OH SO CLOSE! (aka John Beilein is My Enemy)

(SCSD now has multiple daily posts. Don't miss the others below.)

So Duke won, even though they didn't play well. Whoopie. The bad news is that Scheyer's cold streak continues. He was 5-17 from the field, and 1-6 from three. I'm hoping slash praying slash begging that this is the tail-end of a bad run, and not the product of fatigue. But when you've had a guy playing out of position at point guard for 38 minutes per game all season, he can get tired. The pressure defense seemed to rattle him a bit today, and he was completely out of his element in the second half. I'll be keeping close tabs on this situation.

Luckily, Nolan took us on his back in the first half, Singler did it in the second half, and the big men held their own on the boards, winning the battle 38-33.

But MAN, did you guys see that Ohio State-Michigan game?

There are two reasons I wanted OSU to lose. First, they're one of Duke's competitors for a #1 seed. Second, and way more importantly, I need them to lose so I can win money in my conference tourney pool. I'm currently 2nd out of 21 people, and the guy in first pulled the bold (read: bullshit) move of picking every single #1 seed to win. I only picked two of six top seeds to triumph (Duke and Syracuse), and one is already out. But I have Baylor, Michigan State, Washington, and Florida winning. Very bold picks, if I do say so myself.

So anyway. Michigan stays with OSU all game, and has the ball with 9 seconds left an the game tied. Manny Harris drove right, hit a pull-up jumper, and gave the Wolverines a two-point lead with 2.2 seconds on the clock. OSU would have to go the full length of the floor to hit the winning bucket. What are the two defensive rules in this situation? We can all recite them in unison at this point, right?

1) Put someone tall on the inbounder.

2) If there are less than 3 seconds on the clock, DOUBLE TEAM the guy who gets the ball.

Instead, Michigan inexplicably sat back in a 2-3 zone, let one of the nation's best players dribble up the floor uncontested and launch a three-pointer that wasn't that far out. Evan Turner nailed the shot, and OSU won. Inexcusable. Totally, 100% inexcusable. If it's ever smart to fire a coach for one play, this is the time. John Beilein, you're an idiot.

Here's a picture of him during the last timeout, when he was distracted by the Kiss Cam on the jumbotron:


Then Alabama acted like a total tease, staying with Kentucky for an entire game before falling by 6. Now Wisconsin is losing, which is really bad for me, and EVERYTHING IS FALLING APART.

But at least Duke won.