Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Deeply Concerned
I hate to say it, but I hate our first round matchup. Arizona has suffered many off the court distractions with coach Olsen's coming and going, but this team has talent. Bayless is the real deal. Hopefully, Jeckyl Alexander shows up and not the head up his ass Hyde! If Arizona was listening to Jackass Digger Phelps recomendations to take out WVU, they'll drive at Alexander and try to get him into foul trouble...take him out of the game. I really don't believe we're that one dimensional and I figure Joe can put a couple shots up into the second row with that philosophy. It really depends on our ball control and shooting. Time for Nichols and Ruoff to step up and make some three's. With the rotation of Wellington, Flowers and Butler being relative solid and Smallington stepping up defensively, it could (crosses fingers) be incredible. Hopefully, the long flight will take its toll and the distracted Olsen will live up to his underachieving tournament ways.
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I don't think it's such a bad deal. Arizona may be a tough 10, but we could have ended up a 6 against K State, Kentucky, or even Baylor or St. Joe's which would be just as tough. It should be a significant advantage playing on the East Coast and not all that far from home against a west coast team. (as opposed to the women who are essentially playing a road game against a lower seed) It really comes down to WVU. If we play like we had up 'til the Georgetown game, we'll win. If we play as poorly as we did against Georgetown, we'll lose. (though I don't think that performance is a relevant predictor of how we will perform tomorrow)
It seems as though Alexander's performance is the measuring stick for our success. When he plays (and shoots) well, we win. When he doesn't we don't. I think that's only because he's willing to have that on his shoulder's though. If someone else could have stepped it up against the Hoyas, we could have been in that game regardless of Joe's off night. Butler needs to be more assertive for such a talented scorer. Though Nichols doesn't turn the ball over, he could be doing a better job of quarterbacking the offense and getting more assists. I generally like Ruoff's play. Unfortunately, he doesn't create his own shot so for him to be successful, Nichols needs to drive, or someone else needs to be getting a lot of attention by the defense. Having said all that, I believe we are going to beat Arizona with our solid defense and timely shooting. As for the second round against Duke, we'll probably need some help from the Blue Devils to pull that one off.
By the way, congratulations to the Buckeyes today for landing Pryor. Sorry rod, looks like that oddly timed phone call didn't pay off.
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