Carnage contained?

Posted: Friday, March 19, 2010 by Travis Cody in
8

After early challenges, 4 seed Purdue and 3 seed Pittsburgh controlled their games and beat double digit seeds by double digits.

But 13 seed Wofford's upset bid of 4 seed Wisconsin went by the wayside with an unfortunate turnover with about 5 seconds left. I really don't like to criticize a young man who is trying to do his best on behalf of his team, but the player from Wofford dribbled away 12 seconds at the end of the game and ended up cornered on the baseline. With nowhere to go and no possible play to make, he bounced the ball off his body out of bounds. Wisconsin made a couple of free throws and escaped with the 4 point win.

There's no blame to the kid who committed the turnover. Rather we can celebrate solid defense from the Wisconsin player to contain the drive and force the turnover. But dribbling out the clock in search of an opening to the basket doesn't make any sense to me. Pass and cut and force the defense to react.

10 seed Missouri used a high octane grab-it-and-go offense to wear out 7 seed Clemson. It counts as another upset, but I look at these 7 vs 10 match ups the same way I see the 8 vs 9 games. It's an upset, but these teams are so close in ability that it's not a major one.

So carnage contained for this group of 4 games.

8 comments:

  1. Desert Songbird says:

    My computer was acting wonky again, and I lost feed to the games. I was frankly too lazy to watch CBS's coverage of back and forth broadcasting, so I didn't catch much of the rest of round one action.

    I agree with you that the 7 v. 10 match ups are pretty much even. Given the way the #12 seeds have played thus far, it seems like those teams are pretty even, too!

  1. Anonymous says:
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  1. Songbird: I think the entire field is representative of the kind of season it's been. There's no team that is a lock. Since I'm not all that concerned about the results for a bracket contest, this is too much fun!

    Akelamalu: Hi yourself!

  1. Anonymous says:

    Hello. And Bye.

  1. Anonymous says:

    Trav: Just stopping by to read your take on the 'fever'. I watch, but I have more experience with baseball talk. I was a freelance statistician for three summers - only gal in the press box. But b-ball? Fish out of water. Never got past the squeaking shoes . . .

  1. j says:

    I'm such a dud. I haven't watched any of the games.

  1. Debra says:

    Trav, in some ways this post makes me a little jelous. Oh how I wished I loved basketball!

    Sorry, don't mind me, I'm just missing football...just delete this comment if you want to lol!