Here are the weekend’s top college football stories as I see them:
Iowa (-6) at Iowa State – The Hawkeyes started the season ranked, but they looked truly awful last weekend. Which team is the real Iowa?
Holy Freaking Crap!!! As a Michigan fan that first half yesterday against Western Michigan was the second best thing to happen to me in the last few years (And I only say second best because I’d get grief from my wife if I didn’t at least pretend my wedding mattered more). It has been a very rough year and a half since we beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl, so the 31-0 drubbing we laid on Western Michigan in the first half yesterday was tremendous relief. For the first time in too long there was something beautiful on witness when we played – competence. Our defense was smothering, our offense looked pretty good and true freshman Tate Forcier threw three touchdown passes and looked far beyond his age. Glory days. So much for all those reports of division in the locker room and incompetence by Rich Rodriguez. I hope I’m not the only one who took the over on Michigan’s season win total this year.
The college football season gets going in earnest today with a whole plate of games. Some of them are ridiculously easy (Charleston Southern?!?! I’ll never understand why Florida doesn’t get more grief for their brutal non-conference scheduling), but there are more than a few that will have my attention today. Here, in chronological order, is a look at some of the highlights:
It’s Finally here. After months and months and months of waiting, the world’s finest team sports gets underway tonight. It’s college football time!!! Normally the opening Thursday night games are less than exciting, but this time around we have one real gem and a couple of others that are more than worth a look. Here’s a quick preview of the highlight’s of tonight’s action:
The NCAA is ridiculous. Yet again, they have chosen to punish a school in a way that does nothing to actually deter schools from doing things wrong. I’m talking, of course, about Memphis’ moronic punishment that was handed down yesterday. If you missed it, the school has been forced to vacate all 38 wins from two years ago – the year they lost in the championship game to Kansas by blowing the last couple of minutes of the game then tripping up badly in overtime. They will also be on probation for three years, though they lose no scholarships or postseason eligibility during that time. There are a couple of violations at issue, but the main one is that Derrick Rose likely wasn’t eligible for the season.
Yesterday’s Final Four games started out very interesting, and then ended with a dull thud. Here’s a collection of thoughts:
1. I know that Bill Self won coach of the year, and I can’t really begrudge that, but Tom Izzo is unquestionably the coach of the tournament. Twice in a row his team has had to play heavily favored Big East behemoths, and twice he has masterfully dissected them. In neither case was it just a question of coming out a head in a close one, either. The Spartans have dictated the style of play, effectively shut down the key players, and looked totally in command for the second half. Michigan State has the fewest potential pros of the Final Four teams, but Izzo has been more than able to overcome that. Incredibly impressive.
1. Suck on that, Blake Griffin.
2. Roy Williams proved yet again how incredibly good he is. He and his staff had the Tar Heels as prepared as they possibly could have been for the Oklahoma game. The first half was as brilliant a defensive performance against a formidable foe as I have ever seen. I have been down on North Carolina for a while now, but that showing made it harder for me to stick with my opinion – especially now that they have a week to get ready for the Wildcats.
With the exception of the Michigan State win over Kansas that was one incredibly boring night of basketball. Sadly, neither of the early games were even remotely interesting. I had high hopes for Syracuse, and I thought Arizona was feisty enough to at least make it interesting, but they both fired blanks. The biggest conclusion out of those games is that I feel very confident in my pick of Louisville to win it all. It’s not just that they can score like they can, or that they play such good defense, or that their style of play is so unconventional that it gives other teams major headaches. It’s that they are so freaking deep – they are better five deep on the bench than most teams are two deep. Very impressive.
1. Watching Purdue lose today was pretty decisive. I saw them play several times this year, and this game was pretty indicative of their season – they can be very good, but they can’t sustain it. Robbie Hummel’s night is a microcosm of their issues – Hummel had 15 points in the first seven minutes or so, and would up with 17 on the night in 35 minutes of action. That’s not to take anything away from UConn , mind you. They have all sorts of distractions and excuses to put in a less-than-perfect effort, yet they played pretty fine today. I still don’t think they have what it takes to win it all, but they looked nothing but business like and impressive tonight.
We are going to take a break from college basketball for the next couple of days, but before we do I want to look ahead to the Sweet Sixteen while the first two rounds are still fresh in my mind. Keep in mind, as always, that any opinions given are just my own and don’t necessarily reflect or agree with anything official from Maddux Sports. That being said, the first two rounds could certainly have gone worse for me, so I am feeling good. Here, then, are thoughts on what we have in store on Thursday and Friday:
