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!!!

Rematch

So our college basketball season looks to be following the mold of college football season - ending the year with a battle between Ohio State and Florida. I wonder how many times this has happened? I was a bit disappointed in the final four games as both seemed a bit lame to me with Ohio State/Georgetown being the obviously better game.

Florida Throttles UCLA
Man, talk about not showing up - UCLA looked horrible, I can't believe anyone would have picked these guys (oh wait...)!! Yet again it took Florida almost a full half to wake up and start clicking. I would say they can't continue to do that and win another title, but why not? They've done it throughout the tournament thus far...

I really don't think the Bruins are as bad as this game would indicate - every team has a down offensive night and Saturday night was certainly UCLA's down night offensively. Afflalo was HORRIBLE shooting the ball and Ben Howland was grossly out coached. It's true the Bruin defense was terrific at the beginning, holding Florida without a field goal for what seemed like the first 10 minutes of the game. But if your shots aren't falling, it makes it hard to continue to keep focus defensively and ultimately I think UCLA just threw in the towel. There was a point when it looked as if they really believed they couldn't do anything - and that's when Florida opened it up.

Howland's handling of Afflalo the entire game was obscene - it's as if he's never coached a player who was in foul trouble. Much of that loss is on him for his coaching performance.

Whether you find him grossly obnoxious or not (I sometimes do), Joakim Noah is the one and only guy in this tournament who could actually not score a point and still be the most valuable player on the floor at any given time. More on this below...

Georgetown Runs out of Steam
This was an epic battle of 2 of the nations big men...and their ongoing foul trouble. This was actually a pretty good game. I've been picking against Ohio State for the entire tournament and guess what, I'm picking against them tonight too. Although I don't believe they have the weapons that Florida has I do strongly believe they are getting better every game - well some of them are. The way their guards can penetrate and either dish to the big men or take it all the way to the hole is getting pretty impressive - it's almost flawless the way they can execute this simple play. When they get the inside/outside ball movement going pretty fast, it's tough to beat and that's exactly what they did against Georgetown. After a while, the Hoyas just had no answer for it.

I mentioned Howland getting out coached - that was nothing compared to the job that Thad Mata put on JTIII - Thompson had absolutely no idea what he was doing against that Ohio State team - he was unable to make any adjustments whatsoever. He had a great run this year and you have to think this team will be back in a similar situation in the coming years, but that was a REALLY bad coaching performance. How about at least trying to run some sort of box and 1 against them? Or press them? Something to throw something new at them. Matta had to feel he was in complete control that whole game.

Oden Rant
Alright so we all remember at the beginning of the season (and throughout the season as well), all we heard about was Greg Oden this and Greg Oden that. And then Kevin Durant kind of came out of nowhere (at least from a media perspective) and slowly begin stealing the spotlight from Oden throughout the year until finally accomplishing a first and winning the AP Player of the Year (amongst other similar POY awards) as a freshman - and very much deserved I think we would all agree.

So I understand that Oden was hurt throughout the first part of the year. And many say he's still not 100% (I don't buy that for one second by the way) and he's still dominating. Well, I'm here to say that although a really good college big man, Greg Oden still has ways to go and I'll tell you why.

First off, let me reiterate this point - he is VERY good. 7 footers like that don't just come around every year and that's why big men will get more of the "pub" than big-time guards or forwards. This guy is a difference maker in that he can affect a team's entire offensive game plan with his presence in the middle of the lane. AND, he once he's down on the block, he can pretty much score at will - especially against the smaller guys that are guarding him close to 95% of the time.

WITH THAT SAID, here's my knocks on him. First off, he seems incapable of staying out of foul trouble. He took 0 shots and scored 0 points in the first half of the Georgetown game because of foul trouble. He had similar starts to the 2 previous games as well. This really comes down to 2 reasons: 1) He is not smart when he's taking the ball to the hole - he just barrels into the lane with reckless abandon and typically, one of his first 2 early fouls is a charge. 2) He is an atrocious on-ball defender. Specifically, when his man has the ball at the top or outside of the lane, he can't defend the drive/shoot option well at all. His defensive strength comes from simply sitting back in the lane and waiting for people to drive OR to just pick up rebounds.

I was really happy to see that Oden did not receive any votes for the AP POY award - I thought for sure in this day and age of beauty contest awards that a few jackasses would put him down. I'll tell you this - I would argue that if you took Oden off this team, they would have a pretty darn good chance of still being in this game. If you took Mike Conley Jr. off that team, they would have been out in the first or second game. He is the premier point guard in the country right now. Period. And, he's the premier player on this Ohio State team - the one player who leads this team and minimizes mistakes. It seems as if Oden wants no part of that role.

SIDEBAR: I heard lots and lots of discussions with talking heads on TV and writers about the best point guards in the country. On more than one occasion I heard them compare Conley and DJ Augustin, "these are the 2 best in the country". Let me tell you something. DJ Augustin is not even in the same ball park as Mike Conley Jr. right now. He may potentially climb to that echelon, but right now, Conley is head and shoulders above Augustin.

I think Oden needs to stay in college for at least another year. He needs to learn to play more dynamic defense before he ventures into the NBA and their weird defensive rules. At this rate, Oden would get an illegal defense call too many times - NOTE: in the NBA, defensive players cannot just sit in the middle of the lane and wait for offensive guys to drive in. And can you imagine this guy playing against an Amare Stoudamire, Dwight Howard or Tim Duncan? I don't think so. Not yet at least. I think he'll get there, but I think he would be making a big mistake if he goes pro right now.

And finally, I can't imagine a GM taking this guy over Durant with the first pick - cannot believe that would happen.

Florida vs. Ohio State
You know, this game is not unlike the football matchup between these schools earlier this year. Ohio State is everyone's darling although they play in a grossly overrated conference. Florida plays in one of the toughest conferences (arguably), with everyone searching high and low for a reason to hate on these guys and pick against them.

As much nit-picking as the writers have done and will do over this Florida team, there is no arguing this - they are the best team in the country. Period. I know, I picked against them and I was dead wrong, but I'm saying it now. In terms of talent, coaching, experience, confidence, etc. - they are the best team. I'm not suggesting OSU can't beat them, but I am suggesting that they won't.

Let's not read a whole lot into the first meeting between these 2 teams - it happened in December (ages ago) where Florida dominated the Buckeyes by 26 points. These are 2 different and better teams - that game is irrelevant right now. And neither team will be thinking about that or worrying about that either.

At the end of the day, I think Florida has too many weapons and too much depth. Look for Horford and Noah to tag team on Oden, frustrating him into foul trouble (again). Conley will keep this team in the game, but at the end of the night, I see Florida living large on top of the college sports world with a first back-to-back title since '91-92 when Duke took 2 consecutive titles.

Florida - 89
Ohio State - 80