Inevitable Rules of College Basketball

When predicting the NCAA tournament, prognosticators often look to two specific aspects of the game to determine which teams will win games in the tournament; guard play and free throws. These two key factors merged into one person during the Kentucky-Marquette game this afternoon: Wesley Matthews.

(As a quick aside, this is Kentucky and Marquette's tenth meeting in the NCAAs, the last time being Dwyane Wade's famous triple double in the 2003 Elite Eight to earn a berth in the Final Four. Now back to our regularly scheduled post.)

Matthews is a 6'5" junior guard, and is often the afterthought of the three guard lineup that Coach Tom Crean often uses, after stars Dominic James and Jerel McNeal. For most of today's game, Matthews struggled, going 2-10 from the field, including one miss from three point range. But when it counted, Matthews calmed his nerves and shot the ball extremely well.

HE WENT 8-8 FROM THE FREE THROW LINE IN THE LAST 31 SECONDS.

That's right, Matthews shot 8 free throws and hit all 8 in the last 31 seconds of the game. Every one of these free throws was critical to the victory, despite the 74-66 final score, as Marquette only held a 2 point lead with 24 seconds left. Matthews iced the game at the charity stripe, allowing the favored Eagles to advance to the second round to play the Stanford-Cornell winner. He finished the game with 13 points, including going 9-10 from the free throw line.

Congratulations to Matthews for his performance down the stretch. That was one well earned victory. You are the clutch player of the afternoon.