Been a while since I did this. Let's see if I still have what it takes, haha.
So the last time I was with you, the Super Bowl hadn't even been played. Here we are and baseball has started, March Madness came to a dramatic end, the Broncos are Super Bowl champs and the Masters is 24 hours away.
That in mind, welcome to a very special edition of the blog for Apr. 6, 2016, and it includes a first. Tournament awards. Now obviously, I can't give these awards sitting in a chair in suburban Houston and it's not the Grammys or Oscars or anything like that, but a friend of mine came up with the idea for best game, best run etc. so that's where this idea emanated from. So without further adieu, I give you the first ever Easy E Tournament Awards.
Best Shot: This one is no question a slam dunk. Kris Jenkins, welcome to your moment that you will remember for the rest of your life. The amazing thing is, for about a five minute stretch, I thought Marcus Paige was going to get something like this. That double clutch, off balance shot was one of the most unreal things I've seen in a college basketball game...and it got eclipsed!
Roy Williams screwed up on the final sequence no doubt by not guarding the inbounds pass (where have Duke and Kentucky fans seen that before...1992, hint hint) but Jenkins still had to make the shot with everything on the line and he did. What a game and what a shot. If I were picking a close second, Northern Iowa would have to get this nod for the half court heave against UT.
Best Game: Again, a no brainer, the title game gets this award. Not only was this the best game of the tournament, it was one of the best NCAA tournament games anyone will ever see. I'm sure some older fans will argue NC State/Houston 1983, Villanova/Georgetown 1985, Indiana/Syracuse 1987, Duke/Kentucky 1992 (still considered by many the best college basketball game ever played), Arkansas/Duke 1994, UConn/Duke 1999, Memphis/Kansas 2008, or Butler/Duke 2010. But this one could play with any of them.
For one thing, these were CLEARLY the two best teams in the country. With the exception of the Memphis/Kansas game (great game in its own right), these teams dismantled everyone they played on the road to the title game.
They were also very evenly matched teams that had toughness and the will to win that is necessary to win titles. Every time both teams got backed into a corner they came out swinging and that was especially true of North Carolina; down 10 late it appeared they were cooked but Marcus Paige got hot and UNC found about its fifth wind of the night. This is one of the rare games where there were no losers in the game.
Biggest Man: Speaking of Marcus Paige, that's where I want to go next. The award for the guy who manned up the most goes to him. For a guy that took such a crushing defeat and had his potential national title moment ripped away from him by Jenkins, Paige showed a lot of grace and dignity in defeat...unlike a certain player who calls North Carolina home (looking at you, Cam Newton). In the postgame press conference, Paige stood at the mic and answered all the questions and he did so even though a title eluded him in the most crushing of ways. I am anything but a UNC basketball fan for a lot of reasons but Cam Newton could take a few lessons from Mr. Paige. A slight nod goes to Tom Izzo who, similarly after the massive first round loss to MTSU also stood at the podium and answered the questions, gave Middle Tennessee its due credit and said goodbye to his seniors.
Biggest Underachiever: To me, this award sadly has to go to Xavier. Chris Mack and the Musketeers had an excellent season all year and went 27-5 before the tournament. Some people thought they could be a darkhorse to beat UNC before they got to Houston. I didn't necessarily think that but I thought Sweet 16 would at least be in the cards. Instead they lost to an average Wisconsin team that got beat by Nebraska in the Big 10 tournament. I get that one game is one game, but that cannot happen.
A close second would be the Pac-12. The Pac-12 completely fell short of expectations before the tournament really even got started and then as expected, Oregon got smacked by Buddy Hield in the elite 8.
Biggest Overachiever: I'd give this one to Syracuse for going from some thought shouldn't be in the tournament (like myself, I thought they undeservedly got in) to Final Four, but I think Middle Tennessee is closer than you think. If you really think about it, considering the number of people that bet on Michigan State in Vegas, the Middle Tennessee upset of MSU is one of the biggest in the entire history of college basketball. If a 16 beats a 1 some day (still has never happened ever in the history of the Dance) that will be the biggest for sure but that's as close as we've had so far. That said, you have to give the award to Syracuse because whether they should have been in or not, they did make the Final Four.
Least Respected: This award (and if we had these awards last year, it would have been two years in a row) has to go to Conference USA. MTSU beating Michigan State is one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, but Conference USA gets far less respect than they deserve. Keep this in mind: the automatic qualifier from C-USA each of the last two years has beat a trendy pick to win the national title as UAB did the same thing to Iowa State in 2014.
Most Valuable to His Team: No question, it's Buddy Hield. Oklahoma can go for a minor stretch without him scoring, but he was a large part of why that team was successful. He scored 9 points against Villanova and Oklahoma gets blown out by 40 points. It just goes to show how valuable a player Hield was to that team. He is going to make a lot of money for some NBA team very soon.
As a final aside for awards, I agree with the tournament's selection of Ryan Archidiacono as the most oustanding player of the Final Four. He's not going to play a lick in the NBA but I'm impressed with his basketball acumen and how he is able to run that team on the floor. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes into coaching at some point personally.
Now for some other potpourri...
- It's Masters Week, the "tradition unlike any other." The Super Bowl of golf and the unofficial beginning of spring (to me anyways). Before I get to players who I like in this tournament, I want to give a nod to Jim Herman, the 38 year old who won the Shell Houston Open last week here in Houston to get to Augusta. This guy's 38 and this year will be his first Masters tournament, no doubt a moment he will never forget.
Now as far as the tournament itself, Jason Day has been installed as the odds on favorite, at 7 to 1 odds. Guys like Spieth, Watson, Scott, McIlroy are close behind. I don't think this is going to be a tournament, for the record, where a Cinderella name wins the tournament. I think it's going to be one of the favorites, one of the big names.
As to who I like, no doubt Jason Day has been playing great leading up to the tournament (and a very good decision by him to not play the Shell, he needed the rest after playing all those rounds of golf at the Match Play in Austin), but I think Adam Scott's going to take it. Scott's been off the radar for a few years, but has come back with a vengeance; won two tourneys already this year, finished second at the Northern Trust, and he's won at Augusta before.
As to some of the other big names, Rory could win but I think he won't, Augusta is tough for him. Spieth has the game to repeat but I don't think he'll win either. His game's a little off right now, although that's nothing getting hot at Augusta can't cure. Dustin Johnson will likely be in the hunt on Sunday, he's overdue to win a major golf tournament. Fowler will likely have a chance on the weekend, he's been playing well all year. I do think Hefty Lefty will surprise some people, he's at 15/1 odds, not exactly a favorite to win the golf tournament but I like what I see from the lefty so far this year. I don't know what this new swing coach has done for him but I think he'll have a chance Sunday.
As far as first timers go, of this group, I like Kevin Kisner, Justin Thomas and Rafa Cabrera-Bello the best; all three of those men are at 100/1 odds according to Golf Odds. Of those three, Cabrera-Bello of those is definitely playing the best golf right now; he was 11th at the Cadillac championships, third at the match play in Austin and fourth in Houston. However, Kisner and Thomas both have won PGA events this season and Kisner especially is very streaky, if he gets hot he definitely has the game to make a deep run.
- Quick Rockets take; all or nothing for them tonight in Dallas on ESPN. A win almost assures them of making the playoffs despite being terrible this year. Their last four games all should be easy victories although one of those is against the Lakers and you know darn well Kobe would love nothing more for his last hurrah in the league than to keep Dwight Howard out of the playoffs. There is no love lost between those two.
- As far as baseball goes, I like to wait some time into the season before talking about how good or bad teams are but that doesn't mean I can't get to a couple of baseball things.
First of all, Yoenis Cespedes as a gold glove player from 2015 is a total joke. I know I've got my homer Nebraska glasses on but after he clanked that easy fly ball Sunday night in Kansas City, he should have taken his gold glove and on the way out of the stadium presented it to Alex Gordon after the Royals won the game. And we all know the only reason Gordon didn't win a gold glove is because he missed half the season with a groin injury. A healthy Alex Gordon would not have clanked that fly ball I can assure you of that.
- As far as the Correa/Betances play from yesterday's Astros game, Correa's allowed to run on the grass by rule, and also Betances just made a horrible throw even though Correa's inside the base line. Girardi can complain all he wants but it won't make a bit of difference.
Until next time....
