Now THAT game had a late-season atmosphere. I'm not going to just bandie around terms like 'March-like atmosphere', but it had all the intensity of a mid-February conference game between two powers ramping up for March. Oh who am I kidding... it was a great game and it doesn't need a corresponding month of importance. Even if it is at the poor-man's Allen Fieldhouse.
I could hear a collective "What the hell?" from my fellow college hoops fans when The Deuce had the proverbial "technical difficulties" with 1:30 left in a tie game. The next six and a half made up for it, and then some.
It was nice to see Darrell Arthur succeed on a national stage like that, as he could end up being the Dallas area's best product since Kenyon Martin.
For the first 30 minutes the game seemed like a soccer match where one team has repeated chances to extend their lead, but just can't because the team they are playing is so strong. In fact even in the first half, as Kansas played their best basketball all season, I felt the game would come down to the wire as the Jayhawks just couldn't pull away.
An extreme rarity in that game was that a team with a lead made ALL its free throws down the stretch and still managed to throw-away a two-possession lead. That's what happens when the leading team fouls for no reason.
I really questioned Florida's bench and the quality of their depth before this game. In the first half, they made my questions seem very viable. I'm still not impressed with Walter Hodge, but Chris Richard made some key defensive plays in the second half and down the stretch to ensure that Florida kept it real close. But now, teams know that they can make Florida look oh so mortal if they can get a couple of those 'Big Five', if you will, in foul trouble.
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