Looking for One of Four

I made a comment to The Doctor last night that I feel I've seen too much of the same teams during first few weeks of the season. Besides the obvious with Duke, I've seen plenty of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Georgetown, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Michigan, Davidson, and Purdue. I feel like I need more Big 12 in my life. I know soon enough I'll be the only one in the Tri-State area, other than The Doctor and apparently my dad, who watches those Thursday night Pac-10 games. I could use a little more SEC viewing, but the conference is practically too putrid to watch. It will take time to find the teams I like for the Final Four. Last year the season played out as if March would be a random experiment and then all the #1 seeds made the Final Four. I didn't have the feeling for Kansas winning it all until watching them in the conference tournament, a time still two months away from where we are now. It is early, but there's still too much I dislike about the best teams in the country than the other way around.

I only caught the first half of the Connecticut road trip to Morgantown on Tuesday night, but the same issues with the Huskies seem to ring true. They don't have any outside shooters!! I can't buy into UConn long term because they can't shoot the 3. They lack that Rip Hamilton or Rashad Anderson type who can put down 6-7 3s in a game. And before you say Hamilton isn't that kind of player, look how he averaged 2.3 3s a game in his college career. Kemba Walker is probably their best shooter, but he's not that type of player. Forget that Thabeet inexplicably can't finish a put-back dunk without first bringing the ball off the rim or that A.J. Price's skills disappeared with his original ACL. Usually you need an array of scoring styles and Connecticut doesn't have that. If the favored Mountaineers shot a better percentage or got a better game from Alex Ruoff, West Virginia wins that game. Despite the fact that Ken Pomeroy had West Virginia ranked as the most efficient NCAA team before the game, I feel the win didn't prove enough for the Huskies.

Duke hosted Stehpon Curry's Davidson squad on Wednesday in what I expected to be an easy win for Duke. Davidson doesn't have the athleticism to bother Duke on the boards or with dribble penetration. Stehpon Curry was 0-1 from the field ten minutes into the game and Duke wasn't running away with the game. Isn't that an issue? It was a home game against what's basically a one man team and they were up 16-12? Duke looked extremely sloppy with the ball in the first half. For a team that's not prone to turnovers, that shouldn't happen against a team the country isn't confusing for the Pittsburgh Panthers. The turnovers were only down in the second half because they stopped being aggressive with ten minutes to go in the game. They led by over 20 points for a good portion of the second half, but that lead got cut to eight points in the closing minutes. It wasn't as convincing as it should've been. I'm extremely critical of this bunch, but deep down I know Coach K is as well...