It's yet another embarrassment of riches spread before us today in the NCAA Tournament. While yesterday was a bit too up and down for my liking, the biggest plays of Marquette and the North Carolina OVER paved the way to another success. That leads us into today, where traditionally everyone will put too much emphasis on the last game and not enough on the body of work from a team. The games start to get tougher as we go, so today and Sunday may be our last chances at some truly heavy plays.
Kentucky is a school that recruits players that can't read. Not only do they actively try to bring players to their school that can't read English, they'll take "student athletes" that can't read even their native dialect. For example, this Fall while in I was in Lexington, the town was abuzz with the scheme that since Cam Newton pulled some crazy shit to play football in Auburn, perhaps they could do the same crazy shit with a 8 foot Turkish guy that looked to be about 32 years old. While they couldn't pull it off, and the Turk is headed to the NBA, the fact they were willing to try tells you everything you need to know about UK. It is win-at-all-costs. I would wager that my 3 month old basset hound can get a higher SAT score than the Kentucky starting five, and he's no genius. However, we must admit to ourselves that while these players cannot read or do even simple mathematics, they sure can play basketball.
The story being written by the national media is that the freshman heavy Kentucky team was nervous against Princeton in their first tournament game. Today, after they have rid themselves of these nerves in Game 1, they will be ready to demonstrate their God given abilities and destroy all comers. I dunno. I just think they are not quite as good as the recruiting hype yet. West Virginia has a bunch of guys that have been there before, and played a long season in the Big East. That's a brutal conference filled with elite players. It's not as if WVU hasn't played against talent all year. I think they are being disregarded with the "crazy hillbilly" factor nationally. I'll take West Virginia +3 and hope they don't let me down.
Speaking of win-at-all-costs, let's talk about Florida. Florida gets every blue chip athlete in the country, and why the hell not? The weather is good, and you'll play on TV every other day. If you are a dude that can't read and wants to play ball, why go anywhere else? There is no way in hell this team loses to UCLA today. Watch the pregame on this one. The Florida video will be of one of their recent National Champion teams cutting down the nets. The UCLA footage will be grainy footage of Kareem, Bill Walton, and guys with crazy sideburns celebrating 40 years ago. UCLA should have lost to a kinda crappy Michigan State team, but they hung on to get pasted here. I love Florida -5.
I think BYU is the biggest paper tiger in the tournament. This is a team that has not learned what it takes to win-at-all-costs. You cannot suspend your best rebounder for having sex with his girlfriend and expect to win. Heck, an Oregon University football player is probably robbing someone at gunpoint right now. Those guys know what it takes. Don't get me wrong, Gonzaga isn't going anywhere either, but BYU is Jimmer and a buncha guys. I think Jimmer will drop 50 on Gonzaga, but Gonzaga wins a close one. Please also note, I am not extremely confident on this one, but I plan to bet against BYU until it pays off. "Sex with his girlfriend"... Please! At Pitt they wouldn't have even suspended the kid if it was "sex with someone else's girlfriend with pistol pointed at head". I'll take Gonzaga straight up.
Speaking of Pitt, there's a win-at-all-costs tournament team. Sports Illustrated ran an article that revealed Pitt had more felons than any other NCAA program. Now that is a team I can get behind! Today they take on Butler, a bunch of pasty white dudes from Indiana. Butler will lose this game. They will get outmuscled under the boards. They will have extremely athletic heavily tattooed Pitt players fly by them to the hoop. Butler will look hopelessly outmatched. They will also somehow stay in the game with great execution of fundamentals and outside shooting. Pitt wins, but take Butler +8.
San Diego State is a legit team. Temple is not. Enough said. San Diego State -5.5.
Current record: 7-4
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