I don't know how far I will get with this. If the game gets nasty, or if Shabazz puts up 30 threes before the half, I might be switching over to spring training baseball. But, in an effort to try and calm my nerves, I'm gonna try to chronicle this game.
7:12 - Couple of minutes away. The studio crew with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Greg Anderson were horrid again. Kenny Smith proved once again that, not only has he not watched any regular season college basketball, he hasn't watched much of the tournament, either. Saying that Uconn wants to "slow it down" flies in the face of 30 years of Calhoun teams. Even Uconn's bigger, front court dominated teams, like the 2009 squad, liked to run. If Uconn can get out in the open court, they will. Note to Kenny.....this isn't the NBA. When you make Barkley look like Bob Knight, it might be time to hook up with Ernie Johnson for dinner.
7:14 - Honestly have no idea what to expect from San Diego State. They might be a better version of Pitt, or a similar version of Cinci. No idea how to gauge a team that plays in no man's land.
7:17 - Not as many fan in the stadium, and not as loud.
7:18 - Olander needs some fashion sense, but nice defense on the low post there to knock the ball away.
7:19 - Kemba 0-2 so far, not good.
7:22 - On cue, CBS shows Kemba hasn't missed a foul shot and......he misses.
7:27 - First TV timeout. Very sloppy play from Uconn, especially defensively. Kemba is 0-3, but I love the shots he has gotten so far. If he keeps getting the same looks, I like what he can do. However, they have to tighten up on defense. I like their rebounding overall, but defensively, way too many shots near the rim. And Roscoe has to play better D. Kemba is also dribbling at the top of the key too much. More ball movement is needed. On the positive, I was really worried this was going to be a crazy San Diego State crowd. It looks like a pretty average sized crowd and those who are there are much more in the XL Center vein, rather than the Gampel type crowd.
7:40 - For some reason, at 10-10, Uconn has the C squad out there. And, SDSU hits a three. Not sure why Calhoun needs to employ the little league, everyone plays mentality so much. This has been a bad opening to the game. Kemba missing everything, bad offensive sets, the only good thing is, at this rate, Uconn will foul half SDSU's team out by the 8 minute mark in the second half.
7:45 - They ran that cut a lot early in the season, then everyone got wise to it. SDSU obviously didn't watch a lot of tape as Kemba cut for the score.
7:46 - I will say it right now, the greatest failing of Calhoun this season has been putting the ball in Napier's hands so much as the point. He is horrendous. The game slows soooo much, he makes bad passes. Just bad.
7:48 - PLEASE stop with Napier at the point.........PLEASE!!!
7:49 - Jeremy LAMB OF GOD!!!! He is going to be a special player. He has such an easy touch, he is soo long, he is a good rebounder, and he is quicker than a lot of people give him credit for. Nice bail out shot there. Then, on the other end, refs starting to call more fouls on Uconn. Hope this really doesn't become a foul fest on either team. I HATE when fucking refs interject themselves into games like these, especially when it is so shaky. They allowed a LOT of contact when that Caldwell kid scored over Okwandu, then called a touch foul on Roscoe. Which is it? We playing or no?
7:52 - This could end up being one of those games for Oriakhi. He has been bad on both ends of the floor so far. However, Kemba has to hit some of these open shots. On the plus side, Kemba can't play any worse and they are within 3
7:58 - KEMBA!!!! Quick three, the tide has turned. That whole run, though, started with Lamb. Great cross over, right to the rim, gets fouled, makes two free throws, Uconn grabs the rebound on a miss, down the other way, Roscoe, a three, then a terrific defensive stand, Kemba, a three. That's a big turn around right there, and most importantly it gets Kemba in the flow, feeling his shot. He still needs to hit his mid-ranger, but he looks like he is feeling it now.
8:02 - Seven point lead with less than 2 to go in the first. Important to take this lead, or more, into the half. They are starting to play great D. Just need to continue to rebound and be smart with the ball. One good trend....I don't think SDSU is a great three point shooting team yet it seems like they might get into one of those mono-on-mono things where they want to match Uconn, and that could be good. Bad trend.....Uconn's bread and butter isn't 3's, so hopefully they don't get 3-happy either
8:06 - Okay, 9 point half time lead. You can't be upset with that. Couple of things I see. First, SDSU is not a great jump shooting team. They have big guys inside and they want to keep going inside. That will be the key in the second half. Make them take jump shots. Second, Kemba can get his shot when he wants, but they are going to start to zero in on him even more in the second half. Lamb and Smith, along with Napier, need to hit their shots. Finally, Oriakhi went through a stretch where he didn't look into the game, then looked like a beast. He needs to be a beast for the entire second half. He needs to rebound EVERYTHING and I would also go inside to him a few more times on offense, only because fouls will become a problem for SDSU and if they can get some of their bigs in foul trouble, it could be tough for SDSU to score.
8:12 - It is literally painful listening to Barkley and Smith. Who, exactly, thought bringing them in was a good idea? Seriously? You honestly couldn't find a former college player who, you know, FOLLOWS college basketball? These guys are clueless. They still act like they are watching professionals. Memo to Smith and Barkley. In college ball, the best team doesn't always win like they do in the NBA. In fact, the Tourney is set up to knock out the best teams in favor of the smaller school. That's why people love the tourney. Does anyone honestly think Butler is better than Pitt? Anyone think Moorehead State is superior to Louisville? Of course not, but in a one-and-done scenario, anyone can beat anyone. Barkley's reasoning as to why Florida will beat BYU? "They have betta players." No shit, Einstein. So did Louisville. So did Pitt. So did Florida LAST YEAR when they lost to BYU. Again, these are kids. They hit walls. They get nervous. They make mistakes. The best team DOES NOT always win. In fact, there are many times they don't.
8:18 - Okay, second half is about to begin. Uconn up 9. That means, as long as they don't get outscored by 10 this half, they win. Simple math folks.I like simple math. Let's do this.
8:28 - Jamaal Coombs-McDaniels should not play another minute of this game. He has already missed three EASY layups/jump shots. He is also playing bad defense. PLEASE, for the lOVE OF GOD, get him out of there. They also need to play better D on the low block. SDSU has started this half getting whatever they want down low. Can't happen. Just CANNOT happen.
8:30 - Not good when, with a free throw here, SDSU will have made up 6 of a 9 point deficit in about 5 minutes
8:38 - Tie game. Terrible start for Uconn, but these fucking refs. Again, for these assholes, NO ONE came to see you asshole pricks blow your fucking whistles. It is one of the other. You're either letting them play or calling a fucking foul every time down. I fucking hate these cocksucking prick refs, I really do.
8:44 - This is starting not to feel very good here at all. I am getting towards Billy Madison time.
8:52 - Once again, the refs are just horrid, and Uconn needs someone other than Kemba and Lamb to score over the next 7 minutes if they want to win this game. The one good thing, though, is that Uconn stopped the bleeding there a bit, albeit mainly because of an amazingly stupid tech on the kid from SDSU.
8:57 - What can you say? This kid, Kemba, is just.......amazing.
8:58 - What a horrid foul on Oriakhi. Gave this team a three-point chance for no reason, and wracked uup the fouls
9:02 - That's a killer foul by Lamb. Stiops the clock and gives them free throws.
9:04 - As masterful as Kemba has been, the last four minutes of this game can't be Kemba taking bad shots. That would be a rewind of the first Louisville game where they blew the lead because they just tried bad shot after bad shot. They need to play smart, drive to the hole, try and get some fouls, and HIT FOUL SHOTS. Oh, and play lock-down defense for the next four minutes.
9:07 - If they lose this game, just point to fucking Napier.
9:10 - This game is starting to fall apart.
9:11 - I officially fucking hate this game, I really do.
9:13 - LAMB OF GOD
9:16 - LAMB OF GOD
9:18 - You had to hit that fucking three, didn't you? You had to fucking hit that three, you little prick.
9:19 - And.......that's it. WOW. This game was about Kemba, but it was also about Jeremy Lamb.
9:44 - Okay, I made all the phone calls/texts. Time to look back at this game. First, what's amazing is, this wasn't a great game from Uconn. The Louisville game, the Cuse games were MUCH better in terms of total team effort. This was a case of two NBA players (Kemba, Lamb) taking over a game when it needed to be taken over. It also came down to the fact that Uconn did a GREAT job of rebounding against a very big, very athletic front court.
Look, I could break all the negatives down. They aren't beating Duke (or probably even Arizona) if ALL their offense comes from two players. They also need MUCH better play from Shabazz, who continues to be a major, major negative out there most plays. However, look at where Uconn is. THEY ARE IN THE ELITE EIGHT!!!!! I mean, come on, did any Uconn fan think THIS was happening? Did any of us think that Uconn, ranked 10th in the Big East, unranked in the nation coming in, sporting mostly freshmen starters, and putting sooooo much on the shoulders of Kemba Walker, would be 40 minutes from The Final Four? When Uconn dropped 7 of their last 11, did any of us think there was a chance for THIS? When Uconn lost to ND at Gampel, when Ben Hansborough went out with 8 minutes to go, did anyone envision the last three weeks?
I am amazed. Kemba is AMAZING!!!!!! Lamb is AMAZING!!!!!!!!! I don't know if they have one more win in them, let alone three. I don't know how much they have left, I honestly don't. But, I know this.......they aint going out without a fight.
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