Recent content by CouchsideSteve

The excitement of the transfer portal made it feel like the 2021-22 season never ended -- it simply rolled over to the now-much-anticipated 2022-23 vintage. Everyone goes off to enjoy their summer, then we resume the march in the fall (no pun intended). Why look back, when every solitary...

I haven’t posted since the Sweet 16 game, just because I haven’t been ready to say goodbye to the season. But my word, the talent infusion in Apr is unlike anything we’ve seen. Andy Katz says we’re now top 20 for next season.

What a group. More thoughts to follow, but I’ll really miss these kids.

I went to Buffalo as mentioned upthread, and thought I was going to be too tired to swing another trip. But if you can afford it and make it work, these kids deserve the support — so I’m going and I guess will catch up on sleep Sunday. Figure I’m taking a seat from a likely Jayhawks fan.

Flew from Hartford to Buffalo with a connection at DCA. Outbound flight was delayed, so we juuuuuuuust made it onto the second leg. Luck of the Friars indeed. Both of my Lyft drivers have mentioned seeing a lot of Friars in town this weekend. Small school, big heart. LFG.

It wasn’t pretty, but per ESPN we were never below 70% win probability in the second half. Watson doesn’t look 100%, but Croswell stepped in with 9 rebounds — a few coming in big spots. Minaya held SDSU’s leading scorer mostly in check, and Durham-Bynum-Horchler made enough baskets to pull it...

Thanks for sharing. This made me feel a little better. Oddly, I have zero doubt that the newer guys — Minaya, Durham & Bynum — are going to show up strong. I’m more worried about Reeves being banged up again, and that Watson will refuse to pass out of double-teams and get frustrated/stifled. LFG.

Wouldn’t Occam’s razor suggest he just changed his mind? All else equal, he’d love to play forever, but knows he’s balancing family demands and a desire to go out before he starts to suck. He read the tea leaves, saw the team was heading for cap issues and likely roster turnover, and figured it...

I don’t love playing a team that leads the nation in 3pt shooting, of course. But none of the 13 seeds are really pushovers: Vermont: Ranked 59 in KenPom and clearly the best of the bunch, who we were ineligible to play Round 1 by virtue of our regular season matchup S. Dakota St: Ranked 71 in...

We got demolished tonight. See first bullet under “Reasons for Doubt” — literally in control through 12 minutes, then run out of the gym over the last 28. Better now than next week, but woof.

Stressful game yesterday. For as clutch as this team has been late, I thought Butler had us nailed. New day, and a new opponent. I’ll be at MSG tonight. What a time to be a Friars fan. This group is special. Edit: Have a bit of time on my commute, so adding some self-scouting… Reasons to Be...

I’ll just add, the mental toughness to go from down 17 on the road against Butler in the second half to outlasting Xavier in a 3 OT battle to blowing out Creighton tonight… all in the course of 7 days. Incredible.

Incredible season. Can’t say enough about this group of kids and, of course, Ed Cooley. But miles to go before we sleep, and miles to go before we sleep.

Folks, these kids are incredible. There were so many inflection points where they could have folded and they refused. Tough, smart. Just so proud. Let’s win the school’s first ever regular season Big East title at home on Saturday.

The defense was shit tonight. Could’ve shot better from 3, but you don’t expect to score 90 against Nova. They missed a switch on the Gillespie 3 that iced the game and that was emblematic of the entire night. Plenty of heart and hustle, but not too much adrenaline and not enough savvy.