After a roller coaster Thursday, yesterday's games failed to match the excitement level. Upsets were there for the taking but late game possessions proved too difficult for teams to handle.
It's an epidemic that happens at high, mid and low majors. Coaches have taken control of the game so much, players look to the coach instead of letting instinct or trust take over. Mix in some offense on practice, coaches.
1. Committee Folly
The committee made all kind of odd choices this year, an increasingly disturbing trend. One of the sillier occurrences was putting Dayton in the play-in game. Under no metric was Dayton one of the last 4 in. But they were and had to play in Dayton and earned their win over Boise State. What was avoidable was putting them in the Columbus region. Under no circumstances should an 11 seed have home court advantage. BYU can't play on Sundays, so Dayton had to play Friday. National pundits are shrugging saying it was unavoidable. You have weeks and months to plan. It's avoidable. As for the game, Providence played its worst game of the year. It was rattled early by questionable officiating and simply didn't handle it well.
2. Coaches Hot Seat
Oklahoma State under Travis Ford had its defining moment last night. Before half, their sideline thought they had a foul to give and fouled an Oregon player. They didn't and Oregon got two freebies. Tom Crean continued a proud tradition of Big Ten losing coaches acting like petulant children telling an official "You Suck" after the game before even shaking Gregg Marshall's hand. Wichita shot more free throws but that's because Indiana is a jump shooting team. Good luck if you let him come back, Hoosiers. Steve Lavin could be on thin ice, too. His current group of Seniors graduated without a tournament win and has a pretty thin roster returning. In a region teeming with up and comers, he's squarely on the hot seat.
3. Maryland Luck
The Terps have been one of the luckier teams this year, KenPom's luckiest team thus far. Yesterday didn't change that. A blown replay, a missed hack on the last attempt by Valpo and a date with West Virginia on Sunday. Get that lucky penny, Huggy Bear.
4. Conference Glory
Your conference is not superior or inferior based on what happens in March. If your assessment of a confrences strength is based on a single-elimination tournament, I can't listen to your argument. The ACC is 6-0 after one round. It's not the best conference and is a few plays from being 3-3 and possibly 2-4. But it's a fun argument, so I get it.
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