It Can't Get Any Worse

And just like that, the worst 24 hours of my college basketball eternity has come and gone.

I'm still not sure what happened or how it happened, but both schools that I attended and graduated from are now going to the NIT. Both schools won their regular season titles and choked in the conference tournament.

For Bucknell, the loss was unbelievable. In a rare show of cockiness, I was so confident that they were going to win that I told everyone about it. No way would Mike Muscala let this team lose I said. And yet somehow even with 30 points and 14 rebounds, I felt like he could have done so much more. Credit to CJ McCollum for getting his points - 29 in all - but I think the real difference was the 23 points and 7 rebounds put up by some guy named Gabe Knutson. No disrespect to Knutson, a 12/6 guy during the regular season, but there was no way he should have put up those numbers against Muscala. I know most will point to the lack of production by Joe Willman, Cameron Ayers and Brian Cohen, but Muscala couldn't lead the team when they needed him the most. It sucks that I am putting a lot of blame on his shoulders, considering the great numbers he put up, but when it came down to it, CJ McCollum showed why he was the 2012 PL POY and not Muscala. he got the job done when his needed it. Bucknell came out flat and never led. It was a gut punch because we essentially wasted away a golden opportunity.

As for UW, man what can you say. I said how a single win over OSU would not mean they were any more deserving than they were the day before, but a loss? Man, that hurts. The committee was looking for a reason to keep them out and I think they found one. I still believe in my heart that they deserve a bid, but wow, you CANNOT lose to OSU and expect to make it in. Credit the team with coming back from a 13 point halftime deficit. They could have easily folded up shot. Instead, Tony Wroten showed us all why he is so highly thought of. He dominated the Beavers and wrestled back the lead for the Dawgs. Up by 6 points with as little as 3:22 to go in the game, it looked like the Dawgs were going to escape. Up to that point Wroten had hit 9-12 free throws including 7 straight and they looked in control. Then they got a little sloppy and pooof!, the game was out of their hands. A turnover, 4 missed free throws from Wroten, a few fouls and all of a sudden OSU was up 1. I didn't get to watch the game, but I did intently study the play-by-play and I'm not sure you could draw up anything worse. In the final 1:03 the Huskies shot 0-1 from the field, 1-5 from the line and committed 5 fouls and 1 turnover. Amazingly they only lost by 1 because OSU in that same time only shot 1-1 from the field and 2-7 from the field! 2 for freaking 7 and somehow they won. That is simply amazing and a HUGELY damning mark on the Huskies resume. This team still deserves a shot, but damn they dropped the ball.

So yeah, two losses by #1 seeds in the past 24 hours. I have never felt so worse about college hoops as I do right now. Thank goodness the Sounders won or you might never have heard from me again.