Falling In Love With Gardner-Webb
Love, like it often does, has struck when I least expected it. To be honest, I hadn't been smitten at all in the offseason, meaning my last true crush was on VCU (and Eric Maynor) when it knocked Duke out of last year's Tournament.
March was a long time ago.
But Wednesday night in Lexington, Kentucky Gardner-Webb and Grayson Flittner made my heart skip a beat with the marquee, 84-68 upset of the Wildcats.
I know, I know. It's November, not March. This is the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic and not the N-C-Two-A Tournament.
Still, the fact that I got late Winter chills on a late Fall night only proves that the the heartbeat of college hoops isn't solely beating in March.
On second thought, March isn't that far off, at all. That wonderful month is always just an upset - like this one - away.
. . . Ohio State and Michigan State would like to thank Kentucky for putting their respective D-II EXHIBITION losses in perspective. If Tom Izzo kicked his team out of their new locker room, Gillispie may have to evict the 'Cats from the state.
. . . What wise guy was bold enough to say "Happy Birthday" to Billy G. after this one? True enough though, the coach turned 48 on Wednesday.
. . . . . G-W jumps to the Big South next year, so they are lame ducks in the ASun, but you can be sure the current league will ride this win to all its members' benefit. Belmont was the NCAA Tournament representative from the Atlantic Sun, the past two years.
. . . The second biggest loser after Kentucky? How about George Washington which now becomes the other G-W. Sorry, Colonials - Runnin' Bulldogs are comin' through.
. . . What does it really say about an institute of higher learnin' when the school mascot's adjective drops the "G?" I know it's a marketin' thin', but it just sends the wron' message to the student body. First we drop some Gs, then we lose other words with creations of OMG and LOL and suddenly, we're all communicatin' in single letters and apostrophes.
Whither the studen'-at'lete?
. . . The Gazelle Group got a little presumptuous in its home page design as you can see here: Download file. Time to get the Runnin' Bulldogs logo next to the Memphis "M" - and let's hold off on the other two for now, especially considering UConn's shakiness on Wednesday night.
. . . Big Blue Nation let out some boos for Billy Gillispie's new team and while the gut instinct may be to find that repulsive, further thought leads us to think a good booing is just what the Wildcats deserved. They simply didn't respect the opponent, because talent-wise, G-Dub was a 25-point underdog. (Interestingly, Morgan State was a similarly weighted 'dog at UConn, but the Huskies hung on to avoid the upset.)
. . . Flittner's high and soft touch lay-up was honored as ESPN's Play of the Day. It wasn't the only advantageous use of the entire backboard either, leading us to believe it's a common technique of his.
. . . Ticket scalpers in New York were probably booing a lot louder than the Rupp Grunters. Kentucky travels very well. Gardner-Webb? Not so much. They (and the legal ticket sellers of MSG) really need UConn and Oklahoma to come through.
