He’s the epitome of his crazy, manically obsessed Dad.
Don’t they call that old man’s game? I agree he doesn’t have the innate athleticism to translate parts of his game to the next level. Especially the post up.
Proud of our team. Great and entertaining season. Although our path to the final game was one of the easiest we could have asked for, at the end of the day, I believe JB molded this group into a top 8 team for sure and that was better than my expectations…The Nova game easily could have been closer if we would have been the beneficiaries of a few calls and if we would have shot a little better. Nova shooting worse would have helped too :). It was a very entertaining season. Loved the character and personalities on this team.
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Yeah, there might have even been some sour grapes behind my post.
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I was going to bring up this same point. I give all credit to Villanova/DeVincinzo for the win, but the team we saw at MSG never really returned. I do think the 2 weeks off really hurt them and would have loved to give them a shot with the BTT Michigan team
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They made the national championship game, something only one other team did. Villanova is a matchup nightmare for everyone in the country. Michigan could’ve played their best game and Villanova probably would’ve won.
All five guys on the floor for Villanova are a threat from 3. Michigan didn’t have that because of Simpson. Don’t get me wrong, Simpson was fantastic throughout the year but he was exposed in the end. He isn’t a good shooter and took some wide open 3’s that weren’t close when he could’ve made a pass to Moe (in the post during a 2nd half 3) or others.
Agree. He was going to the rim fearlessly through the B1G tourney and early NCAA games, elevating that portion of his game. He became much more timid in the last few games and I think it narrowed our margins right around the floor.
I thought Moe handled it just fine; he wasn’t intimidated in the least.
Is that what you think–top eight? I won’t be surprised if we get dinged for losing big last night, but think we should be ranked third behind KS.
Actually, none of the B1G teams looked as good in the tournament as they did in season. I think the layoff may have hurt everyone and us the most because we were on a roll.
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I agree. I think we should finish top three, not that it really matters. Villanova beat everyone in the tournament by double digits, it wasn’t just us. Jay Wright said they played their best game of the year last night. He said it wasn’t perfect but it WAS their best game. I don’t think it was just coaching hype or respect for JB, although he has a ton of respect for Coach B. Villanova is a great college basketball team. I believe they may be the best team in the country going back over the last three or four years, and I’m certainly not alone in that assessment. We didn’t play our best game, or really even particularly close to our best game, last night, credit Villanova for much of that. If we had played our best game, I really don’t think we would have beaten Nova last night, especially with Divincenzo going off the way he did. So, we may be “dinged” for the margin of defeat, but I think that would be silly on the part of those making such decisions. It was a GREAT year. I’m proud of our kids and our coaches. I think our team proved themselves to be one of the best teams in the country. It doesn’t matter a whole lot to me what other people think.
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Maybe, or maybe the Big Ten wasn’t all that great. OSU lost to Gonzaga by 17 in the nonconference and then by 8 in the tourney. Their best win was Stanford and they lost to the Zags, Clemson, and Butler.
Purdue got as far as it ever has with Painter and was probably hurt more by Haas than the layoff.
The layoff didn’t make Izzo play Ben Carter 23 minutes against Syracuse.
Did the layoff hurt, for instance, X? Maybe, but he was pretty up and down offensively all year and his best games during the regular season were also against MSU and Purdue, likely based on matchups, etc.
Perhaps the layoff didn’t help, but there are plenty of explanations for how the B1G did, and I’m not sold that it’s why Michigan shot poorly the third weekend of the tournament.
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Awesome run, very rewarding team to watch this year. The defense and game plan gave us a chance against Nova, but the shooting just wasn’t there. Would’ve been nice to see DiVincenzo try to make those shots in a tie or even close game, but the offense stalled out. A few bad breaks, maybe a couple bad calls, but, while we certainly could’ve won and it hurts to be so close and not go all the way, the better team probably won last night. Great year.
Villanova and Kansas are top 8 too 
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Haven’t seen it really addressed here, but it was a hot topic at our viewing party. Was that “wedgie block” a goaltend? I am 100% certain it hit the backboard first, but I doubt it was going in…so does that allow the defensive player to swat at it?
If I’m not mistaken, Nova came right down the court after that play and hit a 3…and my house was suddenly full of crickets, like we knew the fairytale was ending.
Just curious to hear some of your thoughts on that play.
(PS - Let me be clear I don’t think that was the difference in the game…Nova was the best team in the country. Just curious as I do think it deflated me personally)
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it was 100% a goaltend. Was somewhat of a tough call to see clearly live. But definitely a goaltend on replay.
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I just looked up the rule. The ball has to be above the rim. That one barely made it above the bottom of the backboard.
Someone elsewhere posted the rule and it stated “if any part of the ball is above the rim it is goal tending” and part of the ball was above the rim.
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I think the whole ball does not need to be above the level of the rim after it has touched the backboard. The ball was partially above the rim when the defender was “blocking” it, I think.
Seems like that rule needs some revisiting on layup attempts. Simpson (and countless others) have really worked on the scoop layup and putting different types of english on the ball at the rim…shouldn’t really be any wiggle room allowing defenders to touch that ball until it has come off the rim or away from the cylinder, etc.
My gut still tells me that was a goaltend, but I only watched it 2 or 3 times during that commercial break, so I can’t speak to where it was and how to interpret it from the rule. I do think it was part of the overall momentum swing though…
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