The season’s not even three weeks old and already it’s excellent. Good games are happening every week, sometimes every night, sometimes more than once a night.
Here we go with this week’s Final Four if the Final Four happened this week.
Kentucky
Wisconsin - Big wins against everyone except a very tough Georgetown team, which they still won. Then again, Georgetown follows that very good game with a loss to Butler.
Duke - The usual crushing wins against overwhelmed teams.
Villanova. With wins against Michigan and VCU (crushed them) and a solid guard and big bodies, skilled big bodies, inside who knows how far they can go?
Wisconsin and Villanova earned their spots with tough wins against quality opponents.
This week Duke plays Wisconsin at Wisconsin. Duke lost there the last time they played Wisconsin at Wisconsin. They also went on to win a national championship in the same season. Go figure.
Dropping Out: Arizona finally played a few quality teams, K-State and San Diego State.
- San Diego State lost the game with poor free-throw shooting, Arizona didn’t win it.
- K-State lost with bad execution in the last two minutes.
They have the athletes. They just don’t look like they have the execution or the shooting. We’ll see.
NATIONAL CHAMPION? It’s still Kentucky.
Dark Horses
Louisville. Maybe I should rank them in the Final Four. I just can’t yet. Here’s why. It’s a personal thing. I just dislike their coach.
Wichita State. They still haven’t lost a regular season game since ... I forget, since March 2013 are very strong, very physical, experienced, great coach.
VCU? Nah, I don’t think so. That thing called ‘offense’ continues to challenge them, just as it challenged them last year. Do they play defense? Hell, yeah. Do they press and create chaos? Double that. Do they rebound? All game. But they cannot shoot worth a darn. Until that changes ... Even now as I write this post, they trail Old Dominion - Old Dominion! - by 12. Update: They lost by six but they did score 49 points in the second half. But, ODU scored 41, so now VCU can't play defense.
North Carolina? - Hard to say. They let Butler, a very solid Butler but it’s still Butler, grab 29 offensive rebounds. 29. Offensive rebounds. Marcus Paige, their #1 point guard in all the land, shot about 30% from the field. And Butler went long periods without scoring. And still UNC lost.
Then again, they whipped UCLA, a recent and very temporary arrival to the Top 25, and followed that with a solid win against a depleted Florida team.
Who knows? Ol’ Roy Williams teams have similar personalities as their coach. Temperamental, volatile.
Iowa State? No, they lost to Maryland.
Dark Delight of the Week. UCLA, under it's Coach Steve, I Swear I'll Win a First-Round Game Before I Retire ... but if I don't it's the players fault, Alford entered the top 25 for the first time. After that rush of good news they lost to Georgetown and ... wait for it ... a 22-point loss to UNC. Here's a great sumup. I like this one's title: UCLA Basketball Gets Slaughtered on Thanksgiving.
Here's my favorite quote from Coach Alford:
“We’re not changing our offense or changing our defense overnight,” Alford said.
And Coach, why should you?
WEEK 4 GAMES to WATCH
Sunday: Kansas vs. Michigan State
Tuesday: Ohio State vs Louisville; Syracuse at Michigan
Wednesday: Iowa at UNC; Duke at Wisconsin; Virginia at Maryland; Wichita State at Utah,
Thursday: Arkansas at Iowa State
Friday: Texas at Kentucky - Texas won't have it's star guard Isaiah Taylor; Florida at Kansas; Missouri at Oklahoma.
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