By Paul Gotham
That shook the bushes
Whew! What do you get when you mix four overtime games, with three double-digit seeds advancing to the Sweet 16, and 10 games decided by three points or less? Oh wait…I forgot to add in there – 11 different conferences represented in the Regional Semi-finals.
What do you get? The greatest show on earth, that’s what you get.
The NCAA Tournament, especially the first two rounds, never disappoints, and this past weekend might be the best in recent memory. I am still a little dazed from all the action. If someone can think of a better weekend from The Dance, please chime in.
Is it a verb or a noun?
After all the dust has settled, we have a new moniker. How will it be used? When a player hits a shot, that has everyone saying: “No, no…Yes!” Which one will it be? He did a “Farook?” Or, he “Farooked” them?
It really doesn’t matter. With one shot, Ali Farokhmanesh put himself into history. Yeah, it was his fourth trifecta of the night. Of course, he was 0-4 up to that point in the second half, but shooters shoot. And shoot is what “Farook” did. Clinging to a one-point lead and too much time on the clock, Farokhmanesh let it fly. It was great to hear the comments during the post-game press conference. Adam Koch: “If you know Ali, you know that shot is going up.” Head Coach Ben Jacobson: “Ali isn’t one for paying attention to time and score.”
A little confusing
Many have been touting the Panthers as the first Missouri Valley tournament champion to advance to the Sweet 16. If you are like me, you are scratching your head and thinking – what about Southern Illinois? Yeah, three years ago today the Salukis lost to Kansas, 61-58 in the Regional Semi-final. The difference is that Southern Illinois earned an at-large bid to the tournament.
It’s only been 31 years
Yes, we are getting ahead of ourselves, or better yet, I am getting ahead of myself, but it has been more than three decades since a representative from the Missouri Valley Conference and the Ivy League advanced to the Final Four. Penn and Indiana State punched tickets to Salt Lake City for the 1979 Final Four. I suppose it’s wishful thinking. Can you blame a guy for dreaming? We can count on a sea of red (that will clash with the orange seat backs) at the Carrier Dome this Thursday as Cornell (about a 90 minute drive from Syracuse) takes on the Kentucky Wildcats.
That sound you hear is tickets being scarfed up on Stub Hub and other ticket broker sites.
Bombs away
Speaking of Cornell, the Big Red represent a number of teams using the three-pointer to score 25 percent or more of their points. Cornell hit nine threes (27 points) to beat Temple, 78-65. The denizens of Ithaca followed with 24 of 87 points from long range against Wisconsin. Kansas State scored 33 of 84 beating BYU. The Wildcats opened the tourney scoring 21 of 82 from long range against North Texas. St. Mary’s scored 24 of 80 and 21 of 75 this weekend. Northern Iowa had carbon copies with 27 of 69 points in both of their wins. For the weekend, Syracuse scored 66 of 166 from behind the arc.
Begs the question: Which is the cart and which is the horse? All of those teams have a scorer in the paint. Are opponents more concerned with points in the pain? Or points from long range?
Conference call
Conference W L Pct.
Horizon 2 0 1.000
Ivy 2 0 1.000
Miss Valley 2 0 1.000
Big Ten 7 2 .777
Pac 10 3 1 .750
West Coast 3 1 .750
SEC 4 2 .667
Big 12 7 5 .583
Big East 6 6 .500
ACC 5 5 .500
A10 2 2 .500
Other conferences getting wins – Colonial, Mid-American, Ohio Valley, Southwestern Athletic, and the Mountain West.
Who would have thought the Big Ten would have the most teams remaining with three? The Big East lies somewhere between the “best conference by far” and “The Big Least.”
Matt Painter – coach of the weekend
Count me among the number who dismissed the Boilermakers. Did they show us? Purdue has way too much pride in that locker room to fold. Matt Painter has his kids believing, and the Boilermakers will be a tough out. With Robbie Hummel on the sidelines, the scouting report has changed. Opponents will need to adjust…quickly.
Not so “mid” any more
Peter Thamel’s piece on New York Times brings up a topic I have considered for a while: the “mid-major” title might fall into the category of archaic. Jim Boeheim praised Cornell endlessly after the Orange won an early-season game against the Big Red, 88-73. A month and a half later, the eventual Ivy League champ had Kansas on the ropes at the Allen Fieldhouse. KU won 71-66. But the message was clear – The Big Red was not to be overlooked.
Cornell is not the only team that should NOT be a surprise. Butler has played UCLA, Minnesota, Northwestern, Clemson, Georgetown, and Ohio State to name a few. Anyone surprised by Xavier is just not paying attention. The Musketeers have made it to the Sweet 16 three years in a row.
Cornell pulled no punches. Neither did St. Mary’s or Xavier. They took their opponents’ best punch and stayed standing.
Call it what you want. Northern Iowa versus Kansas comes down to intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation. How many kids on the Northern Iowa stand a chance of making an NBA roster? Probably none. Where as many of the Jayhawks are evaluating their draft status. Kansas is a stepping stone to them. Northern Iowa kids are playing for the here and now. It’s a beautiful thing. Undoubtedly, the student-athletes in the MVC, Ivy, Horizon, etc. love the game of basketball. Why else would the put in the endless hours? One and done kids? Do they love the game? Or the status? Or the adulation? Or the pot o’ cash at the end of the rainbow?
Game of the weekend
Paring it down to ONE game could be fruitless, but the Maryland – Michigan State game was amazing. The Terrapins and Spartans exchanged leads FOUR times in the final :31. Four times! The last came at the horn. Greivis Vasquez put Maryland ahead 83-82 with seven ticks on the Timex to go. Without a timeout, the Spartans took the inbound and Draymond Green dished to Korie Lucious for the winner.
The Spartans go forward unsure of Kalin Lucas’s status.
Sympathy for Siena
Much has been made of the injuries of Robbie Hummel, Arinze Onuaku, and Lucas. Few know the Siena Saints had a hole in their lineup Friday. Clarence Jackson watched from the bench as Siena fell to Purdue 72-64. Jackson sprained his ankle during practice earlier in the week. He averages 13 points and two rebounds for Fran McCaffery’s crew. I had the chance to watch the Siena – Purdue tilt in a restaurant about four miles from the Albany campus. Great atmosphere indeed.
Got any college basketball splinters? Please, share them here.
Ali maneshed to farokh Kansas!
Having an inside-out/outside-in game is a coach’s delight. And an opponent’s nightmare. Love to see that ball movement from the perimeter into the post and back out again. Most teams have a few long range shooters, but only a few teams ALSO have a big man who’s both a scoring threat inside and a good passer.
As for the “game of the weekend” … although MSU vs Maryland was a GREAT game, my vote goes to the No. Iowa vs Kansas tilt. David was in the process of slaying Goliath, but Goliath made a furious comeback and WE ALL thought that David would crater and cough it up in the end. But noooooooooooooooo… Ali says “@$#%#@$% you” and hits Goliath squarely in the nose with one ballsy slingshot. THAT was the game of the weekend ! No … the game of the year! IMO 🙂
Agree that Faroooook’s shot and that game was the game of the year. I was at Rookies and the place was on tilt every basket over the last 5 minutes. Everyone cheering the good by N. Iowa, everyone bemoaning the success of Kansas’ run. The emotions were great… imagine if the game was on at 7 instead of 5. The place started to get packed when we left after that game.
On the mid-major topic… I remember discussing something similar in the fall concerning football. So many programs are first class now, so many programs are on tv, so many chances to be heroes at every school. The biggest difference between the big time programs 20 years ago that dominated and the teams now is the kids who don’t stay in school. Everyone seems to jump early. Imagine if those big names stayed in school until they were fully matured and coached and developed like the older teams from N. Iowa or Cornell. What would Derick (sp.?) Rose look like for Memphis now, what would Johnny Flynn be? How good could McRoberts have been for Duke? Those guys would be amazing and those big programs would still dominate. However, old teams from the “mid-majors” have just as good a chance of winning a 1 game series as those young guys from the “Big 6 Conferences”. It’s less athletic older guys who are better shooters, defenders, passers, and have great understanding of the game vs. young superstars with all of the natural ability in the world. It’s a great dynamic and it’s what is adding to all of the parody that we find to be so fascinating this time of year. Gotta love it.
On that same note, what year is Andy Rautins? DeShaun Butler? John Scheyer? Is it a surprise that Syracuse, West Virginia, and Duke are three of the Big schools still playing?? It shouldn’t be.
No mention of Larry Bird on the 1979 Indiana State team??
By the way Wally, I can’t get Ali Farukmanesh’s name out of my head…”Faruk me!”
No doubt the UNI upset of Kansas has waaaaay more story lines and will live on much longer than MSU’s win over Maryland. Keep in mind Maryland was down 9 with 2:00 to go. They take the lead with :39 remaining only to have the Spartans get it back. The Terps took the lead again a few seconds later before Lucious hit the game winner. It was Ali and Frazier standing in the middle of the ring raining haymakers. It wasn’t exactly sexy, but wow was it exciting.
As for the “mid-majors” – 20 years ago UNLV, from the Mountain West, was the best team in college. As Pete has been mentioning of late, there were plenty of the less-than-glamorous schools that ranked near the top of the college basketball 1990 and before.
Ali-Frazier? Nah. More like Duran-Leonard. But No. Iowa was Rocky beating Apollo Creed.
i like balls
i mean basketballs
o what the hell, i like farukaballs
noooo, faruk meeeeeee!
Steph
Thanks for the comments.
You play to win the game!
What are farukaballs?
I have no idea what is going on. When are we going to talk some baseball.
Op,
Ali Farohkmanesh is a player for Northern Iowa. He hit a big shot a couple weeks ago. Since then, everyone has fun playing around with his name. You might want to ask Aunt Bea about that stuff.