Tag Archives: NCAA Tournament

The Day After: Hoopaholic’s Gazette

Basketball

As this wackamole of a season careened off the rails, tumbling down Mt. Sinai, banging through the rapids of the River Styx and resting someplace in a stagecoach on the cactus-strewn road to Houston, a sprawling city with zero planning & zoning, there was a consensus among the punditocracy.

Including in these quarters at the vast 13 acre campus of Seedy K Sports.

There really is not a best team this season, just one with enough survival gear to escape six games in a row.

And, then this happened.

We all started asking as the FF approached, is there one more surprise? Might Miami or Florida Atlantic or San Diego State actually prevail as champion?

Because as if all of a sudden there appeared to be a clearly best team: the Huskies of UConn. Who were sashaying their way through the Dance card with the second highest victory margin per W ever. (UK, I believe, in The Rick’s title season there, in case you’re curious.)

And so it came to pass.

There was no One More Surprise before One Shining Moment. Continue reading The Day After: Hoopaholic’s Gazette →

Seedy K’s Tourney Takeaways

Basketball

(Hey!) Over, under, sideways, down/ (Hey!) I bounce a ball that’s square and round/ (Hey!) Over, under, sideways, down/ (Hey!) I bounce a ball that’s square and round/ When will it end? (When will it end?)/ When will it end? (When will it end?)

So, yeah, is this the most cockamamie Final Four ever?

In the era of seeding, and 64, uh make that 68 teams, one has to assume it to be so.

But back in the day, like in ’70 when there were this conglomeration. Behemoth UCLA, and Jacksonville, New Mexico State and St. Bonaventure. The trio of servants were all indies, when that was a thing in college hoops.

The whole affair was pretty much geographic in makeup. And there were byes. And schools got to play sometime on their homecourt in early rounds. Like the mighty mighty Bruins did often.

But in the Era of One Shining Moment? Continue reading Seedy K’s Tourney Takeaways →

Seedy K’s Takeaways: Iowa

Basketball, ,

Louisville 83, Iowa 97.

There are times when there is simply nothing you can do.

When a team runs into a foe led by a transcendent star who is executing a not-to-be-denied dominant performance.

Ask peacock Kim Mulkey and Britney Griner about Shoni.

We’ve heard oh so much about Caitlin Clark.

Too much? Actually, frankly, no not really.

She was described before the game as a cross between Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.

Who am I to disagree?

On the season, she’s hitting 58% from 25 feet and beyond from the hoop.

That’s absurd.

Sunday night, Clark historically went for 41 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists.

She was not going to lose this game. Continue reading Seedy K’s Takeaways: Iowa →

Seedy K’s GameCap: Ole Miss

Basketball, ,

“Hotty Totty! Gosh A Mighty! Who in the hell are we? Rim! Ram! Flim! Flam! Ole Miss, by Damn!”

Well, as you Rebs head back to Oxford Town, Hotty Totty This . . .

. . . Louisville 72, Mississippi 62.

Thus, with this disparate crew that took time to jell, Jeff Walz in his 16th season has the Louisville Cardinals headed to the Elite Eight for the fifth straight time and eighth time in school history.

Hawkeyes ahead. By damn.

 * * * * *

Hailey Van Lith got the full World Wide Leader superstar treatment on the TV pregame.

Then she scored the Cardinals’ first five points, and led the squad with 21. Also 5 boards, 4 assists.

And, when Ole Miss cut the lead to five in the 4th at 58-53, Van Lith shut the door, when she tallied in the paint for a 7 point advantage.

But, let’s be clear, there is only one choice for Player of Game. In this corner anyway.

Mykasa Robinson, come on down. Continue reading Seedy K’s GameCap: Ole Miss →

Seedy K’s Game Cap: Texas

Basketball,

Hook that on your home court, ye Horns.

Inside Austin City Limits, the final tally in the Round of 32 read: Louisville 73, Texas  51.

It wasn’t that close.

Top Ten early on, Jeff Walz’s Cards dropped out of the Top 25 early in the campaign.

Now, they stand among the Sweet Sixteen. Familiar territory.

Ole Miss, upset victor over Stanford, awaits surging U of L in the Seattle Regional.

 * * * * *

As is often the case during Walz’s reign, Louisville rushed out to a 7-0 advantage from the tip.

The Longhorns steadied. 16-16 after the 1st.

Then the hammer came down. The game turned. Continue reading Seedy K’s Game Cap: Texas →

First Weekend Musings: Hoopaholic’s Gazette

Basketball,

Now there are three.

Clear contenders, that is, for the biggest college hoops upset ever.

Some remain in the Chaminade over UVa corner. 1982. it was so long ago.

When reporting the score on ESPN, after confirming it was not a mistake, Chris Berman said, “We can’t tell you what happened, but the No. 1 team in college basketball has lost to—we don’t even know who they are.”

Others, more inclined toward recency bias: UMBC, a 16 seed over top line Virginia. Oh that school again. By 20 no less as a twenty point dog.

The new entry in the hopper? Fairleigh Dickinson over Purdue.

While huge, this opinionated dude is going to discount that first one by the Silver Swords. Not that it wasn’t monumental, it was. Ralph Sampson was a Wahoo. But it was in Hawai’i, after a long trip. On Chaminade’s court. And in the middle of the night back here on the mainland.

Not on TV. Nor are there videos that I’m aware of. So, did it really happen?

Yes, but you catch my drift.

The Retrievers from the Land o’ The Wire essentially broke UVa, thereby perpetuating the dialog at the time that Tony Bennett’s deliberate style of play could never prevail in the Dance. Which debunked train of thinking again sprang forth after the Cavaliers lost to Furman this weekend.

So UMBC’s W has to be hugely considered.

But, Fairleigh Dickinson over Purdue, pour moi, is clearly the most surprising, improbable and dumbfounding. Continue reading First Weekend Musings: Hoopaholic’s Gazette →

Hoopaholics Gazette: The First Window

Basketball,

They sentenced me to eight decades of hoopdom . . .

Respects to Leonard Cohen.

Unlike many fans whose team like mine has an empty dance card, I’m a hoopaholic.

I’m locked in.

Though, in a sign of maturity, or so I would crow, I missed the opening half of Huggy Bear vs. Terrapins, while keeping a lunch engagement made a month ago.

I did not linger.

This is one of my favorite days of the year, every year.

Some random musings follow. Continue reading Hoopaholics Gazette: The First Window →

My Feelings After Cards Won ’13 NCAA

Basketball, ,

The 2013 NCAA National Basketball Champion Louisville Cardinals will be honored Saturday night at the Clemson game. This is a piece I wrote in the immediate aftermath of that title. It includes a couple stories oft told before and after. (Frankly not sure how the Jerry Lee anecdote is pertinent. Sorta made sense at the time. To me. Verbosity über alles.) I am intent on leaning into these emotions during this current season of woe. Remembering I only wanted one.

Omne trium perfectum.

If we are lucky as we slip into our dotage, if more synapses stay connected than not, we’ll remember salient moments, significant snippets of dialog from yesteryear.

A cunning retort. A pithy aside. Legit advice that resonates.

A life changing admonition. A homily to guide. A comforting whisper, such as the one that really should begin this piece, But first, as if to illustrate, a moment of insight into celebrity. Continue reading My Feelings After Cards Won ’13 NCAA →

Card Nine’s Season Ends in a Grinder

Baseball,

Of the nuances of another game we love, Larry Bird once observed — and I paraphrase — a free throw made or missed in the 1st quarter is just as important as one in the final seconds.

This thinking applies in college baseball, both micro in a specific game being contested, but also macro if somewhat differently over the course of the long season.

In ultra-steamy College Station, Texas, U of L’s Cardinals dropped two one-run Super Regional affairs, grinders in balance until the final AB. To a similarly talented ball club, blessed to be sleeping in their own beds.

Playing in familiar confines, before a rabid Aggie crowd with that institutional 12th Man attitude, as loud and quirky and inclined to try to get under foe’s skin as any in the land.

Given how the collegiate post-season is structured, what happens in March and April and May informs the scenario come tournament time.

I can’t help but wonder what if . . . Continue reading Card Nine’s Season Ends in a Grinder →

Regional Roundup: Cards Balk Way to Supers

Baseball, College Sports,

Monday. Inclemency imminent.

Loser packs spikes for season. Winner to College Station for Super Texas Death Match.

High Noon. Do not forsake me, oh my darlin’.

PRP fave son Garrett Schmeltz surrenders two to Wolverines in top of 1st.

Looking to capture third straight in Astro stripes, U of L Cardinals blast back in their half.

Knapczyk single. Metzinger walk. Two go down. Usher doubles to right. Two score. Masterman drives him home. Humphrey HBP. Beard single scores another. Bianco HBP. Sacks full. Knapczyk bunt RBI. Metzinger walks again, run scores. Rushing reaches on error, Bianco tallies.

And, just like that, Cards up 7-2.

The fun had just begun. Continue reading Regional Roundup: Cards Balk Way to Supers →