A Couple of Tournament Trends

With now two weekends in the books, I think we can officially label some aspects of NCAA Tournament as trends and not just odd instances.

The first trend that I continue to see is horrific end game management by a multitude of teams. Wisconsin is the first team that comes to mind that is guilty of this. Their game against Syracuse in the Sweet 16 came down to the last possession, and it really came down to an utter lack of execution that led to the Badgers literally running out of time.

More than just a lack of execution though, there have just been some mind boggling plays drawn up by coaches. Wichita State is guilty of this in their game against VCU. The Shockers took a timeout with 10 seconds left down by two. There was then a second timeout called as the first one was ending, giving Wichita about two and a half minutes to draw up a play to win or tie. So what play gets run out? A three point attempt from the center, the lowest percentage shooter. Needless to say, Wichita lost.

NC State was also a victim of their own play design, thinking that a cross court pass would be a spectacular idea down by three to Kansas. The ball was intercepted and the Wolfpack never got a shot off, losing by three to the Jayhawks in the Sweet 16.

Execution has plagued teams in other ways as well. I can't remember seeing such long scoring droughts consistently happen to teams. Obviously basketball is a game of runs and it will eventually become hard to score, but this has been crazy.

Just look at VCU. The Rams scored a whole four points in the last 12:19 of their game with Indiana. They lost by two.

Florida went nearly six minutes without a field goal, leading to a major collapse on the part of the Gators and costing them a bid to the Final Four.

North Carolina cost themselves a chance at the Final Four as well thanks to going scoreless for 5:43, allowing Kansas to spread a one point lead all the way to double digits. I could keep going but you get the idea.

The last thing that I've noticed, and possibly what has annoyed me the most has been officiating. Obviously there's complaints about officiating every year, but something about this tournament has bugged me more than usual.

I think it has to do with the affect on the games. UNC-Asheville had a legitimate gripe against Syracuse, where the officials almost blatantly gave away Bulldog possessions down the stretch, ruining what was a great game to that point and possibly history that we may never see again.

The most ridiculous officiating error was in Louisville - Michigan State, where a Cardinals player went to the line and missed his free throw. After the missed shot, the officials then checked the monitor, realized it was the wrong man shooting, didn't count the first shot, and allowed a different man to step up and hit both his shots. How can this happen in an NCAA Tournament game?

There's also the issue of rules that I have only just found out about that I don't agree with. Both NC-Asheville and Notre Dame were victims of an obscure free throw rule that states that a man behind the free throw shooter cannot move until the ball hits the rim, as opposed to when the ball leaves the hands of the shooter as is the case with everyone else.

What this has resulted in is two huge offensive rebounds that were taken away by a rule that prevents something it doesn't need to prevent. A man moving behind the shooter doesn't affect the play in any way, and yet the rule has cost fans two exciting endings.

The other rule that I'm over is that an elbow to the head, whether inadvertent or not, is an automatic technical. Indiana was a victim of this rule when a Hoosier accidentally grazed a VCU player with his elbow, and yet a Xavier player took a blatant, albeit again accidental, elbow late in the game, and it was glossed over for being accidental.

So which is it? Can you judge intent or not? This is another rule that needs to be looked at because it is affecting the outcome of games.

So those are a few things that I've noticed, as well as a gripe or two, about the tournament so far. Let's all just hope for an exciting Final Four that is about the basketball, not the controversy.