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Friday, March 16, 2007

Charting Day 1

Possessions estimated unless HD data available.

Boston College 84, Texas Tech 75 [62 possessions]. The flex offense is right up there with the Princeton in terms of potency. But it just seems like the Eagles intentionally take off possessions defensively. I’d like to think this catches up with you eventually. Or, like, on Saturday, when you have to play a devastating offensive team.

Maryland 82, Davidson 70 [80!]. Maryland officially becomes “dangerous”. Their D hasn’t had a bad game in a long time, and their offense has the kind of balance that should scare any team not named the Hurricanes. Nice effort by Davidson, and we’ll hear more from Stephen Curry for sure.

Louisville 78, Stanford 58 [69]. Terrence Williams: 4 FGA’s and 4 assists. That’s a recipe for success. Folks that have Louisville in the Final Four, you have my admiration. Were they playing any other 3-seed in the second round, I’d be feeling good about your chances. Pitino is possibly the best tournament coach out there, but I have a feeling Gillispie will have a similar legacy within a decade. Louisville/Texas A&M should not be a second round game. Nor should it be in Lexington. This one is more of a toss-up than people realize.

Washington State 70, Oral Roberts 54 [58]. Six turnovers by the Cougars, but that’s what they do. Where’s a Marchello Vealy 3-point outbreak when you need it?

Butler 57, Old Dominion 46 [55]. Our one man efficiency-band Pete Campbell gets hot midway though the second half, hitting three 3’s in the span of 1:29. And in a game this low-scoring, that was huge.

Georgetown 80, Belmont 55 [62]. With Jeff Green on the floor, Georgetown outscored Belmont 35-30. With Roy Hibbert on the floor, the Hoyas had a 41-21 advantage. I wonder what the difference could have been: Hibbert’s 28.6 DR%, his 35.0 OR%, his 30.8 Assist%, his 21.4 Block%, or his zero turnovers? I know it was only Belmont, but it was as dominating of a game as you’ll see in the non-points stats in 21 minutes.

Texas A&M 68, Penn 52 [62]. A minor scare here for the Aggies who trailed with 13 minutes to go, but closed out the Quakers with a 31-13 spurt. Acie Law played all but 1:04 of this one. How long can he last against the Cardinal press? What A&M does with Donald Sloan running the point could be crucial. Worst case scenario relating to this situation was their game in the altitude against run-and-gun Colorado. Law played 26:40 and was +14, Sloan played 23:57 and was +13, so it’s not like Sloan is unreliable. This game will be slower paced than that one and not at altitude, so Law should be good for 35 minutes barring foul trouble, anyway.

Vanderbilt 77, George Washington 44 [65]. Has anybody ever figured out why CBS insists on the mid-afternoon blackout game? Just show us the damn game. We missed GW shooting 30.2% eFG.

Ohio State 78, Central Connecticut 57 [63]. Next.

VCU 79, Duke 77 [70]. So my Coach K love-fest nightmare has been avoided. Thank you, Eric Maynor. Talk during the game was how Duke was getting worn down, but VCU was not appreciably deeper that the Blue Devils. So shouldn’t we be questioning Duke’s stamina? Quite a few goofy questions in the post-game press conference, but none about this that I heard. Think we might hear some Anthony Grant coaching rumors next week? Or the week after. Maynor is going to give Pitt’s suspect perimeter D fits.

Michigan State 61, Marquette 49 [58]. Only saw about a minute of this one, which is fine since I’ve seen enough elbow dislocations for one season. Thought my box score parser was on the fritz seeing such few opportunities for assists by Marquette players. But they really only made 15 shots, with 29 of their 47 attempts coming from long range. Apparently, the Dunk Police dedicated this shift in Idong Ibok’s honor.

UCLA 70, Weber State 42 [61]. Next.

Xavier 79, BYU 77 [67]. The most entertaining game of the day. Both teams like to push and a partisan crowd always adds a little something. Not to mention one of only two games that were decided in the final minute.

Indiana 70, Gonzaga 57 [67]. Didn’t catch much of this one, but what little I saw involved the commentators obsessing over Abdullahi Kuso’s excellent defense on DJ White. If it was so great, why did Kuso only play 17 minutes? According to the HDBS, White must have been pretty dominant while Kuso was on the bench.

North Carolina 86, Eastern Kentucky 65 [72]. Eastern Kentucky went on a 29-9 run midway through the game. It would have been more interesting to start the game that way. Carolina had a TO% north of 30, but with an eFG% of 77.2 and an OR% of 52.4.

Pitt 79, Wright State 58 [70]. A fitting way to end the day.

Posted on 03/16 at 12:45 AM
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