THE PALLILOG
Advancing in the tournament could come down to this for Coogs
Mar 26, 2021, 9:31 am
Attacking the offensive glass will be critical.Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
Why Houston fans should savor Cougars' journey in NCAA Tournament
Looking forward to the big Syracuse game Saturday night? Yes, I'm an Orangeman, so I will be ardently rooting for my alma mater as it plays the University of Houston in a Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament game in Indianapolis. With a win the stupendous job Kelvin Sampson has done with the UH program ascends another level. Two tournaments ago it was the Coogs' first NCAA win in 34 years. The following season the Sweet 16. Last season, no tourney. This year a spot in the Elite Eight is within grasp.
To advance the Cougars will almost certainly have to play better than they did in surviving Rutgers last Sunday. Rutgers beat Syracuse early in the season, which means absolutely nothing. If possible, it would be less than nothing since first weekend tourney superstar Buddy Boeheim missed that game recuperating from coronavirus.
One big advantage for the Cougars
In a best of one format you never know what will play out how, but the one massive advantage UH has is attacking the offensive boards against a defensive rebounding challenged 2-3 zone playing SU. Strength of schedule played a role, but UH is the number one offensive rebounding percentage team in the nation. Syracuse in defensive rebounding percentage, number 331.
Meanwhile, no stunner if it doesn't happen, but Baylor should beat Villanova and then the winner of Arkansas-Oral Roberts(Oral Roberts!) to put the Bears in the Final Four for the first time since 1950.
Rebuilding Rockets
The NBA trade deadline passed Thursday afternoon with the Rockets trading Victor Oladipo to Miami for very little. It's not like he was worth much but from the Heat Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk are meaningless to the Rockets other than that their contracts are up after this season. The Rockets may gain a few spots in the 2022 Draft with the right to swap either theirs or Brooklyn's first round pick (part of the James Harden trade) for Miami's number one. The Rockets have repeatedly cheaped out over the last three years. After their long run of sustained quality, it could be longer than three years before they really matter again in the NBA.
Astros baseball is almost here!
With the state of the Rockets and the ongoing sordid Deshaun Watson mess, even more thankfully we're less than a week from the Astros starting their 2021 season. The other 29 Major League Baseball teams are scheduled to launch Thursday as well. The Astros have the makings of another good team. A team absolutely capable of reaching a third World Series in five years, though they start this season with more question marks than they've had since their run of excellence began in 2017. One of those question marks hit a personal jackpot Wednesday as Lance McCullers accepted a five-year 85 million dollar contract extension beyond the six and a half million he'll pull down this year.
If McCullers has a huge 2021 he would have been able to command more than 85 million as a free agent after the season, but he's wise to lock in guaranteed generational financial security because the "ifs" with him are gigantic. McCullers got to the big leagues in 2015. He still has zero seasons on his resume in which he both pitched well and stayed healthy. Prior to the blown out elbow and Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss the whole 2019 season, McCullers has injured list stints with shoulder and back issues. It's not enough that "all McCullers has to do is stay healthy." When healthy McCullers home at Minute Maid Park overall has been spectacular. On the road overall he's been lousy. Career earned run average at MMP: 2.51. Career ERA everywhere else: 4.99. We assume the new contract will require him to pitch road games. And while McCullers is cemented in Astros' lore for his brilliant lockdown relief in 2017 American League Series Game Seven against the Yankees, his postseason record is spotty. As the starter in game seven of the World Series against the Dodgers he didn't make it out of the third inning. Last fall in ALCS game seven against the Rays he didn't last four innings.
McCullers is a fierce competitor and a solid guy involved in numerous good works away from the ballpark. In part because of his character the Astros place a big bet on how he'll hold up and how he'll pitch. With more than 67 million dollars in Verlander/Greinke salaries off the books after this season, they can afford it.
Yet to sign a contract extension is Carlos Correa. He arrived in "The Show" three weeks after McCullers and his career timeline makes him the obvious everyday player comp to Lance. Two guys who exploded onto the scene and have had phenomenal high points, but because of both injury and performance issues, overall their careers have been less than their flat out talent projected. Correa has had the clearly better career to this point, so barring a calamitous meltdown in 2021 the floor for a Correa deal is well north of 5/85. He reportedly rejected 6/120.
Buzzer Beaters:
1. Let's Go Orange! But if isn't to be Syracuse in the Final Four, Eat 'Em Up Coogs!
2. Four #11 seeds have reached the Final Four (LSU, George Mason, VCU, Loyola-Chicago), no seed lower than 11 ever has. 12 Oregon St. and 15 Oral Roberts (Oral Roberts!) take their shots this weekend.
3. Greatest Houston Sports Sampsons, order changes if Coogs win Saturday and Monday: Bronze-Greg Silver-Kelvin Gold-Ralph
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Looking for an inspiring underdog or a glass slipper lying around in San Antonio? This year's version of the Final Four is not for you.
Fittingly for an NCAA Tournament in which big schools from big conferences took record numbers of spots in the first week, then hogged them all for the Sweet 16, the last week will bring a collection of all four teams seeded No. 1 to the sport's biggest stage to play for the title.
When Florida meets Auburn in an all-Southeastern Conference clash and Duke faces Houston in a meeting between the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences, it will mark only the second time since seeding began in 1979 that all four No. 1s have made it to the final weekend.
The last time it happened, in 2008, one of the teams was Memphis, which hailed from Conference USA.
This time around, there are no mid-majors or small majors. Only the best teams from the best conferences — except the Big Ten, which will hasn't had a team win it all since 2000 — who also have the nation's best players.
Here's a look at the best player on each team (for Auburn, Duke and Florida, they are AP All-Americans ), along with another who might make an impact in San Antonio once the games start Saturday.
Johni Broome and Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
Broome hit his elbow hard in the second half of the Tigers' 70-64 win over Michigan State. He left the court, but then came back, saying team doctors told him there was nothing wrong. He averages 18 points and nearly 11 rebounds and had 20-10 games in both wins this week. Clearly, his health will be a storyline.
If NBA scouts only look at backup guard Pettiford's tournament, where he has averaged 17.2 points and sparked Auburn on a huge run in the Sweet 16 win against Michigan, they'd pick him in the first round. If they look at his overall body of work, they might say he still needs work. Either way, he could be a difference-maker over two games.
Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach, Duke
There are times — see the 30-point, seven-rebound, six-assist skills clinic against BYU — when Flagg just looks like he's toying with everyone. There are other times — see Saturday's win over Alabama — when he looks human. Which is more than enough, considering all the talent surrounding him.
Maluach is 7-foot-2 and has a standing reach of 9-8. If any opponent overplays him, they can expect a lob for an alley-oop dunk. He shot 12 for 15 over Sweet 16 weekend, and pretty much all the shots were from 4 feet or closer.
Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard, Florida
Clayton made the tying and go-ahead 3s in Florida's ferocious comeback against Texas Tech. He finished with 30 points and his coach, Todd Golden, said, “There’s not another player in America you would rather have right now than Walter Clayton with the ball in his hands in a big-time moment.”
During one two-game stretch in February, Richard had two points in one contest and 21 the next. During another, he scored zero, then 30. Fill in the blanks here, but he could be a big factor for the Gators either way.
Joseph Tugler and L.J. Cryer, Houston
Fittingly for the team with the nation's best defense, a player who only averages 5.5 points could be the most valuable for the Cougars. Tugler is on everyone's all-defense list, and for Houston to have any chance at stopping Flagg, it'll have to figure out ways to use Tugler to do it.
Cryer is Houston's leading scorer at 15.2 points a game. If the Cougars end up as national champs, it will have to be because he played the two best games of his life.