Kevin's March Madness Recap: Darius Acuff is the real deal & Duke are frauds?

The staff making sure they know.

No fouls.

This is going to be darling.

He's got to go.

Finally, Britson out.

Britson out.

Britson out.

So dry this is going to the switch 16.

Sturge with the catch.

Sturge, bounce past in the corner.

For Garis for three.

Yeah.

Oh, hold.

Back to play.

Florida's got no timeouts.

Iowa takes the lead by one.

Condon won about it to lead.

Leigh, across mid four.

Leigh's speeding through the basket.

Leigh leads it underneath.

That's it.

Iowa for the first time since 1999.

We'll head to the sweet 16.

That guy, Ben McCollum, can just flat out coach.

He's done it at every level.

Did it with Drake last year.

The Iowa coach is outstanding.

Really good.

Everything about what he does.

I love.

Yeah, we had some good games yesterday.

That Iowa, Florida game.

The Kansas, St. John's game.

Literally for about three fourths of the game,

was a game in which it looked like a CYO sixth grade game

where you didn't have multiple people on the floor

more than two or three that could actually

dribble, pass, and shoot the ball.

It was so hideous to watch.

It was good defense at times hideous offense.

But let's go back to Saturday to start kind of the recap

of the weekend.

And then if you want to weigh in with a moment that was for you,

worth discussing from the two days of second round games,

have at it at 301230980.

So on Saturday, if we go through this chronologically,

we have to start with Duke and TCU, a very hard fought game

through about 30 minutes of the game.

But a game that was definitely impacted by officiating,

shocker, Duke game, impacted by officiating,

always seems to be an issue in some of their games.

And look, I'm the first to admit, I lived it

on the wrong side of it for many, many years.

And at the same time, I know a lot of it is hyperbolic.

You know, a lot of it isn't what we actually think it is.

But there are too many instances over the years

where you look at it and you're like, well, that wasn't right.

And which of the two teams on the floor did it benefit

significantly?

Oh, Duke, in a game in which really both teams were attacking

the rim, Duke shot 23 free throws to TCU's 10 free throws.

But there were two moments in particular.

There was an obvious, an absolute egregious miss

of a goal tending on Duke that would have given TCU

two points in a very critical portion of the second half.

And they missed it.

They just flat out missed it.

And then to make matters worse with Jamie Dixon complaining

that they missed it very obviously, they teed him up.

I mean, even highly respected college basketball guys

Matt Norlander.

Wow, refs miss a goal tend against Duke.

Dixon lets them get an earful and then gets a T.

Equates to a four point flip when you account

for the official not doing his job correctly.

The kind of thing that prevents you from working a final four

can't miss those calls in these games.

Jeff Borzello, longtime college hoops writer,

egregious missed goal tending call,

and then compounding it by team up Jamie Dixon fun stuff.

Look, Duke was ultimately a 23 point wear in this game.

So it's really hard to say that there was a moment

and a miss of a call that decided the game.

I'll tell you what it did decide.

It did decide the nature of the game after that.

That game would not have been a 23 point blowout win

without that four point swing and without the swing

that happened when a TCU player went up to block

a Cameron Booser shot and literally got flipped in the air

and to protect himself from perhaps perishing

on the way down head first.

He grabbed Cameron Booser by the shoulder

to sort of keep and break his fall,

which helped and he landed on his back instead of his head.

And then they called it a flagrant one on the TCU kid.

He goes for a pump fake.

He gets up in the air.

He literally, as Cameron Booser's ducking under him,

flips in the air is gonna land on his head

if he doesn't reach out and grabs something.

He grabs Cameron Booser and they call them for a flagrant one.

That's like comedy.

What are we doing here?

By the way, Cameron Booser cannot,

cannot be a top three pick in the NBA draft.

Love him as a competitor.

Love that he's got a super high floor.

He's gonna be a good NBA player.

But when you're drafting in the top three,

you're drafting for a top five transcendent, hopeful,

down the road.

That's not him.

If you've watched him enough this year, you know,

that's not him.

You know, he can't finish at the rim in college.

How's he gonna finish at the rim in the NBA?

He's a good player though.

Don't get me wrong.

And he's a fabulous, tenacious competitor.

Love everything about watching him play.

But that's not the conversation.

The conversation is, should he be a top three pick?

The answer is, emphatically no.

Now, unless you're just protective in your pick

and you wanna draft the highest floor possible,

he might have the highest floor,

but he's also got the lowest ceiling of the guys

that have been discussed in terms of, you know,

top three, top four picks.

So Duke moves on.

They're coming here Friday night to play St. John's,

more on the St. John's game in a moment.

The rest of the day, Saturday saw some impressive performances.

I thought Michigan State looked really good.

You know, Michigan State's got one of those teams.

It's not their normal, you know, super rugged team.

A cone car may be the best dunker

in college basketball in this era.

He is a six foot six inch.

I mean, when you talk about springy,

like I don't know what his vertical is,

it's probably 44 plus every bit of it.

Then he's got some longer arms

and he's just been a dunking machine

since he's come in to college.

And now he's got a more well-rounded game as well.

He went for 21 and 10.

If you haven't seen, you know, cone car,

COEN car number 55 for Michigan State,

I'm sure there's a dunk highlight real somewhere

out there that you can watch.

He is, I think, the most spectacular dunker

in the tournament, left in the tournament.

By the way, as an aside, you know,

every once in a while, not every once in a while,

just because of the algorithms I would imagine.

But I just get sent all of these Maryland things

on Twitter, you know, 22 years a day.

We, you know, 22 years ago today, we beat this team.

28 years ago, you know,

but every single time I get sent the Len bias

like minute 21 second, dunk highlight real.

I don't need to be reminded, trust me, I don't.

Len bias as a dunker at the college level

was in the Sean Kemp, I've always said that

Leonard would have been Dominic Wilkins, not Michael Jordan.

That was the comp.

The comp was always Michael Jordan.

I'm like, no, no, that's not the right comp.

The right comp is Dominic Wilkins.

Len, Len bias was a, a forward.

He was not a two guard.

He didn't handle the ball very well.

He was not a great ball handler.

Jordan, of course, was.

Bias was a much better college shooter than Jordan.

And a much better shot blocker, defender, et cetera.

And just like Mike, he had the killer gene.

But if you've never seen, I should just retweet it

the next time I get sent it.

He's got a dunk in a tournament game

in 86 against Pepperdine in the first round

where he takes the ball just inside the free throw line.

And he takes off from that spot.

He's spread eagle.

His head was above the rim, as he literally tried

to dunk the ball through the floor.

That was the thing about Dominic camp bias.

They were in that era, the dunkers that didn't care about,

like it was about how hard can I dunk on you?

And will the ball make an indent in the wood

when it goes through the hoop?

God, Bias, you had to live it to understand it.

I know it's one of those things for you younger listeners.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

I heard about it.

That's 1986.

No, no, no.

Totally would have translated to today his athleticism.

Just like I always have felt Dominic Wilkins' athleticism

would have translated to today.

Sean camp same thing.

And I think Carl Malone from a physical standpoint,

a size standpoint would have translated to today

just a couple of examples.

Anyway, Cone Car 55 for Michigan State best dunker

in the tournament.

Illinois looked really good.

They kind of pulled away from VCU.

Man, I mean, they've got the Balkans covered, man.

They've just have so many Eastern Europeans

on their roster and they're older and they're good.

Big time matchup though with Calvin Samson's Houston team

in the sweet 16.

And Nebraska game may have been one of my favorites

from this standpoint.

That crowd was incredible.

Nebraska's fan base for all sports is top notch.

Of course, they'd give that back in a heartbeat

for a college football playoff birth next year.

I understand where the bread is buttered

and where the importance is.

But God, their fans are so great.

They turn out for everything.

And this game was such a home court advantage

in Oklahoma City with Nebraska playing there.

And I watched a game in which Nebraska ended up

winning the basketball game.

But to me, Vanderbilt's the better team

and it's a shame they were seeded fifth.

It's a shame.

They were underseated.

People talked about that before.

That's a good basketball team that's not going to change

that won't be in the sweet 16.

I don't know, maybe they would have been the four

and Nebraska would have been the five

and the result would have been the same who knows.

But Nebraska had a clear home court advantage

and it really was meaningful.

That was big shot after big shot

down the stretch to well coach teams

really enjoyed that game on Saturday late.

And then the last game of the night on Saturday,

high point Arkansas.

So sign me up for Darius A. Cough Jr. right now.

I mean, I'll take him over everybody

but DeBonza in the draft.

I have the right to change my mind max.

But after DeBonza, I want a Cough Jr.

Now, yes, I do know that his interest level

on the defensive end is not what you would call very high.

But offensively, Dame Lillard,

this dude is gonna get buckets and lots of them.

I mean, there's a little bit of Derek Rose,

a little bit of Dame Lillard.

A Cough Jr.'s got a super high floor too.

I don't know about it.

These guys personally, that's the thing we don't know.

I'm just talking about what I'm watching on the floor.

To me, DeBonza, A Cough Jr.

That's your top two right there

because I'm not taking Darren Peterson.

No way.

Sorry, he may turn out to be the transcendent player

but there are so many red flags.

I don't know that I can risk it.

And we saw him again in the game yesterday at times

and then we also saw what makes him great

at times in the game yesterday.

But there is A Cough Jr. in the win over high point.

36 points on 11 of 22,

three of six, six assists, two steels.

This dude is a grown man as a freshman.

What is his listed height, Max?

Is he six three?

Because he's, he's certainly built physically

like a six, two and a half, six, three, six, four guy.

Six, three, one, 90.

But he's put together.

He is put together.

And he's what, 18 years old?

19 years old?

He's 19.

I seriously, DeBonza,

because there is a lot there that it's like,

well, this dude could end up blowing up

and becoming Durant, you know, whatever comp you want to use.

But in terms of everybody else after that,

I like amen, a little bit is,

but God he's so skinny and he's so young.

A Cough Jr. in a wizards uniform.

I understand Trey Young's going to be the point guard

and the scoring point guard,

but I could see the two playing together

and Trey Johnson, I mean, A Cough Jr. to me

is a lock to be a big time score at the NBA level.

His desire to guard people

is not very high at this point.

So we'll see if that improves

because he's not a defensive stalwart by a long shot.

All right, let's get to Sunday's games,

yesterday's games when we come back

and it includes two incredible strategic situations

at the end of the two buzzer beating games.

Iowa, Florida, and Kansas, St. John's.

We'll do that next after these words

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All right, let's go to yesterday's round two games,

the Sunday games.

I'll just start with the first,

let me just start with this.

There used to be a time in which the tournament

wouldn't have the schedules on Saturdays

and Sundays that they now have,

where you have one game,

then a second game after the first game,

and then a third game before the other five games

start to happen.

I mean, last night, Alabama,

and Texas Tech ended,

it was well after midnight on a Sunday night.

I think you can start with that solo game at noon

or one o'clock on Saturday,

but when you get to that second window,

how about a second game there,

rather than just one standalone.

It's, you're at risk of having blowout games

and losing people.

The Purdue Miami game was a good basketball game.

Man, I'll tell you what,

if you believe in guard play this time of year,

Purdue's got the back court.

They've got two, four-year starters

in Braden, Smith, and Fletcher lawyer.

And Braden, Smith didn't play that great yesterday,

but that's the thing with those two,

and I've watched them for four years.

If one of them isn't great,

the other one tends to pick up the other guy,

Fletcher lawyer yesterday,

24 points on six of seven from the floor,

four for four from behind the arc,

and eight for eight from the free throw line.

He was nearly perfect shooting the basketball.

The problem with Braden, Smith,

is he turned the ball over a bunch yesterday.

He's still really good.

By the way, I think he's got Steve Blake in him.

Not just saying that because he's a white guy.

And Blake was actually taller than Braden, Smith,

and a little bit longer,

but the style of play like I could see

Braden, Smith having a long NBA career,

even if it is not spectacular.

But produce into the sweet 16,

and they're gonna play Texas,

who upset Gonzaga the day before.

So let's get to the two cliffhangers.

We'll go with the first one first.

That was a terribly ugly offensive basketball game.

And Bill Self's a great coach.

Don't get me wrong,

and I'm not here to tell Bill Self what to do,

but I think there are two things in that game

that really bothered me.

I had Kansas plus to the three and a half.

I'll take it.

I don't know how I got there.

They were down 14 with about five minutes to go.

But St. John's presses full court.

Patinos pretty much done that his entire career,

but they pressure the in bounce pass full court,

and then they drop.

You know, and they'll drop to three quarter court,

and they'll drop to half,

and they want you to burn up some shot clock

if they don't turn you over on the in bounce pass.

Man, just a little bit of advice from somebody

who's done this a bunch,

but is nowhere near expert at it.

But especially at the youth level,

work on your press break.

I mean, especially if you're playing in a competitive league

at a young age, press break, press break, press break.

See advice I give every one of my friends at Scotch,

young teams, because if you're in games

in which the other team is super aggressive

and maybe even more athletic,

and they're full court pressing,

and you don't know how to handle the pressure,

the game gets sideways so quickly

that it actually becomes not fun for the kids.

And then it's like they don't love it as much, press break.

Kansas couldn't get the ball in bounds.

Like five times in the first half

against just straight man-to-man pressure on the in bounce.

I didn't see him won one play to get the ball in bounds.

It was just, you know, kind of operation get open.

And then when you've got a team like that,

you've got to have a way to get the ball in bounds

and then go score and get them out of it.

Anyway, Kansas was a mess.

They're not a good basketball team

and they haven't been even though they were the four seed.

They were a four seed as a three and a half point

underdog to the five seed.

And Darren Peterson, of course,

has been a story all year long.

He came out and knocked down two threes

to open up the game and I'm like, all right,

well, maybe we're gonna see this dude

strap this team to his back

and take them to a sweet 16.

I'll tell you one thing I do like about Darren Peterson,

he will guard you.

He will absolutely guard defensively.

He's got really good feet.

He is very, very anticipate, you know, anticipatory.

He sees it very much defensively.

You know, he's got steels and games all year long.

Hit four block shots in the game as an off ball, you know, defender.

But there's just, he couldn't get the ball in bounds

a couple of times.

Just threw it away half, you know, half hazardly.

They, Kansas struggled a long game

and then they make a run at the end

and Peterson had something to do with it.

He took the game at the very end over,

had a driving layup, three point play

and then got fouled down two to tie it

with the two free throws.

So here was the strategy with Bill Self.

It was, it's the right strategy.

If, you know, let me lay it out for you.

So basically they had four fouls to give in a tie game

with, I just wanna get the exact time.

I think it was 13 seconds left

when Peterson made the two free throws to tie it.

Man, this ESPN play by play switch.

If those of you that have know what I'm talking about,

it is the worst switch ever for a website.

So he made the free throws with 13 seconds left.

They have four fouls to give.

What an advantage, right?

You've got two team fouls.

You've got four to give in a tie game.

So obviously you're going to use up those fouls.

They didn't use them the right way in my opinion,

okay, for whatever it's worth

because the first two they used,

they used within a second of the in-bounds

and then two seconds within the in-bounds.

They're coming up full court.

So they're not gonna shoot the ball from the back court.

Let them burn three, four seconds on those first two

and then foul because I think they had an opportunity

to when they committed the sixth foul,

which was the last foul to give,

rather than there being just over three seconds left,

I think there was a possibility for it to be

like almost nothing left.

And those three, three point whatever seconds left,

it was enough and then defensively,

they let a guy that had not scored in the game was 0 for four.

First time it's ever happened and NCAA tournament history,

where a player who has not scored,

scored a buzzer beating game winner.

And Dylan Darling had an absolute open road to the rim.

I don't know what they were doing.

First of all, you gotta make the pass,

go into the back court with them chasing it,

not with them in motion.

He caught it in motion moving forward.

You gotta overplay force the ball into the back court

and then you're gonna get a heave rather than a layup

or worst case, a 28 foot contested jump shot.

I didn't think Kansas did a good job at the end of that game

after they got themselves back into it.

And Darren Peterson, look, I read this story in the athletic,

it was well done.

He was hospitalized, he had a bad case of the flu.

He had major stomach like full body cramps

and then had some stomach issues.

I'm, look, this kid may blossom into a superstar

and there is an effortless way in which he scores

and he's also a good defender, you know?

And I liked that about him, but you know,

in these games, like the games that mattered the most,

let's look at him here for him, okay?

Down the stretch, right?

So in the big 12 tournament,

the first game against TCU, they won 78-73.

He played 37 minutes, but he was five of 17 from the floor,

one of four from the three point line.

He did score 24 points because he got to the line a lot,

had three steals in the game too.

He's a good defender.

Then they got blown out by Houston,

he was three for 11, had 14 points in the game.

In the first round win over Cal Baptist,

37 minutes, 11 to 24, four for 11 from behind the arc,

had 28 points, good game.

And then yesterday, five of 15,

three for eight from behind the arc,

a couple of them weren't even close.

Got to the free throw line, 21 points.

I think in a game like that against a team in St. John's

that is good defensively, I'm not gonna take that away

from him.

They're a good defensive basketball team,

but you gotta get 30, you know,

you gotta make sure your team gets by that game.

You know, what comes next, Duke?

Okay, fine.

I don't know, I just don't see it.

I think there's parts of his game that I really love,

but there's nothing that screams transcendent.

So to me, it's DeBonzer Acuff at the top of that draft

if you've got the top two.

So the other game, the number one seed,

Florida, the defending champs being taken out.

I mean, McCollum can just flat out coach.

Did it Northwest Missouri State, did it at Drake?

This dude is truly great.

You can tell sometimes with the little things,

like the way they handle pressure, full court,

half court pressure, ball rarely hits the ground.

They pass it so well, they're spacing so great.

He's got a play for every inbound situation.

The way he played it defensively at the end was brilliant,

but I'll tell you, the player,

and I do, of course, remember him from last year,

but Thomas Halk is just unbelievably,

he is so incredibly relentless as a player.

And I, watching this game when Florida came back

and took the lead, I think Dan Bonner was calling the game

and he said, I was in big trouble.

They fell behind by four.

And I felt the same way in that moment

because they were getting bullied by Halk

and some of the guys and their big guy,

number nine got in foul trouble in that game

that hurt them.

He was out for a big stretch,

but really, really good game.

But here's just the fascinating part of this game.

So up, 72 to 70, Florida decides to press full court

with 8.9 seconds left.

I think under five, under four,

you should always have somebody on the ball

and force that pass into the back court.

But with 8.9, if you press man,

you're taking a chance,

because they can throw it over the top of you.

They didn't do that really in this case,

and you can be at a disadvantage.

You could be defensively against three.

But the reason he was Todd Golden pressuring full court

is he wanted to foul up to with 8.9 seconds left.

That's a new one,

but apparently he's done it several times

since arriving at Florida.

I don't remember him doing it

during the national championship run last year,

but he wanted to foul the worst free throw shooter

on the floor.

If you're going to do that,

Bennett Sturts, who is their best free throw shooter,

you've got to double him and not allow him

to not only catch the in bounce pass,

offer really good designed in bounce play,

but to catch it as he's moving down court

with all the forward momentum.

But he wanted to foul up to.

Now, think about that.

You can't lose in regulation.

I guess you could lose on an offensive rebound,

off a missed free throw, of course.

Make the first one, miss the second one,

offensive rebound, you lose that way.

But more likely than not,

especially with Florida and they're a big team

and a really good rebounding team,

you can't lose on a three in regulation.

You have the advantage, by the way,

I looked this up, they had the definite foul advantage,

three Iowa players, key players had four fouls,

including the guy that knocked down the three pointer.

I did not think, by the way,

that that was a flagrant on the punch.

I'm not even sure it was a legitimate punch

on the floor if you know what I'm talking about,

I'll move on, but Golden, the Florida coach,

wanted to foul and hopefully put,

now they have very good free throw shooters,

but the kid, the kid banks had missed multiple free throws.

He's a good free throw shooter,

but he was five for 10 in the game.

So fouling, you know, a free throw shooter

that is struggling up to,

with say eight seconds, seven seconds after the in-bounds,

I think there's probably, you know,

the math apparently, if you foul the lesser

of their free throw shooters,

favors playing that strategy.

Of course, if that had happened,

the announcers would have gone nuts and said,

oh my God, the one thing you can't do is foul up two.

You're not up three, you're up two,

but Golden wanted to do that.

And the point being is, okay, if they knocked two down,

we've got the ball with a chance to win in regulation.

We get the last shot and we can't lose on a dagger three,

which is what they lost on when they pressured,

didn't foul and were left in a defensive mismatch,

three versus two and they left a corner shooter

wide open for a three that they knocked down.

I thought that was interesting.

I don't think that I've, I mean,

I think I've heard it contemplated,

but Golden's math, you know,

an analytics apparently suggests

as long as the free throw shooter you're fouling,

you know, there's a decent chance

he's not gonna make both.

It is a plus on versus not fouling

and dealing with it defensively.

All right, any calls?

We will do that next.

Phone lines are open, 301, 230, 0980.

Would you make it the NCAA tournament

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