In retrospect, some events are truly unbelievable, such as an airplane disappearing without a trace. It went against the odds, but Shabazz Napier knocking out Michigan State is not that hard to believe.
Basketball
ANAHEIM, Calif.
In this high-stakes poker game, Billy Donovan is holding a real cool hand. The Florida coach has four senior starters and a sophomore who’s a hot shooter.
The final nail was pounded into the coffin as most assumed it would be all season. Thirty-six games later, San Diego State couldn’t overcome its offensive woes against an elite opponent.
Hank Finkel might not have been a star in the NBA, but he was a great player at Dayton, which has made it to this year’s Sweet 16. Plus, he had a name that is hard to forget.
Think about evolution. It’s a pretty broad term. It can refer to a variety of changes, to the uplifting of mountains and the wandering of riverbeds and the creation of a new species. To how Bo Ryan coaches basketball.
Even the Duke haters have to admit Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski showed class when he stopped by the Mercer locker room to congratulate the Bears on their victory.
If you’re the guy who called the boss and left a long message using a French accent saying we had it wrong in the newspaper when we referred to the first round of March Madness as the second round, do not call and leave another message. Call NCAA headquarters.
If you were watching the smart guys from Stanford knock the one-and-dones from Kansas out of this year’s March Madness on Sunday, then you probably saw the #CryingKansasKid. The CBS cameras did, and the network is taking a bunch of flak for it on social media.
One day, maybe in the near future, Andrew Wiggins might rise as an NBA star. But the freshman guard went one-weekend-and-done and never had his shining moment in the NCAA Tournament.
On Saturday, I filed a blog about the NCAA Tournament — the NCAA men’s tournament — that began thusly:
When it plays like this, scoring in transition, defending with size and length and purpose in the half court, making open shots out of set plays, forcing turnovers, having its way at both ends over 40 minutes, Arizona offers a basketball team that is nearly impossible to beat.
It’s a common reaction: One of the best players on one of the nation’s best college basketball teams is lost for the season due to injury and his teammates begin pressing.
Jacob Parker is what you might expect from a Cinderella story in the NCAA Tournament, a free spirit who happens to be the leading scorer on a team that has won 29 straight games and last lost Nov. 23.
This is a truth that March bears: That no matter how celebrated a college basketball player might be, no matter the hype surrounding his game, no matter projections of an NBA lottery pick, nothing is given when the NCAA Tournament arrives.
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