Carnage contained?
Posted: Friday, March 19, 2010 by Travis Cody inAfter 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.
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!