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Duke It Out
Published: 3/29/2010 4:31 PM
Last Modified: 3/29/2010 4:31 PM

Listen to Vitale shrieking and pounding the desk.

Listen to Bilas knowing even more than knowing it all.

It's obvious what that means. A national sports travesty looms. Duke is back. The Big East tourney champ and Duke in the Final Four. ESPN is in Homer Heaven.

This is what the tournament just gave us:

Duke is slow, slow, slow. A couple of guys can run a little. The rest are plodders. You would have thought Baylor was ahead 10 the whole game, and won easily. Winning with plodders does show just how great Coach K is.

The zebras seem to love Duke.

Overall, the officiating has been NBA-wicked. Flop and be humiliated on the national tube. If a hack doesn't leave a mark, play on.

Bill "Second Round" Self was as wooden as a CBS commentator as his offense was against NI.

Calipari is one of those posers who, during a game, couldn't coach a dog to a cheeseburger. He is a sensational recruiter, period. He and Pitino specialize in playing to the cameras, not the competition.

KU seems to play the same way, no matter the score.

Vitale and Phelps should be given shuffleboard sticks and put on long cruises.

Izzo's success would seem to speak well for TU's Wojo. He does need to win a game before the statute of limitations runs out on his contract.

This has been the best tournament ever; nobody could be dumb enough to speak of field expansion.

Remember all the talk about the Big 12 being, first, the best basketball conference in the country? Then one of the best? Turns out the Big 12 is the biggest bust, nobody in sight at the end.

Used to be, only western college basketball was rotten. This season, add central basketball to the sorry list. All four finalists are in the eastern time zone!





Reader Comments 12 Total
Herb Tarlek (3 years ago)
How did the Big 12 have a down year when it placed 2 teams in the Elite Eight? Just because your precious Sooners stunk up the joint doesn't make it a bad year Picker.
MexiMike (3 years ago)
How can you mention the horrible officiating in the Duke/Baylor game and then say that the Big 12 stinks for not having anyone in the Final Four? That's a bit of a double standard, isn't it? If it wasn't for Duke getting every 50/50 call, wouldn't Baylor be in the Final Four right now?

Pick, you should know better than anyone that the tournament has nothing to do with "best overall talent." It has to do with matchups. Northern Iowa beat KU because they matched up well, not because they are a more talented team. The same could be said for at least half of the Big 12 losses that occurred.

Coach Izzo has shown time and time again that he is the best tournament coach out there. All he does is find ways to make his team the greatest when it matters most--in March and April.
tulsandn (3 years ago)
Before I picked my bracket during a corner discussion, I said I really liked Mich. St because of Izzo & West Virginia, I was shot down.... When I PICKED my brackets, I went with Kansas & Kentucky....

The Cuse' & Nova' picks show why I never win in those office pools....
Glenn616 (3 years ago)
The Big 12 is a football conference, not a basketball conference. In football, 5 Big 12 teams have won national titles (OU, Texas, A&M, Nebraska, and Colorado), with four teams winning a national title since 1950 (all, except for A&M). In basketball, just 2 Big 12 teams have won national titles (Kansas and OSU), with one teaming winning national titles since 1950 (Kansas).

If Coach Cal's such a sensational recruiter, why did he fail to get guys at Memphis that can make free throws?

The refs should be investigated in order to see if any of them are gambling on college basketball games.
The Picker (3 years ago)
So in other words, the Big 12 is even greater than was the case before the tournament because it got no teams in the Final Four?

You people.

Judging the quality of college basketball is simple: teams in the Final Four.

Big 12: Zero.

That makes the Big 12 approximately the fifth best conference. Cheerleaders can justify anything.

And just did again.
MexiMike (3 years ago)
Haha, so because the Big 12 doesn't have a team in the Final Four this specific year, the conference is awful? What a joke.

You said yourself that Duke got all the calls in the game against Baylor. Had the game been called fairly and Baylor made the Final Four, would you still hold this oh-so intelligent opinion?
OldRoper (3 years ago)
Pick, I agree with you. If KU, KSU and Baylor would have all done "just a little bit better" the Big 12 could have had 3 teams in the final four and been called the BEST conference in the nation, but guess what, they didn't so it is what it is!!
TheJohnboy (3 years ago)
TheJohnboy

Mr. Picker Sir please tell me how many other
confrences did not place a single team in finale four. And what confrence placed more teams in the tournament. Just a thought.
The Picker (3 years ago)
Big East, present and accounted for.

Big Ten, present and accounted for.

Horizon, same.

All the rest, not as good.

Why didn't a Big 12 team make the final four? The conference that the cheerleading homer media said was the best in the country? Because no team was good enough. Period. They did play, didn't they? They did keep score.
MexiMike (3 years ago)
Again Pick, did you not say that Duke got all the calls against Baylor? My gosh, how exhausting it must be for you to continue to contradict yourself.
DontHaveToGuess (3 years ago)
Don't know about Duke-Baylor because I didn't see it. Maybe it was biasedly reffed, wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened. But, Baylor lost by 3 scores. Good chance Duke was the better team. K-State didn't look better than Butler. The Big XII proved it was overrated in this tournament. So much for conference RPI. On the bright side for me, I think OSU would have still just barely, barely gotten in the thing whether Texas or Missouri did or not. Have to allow the Picker this though, in a world where things were rated as they truly were versus how they were judged to be, OSU's getting in would have been much iffier than it was. On a related note, for those of us who have to care about Big XII hoops in general, the Picker's right: This year's tournament now stands as ESPN homer heaven and a bitter plate of crow for Big XIIers to have to consume. At least the SEC doesn't have anybody in the Final Four either ... like they say, people like for others to share dining on the crow with them, aka misery loves company.
The Picker (3 years ago)
Superb point about the conference rpis, garbage. This was a good post, where you been as I have been fending off the bozos?
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Out Pick The Picker

The Picker began entertaining – and infuriating – sports fans in 1993. Each week during football season, he writes about his picks of college and NFL games in his Thursday Sports column. He's never afraid of sharing his opinions about the game and the personalities who play it. Readers have a chance to go against him each season in the Outpick the Picker contest. He welcomes the competition.

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