Friday, March 25, 2011

Friday Night Open Thread

Please join me in the comments to this post to discuss the games tonight. We should have some great games tonight, so let's enjoy them together.

Remember, my previews for these games are here.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice previews,lets go Marquette!!

Jeff said...

If Kansas is going to hit 71% on threes and Richmond is going to have a 28.1 eFG%, I don't think this is going to be a good day for the Spiders.

Anonymous said...

great prewiews

I need Ohio and Florida win without hendikep for money

Will they win?
How you're sure about Ohio win?

Jeff said...

Can't ever be sure about anything... anybody can beat anybody.

Anonymous said...

ok

Nort Carolina 34-15

I hope Ohio and Florida will do the same

Once again, congratulations for the analysis

Anonymous said...

Looks like Marquette and Richmond are going to get blown out If this continues In the second half

Jeff said...

Yeah, there are some nervous network execs worried about people turning their televisions off.

Richmond at least showed a little life at times. If they can hit a few threes they can get that game manageable again. Marquette looks done, though. UNC is too explosive offensively - Marquette would have to score 60+ points in the half to even cover the spread.

Jeff said...

Well, here's hoping for a better set of second games...

Jeff said...

Getting Joey Rodriguez in foul trouble is even more important for FSU than drawing the score closer. I know Jamie Skeen is the better all-around basketball player, but Rodriguez is the heart-and-soul of VCU's offense. They will be much less efficient with him off the floor.

Meanwhile, fans of every Big Ten team other than Ohio State is nodding and smiling at Kentucky fans upset at all of the fouls drawn by Jared Sullinger. The guy has gotten the superstar treatment from the refs all year long.

Jeff said...

I want to also add that even though FSU is down by 5 at the half, they have 11 more offensive rebounds and 3 fewer turnovers. How can they have 14 more possessions and still be down by 6? VCU has an eFG% of 63.0, and FSU's is 34.9. That differential won't last the whole game.

If FSU continues to dominate the boards without turning the ball over, like they did in the first half, they will win.

JDJ said...

Thanks for all the great work this year Jeff, it is much appreciated.

First set of games were fine with me, as a Tar Heel fan. Marquette is not a terrible team offensively - sometimes the shots just don't fall (see UNC vs. Kansas - 2008 Final Four). It helps that we have bigs that can limit their offensive rebounding on all those misses.

Glad these late games are providing some excitement. I can't decide who I rather play between UK and Ohio St. I think we'd have a better shot against Kentucky, but a loss to them would also sting much more.

Jeff said...

Kentucky beat Ohio State... nothing makes sense anymore. That has to be the most shocking upset in the Sweet 16. I could stare at any stat I want to and still can't come up with a rationale to take Kentucky if they replay that game...

OSU had a 37.9 eFG%, only the third time all season they finished under 40%, with one of those coming against Florida State.

Jeff said...

As a UNC fan you should be very happy you're getting Kentucky. Ohio State would be a 3-4 point favorite over UNC, but UNC will be at least a 2 point favorite over Kentucky.

Anonymous said...

LOL at Ohio State, absolutely disgusting offense, Buford was awful, Sullinger kept them in it in the 2nd half, Diebler played well, but just a disgraceful display of offense, surprised their coach didnt intervene during the 2nd half stretch and try to fix their play, embarrassing...

JDJ said...

Yeah, I'm glad not to face Ohio State. No idea how UK did that, but glad we don't have to.

Maybe the Kentucky defense is better than the stats reflect because they can play harder/better when they have to.

Jeff said...

It was truly shocking. I've seen the majority of OSU's games this year, and I've never seen them look that out-of-sorts offensively. They fell in love with 20 foot contest jumpers.

Kentucky over OSU definitely passes Butler over Wisconsin as the biggest shocker of the Sweet 16 games. Arizona over Duke was only a "shocker" to people who didn't see Arizona play this year.

Jeff said...

Kentucky is a very good defense, and they deserve a lot of credit, but OSU also just shot poorly and made poor decisions. It was a combination of those two things.

OSU hit 31% of their two-point attempts in that game, which is particularly shocking when you consider how many dunks and layups they had. They must have shot something like -5% on those long two-point jumpers...

Most top teams have that one game where they get tight and nervous and struggle to play their game, and if you can survive that game then you can hit a groove. That's what happened to North Carolina, for example. OSU didn't survive theirs.

Anonymous said...

Buford seemed to think that driving into traffic and taking wild shots or shooting contested fadeaway jumpers around the three point line like he's freaking Kobe Bryant was a good idea, absolutely piss poor coaching in the 2nd half by Ohio State.

Sullinger met his match and struggled in isolation situations, but he he still managed to have an impact and was basically OSU's only weapon in the 2nd half off of hustle plays and such...

OSU just completely choked, its like they thought they could just show up in the 2nd half, shoot contested shots and still win the game...coach should be fired for not trying to get SOMETHING going in the 2nd half...

Jeff said...

I find it humorous that of all of the future NBA All-Star games that will be played by the talent on that Kentucky roster, their most important player in that game by far was Josh Harrellson, a guy who probably won't ever be good enough to make a D-League team.

Jeff said...

Thad Matta has never been a brilliant coach. He's a brilliant recruiter. He has the top recruiting class in the Big Ten basically every year, which is why it's absurd when he gets mentioned as a Coach of the Year just because his team wins a lot of games. Coaches of the Year should be based on winning relative to talent. I had no problem with Matt Painter winning it in the Big Ten this year, but how was Matta considered by the media to be Painter's top contender instead of, say, John Beilein?

Anonymous said...

I find it funny that Ohio State's coach is a dumbass.

Actually, no I don't, I find it freaking pathetic, fire his ass.

Jeff said...

For the record, VCU's run to the Elite Eight doesn't change the fact that they were the worst team given an at-large bid. When you lose to James Madison and Drexel and then turn around and beat Purdue and Florida State, it's not because James Madison and Drexel are superior to Purdue and FSU, it's because you're on a blessed, lucky run.

This has been the wackiest NCAA Tournament in years. Nothing makes sense...

Although I will give FSU credit for continuing to cement their reputation as the single worst team at putting together a quality shot with the game clock running down.

Anonymous said...

Kentucky is favored over UNC by 1.

Jeff said...

That's pretty shocking. I haven't looked at the numbers yet, but I can't see myself picking Kentucky with that spread.

Kemba said...

I believed in Kentucky, Jeff, now hopefully you can believe in them to beat UNC before they face us in the final four, where, obviously they will lose.

Anonymous said...

Pomeroy says that Kentucky should be a 2 point favorite.

Jeff said...

I saw that, but I disagree. UNC's computer ratings are out of whack because of how they played at the start of the season, and I think all of the individual match-ups favor them.