2015 March Madness

[SDHornet]

I didn't have a problem with the officiating last night. They missed some calls here and there, but it went both ways. Heck, Duke was in foul trouble all night so if they were getting the majority of calls they sure did have a weird way of showing it. Duke was able to make more contact with the defenders in the second half while driving (and they were able to penetrate all night) than they did in the first half and that was a big difference. Ryan has a point about the offensive guy jumping into the defender, but refs have been making that call for decades now so it's not like it changed last night. Wisconsin lost because Dekker didn't have a good game from the outside last night, they lost because they let Grayson Allen pull Duke back into the game when it was a 9 point game and Wisconsin was ready to pull away, they lost because they couldn't guard the high ball screen late in the game and Tyus Jones worked it to a lot of points, and and they lost because they couldn't score themselves in the last few minutes. I didn't think they went through Kaminsky enough to be honest with you, there were some possessions where he didn't touch it and that just can't happen when the game's on the line.

But great game to watch and a great finale to a March Madness that really saw the elite teams step up. Duke, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Arizona, and Gonzaga were better than everyone else this year, by a large margin, and it showed in the tourney. Maybe even throw a Notre Dame in there as they peaked at the end. Good basketball from all those teams.

I agree. It looked like Kaminisky was completely out of gas at the end. I thought they would feed him the ball more once they got Duke into foul trouble. Wisconsin had their chance regardless of the missed calls (that out of bound call and the finger tip call). It really should have never came down to those two late calls anyways. Fun game to watch nonetheless.

[tribe_pride]

One of these years I will learn my lesson about Villanova. They will never ever advance within 2 games of where I pick them to advance furthest.

You are only going to go so far in the NCAA tourney when you play a 4 guard lineup for a bunch of the game that depends so much on perimeter shooting. I really like watching them play but you are going to have off games and in the tourney, it's tough to come back from those.

I'd also like to see them play some top 10 teams in the early season since the Big East doesn't have those teams outside of Nova - only teams clawing to stay in the top 20. That and play some games away in tough environments (not neutral - and @LaSalle is not an away game) Think that will prepare them better for the tourney. This year's best OOC teams at the time they played were VCU and Michigan in a Thanksgiving tournament and Michigan wound up being horrible. Syracuse is usually good but was not this year.

[AZGrizFan]

I didn't have a problem with the officiating last night. They missed some calls here and there, but it went both ways. Heck, Duke was in foul trouble all night so if they were getting the majority of calls they sure did have a weird way of showing it. Duke was able to make more contact with the defenders in the second half while driving (and they were able to penetrate all night) than they did in the first half and that was a big difference. Ryan has a point about the offensive guy jumping into the defender, but refs have been making that call for decades now so it's not like it changed last night. Wisconsin lost because Dekker didn't have a good game from the outside last night, they lost because they let Grayson Allen pull Duke back into the game when it was a 9 point game and Wisconsin was ready to pull away, they lost because they couldn't guard the high ball screen late in the game and Tyus Jones worked it to a lot of points, and and they lost because they couldn't score themselves in the last few minutes. I didn't think they went through Kaminsky enough to be honest with you, there were some possessions where he didn't touch it and that just can't happen when the game's on the line.

But great game to watch and a great finale to a March Madness that really saw the elite teams step up. Duke, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Arizona, and Gonzaga were better than everyone else this year, by a large margin, and it showed in the tourney. Maybe even throw a Notre Dame in there as they peaked at the end. Good basketball from all those teams.

I agree. It looked like Kaminisky was completely out of gas at the end. I thought they would feed him the ball more once they got Duke into foul trouble. Wisconsin had their chance regardless of the missed calls (that out of bound call and the finger tip call). It really should have never came down to those two late calls anyways. Fun game to watch nonetheless.

They did feed him the ball a couple times...got assaulted by Okofor on his way to the basket and couldn't get a call...could tell he was frustrated and kind of ran out of gas at that point.

[GannonFan]

One of these years I will learn my lesson about Villanova. They will never ever advance within 2 games of where I pick them to advance furthest.

You are only going to go so far in the NCAA tourney when you play a 4 guard lineup for a bunch of the game that depends so much on perimeter shooting. I really like watching them play but you are going to have off games and in the tourney, it's tough to come back from those.

I'd also like to see them play some top 10 teams in the early season since the Big East doesn't have those teams outside of Nova - only teams clawing to stay in the top 20. That and play some games away in tough environments (not neutral - and @LaSalle is not an away game) Think that will prepare them better for the tourney. This year's best OOC teams at the time they played were VCU and Michigan in a Thanksgiving tournament and Michigan wound up being horrible. Syracuse is usually good but was not this year.

Agreed. The tournament showed that the Big East was too insular - one potentially really good team (nova) that didn't get tested from the in conference schedule, and a bunch of middling teams with decent defenses but little offenses. nova looked stunned when a team went at them strong on the offensive end like NC State did because the Big East was void of good offensive teams this year. The OOC schedule wasn't all their fault, though - as you said, they had VCU, Michigan, Syracuse and Temple. VCU was okay, off years for Michigan and Syracuse, and they played a banged up Temple team. But all of that happened in November and early December, and then it was like they went into hibernation playing the Big East for the rest of the way. They need to find a way to get quality OOC games into January and February since the conference isn't going to give them enough of a challenge to get ready for March.

[bluehenbillk]

Agreed. The tournament showed that the Big East was too insular - one potentially really good team (nova) that didn't get tested from the in conference schedule, and a bunch of middling teams with decent defenses but little offenses. nova looked stunned when a team went at them strong on the offensive end like NC State did because the Big East was void of good offensive teams this year. The OOC schedule wasn't all their fault, though - as you said, they had VCU, Michigan, Syracuse and Temple. VCU was okay, off years for Michigan and Syracuse, and they played a banged up Temple team. But all of that happened in November and early December, and then it was like they went into hibernation playing the Big East for the rest of the way. They need to find a way to get quality OOC games into January and February since the conference isn't going to give them enough of a challenge to get ready for March.

100% agree. The RPI ratings don't give a good indication of how that plays in March in the postseason. The Big East fell flat.

I still feel dirty after watching Duke win, they're like the Soviet Union to me.

[dal4018]

I agree. It looked like Kaminisky was completely out of gas at the end. I thought they would feed him the ball more once they got Duke into foul trouble. Wisconsin had their chance regardless of the missed calls (that out of bound call and the finger tip call). It really should have never came down to those two late calls anyways. Fun game to watch nonetheless.

They did feed him the ball a couple times...got assaulted by Okofor on his way to the basket and couldn't get a call...could tell he was frustrated and kind of ran out of gas at that point.

When was Okafor taken out of the game.Ppl that watched game said that he looked totally lost playing defense vs Kaminsky that is when the Wisconsin coach should have kept feeding him the ball in low post.

[Gil Dobie]

They did feed him the ball a couple times...got assaulted by Okofor on his way to the basket and couldn't get a call...could tell he was frustrated and kind of ran out of gas at that point.

When was Okafor taken out of the game.Ppl that watched game said that he looked totally lost playing defense vs Kaminsky that is when the Wisconsin coach should have kept feeding him the ball in low post.

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

[GannonFan]

When was Okafor taken out of the game.Ppl that watched game said that he looked totally lost playing defense vs Kaminsky that is when the Wisconsin coach should have kept feeding him the ball in low post.

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

The irony of the refs giving Duke the game by keeping their star player in foul trouble throughout the game.

[AZGrizFan]

When was Okafor taken out of the game.Ppl that watched game said that he looked totally lost playing defense vs Kaminsky that is when the Wisconsin coach should have kept feeding him the ball in low post.

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

But he played the last seven and I'll be DAMNED if he could get a foul called on him, no matter WHAT he did...

[GannonFan]

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

But he played the last seven and I'll be DAMNED if he could get a foul called on him, no matter WHAT he did...

Game log shows that Okafor picked up his 4th personal foul with 9:18 to go in the second half, at which point he subbed out. He didn't sub back in until 3:22 to go in the half. He then subbed out and stayed out for the rest of the game with 1:05 to go on the clock. By my count, that's 2 minutes and 17 seconds worth of playing time for Okafor in the last 9 minutes of the game. So he didn't play the last 7 minutes. Of course, I could be off by a factor of 6.93.

[tribe_pride]

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

But he played the last seven and I'll be DAMNED if he could get a foul called on him, no matter WHAT he did...

Wrong. He got his 4th foul with 9:18 left in the game and was immediately subbed out. He then sat until 3:22 to go in the game and then was subbed out with 1:05 to go in the game. Of the last 9:18 in the game, he only played for 2:17.

For the game, here is what happened:
Started 1st half
Subbed out 15:36 in 1st half (Played 4:24)
Subbed in 13:58
Subbed out 9:43 in 1st half (Played 4:15 - total 8:39)
Subbed in 8:31
Subbed out 4:47 in 1st half (Played 3:44 - total 12:23)
FIRST HALF - PLAYED 12:23

Started 2nd half
Subbed out 13:53 in 2nd half (Played 6:07)
Subbed in 10:42
Subbed out 9:18 in 2nd half (Played 1:24 - total 7:31)
Subbed in 3:22
Subbed out 1:05 in 1st half (Played 2:17 - total 9:48)

SECOND HALF - PLAYED 9:48
TOTAL GAME - PLAYED 22:11

Not easy to read, but got all information from Play by Play in the below link which includes subs
http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml? ... =210005121" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: Damn - GF beat me (but I added more info)

[AZGrizFan]

But he played the last seven and I'll be DAMNED if he could get a foul called on him, no matter WHAT he did...

Game log shows that Okafor picked up his 4th personal foul with 9:18 to go in the second half, at which point he subbed out. He didn't sub back in until 3:22 to go in the half. He then subbed out and stayed out for the rest of the game with 1:05 to go on the clock. By my count, that's 2 minutes and 17 seconds worth of playing time for Okafor in the last 9 minutes of the game. So he didn't play the last 7 minutes. Of course, I could be off by a factor of 6.93.

THere's that NUMBER again.

Edit: And I forgot: he's such a crappy free throw shooter that Coach K was forced to sit him during crunch time....

[tribe_pride]

Game log shows that Okafor picked up his 4th personal foul with 9:18 to go in the second half, at which point he subbed out. He didn't sub back in until 3:22 to go in the half. He then subbed out and stayed out for the rest of the game with 1:05 to go on the clock. By my count, that's 2 minutes and 17 seconds worth of playing time for Okafor in the last 9 minutes of the game. So he didn't play the last 7 minutes. Of course, I could be off by a factor of 6.93.

THere's that NUMBER again.

Edit: And I forgot: he's such a crappy free throw shooter that Coach K was forced to sit him during crunch time....

That was only 1:05 he was forced to sit because of the FT shooting so it wasn't that long but yeah he sucks at that. Not sure why big guys can't hit FTs for the most part. You get hacked enough down low, you figure that you'd learn how to make free throws.

[dal4018]

When was Okafor taken out of the game.Ppl that watched game said that he looked totally lost playing defense vs Kaminsky that is when the Wisconsin coach should have kept feeding him the ball in low post.

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

Then as stated before that is when Kaminsky should have taken over the game and Imposed his will on Duke!!!!This close to the first national crown in 7 Decades!!!!!!

[Gil Dobie]

Okafor only played 22 minutes, so he didn't do much assaulting from the bench.

Then as stated before that is when Kaminsky should have taken over the game and Imposed his will on Duke!!!!This close to the first national crown in 7 Decades!!!!!!

They looked like they were going to win with a 9 point lead. Then you could see Coach K yelling at Cook to start with, "Give the ball to Tyus". After that, did you notice Tyus brought the ball up almost every time. That's when the game changed.