11/05/24
April 04, 2005
North Carolina Wins National Championship:
posted by kirkaracha to basketball at 11:10 PM - 15 comments
Illinois showed a lot of character coming back from being down 15 at the half, but UNC was just better.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:13 PM on April 04, 2005
Both teams suck, Duke shoulda won it all. /pseudo-snarky humor
posted by billsaysthis at 11:45 PM on April 04, 2005
Niagara kept it close, right?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 12:05 AM on April 05, 2005
Niagara kept it close, right? They kept it purple anyway...
posted by chris2sy at 12:44 AM on April 05, 2005
A few words from a saddened Illini fan: * I love you to death, Bruce, but the next time you get on the national stage, try to show up dressed as something other than the night manager at a HoJo's. That was awful -- I kept thinking the refs had put up traffic cones to keep him on the bench. * Note to our friends at Enterprise -- I'm glad you supplied Moose with a nice Cadillac to try and fake his way into a girl's pants at the reunion. However, don't you think she might be a tad suspicious of his wealth when she sess THE RENTAL PLATES?!? * God help me, but I'm glad Roy Williams won a national title. Now we just have to figure out who the next honorary "Phil Mickelson Almost-But-Not-Quite Award" recipient is. * That insipid little piece Dick Enberg did on free throws at halftime was the official notice he's being put out to pasture by CBS. If the network cared at all about him, some editor would have stopped that segment from running. * Doesn't anyone follow their shots to the basket anymore? Powell's dunk on his three-point miss was nice, but has it become so rare that it required the broadcast team to drop a load in its collective pants? * I'm still trying to figure out how Sean May's driving his shoulder through every Illini player was good offensive play, while having James Augustine touch someone was bad defensive play. May played Baby Diesel all night, and pretty much all tournament. I'm not faulting May -- the refs let him do it, and he'd have been a fool to go away from what worked. But I counted at least four charges in the title game alone. At what point are the rulemakers in basketball going to do the right thing and force the refs to call the foul? As for Augustine, he got jobbed, plain and simple. Every interior player gets nailed for a couple ticky-tack fouls now and then (ok, everyone except Sean May), but my God, this was a witchhunt! I haven't seen this kind of obsession with one person since I watched the Michael Jackson trial coverage on CNN last week. The referees did what referees aren't supposed to do, and that's dramatically alter the course of the game. You can argue May's charges vs. the Illegal Illini setting moving screens all night, but Augustine got hosed in the biggest game of his life for no reason. * Illinois deserved to lose for having no inside game (although the refs exacerbated that). When you take 40 three-pointers, you'd better make at least 20 of them.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:46 AM on April 05, 2005
I told my buddy not to take illinois or the over, but he did both. Dumbass!
posted by Angrygimp at 11:29 AM on April 05, 2005
wfrazerjr: thank you for capturing so many of my thoughts in extremely hilarious fashion (orange jacket = bad; orange jacket + burgundy tie = BAAAAD).
posted by smithers at 11:29 AM on April 05, 2005
LOCUSTS!
posted by 86 at 12:05 PM on April 05, 2005
wfrazer is right about the Enberg free-throw piece. What was that all about?
posted by mayerkyl at 12:58 PM on April 05, 2005
I'm going to claim it was the illness last night, but I completely forgot the game was on TV and went to bed. It wasn't until I woke up at noon today did I realize they played it last night. D'oh!
posted by grum@work at 01:40 PM on April 05, 2005
I'm glad you supplied Moose with a nice Cadillac to try and fake his way into a girl's pants at the reunion. However, don't you think she might be a tad suspicious of his wealth when she sess THE RENTAL PLATES?!? I don't think rentals have obvious rental plates any longer, in most states at least. Too obvious for criminals to find out of towners.
posted by justgary at 02:24 PM on April 05, 2005
wfrazerjr is right on. It must have been because it was baby huey's birthday that he got to to whatever he wanted. Head was on the wrong side of the floor going the wrong direction for his shot. Why didn't Williams get the ball more? The first half killed them. Even without baby huey in the middle, NC is a good team. Illinois is still a great team that could take NC two out of three. To bad Illinois couldn't have whipped up on Mich.St. instead.
posted by regulardude at 09:12 PM on April 05, 2005
You know what this game was about?........I had been saying it all year. As soon as the Illini come up against a decent defense they will lose. 12 for 41 from the three line......are you insane? The only reason it was even close in the second half was because NC kept going back to the man to man defense. every time they were in the zone they would build a lead.....13, 10, 15, 9.....then they would go back to playing man to man and getting picked to death and Illini would get great looks at the basket and would close the gap........if I am wrong someone tell me....If you live by the three you are gonna die by the three.....12 for 41 what a sad statement! I'm done.
posted by DieHardSkinsFan at 11:31 PM on April 05, 2005
Yeah it must have been the great UNC defense that made Illinois miss all those wide open 3's, especially in the last minute or so of the game. They got plenty of wide open looks if they just hit one the result might very well have been different.
posted by gyc at 05:24 PM on April 06, 2005
It's the Battle of the "Blame it on the Refs" arguments: Sean May's charging vs. the illegal Illinois screen!