Basketball Notes

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Robert F. Kennedy


As North Carolina punches their ticket in impressive fashion, setting the Final Four next week in the D, I wanted to talk about a couple things.

For one, I don't think I have ever seen a worse defensive performance than the one Oklahoma just gave effort to in last two hours. That was a complete travesty. Really makes you think about what these guys were doing in practice for the last 5 months, and how they won as many games as they did. They seemed just completely unwilling to guard anyone on North Carolina. Absolutely no effort whatsoever.

Having said that, North Carolina is the finest offensive machine left in the tournament. They have the most talent out of anyone. They have the best point guard. They have one of the best players ever to play the college game. They have wings that are gonna get a shot in the pros. They have a great system and coach. They are way more talented than Oklahoma. But even they had to be a little surprised at how easy they were able to get good shots. It was like they were running set plays and transition movements against air. Unmolested layups. Uncontested mid range shots. 3's in rhythm. No charge threat on their floaters. It was a joke.

Where do you guys stand on Blake Griffin? I think he's the Terminator. I think he's a freakish athlete with unbelievable game and a bright future. All those things are obvious. He's a lock to be the first pick. He's miles ahead of whoever is gonna go # 2 and other guys there after. Just the fluidity and efficiency he's shown has been tremendous. He's shown he wants to win, he's pretty unselfish and he's just lighting quick and explosive all over the floor. He can exert his will on the glass and can get to the free throw line.

But just to be critical, watching this North Carolina game showed me some things. He gets pushed off the box a lot, and he has a hard time holding guys off. The guys on NC are good players but none of them are great. It just seemed to me like he had a hard time holding his position. And a couple times he got pushed outta his comfort zone, made a comfort move to where he thought was gonna have an easy look, and ended up boxed in/under the basket and had to kick to the baseline drifter. I have probably watched 10 of his games this year, and I have yet to see him knock down a mid range jumper. He barely takes one, let alone five or six. Have you seen some of his shot charts. The make symbols just pepper the one foot and in range. There is rarely anything outside the kill zones that are both blocks. I also really haven't seen a great feel on the dribble drive. Obviously, his handle for his size is great. But he gets everything off a one dribble two step explode model. Two dribbles at the most. He gets a free pass on defense cause he has to stay outta foul trouble for their team to have a chance. So he sits in the key most nights, makes Sportscenter with his help side blocks and isn't really challenged on the dribble. He'll have to guard better in the pros. They don't do a ton of pick and roll, so he hasn't had a chance to show much of that. Just for comparison I think DaJuan Blair has a little better feel for the pick and roll game. He doesn't have as much game as Griffin when he gets that roll pass though. A lot of OU's sets bring him out to wing for a half ass screen then follow with a double for him that gets him to the opposite side block for an advantage post. But when he has pick and rolled it's been a good thing. And it will be a better thing in the pros. So to wrap up on this, I am a little suspect of his jumper and his comfort with shooting jumpers at game speed when the bullets are flying. I don't think he's shown a great ability to take guys off the dribble and counter when he gets leveled off initially. I don't think he's exerted much effort guarding guys. But all in all, hes got pretty good human capital to get some of those things going in his direction in the coming years. His future is bright.

At the under sixteen timeout of the first half of the Spartans-Cardinals game, I turned the TV off and went to work out. Knowing that my chances of winning money in the pool that I am in were officially over, I decided I needed to go do some work out stuff. They had it on at the gym, so I was keeping tabs on bits and pieces of it. It's amazing how every year you fill out a bracket, you convince yourself and assure yourself about so many silly things. It's the nature of the beast. I decided that I was gonna have Louisville win it, and I am so mad that I did. And it all could have been avoided if I just would have said four words to myself: Earl Clarke and Terrence Williams. How could I ever convice myself that those two idiots were gonna be consistent and lead their team? It just makes no sense. Those guys are careless with ball all the time. They think they can make 3's but the evidence points to the contrary. They fill the stat sheets with the staples, but there is just something about them that makes you shake your head. Louisville's role guys are fantastic. They do their jobs. There was just not enough leadership from the top 2 bums. In their defense, its gotta be hard to be a leader on a Pitino team. I know that sentence doesn't make a ton of sense, but Pitino is just so big and so powerful and so much in control that, that probably makes it hard to lead. But All the Final Four teams have great leaders. Leaders you can identify. Just go down the list. Cunningham and Reynolds. Sutan and Walton. Price and Adrien. Hansborough and Bobby Frasor (haha NC is a little different--Danny Green probably has a big voice, Lawson and Ellington too). I was real bummed for Pitt cause I love Blair, and wanted to see him all week. But moreso I think because of Fields and Young. Two guys that definitely are in that great leader pair group, if not the top 2 leaders.

Louisville came out with a shitty game plan I thought. I just thought Sutan has proved to be way too good a shooter to let him catch and shoot like he did. 3-3 for beyond the arc was a bit of an outlier, but not that much. The bigger problem was the possessions where Sutan could catch, turn and face, and realize he had an elbow jumper, a shot that he makes 8-10 of. That killed them in the first half. And State just played great defense. Tough. Nothing easy. Hammer when you're beat. Contest all three's. It was a classic Big Ten defensive performance. Lucas hit some big shots. Great win for Michigan State.

I wasn't at the Carolina game. But I bet if I did, and was there for warmups I would have said something like: "Wow, Carolina is gonna kill this team. They have so much more skill and talent than Oklahoma." And next week in Detroit, if I was there and watching the games I would say the same thing. Sometimes it's that easy. Sometimes the teams with the most talent win.