Wrap Up

Well, college basketball failed us devotees this year. In a down year which I already posted about we have a down final four. The cool stories of the tournament have been mid-majors. Stephen Curry and his boys at Davidson abominated two of the best defenses in the by raining threes on Georgetown and Wisconsin. On that point, Stephen Curry has been overhyped by the national media recently, which is what happens when you average over 30 ppg in the tournament. He’s definitely coming back next year and will be a target of everyone and their grandma to watch for from the opening tip. I feel more major conference players should do what Stephen did (Steph wasn’t by choice really) in going to a mid-major conference where they can light it up. I doubt that Stephen Curry is better than A.J. Abrams or Mario Chalmers or Ronald Ramon from downtown yet he has the ball in his hands all the time and gets to score more points and average more than 25 ppg. Abrams, Chalmers, and Ramon’s all go to the big time program because it will give them better exposure when in reality it limits their opportunities. If you are a shooter you are probably better off at a mid-major.

Western Kentucky, Belmont and San Diego also provided us with excitement. The Western Kentucky-Drake game was the best of the tournament and had that “only can happen in march” game winning shot. Belmont put a scare into Duke and took a team full of non-winners (callout: Paulus, Scheyer, Henderson) to the last second in the first day’s only exciting game. San Diego beat Connecticut in a very exciting game. Even with their two best scoring options out they still found a way to beat a Big East squad and salvage something of the three bid tournament showing for the WCC.

On Coaching Changes. Tom Crean, you are one of my favorite coaches but I really don’t understand your decision making on this one. I know you feel that Indiana is a top 7 job (no order: UNC, Kansas, Duke, UCLA, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana) but your going to a team that was a 8 seed and doesn’t have one starter returning. Not one. And whoever inherits the job at Marquette should send Tom Crean a huge thank you. They on the otherhand inherit a team returning 4 starters and their four best players. The triumvirate of Wesley Matthews, Dom James, and Jerel McNeal are as good as any guards in the country and they all are seniors. The Marquette coach should get to the sweet sixteen next year in their first year: looks like a pretty good job to me.

Another one of CDTN’s favorites Jim Christian is leaving Kent St. and I feel settling for the TCU job. Is it really an upgrade? At Kent he had one of the top mid-major programs year in year out. Now he is going to TCU where memories of Lee Nailon are long gone. I would have been happy to see him end up at Providence but I’m kind of disappointed here.

Duke’s former lead “Jumping Jacked Towel Waver” Taylor King is transferring. His two leaders are Villanova and Gonzaga and both can use a shooter like King (Just as long as they make him sign that he won’t resort to the Jumping Jack’s anymore).

Watch out for Niagara in the upcoming year, they have impact transfer that had to sit out this year but next year watch out MAAC.

With all four 1 seeds hopefully we get some great basketball games this weekend. Cutting Down The Nets Pick: UCLA over Kansas