Good, Old-Fashioned kiddie fun at the Dean Dome

...So of course the same day I post about awesomeness in the NBA, college basketball made sure to steal my heart right back.

In game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Lebron James hit a buzzer-beater to win the game. It was cool in the way that all buzzer-beaters are cool, but even more fun for me was watching the replays. From several different angles, knowing what had happened, you could look at what was going on around Lebron before and during the shot: fans, teammates, coaches, opponents, etc. For, me the best angle shown in the aftermath is the one from the opposite end of the court, with Lebron's back to you. He hits the three, then turns around, mouth open wide, screaming, and extends his arm upward, fist clenched. Of course, all the fans going bonkers in the background was cool, but none of it captured me the way the look on Lebron's face did. He looks like a little kid celebrating. The way he's screaming and how wide his eyes are, he can't believe he made the shot. And he couldn't be happier. Just like all the fans that night in Quicken Loans Arena. For me, it's cool to see an athlete, a guy who is usually all business on the court, look the way that I feel when I see a buzzer beater.

So, as you might imagine, it was about 100,000,000 times cooler to see Austin Rivers smile like a 10-year-old as he turned around to jump into the arms of Andre Dawkins and be mobbed by his teammates after hitting the game-winner (two links there, a 50-second and two-minute clip. I'd recommend the two-minuter of course) at North Carolina. Rivers is usually so serious that it seems to me he's working hard to put on the persona. But last night, as time ticked down with the ball in his hands and I was screaming, "Do something!" as Seth Curry was screaming, "Go! Go!" (see? the angles after the fact are cool), Rivers hit a shot that means he will always be remembered fondly by Duke fans. And then he turned around and shouted out loud just like I did (except he was on the court and I was on a couch). Then he ran down the court fired up, turned around and smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face before being mobbed by his teammates.

As Rivers fell to the floor, he extended one arm and continued smiling, as if to say, "Thank God. Yes!" It was the same way his dad and sister and Dell Curry felt, as cameras showed them jumping around out of their seats like they had won the lottery. I had already managed to scream out loud, run up the stairs, keep screaming, and then run back downstairs and rehash every second of the game with my brother on the phone.

Both the Lebron shot and the Rivers one are amazing to watch. But what made the Duke buzzer-beater last night really special is that I felt justified in my irrational love for sports and Duke basketball. For as long as I can remember watching basketball, I've had days made or ruined by the exploits of the Duke Blue Devils (and eventually the Dayton Flyers as well). I've cried more times than I'd care to admit about Duke losses (or in some cases, wins Duke shouldn't have gotten) I know it doesn't make sense. Sports shouldn't matter this much. But I can't help it; they do. And Wednesday night, it was special to see in Rivers' face that jumper mattered even more to him than it did to me.

A Word of Warning to Thad and the Buckeye Faithful

Last night Ohio State absolutely destroyed Duke in basketball. Duke played so poorly that Coach K gave up on his starters and opted to play Quinn Cook, Josh Hairston and Michael Gbinije for essentially the entire second half. But make no mistake about that; Ohio State looked good. Unfortunately, it's not going to last.

In fact, Ohio State probably just played its best game of the season. Remember last year, when Wisconsin (at that point the second best team in the Big 10) visited OSU and got romped by 30, as Jon Diebler and crew banged home three-ball after three-ball after three-ball? Gus Johnson was absolutely beside himself. Well, that type of performance had not happened for the Buckeyes up to that point in the season, and they never repeated it. Despite hitting 312 threes and scoring 93 points against Wisconsin (I know that doesn't seem like it adds up, but you're just going to have to take my word for it), OSU struggled shooting in its final game of the season, losing 62-60 to Kentucky in the Sweet 16.

What's the point here? That the game against Wisconsin was an anomaly, even amid the incredible season Ohio State had last year. So was last night's game against Duke. Last night, William Buford shot the worst percentage of any Ohio State player to see the floor (not surprising). He went 8-15. Everyone else was better than that. Sorry, that's not happening again. DeShaun Thomas will not go 8-12 more than one more time this season. The performance, while impressive, is simply not sustainable.

And I'm not just hating because it was Duke that Ohio State beat and I'm mad about it (I am). I've seen the same type of scenario play out at Duke before. I know it can't last. In the 2005-06 season, Duke had one of its greatest regular seasons since I've been alive. Led by J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, Duke went into the NCAA Tournament with 30-3 record and had been unbelievable to watch all year. They had the national player of the year in Redick (averaging 26.8 points per game that year) and the best center in the country in Williams (first team All-American, 18.8 ppg, 10.7 rpg, 3.8 bpg). Around those guys Duke had a bunch of role players who contributed enough on offense and weren't liabilities on defense, so Duke kept winning. If you think about it, that is essentially Ohio State's makeup this year, with them having maybe three big offensive threats (definitely Sullinger and Buford, maybe Craft) and then good rl players. In 05-06, Duke was tearing people apart to start the year, but none of them was like the 97-66 thrashing Duke administered to Texas (ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time) in its ninth game of the season (this was OSU's seventh). I can still remember watching that game and thinking, "Duke is unreal. How are they ever going to lose?" But you know what? They did lose that season. And they never quite looked the same as they did against Texas. Because that was just one of those games where everything was falling. Redick was pulling up in transition from 30 feet away and hitting any shot he took. Williams was unstoppable inside on both ends of the court. It just wasn't the way anyone could possibly play for 35-or-so games in a row.

Here's where the similarities between that Duke team and this Ohio State one get scary. During last night's telecast, Dan Shulman made mention of the fact that with about seven minutes to play, Craft and Buford had not come out of the game, and Sullinger had sat for just a minute. Head coach Thad Matta had only used seven players up to that point. In 05-06, Redick averaged 37 minutes per game and Williams 33 (this number would have been higher if not for Williams' bad habit of getting into foul trouble). Basically, those guys were out there all the time. And by the end of the year? They were worn out. Plain and simple. Redick worked harder than any player I've ever seen to get open. His motor never stopped. by the end of the season though, he didn't have the legs to drain the threes like before. Williams' body had taken a beating for an entire season inside the paint, and it wasn't in the same shape it was months before. That year, Duke had just seven players average more than six minutes a game (sound familiar?). The result was a phenomenal regular season, a 1-1 record against North Carolina, an ACC Tournament Championship, and then a 62-54 loss in the Sweet 16 to Tyrus Thomas, Glen Davis and an energetic LSU team. Duke had completely run out of gas. Those 54 points were the team's lowest offensive output of the season by 10.

There was nothing left in the tank for Duke in 05-06. With the way Aaron Craft never stops hustling, the way Jared Sullinger takes a beating on the interior, and the way William Buford is running around on offense, getting open or creating his own shot, the same will happen to them. The Buckeyes looked as good as a college team can Tuesday night, but if Thad Matta doesn't start giving them some breathers, it will all come to a screeching halt.

College Ball: not as far off as you think!

Among all the hubbub and commotion of pro sports that is going on right now--The World Series, mediation for the NBA Lockout, the NFL season happening--the first rankings for college basketball came out.

Yes, the best sport of them all is sending out the tell-tale signs that its start is closer than we realized. The first college basketball games of the season are actually less than 3 weeks away. As such, we have our rankings. The preseason rankings are rarely a surprise as far as where teams stack up are concerned. Most big college basketball fans know who next year's best teams will be once the day to declare for the NBA Draft has come and gone. Case in point: this year, fans of the schools waited with bated breath to see whether Kyrie Irving, Harrison Barnes and Jared Sullinger would put their names into the NBA draft. Irving did, but Barnes and Sullinger did not. As a result, North Carolina and Ohio State are viewed as top contenders for 2012's crown, and Duke is expected to be good as always, but a step below the country's best teams.

This college basketball season offers and especially exciting prospect, though. Due to the impending (at the time) NBA Lockout, many top college freshman (like Barnes, Sullinger, and UConn star Jeremy Lamb) stuck around for another year. Those guys can spout off about coming back to school because they wanted a championship all they want. Fact is, if not all, the vast majority of them would have bolted for greener pastures (see what I did there?), and justifiably so, if there had not been a lockout looming at the end of the season.

But I'm not complaining about any of that. It's exciting, because for the first time since the NBA disallowed players to enter the draft from high school, we have a chance to see what a couple classes of McDonald's All-Americans can do together. UNC is bringing basically everybody back from last year's team, and adding a couple Mickey D's All-stars in the process. Ohio State is more or less in the same circumstances. I don't like either team, and I can't help but be excited about the prospect. Meanwhile, Kentucky is bringing probably the best recruiting class ever. Their would-have-been sophomore stars Brandon Knight and Terence Jones will be playing pro, but the potential for this team makes your head spin if you think about it for too long.

These three teams, the fact that we are coming off an NCAA Tournament where two mid-major teams proved they were worth taking seriously, and the always tough Dukes, Syracuses, Connecticutts and Kansases of the world mean this is shaping up to be one of the great college basketball seasons of all time. It could be the last season of its kind for quite awhile, assuming the NBA ever solves its lockout (24 hours+ in a 32 span didn't do the trick, I've lost all faith in these guys). It can't get here soon enough. The basketball fan in me is getting restless. The 6-0 Packers and the NHL just aren't going to satiate me for much longer.

Bring on the madness.