By Paul Casey Gotham
It is that time again. Let’s hear from you, readers. We had another week of stellar performances. Pick the ONE (1), UNE, UNO from March 21st-27th that stands out to you, and tell us a story.
Butler’s Shelvin Mack gets my POTW.
The Butler guard put bookends on a 74-71 victory over the Florida Gators as the Bulldogs clinched back-to-back trips to the Final Four.
Mack hit his first three attempts from the field as Butler jumped to an early 8-4 lead in the Southeast Regional final. The junior from Lexington, Kentucky capped the game with his team’s final five points as the Bulldogs rallied to defeat the Gators in overtime.
In all, Mack finished with 27 points and four assists. He is averaging 21 points and three helpers in Butler’s four NCAA tournament wins.
Who gets your POTW?
Boy … given how the tournament has played out thus far, this is a tough one. Certainly, Butler and Mack deserve major kudos for getting to the F4 again as it’s pointed out above. Kentucky and UConn are terrific stories and accomplishments, too. But I have to go with VCU overall as the most impressive performance, esp given the very low expectations. They barely even make the field of 68 and go on to cap an incredible run of 5 wins over highly ranked teams by impressively beating Kansas yesterday. Most “experts” and non-experts predicted Kansas would certainly go to the title game, but VCU convincingly dismantled them. Their point guard, Rodriguez, has been fantastic and really the engine behind their success.
I’m going to go with VCU’s Jamie Skeen: 26 pts, 10 rebs in win over Kansas. I read somewhere (don’t know if it’s true) that the Morris brothers met VCU’s captains at mid-court for the pre-game handshake and told them it’s been a nice run, but now it’s time to go home. I guess they should have been speaking in the first person.
Good calls.
This article backs up Chas: https://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/2011/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=6264781
Well since the entire men’s Final Four teams were nominated – I am switching sports and going with Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres. Miller had two shutouts this week – against le Canadiens and the New Jersey Devils. Since the sale of the Sabres to Terry Pegula – the Sabres have been playing great hockey. They may enter the playoffs as the hottest and most dangerous team in the Eastern Conference.
I’d like to nominate Notre Dame Hockey for making it to the Frozen Four and ND Women’s basketball for beating Tennessee last night to earn a trip to the Final Four. If only the men were this good!
hahahaha
AMEN to that!
I will second Molly’s choices. ND hockey now has to play Minn. Duluth in St. paul, tantamount to a home game for Duluth, but the Irish may be ready to garner that first national championship in hockey. A match-up with Michigan might prove to be a classic final! As to ND’s women, I am just going a bit more specific than Molly. Skylar Diggins controlled the game and Becca Bruszewski pulled a Willis Reed playing on a bum knee to give her team the emotional boost they needed to score their first-ever win over the Vols. I was a little disappointed if the quotes from Summit were the scope of what she said, because all I heard was how poorly her team played. Little or no credit was given to the Irish. Good chance ND will be the only non #1 seed in the Final Four. This may be Muffet’s best coaching job ever.
Pat Summit is a) scarey and b) a real sore loser! ND is now 1-20 vs UT, so for that reason alone this might be Muffet’s best coaching job ever. But she needs a new hair-do … that one’s gettin’ kinda old. 😉
Assuming UConn gets past Duke, the ND women will face the Huskies in the semi’s UConn has beaten ND three times this year (a couple close ones) and probably at least 12 or more times consecutively. Maybe another losing streak will magically come to an end?
And down here in Texas, we’re hoping the A&M Lady Aggies can finally get by Baylor to earn their way to the Final Four. A&M has lost 3 games to Baylor this season by a cumulative total of 8 points or so. Just need to pull some hair or scratch ’em some more … whatever it takes !!!
I can only hope that ND does what A&M just did; win the 4th match-up of the season against an opponent that had beaten them in the first 3. The A&M win stings a bit for me; I had just moved above the 90th percentile in ESPN bracket with ND’s triumph, but I had Baylor (tho just for one more game).
Pete —
Molly and I share your hopes for the Lady Irish. Game vs UConn is Sunday evening …. they’ll have to play great …. and probably need a bit o’ luck, too.
Sorry about your move back below the “Mendoza line” for the ESPN pool 🙂