04/18/24
April 03, 2017
SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Basketball announcers always act like players diving to the floor for a ball is the ultimate sign of the will to win. Every time a ball is contested on the ground it shows their dogged determination and willingness to sacrifice their bodies, yadda yadda yadda.
What else would they do when the ball's on the floor and they're close to it? These are athletes in peak shape, not middle-aged men. If I dove for the ball that would be sacrifice. I might have to stay down for a while to recover.
posted by rcade at 11:42 PM on April 03, 2017
That was the ugliest basketball I've seen in a long time. YMCA ball is less sloppy.
posted by Goyoucolts at 12:29 AM on April 04, 2017
Yeah, that was a complete shitshow. The play, the shooting, the reffing, the announcing, all of it was terrible. But hey, my Carolina alum wife is very happy, so it's all good.
posted by NoMich at 07:08 AM on April 04, 2017
Those rims should be taken to Bisbee and turned into wagon wheels. Or just melted down and poured off.
posted by beaverboard at 07:35 AM on April 04, 2017
The officiating and the play was brutal but the coaching on both sides was top notch.
The flow of the game was exactly what Carolina needed to win and at least from halftime was coaching strategy by Williams. Carolina doesn't beat the Zags matching best against best and the scrappy play helped limit the Zags bigs playing time.
posted by cixelsyd at 09:39 AM on April 04, 2017
I didn't think the officials got many individual calls wrong. Rather, they decided to call the game tightly instead of letting them play. This favored NC's style and tended to inhibit the larger Gonzaga players. I don't believe this was done with an intent to favor either team, but the result certainly was affected. In a game of this magnitude the officials need to keep the whistles quiet.
posted by Howard_T at 02:55 PM on April 04, 2017
You look at all the attire that all the coaches in all the sports decide to wear on television, and why is it that Roy Williams is not getting a Gatorade bath after every game, win, lose, or draw?
If the team kept wrecking those country picnic sparkin' jackets with blue sports drink, the 70's Men's Shop at Sears would eventually run out of them.
Thank god he don't coach Clemson.
posted by beaverboard at 03:40 PM on April 04, 2017
It appears that the results of the March madness pool are cemented, with yours truly finishing as the bridesmaid. Which should give everyone comfort that, regardless of what happens tonight, the apocalypse is delayed at least one more day.