You got your two major theories of basketball acceleration espoused by your Kellogg kin — Clark Kellogg, CBS NCAA color guy and John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of corn flakes. (Okay, they’re not really related.) The former is famous for considering a team’s “spurtability.” The latter is obviously renown for “Snap, Crackle & Pop.”
Okay, Rice Krispies were actually invented by a guy named Eugene McKay for Kellogg’s company, but, hey, work with me here. It’s tournament time, I’m March Mad and striving for eloquence and excellence.
Louisville is down eight at the half. Admit it, Card fans, you are already diminishing the impending pain of a loss. Justifying it with the belief that it provides an extra day of rest for the team before next week’s serious business commences.
Then U of L gets in touch with its inner Emeril, kicks it up a notch, and, with a nod to those Kellogg boys, spurts, snaps, crackles and pops.
The 17-2 spurt to start the second half was mighty impressive. Of course, it’s a different story if Clark, McGee and Smith don’t nail those first three treys. But, hey, they do. That’s the kind of crackle and pop that sets good teams apart.
More important was the 19-5 spurt to finish off the Wildcats after Nova tied it at 50. Fifteen seconds after Anderson hit the tying tip in, that McGee kid popped a triple on an assist from TWill. They Cards did not look back.
Jay Wright says U of L has the best defense in the land. Who am I to disagree? Scotty Reynolds and Alex Ruoff surely don’t.
As usual, I’m worried about Syracuse. This is a team that appears to have a higher power watching out for it. West Virginia overlooked the Orange. Let’s hope the Cards do not.
As for the whole seeding thing that seems to be on everybody’s mind, well, let me say this. It is odd that U of L is garnering less national praise than it seems to deserve. But there’s a mind set out there that won’t forget UNLV, Western Ky, Minnesota and that 33 point loss at Notre Dame. I stand by what I’ve said before. I’d rather be on the Dayton, Indy, Motown path, regardless of seed.
– Seedy K