Watching North Carolina take on Creighton made for an interesting sight. Obviously, the big news was that the Tar Heels lost another key cog in their championship machine. It’s not clear how long Kendall Marshall will be out for, but I think if he’s out, that ends all of their hopes. There is no better facilitator of an attack than Marshall, who entered the year as one of the best passers in the country, and then improved his shot greatly this season to become a true all-around weapon. With his wrist now fractured, and John Henson’s wrist in spotty shape as well, bad luck has befallen North Carolina at exactly the wrong time. This team is talented enough to overcome any loss, including Henson’s, but losing Marshall might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Bet Tar Heels fans are wishing they didn’t treat Larry Drew II so badly now. They could really use him at this moment.
Anyway, back to the game. As ridiculous as Creighton junior center Gregory Echenique looks with his pink shoes and sporty glasses, I like his aggression, even if he did get away with a Shaquille O’Neal-like elbow on Tyler Zeller. He moves pretty fast for his size, beating nearly everyone up the court on one Creighton fast break, and has a nice collection of hook shots at his disposal. He also showcased a few nice fakes and some lateral quickness and had an absolutely vicious dunk on a North Carolina defender. Between him and Doug McDermott, who can clean up down low as well as anyone, the Bluejays are impressive down low.
Tar Heels forward John Henson, of course, was wild early, drawing a rather stupid technical foul when he got up in a Creighton player’s face after what appeared to be incidental contact. He then let the off-the-court antics get in his way on-the-court, as he tried to avenge his anger on one quick play, overpowering a layup well beyond the square, for an embarrassing miss. He quickly regained control, however, hitting a nice lay-up, followed by a jump shot and then blocking what would have been an easy lay-up on the defensive end. Meanwhile, Kendall Marshall was his usual stellar self, leading the fast break with his long, quick passes, while also spotting up and hitting everything in sight. He scored 13 points in the game’s first 13 minutes, including a three-pointer and an even prettier play, in which he trailed his pass, and ended up with a finger roll. Marshall continues to prove himself as a rare talent.
As for Henson, who left the game temporarily with an injury toward the end of the first half, he played long enough to place the game in the Tar Heels’ hands, and that was enough for Sunday. As if to reassure anxious North Carolina fans, James McAdoo scored on an easy cut to the basket on the very next play, as if to remind Tar Heels’ fans that they still had an All-American under the hoop. Two if you count Zeller. That’s the luxury of rooting for a basketball factory like North Carolina, of course, where if one star gets injured, you churn out another. Moments later, McAdoo reaffirmed his presence on the court, blocking McDermott as he tried to swing back and forth and maneuver his way toward an open shot. Creighton had cut its deficit from 15 to eight at that point, so McAdoo’s block was crucial. Then, Marshall missed a free throw, and McAdoo tipped the rebound back to a teammate. It was a solid end to the half for McAdoo if not for the Tar Heels, who entered the intermission with a tenuous eight-point lead. Coach Roy Williams, clearly unhappy with the 7-0 Bluejays run to end the half, told the sideline reporter that his team had to stop playing “silly basketball” and when the sideline reporter tried to eek out some praise for Marshall, the veteran coach simply mentioned that it would be nice if Marshall would stop turning the ball over, please. It was one of the more entertaining sideline interviews you will ever see, and gave viewers some idea of how uncomfortable that locker room might be. In retrospect, Williams would probably take Marshall and his turnovers, over walk-on point guard Stilman White. Meanwhile, if Marshall truly is out, Tyler Zeller will have to step it up in the post, and interior weapons James McAdoo and Desmond Hubert might have to help lead a grittier Tar Heels attack, as they transition from Showtime to old-fashioned Motor City basketball. Of course, anytime you have a weapon like Harrison Barnes, who wowed me with consecutive step-back three-pointers from well behind the arc, you have a chance. He’s the ultimate athlete, if not yet the ultimate basketball player. With Marshall out, the open looks for P.J. Hairston and Reggie Bullock might be no longer. Instead, of Marshall creating shots for them, guys like Barnes will have to create their own shots in the half-court offense, because I don’t think Stilman White is going to beat the defense up the court, with his legs or his passes.
Also, one more note, the whole stadium setup of the NCAA Tournament is mind-boggling and patently unfair. I know it’s inevitable that some regional arenas will fall somewhere close to the homes of the 68 teams participating in March Madness, but to have Duke and North Carolina’s games take place in Greensboro, North Carolina is absurd. Why not put Duke and North Carolina in the West bracket to avoid such occurrences? Because otherwise it’s simply unfair to teams like Lehigh and Creighton, to put them in a stadium with 14,000 Tar Heels fans or 10,000 Blue Devils fans. That just doesn’t seem right. Especially when Creighton, instead of playing in the Omaha region, was forced to play in Greensboro. That’s pretty messed up.
Meanwhile, in one of the major stories of this year’s NCAA Tournament, Purdue nearly capped off a dream weekend for the Big Ten. If the Boilermakers had beaten the Jayhawks, they would have become the fifth conference team to make it into the Sweet Sixteen. Ultimately, they fell short. But while Purdue may have lost, Robbie Hummel will never be forgotten. This is one of those games that will be aired over and over again on ESPN Classic, as it was a nail-biter the entire way, from the early moments when you wondered how much longer Kansas would miss easy shots for and wondered how many more three-pointers Purdue could hit, to the late moments when the Boilermakers’ lead was continually whittled down, but never seemed to fade away. The end was magical, as multiple Purdue shots came a smidgen away from falling, including what would have been a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer. Down three, the Boilermakers got the perfect inbound pass, a beautiful half-court heave to Ryne Smith, who nearly banked it home, but his half-court shot ultimately glanced off of the front rim. And so it ended, one of the most entertaining games of this March Madness, and one of the great stories of this college basketball season, the improbable rebirth of Robbie Hummel.
Purdue seized an early ten-point lead behind incredible three-point shooting, particularly from Robbie Hummel. The senior was confidently taking shots from everywhere, from well behind the arc, and with defenders on him. He hit several tough shots from the baseline, and each time, his shot looked the same, rolling off the bottom of the bucket. He was in the zone. He didn’t hesitate. He simply shot. Purdue, as a whole, took that philosophy, rolling off screens, and stopping in motion to take three-pointers. On the other hand, you had to believe that Kansas would come back once it stopped trying to shoot the ball so much, and started exploiting its natural advantage in the paint. Why the Jayhawks came out shooting three-pointers, I’ll never know. But still they were missing some easy shots, and you had to figure that they wouldn’t shoot at a 2-of-16 rate for the duration of the contest. Momentum first started to swing in my opinion when D.J. Byrd tried to save a loose ball out-of-bounds, only to fling it right into Kansas’ hands, leading to a fast break and an intentional foul call, which was bogus in my opinion, since he was going for the block. Regardless, it got the Jayhawks’ fan base incensed, and then when Conner Teahan made a three-pointer with minutes to go in the first half to draw Kansas within six, it was clear that it was game on. Same when Tyshawn Taylor drained a three-pointer to draw Kansas within four. From there on out, it was a physical contest, and while the Jayhawks were certainly dominant on the boards, you have to give the Boilermakers credit for their impressive physicality. That physicality rewarded them in the post, where they held Thomas Robinson in check for the majority of the evening.
But at the end, as Purdue took a six-point lead into the intermission, it was all about Hummel, particularly on one possession in which all of Purdue’s cuts were blocked off. With five seconds left, Hummel was behind the arc, and was dribbling away from the basket, a hopeless wanderer it seemed, until he suddenly turned around, and chucked up a quick shot. Again, it fell right in. Finishing the half with 22 points, Hummel literally missed just one free-throw attempt and one three-point attempt in the first half. He stepped out-of-bounds on one drive to the basket, but other than that, he was picture-perfect: aggressive on the boards, and sterling on the shot. It was a long time in coming for Hummel, who has endured so much, and is now enjoying the moment. As someone who just suffered a sprained ankle himself, I admire Hummel’s boldness and reckless abandon on the court, flopping about, even after he underwent two ACL surgeries on the same knee.
In the second half, you could see the difference from the opening possession. It’s not as if Hummel was open in the first half, most of his three-pointers came with a defender marking him, but in the second half, Kansas stepped it up a notch, harassing Hummel as he tried to post up, and even cutting Hummel off as he attempted to get rid of the ball, nearly forcing a turnover. But Purdue’s other scorers stepped up in Hummel’s wake, at least at first. More important, the Boilermakers started adding offensive rebounds to their arsenal, taking advantage of the Jayhawks’ zone defense, to find their way to the glass. They had five more shots than the Jayhawks did midway through the second half, a reversal of what happened in the first half, but the shots began to abandon Purdue. Timely shots maintained its lead for a while, but with Lewis Jackson unable to finish his drives to the hoop, and the threes suddenly not falling, the game began to tighten up. Kansas had a big chance, down 47-44, when it got several open shot opportunities, boosted by multiple offensive rebounds, but it couldn’t take advantage, and on the other end, D.J. Byrd again proved that he could do more than hit threes, grabbing the offensive rebound, and drawing a foul to get to the charity stripe. His ensuing free-throws brought the Boilermakers’ lead to five.
But Purdue’s lack of elite scorers killed it at game’s end. While Kansas had Thomas Robinson there to block Lewis Jackson’s final failed swoop to the hoop, Purdue only had Hummel, which was good enough for the majority of the game but not for its entirety. While the Jayhawks had Elijah Johnson heaving it half-court to Tyshawn Taylor for an alley-oop with a little over a minute remaining, the Boilermakers had no such flare. Give credit to Johnson. That was an incredibly risky play, with his team trailing by three, and with an advantage on the fast-break, to go for the alley-oop. If it fails, Purdue probably wins the game, and Johnson finds himself in Bill Self’s doghouse. But instead, the play worked to perfection. Meanwhile, Purdue got a couple of last big plays from Robbie Hummel. He had a beautiful score off of an inbound pass, in which he caught the ball in mid-air, hung in the stratosphere as he flowed toward the hoop and let a little floater go that found its way into the hoop. Later on, he made a gorgeous power move to the hoop, kissing the ball high off of the glass for two points. But 22 of Hummel’s 26 points came in the first half, as did 36 of Purdue’s 60 points, and without him, the Boilermakers simply weren’t the same. Lewis Jackson, as quick and spritely as he is, couldn’t finish a drive to save his life, and as lovely as Purdue’s cast of characters are, they couldn’t step up when they needed to the most. And Jackson, at the end, killed them, trying to dribble out possessions like a man working his way around a minefield. It reminded me of the old computer game, Minesweeper, as Jackson dribbled around, trying to avoid contact, until he dribbled right into a Jayhawks’ defender. His turnover with a minute or so remaining was an absolute cardinal sin, and a deadly bad break to befall Purdue.
Ladies and gentlemen, in spite of tonight’s loss, watch out for the Boilermakers. That’s all I have to say. Not necessarily this year. I don’t think this Purdue team ever had what it took to win a national championship. Not necessarily next year, because Hummel’s loss will be hard to cope with. But in the next couple of years, with a Top 15 recruiting class coming in, and one of the best coaches in the nation at its helm, watch out for Purdue. Seriously, what Matt Painter has done with a bunch of feisty role players and a couple of shooters is astounding. The Boilermakers possess such strong and fundamental defense. This is a team that you can say with certainty is a well-coached squad. Give Painter credit. Purdue has its man.
On the upset side of things, nothing is more depressing than a dandy of an underdog falling flat in the ensuing round. After all the energy, hype and hoopla generated from a thrilling upset, it’s as much of a downer as you can get when said underdog falls by 20 points in the next round. It’s as if, after a joyous moment of anarchy, order is restored. Disbelief turns into belief, before falling back into disbelief. That happened to some extent with Norfolk State. People will not notice, they will only remember the stunning upset, but after beating Missouri, the Spartans were demolished by the Gators. So, they will be thought of forever on as one-hit wonders, a group of men who came together on one special night, before the reality of their inferiority reasserted itself against Florida. Unlike VCU which will long be remembered for one magical season, Norfolk State will be remembered for one magical night. Lehigh, on the other hand, fought valiantly against Xavier, disappointing nobody. Not that there were many people to disappoint. It was sad to see the number of empty seats at the end of the Xavier-Lehigh game. Clearly, a mass exodus of fans followed the conclusion of the North Carolina game, which is a shame, considering how much good basketball remained. Wouldn’t Tar Heels fans want to stick around to see the Mountain Hawks team that downed the mighty Blue Devils?
Meanwhile, on the tennis court, John Isner didn’t seem to be on the attack in the championship match of the BNP Paribas Open as he was in his semifinal match against Novak Djokovic. Roger Federer was able to return his serves to the back-end of the court, often pressing Isner up against the back line. Meanwhile, Federer displayed a dominant serve of his own, compiling three straight aces at one point, and indeed, he never appeared challenged on his own serve. His drop shot was devastating, he hit the lines with no fear and he took advantage of Isner’s lanky build. Far too often, Isner simply gave up on the ball, freezing in the middle of the court, unsure of where to go, absolutely sure of the point’s fate.
The game really turned on the first tiebreaker, as emotion and momentum swayed back and forth throughout. Federer angrily swung his racket, and smacked an extra ball into the net, after falling behind 3-2. He was far happier after breaking consecutive serves from Isner, but Federer was broken himself, and later on in the tiebreak, Isner fought back with a serve so powerful that Federer was left waving his racket like a wimpy wand. Ultimately, in a tiebreaker that remained close until the very end, Federer was able to hold his own, thus securing an impressive and hard-fought victory.
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