NCAA Tourney Live Blogging

Chris Denker

15 Mar 2012

Blog

2 comments

We’re live blogging from the NCAA Tournament with random thoughts, observations, and reactions to all things related to the Big Dance. It’s officially March Madness baby!

• Speaking of March Madness, my son Quinn had his 10th birthday yesterday, Happy Birthday buddy!
  

  Happy Birthday Quinn!

• Colorado State and Murray State were an interesting match-up of two similar, guard oriented, styles.  The Racers are tough and pulled away late.
• Former Green Bay Packer great, Paul Hornung, has a grandson playing for CSU as a 6’5 post, tough kid.
• How about all the late comebacks in the “first four” games?  Crazy.
• If BYU gets down by 25 again they’re done…Marquette isn’t going to let off the gas pedal if they get a lead on the Cougs.
• Kansas State looked pretty good today, they could spell trouble for Syracuse without Fab Melo.
• Cal stunk it up.
• Good move by the Pac-12 to get their tourney out of LA and head to Vegas.  That makes four conference tourney’s in Las Vegas, WCC & WAC at the Orleans Arena & Casino, MWC at UNLV, and now Pac-12 at the MGM Grande.
• By the way…if you don’t have the NCAA March Madness app, go get it!  I can watch every game going on my laptop, iPad, and iPhone, get the bracket, stats, rosters, and all sorts of info.  It’s awesome.
• Pretty good crowd in Portland, lots of Oregon Ducks shirts in the building, the Ducks played well the other night in the NIT.
• BYU frosh Point Guard, Matt Carlino, is going to be good but he’s a little unsettling for my taste.  Takes some wild & contested jumpers and “stays on the ball” a little too much, meaning he dribbles a lot.
• Louisville hung on to get Davidson, Peyton Siva played well again, he’s been doing a nice job of late.
• Wisconsin blows out Montana in the 2nd half and advances…as expected.
• #16 UNC Asheville is going to halftime with a lead on #1 Syracuse, how many times has that happened?
• Speaking of…the refs blew that call late in the half, the foul occurred prior to the shot clock expiring.
• Here comes BYU!
• Getting ready for New Mexico and Long Beach State, should be a good first round match-up.
• Larry Anderson, The Beach’s do-it-all guy who is playing injured (knee/ankle), is really important to their success but is not moving very well out there.  He’s a 14 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.1 apg and Big West Defensive Player of the Year guy who is impossible to replace.
• BYU Power Forward Noah Hartsock is older than about a hundred NBA playersI think…on another note, he’s a very good shooting big man.
  

  Jae Crowder (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

• Marquette’s Jae Crowder had 25 points, 16 boards, and 4 assists in their win over BYU, which is why he was the NetScouts Basketball Big East Player of the Year.
• Is Vandy going to show up and play to their ability this year?  They’ve gone home early the past few years and should beat Harvard but…
• Syracuse looks like they’ll escape with a first round win, wasn’t easy though.  They can thank James Southerland for some timely shooting and good all around play.
• Hugh Greenwood, a freshman from Australia, is a nice shooter and tough kid who is giving New Mexico some quality minutes and should have a nice career there.
• For more Aussie love, watch the Gaels of St. Mary’s and their WCC Player of the Year PG Matthew Dellavedova plus a few more.
• Why is the Pac-12 down?  Consider the recruiting choices of recent years…guys like Damien Lillard (Big Sky MVP, Weber State) & Will Cherry (Montana, All-Big Sky) are both out of Oakland, Drew Gordon – UNM, Mike Moser – UNLV, and Chase Stanback – UNLV (all three are UCLA Transfers), Jamil Wilson – Marquette (Oregon Transfer), and Demetrius Walker – of UNM (Arizona State Transfer)are all leaders of teams playing in the NCAA Tourney.  Brad Tinsley (Portland, OR) is the starting PG at Vandy.  Terrence Jones & Kyle Wiltjer (Kentucky) got out of Portland as did Stephen Holt (St. Mary’s).
• Did I mention that Cal really stunk up the gym?
• Long Beach State’s James Ennis has some HOP in those legs! Two of his three baskets are emphatic dunks.
• Speaking of Tinsley, he has 14 points and 5 assists on 5/5 shooting for Vandy today…but Vandy is finding ways to keep Harvard in it. Update: They hung on to win.
  

  Brad Tinsley

• Kentucky and Western Kentucky (who won on Tuesday in Dayton) are playing in Louisville but WKy only managed 1,000 tickets?  Uh, “It’s Big Blue Nation, you had a losing record, and got a free trip to Dayton, thanks for coming…”?
• Speaking of Kentucky.  Four teams dancing from the Bluegrass State:  Kentucky, Louisville, Western Ky, and Murray State.
• California = 4: Cal (sort of), San Diego State, Long Beach State, and St. Mary’s.
• North Carolina = 5: Duke, North Carolina, Davidson, UNC Asheville, and NC State
• New York = 4: Iona, LIU Brooklyn, Syracuse, and St. Bonaventure.
• Syracuse didn’t look real good and it had nothing to do with Fab Melo, that doesn’t mean they can’t get it going again but they just don’t seem to be playing good ball.
• Looking forward to the Gonzaga/WVa and VCU/Wichita State games…if you’ve never seen him, watch Gonzaga’s freshman PG Kevin Pangos from Canada.  He can really stroke it from 3.
• Zags vs. Mountaineers, 5 international players on the floor.  Three from Canada, one from Germany, and one from Turkey.
• Wow, WVa just laid down…Gonzaga wins big.
  

  Robert Sacre

• In fact, WVa and Cal would have been a close (and very boring) game.
• South Dakota State has a nice group, Baylor couldn’t shake ‘em.
• You want to win in the tourney? MAKE SHOTS!  VCU finished shots down the stretch and Wichita St. did not, Rams advance.
• I like Iowa State, they are an interesting team with one of the most versatile players in the country.  6’8 270 Point Forward, Royce White, is the real deal.  He is abusing Andre Drummond (UConn).  He is easily the best player on the floor, sorry Andre, sorry Jeremy Lamb.  At this point, early 2nd half, he has 10 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists which is better than the two UConn “Lottery Picks” combined.
• Although Cal stunk up the place, the remaining Pac-12 teams all played well enough to win in their various post-season games (Oregon, Washington, Wazzu, Oregon State, & Stanford)…Arizona did lose at home…and now Colorado is up early on UNLV.
• Former NBA’ers coaching in the NCAA Tourney right now…Kevin Ollie (UConn Asst.), Stacy Augmon (UNLV Asst.), Fred Hoiberg (Iowa State Head Coach & Mayor).
• more later…

Keep checking back throughout the day as we continue posting live during the NCAA Basketball Tournament.