Saturday, December 25, 2010

My Praise is Kryptonite: Washington State edition

Remember when two days ago, when I praised the fuck out of Washington State and shit?  They got de-pantsed tonight by Butler.  So I hope you hadn't read my praise as a license to go drop a big bet on them beating Butler.

But based on what I saw, that said more about Butler than it did about Washington State.  Butler seems to have figured out their rotation, they are without Hayward, but this team still has a lot of the guys who took Duke to the edge in the NCAA Final last year.  Guys like Matt Howard, Ronald Nored, Shelvin Mack, Shawn Vanzant, and  Zach Hahn--all of those guys, to some degree or another, contributed to last year's stellar run.  Butler has for losses, but only one of them is a really bad loss--Evansville (at home!  that's a bad loss.).  But losing on the road to Duke and Xavier and Louisville?  That's OK.  Those are all tough places to play, and kudos to Butler for giving themselves that schedule.

So Washington State is still a good team, too.  Bear in mind that this was a tournament with quick turnarounds.  I think their legs got a little tired on them.  The jumpshots were not falling for Washington State when they needed them to.  They lost by sixteen, but were, several times, within one shot of getting the game under 10 points with plenty of time left.

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