Final Four!

This is my official "I am happy that UConn made it to the Final Four" post. They played a brilliant game against Purdue, and had one of the best games of the season yesterday afternoon against Missouri.

I had Missouri losing to UConn in my bracket, so it was no surprise when they beat Memphis. I'm a firm believer that Memphis will always be overrated no matter how talented they are until they get into a stronger conference. Either that or Conference USA gets competitive. What if Tulsa or Marshall decide to give Memphis a run for their money and just go all out on recruiting? That might give the Tigers some clout. But instead, they just come off as a big fish in a small pond.

For the record, I have one Final Four team (Duke) out. However, UNC and UConn, who are meeting in the finals for me, are both very much alive, AND everyone who's competition for me had Pitt in the finals. They all also had Louisville in the Final Four as opposed to my pick of Michigan State. If UNC and Michigan State win tonight, I wins myself some cash money. Expect a "Hooray I'm rich!" post very soon.

Back to UConn. Missouri is a better team than they've been given credit for, and I knew they'd be a challenge. UConn shot brilliantly the first half, and they played great defense, but it didn't matter. They'd have 3 hands in their face, and Missouri guys would still be hitting shots left and right.

I hate when fouls are called on Hasheem Thabeet, because 90% of the time they're not fouls, but the refs had let him slide on another foul that should've been called earlier, so you can't argue too much. The announcers yesterday, as during the entire tournament, kept harping on the fact that Hasheem Thabeet is a disgustingly good Scrabble player. I'm considering challenging him on Facebook. How many points do you get for "2009 National Champion UConn Huskies"?

There was one play where they called a travel on Jeff Adrien. The amazing part of this was that HE DIDN'T HAVE THE BALL. There was a loose ball, he and a Missouri player were both trying to gain possession, and before he ever got possession, a travel was called. The next play, a reach-in was called on Thabeet which left Jay Bilas baffled, saying "I have no idea where that foul was".

However, my boy Kemba Walker stepped it up and hit his stride. So begins the Kemba Walker era. With A.J. Price going into the NBA next year, how does UConn replace that void? Oh, just by finding an even better point guard. I expect Walker will go down as THE BEST point guard in UConn history. He's got that much natural ability, he just needs to learn the mental part (which, as he showed yesterday, he's doing quite well with).

So UConn held off Missouri, and frankly I think that Missouri is a tougher matchup for UConn than either one they'll face next round. I'm looking forward to Michigan State upsetting Louisville, and for UConn to then stomp all over their dreams of playing a home championship game.

The women's team is currently delivering a second half beatdown to California after looking slightly human the first half. Tiffany Hayes is pulling off a female Kemba Walker performance, and frankly these women just can't be beat.

In other women's basketball news, Michigan State got boned by the referees at the end of the game last night. They blew an 8 point lead in the last minute of the game, but when throwing up their final shots of the game and attempting to get a rebound off of the miss, they got hacked to all hell. I have a slight crush on their coach, Suzy Merchant, which is why I mention this. The no-call was disappointing to see, and Iowa State squeaked by with a win they might not have deserved.


Time to tune in to the end of Louisville's run.