Like I wrote earlier this season after the game in Norman…I love Calipari and the manner in which he speaks at his pressers. Plus, of course…he’s Italian like me with my ten percent Italiano genes.
No bullshit, no games with his pressers. He just answers the questions like he was sitting next to you in a sports bar nursing his drink of choice.
The manner in which Arizona steam-rolled Arkansas in no way changes my thoughts on Darius Acuff, Jr. He never had a chance in this game. His bigs literally could not get a stop in the paint in this game. The Cats had sixty paint points. Arizona along with Michigan and ousted Florida were the three teams in this tournament John Calipari did not want to be paired against in a regional…and voila, there’s Arizona waiting for him in the Sweet Sixteen.
OU and Arkansas this season were somewhat constructed in the same manner. Really good starting guards, but shaky depth with the bigs against teams like I just mentioned in the previous paragraph. So in reality…I wasn’t crushed when OU didn’t make the field because this is what would have happened to my Sooners in the second round if they’d drawn Arizona, Michigan, or Florida.
Arizona is really, really good, but so is Michigan, while Duke, Illinois, and U Conn in my view are good enough to win this thing in a game against the first two teams on a one night winner take all format. Which is of course…what makes this tournament great in my view.
Not four out of seven…one game on Monday night with the world watching and the favorite a little tight.
If I were going to seed this thing with the eight teams we have remaining– I’d go something like this:
1 Arizona
2 Michigan
3 U Conn
4 Duke
5 Illinois
6 Purdue
7 Tennessee
8 Iowa
Four teams from the Big 10 advanced to the Elite 8. The Big 10 was the best football and basketball conference this season. No alternate conversation from the South.
I don’t see Tennessee advancing…so if Duke falls to U Conn then both the SEC and ACC will not have a team in the Final Four. That would be odd in this era of NIL.
Duke vs. U Conn is the game I’m most anticipating this week-end. I wouldn’t sleep on Dan Hurley. What he has done these past four seasons in the era of NIL and the transfer portal is remarkable.
But of course you have to play the games and maybe the Iowa Hawkeyes could fool us all and be like Cignetti’s Hoosiers? Or maybe Dan Hurley has already twice done what Cignetti did in the Orange Bowl and we just didn’t give him his appropriate kudos.
Storylines abound…just like with the NBA’s Western Conference coming down the stretch.
Have a wonderful Elite 8 this weekend.
Love,
Mike J