AROC's Bracket for March Madness 2008-2009

Hello NIT

hello NIT, the tournament where college basketball lives. I'm excited
to make your acquaintance and look forward to drinking from your joy.
First stop on the tournament run for me is Washington State vs St
Marys aka the team that shoulda ... whateva. Those thinking that the
Gaels (what the heck is a gael? sounds kinda gae to me) were worthy of
a spot in March Madness might be comforted by the fact that their east
bay team is favored by the vegas books by 4 points. these odds mean
little to the cougs however and won't mean much of anything once State
comes into their "gym" and represents the PAC 10's depth and power
over small D1 schools. St. Mary's will get frustrated by the best
defense in the country as the cougs take the game with ease. It should
be fun to watch however and educational to those believers in every
mid-major team getting thier chance. WSU should confirm that the real
misstep by the selection committee us not taking more power conference
teams that are in fact better teams and more deserving. The cougs, we
know, don't have a resume that Joe Blownardi would take a second look
at but are likely one of the best teams around having beaten several
teams that are presently competing for a national championship. That
debate likely won't be resolved anytime soon so for now watch the NIT
and find out which teams really should be in the tournament.

,
AROC

Pac 10 Player of the Week (Jan. 15/17, 2009): Taylor Rochestie

In a great weekend of Pac 10 hoops I must give out my pick for the Pac 10 POTW, Taylor Rochestie.

Taylor led the Cougs to back to back road wins agains Oregon State University (in Overtime) and Oregon in his last visit to "Mack" Court. In these two games Rochestie tallied 44 points and 15 assists (both weekend high's for the Pac) while playing a pac 10 high 84 minutes of solid point guard play. He tied a WSU single game record for free-throws going 16 for 16 from the stripe against Oregon and reached a career milestone while in Corvallis where he eclipsed the 1,000 point mark. Surely his performance should be rewarded with the Player of the Week honor. So, if there is any justice in the world, the powers that be will AT LEAST honor him with an honorable mention for Player of the Week.

The only other player that is worth mentioning would be

USC's Dwight Lewis who led the Trojans to two wins over the Arizona teams. He did have 39 points and 6 assists (along with 5 turnovers in his 73 minutes of play) and Arizona/Arizona St. are definitely tougher teams than those Rochestie and WSU encountered, even at home in the Galen Center. So I won't be suprised if USC/Lewis gets the nod this on Monday but hope that the honor goes to Rochestie.

Going by straight statistics nobody had a better week than Rochestie. Going past the box-score, for those of us who know anything about WSU's style of play, 44 points is a huge number for anyone playing for Tony Bennet & Co.

In both games Rochestie was THE difference maker in the outcome vs. Oregon hitting big three's and every free throw needed in the second half. Against OSU, Rochestie made a three pointer and found Daven Harmeling for another trey, giving WSU it's last 6 points in regulation. He had 8 assists in the overtime win against the Beavers and hit his 1,000th point as an NCAA player. All of this while being targeted by opposing coaches as the primary player to "shut down." While the Cougs have other options (Thompson, Baynes, etc.) Rochestie was indespensible while the same is not likely true of Lewis who had plenty of help from the likes of Gibson, Hackett, DeRozan, etc.

Hopefully the news on Monday is reasonable but considering the fact that WSU hasn't had a Player of the Week since... it's been a while. Did I miss anything? Wanna plead the case for Lewis or someone else? Go for it.