March Madness is in the rear view mirror and the NBA playoffs start next week. The WNBA draft is coming up and the regular season isn’t far behind. That is just scratching the surface of all that makes up the ever growing and expanding basketball universe. A planetary comparison would be basketball in 1965 was tiny little Mercury evolving into Earth with our one moon into the present day where Saturn with its 80+ moons is a much more complex and competitive solar system with all the moons competing with each other’s orbits and gravitational pulls.
Let’s dive into some of the intrigue in the hoops universe:
- March Madness lived up to its brand on the men’s side.
- Both semi-finals were great games with a resilient Florida team coming back from another double digit second half deficit to defeat the Auburn Tigers. What made the comeback even more dramatic was the way the Gator’s had to find a perfect blend of skill, resilience and karma to come from behind against Texas Tech in a nearly unbelievable Elite Eight victory with Florida making 4 consecutive 3’s and TT missing 2 front ends of 1 and 1’s to fall 84-79. Auburn, similarly, had a double digit second half lead only to come up short, 79-73 to the unflappable opponents.
- If a sense of inevitability was attached to any team, it was the Duke Blue Devils. They rolled over all opponents to get to the Final 4. Cooper Flagg was named the Naismith Player of the Year as his one and done season continued to unfold with a sense of destiny that the cherry on top most likely would be a national championship trophy. Their opponents, the Houston Junkyard Dogs, I mean Cougars, did not listen to the pundits. They played a ferocious, physical, determined and relentless game allowing them to comeback from a 9 point deficit with 2 minutes to go and defeat the Dukies 70-67. Surreal seeing the veteran team of transfers defeat the most talented and youthful roster of first round draft picks. This is one for the ages and will live in the folklore of the NCAA’s in perpetuity.
- And we weren’t done yet. In one of the hardest fought championship games, Houston dominated in the first half and opened up a, you guessed it, double digit lead in the second half. Florida’s mental and physical toughness matched the toughness of the Houston squad and Walter Clayton Jr, held to 1 point in the first half, came to life and led the surge giving the Floriians their school’s third national championship with a final score of 65-63. Surreal, once again, was Houston’s inability to get a shot off in the waning seconds. A fitting conclusion to the hardfought, toe to toe battles between the four number one seeds.
- The Women’s March Madness was the exact opposite. The UConn Huskies steamrolled over their opponents, UCLA (in an embarrassingly lopsided affair if you are a Bruin fan) and a beatdown of defending champion, South Carolina. Paige Bueckers added the ultimate accomplishment to her storied career as she prepares to be the number one draft pick in the soon to follow WNBA draft. One interesting note: the viewership for this season maintained strong regular season numbers but the championship game was down by over 60% from last year and well below the 2023 eyeballs. Wonder why? The Caitlin Clark Effect. Her superstar status galvanized viers as no one before her just like MJ did for the NBA and Tiger did for golf. Yes there are a lot of other great players but generational, charismatic juggernauts only happen along every so often. Caitlin’s shadow loomed large in March Madness but will drive up attendance and ratings wherever she plays this year in the WNBA.
- The NBA Playoffs start in a little over a week and so many spots are still up for grabs in the last 3 to 4 games in the Western Conference. It is a final week playoff to see who starts where and when against whom in the playoffs. Very exciting in a bizarre year. Trades, firings, injuries and tanking are the four most important words describing this regular season. Some musings for you to consider:
- Eastern Conference Finals clearly point to a Cavs – Celtics matchup.
- Western Conference Finals are far less obvious. OKC is the clearcut favorite to be one of the teams but the waters are very murky on who their opponent may be. A case can be made for the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, Rockets and Jokic (I mean Nuggets; actually I’ll stick with Jokic as he is as close to a one man team as we have seen since Wilt’s era).
Make sure to join Ryan Reed and me along with our special guests this Saturday on Edmonton’s Sports Leader, Sports 1440, this Saturday from 10am to noon. You can listen live online at sports1440.ca and to our podcasts on your preferred podcast network. Enjoy the NBA Madness!
Yours in basketball,
Paul Sir
Host, The Basketball Show
CEO, 3×3 Basketball Association
3x3ba.ca
