Catching Up-Duke Wins NCAA Championship

I’ve been running very far behind on blogging.  Hopefully, I can keep a good enough pace to keep 1 or 2 people interested.

I’ll start by laying out my thoughts on Duke winning the NCAA championship.  I owe some pictures and updates from our family cruise, but that will have to be tomorrow.

As my best friend David said, I told him prior to the tournament that I thought Duke had enough firepower to win it all.  As David said, though, I say that a lot.

Well, for whatever it’s worth, I felt we had a better shot than in the past to win.  While Coach K is a world-class coach, we’ve had some problems getting past a strategy that involves hitting lots of 3-pointers.  This year, we had 3 big guys.  First, Brian Zoubek came into his own after overcoming a couple years of injuries.

Then, we had the Plumlee brothers.  This gave us a powerful defense, capable of stopping anyone in the country.

Finally, we got a little lucky with our draw.

We beat University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.  Then, California.  Then, Purdue.

To make the Final Four, we played what I believed would be our toughest game of the tournament.  Baylor has a really big front 3, and they had the capability to play us tough.  They did so, but we squeaked past.

Facing West Virginia in the Final Four, I thought we were a better team than them.  I never thought we would crush them by over 20 points.

Butler in the final game would be a cake walk.  Except it wasn’t.  Along with millions of people, I watched one of the best games in college basketball history.  I never signed on to see a close game, and sweated the entire way.

As a final note to our 4th championship, I completely disagree with Coack K having Brian Zoubek miss the final free throw.  Some will think I’m playing Monday morning quarterback.  But, those sitting with me saw me jump out of my seat when he tried to brick it, thinking it would out us in a position to lose the game.

One of the problems with bricking a free throw, IMO, is that it generally causes a long rebound, giving the other team a runout.  A bit less time on the clock, maybe I agree.  But, with that much time, I think you try to make the free throw.  Butler had no timeouts, so they’d have to get the ball in bounds AND go the length of the court.  And, if they hit the low percentage shot, we would be tied.  Not lose.

At any rate, I’m thrilled we won.  And, I think we’ve got a great team for next year.