Other 1st round games.... DISCUSSION THREAD

[Highsmith]

Watching Xavier/BYU- I wish Gus Johnson could do every tournament game. Not many guys make a game sound as exciting as he does. What would it take to get Gus to replace Sean McD in the trio with Raf and Bilas?? Then, put Erin Alexander on the sidelines and we have the ultimate announcing team!!

[TBird41]

zxhoya said:

Who's more hate-able, Paulus or Devendorf. That's a tough choice but I think I will go with Devendorf.

Definately Devendorf. Paulus is an overhyped tool, but Devendorf is a trash talking cheap shot artist that's all white trashed up. Even Cuse fans don't like him.

[FewFAC]

Coach K really screwed the pooch on this one. The better Paulus' numbers get, the more this Duke team loses.

HOYA SAXA

[HoyaSinceBirth]

great job by VCU i picked them to win solely based on maynards performance against GMU in the conference final and he didn't dissapoint me. I knew they had it when they were still close at the end. That kid just takes over. not bad but not a good day for me 3 predicitions wrong.

[FewFAC]

Also, Marquette should be embarassed, getting shutout for the first ten minutes against a game, but offensively challenged Michigan State. I almost felt like rooting for them to get shutout for the entire first half, and I could feel the Michigan State players wanting to do it.

[DanMcQ]

from the USA Today pregame article:

Virginia Commonwealth's Maynor eager for Duke


By Erik Brady, USA TODAY

BUFFALO — Eric Maynor dreamed of playing for the North Carolina Tar Heels when he was a kid. Thursday, he gets to play against their hated rival.

Virginia Commonwealth meets Duke for the first time in the first round of the West Regional, and Maynor hopes the game comes down to a final play with the ball in his hands. That's the way he always imagined it on the playgrounds in Fayetteville, N.C.

The opponent wasn't always Duke but "anybody in general," he says. "Sometimes I made (the shot), and sometimes I didn't. But I want to be in the situation."

[Hoya50]

i cant believe marquette lost the way they did. james is awful and there's no other word for it. he's out of control all the time and his jumper needs serious work.

[DFW HOYA]

hoya50 said:

i cant believe marquette lost the way they did. james is awful and there's no other word for it. he's out of control all the time and his jumper needs serious work.

Marquette had won eight straight entering Verizon Center on Feb. 10. Lost six of its last nine thereafter.

The 49 points against Michigan State was a season low.

[HooHoya]

Wow, Eastern Kentucky is giving UNC a run for their money. EKU is only down 4 in the second half.

[Big Dog]

dfw said:

hoya50 said:

i cant believe marquette lost the way they did. james is awful and there's no other word for it. he's out of control all the time and his jumper needs serious work.

Marquette had won eight straight entering Verizon Center on Feb. 10. Lost six of its last nine thereafter.

The 49 points against Michigan State was a season low.

Crean is still yet to win an NCAA tournament game without Dwayne Wade. In fact, Crean-coached teams have never won an NCAA game outside the year they went to the Final Four. All told, Crean has been at the school eight years and they've only won an NCAA game in one of those eight seasons. Maybe its time to pop the national myth that the guy is some kind of elite coach.

No one should have picked them to win tonight. Besides not having McNeal, the Marquette late season swoon under Crean is becoming something you can set your watch by. For the second time in three years, Crean's famously grueling practices led to a key player being injured down the stretch (in 2005 it was Travis Diener). All of the players also just seem worn down come late February and March.

[RDF]

Crean acts like a jackass all year and then gags like this against an offensively retarded team like Michigan State? I can see losing--that can happen in a 1 and done scenario but the guy coached with Izzo and takes on many of his strategies offensively/defensively and he coached as if he had never seen what MSU was doing?

Marquette's performance embarrassed the Big East today--disgraceful lack of preparation and answering the challenge. Go down tough/battling-not like what I saw today.

Duke lost this game because they did what Duke does under Coach K now--pull the ball out--with a 7 point lead around 7 minute mark they pull ball out and I looked at my friends and said "They will lose this game if K does his hold the ball and fire up 3's routine"--and needless to say less then a minute later, it's a 2 point Duke lead and we all saw how it ended. Why coaches get so passive/hold the ball in their older age is beyond me--but you just have to keep attacking/playing the game.

Gonzaga was bad--that game could've been won but their Big guy #31 missed at LEAST 5/6 layups from less then 2 feet. He sucked. If the kid suspended played--those are hoops and that is a game--but the most overrated Mid Major player and yes Gonzaga is Mid Major--is Derek Raivio--have been hearing for years how great he is--he is marginal--at best. Good bye and good riddance. Few should split while the name is hot because that program has leveled off and with the NBA rule--more big time programs will have deeper pool of talent and less upsets/room for Mid Majors--as it should be. You guys might not like it but I want to see the BEST TEAMS advance and play for it all--if that means George Mason is one of the best teams--which last year they were--they earn it. If not--then see you--and Gonzaga was not very good at all--but neither was Stanford, Marquette today sucked, Penn was pig awful, and if they had a pulse, they give A&M a loss or possession game. Louisville will take out Aggies on Saturday--and I really don't see that being a game with the lack of defense I see from Big XII teams. Law is a fine player and he'll have to attack a deeper/more talented team on a very PRO-Louisville court--so tough challenge and maybe Aggies prove their worth but if they play anywhere as awful as I've seen against Oklahoma State in Big XII Tournament and today against Penn-they are going back to College Station.

[daytonahoya31]

You have to give it to gonzaga thought, they're recruiting like a major.


The zags have three top 100 guys coming in next season, along with austin daye, a 6-9 small forward who is the son of darren daye, of the celtics in the 80's

[HoyaFanNY]

my wife likes duke and i told her in the first half that duke could not keep that pace up for 40 minutes. coach k(rybaby) needed to spell paulus more the first half. he completely ran out of gas late in the game. i thought mcroberts should have had more touches also. each time i watch paulus, i dislike him more and more...but he is not even on the same planet as devendork.

i LOVE watching duke lose!

[TC]

I think Duke made a huge mistake with 1.8 seconds left by making McRoberts the inbounder. There has to be someone else on that team that could throw a baseball pass. They didn't get the ball close enough to the basket to get a decent shot off and McRoberts seemed like the best bet to actually catch a long pass.

[hoya9797]

hoyafanny said:

my wife likes duke and i told her in the first half that duke could not keep that pace up for 40 minutes. coach k(rybaby) needed to spell paulus more the first half. he completely ran out of gas late in the game. i thought mcroberts should have had more touches also. each time i watch paulus, i dislike him more and more...but he is not even on the same planet as devendork.

i LOVE watching duke lose!

The flopping defense that Coach K is teaching these guys is getting ridiculous. Check out Paulus in this clip. It's hilarious.

[prhoya]

THANKS FOR THAT MUST-SEE TV!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

[guhoyasfan36]

Paulas flop...lol...that's hilarious

Did the "flu" stike marquette again? I think at least the oranges would have made at least a decent showing for the big east.

[Filo]

That flop is absiloutely classic. Is it any wonder why people hate Duke.

The Duke-VCU games was surely an 8-9 game -- many people knew VCU was a bit under-seeded and anyone with half a braiin knew that Duke was over-seeded.

I agree on Paulus v. Devendorf -- Paulus is just annoying, he is not even in the same league as Devendorf on the contemptibility scale. Devendorf has the entire package -- complete trash, obnoxious, classless, just talented enough to have some good moments during a game so that you hate him even more when your team plays him .

[HoyaSC]

I loved the VCU fan, standing in the midst of pre-printed "BEAT DUKE" signs, had his own home made sign that said, "BEAT THE REFS."

Beautiful.

[Big Dog]

Man there's a lot of discussion about Duke. I'm glad they're out too, but big fish like we Hoyas should have no reason to spend much time worrying about small fry non-conference teams like the Blue Devils.