As far as this report goes, it is all Zach Edey all the time. Apparenlty he is a darn good college player. He had 19 points and 10 rebounds in Purdue's victory over Tennessee - AT HALFTIME! He finished with 40 and 16. Just a dominating performance. Apparently, he was not worried about the jinx I put on Terrence Shannon the day before. He showed up, showed out, and then talked-smack about Coach Rick Barnes from Tennessee not recruiting him. He was a three-star recruit out of high school, but right now is the defending NCAA Player of the Year, a finalist, and virtual shoo-in, for the award this year, and right now THE BEST PLAYER in the Final Four. Tennessee's Dalton Knecht showed why he was the SEC Player of the Year with his gallant effort of 37 points, but there was just too much of the 7'4" Edey.
In the second game, 11-seed North Carolina State defeated the 4-seed Duke Blue Devils by methodically pulling away in the second half using the size of DJ Burns, the 6'9" 275 pound big man with footwork so smooth NFL offensive line coaches must be salivating! Duke's more lithesome front court - especially star Kyle Filipowski - could not hang as he only scored 11 points, but also fouled out! It should be noted that Burns received his third foul early in the second half, but was able to avoid his fourth until long-after it mattered. NC State has won its 9th consecutive tournament game as it was forced to win the ACC Tournament just to qualify for NCAA Tournament, and a missed free throw in the semi-finals of the ACC Tourney by Virginia's Issac McNeely with 5.3 seconds remaining and Virginia up three allowed a game-tying buzzer-beater three by Michael O'Connell to keep NC State's season alive. And boy have they taken advantage of it!!!
This game was a travesty at half-time, with Duke leading NC State 27-21. The erudite Charles Barkley remarked that both teams looked like they were thinking about the Final Four instead of playing basketball. Well, NC State played basketball putting up 55 in the second half.
So, we have NC State versus Purdue in the Final Four - with Alabama versus Connecticut on the other side. Purdue and NC State have not been to the Final Four since 1980 and 1983 respectively, and Alabama never has played in the Final Four. Let's hope their fans come correct and show out, because we Connecticut's fans will be in attendance - and boring.
With Tennessee and Duke exiting the tournament, we lost two champions. Out of the Final Four, we have 4 champions remaining. Great work collectively, everybody. That means somebody(ies) is/are going to earn at least 44 points this weekend (16 for a semi-finals win; 28 for the championship), to cement a pool championship. Our remaining champions are: Since Illinois lost, another champion is down! The remaining six-teams all have champions in our pool, so lots of competing interests remain! Our remaining champions are: ALABAMA, Auburn, Arizona, Baylor, CONNECTICUT, Creighton, Duke, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Gonzaga, Houston, Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky, Marquette, Michigan State, North Carolina, NORTH CAROLINA STATE, PURDUE and Tennessee. Cheer to your heart's content for your champion.
Yes, I did say that somebody has North Carolina State as their champion. You heard me correctly. Who is that? Well, check the standings below to see. I can tell you that a ton of entrants had Purdue, so the Pick of the Day Award goes to those that had the Wolfpack in the Final Four: Clair Bullock of Columbus, Ohio, Barkley Sosa of Riviera Beach, Florida, and Colleen Giamberini of Boynton Beach, Florida. Clair had the opportunity of earning five bonus points for the upset by 11-seed North Carolina State over 4-seed Duke, except she forgot to pick a winner in the Elite 8 between Houston and Duke. I think that if NC State goes as far as she wants them to go, those 5-points may not make a difference. But, we won't know unless it happens.
Today's Tournament flashback brings us to the 1980 Final Four, which was the last time Purdue made it to the Holy Grail of college basketball. NC State last made it in 1983, but that tournament is so iconic - Derek Whittenberg's airball alley-oop to Lorenzo Charles for the win over Phi Slamma Jamma ending with Jim Valvano running around the court like a lunatic lookning for someone to hook - that is shouldn't need mentioning. So, Purdue it is.
The 1980 NCAA Tournament is widely considered as the first modern tournament. Although the second year using seedings, it was the first in which the teams were seeded by the committee rather than just using conference champions, it was the first that did not limit the number of teams from any given conference so as to have the "best" teams and not just a cross-section, and the first in which top seeds were chosen to travel to different regions so that all the best teams did not end up in one or two geographic regions.
The Final Four was held in Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, and featured Louisville versus Iowa and UCLA versus the aforementioned Purdue.
Lousiville, the second seed in the Midwest Region, feature Derek Smith, Rodney McCray, Jerry Eaves and the man with one of the best nicknames in basketball history, Dr. Dunkenstein Darrell Giffith. Iowa was the 5-seed in the East, and advanced to the Final Four with a well-rounded team, including Ronnie Lester, Kenny Arnold, Vince Brookins, and Steve Krafcisin. The game also featured legendary coaches Denny Crum (Louisville) and Lute Olson (Iowa). Louisville won the game 80-72, behind Darrell Griffith's 34 points, with 14 and 13 from McCray and Smith respectively. Iowa's Arnold had 20, as he led 4 players in double-figures but it wasn't enough.
In the next matchup, UCLA coached by the just-as-legendary Larry Brown, came into the Final Four as the 8th seed in the west, yes, 8th, and was paced by future NBA star Kiki Vandeweghe - who I had forgotten played for UCLA. Purdue, with second-year coach Lee Rose earned the 6th seed in the Mid-East regional, and was led by future NBA overall number 1 pick Joe Barry Carroll, about which I could write an entire post, and assited by Keith Edmonson, Brian Walker, and Drake Morris. Vandeweghe - showing the NBA his future scoring prowess, scored 24 to lead UCLA and to defeat Purdue had 23 from Edmonson, and 17 points a game high 8 rebounds from Carroll.
Purdue defeated Iowa in the third-place game, which they played back then, 75-58, with Carroll going for 35 and 12 and Edmonson scoring 17. Iowa was paced by Kenny Arnold's 19. But htis was just the appetizer.
In the main event, a defensive struggle, Louisville defeated UCLA 59-54 behind Darrell Griffith's 23 points and Rodney McCray's 11 rebounds. Vendeweghe scored 14 with 7 rebounds for UCLA. UCLA's appearance was ultimately forfeited after several players were declared ineligible.
Joe Barry Carroll went on the be the first overall pick in the 1980 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors and played 11 nondescript seasons in the league, and was widely considered the worst number 1 pick in NBA History until Anthony Bennett in 2013. Kiki Vandeweghe was drafted with the 11th overall pick in the NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks and became a two-time All-Star and scored over 15,000 points.
And Darrell Griffith, was named the greatest college dunker of all time; a true, Dr. Dunkenstein. The first video contains the St. John's dunk. This one against LSU contains his Around the World.
Griffith was the second overall pick in the 1980 draft by the Utah Jazz, behind Joe Barry Carroll and just ahead of Kevin McHale. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1981, and scored over 12,300 points in his 11 years with the Jazz, where his number 35 is retired.
Griffith was a helluva player, but we also had some great players yesterday.
Players of the Day
No comments:
Post a Comment