A Sweet 16 and Elite 8 Round-Up, A Quick Look Back and Ahead at Duke, and Will Adam Vinatieri show up in Indianapolis (For the Final 4)?

The Duke season came to an abrupt end on Thursday in Atlanta against an athletic LSU team. Duke has struggled mightily since the end of January, so a loss to a team like the Bayou Bengals should not come as too big a surprise. However, it was disappointing from the standpoint that Duke played the worst game they played all year (and maybe in a few years) in a game they had every chance to win.

First, J.J. Redick, who played with grit and heart and pride and excellence for four straight years, laid a complete egg. He shot 3 for 18. Yes, LSU played good defense. But J.J. just played his worst game. The key moment ni the game came when Duke had struggled to take a 45-40 lead, had all the momentum, and Redick had his best, most open look of the night. This is a shot that not only goes in about 100% of the time when leaving from Redick’s fingertips, but, if good, probably ices the game for the Devils. It clanged out. It was just that kind of night.

With J.J. playing poorly, someone else had to step up to support Shelden, who played well. But this team has gotten too comfortable riding the backs of its two superstars, and there was nobody willing or able to step up when it mattered most. And just like that, the pursuit of a National title fell four wins short. And that, in a nutshell, is what is difficult about rooting for Duke. There is no margin for error. You either win it all, or you have failed. And on top of it, the entire country is rooting against you, as if you were Osama Bin Laden against Hulk Hogan in a steel cage match.

Next year is looking iffy for Duke. The key decision is whether Josh McRoberts will come back for his sophomore season or jump early to the NBA. McRoberts showed me enough this year for me to predict that if he stays, he will be a consensus first team All-America next year. If he comes back, with Paulus running the point, DeMarcus Nelson healthy all year and another strong recruiting class, Duke can be a top 10 team. If he bolts, they will probably be in the 15-20 range. The last time Duke was lower than a #3 seed was 1996, so hopefully McRoberts gets his ass back to school.

As far as the rest of the tournament goes, it is difficult to recall a better story than George Mason, who most people did not think would or should get in, get all the way to Indianapolis. The last story that I can think of in the tournament that was this stirring was when Bo Kimble led his Loyola Marymount club to the Elite 8 as they played for their fallen comrade, Hank Gathers (Kimble and Gathers both played at Dobbins Tech in Philly by the way). Who can forget the image of Kimble making every free throw in shot left handed in homage to his fallen brother.

As far as George Mason goes, I hear people making a stink about their playing the regional final in their backyard, that it was in essence a home game. I hate to tell those people, but unless this game was in the state of Connecticut (which the women’s regional final somehow was when #1 seed Duke had to win on the road against #2 seeded UConn, but I digress), the entire crows would have been pulling for the unheralded Patriots to beat the Criminals of the unintelligible Calhoun. Anyway, the fact that Mason was able to somehow win the game after UConn somehow forced the game to overtime was simply riveting. Of course, all of this should not have mattered, since Washington was completely robbed in their Sweet 16 match-up against the fellow Huskies when THEIR ENTIRE STARTING LINEUP was fouled out. I really do not want to hear how Duke gets all the calls ever again. Duke has never fouled out the entire opposing team this way before. As bad as the officiating was in that game, Lorenzo Romar blew the game by not fouling UConn when up by 3 in the last few seconds. When are these brilliant coaches going to realize that when up 3 with under ten seconds left, it is a much higher percentage play to foul than to let someone get off a wide open 20 footer that he hits 45% of the time.

The Villanova/Boston College game was extremely exciting, although again the refs made a very bad call that helped determine the outcome of the game. At least this time Nova was the beneficiary of said bad call, as everyone remembers how they got completely screwed last year when Curtis Sumpter was called for a bogus walk in the final seconds against North Carolina last year, helping Carolina escape and ultimately win the National title. Speaking of Nova, I read this morning that Kyle Lowry is considering making the jump to the NBA after his sophomore season. I think this would be a shame for two major reasons. One, I think Lowry can certainly benefit from another year in school. Second, there are few guys in the college game right now who are as good for the game as this guy. He runs around the court like a madman, pure hustle and heart, and makes everyone around him better. I really hope he stays. Although not as much as I hope McRoberts stays!

Was there a worse game in college hoops all season than the Memphis/UCLA game. It was just brutal to watch. Sloppy offense, turnovers, out of control players everywhere, horrific free throw shooting. Just an abomination. UCLA is a great defensive club, but did they win or did the Tigers choke? I would suggest the latter. And after Duke got knocked out Thursday, I thought Memphis might win it all. Shows you what I know!

I don’t mind college guys showing their emotion and crying. To me, it shows that they care. I do mind, however, star players bawling when the game is still within reach. If anyone wanted to know if Gonzaga had a chance to win in the last few seconds against UCLA after a monumental collapse, all you needed to do was look at Adam Morrison, who was already freaking crying. Just another reason why Redick should be player of the year over Morrison…he waited until the appropriate time to cry!

Only three more games to go this college hoops season, which is too bad. I would imagine that unless you have ties to UCLA, LSU, or Florida, almost everyone will be rooting for the Patriots to win the Championship. Now if they only had Adam Vinatieri to hit a key field goal for them, they might really have a chance.