Wow. It's been a long time since we've had to discuss a hardwood loss around here.
You never like to lose to a 9-seed with a berth in the Final Four on the line, but I'm more at peace with Ohio State's 70-66 loss to Wichita State than I could have ever hoped to be.
The path was certainly there. The West Region of this tournament might be the easiest group we'll ever see in our lifetime, but every team in the tournament, let alone the Elite 8, can play basketball. And whenever you shoot 31% from the floor, your odds of winning a game against a good team start to hover around zero.
WSU simply took advantage of matchup problems, particularly in the paint, played tremendous defense to force Ohio State into an awful night and they're moving on.
You'll hear a lot about how the Buckeyes overachieved, and I think there's something to that. This is a team that was getting better, but still had a few glaring weaknesses. And they caught up with the Buckeyes.
Let's face it. This team was not going to win the NCAA championship. Were any of you really looking forward to an Amir Williams-Gorgul Dieng matchup in the Final Four?
Still, they showed a lot of heart and treated us to an amazing March. Thad could have lost this team following the blowout in Champaign, or the after Madtown Massacre. Tubby Smith is out of a job for losing his team.
But he didn't. He pushed them into buying into defense and this team went from a group that was headed for an early exit to one that came up just short of Atlanta. They fell into a hole Saturday night, but showed a lot of fight by making a game out of it.
Matta still has a problem losing to lower seeds in the tournament, but what he's been able to do at Ohio State is nothing short of remarkable. Here we are with a loaded football team, coming off a 12-0 season and deep into spring camp and all anyone wanted to talk about was the basketball team. That wasn't the case under Jim O'Brien, Randy Ayers or even Gary Williams.
And next year looks to be more of the same. Despite what you may read, I don't think anyone knows one way or another whether Deshaun Thomas will return, though it's safe to assume he will not. He has a one-year-old son to provide for, and I just don't see what another year can do to improve his NBA stock.
That still leaves a group that includes Aaron Craft, Shannon Scott, LaQuinton Ross, Sam Thompson, Lenzelle Smith Jr., Amir Williams, a cast of backups that will grow and an incoming class featuring Marc Loving and Kameron Williams. The guys coming back bring back the defense that helped pave the way for this team and they should all improve on the offensive end. I'm excited.
My only real regret is that we didn't get a chance to publish this Grant Edgell graphic, but hell, here it is, anyway (click to emiggen):
Thanks for the memories, gents.
TWITTER ERUPTS OVER KEVIN WARE'S INJURY. I was lucky. I was out of the house and away from a TV when Louisville's Kevin Ware suffered an injury against Duke that many are calling the most gruesome injury they've ever seen in a basketball game.
I haven't seen the injury, whether in photo, GIF or video form, but I know enough about compound fractures to know that I'll be fine if I never see another one for the rest of my life.
Ware's surgery was successful and I hope that he's fine in the long run, but what's really interesting is how the injury caused Twitter folk to go insane.
Yahoo's Dan Wetzel, who makes a living on FOI requests and public documents that must be preserved, chastised SB Nation for stating that they would not be making a GIF of the incident. Problem: Yahoo had already created a GIF of the injury, so Dan deleted his tweet. He later apologized.
I respect the hell out of Dan's reporting, especially in an age when it seems like there's very little real reporting, but isn't a bit ironic that he felt the need to delete the tweet? I imagine the SB Nation Twitter account made the statement to stem requests of the GIF, which is their prerogative, but if you're going to criticize that statement, own it.
SI's Pete Thamel also took some heat for posting a link to a story on Ware's recruitment that led to some problems for UCF. Thamel didn't stir outrage because he posted the link, but rather because he posted it within minutes of Ware's injury.
Thamel's timing could have been better, for sure, but accusations that he's chasing pageviews are a little off base because the story he linked was written at his old gig, The New York Times.
I wish all the best for Kevin Ware and and also hope for a world in which Twitter's outrage and mock outrage are a little less noisy.
11W BRACKET CHALLENGE UPDATE. Your bracket is in shambles. Mine is, too. Everyone's is, really.
Out of nearly 1,300 entrants in the 11W Bracket Challenge, the top entry, from cardsfaninohio74, is in the top fraction of a percent of all entries at ESPN, and that bracket has Florida in the finals.
The bracket does have Louisville winning it all, which isn't a given (though it sure looks likely), but everyone within striking distance of cardsfaninohio74 also has Louisville cutting down the nets, so the lead may be insurmountable.
CHECK YOSELF APRIL FOOL. Today is April Fools' Day which means that 30% of everything you read on the internet today will be a lie. We love our April Fools' here at Eleven Warriors and if you've been with us for a while, you know we like to have our fun. Today's theme: Shitty Blasts from the Past. You've been warned.
In other 1st of April news, Google launches Google NoseBETA, YouTube is picking a winner, Twttr, deviantART makes matches, Google Maps caters to treasure seekers, teleportation now possible (Android only), and Gmail Blue.
