1. Don't Rush the Court
Props to the Leprechaun Legion for staying in the stands last night. Arizona State could learn from your example.
Hey Sun Devils, you're the 19th best team in the country. You beat UCLA at their place earlier in the year. You were only one-and-a-half point underdogs.
Nothing screams "we're an inferior program" like overreacting after a win that surprised nobody. Congratulations, you have every right to be excited, just pretend like you've been there before. Notre Dame, unranked and reeling from a seven-game losing streak, knocked off a top 5 team by 33. No one saw that coming, yet the students sang the alma mater from their seats.
I'm all for expressions of pure athletic bliss and I love tearing down the goalposts when it is justified. However a game with two ranked teams is never the right occasion for something like this. The coaches and players know that bigger games lie ahead. Fans should figure that out too.
2. Don't Expand the Tournament
This comes up every once in a while as a shameless ploy to save coaches' jobs. It's similar to the new 16-team BET: add more teams to the pool, eliminate the accomplishment of just making it, and hope nobody notices. Let's be honest, even after last night the Irish have some work to do to make March Madness. That is the way it should be after a seven game losing streak. With a 128 team field (or some smaller equivalent) no Irish team, regardless of its success or failure in the regular season, would miss out on the Tourney. I'd much rather be in our position now than have already locked up a meaningless bid.
A Few Bonus Requests for Terrence Williams:
1. Don't dance to other teams' intro music.
2. Don't stare at the opponent's student section before the game.
3. Don't stand at halfcourt during warmups and talk trash to each member of the opposing team.
4. Don't do all of the above and proceed to drop two buckets in a 33 point road loss.
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5 comments:
I've always been of the mind of expanding the field by three more and have four play-in games for Tuesday prior to the first Thursday of the tournament. I would not, however, have the winners of these games go on to play the number one seeds. Essentially, the play-in games are for the 12 seeds. Invariably, someone *cough*Syracuse*cough* gets left out in the cold and whines about it, so with this expanded tournament format, they'd have one last chance at proving that they belong. That way the "last four out" become the "last four playing for their lives".
Also, ASU definitely needs to visit STF to read the rules already.
http://stormingthefloor.net/2009/02/breakfast-of-champions-2132009.html
"I was enjoying this one until the completely unnecessary floor storming by the Sun Devil faithful. I mean, c'mon. You didn't exactly beat Lew Alcindor and the Wizard of Westwood out there last night, kids. The final margin was not so close that this was a genuine explosion of joy. Premeditated storming? It's soooo not done."
There's a right time and a wrong time to storm the court. It's never the right time when your team is ranked, I don't think, although I suppose if the game is against a big rival, they're ranked #1, and you haven't beaten them in years, that might qualify. Although we weren't ranked last time, beating Louisville (even if it had been close) wouldn't qualify either. We nearly beat them in Freedom Hall, and we've spent a good chunk of the year ranked (as high as the top 10). It needs to be a more unexpected win than that, and by a team with lower expectations than this team has.
Right, that's why I was glad there was no floor storming in the JACC last night.
In 2007, we were unranked, hadn't made the Tournament in a few years, and beat the #4 team in the country (Alabama). Good floor storming.
Last night, the seven game losing streak may have been a good reason, but we had been ranked as high as 7th (the ranking of the team we beat) earlier in the year. Not a good storming excuse.
Loved the comments about Terrance Williams. With all do respect to the kid, he needs to grow up.
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