A Great Evening of Basketball

Saturday's games proved for the 4,000th time that the Regional Finals are where it's at in terms of exciting, close games in the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament.  Of course, we all remember - except those who don't remember -  the Duke/Kentucky game from 1992 when Christian Laetner was officially canonized into the sainthood of the Church of Disney Entertainment of Modern Day ESPN.  Today, though, there were two games that shall be remembered in the pantheon of great college basketball.

Southeast Regional Final: Florida vs. Butler
What a great game.  This one was tight all the way down the stretch after the Bulldog Butlers fought back to make it close at halftime.  Other than some bad fouls by both sides late, this was A Great, Close Basketball Game where the lead constantly fluctuates and the outcome is in doubt until the final buzzer.  Some observations:

• There were some silly fouls, far away from the basket in the late stages of this game.  I'd question the coaching acumen from both teams, but I know better.  This was likely the case of the pressure of finishing an important game getting to both teams.
• I was more than a little trepidatious when I saw that Reggie Miller was set to join the tremendous broadcast duo of Gus Johnson and Len Elmore for CBS, both of whom I f#@king love to listen to on a broadcast.  Remember, I'm the guy that argued for muting the center channel of your surround sound system, lest you be subjected to the annoying blather and/or embarrassing man-crushes of the other play-by-play teams.  Anxiety wasted.  Miller was an effective addition to one of the best sports commentator teams at work today.  Reggie, who is highly intelligent and well-spoken, was able to seamlessly integrate himself with the erudite and volatile Johnson, as well as the stately and wise Elmore.  This was a case of the sum being greater than the parts.  Amusingly, there were a couple of times when the excitable Gus Johnson was ready to "go all Vesuvius on our asses", but either a foul was called or the shot was missed, robbing us of a classic Gus Johnson freak-out.
• Shelvin Mack undressed the Gator defense with a great stutter step at about the 4 minute mark.  This sublime individual play prompted Gus Johnson to pontificate, "The Euro-Stutter-Step!  Manu Ginobili is jumping up and down on his couch right now!"
• The Bulldog Butlers head coach, Brad Stevens, looks so young that I bet he gets carded at Trader Joe's even after the clerks know him by name.  The 33 year old Stevens is slight of build and bespectacled, making him appear to be the answer to the question, "What would the Harry Potter of college hoops look like?"  Stevens must have a potion or two up his sleeve, because baby-face has a Coach K-like record of 116-24 as a head coach.  Yes, Virginia, that's an .828 win percentage.
• Butler got several favorable "shooter's rolls" in O.T.  Their free throws were often ugly, but they found the bottom of the net when it counted.
• Several times during the last few minutes Reggie Miller stated that "this is Matt Howard time."  Really?  'Cause it looked a lot like it was really the Ronald Nored and Khyle Marshall show to me.  Them and Shelvin Mack making his free-throws was the difference in the final minutes.
• Most of you know that I find cultural stereotypes corrosive to our collective journey from ignorant tribalism to enlightened transcendentalism, but Matt Howard is white.  He is so white that he makes Larry Bird look like Greg Gumbel.

West Regional Final: UConn vs. Arizona

This was a strange game.  The best analogy for the way this game proceeded would be a pendulum.  The final verdict was a narrow margin of victory, but there were wild swings in who controlled this game.  One side would assert dominance on the contest and go on a lopsided run, then the other team would take over in a similar manner.  The swings in this game were whiplash inducing.  Interestingly, the streakiness in scoring was perfectly correlated to the ability of one team to grab offensive rebounds.  Some observations:

• Arizona looking early on that they are going to run away with it.  If they hold on to win, their march to the Final Four is as inexplicable as the Wildcats' 1997 National Championship.  That year will always resonate with your intrepid blogger, because that was the year Brandon Johnson's girlfriend won our bracket pool solely by picking which mascots she liked better.  Simply evil.
• Verne Lundquist, who can finally stop talking about his man-crush on Jimmer He Who Will Not Be Named, claimed that Arizona had an advantage because the game was being played in Anaheim, CA.  To which I call bullshit.  Tickets for these events are allocated roughly evenly, and there is no shortage of wealthy, jet-setting alumni at any major D1 basketball school in the nation.  Listen close.  For every "U of A" chant, there is a rejoining "U-Conn" chant.
• Arizona was ridiculously dependent on Derrick Williams.  We saw what he did to the Dookie on Thursday, but when he had to sit down with foul trouble in the first half, UConn ran off a 22-7 streak.  After he returned in the second half, the 7 point UConn halftime lead evaporated, and then some.  Williams took more free throws than anyone else in D1 this year, meaning he was a disproportionately large part of the Wildcat offense.  The fact that he couldn't hit his shot in the waning moments sunk the 'Cats chances.
• It was nice to see Arizona coaching legend Lute Olson in attendance at this game.  Unfortunately, CBS thought it more important to put Wildcat alum, current Laker, and son of the Biggest-Blow-Hard-This-Side-Of-Oprah, Luke Walton on camera incessantly throughout the second half.  Definitely a case of inherited glory eclipsing true greatness.  Lute Olson is a class-act.  Luke Walton is an ass-clown.

A great day of college hoops today.  Let's hope tomorrow follows suit.  Score update to come afterward.  Enjoy.