. . . comes this afternoon's NCAA games. What a pile of stiffness. The only thing remotely interesting were the furious-yet-futile attempts by Ohio, Central Fla. and New Mexico to come back. How 'bout that 11-point first half by New Mexico? And they whined about being seeded too low! (Then again, Oklahoma scored 12 points in the second half of the Big 12 Tourney Final in 2003 -- and won! -- and was a #1 seed; not coincidentally, the Sooners were whacked by Syracuse in the Orange's biggest win of that Tourney, a not-that-close 63-47 spread).
Here's my thought: the uberunderdogs who have no hope play harder when they're down than the mid-seeds. Proof: Ohio > Minnesota; UCF > LSU.
One remnant from last night, or why Virginia may not want Rick Barnes after all: Jason Klontz, Texas' junior center, had never scored 20 points in a game until yesterday, when he finally had 20. Nonetheless, he took 25 shots! Say what? How can that happen? Worse yet, he's 6-foot-9 and beefy but Klontz only hit 10-of-25 against a smaller Nevada frontline. Yeesh. So much for in-game adjustments (and Barnes' bad coaching helped his team lose to SU in the Final Four two years ago -- thank goodness he never smartened up and told his 6-foot-9 gunner to just fire away over the front of the SU zone; by the time Brian Boddicker did so, Texas was too far in the hole to crawl out).
Still no last-second madness like that running fling that sent Maryland to the second round two years ago or that famous full court pass-pass-hoist-WIN sequence that Valpo used to trip Ole Miss a few years ago.
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