Case of the Mondays: Action, but at what expense?

March 19th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

durant.jpgThose of us clamoring for more upsets, more close games and more overall excitement in our NCAA Tournament were rewarded this weekend, finally, when everyone decided to go all crazy. My title-winner, OSU, nearly lost (I’m naming my first kid RonLewis), Purdue played Florida tightly, Wisconsin was upset and sent home, and Louisville and Texas A&M played a rousing game defined by ballsy guard play from Acie Law IV and Edgar Sosa.

All in all, a good weekend. Well … sort of.

There were at least two serious negatives here, too, and they were both brought on by LA’s two pristine academic institutions.

First, UCLA was complicit in a criminally disappointing end to our Hoosiers’ season, in which IU’s first half field goals (five) were outnumbered by their fouls (six). Terrible, terrible stuff, made all the worse by IU’s insistence on getting everyone’s hopes up and winning that thing down the stretch. Hard to swallow, to say the least. (And it kept me from another week-long vacation in California. Motherfucker.)

But the greatest loss was, by far, the USC-imposed tournament departure of Kevin Durant, who is likely to go pro now that his Longhorns failed to make it even to the Sweet 16 this year. That means no more of Durant’s sublime domination of the college game, no more Texas-Oklahoma State triple-overtime thrillers, no more 37/15 against the nation’s most athletic defense (Kansas). Instead, we have to watch Durant go through the altogether painful process of NBA draftdom. Instead of celebrating his mastery, we’ll be hearing for the next few months about the small flaws in the kid’s game, how he needs to put on weight, hold his follow through longer, and so on, why Chad Ford thinks he’s a mix of Player A and Player B with a mix of Player C thrown in, but with a higher ceiling.

It’s exciting, sure, but it’s also sort of sad. In that way, Kevin Durant, as we now know him, is gone for good.

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Case of the Mondays: College basketball fiesta

February 26th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

ODen.jpgQuite a weekend for college hoops, huh?

So our Hoosiers suffered a massive meltdown in Lansing - so what? We didn’t expect them to win anyway, and those Spartans are a dangerous, dangerous squad, provided they don’t turn the ball over. Oh well, right?

No, the main action to be seen was elsewhere in the Big Ten, as I mentioned Friday. That game didn’t disappoint one bit, as the Badgers put up a great second half fight even after they lost criminally underrated center Brian Butch. The big man’s bum elbow will definitely damage the Badgers’ chances of overtaking Ohio State in the Big Ten tourney, or of making a huge NCAA push … but if any team can weather an injury, it’s Wisconsin. They’ll be imperfect, but tough nonetheless.

Elsewhere, we can shake our heads dismissively at Florida today. Luke Winn’s question from Saturday’s letdown to undermanned LSU rings true: Are the Gators good enough to flip the proverbial switch whenever necessary? Are they the Shaq-and-Kobe-era Lakers, capable of huge regular season relaxation periods as well as playoff success? We’ll see in the next few weeks.

Also partially interesting: Maryland takes down UNC in College Park. Are the Terps making a surge here or what? That’s five in a row for a suddenly dangerous tournament team.

Georgetown tops Pittsburgh. Speaking of surging, the Hoyas are playing as well as anyone in the country right now. They’re certainly playing better than Florida and UNC, and even maybe better than Wisconsin.

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