College Basketball: Brawls and the Fall of the Top Two Teams
What a weekend for College Basketball, there have been highs and there have been some major lows but this weekend shows just what we can expect this year, which is expect the unexpected, no team is safe, there is no clear cut #1 team in the country. With both Ohio St and Kentucky losing on Saturday to Kansas and Indiana respectively the number 1 team will be either Syracuse or Louisville, the only two teams in the top 6 who are still undefeated.
This weekend started off with a bang in basketball, actually quite literally as in the waning seconds of the Xavier vs Cincinnati game a fight erupted prompting the officials to call the game with 9.4 seconds left. As a fan of the game, a game I find to the be the most beautiful, this fight has marred the sport and no one will be able to look at these two teams this year without thinking about this fight and the comments that were said after wards. I get it Xavier players you want to be tough, you want to be seen as a team that will out tough any team on the court, but I'm sorry to say that you are all thugs isn't going to help your image especially after the fight. I get it this is a rivalry game but look at Duke vs UNC one of the most vicious rivalries in the history of sports. I hate Duke with a passion as a UNC fan, and the players don't like the other school but the would never get into the fight, the bloodiest the rivalry ever got was when Tyler Hansbrough got flagrantly fouled and had his nose broken but the aftermath of that was not a fight. Please Cincinnati and Xavier players learn some decency for your game. I believe that the 6 game suspensions are not enough, I know that the coaches are looking at more punishments and I do believe that the Cincinnati Head Coach handled the situation very well in his media interview after the game. I hope he does lay down some serious punishment down especially to Gates and the kid who kicked Frease while he was down because that was a cowardly move. I think we can all see that this brawl has taken away from the game as I don't even know the final score just know that Xavier won and that I have no idea how the two teams played as this overshadows everything.
Now to two games that have thrown the rankings into chaos and I do agree with Andy Katz, this week the rankings have no meaning as who ever is the number 1 team in the country this week isn't really the best team in the country. There are 4 teams that are the best and those are North Carolina, Ohio State, Kentucky and Duke, I didn't put these in any particular order but come March these will be your four #1 seeds in the tournament, mark my words unless any of these teams have spectacular melt downs that is how its going to play out. I do hope that the final will be UNC and someone and UNC wins. I know that I just went off onto my usual pro North Carolina rant as I love them and now its back to Kansas vs Ohio St. Can I just say WOW what a game, this was a game where fine so Sullinger didn't play but still Ohio St was the favored team and they just didn't play like a great team, they need to learn how to play without their star as what happens if he is stopped from scoring during a game. This game showed what Ohio St needs to work on but they are still a great team just Kansas was better on Saturday. Also Kansas played more like a team then Ohio St did, even though Robinson didn't get a rebound until the second half and he usually averages around 14 rebounds a game that didn't stop them and they were able to pull away. Kansas had other players step up when one of their players wasn't have a great night. That's the mark of a great team. I'm really glad my boys in Lawrence won this game, I was pulling for them.
But truly the biggest upset game came at 5:15 in Bloomington, Indiana where an unranked team went up against the #1 team in the country and pulled off an upset that put a once legendary program back on the map. That's right the Hoosiers beat the Wildcats 73-72 on a buzzer beater 3 that was the perfect ending to a game that was wild and amazing to watch. There were times during the game when I was worried that Kentucky would come back and win the game as Kentucky has won games like this before. But this was the first true road test for them and they definitely played in front of a very hostile crowd. This may have been one of the loudest crowds that I have witnessed watching on ESPN. They managed to rattle the players into missing free throw shots as they went 10-17, if they had made at least 3 or 4 more free throws they could have won the game. If they had fouled on the last play they could have won. This game was a game of if only for Kentucky especially in the last 15 seconds. They were down at the half by 1 point, this wasn't new for them, they were down by 7 against UNC and came back to win by 1. They are a team I'm terrified to see play in the second half as both time they beat my team in the second half after not playing well in the first but this game something was different, it was like they were scared of the crowd and were scared to play to their best ability but then they started to creep back and took the lead and I was resigned to getting gloating texts about how Kentucky is so amazing, but they made mistakes, they showed that they do have things they still need to work on. Yes they have amazing talent but they are young and young men do make mistakes, this time it cost them the win and the #1 ranking.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports
This weekend started off with a bang in basketball, actually quite literally as in the waning seconds of the Xavier vs Cincinnati game a fight erupted prompting the officials to call the game with 9.4 seconds left. As a fan of the game, a game I find to the be the most beautiful, this fight has marred the sport and no one will be able to look at these two teams this year without thinking about this fight and the comments that were said after wards. I get it Xavier players you want to be tough, you want to be seen as a team that will out tough any team on the court, but I'm sorry to say that you are all thugs isn't going to help your image especially after the fight. I get it this is a rivalry game but look at Duke vs UNC one of the most vicious rivalries in the history of sports. I hate Duke with a passion as a UNC fan, and the players don't like the other school but the would never get into the fight, the bloodiest the rivalry ever got was when Tyler Hansbrough got flagrantly fouled and had his nose broken but the aftermath of that was not a fight. Please Cincinnati and Xavier players learn some decency for your game. I believe that the 6 game suspensions are not enough, I know that the coaches are looking at more punishments and I do believe that the Cincinnati Head Coach handled the situation very well in his media interview after the game. I hope he does lay down some serious punishment down especially to Gates and the kid who kicked Frease while he was down because that was a cowardly move. I think we can all see that this brawl has taken away from the game as I don't even know the final score just know that Xavier won and that I have no idea how the two teams played as this overshadows everything.
Now to two games that have thrown the rankings into chaos and I do agree with Andy Katz, this week the rankings have no meaning as who ever is the number 1 team in the country this week isn't really the best team in the country. There are 4 teams that are the best and those are North Carolina, Ohio State, Kentucky and Duke, I didn't put these in any particular order but come March these will be your four #1 seeds in the tournament, mark my words unless any of these teams have spectacular melt downs that is how its going to play out. I do hope that the final will be UNC and someone and UNC wins. I know that I just went off onto my usual pro North Carolina rant as I love them and now its back to Kansas vs Ohio St. Can I just say WOW what a game, this was a game where fine so Sullinger didn't play but still Ohio St was the favored team and they just didn't play like a great team, they need to learn how to play without their star as what happens if he is stopped from scoring during a game. This game showed what Ohio St needs to work on but they are still a great team just Kansas was better on Saturday. Also Kansas played more like a team then Ohio St did, even though Robinson didn't get a rebound until the second half and he usually averages around 14 rebounds a game that didn't stop them and they were able to pull away. Kansas had other players step up when one of their players wasn't have a great night. That's the mark of a great team. I'm really glad my boys in Lawrence won this game, I was pulling for them.
But truly the biggest upset game came at 5:15 in Bloomington, Indiana where an unranked team went up against the #1 team in the country and pulled off an upset that put a once legendary program back on the map. That's right the Hoosiers beat the Wildcats 73-72 on a buzzer beater 3 that was the perfect ending to a game that was wild and amazing to watch. There were times during the game when I was worried that Kentucky would come back and win the game as Kentucky has won games like this before. But this was the first true road test for them and they definitely played in front of a very hostile crowd. This may have been one of the loudest crowds that I have witnessed watching on ESPN. They managed to rattle the players into missing free throw shots as they went 10-17, if they had made at least 3 or 4 more free throws they could have won the game. If they had fouled on the last play they could have won. This game was a game of if only for Kentucky especially in the last 15 seconds. They were down at the half by 1 point, this wasn't new for them, they were down by 7 against UNC and came back to win by 1. They are a team I'm terrified to see play in the second half as both time they beat my team in the second half after not playing well in the first but this game something was different, it was like they were scared of the crowd and were scared to play to their best ability but then they started to creep back and took the lead and I was resigned to getting gloating texts about how Kentucky is so amazing, but they made mistakes, they showed that they do have things they still need to work on. Yes they have amazing talent but they are young and young men do make mistakes, this time it cost them the win and the #1 ranking.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports
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