Great Eight - Saturday

I picked Pitt to win the tournament and I’m not ashamed that I did so. That team has stones and it’s a damn shame that the Villanova – Pitt game was not the final because no remaining game is going to top that one. Pitt is not a pretty team, but they are tough and hit big shots. That pretty much describes LeVance (I’m going uppercase V) Fields. He’s actually pretty gross-looking out there. He’s not fast and takes some pretty crappy shots, but hits them and makes great passes. He simply does not look the part, but plays the part. I love the guy. DeJuan Blair is a Brahma Bull. That and1 he got in the first half was awesome. The Nova defender tried to knock him off course by fouling him hard when Blair was in the air, but he ended exploding on impact while Blair’s body continued on course. He’s a nice player who simply abuses college defenders. We’ll see how it translates to the NBA but why can’t he be a better Jason Maxiel? His ceiling is Elton Brand because of his long arms. I’d rather pick at 25 and take him than be at 3 and pick Hasheem Thabeet… or a guy like James Harden (I dislike his game). Old man Sam Young is a great player too, damn shame they lost the game.

While I really like Pitt’s squad, I equally love Nova. Neither of those teams deserved to lose, but as Snoop Pearson (and Clint Eastwood) says, “deserve ain’t got nothing to do with it.” Nova plays such great defense with active hands and positioning. The most entertaining matchup has got to be Nova – Louisville, let’s hope that happens. I guess UConn – UNC would be nice also, but those two schools get enough strokes as it is.

Aside from the way that Nova and Pitt played, the game revealed two other things:

1. Nova’s uniforms are cool. Their colors are the same as the coolest basketball unis on the planet, which belong to Argentina.

2. Pitt’s Tyrell Biggs looks exactly like Michael Olowokandi.

I’m saddened by Missouri’s exit from the Big Dance, those cats are enjoyable to watch. They force teams to run with them and make them to all kinds of stupid stuff that they wouldn’t normally do, plus they are fearless. Unfortunately they just couldn’t stop Kemba Walker (who is going to be superb) and Stanley Robinson (who was everything for UConn on Saturday). As good as UConn is, I am unimpressed by AJ Price, that guy makes some dumbass plays. They seem to be in much better hands when Walker is running the show. Also, Jeff Adrien looks like the second coming of Charles Oakley. His game is very similar and he, like Oakley, probably could put his hand on the ground and rush the passer as a D-End. He didn’t do too much in this game though.

One thing to think about as we await the UNC – Oklahoma game:

how in the world does Tony Crocker play in a long sleeve shirt?

I’d pass out from heat exhaustion in 5 minutes wearing that thing.