Tag: college basketball

I think I agree with his reasoning as to why Michigan will score against Louisville’s press:

> For evidence, all you have to do is think back on the Wolverines’ disembowelment of VCU in the Round of 32. Michigan committed just 12 turnovers against the Rams’ vaunted “havoc” defense, and they shot nearly 52 percent from the field because they got so many open layups at the rim. Everybody on the Wolverines’ roster can handle, pass and shoot. For all the speed on this team, the players are always under control. Indeed, it is remarkable that for a team that likes to get out and go, Michigan ranks first nationally in offensive turnover percentage. This is John Beilein’s culture: You take care of the ball, or you do not play.

I guess we will find out later tonight.

> No one knows if Wichita State actually would’ve driven down the court and hit a dramatic game-tying three in the final second of its national semifinal game against Louisville.

> And that’s the problem.

> Instead, we know that referee Karl Hess believes that even the briefest of battles for a loose ball, even in the most precious moments of the sport, constitutes a held ball and thus a quick whistle and thus having the end of the game determined by that unlikable possession arrow.

When you’re an official and a national columnist is writing your name in a Final Four column, you really, really messed up. I would hope that, as a result of this call, Karl Hess is not officiating NCAA tournament games next year.

The only thing surprising about Ed Rush’s resignation is that it took this long.

> [Ed] Rush, [Pac-12 coordinator of basketball officials], according to a source within the Pac-12 officiating group, told a group of referees on the Thursday of the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas that he would give them $5,000 or a trip to Cancun if they either “rang him up” or “ran him,” meaning hit Miller with a technical or toss him out of the game. Rush then reiterated during a Friday morning meeting, according to one referee in attendance, that officials should take similar action against Miller if he did anything on Friday in the Pac-12 semifinals against UCLA.

This seems clearcut: Ed Rush must be fired. How can the Pac-12 keep this guy if there are even rumors of something like this?

Tennessee and Virginia should have made the tournament. The committee got that wrong.

The Big Ten seems to be, far and away, the best basketball conference this year. I have to assume that will translate into NCAA Tournament success. A part of me seems to think that is not always the case, however.