QUESTIONS

"Mental is to physical, as 4 is to 1." - Robert Montgomery Knight

“I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. … I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.” - Og Mandino


EXPLAIN TO ME, HOW BUTLER AND DAYTON ARE LOCKS TO GO TO THE TOURNEY?

That was a great win last night for Cleveland State against Butler. Hats off to Gary Waters and those guys for punching their ticket. It's great for Cleveland. Thank God they didn't do the unthinkable and blow 3 games in one season to one team. But, well deserved for those guys. I have played against those guys. I think all those guys on that team stink. But they work hard, they really get after it on defense, and they play for their coach. You can't knock that too hard. Cedric Jackson can play a little bit when he gets it going huh? And I am not convinced they are done. I think them knocking off a team in the first round is very much in the question. They draw a 13 seed, maybe even a 12, you're telling me they can't hold a team to 58 and have a chance to win it with a bucket late? If I'm a marginal offensive team, I don't wanna see them.

I like Butler a lot, especially over the last two seasons. Mike Green. AJ Graves. Pete Campbell. Those guys were just high skill level, gritty, tough awesome players. And those guys were beating anybody at any time other than a couple teams. I like Brad Stevens. I like his demeanor and style. I think he's way overrated. I think he had a great teacher in Todd Lickliter, and he's still riding a serious momentum wave Lickliter created visa vi set plays, practices and recruiting hotbeds. Nevertheless he's very good. Probably in the third tier of great coaches if you were slotting him. He's real smart. He's an operator. He's got good guys around him too because the freshman they have are outstanding. They lured Matt Howard away from a couple big ten schools to play. He's a very nice post player. And this year they get Mack, Nored, and Gordon Hayward, along with that 6'8 bruiser who came in cold and laced an 18 footer in Chris Moore's grill on his second possession. But those first 3 guys can play in any league, much less the horizon league. Mack and Nored are physical and quick, can grab key on offense, and get in the lanes on defense. They rebound the crap outta the ball too. Hayward is a high skill player. Very cerebral shooter and passer. Mailed it in a little bit last night but was 4th in the league in scoring. So you get those 4 guys, with Howard a year ahead. That's a pretty good effort. We'll see if they can keep getting studs.

Praise aside, I just don't understand how they are a consensus lock to be an at large team. Who have they beaten? Who have they played? I wasn't really sure so I did a little work on it this morning:

28-5
RPI: 21
SOS: 84 (CSU 83)
Key Wins: at Bradley, at Xavier, vs. Northwestern
Key Losses: at Ohio State, at Loyola, at Green Bay

Not exactly a stone cold case in my opinion. They beat Xavier right after they got their hearts ripped out by Duke by about 100 points on national Tv. Bradley isn't as rugged as they usually are. And the Bucks are a 10 seed. They didn't close the deal on their home court. Plain and simple. I think they should be firmly on the bubble.

Lets move to the Dayton Flyers. Spoke to my buddy DJ Mocini the other day. He's the grad assistant for the Flyers. He of course, made a strong case about how they are in, how they have played their way to an at large bid and all things holy about their coaches and players. Might be true might not be true. But first, did anyone catch marcus johnsons dunk last week at Xavier? If you didn’t, you might wanna try link if it works. Filled the right lane, gotta great pass, took off from way outside the right key off 1 foot and hammered a one hand Lebron patented dunk. It was nasty. But here's Dayton:

25-6, 11-5 in the A10
SOS: 88
RPI: 23
Key Wins: Marquette neutral floor, at Auburn
Key Losses: at Creighton (not a tourney team), at St Louis, at Rhode Island at X at Charlotte

That Marquette win is a little suspect because it was at a tip off tournament and they have fallen off the grid the last few weeks. Auburn is the hottest team in the country right now, so that is perhaps a good win but mostly isn't. Again, this is a team that I don't think should be a lock to get in. They haven't beaten anyone. They're terrible on the road. They have no distinctive strengths. They just rocked out at home in front of the Flyer faithful.

I think it is very hard to be objective with selecting at large teams. But more than anything, you can't put teams in because you think they can get a couple wins. You can't put Butler in because they have been the darlings of the tourney the last couple years, and have a great offensive scheme. If Davidson were on the bubble, you can't put them in because they have Curry and Bob McKillop is their coach. You can't put Dayton in automatically because their tough and play good defense. It goes the same way. You can't put Providence in because they have 10 wins in the Big East. It's who did you beat? Who did you play? I think I am starting to bury my point here a little so Iam gonna jump off.

WHO IS THE UTAH JAZZ'S PLAYER PERSONNEL GUY?

I was watching the Jazz the other night at about 1am, and it just kinda hit me: Who is the guy making the player decisions? Cause whoever this guy is, has been right on the money for about 5 years. Williams. AK 47. Ronnie Brewer. Paul Millsap. CJ Miles. Ronnie Price. Sign Booze. Sign Okur. Sign Harpering. Trade for Korver. The GM's name is Kevin O'Connor. If he's the boss, then he's done a pretty good job. The obvious suspect is Jerry Sloan. One of the best NBA guys ever. The one terrible move they made recently was waiving Gerry McNamara in mini-camp. If he's on the team, they're not sleepers to get to the Finals this year, they are favorites.