UM -MSU hoops

Most reports will say Michigan made a stunning comeback in the last few minutes, with their super-star guard Trey Burke hitting a long range 3-pointer with 4 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime -- in which Michigan eventually prevailed over #1 seed Kansas. That's all true.

But there's another reality to it as well. Evidently, Kansas head coach Bill Self went into brain-lock on that last play in regulation. Kansas was leading by 3 points with under 10 seconds to go. Incredibly, they allowed Burke to take the in-bounds pass, dribble the ball down the court, and then leave him wide open for his game-tying shot. What were they thinking? Why not foul Burke long before he got into shooting range? Let him go to the free throw line for two shots. Burke can't tie the game there. If he makes both shots, Kansas gets the ball out of bounds with a 1 point lead, and only a few seconds remaining. If Burke makes the first and intentionally misses the second, hoping for a put-back by a teammate, odds are very high Kansas gets the rebound anyway, or one of their players gets fouled in the process by a Michigan player trying to crash the boards. Either way, it's pretty much game over. Michigan should be commended for their comeback and, yes, Burke wound up the hero, but Kansas pulled a colossal bone-head on that play. Even the talking heads on TV were saying, "In that situation I foul 100% of the time". One would think Bill Self knows that right about now. Whether or not he ever owns it......

So now UM gets Florida on Sunday for a spot in the Final Four. Likely a coin flip game.

In the meantime, Coach I of Michigan State was bested by Coach K of Duke. It could have went either way. But if history matters, and opinions vary, the K man was 7-1 against MSU going into that game so it's not all that surprising he's now 8-1. Even though there were several minutes left to play, that game was basically over once MSU found itself in the situation of having to foul Duke. Typically, the Blue Devils were lethal from the free throw line. What did they shoot -- 24 out of 26?

Yet given the tournament history of UM and MSU, who would have guessed that the Spartans would be going home before the Wolverines?

At any rate, yours truly was once again remarkably consistent. In my previous post I predicted Michigan to lose and Michigan State to win. 

Yep, I've still got it.

Sometimes I wish I could get rid of it, though..........