5 Thoughts On Day 4 Of The NCAA Tournament

1) So, um, does Duke make a play for Suzy Merchant now? Might not be such a bad idea after what Merchant has done with the Michigan State program since Joanne P. McCallie up and left all of one month after signing a contract extension back in 2007. It also might not be such a bad idea after the complete and utter mess that McCallie has made with the Duke program she bolted for, culminating in last night's 63-49 loss to her old Spartan team-a loss in which the Blue Devils didn't score a field goal in the final 7 minutes and 32 seconds of regulation. Because of their complete and utter offensive ineptitude after tying the score at 47, the Dookies become just the second # 1 seed in the last decade of women's college basketball to get bounced in the second round. (2006 Ohio State enjoys the company) ...Wow. There are so many things to talk about with this game that I could probably do this "5 Thoughts" post entirely on it, but we'll cram them all in to this first thought. First of all, as Steve Levy sardonically noted in his Sportscenter highlights of the game and as Ryan Burr sardonically noted in his College Gameday highlights, this game was played in East Lansing. Here we go again. Blah blah blah, no it wasn't fair to Duke to have to play on the road as a 1 seed but it's their freakin' fault for not scoring a single basket in the final 7 and a half minutes. That's why they lost. Period. I'm getting sick of people, especially talking heads on ESPN who don't really know what they're talking about (that's why I'm not chewing out Mechelle Voepel for raising complaints about this system) wondering why a 1 seed has to play on the road in round 2. It's the way it has to be. Period. Don't like it? Watch the men's tournament. Oh, wait, their first and second rounds have an unfair pod system designed to keep attendance up by keeping certain teams close to home, too. But back to this game. What a win for Suzy Merchant and her Michigan State program. In just her second season as head coach of the Spartans, she's already got them in to the Sweet 16. That's pretty incredible. Not only that, her team is just the third 9 seed to ever reach the Sweet 16 since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. How about that parity, folks? Add a 9 to the two 6's and a 7 in our final 16. Michigan State gets Iowa State in one of the Berkeley region semifinals. Raise your hand if you had that one in your bracket. From the Blue Devil perspective, obviously this is a gigantic disappointment; just another in a long line of them in McCallie's tenure in Durham. The heat had already been turned up on her by some fans and people within the game but now it's about to get even hotter. That's not to say she's getting canned without a Final Four appearance or something next year, but she might want to get the program back to where Gael Goestenkors, her predecessor, had it sooner rather than later. And what a bittersweet end to the careers of Abby Waner, Chante Black, and Carrem Gay. They start their careers losing the national championship to overtime in Maryland, then they end them with losing the ACC championship in overtime to those same Terps before getting unceremously dumped out of the NCAA tournament on the road in the second round to their head coach's old team because they're unable to score a single field goal in the final 7 and a half minutes. As great as this victory was for Michigan State (and it's 5,000 plus fans, including the men's basketball team, who showed up and stormed the floor), it was equally as crushing of a defeat for Duke. It's rare that you get games that are so meaningful for both programs involved and it's even rarer that you get them in the second freakin' round. What a game.

2) As good as Duke/MSU was, it wasn't even the best game of the night! That honor belongs to South Dakota State and Baylor. The Jackrabbits scored the first 8 points of that one and got out to a 22-8 lead at the 9:08 mark of the first half. But unlike on Sunday night against TCU, they wouldn't be able to cruise to victory against this Texas foe in the Lone Star State. Baylor, under the direction of Kim Mulkey who was thankfully only in the hospital for a day, proceeded to rip off a 10-0 run in the span of about a minute and 10 seconds to tighten this one up. Then SDSU got back up 9 with 2:41 to go in the half but the Lady Bears closed it out with a 8-0 run to cut the deficit to one at the break. The second half was basically a tale of Baylor trying to get over the hump. The Jacks scored 12 of the first 20 points to kick off the half and go up 41-36. From there, Baylor kept closing in on the lead and South Dakota State kept denying them it. There were a few ties but the Lady Bears never grabbed the lead. And then the final minute happened. Kelli Griffin's layup with 41 seconds to gave Baylor a 57-55 advantage, its first of the contest. On the ensuing SDSU possession, Jennifer Warkenthein got fouled but missed the second free throw, leaving the Jackrabbits a point short. South Dakota State had no choice but to foul Whitney Zachariason, who also missed the second free throw. 58-56 Lady Bears. Warkenthien grabbed the rebound and then 13 seconds later found Jill Young wide open underneath for the game-tying layup with 7 seconds to go. But Griffin took the inbound and went coast-to-coast, laying it in with .5 seconds to go to prematurely end one of the greatest Cinderella stories in recent women's college basketball history. South Dakota State's Grant Hill pass got knocked away and the Lady Bears escaped in to the Sweet 16 with a 60-58 victory. SDSU ends the year 32-3 but out in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. That's tough to swallow. What a year they had though and it's a year they'll never forget up in the land of Mount Rushmore. Coming in to the second round, I would have put this game at the top of my list of "most anticipated second round games" and boy, did it deliver. Huge victory for Baylor, who's back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. That year they were a 3 seed and got absolutely pulverized in the Albuquerque semis by some girl by the name of Crystal Langhorne. Hopefully for them, Angel McCoughtry won't do similar things on Saturday.

3) And speaking of McCoughtry... In further proof that high seeds having to play on the road in round 2 isn't the end of the human race as we know it, her and 3rd seeded Louisville went to Baton Rouge and handled 6 seed LSU 62-52. The Cardinal superstar had 28, including 2 on a fastbreak layup off of a steal that finally pushed the Louisville lead to double digits just before the final minute and was the death knell for the Tigers and their 12 game home tournament winning streak. If Maya Moore didn't exist, McCoughtry would get my vote for Player of the Year. She does absolutely everything for Jeff Walz and that Louisville program and with all due respect to Candyce Bingham and the rest of the Cardinal players, they wouldn't be anywhere near a 3 seed and a 31-4 mark without McCoughtry. Maryland fans should be scared to death of the Candice Wiggins potential she has for a possible Elite Eight matchup next Monday. But going back to tonight, there's not really much to say about Louisville's victory other than how impressive it was to go in to one of the toughest places to play in women's college basketball and absolutely wear out the home team in the final few minutes to get the victory. It's hard to find a more satisfying victory than that in this kind of round. Well, unless you're Michigan State and facing your old coach on your home floor.

4) UConn wasn't mentioned until the fourth thought? What is this madness? Honestly, what is there to say about them? They're really, really, really good. The fact that they won by 28 and it actually decreased their average margin of victory on the season says it all. No matter how impressive the Maryland win was, no matter emotional the Michigan State win was, no matter how dramatic the Baylor win was, and no matter how gritty the Louisville win was, everyone pales in comparison to the Huskies. They're simply in another league. Give a whole lot of credit to Florida for hanging in as long as they did-it was 26-20 deep in to the first half, even despite Sha Brooks being saddled on the bench with foul trouble. Then UConn went on a 13-0 run with 9 straight from Renee Montgomery (who played her last game in Gampel Pavilion and scored 25 points in it) to end the game, but props to the Gators for hanging in for longer than a lot of teams (like, say, Louisville in the Big East championship) do against this juggernaut And by the way, Montgomery led her team with 25 but Maya Moore and Tina Charles both added 22. I'm not sure a team of five LeBrons could beat this UConn squad when those three are scoring 20 apiece. That's only the second time it's happened this year (thank god for the rest of the women's college basketball world) and prior to this year, no UConn trio had done that since 1999. A lot of great UConn players have come through the program between 1999 and now. This just goes to show you how special this team is and how special those three are. Look out, Cal.

5) ...And then midnight struck. Sorry Ball State, it's over. Instead of being the women's answer to George Mason, you'll have to settle for being the team that pulled off the most historic upset in the history of the sport. Iowa State ended the Cardinals season 71-57 in a game that was tight until the final few minutes. So now the Cyclones go on to the Sweet 16 and should be favored to make the Elite 8 (again, lemme know if you had that one going in to the tournament) while the girls from Muncie head back home. Still, ISU could have subbed in UConn to play and beat them by 80 tonight and it wouldn't have made Sunday night any less special. From now on, whenever the name "Ball State" is mentioned in women's basketball circles, 71-55 will immediately become the topic of conversation. At least until the Cardinals make the Final Four or something.

BONUS THOUGHT: Pat Summitt is better than your team's head coach. Perhaps you heard that Summitt made her team practice on Tuesday, just 48 hours removed from the aforementioned "most historic upset in women's college basketball history." After an entire season full of criticism for her team culminating in Sunday night's disaster, this is a shock but not really a shock because of what we've come to know and expect from Summitt. When you heard her criticize most of her players for "not being in the gym enough" during the press conference after the game, you thought, "yeah, she'll probably have them back in the gym right after the loss." And look what happens. Nothing but the best is demanded from Summitt and her program does everything right. When something goes wrong, it's not accepted, it's not tolerated, and it's fixed as quickly and swiftly as possible. I would bet my life that Tennessee's not getting bounced in the first round again next year. I know I labeled the post about Sunday's game as "Tennessee's downfall" but the reality is that Tennessee will never have a downfall as long as Summitt is coaching. Love or hate her, you have no choice but to respect her. She might be the greatest coach in the history of American sports. Pretty sue that deserves a little bit of respect.

Remember, RALEIGHPALOOZA begins this weekend. I'm off until Tuesday or so, so look for John, Hal, and Jeremy to take you through the weekend.