It was exciting to have four Indiana schools in the NCAA basketball men's tournament. Unfortunately with the end of Easter weekend, none of the four have made it through to the Sweet 16.
Least surprising to me was Indiana University. The wheels came off that team when the Sampson scandal broke, and the team that played Arkansas this weekend barely resembled the team we saw pre-scandal. That team would have beaten Arkansas soundly, although they would have needed an inspired game to advance past North Carolina.
But the Indiana team that took the court against Arkansas probably didn't even deserve an entry into the tournament. They flatly aren't very good. They lost their energy and aggressiveness, which shows up on both defense and offense. Defensively they were disappointingly easy for Arkansas to break down for wide open baskets. Offensively most of the team stood around and waited for DJ White or Eric Gordon to make a play. DJ made his share, but Gordon has looked shellshocked over the last half-dozen games.
Purdue had a very nice outing for their first game, but their talented freshmen couldn't catch up with a very good Xavier team. The future is bright for Purdue, which I expect to contend for the Big Ten title next season and probably go farther in the tournament.
Notre Dame had a disappointing collapse, dropping their second-round game to Washington State by 20 points. It's hard to say what happened to the Irish, which I believed to be a better team than they showed in that game. Nerves, perhaps?
Finally, the team with the best chance of the four to make it through to next weekend was Butler. Butler's effort against Tennessee cannot be faulted, but I was surprised at the number of missed layups by Butler in the second half. Sometimes it's possible to give too much effort, which results in things like missed layups.
It was still a great and exciting game to watch, with Tennessee matching Butler's intensity. So close, but Butler just caught some bad breaks, missed some layups, and had a critical non-call on what looked like a goaltend late in the overtime period.
So I've got no teams left in the tournament to follow. Although I've considered a temporary adoption of Davidson. There's an underdog team that's been fun to watch.
The sports desert of spring and summer is otherwise here. I lost interest in baseball after their last strike, and no other summer sports appeal. So there's not much for me to follow in sports until football starts again at summer's end.
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