For those of you who saw Stu’s housekeeping note in his notes: I’ll still be writing notes tomorrow. Basketball season winds down a little later for me than for him, due to March and things.
Gonzaga Down, Duke Survives, Houston and Villanova Roll
I feel bad for Gonzaga’s players. I mean that. They’ve been so excellent for so long, and yet what they’ve done is always going to be discounted because they keep failing to win six straight games at the right time. Yes, someone wins those six straight every year, and no, they didn’t play their best last night, but there’s something about seeing excellence get beaten that’s a little bit sad, especially when there’s randomness involved. I love Arkansas’s program under Musselman as much as a lot of people do, and I’m happy for them and beyond impressed with their play, but I have some sadness for Gonzaga after last night.
Similarly, I’m sad for Texas Tech, but that’s more personal. I just really like the way that program operates, and Mark Adams embodies everything going on there in its most positive, most concentrated form. The nice thing here is that there’s a solid chance they’ll be back, as a program, and it’s the program there we’re more attached to, even if last night was sad for the players. On the brighter side for Tech’s players, they played a lot closer to their best than Gonzaga did.
As with Arkansas, credit to Duke for a great performance. They were excellent offensively, cool under pressure, and they hung in there with Tech’s physicality. Paolo Banchero justified the hype. The floor slap, villainous or otherwise, was a great moment. That was more impressive than the Gonzaga win in November, I’d argue. It meant so much more. Cool to see a team play its best when it most needs to play its best to win.
Villanova didn’t have a terrible amount of trouble with Michigan, though Michigan did keep it close. It was a much worse shooting night for both sides than we anticipated, and some of that can be credited to the defenses, but there’s definitely an angle here where neither team was really all that good. Villanova’s going to have to hope on a lot of free throws on Sunday unless they find their groove from behind the arc.
Finally, the best team remaining in the tournament, and possibly the best team in the country. Houston showed everyone who they are last night, and I think it’s fair to ask if Kelvin Sampson’s the best coach in college basketball. They manhandled Arizona, and Kerr Kriisa’s ankle was not the difference (and if it was for you, well, take a look at Houston’s injury report). They’re finally getting the credit they’ve deserved for almost half a decade now (the last time Houston finished outside the KenPom top twenty was 2017). A great team, and the new title favorite.
Two Mismatches, Plus UCLA/UNC
I’ve written in two other places today on this site about how Purdue’s going to have its work cut out for it against the Saint Peter’s defense, and I mean that, but Purdue should be just fine. Williams and Edey have such a size advantage down low that it almost seems like it could only be gameplanning—good from Shaheen Holloway or bad from Matt Painter—that does the Boilermakers in. Add to it that Saint Peter’s has a legitimately bad offense, and Purdue has a lot of room for error. But it’d be fun if they struggled, for the sake of the story.
Kansas, to a lesser degree, is the clear better team over Providence, whose luck should finally run out tonight. It’s fun that they’ve embraced that bit—the bit about how lucky they are—but the luck is still real. There’s little historic precedent for a team being able to replicate the margin vs. win-loss disparity Providence has demonstrated so far. When they’ve lost this year, it’s often been big, and I’m guessing it’ll be somewhat big tonight. Kansas is capable of overpowering this team.
Finally, in the last non-Iowa State game, UCLA plays UNC. Jaime Jaquez’s ankle is a question, but more than that, this is a stylistic collision, where UCLA’s going to try to make it a half-court game and UNC’s going to try to make it a full-court game and we’re going to have to see who can play the other’s way when the other’s got control of the tempo. Fun matchup, cast into much more doubt by Jaquez’s ankle. A suspicious part of me wonders if the ankle is overblown. Show the pictures! Kerr Kriisa did!
Iowa State: Another Moment?
As with Purdue, I’ve written about this elsewhere on this site today, but Iowa State’s getting a whole lot of disrespect going up against a team that wouldn’t have made the field were selection purely based on teams’ ability (Iowa State wouldn’t have made it either, to be fair).
Miami’s a solid team. They’re great offensively. But their offensive prowess is not of a kind with Iowa State’s defensive ability. Iowa State’s defense is a lot better than Miami’s offense. Also true, granted, is that Miami’s defense isn’t as bad as Iowa State’s offense, but this game’s spread should be closer than it is, and Iowa State should be the favorite, especially playing in front of what figures to be a very pro-ISU crowd here in the Midwest.
For Iowa State, the Sweet Sixteen would be a great place for the season to end…were they playing Auburn. Since it’s against Miami, though, the feeling becomes one of needing to win the winnable game. Of course, yes, no matter what happens tonight, the season’s been a ridiculous success. But the Elite Eight sure is tantalizing.
It’s a great time for Iowa State athletics. The women’s basketball team’s in the Sweet Sixteen tonight as well. The football program is stable and, by Iowa State’s standards, quite successful. Other, lesser-money sports are doing fine at worst, and while the athletic department isn’t competing for the Capital One Cup or the Learfield equivalent, the schools winning those cups are not ones with which Iowa State could reasonably expect to compete right now. These are the good days, and between the two basketball teams, they could get a lot better tonight. With Michigan going down on the men’s side and UNC an underdog on both the men’s and women’s sides this round, Iowa State could be the only school to put both its teams into the Elite Eight. That’d be pretty neat.
The Tom Brady Thing, Marquez Valdes-Scantling
We got a little bit of action today from the rumor that Tom Brady might be going to the Dolphins, something we heard and shared back in February. As I think we did a fine job of making clear at the time, it was all hearsay, but it does now seem we weren’t the only ones hearing that, and it’s enough to make one wonder if Brady asked the Bucs and the Bucs said no.
On the Packers side of NFL news, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is joining Kansas City, which feels a little scary. Of all the places in the league for a receiver from your team to go, Kansas City feels like the most likely spot for him to break out and make you look silly for not holding onto him, whether it was silly or not.
Sticky Stuff: Not Stamped Out?
Finally, a little MLB news: Evidently umpires will be checking more broadly for sticky stuff after spin rates started ticking back up towards the end of last year. My best read is that this is getting the proper amount of attention, which is little, but it does remind of the possibility of a catcher putting pine tar on, say, their chest protector. Just a little possibility. I’m sure that’s never brazenly been done by an egocentric backstop who plays for a team north of Arkansas but south of the Quad Cities.
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Viewing schedule tonight is all basketball again. Streaming the TBS games, watching CBS on the antenna. Don’t even need a two-screen subscription. What a time to be alive.
