Florida Sweep
Unbelievable. How about those Florida Gators? Winning back-to-back in the college game these days is quite amazing - and the means by which they did it was even more amazing. With Greg Oden clearly having his best game of the tournament, Joakim Noah being a non factor and the officials calling a VERY one-sided game, Florida was still able to control this game with relative ease. Thank you Corey Brewer and Al Horford who carried this team in the second half.
For the second straight game, Corey Brewer had a brilliant performance earning much deserved Final Four MPV honors. His defense was superb. Hell, with exception to Noah, this whole team played really well with a different person stepping up at opportune times.
It's funny because you can't really say OSU played a really bad game - although Florida did play some very tight perimeter defense on the Buckeyes (they shot 17% from 3-point land). OSU had twice as many steals and half as many turnovers as the Gators - they just couldn't put the ball in the basket outside of the lane.
The one aspect of this game that I absolutely must go off on is the officiating. I didn't see every second of every game of this tournament, but I will argue that this was the most poorly officiated game of the tournament. It was clear from the beginning that the refs did not want to take Oden out of this game with nit-picky fouls - and that's a good thing. Unfortunately, they didn't extend this same courtesy to the Florida Gators. It was both unbelievable and blatant to see the refs call such a nothing foul every time someone simply put a hand on Oden, while letting him slam his body into Florida players while on defense. I was blown away and thoroughly disappointed in that aspect of the game. I'm not saying Oden should have been called for more fouls (although it would have been a more balanced game if they had done that), but I am saying that half of the fouls called against Oden should not have been called. Simply put, that was a piss-poor performance by the officials.
And speaking of Greg Oden - I went off a tad on him in yesterday's post after watching him pretty closely for the past few games. After last night's game I'm sticking to every word I said. I am more convinced than ever that this guy REALLY needs to come back to college next year - and probably the year after that. Did you notice the way he DID NOT come out and guard his man when he came up to set a screen? He just stood in the middle of the lane and refused to come out on Horford - leaving a wide open jump shot at the free throw line. He must be able to come out and contest that shot.
Give credit to Coach Donovan who decided to throw as many bodies as he had at the big guy. Oden certainly has a tendency to get VERY worn out - I don't think he's used to not being in foul trouble. He ran out of steam on a number of occasions and Florida took advantage.
I will say this for Oden, he's only 18 years old and that's pretty spectacular. No doubt he will get better, but he is nowhere near ready to play at the NBA level. And another thing - STOP RAISING YOUR LEGS UP WHEN YOU DUNK!!! Man that drives me crazy, there is absolutely no need for that. Act like you've been there before. You're 7 feet tall, you don't need to overdue the "flash" when you dunk.
Here's a scary thought for you - all but 1 of Florida's starters are Juniors. Humphrey is the only senior of the bunch. WOW! So these guys could all come back if they wanted to. I don't think they will do it again this year, but you just never know...
And yet another end to a great college sports season is upon us. Unfortunately this is the time when you may see updates to the SportsRant slow to a trickle. I don't watch MLB (too many damn games) and the NBA interests me less and less every year, but playoffs are just around the corner which is always fun. BUT, conference play has started for college baseball which is always exciting. Unfortunately, almost none of the mainstream sites cover college baseball (can't for the life of me understand this) so my experiences are typically limited to Texas and Big 12. Should be a great year and hopefully the Horns can make it back to Omaha. Until then...
Have a great week - I'll try and get something new and fresh up this weekend. There's always the exciting 24 updates!!!
For the second straight game, Corey Brewer had a brilliant performance earning much deserved Final Four MPV honors. His defense was superb. Hell, with exception to Noah, this whole team played really well with a different person stepping up at opportune times.
It's funny because you can't really say OSU played a really bad game - although Florida did play some very tight perimeter defense on the Buckeyes (they shot 17% from 3-point land). OSU had twice as many steals and half as many turnovers as the Gators - they just couldn't put the ball in the basket outside of the lane.
The one aspect of this game that I absolutely must go off on is the officiating. I didn't see every second of every game of this tournament, but I will argue that this was the most poorly officiated game of the tournament. It was clear from the beginning that the refs did not want to take Oden out of this game with nit-picky fouls - and that's a good thing. Unfortunately, they didn't extend this same courtesy to the Florida Gators. It was both unbelievable and blatant to see the refs call such a nothing foul every time someone simply put a hand on Oden, while letting him slam his body into Florida players while on defense. I was blown away and thoroughly disappointed in that aspect of the game. I'm not saying Oden should have been called for more fouls (although it would have been a more balanced game if they had done that), but I am saying that half of the fouls called against Oden should not have been called. Simply put, that was a piss-poor performance by the officials.
And speaking of Greg Oden - I went off a tad on him in yesterday's post after watching him pretty closely for the past few games. After last night's game I'm sticking to every word I said. I am more convinced than ever that this guy REALLY needs to come back to college next year - and probably the year after that. Did you notice the way he DID NOT come out and guard his man when he came up to set a screen? He just stood in the middle of the lane and refused to come out on Horford - leaving a wide open jump shot at the free throw line. He must be able to come out and contest that shot.
Give credit to Coach Donovan who decided to throw as many bodies as he had at the big guy. Oden certainly has a tendency to get VERY worn out - I don't think he's used to not being in foul trouble. He ran out of steam on a number of occasions and Florida took advantage.
I will say this for Oden, he's only 18 years old and that's pretty spectacular. No doubt he will get better, but he is nowhere near ready to play at the NBA level. And another thing - STOP RAISING YOUR LEGS UP WHEN YOU DUNK!!! Man that drives me crazy, there is absolutely no need for that. Act like you've been there before. You're 7 feet tall, you don't need to overdue the "flash" when you dunk.
Here's a scary thought for you - all but 1 of Florida's starters are Juniors. Humphrey is the only senior of the bunch. WOW! So these guys could all come back if they wanted to. I don't think they will do it again this year, but you just never know...
And yet another end to a great college sports season is upon us. Unfortunately this is the time when you may see updates to the SportsRant slow to a trickle. I don't watch MLB (too many damn games) and the NBA interests me less and less every year, but playoffs are just around the corner which is always fun. BUT, conference play has started for college baseball which is always exciting. Unfortunately, almost none of the mainstream sites cover college baseball (can't for the life of me understand this) so my experiences are typically limited to Texas and Big 12. Should be a great year and hopefully the Horns can make it back to Omaha. Until then...
Have a great week - I'll try and get something new and fresh up this weekend. There's always the exciting 24 updates!!!
posted by The Bearden Wonder at 8:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home