You Don't See That Everyday

5:07 left in the Louisville vs DePaul game, a Louisville pass hits one of the Lousville players in the rear end.

4:45 left in the Mississippi St. vs Auburn game, the ball somehow ends up behind the official who loses his balance and knocks the ball out of bounds.

5:07 left in the Northwestern vs Minnesota game, a FT miss is rebounded in the back-court.

1:23 left in the Ohio St. vs Michigan game, Michigan’s Trey Burke beats Ohio St.’s Aaron Craft off the dribble for a lay-up. (And if that last one doesn’t seem that rare to you, you haven’t seen Aaron Craft play often enough.)

Speaking of Ohio St. vs Michigan, the photo of Trey Burke and Jared Sullinger playing a video game together as kids was just priceless. Most people believe that Michigan needs to make three point shots to win, but Michigan defeated the Buckeyes despite making only 3 threes in the game. I actually think the Wolverine offense works much better when they aren’t settling for perimeter jumpers, and that was the case on Saturday.

I understand the logic of fouling at half-court when up 3 with under 5 seconds left, but what was St. John’s doing fouling up 4 with over 5 seconds left? The Red Storm hung on to beat UCLA, but the late foul only served to give UCLA a chance.

John Shurna set Northwestern’s all-time scoring record in a win over Minnesota. The Gophers tried their best to keep Shurna from setting the record, by running players at him and making him work defensively. But you can’t keep a good scorer down forever, and after 0 points in the first 16 minutes of the game, he eventually set the record. 

If you love upsets, Saturday may have disappointing, but if you love comebacks, it was thrilling. Louisville trailed DePaul by 17 and came back to win in OT. Notre Dame trailed Villanova by 20 and came back to win in OT.

Streak Busting 

Air Force won for only the second time in school history against a ranked team when they defeated San Diego St. (I should point out that San Diego St. was not really a Top 25 team based on their season long margin-of-victory numbers. But when Air Force has only beaten two ranked teams in school history, I should probably just let them enjoy the win.)

Arkansas suffered its first home loss of the year to Florida. With Florida’s great guard play, you just do not want to press the Gators this year.

Memphis suffered only its 3^rd home loss in the last 5 years, falling to UTEP. When the ball was called out-of-bounds off a UTEP player, which gave Memphis a chance to tie late in the game, I thought Tim Floyd’s head was going to explode. (There is nothing like an angry coach who is chewing gum.) But Floyd finally got his signature win. Thanks to a loss by Southern Miss, Memphis and Southern Miss remain tied atop CUSA.

On the flip side, Clemson has still never won at North Carolina. 

Also, Dayton still hasn’t won at Xavier since before Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. But even if Dayton lost, their game against cross-state rival Xavier was fantastic. Xavier’s Tu Holloway had a drive-and-one at the end of regulation, and Holloway’s spin move into a three pointer in OT provided the slim margin Xavier needed to escape.

More Random Observations

Alabama again played with its two best players suspended, (Tony Mitchell and JaMychal Green), but they snuck away with a win against Tennessee. Mississippi St. was not so lucky in a game in which Renardo Sidney sat out with back spasms, losing to Auburn. Mississippi St.’s Arnett Moultrie continues to do everything he can to get a win. Since inside buckets and rebounds don’t seem to be enough these days, Moultrie even chipped in with a pair of three pointers in this game. But Frankie Sullivan’s late prayer shot for Auburn was the difference. The player I feel for in Mississippi St.’s recent collapse is senior Dee Bost. You could see the disgust in his face at the end of the game; he could feel the NCAA tournament slipping away.

Speaking of feeling things slipping away, Meyers Leonard was brought to tears by Illinois’ blowout loss at Nebraska. I think there needs to be a rule that teams with a sub-.500 conference records cannot make the NCAA tournament. I say this because when your team is struggling, it is no fun to hear people to describe them as a bubble team. There isn’t an Illinois fan anywhere who thinks that having lost 8 of 9 and getting blown out by Nebraska, that Illinois is worthy of the tournament, so it seems to be rubbing it in to describe them as a bubble team at this point. Bruce Weber as much as conceded the season after a loss to Purdue, and his team conceded giving up a 38-4 run to last place Nebraska.

People often ask me, given all my coaching analysis if I can predict when a coach will be fired. One number I will point out in Thursday’s column is that South Carolina’s Darrin Horn has struggled mightily to develop players. And since South Carolina isn’t recruiting at a high level, that lack of player development has put the Gamecocks in last place in the SEC. But a coach losing his job isn’t all about the numbers. It is about whether expectations are met, and whether there is hope for the future. Bruce Weber has been one of the best defensive coaches in the nation, but he has struggled in close games for his entire career at Illinois, and he admitted as much mid-week when he said he has failed to institute a culture of toughness with the Illinois program.

I agree with those that say that we tend to assign too much credit to intangibles, but UConn’s Shabazz Napier’s body language against Marquette was terrible. When a teammate tried to give him a fist-bump during a timeout, he just ignored him. And on one of the ESPN programs they also noted that Napier called his teammates out after the loss for their poor performance. Napier needs to be more of a leader. Instead of blaming his teammates for the teams struggles, he needs encourage them to play better.

Kansas St. held on to beat Baylor despite an awful traveling violation on a basket that would have come close to sealing the game. But the big story remains that Perry Jones III is just not a factor for the Bears. In his career, I’ve seen only one game (at BYU) where Jones was able to assert himself and will his team to victory. In Saturday’s loss he fouled out and scored just 4 points.

On Saturday, Fran Fraschilla said that Missouri is having a once-in-a-lifetime season, and I think that is the perfect sentiment. This may not be the only time that Missouri is a national title contender, but to have a 7-person rotation come together and have a 2-loss season is exceedingly rare. Forget all the criticisms about size or depth, or Frank Haith inheriting Mike Anderson’s players, at a certain point you just have to sit-back and appreciate what Missouri has accomplished. 2-loss seasons deserve to be celebrated, not picked apart.

I refuse to listen to people who say that the Bracket Busters hurts mid-major teams NCAA odds by exposing them late in the year. No one could watch Long Beach St. and Creighton and not believe that both these teams look like NCAA squads. It certainly was a joy to watch national player-of-the-year candidate Doug McDermott play a high profile game. At one point he caught a pass in the paint, but facing a triple team he dribbled out of the paint and passed to a teammate in the far corner. He then ran back into the paint and jammed home the offensive rebound. That was impressive hustle in any league. And his lay-up from behind the basket was unbelievable.

My biggest criticism with the Bracket Busters this year wasn’t that it exposed Davidson or any such nonsense. My main complaint is that we didn’t get very many close games. The second best non-BCS game of the day was a WCC conference tilt between San Francisco and Gonzaga, not a Bracket Busters game. Gonzaga had 23 turnovers, and Elias Harris missed a pair of shots in the final 20 seconds, as San Francisco held on to beat Gonzaga by a point.