South Region: Second Weekend Review

After being the region in which nothing really went according to plan in the first weekend, the three matchups in Houston last weekend all went to the favorites. Purdue, who wasn't supposed to even win a game in the tournament without the services of Robbie Hummel, "surprised" the nation with two wins in white jerseys and earned a Sweet 16 game vs. the Dukies. Meanwhile, Baylor took care of business and were to meet up with surprise St. Mary's and their "superstar" Omar Sandman Samhan in Houston, only like two miles from their campus in Waco, TX.

I guess it's "Texa" now. Must have sold the rights to the "s" to Jerry Joness.

Not gonna say much about the Baylor/St. Mary's game because it was pretty much over before it started. The Bears had a 46-17 lead at halftime and won 72-49. Samhan had 15 pts and 9 reb, but who the hell cares? The Gaels were out-everythinged and, even though I did not watch one second of this game, were clearly overmatched. If St. Mary's can recover from losing Samhan's 21 ppg and 11rpg (as a graduating senior), they should be pretty solid year next year.

Pretty big IF.

Duke and Purdue played one hell of an ugly great game. Both teams shot under 40%, there were 41 total fouls called, and the first half featured 47 total points, but this is what March is all about. Purdue held fort against the Blue Devils in the first half, but Duke just had too much talent to be bottled up and Purdue did not. Coach K's bunch had 24 from Singler, 18 from Scheyer and 15 from Smith for 57 of their total 70 points, while Purdue had 23 from Johnson and 18 from Moore for 41 of their total 57 points. In short, Purdue had one less weapon than Duke...

Because he was on the bench.

With Baylor playing so close to home, they had the advantage that could hurt Duke (all five losses in road games). The first half was full of momentum swings, including a run by Baylor at the end of the half to take a 35-32 lead into the break. Baylor outshot Duke (46%-36%) but were outrebounded by the Blue Devils (41-35) and shot ten less foul shots than Duke (29-19) and that was the difference. Baylor was called for a technical foul with about 80 seconds left and the Blue Devils secured an eight point win to reach the Final Four.

So... are you cutting anything in particular?