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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast…1-30pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Hot Topics on the Table..Stay for Fans Forum
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“MONDAY MADNESS”
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College basketball reaches its chaotic conclusion after what else, a chaotic semi-final in the Men’s Final Four.
But why should that be any different from what we have experienced all year long in college hoops.
Coaches quitting right before the season started (Tony Bennett), coach quitting at midseason (Jim Laranaga), players pouring into the Transfer Portal (2,105) in the first week it opened, while tourney games were going on.
And then we got to Saturday, the semifinals in San Antonio and the chaos no one could predict.
DUKE, most everyone’s favorite, losing a 14-point lead and watching Houston roar from behind to get back to the championship game for the 3rd time in school history. A shocking outcome considering how great the Player of the Year Cooper Flagg (27P) has been during the tourney. Stunning to see the Devils, and all that firepower, get one basket in 10-and-a half minutes at one point of the second half. Amazing to see Duke’s inability to dictate its style and take over the game, breaking the other guys will. What in the Coach K of the world happened? Houston happened, that’s what.
HOUSTON should have worn a label on their jersey that read ‘relentless’ because that is why they won, and have won all year long. It wasn’t just LG Cryer’s explosive (26P) night, or just his 6-three point bombs. It was the entire roster. The ones who got 42-rebounds, blocked 6-shots, had 6-steals, and reeled off scoring runs of (10-0) early and (9-0) late to wash away the deficits. And for Kelvin Sampson, a chance to go where the Cougars have nearly gone in the past, in the Elvin Hayes and Phi Slamma Jamma eras, get to the finals, and now possibly win it.
FLORIDA has been building towards this, getting the chance to cut the nets down, because they have been cutting people down all year long. Tell me there is anybody as slick, sleek, stylish as Walter Clayton Junior, who went off for (34P) in the Gators win. And they too were face down in the swamp, down nine points, when Clayton kept running the floor and finding a way to finally get a shot, good or tough, and put it in. And the Gators showed enormous depth and grit, making Auburn’s top player disappear. The UF bigs are bangers who put people on the floor. Onto the finals, on a mission, this group from Gainesville is on.
AUBURN could not find help for its spectacular big man Johni Broome and that’s why their season is over. He went 13-minutes without a basket in the second half, and outside of the wild shooting of Chad Baker-Mazara, the Tigers just could not score much. Broome is such a grinder and so gifted, and they did everything possible to run picks and back door passes, but he just could not convert close in with all that traffic around him. And the refs had their hands full too, a very hard game to call ,with all these super athletes on the floor, playing above the rim, pressuring time after time. At the end it was ugly, free throws, fouls, too many instant replay reviews, flagrant ones, alot of screaming and yelling. In the end, Auburn got beat, got mugged, and got a taste of their own medicine, not handling what they had done to so many teams this year.
So we move on to the Monday Night Championship game. My brackets are now bent, because Duke has gone away. But the chaos on Saturday is no different that the chaos we have seen all season long.
First thought on the final game of the season….it’s Houston’s push-you-around defense vs Florida’s guards who want to push-it-up-the floor.
1-more night of screaming about anything-everything, in college basketball.
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