Those were the words of television analyst Steve Kerr as lightly regarded #11 seed Virginia Commonwealth University roughed up, shocked and upset #1 seed Kansas ("KU") today by double digits to go to the Final Four. (Link to full story at bottom).Fittingly, snow currently falls heavily on this late March day in both Lawrence, Kansas and in Kansas City, much like VCU (a team which barely even made the NCAA tournament) snowed all over KU's road to the Final Four. Two things seem fairly apparent to me. First, KU appears to have taken VCU lightly. They probably paid way too much attention to the fact that VCU lost earlier this season to Richmond -- a team that KU pounded earlier in the Sweet 16 round of the tournament a few days ago.
Second, KU choked. The jayhawkers went a pathetic 2 for 21 from three-point range. And they shot a paltry 53% (15 for 28) from the free throw line. That's called letting the pressure of the moment get to you.
And I wonder whether there will now be any questions about KU's highly compensated head coach, Bill Self? Yes, Self has his one national championship from 2008, but the fact remains that apart from that one year, Self has never gone to a Final Four. Take away 2008, and Self is sort of Kansas version of the old Missouri head coach, Norm Stewart: Great in the regular season but Mr. Elite 8 when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.
Self now has exactly the same number of Final Four appearances (one) as VCU's young upstart head coach, Shaka Smart. And Self has fewer Final Four appearances than the mid-major head coach at Butler, Brad Stevens (who now has two).
Of course, the obvious retort of KU Fan to a Missouri guy saying these things would be to say, "that's still one more than Missouri has." True enough. But Missouri isn't thought of as one of the "elite" college basketball programs, and Missouri doesn't have one of the most highly paid head coaches in college basketball. Food for thought.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/42296683/ns/sports-college_basketball/
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