Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Zona Prove Their Worth

Chase Budinger and the Arizona Wildcats prove they deserved to be in the NCAA Tourney.

One of the big stories before the NCAA Tournament kicked off was the Arizona Wildcats sneaking in as one of the last "Bubble Teams" selected by the committee.

Making it ahead of such teams as West Coast Conference's St Mary's, the Wildcats answered their critics with two solid wins over Utah and Cleveland St to advance to next weekend's Sweet Sixteen round.

Their next opponent is Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals.

With non conference wins over Gonzaga and Kansas, while suffering a one point loss to Texas A&M at College Station, their resume looked solid without being eye catching.

On the other hand, St Mary's went 2-2 against top 50 opponents and a question mark hung over Pat Mills and his health leading into the tourney. (Trust me, playing Eastern Washington days before Selection Sunday did not help.)

There is no doubt I would have loved to see the Gaels make the tourney because I'm a WCC guy, and I want to see the conference prosper as much as possible.

But this time round the Selection Committee has got it right. You must reward teams that have played a tougher schedule throughout the year. That is what the Wildcats did.

Hopefully we can see St Mary's play a tougher non conference schedule in the future and there will be no question they deserve their spot in the NCAA Tourney and not have to settle for the N(ot) I(nvited) T(ournement).

- Here is a interesting piece on former Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Dunlap.

7 comments:

Eric said...

My two cents: The Gaels got screwed if you ask me. I watched the selection show and the guy from the tournament committee was explaining how St Mary's were considered. Apparently what they did before Patty Mills went down with a fractured wrist weighed heavily into the decision. For crying out loud they were inside the top 25 before Patty went out with a broken wrist - how is St Mary's not good enough?

Regarding that picture - Budinger might challenge Robert Swift for the title of Layne Staley lookalike. The "rangas" are everywhere!

Anonymous said...

Do we really care about this NCAA crapolla?.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I thought this was an NBL site, not a wanna bee NCAA or NBA site.

Anonymous said...

Why are you here then Dudd and the last Anon. Piss off. What s JR going to write bout the NBL in the offseason season that is burning the wires.''Jason Smith was shooting at Alexandria" Here is the link. Also the Ncaa is the biggest basketball spectical every year! DJ DUDD, CLINT DOGG and all the anonymous names you use, get out of Newcastle just one day and realise their is a world outside the one your living in. I of all people would think you would embrace the NCAA, seeing so as you all wanna be the next Eminem, or wanna be Americans when you rap. Morons. Keep up the NCAA stuff it's great.

Anonymous said...

DJ DUDD, ANONYMOUS (Clint Dogg):
OWNEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD :once again......

Anonymous said...

umb, i dont think so.

clint will still beat you all 1on1 or in a fight.

ncaa is shitty.

thanks.

Anonymous said...

haha ohh god grow up kids