in NCAA B Articles

It seems like just yesterday that we awaited Oct 15th at midnight for the first NCAA allowed hoops practice. Some call it Midnight Madness. Here we are at the end and we now call it March Madness.

This past weekend in the elite 8 it was pure madness. Three games went into overtime and a fourth almost did that’s just beyond anyone’s wildest dreams of hoop watching and nail biting. What a weekend it was and what a weekend we have ahead of us with the Final Four. Playing on this final weekend of hoops This is what everyone who has played or is playing college hoops dreams about at Midnight October 15th.

Lets recap this past historic weekend.

Who will ever forget Patrick Sparks three at the buzzer against Michigan St.? While they were reviewing whether or not it was a three I was yelling at my TV as to why there wasn’t a foul called (had Kentucky +1). No matter what that shot will go down as one of the greatest of this tourney.

We will never know what Lute Olson was thinking when he did not get the ball in Salim Stoudamires hand at the end of the crazy Illinois game. So don’t bother asking. Even though he wasn’t playing well he is still your best player.

We now know who Kevin Pittsnogle is, where he plays and where he comes from. He help WVU beat Texas Tech at both ends of the floor Thursday and then almost finished off the Cards of Louisville as well.  He scored 22 against Tech and then added 24 against Rick Pitino’s team.

Luther Head gave us inspiration by playing on one good leg and one bad one. They needed him to overcome a 15-point deficit against Zona and he did. I still can’t believe that they came back and won that game. The three pointer he hit when the Illini were down 8 with 57 seconds left was the biggest shot of them all. Had he missed that the game was over. But he didn’t and it closed the lead to 5. It rattled the Cats into 2 turnovers and a subsequent tie. His basket started an 8-point spurt in 19 seconds that forced OT.

Finally, Larry O’Bannon came through for the Cards when they needed him. He had not scored in the first half but, as Dick Enberg would say OH MY!! Did he ever come through in the second half? With Garcia fouled out and Dean barely able to walk, he took the team on his shoulders and scored 24, all in the second half.

Well that leaves us with this weekend. The Final Four. All the Madness ends in St Loo.

Good Luck to all!!!