Postby Orlando Penguin » Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:55 pm
Today's impressions...
--Those two guards Auburn has -- Harper and Brown -- were OUTSTANDING today. Not just on the offensive end but defensively, they kept Herro and Quickley, and Hagans under wraps. McLemore woke up on the inside and Auburn did a great job on the boards, which is something I really didn't expect. Kentucky played that game like they were entitled to an all-time 6-point lead. Then when they got hit in the mouth, they couldn't hit back. I just can't figure out why they'd guard Harper 35 feet from the basket when they knew that no one had the speed to keep him from getting around the corner. Tigers will be a handful for Virginia on Saturday. And if you haven't seen the pics from Toomer's Corner on the Auburn campus, go find them.
--I thought Sparty would have the inside force to be able to handle Duke and they did for the most part. But no one's stopping Zion when he goes to the basket, that's just a 100% fact. Izzo couldn't have dreamed of a better setup on the play coming out of the timeout of having his best shooter coming off a screen for a wide open 3. Sparty and TTech is going to be a freaking slogfest and probably just as exciting.
--Four great regional final games this weekend. But in the end, the biggest thing that stuck out was that fundamentals still rule the day. Kentucky, Duke, and Purdue all lost games because they had failures at the free throw line. For all the glitz and glamour of an alley-oop and kick-out 3's, the free throws and good defense are still pretty damn important.
--Look at the 4 teams left. What do they have in common? None are part of the one-and-done factory. All four teams are pretty well-experienced and have juniors and seniors that have been down these roads before. At first glimpse, I like Virginia vs. Sparty for the championship with Sparty winning but it's been a bunch of surprises these last 4 days so it wouldn't be too crazy to think Auburn and TTech will be seeing each other on Monday.
