By Mark Buckets
Phew. What a first day of action from Maui, eh? It was a good day for this “Drive and Dish” scribe, as my four predictions were spot-on on the first day of action. Marquette needed a late surge to stave off host Chaminade (who have a couple of quality players - told ya so about Marko Kolaric). The second game of was a game of ebb-and-flow. Oklahoma State raced out to a huge lead only to see it evaporate into a 6 point win. Keep in mind, LSU was without star Tasmin Mitchell, who was battling a foot injury.
The night session continued the trend of one-sided affairs. It didn’t take 24-point favorite Duke very long to match that mark (even though in the end, they failed to cover), they had 24 points about 3 minutes into the game. A swarming bunch of Devils applied full court pressure for most of the first half and Princeton was helpless to overcome it. On the subject of first half blowouts, Illinois put up 20 before Arizona State even scored a basket. Needless to say, the Illini rolled to an easy win.
Now, we take a look at today’s semifinals (as an aside, I have omitted the consolation bracket as Drive and D wishes not to bore you).
Marquette and Oklahoma State square off in a game that features a slew of freakish athletes. Marcus Dove’s ability is well-documented, but another highly touted McDonald’s All-American, James Anderson - doesn’t everyone seem to be a burger star (but not Arby's) these days? - has the Cowboys thinking upset. While Cowboy fans should be satisfied with an impressive opening win, the Marquette faithful are a little less jubilant. Not only did the big three of James, McNeal and Matthews have atrocious shooting nights, but their man-to-man defense was shredded (it's possible that I'm being being too harsh in that assessment, but the game was close) by a division 2 team. The good news for Marquette is that they couldn’t possibly shoot any worse than they did a day ago. My prediction: Take the GOLDen Eagles - but it's going to be closer than the experts think (thank you Lee Corso).
A game that does not lack for intrigue is the nightcap where Duke will take on Illinois. Duke is a team coming off a commanding win, which was highlighted by the play of frosh superstar Kyle Singler. Anytime a Duke player - a wing player, no less - has nine offensive boards in a game, you know that he is destined for greatness. Duke will look to attack the offensive glass once again against an Illinois team that has superior size and strength on the blocks. In spite of that, my homerism is showing through once again - Duke wins, setting up a tremendous finale (and the game that ESPN wanted) with Marquette.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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5 comments:
I think you may want to moderate your stance that your first day predictions were "spot on."
Yes, you accurately predicted the winners of all four games. But you also instructed Drive and Dish readers to "fire up some Maxwell House" for the Illinois / Arizona State game, because both teams would struggle to put the ball in the basket.
Well, Illinois scored points like it was going out of style. If that's what you consider "struggling to put the ball in the basket," then Bruce Weber would - no doubt - be thrilled to have his Illini "struggle to put the ball in the basket" every night.
That's OK though ... you probably can't remember what you predicted yesterday anyway. Because, although you instructed your readers to "fire up some Maxwell House," it's obvious that you've been "firing up" something else (hell, you even allude to it in the titles of your posts - "Maui Wowie"). Which could explain the apparent holes in your short term memory.
My advice: lay off the volcanic stuff, quit making blog posts at 4:20 (when you're obviously blazed) and consider toning down on the chest thumping, "I called it" style self congratulation - maybe just a tad.
Don't forget:
Drugs are bad, M'Kay.
After last Saturday's monumental win over Duke, I'm starting to feel really good about my team and about the direction that I've got my program headed in. And since you're the go to guy for predictions these days, I thought I'd see what you've got to say about our bowl chances.
Look, with our two win season, we're obviously not going to be playing in a BCS game - and I'll be the first to admit that we don't deserve to be in a BCS game this year! But do you think we'll at least get a bid to a New Year's Day bowl game?
I realize that it would be a stretch for a New Year's Day game to take us, what with or two wins and all. But we're Notre Dame, for Chrissakes! We ALWAYS play on New Years Day: Whether we deserve to, or not.
Of course, I know that we're not what you'd call "technically" bowl eligible, but the bowl selection committees have always bent the rules for us in the past (I mean, how many 6-5 Irish teams have played in major bowl games that they didn't really deserve to be in? ... quite a few, eh?). So I see no reason why some bowl shouldn't give us a similar pass this year too. After all, Notre Dame equals TV ratings - and it's all about TV ratings anyway, right?
Besides, in the afterglow of our "statement" win over Duke, we've got the distinct feeling that this team is SURGING right now! We're right where we wanna be at this point in the season (don't forget how tough we played Navy and Air Force ... we've gotten better each game - that's why we were able to get over the hump against Duke).
So what do ya think? Are we gunna be playing on New Year's Day or are we gunna be stuck playing in some second tier game that nobody cares about - like the Liberty Bowl or the Independence Bowl? No offense to Boise, El Paso, Mobile or any other crap hole one-horse town that hosts some irrelevant bowl game, but I want to be playing somewhere warm and sunny on New Year's.
Besides, I've got a new Speedo that I've been dying to break out (I can't wait to show off my new hot body now that I've dropped all the weight ... you can tell that I've dropped weight, can't you?), and it would be pretty tough to wear that thing on the beach in Shreveport. So I'm still holding out for Florida.
I want to know when John Paxson is going to get me the Hell outta here. I mean, I can't take this shit anymore. Either give me my payday or send me somewhere else - where I can play the kind of basketball that I know I'm capable of.
It would also be great if you could tell me when I'm finally going to make a damn shot. I mean, it's kind of been a while. Ya know, I'm kind of going through a dry spell right now, know what I'm sayin.'
I played three card poker next to that kid at the boat. He had a real attitude on him allright.
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