ESPNdeux

At least the middle infielders should've been back... Love my Reds. But that game was fundamentally terrible.

20 game mix...

Rio Grande (Newport) is just as good as anything Mexican wise as I've had for the price really anywhere I've went. It's always packed. Abuelos give you a bit more options and is a bit more... skilled? presentation wise. But you pay for the environment. It's a nicer place and you pay the $4-$6 bucks more per dish for it. Chuys, as mentioned, has good sauces, salsas and quesos. It's a bit more Tex Mex than the others. But at the end of the day, it's a chain restaurant. It's Applebees of Mexican restaurants in my opinion. That's not a huge knock, I eat Applebees (and Chuy's) occasionally. But if you're looking for something different it wouldn't be my pick. My opinion...

I see no reason to eat at Tin Roof now that they no longer have the build your own nachos... Everything else was.. meh...

I'm fairly sure they are only a couple years removed from being a Top 10 DIII team in the country down there...

Congrats to NCC on the big W and Kohls on the big day at her former school.... If Dayton had held on to some of the talent that played there when they were young they would be having quite a team right about now. Along with Casey Kohls, Quillen at Highlands and Delaney at Boone I believe all grew up playing in Dayton!

To shed some small school light on this... Ludlow loses Hart which is a big loss, but returns both Mitchell and Gibson. If the Roark kid comes back they will probably unquestionably be the favorite in the conference again. I would say those three, Eads, and draw a name out of a hat. They'll be talented. Dayton loses a lot inside. Grimme and Brewer saw a bulk of those minutes. Sam Brewer and McDaniel will probably start at the guards, and then I'd guess Patton, Matthews, and maybe Gifford would get the first shot in the starting lineup. Have some other young kids that could crack it as well. This is all pending Silver Grove, who I hear it's up in the air whether they have a team or not. The graduate I think 6 guys on a 9 man team. Heard Kuntz could end up at Dayton for his senior year. He would obviously start there. Villa returns everyone from a young team pending the Kenkel kid coming back healthy. You'd expect he and Thomas Schutzman to anchor them, and then McQueen and Martin in the post. Probably one of their JV kids moving up as the 5th. Bellevue loses a ton with Woodyard and Barrett inside and Arnzen at the point. They return Matt Fryman who will start along with Stephenson and then it's anyone's guess... Baker? Hayes? Craig? They'll be pretty young and inexperienced.

Since we're talking talent and size and mentioned that Ludlow team, 6'9" Penick was I think a soph that year. He ended up at Wright State for a short time I believe. That Ludlow team won about 4 consecutive conference titles I believe.

No doubt, Lyles was a liability. But without watching UK the whole season, I thought Cal stuck with him because for a majority of the game they were really really fighting to score and Lyles is his best offensive option at the 4 spot. I saw some people questioning why Johnson was in the game as he gives up so much defensively. I just thought it was because their offense was running so heavily through the post and Towns was in foul trouble. Do they ever play Johnson and Towns together? WCS or Lee certainly weren't going to give them scoring options in the post. All of that said, what about when Lyles threw the ball to Harrison without looking, hit him in the hip, Colson picks it up, scores, and Lyles fouled him! That was huge play before the half! Thus, he played like an average freshman on the big stage. Not the first time it's happened. Just the first time for him maybe.

Here's what I'll give you... Trey Lyles didn't play well. Did nothing in the post and had some mind boggling turnovers. Other than that, I don't get it. It's easy to say "Oh we didn't defend the pick and roll..." well as pointed out, it's not their strength, and it allowed Auguste to run free to the glass often. Also easy to say that ND's ball movement was because of bad or slow rotations. But ND has been doing that to EVERYONE. They didn't shoot FT's at the clip they have been. They still shot 70%. How bout the fact that they hit 54% from the field and 50% from 3? How bout they stayed composed when they were throughly backed into a corner. I just think that to say "Oh well we played bad..." takes away from the game a lot. The bottom line to me was it looked like they were a different team because offensively, Towns is the only low block scorer. Connaughton played 5 feet off WCS and he had no interest in the jumper. So it was a 4 man offensive attack. Defensively, their secondary shot blocker (be it WCS, Lyles, etc.) was taken out of the picture because he was usually guarding Connaughton so they couldn't play help on the drive near as much for fear of the kick out 3. The first helper was usually the post to challenge the drive and then, like stated above, Auguste ran free to the rim for the putback.

So Notre Dame's offensive movement caused UK to play bad.

What is it that people think UK could have done significantly better? If they didn't play well...

I thought he was clearly catching him... So I guess it depends on what color lenses you're looking through...

A double digit seed has made the sweet 16 like 26 times in the past 28 years... Who's your pick?

I'm mulling taking Utah over Duke...

You keep saying this is a minority, but don't have a response when it is brought up that that might not be the case.

Probably because he asked for legitimate reasons, not just reasons... UC Davis won their league... St. Francis won theirs... South Dakota St.... NC Central... The list goes on. Winning your regular season league title isn't a realistic measure of small division 1 conferences.

I could see that logic, being that a tough road could mean that match ups are bad, where as weakest region means overall quality and numbers regarding the teams. The midwest is odd because I don't think many people would rather have the 3 seed over the 2 seed and usually the 1 and 2 line are heads over everyone else in my estimation.

How do you figure that? HC has over 400 kids. NCC has almost 400. St. Henry has over 500!

Where do you get this idea?

The real flaw in the system is where teams like Texas get 'points' for losing multiple times to teams that they have to play....

I will preface this by saying it's an accomplishment to win 25 straight... But didn't Murray State lose by like... 30 to every tournament team they played? To me, Temple is the biggest snub.

Caupain definitely got mugged on two possession in a row in crucial moments...

Thing about it is is that if Brimah sets the screen he's not near the offensive threat that Hamilton is on the roll/pop. I just felt like it could've been said in the huddle if Boatright goes off a ball screen were going to jump him. But I know a lot goes on in those huddles. But that seems to be a pretty important thing to say. I know the guy hit a great shot but I felt like the second half they could have done a fair few things that coulda changed the outcome in their favor.

Even after getting hung up on the screen Johnson needed to run at him to force the ball out of Boatrights hands. Talked to someone today that commented that that likely leaves Hamilton open. I contend the defense woulda rotated and forced the extra pass, then it gets dicey as to whether they get the shot off. Or you make a freshman make a game winner rather than the senior. Having Ellis on Hamilton rather than Thomas was over coaching. Of course, if it worked, it was a great move, but it didn't so...