Wildcats Beat Tigers

What the heck happened to Clemson? They were on the verge of blowing Villanova out last night in the first half - to the point where the Washington, DC feed that I was watching switched over to the Indiana game - yet somehow managed to not only let Villanova get back in to it but actually lose the whole shebang by 6 points?!

Clearly, Nova was nervous and Clemson looked as physically imposing as advertised in the first 15 minutes. But the entire game was eerily similar to the Big East tourney game versus Syracuse - trail by double digits, scratch back to within hailing distance by the half and then overwhelm the opponent in the second half. Against the Orangemen it was making 3s, against Clemson it was hitting their free throws, tenacious defense, and Jay Wright's hack a tiger strategy. Seriously, according to a CBS graphic there are 300+ college basketball teams better at free throw shooting than Clemson. Who knew? They are so bad at free throw shooting that I actually got concerned when Booker and Mays, two of Clemson's big starting 3 fouled out. Sure they were starters, but really how much worse could their backups be on the court. And the two subs had to be better free throw shooters, didn't they?

Ah well, Villanova survived, even with Jay Wright picking up that dumb technical.

And now, here's where the beauty of the 12 seed comes in. #13 Siena actually beat #4 Vandy so 'Nova will actually be favored tomorrow.

Undoubtedly these words will come back to haunt me, but I can smell the Sweet 16.