A Stream of Consciousness: Thoughts on Basketball

It's Friday evening, night two of the NCAA Tournament, round here it's more affectionately known as March Madness - here are my thoughts as they happen with the multiple games in play. It's approx. 9:30in the PM Atlantic Time at the moment and Georgetown is facing a steep deficit and another early elimination from the tournament. Villanova has climbed back into their game with North Carolina after trailing by a significant early margin (20+). Ohio State has seen it's comfortable 19 point lead trimmed and things are getting a little more tense versus Iona. Florida is up 8 at the half on Northwestern State. That's the scene.

Villanova has woken up big time since it's early deficit and are now the aggressor, just grabbed their first lead (44-42, 14min to go) since the score was 4-3. Ohio State is clicking again, forcing turnovers and scoring in transition. Thompson making athletic plays look very pedestrian. Craft has the rare ability to dominate the game on the defensive end of the floor, 7 stls on the night with 13 minutes still to play. I like Steve Kerr on the play call, great insights and explanations. Calling the game with a great like Marv Albert probably doesn't hurt. Reggie Miller on the other hand, not so much. Not sure how I feel about this new Jackie Robinson '42' biopic? If you're doing it right, it certainly can't be rated PG, no? Georgetown has been it's own worst enemy here in the second half, so many wasted possessions with poor long range shots. The Otto Porter, best G-Town player since Allen Iverson, discussions can cease to exist. Florida Gulf Coast just dunked all over Georgetown up 9 with 2 minutes to go and it looks like a 2 seed is going down to a 15 seed. FGC legit. This is happening. Starks a couple late 3's, keeping it interesting. Game over, FGC big upset. Reggie Miller disputes Len Elmore's claim his son predicted the upset, nice. North Ca rolina head coach Roy Williams benched his starters because they squandered their large lead vs. Villanova. His starters sat several minutes early in the second half before returning to play with a renewed energy and passion. Interesting coaching move in such a big game, granted Roy had the insurance of a small lead to begin his 'message', it was still a gutsy play and seems to have paid off, I love how much of the college game comes down to the coaches, their preparation and in-game decisions. Returned to Ohio State game, now out of hand, see you in the round of 32 Brutus. Villanova continues to get the ball inside and make UNC pay. UNC up 4 with 1:27 to play. Villanova having trouble getting a look, with their pick and roll action. UNC bucket and the foul off the Villanova desperation miss. You can book this one. UNC up 8 under a min. Florida has been very efficient in the second half, seeing their lead push out to 20+. Turnovers on one end and good looks on other is a good recipe for success. Somewhere a curvy gal loosens her diaphragm. "Aaron Craft is the best leader in college basketball", Barkley is right when he says that. Sometimes a guard can have a dominant impact in the tournament even if they aren't a dominant athlete, which is rare at the professional level think Mateen Cleaves, Gerry McNamara, Khalid El Amin, Andre Miller, Juan Dixon. I think it's hilarious when an analyst, in this case it was Sam Mitchell, says something along the lines of "Georgetown needs to play Georgetown basketball", what kind of insight is that? If it was the 'Showtime' Lakers and they were in a low scoring grind it out game I could understand this reference, yes they need to play Laker basketball, they need to pick up the pace - but to suggest they need to play "team _______ basketball" and insinuate it's the style they play when they are playing well is really no insight at all, might as well say "they need to play, the way they play, when they are playing well", oh really,  thanks for that. Enjoy the rest of tonght's games. Have a laugh at my expense, lots of red in that bracket.
Peace