2006 NCAA Tournament: Final Four

The streak is over. Six years in a row down the drain. I put my faith in a team that didn’t give a damn about winning or losing, as long as their draft status wasn’t affected. Plus, Connecticut couldn’t hit a crucial free throw. They’re lucky the refs bailed them out against Washington, or they wouldn’t have even been given the chance to lose to GMU.

I don’t feel that bad because at this point, almost everyone has lost their championship team. I guess there were a few people out there who jumped on the UCLA bandwagon. But unless you attend college in Gainesville, Fairfax or Baton Rouge, your bracket is pretty much done. In fact, despite having zero teams left, I lead my pool at work and I’ll win it as long as the Bruins don’t win the championship. Go Tigers!

Is it just me, or is this Final Four completely uninteresting? I guess it’s just me. A lot of friends tell me that they’re really excited about the George Mason story line. I just don’t find them all that interesting. For the third time in the past week, I was sent to GMU to cover practices and interview the team. And while the players seem like nice dudes, they play a dull style of basketball and are completely uninteresting in interviews. You would think players from a small time program would really love their 15 minutes in the spotlight. They seem completely indifferent.

I’m not one of those fans who won’t watch something unless big time teams or players are involved. In fact, I usually prefer to watch mid-major college basketball over power conference teams. But at least give me a mid-major program that’s worth watching. Not a team that has Tony Skinn on scholarship.

In other news, it appears the Duke men’s lacrosse team has taken a page from the Shelden Williams school of etiquette. In recent days, many around the team and university have come out in droves trying to convince people that nothing happened and that this woman was making a lot of her story up. That’s bull. The university president doesn’t suspend an entire team unless something actually happened. I’ll give Duke’s higher-ups props for not doing the typical “waiting until all the information comes out” routine. But the fact that they didn’t do the usual song and dance leads me to believe that this incident not only happened as it’s being reported, but is actually worse than is being reported. We shall see. Eventually, the NCAA is going to step in and look into the situation. And when the NCAA starts examining one program at a school, they usually take the opportunity to examine all the athletic programs at that school. It will be very interesting to see if the NCAA finally looks into the dirty men’s basketball program. I bet if they do even a modest search, they could find a handful of violations. The real question is if they find something, will they report it or will they let Ratface keep getting away with it? I know the NCAA wouldn’t want to lose that cash cow. Again, we shall see.

In sad news, it appears that Anna Benson has filed for free agency. I guess the chances of Anna participating in Topless Tuesday's at Camden Yards are just about zero. Just another reason not to go to the slum that is Baltimore.

By the way, in an announcement that shocked no one, including yours truly who predicted it, Scarlett Johansson was finally named sexiest woman of the year. I can call more than sports. Seriously though, who was going to challenge her?


I've managed to work Scarlett into two straight posts...I'm must be getting good at this.

By the way, dream hot tub: me, Johansson, Natalie Portman (with hair please) and Bill Raftery to call all the action (A little kiss by THEBIGFELLA!). Now before you get all grossed out and leave, what was I talking about…

Oh right, so the college basketball season winds down, and now we head into the dog days of summer with nothing to look forward to until the beginning of NFL training camp. Baseball? Meh, I don’t much care. I’m doing a couple of those fantasy baseball league things, so we’ll see how that turns out. As for the actual baseball, you don’t need to be a sports fan to predict how the MLB season will turn out. The Yankees will spend a lot of money, they will run away with the AL East, everyone will fawn over them, they will choke in the playoffs to a team with a much lower payroll, and four teams that no one cares about will be left to play in the league championship series. Hey, sounds like college basketball. Here are the picks.




#11 George Mason Patriots (27-7) vs.
#3 Florida Gators (31-6)
National Semifinal Game
RCA Dome – Indianapolis, IN

This is just a repulsive matchup. I don’t want to watch this game. I didn’t have Mason making past the first round and I didn’t have Donovan and the Greaseballs making it past the second. I can understand how people can root for GMU. But honestly, how could you cheer for Florida. This team is completely unlikable. Does anyone else want to see Tony Skinn take a swing at Joakim Noah? I wouldn’t mind. I guess we’ll have Noah flaming out in the NBA to look forward to.

The only thing that Florida has accomplished to my liking this season was eliminating Villanova. As I’d been saying since November, Villanova would be no match for a team with a decent inside game. Unfortunately for me, I thought that team would be Boston College. And the Eagles should have beaten Nova. Damn, I would have like to seen Craig Smith abuse Noah in the Elite 8. Not to be I guess.

I find the other game much more intriguing, so I’m going to spend more time on that. But I guess I have to make a pick here. I haven’t picked GMU once this tournament, and I haven’t picked Florida since their games against South Alabama. I don’t want to pick either of them to win this game. I like the refs chances more than these two teams. I guess I’d rather see the Patriots go to the championship than the Gators. So let’s go with them.
Pick: George Mason 71, Florida 68




#4 Louisiana State Tigers (27-8) vs.
#2 UCLA Bruins (28-6)
National Semifinal Game
RCA Dome – Indianapolis, IN

In the only entertaining matchup on Saturday, the Bayou Bengals will face off against Ben Howland’s Pittsburgh of the West. Was anyone else watching the Memphis-UCLA game reminded of the way Pittsburgh plays? You know, that horrible, tedious, mind-numbing brand of basketball where the first to 50-55 points wins. If I wanted to watch a defensive slugfest filled with offensive lapses that last for 10 minutes or more at a time, I would watch the Big East (which would be hard to do now seeing as they have no teams left).

Regardless of UCLA’s lackluster style of basketball, they’ve proven that they can exert their will over any team. By beating Gonzaga and Memphis, two of the highest scoring and most offensive efficient teams, the Bruins have demonstrated that their young defense can stop the best players in the country. So while I can’t stand watching Howland’s defensive system, I’m certainly not going to sit here and tell you that he can’t coach. The man knows how to get it done.

Now the Bruins have to play a team that is a little more like them. The Tigers don’t have an explosive offense. And unlike Memphis and Gonzaga, LSU plays something resembling defense.

The Tigers offense is very similar in structure to Gonzaga’s. At least underneath the hoop. UCLA did have a hard time stopping J.P. Batista in the Sweet 16 game. Batista scored 18 and had 9 boards. Now the Bruins must face Glen Davis, who has an even wider body and better rebounding technique than Batista. And while LSU may not have a player like Adam Morrison, they do have several top-notch role players that will not allow UCLA to give all their attention to Davis and Tyrus Thomas inside. Plus, the one position where UCLA is lacking is at center. Ryan Hollins had a great game against Memphis, but Memphis had no true center to stop the 7’0” Hollins. Against LSU, Hollins should be exposed as the weakness on UCLA’s defense.


You should root for LSU just to see Big Baby pull out the yellow-feathered boa again.

One would assume that Howland will cover up Hollins’ ineffectiveness with a 2-3 zone. This is what I would do. Make Darrel Mitchell and Garrett Temple prove they can beat you on the perimeter. Mitchell has certainly had nights, even in this tournament, where he hits everything and can take over the game. But he has had plenty of games this season where he couldn’t throw the ball into Lake Pontchartrain if he was standing on a broken levy. Look, if Howland is as stupid as Ratface and Rick Barnes, and lets Davis and Thomas dominate the game, then maybe he isn’t the coach that I think he is. That’s why I’m sure we will see plenty of zones from the Bruins.

I just don’t know how UCLA is going to score. LSU is sound defensive team, the likes of which the Bruins haven’t seen this year in the Pac-10 (other than games against even more offensively inept Washington State). Arron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar will face two tough perimeter defenders in Mitchell and Temple (for more information see Redick, Backne). Cedric Bozeman should be shut down by Tasmin Mitchell. And Thomas and Davis should control the inside against Hollins and Pops Mensah-Bonsu’s second cousin Luc-Richard Mbah a Moute. We all saw what happens to UCLA’s offense if Farmar and Afflalo struggle. Against Memphis, the entire Bruins offense revolved around second chance points provided by M-a-M and Hollins. If Afflalo and Farmar struggle again, the second chances won’t be there with physical freak Thomas boarding the misses.

I think LSU presents matchup problems at just about every position. If the Bruins were a deeper team, than maybe I could see their bench playing a role. But with all the inexperience and injuries, I don’t see UCLA having a decisive anywhere on the court.
Pick: Louisiana State 65, UCLA 58