February 2006 Archives

Before heading out to watch the game on Saturday night, I had ESPN College Gameday on and the usually well-researched and respected Jay Bilas dropped the following line when talking NCAA tourney teams with the despicable Digger Phelps (don't even get me started on DP or things will get ugly in a hurry):

"I really think the committee is going to have to take a close look at these Valley teams. They need to determine how much their RPI's are artificially inflated by playing each other. I really think there's two teams, maybe three deserving out of there."

I think what incensed me more than anything was the intonation in his voice when he said "these Valley teams", almost as though they all had leprosy. Of course, his toeing the national media party line of saying the MVC only deserves two or three teams in the tourney was bad too. But the hypocracy of saying their high RPI's were the result of playing each other, and thus, articficially inflated their RPI's, was just too funny to imagine. For years this is what the Big Six have done -- play cupcakes in November and December, and let their league games raise their RPI. Why is this suddenly a bad thing, Jay, when a "little guy" does it? Please explain it to me, my email is listed below, Jay. Are you threatened by the thought of someone outside the Big Six possibly being as good as the Big Six? Wichita State, Missouri State, Creighton, oh my!

Saturday was the Creighton-Southern Illinois game. I really don't want to bore you with too many details of CU's 6th consecutive loss to the hated Egyptian Dogs, so I'll just give you some bullet points.

-CU played poorly, but much of that has to do with SIU. They are a terrible matchup for the Jays. Their aggressive, hand-check defense forces you to run your offense 30 feet from the basket, and results in bad shots, turnovers and early fatigue. The fact that they have the athletes to run this system well is a big reason they've not only won the league so much, but made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. Their old coach, Bruce Weber, has got Illinois to buy into this system -- with Big Ten Caliber athletes -- and they went like 35-2 last year and lost in the National Championship game. Southern Illinois deserved to win the game, just like they have the last five.

-That said, they still get away with a lot of cheap and occasionally dirty shots. Not Wichita State-dirty, but still. Their hand-check defense is mostly illegal but since you simply can't call a hand-check on every play, they get away with it about 60-70% of the time. They play rough, and run so many bodies at you its possible for them to sacrifice a player or two with foul trouble. The cheap shot on Josh Dotzler -- a moving screen that knocked him hard to the court square on his knee, resulting in what appears to be a broken kneecap was not even called a foul. Trust me, if it was possible to break my arm rest on my chair, it would have happened at that point. If this was the old Civic where some of the chairs in the student section came out and were throwable, mine would have been on the court. There's a time for calm measured analysis, and there's a time for throwing things.

-Don't get the wrong idea though: I respect what SIU has been able to do, winning as many games as they do. But respect and liking are two different things. I respect their program. I hate their guts.

his isn't exactly a news flash, but I'm not the most responsible person in the world. According to the Gallup Strengths Finder, its one of my bottom five strengths, in fact, along with Deliberative. This means I do not enjoy routine and structure, and I do not take psychological ownership of what I say I will do. Simply put, I'm a free-spirited irresponsible dude.

Also, this means when I say I will be in Des Moines at 2pm on Saturday, what I really mean is I'll leave Omaha at 2pm and get there at 4pm.

Oh, I had intended on being there at 2, but things happened. Things like Double Overtime in the Southern Illinois-Wichita State game, which I stayed and watched to its conclusion before leaving. The Colorado was outside warming up as regulation ended, but it sat out there running for another 30 minutes as two overtimes played out. By the time I went to the bank and got gas, it was 2pm before I got on I-80 to Des Moines.

I felt sorta bad about it, but my attention was soon diverted by severe spillage of my beverage.