No Shining Moments
March Madness is Christmas for sports fans, yet this year I felt like Santa left a giant pile of horse manure under the tree.
I couldn’t even get excited for the terrific CBS video montage “One Shining Moment,” following the title game Monday night.
Maybe I’m a little bitter, but I don’t think that’s the reason. I usually have pretty good success in all of my tournament pools, finishing in first place and collecting a nice payday. This year, my hopes of placing top-three in my pools came to a screeching halt when North Carolina forgot that the orange ball is supposed to go through the orange rim on the thing they call a basket.
But the problem is that I had a hard time finding other entertaining moments of the tournament. The best “buzzer-beater” came in a 11-6 game in the first round when VCU defeated Duke, and since I don’t hate Duke I didn’t care as much that the mighty Krzyzewski’s fell early.
Technically, that shot wasn’t even a true “buzzer beater.” Duke still had a chance for a miracle heave at the end. There were exactly zero game-winning shots made as the clock reached 0.0. No players running off the court ala Drew Nicholas of Maryland in the 2003 tournament, experiencing a level of adrenaline and excitement very few will ever feel in their lives.
There were no monumental upsets, either. No. 2 Wisconsin losing before the Sweet 16 should only have been a shock to Wisconsin alum and pool entrants that made their picks solely based on which number is higher in each game.
That method of picking worked this year though. This was almost a completely “chalk” tournament that my 79-year-old grandmother could have won and she doesn’t know Florida won in 2006 or that UCLA has 11 national championship banners hanging from its rafters.
I don’t consider terrible overall officiating, Greg Oden’s foul troubles or Lon Kruger’s son getting an extra year of eligibility as compelling storylines. The only entertainment value was seeing the Gators do something that hadn’t been done in 15 years by winning back-to-back NCAA championships.
While I respect what the Gainesville athletic factory has accomplished in the past 12 months, it bores me terribly. I have nothing against their athletic programs, except the fact that Joakim Noah is the face of their team. He belongs on display in a zoo somewhere right next to the chimpanzees and hyenas.
Noah is the weak link of the Florida attack yet has no problem shouting after blocked shots or dunks and pounding his chest to display his manhood. That won’t fly at the next level. If he does that near Rasheed Wallace or Kevin Garnett, they’ll knock him on his behind. Oden dominated Noah in the title game, a preview of things to come for Noah in the NBA.
Florida has earned respect but the 2007 NCAA Tournament didn’t. Sorry if this column was boring, but there was very little to write about after a tournament that was as bland as the white rice I got with my Chinese food Sunday night.
I couldn’t even get excited for the terrific CBS video montage “One Shining Moment,” following the title game Monday night.
Maybe I’m a little bitter, but I don’t think that’s the reason. I usually have pretty good success in all of my tournament pools, finishing in first place and collecting a nice payday. This year, my hopes of placing top-three in my pools came to a screeching halt when North Carolina forgot that the orange ball is supposed to go through the orange rim on the thing they call a basket.
But the problem is that I had a hard time finding other entertaining moments of the tournament. The best “buzzer-beater” came in a 11-6 game in the first round when VCU defeated Duke, and since I don’t hate Duke I didn’t care as much that the mighty Krzyzewski’s fell early.
Technically, that shot wasn’t even a true “buzzer beater.” Duke still had a chance for a miracle heave at the end. There were exactly zero game-winning shots made as the clock reached 0.0. No players running off the court ala Drew Nicholas of Maryland in the 2003 tournament, experiencing a level of adrenaline and excitement very few will ever feel in their lives.
There were no monumental upsets, either. No. 2 Wisconsin losing before the Sweet 16 should only have been a shock to Wisconsin alum and pool entrants that made their picks solely based on which number is higher in each game.
That method of picking worked this year though. This was almost a completely “chalk” tournament that my 79-year-old grandmother could have won and she doesn’t know Florida won in 2006 or that UCLA has 11 national championship banners hanging from its rafters.
I don’t consider terrible overall officiating, Greg Oden’s foul troubles or Lon Kruger’s son getting an extra year of eligibility as compelling storylines. The only entertainment value was seeing the Gators do something that hadn’t been done in 15 years by winning back-to-back NCAA championships.
While I respect what the Gainesville athletic factory has accomplished in the past 12 months, it bores me terribly. I have nothing against their athletic programs, except the fact that Joakim Noah is the face of their team. He belongs on display in a zoo somewhere right next to the chimpanzees and hyenas.
Noah is the weak link of the Florida attack yet has no problem shouting after blocked shots or dunks and pounding his chest to display his manhood. That won’t fly at the next level. If he does that near Rasheed Wallace or Kevin Garnett, they’ll knock him on his behind. Oden dominated Noah in the title game, a preview of things to come for Noah in the NBA.
Florida has earned respect but the 2007 NCAA Tournament didn’t. Sorry if this column was boring, but there was very little to write about after a tournament that was as bland as the white rice I got with my Chinese food Sunday night.
posted by Jeremy Lynn | 2:36 PM
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