Tournament Tidbits
Chew on this..
-- The possible
second-round game between Florida and Arizona would feature up to eight
players who could be in the NBA next season.
-- Texas A&M’s
Acie Law IV will meet the Acie Law of the Ivy League, Penn’s Ibrahim Jaaber.
Jaaber averages 15.9 ppg, 5.3 apg, 4.4 rpg, and 3.0 spg, while Law averages
17.9 ppg, 5.3 apg, 3.2 rpg, and 1.3 spg.
-- John
Thompson III’s squad might be the hottest team in the country, but if
Georgetown faces Boston College in the second round you can expect BC to
feel surprisingly confident. That’s because the four key players in this
potential match-up – Jared Dudley, Sean Marshall, Roy Hibbert, and Jeff
Green – all played in the Big East game two seasons ago that the Eagles won
64-49. And in that game Dudley scored more points (13) than Hibbert (6) and
Green (5) combined.
-- Gonzaga
could play UCLA in the second round. Last year UCLA knocked the Zags out of
the tournament in a game that will forever be remembered for bringing Adam
Morrison to tears.
If they both win their first round games, Southern Illinois and Illinois
will play against each other. The two schools are exactly 200 miles apart,
according to Mapquest.com.
-- The game
between Marquette and Michigan State will feature the best point guard
match-up in the first round of the tournament. Dominic James and Drew
Neitzel were both First Team all-conference selections.
-- Everyone has
talked about how there was no competition for Memphis in Conference USA.
Part of the reason is the departure of Louisville to the Big East, but the
Tigers should get the chance to play the Cardinals if Rick Pitino’s team can
win two games.
-- UCLA coach
Ben Howlnd could meet his former team, Pitt, in the Sweet 16, while former
Florida coach Lon Kruger might get a chance to meet the Gators if his UNLV
team reaches the Midwest final.
-- The first
round match-up between Nevada and Creighton will showcase two of the
brightest stars in the mid-major ranks. And both have N.F. for initials.
Nate Funk of Creighton is an energetic mop-top with a killer stroke and Nick
Fazekas is possibly the country’s best-known post player not named Greg Oden
or Tyler Hansbrough.
-- USC plays
Arkansas in the first round, a re-match of the first football game of the
season for the two schools.
-- A season
after Jeff Capel left Virginia Commonwealth to coach at Oklahoma, VCU is
facing his alma mater, Duke, in the first round, while the Sooners will be
home watching.
-- Two of the
most underrated guards in the country will go head-to-head when Virginia
takes on Albany. The eerie part is that Sean Singletary (18.9 ppg, 4.6 apg,
4.5 rpg, 1.2 spg), a first-team All-ACC selection, has virtually identical
stats to Albany’s Jamar Wilson (18.6 ppg, 4.9 apg, 6.3 rpg, 1.3 spg).
-- The match-up
between Maryland and Davidson could be called the “Lefty Driesell Game.”
That’s because Driesell started his coaching career at Davidson and became a
legend at Maryland. Actually it could also be called the “Famous Sons Game.”
Terp guard D.J. Strawberry is former MLB star Darryl Strawberry’s son, while
Davidson’s Stephen Curry is the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry.
