- This was a really solid #16 seed. Vermont certainly seemed better than #16s from years past. Or maybe that’s just perception.
- McAdoo missed a bunch of shots early, but he really redeemed himself with his hustle and his huuuuuuge putback. He’s gonna be a real asset going forward in this tournament.
- We won, but it didn’t feel all that convincing. Is that worrying, or are things going to pick up in the next round?
- What was that weird crest thing on Henson’s jacket? Is he a member of the Illuminati now?
- How come that big guy from Vermont got away with pushing off with his off arm against Zeller on offense every time? Zeller really gets no calls.
- P.J. still doesn’t make what he used to, but he’s looking better and better.
Buried in a Burlington Press story about the Catamounts win over Lamar was this quote from a VT fan.
“I like that they are in the play-in round,” UVM fan Chris Douglas of Colcheter. “I think it was good for a number of reasons. Another national TV game — it’s good for the conference and good for the school. And you get to play a team that you can beat instead of lose by 30. Now we get two games instead of one.”
Notice he does not raise the possibility of three games. Meanwhile, the players themselves sound cautiously optimistic that they might be able to pull an upset, as Vermont did in the opening round against #4 Syracuse in 2005.
“The Syracuse game was a huge win for Vermont and the community,” Voelkel said. “Obviously, we’re going to come into North Carolina with a lot of confidence and hopefully we can pull off another upset and give the people of Burlington something to cheer about.”
The team was allowed to select the music that was played at this afternoon’s practice, and here are some of the tunes they chose:
“Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People
“Work Out” by J. Cole
“Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” by Dean Martin
“Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele
“Dani California” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anyone got any ideas about what these picks say about the team? I don’t.
His annual tourney picks were unveiled this morning, and the Commander in Hoops Chief has Carolina cutting down the nets in a few weeks. Obama also correctly picked the Heels to win it all back in 2009. (Then again, he’s picked Kansas the past two seasons, and we all know how that worked out.) Hey, at least he didn’t pick Dook. He has the Blue Devils falling to Baylor.
He said the two biggest factors for picking teams were “momentum” and stellar point guard play. The other teams in his Final Four were Ohio State, Missouri and Kentucky.
Likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney said he was “not plugged in well enough” this year to make picks, but he did add that many of his good friends owned universities.
Not sure what to make of this news, but the first reaction is that it’s sort of tragic. Doherty was fired from SMU today after six years.
“I understand that this is a business and, at the end of the day, we simply didn’t win enough games,” Doherty said in SMU’s statement. “However, I am grateful to the players and staff for their hard work and the way they represented the University. I always stressed to them the importance of controlling what you can control – your attitude and effort. They were great about focusing on every practice and game. I think that shows the type of character these young men possess. I wish SMU and these young men nothing but success.”
Doherty was 80-109 in his time there, going 13-19 this season. To us, this guy remains an enigma. He had some nice success at Notre Dame — enough for Carolina to put their trust in him as the right man to guide the program after Dean Smith — but ever since, he’s been a bit of a washout. Is he really as bad a person as some of his former players and their parents say he was? Does he not just have the ability to coach? Did he not have the right players? He could certainly recruit. Remember he was the one who brought in those players who ultimately won the 2005 championship.
It’s unlikely he’ll be given another major coaching job any time soon. He’ll probably work in TV as an analyst or maybe someone will pick him up as an assistant. But then again, you never know. Even Isaiah Thomas got another shot to be a head coach after what he did to the Knicks.
Does anyone feel anything but complete ennui for the ACC Tourney? We discuss. Plus a John Henson update from an inside source, and we look at Carolina’s NCAA bracket and feel scarily good about the team’s chances. Reed tests Andy’s knowledge of our obscure first-round opponents Lamar or Vermont and finally, Dook sucks this week because Christian Laettner is about to pay the judicial piper 20 years after he stepped on that Kentucky player. Karma is a beast. Email us at thbthd@gmail.com
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- Eh. We lost. Not great, but in the scope of a longer season, not that meaningful.
- With Henson, we won the opening tip consecutively for like one and half seasons. We lost the last two with Zeller.
- The whole 3-point disparity is getting really old. Why do opponents shoot and hit so many? It’s almost supernatural.
- For all those who criticize Roy for saving his time outs, this game demonstrated why he does it. He was able to use two in the last 4 seconds to advance the ball to half court.
- James Michael McAdoo can seriously get up. He was really skying for some of those rebounds.
- That wasn’t a bad shot that Marshall took at the end, but if someone told you a month ago that “Marshall for 3″ would be the potential game-winning scenario in the ACC tournament, you’d laugh.
- It’s good to see Hairston energized and playing with a little bit of confidence. We’re going to need him in the tournament, where someone — anyone — is going to need to start hitting 3s.
- That whole “Joey Brackets” nickname that ESPN is desperately trying to pin on Joe Lunardi just isn’t taking.
- The refereeing this tournament was remarkably bad. How many games was the officiating one of the lead stories in games? That’s not good. Like children in a Victorian movie, officials should remain quietly in the background.
- We’re sick of Dulkys. He disappears for almost the entire season, like a bear in winter, only to emerge to hit a couple 3s against us and relentlessly pump his fist like he’s the team MVP.