Billy on Illinois: "Actually, they played in Seattle the first time that four teams got to the Final Four."

I also liked the foul called on Sean May on the FT when he pushed Powell under the basket and got the rebound.

Packer: That's a bad call, that was not a foul.

Then how did he get the ball without dislodging the primary rebounder Billy?

No Way am I defending Packer...
 

but, my take on the play after watching it on tivo was that there was no more pushing and shoving on that play than any other rebound. my view of what happened (while on my couch with the advantage of tivo and slo-mo replay of which the officials did not have) was that May originally went straight into the lane and Powell braced himself for the box out. May then stepped slightly back and to the side causing Powell to slighly lose his balance and fall away from the basket about 2 - 3 steps leaving May a clear shot at the rebound by stepping in and taking the place that Powell had vacated. I don't think it was the best foul call in the game, but at full speed I would have called it too, I think.

By the way, I despise UNC so I am not infusing any fanboy bias here. I just thought it was a good play by May that ended up looking awkward. Congrats to UNC they deserved it... as much as it pains me to say!

Also, regardless of what I wrote here, BP is a complete moron!

Disagree....

May quite clearly chucked the guy with his left arm, no doubt about it. Packer actually had one or two lucid moments during the game for a change, but this was not one of them.

The official on the play even held off until it was evident May was going to get the rebound.

Patient whistle. Great call.

Re: No Way am I defending Packer...
 

My view was the May got in a very early shove that sent Powell deep under the basket. Powell tried to recover from the push by backing out again when he stumbled. At first, I didn't see it...but on replay it became clear why they called the foul.

Packer was also moaning and groaning about moving screens were not being called as fouls. But I just consider the source.

MTD, Sr.

The only good thing about the end of college basketball season is not having to hear Packer for the next 6 months. Early Saturday morning I was listening to a talk show (no idea what station or show) and they were discussing Packer. No one had anything good to say about him. If no one likes him, why does he keep getting the final four? I can't think of anyone ever saying anything complimentary about his broadcasts.

While that is true, there were several screens that were "set," and I use that term loosely, by Illnois that were not shall we say "by the book." It happened early in the game and only got waorse later when it became aapparent that it was going to be allowed.

I agree that the screens were very much in motion. However, I thought that the UNC player in several occasions diverted around the moving screen rather than running into it...effectively making legel. On some others, I felt that it wasn't set and did cause contact but the defender was too far from the shooter to have contested the try....no advantage...no foul.

I think Billy has never gotten over the fact that when people are asked to name a famous point guard from Wake Forest, the most common response is "Muggsy Bogues".

Just watching the game again. At halftime, I was listening to Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis. Davis is very much on top of things in his analysis of the game.

Some of his points:

Raymond Felton had no rythm early in the game. Sitting him down with 2 fouls actually helped him get into the flow of the game, as he came back onto the floor, shooting more smoothly and handling the ball more confidently.

He pointed out that Illinois took too many 3 pointers in the first half, shooting 19. Of course we know that they continued to shoot threes, taking 40 in the game and became a one dimensional team.

Finally, he said that Illinois needed to take the ball into the paint if they had any chance of winning the game. We know that they didn't.

Couple that with his correct analysis of the MSU game on Saturday and Kellogg's total whiff with his thoughts on the second half, and it's plain to see. Davis makes Kellogg look like he should be selling Corn Flakes. :)

The 1 thing that was clear to me was that Illinois decided in the second half they could not move the ball inside. NC's zone killed them, they won a beautiful game. At some points it looked like they were playing with a 10 second shot clock...if they still had the ball at 25 seconds they might as well just place the ball on the floor & run downcourt to play D.

Congrats!

That's COLD!!

MTD, Sr.