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PAC UP FOR VACATION

The “hang dawg” look.

Washington, Holiday won’t be observed in Elite Eight, as Pac-10’s furthest travelers get re-routed back to Seattle

A Husky Cinderella would never do — The glass slipper would never fit.  But the label of hothead may fit UW Coach Lorenzo Romar to a T (or not).  Romar picked up a Technical Foul after Referees screwed up a foul call in West Virginia’s favor, and the ensuing 4 Free Throws gave the Mountaineers a 13-point lead with 8:11 to go, their largest lead of the game.

Romar insists that he did it to fire up his lethargic team, who led for most of the 1st Half and by 2 at Halftime, but had gone cold in the 2nd.  The Huskies even had one possession where they missed 5 consecutive put-backs.  And even with all those Rebounds, they still got out-Boarded for the game by 20.  Obviously, Romar’s strategy and prayer failed, because even with WVU missing its Starting Point Guard due to injury, and even with UW’s 3rd-option Justin Holiday tallying 14 points and 8 Rebounds, the Mountaineers cruised to a 69-56 victory, and a date with Kentucky.

#1 UK had just a little trouble with #12 Cornell, who closed the gap to 6 with 5 minutes to go, but Kentucky pulled away again, mostly at the Line, 62-45.  The other #1 seed in action wasn’t so lucky.  Syracuse lost a see-saw battle with Butler, 63-59.  But the best game of the day, and maybe of the year, was #6 Xavier going down in Double-Overtime to #2 Kansas State.  Three times Xavier came back from being 3 down in the closing seconds of regulation and the OT’s, before failing to do it one more time with 17 seconds left in the second O.T., as K-State finally held on, 101-96. 

This game showed why it is risky to try to foul a guy before he tries to hit a game-tying Three.  When KSU tried this game-protecting Defensive strategy at the end of regulation, the Musketeer ballhandler managed to get a 3-point shot up right after the foul was committed, and the Refs called it a shooting foul.  He made all three, sending the game into its first O.T.

I don’t like Intentional fouls at all, and think it’s kind of Bush League when you don’t really HAVE to commit one.  Just play good Defense — Don’t foul, so that a guy can heave one up right after the foul and put it in the hands of the Officials.  Even though they won, fouling to avoid a 3 burned KSU — Maybe other Coaches will now avoid the same tactic, knowing that every shooter is now definitely going to fire up a shot the first microsecond that he hears a whistle start to blow.  Of course, all the Pac-10 Coaches will have plenty of time to think about it, since they are now, all on Spring Break.Who knocked the Dawgs out?  Wvu, wvu, wvu.

"PAC UP FOR VACATION" was published on March 26th, 2010 and is listed in Non-Rivalry News, UCLA/usc/Cheerleader Photos.

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