendency to play the black hole on offense. Once he decides to go to the basket, not even a triple team from the defense will deter him. Maybe it won't matter in the NBA, where there are players who can guard him one on one, but at this level he is costing his team potentially easy baskets by refusing to pass out of those situations. I had the same beef about former U of L head case Derrick Caracter.
Let's hope Jones has an epiphany soon, or collapsing defenses could make it a very short postseason for UK.
Now, on to UK.
This team is much too good to justifiably finish 1-7 on the road in Southeastern Conference play, and thanks to a 64-58 win at Tennessee, it won't. The Wildcats' win ensured the No. 2 seed from the SEC East and its accompanying first-round bye in the SEC tournament.
And in case you were wondering, it causes me no pain to write good things about UK. When the Cats aren't playing the Cards, I root for them; what's more, save for the Lady Vols and Pat Summitt, I loathe all things Big Orange. So it was highly gratifying to me to see the Wildcats mend their road woes in Knoxville.
One thing troubles me, though. For all the growth this team has shown, freshmen big man Terence Jones still shows a distressing tendency to play the black hole on offense. Once he decides to go to the basket, not even a triple team from the defense will deter him. Maybe it won't matter in the NBA, where there are players who can guard him one on one, but at this level he is costing his team potentially easy baskets by refusing to pass out of those situations. I had the same beef about former U of L head case Derrick Caracter.
Let's hope Jones has an epiphany soon, or collapsing defenses could make it a very short postseason for UK.
* * * * * * * * *
Both the Cardinal and Wildcat women did their schools and themselves proud in the Big East and SEC tournaments. The Cards bowed to third-seeded Notre Dame 63-53 in the Big East quarterfinals, while the Cats bowed 90-65 to top seed Tennessee in the SEC final.
In U of L's Jeff Walz and UK's Matthew Mitchell, the Commonwealth boasts two of the nation's best young coaches. We should give both these programs the support they deserve -- they've come a long way from the days when fans of both teams all knew one another by name, or so it seemed.
I've been watching the U of L women's program since 1976, when both the Cards and UK belonged to the old Kentucky Women's Intercollegiate Conference and played each other at least twice a season. I dreamed of a day when both schools would draw crowds and showcase a brand of basketball indisputably worth watching. That day has arrived.
Now it's tournament time. God, I love March -- I'm pulling for all four squads to advance deep into their respective brackets.
GO CARDS!! GO CATS!!
Both the Cardinal and Wildcat women did their schools and themselves proud in the Big East and SEC tournaments. The Cards bowed to third-seeded Notre Dame 63-53 in the Big East quarterfinals, while the Cats bowed 90-65 to top seed Tennessee in the SEC final.
In U of L's Jeff Walz and UK's Matthew Mitchell, the Commonwealth boasts two of the nation's best young coaches. We should give both these programs the support they deserve -- they've come a long way from the days when fans of both teams all knew one another by name, or so it seemed.
I've been watching the U of L women's program since 1976, when both the Cards and UK belonged to the old Kentucky Women's Intercollegiate Conference and played each other at least twice a season. I dreamed of a day when both schools would draw crowds and showcase a brand of basketball indisputably worth watching. That day has arrived.
Now it's tournament time. God, I love March -- I'm pulling for all four squads to advance deep into their respective brackets.
GO CARDS!! GO CATS!!
posted by Alan at 9:11 PM
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