I know this is a high school blog, but…
March 17, 2008 @ 8:23 a.m. by Jeff LutzI had to get my NCAA tournament picks out there for public consumption and mockery. I’ve got two 11 seeds in the Elite 8, both from the Big 12 — Kansas State and Baylor. And for whatever reason, I feel like Kansas State is more of a reach than Baylor. The Bears have really good guards, also the strength of their likely first three opponents — Purdue, Xavier and Duke. That will make it easier, I perceive, for Baylor to control the tempo, score a lot of points and possibly pull off some upsets. That’s just how I see it — I’m not an expert or even a semi-expert by any means.
As far as Kansas State goes, for all that talent to be wasted on an 11 seed is a shame to me. I haven’t liked Frank Martin as a coach since he started at KSU, and I present the last month of the season as justification to that feeling. Since KSU beat Kansas, I’ve compared the ‘Cats to the Syracuse team that won it all a few years ago. Like this KSU team, that team was loaded with talented freshmen, including Carmelo Anthony. But Syracuse had a coach that could make it all work, Jim Boeheim. The ‘Cats, to me, are just undisciplined, and that lies on the coach. I don’t think the rest of the team, guys who are used to being The Man, know how to play with Beasley, who’s obviously on another level. I don’t think they like to defer to him and let him take the big shots. I think everybody on that team wants to do it himself. They’ve still got time to figure it out, and judging by my pick of them into the Elite 8, I guess I think they will. But I’m not so sure.
Anyway, my Final 4 is Tennessee, Kansas, Texas and UCLA. I think Kansas is the most likely No. 1 seed to reach the Final 4 because they don’t have a real challenge on the way to getting there. If the Jayhawks meet Georgetown, I don’t see any way the Hoyas can keep up. Same with Wisconsin. Memphis doesn’t shoot free throws well enough, which I think will catch up with the Tigers. I like Tennessee just a smidge better than North Carolina because of the senior Chris Lofton, and UCLA may even slip up against Texas A&M in the second round. But I hope not, because I got ‘em in the Final 4.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I think K-state has the ability to go to the Final4 but it is a matter of they play. I have watched many of the last 5-6 games they have lost in. They need to use Beasley as a distraction for the first 10 min or so, feed it to him then get him to kick it to blake young or Bill Walker and have them drive or pull-up for the 3. Then once teams start to back off of him in the post feed him 5-6 times in a row and then switch back again. Just keep the other team thinking that beasley will get it and when he does they will bring 3-4 guys to D him up and someone will be open. I guess it sounds simpler than it is
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