What About Hofstra?

Look out Indy!!! Gunston is on his way!!!!

Hey, I cannot believe it either. George Mason is in the Final Four. In men's basketball. Wow. Putting their accomplishment into perspective is not an easy thing to do. This morning on Mike & Mike, they argued whether the Patriots' victory over UConn rates as one of the greatest upsets in sports history. To have such an argument, however, completely misses the point.

It's not so much that George Mason was able to beat UConn. Heck, the old cliche' that any given team can beat any other given team yada, yada, yada is true. What is amazing is the fact that Mason was able to beat Michigan State. And North Carolina. And Wichita State. And UConn. One has to look at the totality of their accomplishment to truly understand how amazing it is.

And it wasn't so much that UConn or Carolina or Michigan State played poorly. George Mason simply played better. They hit the big shots. They played defense when they had to. They didn't punch anyone in the nuts. They were outstanding and there is no reason to believe that their run has to end on Saturday versus Florida.

And to think that they pulled it off while essentially only playing six guys. In fact, during the UConn overtime game, coach Jim Larranaga made his final substitution with more than 10 minutes left in the second half. Kudos to Random Thoughts reader Bearister who noted that the four timeouts that were taken between 3:15 and 2:00 minutes to go in the second half helped a fatigued Mason squad tremendously. The Patriot players were clearly getting tired but were buoyed by the fact that the mandatory under-8:00 timeout did not occur until there was 3:15 to go in the half and that timeout was followed immediately by the mandatory under-4:00 time out. Further. each team called a timeout during the 1:15 stretch giving the Patriot players ample time to catch their breath and get a second wind (not sure how to explain this with any real level of clarity...)

Perhaps I ought to move Gunston up from his current spot at #54,811 on the IU coaching hierarchy list...

So is this USA beats Russia at Lake Placid? Uh, no. But it does have to rank right up there with NC State over Houston in the '83 championship, Villanova over Georgetown in the '85 championship and Danny O'Shea's Little Giants' defeat of big brother Kevin's Cowboys in the what-was-that-town-in-Ohio-called? championship. (By the way, wasn't that super-cool when John Madden, Bruce Smith and Emmitt Smith showed up in town?)

And one must now ask the question...how frickin' good is Hofstra? Let me remind you that the Pride defeated Gunston and his gang twice in the final ten days of the regular season. Somebody mentioned a great idea on Mike & Mike this morning (Seth Davis? Mike Golic? The idiot who schedules book signings during the first round games?). We already have a play-in game. Perhaps, this year, we should have a play-out game pitting Hofstra versus next Monday night's winner.

Other observations from this weekend...

* The best college basketball game of the weekend was not UConn-George Mason, or Texas-LSU. Heck, we could go all the way back to Thursday and Friday and the West Virginia-Texas and Gonezaga-UCLA classics, and still not find a better game than last night's UConn-Georgia regional semifinal in the women's tournament. I was fortunate that the Skin-a-max free weekend preview was last weekend, leaving my TV viewing options open. With nothing else of interest on, I left my TV tuned to ESPN2 while I did work in the basement. I was rewarded by being witness to a game that was spectacular. In the final 30 seconds, the teams made three three-pointers, including an improbable step back, off-balance game winner by UConn's center. The only thing that would have made the game better is if Georgia had made their three-quarter court heave at the buzzer. It hit the front of the rim and bounced harmlessly away. No kidding. As Jack Brickhouse used to say..."One more biscuit for breakfast..."

* Jim Calhoun is a great coach and he was classy following his loss to Mason. That said, there is something about the guy that I just don't like.

* I won't miss not seeing Calhoun in the Final Four. I will miss seeing the Husky cheerleaders (wait, that came out wrong...), I mean, the Connecticut cheerleaders and their little red bows.

* Oh well, I guess we will just have to make do with the Florida pom squad and the UCLA cheerleaders. Not to mention the Old Spice girl...

* Yes, I am trying to avoid talking about the fact that I have called UConn the 2006 NCAA Champions since mid-February, but now have to eat crow...

* Rumor has it that four people nailed the entire Final Four out of more than 3.5 million entrants in ESPN's Tournament Challenge. Two were probably named George Mason. One was GM coach Jim Larranaga and the other, or so he probably claims, was ESPN's insufferable college basketball commentator and know-it-all Doug Gottlieb.

* George Mason was originally a 300-1 shot to win the title at Wynn Las Vegas. According to the folks there, they are aware of only one person who bet the Patriots. The Sports Book also reported that they had a lot of action on Florida before the season started and should the Gators win the title, it will be bad news for the books. The unranked Gators began the season at 75-1.

* Villanova's Randy Foye is that good. I only wish he was about three inches taller.

* Texas' LaMarcus Aldridge is not that good. Hey, it was only one game, but Aldridge was terrible. Number one NBA draft pick? Only if you want the next Brad Sellers.

* Memphis is incredibly talented, but extremely young. Their youth showed itself in their game versus UCLA. Oh yeah, that and the fact that Rodney Carney sucked.

* Loved the moment when UCLA finally made a free-throw after missing about 147 straight. Aaron Afflalo got a standing ovation from the partisan Bruin crowd.

* LSU is a nice story with all five starters coming from hurricane-ravaged Louisiana (three of them from Baton Rouge). The Tigers have a lot of physical talent, but may have been absent the day that they handed out brains. Look guys, when you have Big Baby Davis and Tyrus Thomas in the post and you shoot .328% from the three-point stripe as a team, early-in-the-shotclock three pointers are about as intelligent as screaming "I love George W. Bush" in an Irani mosque.


* Aren't the supposed big-time players expected to rise to the occasion when the stakes are highest? Duke's J.J. Redick had a wonderful career and finished as the all-time leading scorer in the ACC, but went a combined 13-60 from the field in Duke's four tournament losses during his career. That, math majors, is a Rodney McCray-esque 21.6%.

* Boy, I criticized Coach K on Friday and J.J. on Monday. Expect Dick Vitale and half of ESPN's production crew to join the West Virginia mob.

* Happy to see that Cedric Diggory has not let his untimely death keep him from reading the Random Thoughts. Happier still to see him posting from the grave.

Finally, in case you did not know, it turns out that other sporting events do take place during the Madness. On Saturday, in a Cactus League game, four Cubs pitchers combined for 9 2/3 hitless innings against the A's. John Koronka then gave up a single to center on an 0-2 pitch. That is soooo Cubs.

On Sunday, the start of the Cubs' game was delayed due to uncontrollable swarms of bees on the field. Now that is soooo Cubs.