Mullens seemed open for the alleyoop there.

Cool tournament so far. So much fun right? Tell me this isn't the best time of the year? As usual with me & the tourney, I've gotten my fair share wrong so far:

Wake - probably the most surprising so far, man they were TERRIBLE. Teague slipping on some mocks now as a result. Tell you what, realistically the Knicks may now be within range to grab him in the draft if they have any interest. Can't believe how the DDs fell off after such a great 1st half to their season...
VCU - came up a little short but Maynor's such a good player and I agree with JohnWallace44 on Larry Sanders for the most part - not sure if he's a 1st rounder but I think Sanders could make it in the NBA as a big defensive specialist. I personally like these John Salley/Sean Williams/Justin Williams/Keon Clark types. They're useful. I'd want one of these guys on my team if I were an NBA coach...
Clemson - I actually had Clemson going all the way to the elite 8 beating Oklahoma if you can believe that with a chance against NC - I just liked Clemson's overall team defense, Trevor Booker's a big boy who can play and I think he would've been a handful for Blake Griffin and I like KC Rivers a lot - with 13.1 secs. left against Michigan, after making a nice comeback, you gotta get a better shot than Rivers forcing one from the corner like that but oh well. I mean, didn't they have any timeouts left? WTF happened there???
Illinois - saw them a few times during this season and came away fairly impressed. Saw them beat Ohio State and BJ Mullens at home this year... I just thought hey, Bruce Weber's a decent coach, Mike Tisdale's an underrated big man with great size - a real underappreciated big in the Miami Hurricanes' Jimmy Graham mold only bigger, & I like the kid McCamey as a PG and floor general. Oh well...
California - another one I got wrong. Too much Greives Vasquez. Man, that kid can shot it huh?

BUT I managed to get a couple right here:

Siena - made the pick because I just didn't really care for Ohio State this year to be honest. Mullens is a big boy and seems like he's got some ability but come on, he's far from the real deal right now. I'd like to see him develop more. You take this kid now, he could pan out OR he very well could be a bust in the NBA. I've seen many a 7 footer come down the pike with better overall ability than this kid (to me, guys like Brook Lopez and Kosta Koufos are much better players for example). Hey, I hope I'm wrong. If you like this kid that's fine, but truth of the matter is he could go either way right now. That's my feeling...
Arizona - they have 3 VERY GOOD players in Hill, Budinger and Wise and should be able to do even more damage here coming up. I say if they wind up matching up with Louisville in the regionals, they have a chance to beat them...
USC - they're peaking at the right time. DeRozan's caught fire late in the season here and he had another impact game last night with 18 & 9. Daniel Hackett and Dwight Lewis come off as selfish, me-first types to me but they do have ability... But last night, it was the Taj Gibson show boy. How 'bout his performance against BC - 24 pts. on a perfect 10-10 from the field (and as usual with him, it all came in the flow), 6 rebs, 5 assts, 3 blocks - I mean what can you say about this kid? The only possible knock on him (besides the fact that he's slightly older than others in his draft class) will be the lack of bulk/weight concern. But I tell ya, I've seen him many times the past few seasons - it's definitely not a lack of strength problem (this kid's toned & plenty strong), it's a lack of girth and to me, it's correctable. He does have a slight-looking frame but I think he still should have no problem adding another 10+ lbs. of muscle with the right conditioning program and strength coach at the next level... He was the key to beating BC last night. Case closed. Tremendous athlete that contributes in ever single facet of the game. Just so team-oriented & unselfish, probably to a fault. He's flat out a tremendous pick-up for any team that's looking to add quality frontcourt depth...

Here's a nice little blog article on Taj and the Trojans if anyone's interested:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4002504&name=marchmadness


[Edited by - finestrg on 03-21-2009 11:51 AM]

The games are a complete snooze fest this afternoon

Western Kentucky/Gonzaga and Texas/Duke heading towards photo finishes here...

gonzaga!!!

what a terrible foul call

Posted by jimimou:

what a terrible foul call

Looked like a clear shove to me and he didn't have to do it....

Posted by VDesai:

Posted by jimimou:

what a terrible foul call

Looked like a clear shove to me and he didn't have to do it....

yeah - the replay showed it. need some missed foul shots here

Choke on both FT and then Texas couldn't get the reb!