Major props to Butler. Great season. Great run. Great story. Congrats to Duke. P.S: That was a NASTY pick by Howard at the end.
who would have thought that this duke team would win them a title. and after unc seemed to be running away with the momentum in that series with a dominant national title run, 1 year later duke has the trophy and unc is in the NIT. crazy.
granted, it's better for coach K because duke won, but this game wasn't better than the uconn final. there was some serious star power in that title game and it went down to the last shot. that duke team may have been the best college team i've seen for a while (although unc last year was pretty loaded) and it took a great game from uconn to knock them off.
I thought the refs let the players play for the most part. Give me the officiating of this game (or any college games) over anything NBA has to offer.
Except if there's any contact on the way to the basket, it's always a charge, every damn time. Doesn't matter if the defender is late. Doesn't matter if he's underneath the basket. If the defender goes backward, foul on the offensive player. Every. Single. Time. There was the obvious 3-point play for Hayward the officials took away, but later on, there was another play in which Butler had another potential layup (Duke guy slid in at last second, underneath bucket), but the offensive player passed it out for fear of the charge. No one on this board has complained more about NBA officials than me, trust me. But I'd take them in a heartbeat over college officials because college refs don't understand the most basic of concepts: what's a block vs. what's a charge. And I'm not being reactionary here - I've said this all year and for the last 3-4 years. Unfortunately, it manifested itself in some of the biggest games, particularly when you combine that tendency with a team of superb floppers (Duke). Jerry Sloan would be the best coach in NCAA history.
Unfortunately, they did on too many occasions. Some of the non-calls were over the top. The problem was they also missed too many foul calls. I give the refs a D- for the game.