MBB: NCAAT Midwest Regional Discussion Thread (Kentucky Wins)

[NYBri]

I wanted so bad for ND to beat those intercoursing buttholes.

[Newton_14]

Wells?

Wrong Bonzi, Newt.

HA! You are the 2nd person to catch that blunder! Bonzi Colson of course. LOL. Cant believe I did that.

[NashvilleDevil]

Two things. Those that are saying that Cal now has the Cats' attention are correct but Notre Dame just showed the remaining teams that Kentucky is not invincible. It also showed that you do not have to play the perfect game to beat Kentucky. Notre Dame hit very few threes tonight. Bo Ryan will have Wisconsin ready for Saturday.

[FerryFor50]

Maybe, but he had some help from Brey. No 2-for-1 approach when they had the ball with a little under a minute left, instead running down the whole shot clock, and waiting too long to foul on the last Kentucky possession. It might not have mattered, but I don't think the team was put in the best position to win.

I thought using the last timeout when he did hurt more.

And yea, running down the shot clock on both possessions that turned into bad Grant shots? Awful.

Play the game that got you there.

Fitting that Kentucky gets the game winning points at the FT line.

[FerryFor50]

Excited to see what Dekker does against UK.

[IBleedBlue]

Notredame did everything right except the two possessions when Jerian Grant dribbled too much and took a bad shot. He did that twice within the last 2 minutes and Kentucky proceeded to win the game. Notredame has no one but themselves to blame this one on. Notredame had the control of the game for 39 mins and 54 seconds. And as Jay Bilas would say "what a theft!!"
It's upto Wisconsin to beat Kentucky now. They have height and offense to beat them.

[Duvall]

Excited to see what Dekker does against UK.

What, get shut down by Cauley-Stein?

[Duke79UNLV77]

I like how hey highlighted the stat that this was only the 5th time Kentucky has been behind in the final 5 minutes this year. That's actually a lot for an undefeated team. And in almost all of them they were behind in the last 2 minutes, plus Georgia was up by about 9. Kentucky has made plays, but it's amazing how the other team has made bad plays every single time.

[Dukehky]

Two things. Those that are saying that Cal now has the Cats' attention are correct but Notre Dame just showed the remaining teams that Kentucky is not invincible. It also showed that you do not have to play the perfect game to beat Kentucky. Notre Dame hit very few threes tonight. Bo Ryan will have Wisconsin ready for Saturday.

I hope you're right, but only if Duke isn't already in the finals. If Duke makes it to the finals, I want UK. We are better than them.

Let's go stomp a mud hole in Gonzaga first.

[g-money]

Also, I have to wonder if the success ND had not double teaming Jahlil when they played us caused them to make a poor choice not doubling Towns, especially down the stretch.

This thought crossed my mind as well. And if this was in fact a part of the rationale behind not doubling Towns, I think it was a mistake. First, Towns is not as good at passing out of double teams as Jah. Second, Kentucky does not have the three point firepower that Duke does.

I also echo others' point that Coach Brey made a mistake by burning his last TO with 35 seconds left and the ball in Kentucky's hands. He might have been better off setting up the defense during the break in the action just prior to that, when the refs were debating how much time to give ND on the shot clock and ultimately settled on 1 second. That would have left one TO to set up a play (potentially even a three for Vasturia or Connaughton) with 6 seconds left.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20. Great effort by ND.

Let's go Duke tomorrow.

[FerryFor50]

What, get shut down by Cauley-Stein?

We'll see. No one on ND has the blend of skill and size that Dekker does. Plus he's been red hot in the tourny.

Regardless of if he does get shut down, will still be fun to watch.

[wilson]

I'm officially not afraid.

[gumbomoop]

Maybe, but he had some help from Brey. No 2-for-1 approach when they had the ball with a little under a minute left, instead running down the whole shot clock, and waiting too long to foul on the last Kentucky possession. It might not have mattered, but I don't think the team was put in the best position to win.

Although Brey has done a superb job with his team this season, including a near-perfect game plan tonight, I, too, posted about the missed 2-for-1 opportunity as UK took the ball out after the ND shot clock violation. The situation that MCFinARL refers to here is this: after Towns tied it at 66, ND inbounded the ball at the 1:14 mark.

Now they could surely have run their offense and gotten a shot up in 20-25 seconds. Assume they miss and UK rebounds it with ~50 seconds left. Further assume UK runs down the clock and makes a shot -- Towns probably -- at the ~15-18 second mark. ND then has time to get a good shot.

I don't get it, but perhaps there is a logic to Brey's thinking that I'm missing. Help.

[cptnflash]

Seriously people, I am the biggest pessimist in the world when it comes to supporting my teams (it's a defense mechanism, my shrink and I are working on it), but we are better than UK. We have a better offense (more explosive at more positions) and our defense is so much better than their's, mostly because Okafor is an above average on ball post defender. I swear to God, if you watched him all year play man to man post D, he is good. Towns will not score that many points, and Justise will be served.


If we get to Kentucky, Duke gets #5

I want some of whatever you've been having.

[tbyers11]

I like how hey highlighted the stat that this was only the 5th time Kentucky has been behind in the final 5 minutes this year. That's actually a lot for an undefeated team. And in almost all of them they were behind in the last 2 minutes, plus Georgia was up by about 9. Kentucky has made plays, but it's amazing how the other team has made bad plays every single time.

Georgia was up by 9 with 9 minutes left. The most they were up by in the last 5 min was 2 and they never led in the last 4 minutes. Overall point is correct though, the OT game against Ole Miss (where the Ole miss guard took a hero 27 ft 3 pointer at the end of regulation), the double OT game at A&M, and the game at LSU were all one possession games in the last minute.

[moonpie23]

i started a thread called THE COUNTRY... NAY THE WORLD wants Duke/UK..


i stand by that....

[KandG]

Sure hope we don't lose to Gonzaga tomorrow or the winner of MSU-Louisville if we make it to the Final Four, because otherwise Featherston's going to have a field day with all this "I want Kentucky" woofing.

[NashvilleDevil]

I want some of whatever you've been having.

I think they are referring to Duke's defense compared to Notre Dame's. I could be wrong.

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

There is no god.
Love, Ima

[jipops]

I think this was pretty much analogous to the Duke-UK '92 game. This was the chance the upset would take place but UK prevailed, kind of like what we did in '92. I just don't see them losing this thing, maybe even more so now.