College Hoops Shizzle

Big game tonight in college basketball land. Pittsburgh went into Connecticut and knocked off the #1 team in the nation 76-68. I was really looking forward to this game and it didn't disappoint other than the game failed to be decided in the final seconds.

The battle of the bigs between Pitt's DeJuan Blair and Uconn's Hashem Thabeet was won convincingly by Blair. He nearly broke Thabeets arm early in the game with a nice takedown. On a side note, I found it kind of weird that between commercial breaks of watching these giants do battle I flipped to Little People Big World. Anyway, Blair put a hurtin' on Uconn with 22 points and 23 boards. Sam Young also chipped in 25 points but it was 2 late 3's by LeVance Fields that put this game away.

Fields nailed a pair of ballsy 3's with under 2 minutes left in the game after missing his first seven shots of the game. Pitt isn't a perfect team by any means but they are as tough as they get in college basketball.

Sean McDonough made a great comparison at the end of the game when he compared this years Pitt team to last years Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas hadn't made the leap to a Final Four team under Bill Self until last year when they won the national championship. Pitt is in a similar situation never getting passed the sweet 16 under Jamie Dixon. This year definitely looks to be the year that Pitt gets over the sweet 16 hurdle and reaches a Final Four.

Other College BBall Shizzle

• It's kind of disappointing that we can't have a player of the year debate. Blake Griffin has had this thing won for weeks. Check his line from Saturday if you don't believe me.


• Speaking of player of the year talks, to me Ty Lawson is more of a POY than Tyler Hansbrough has been this year. Lawson was the reason the Tar Heels beat FSU at the Buzzer, rallied past Duke, and fended off a tough Miami team.


• When is Duke going to learn? You cannot go deep in the tournament without a big man in the middle. This team looks a lot like the teams that lost to West Virginia in the 2nd round and VCU in the first round. Don't get your hopes up for a deep tourney run Dookies.


• We all know the Big 10 is brutal to watch but there will be an interesting match up when Minnesota travels to Michigan on Thursday which could leave the loser on the outside looking in on selection Sunday. Notice I said this game would be interesting, not entertaining. Don't put words in my mouth.


• Notre Dame, Texas, and Georgetown are clearly the disappointments of this season. I can remember watching Notre Dame and Texas play a fairly exciting game early this yea and Maui thinking that these teams were solid. The reason they looked decent was because they both sucked leading me to my next point....


• Luke Harangody better not win Big East Player of the Year. His stats are good for a losing team. A lot of games he has jacked up questionable shots late in games that left his team behind the 8 ball.