Your best player is having a subpar night? No problem — Just download Adams, Powell, and Parker, and you will thrive and survive
4th-seeded UCLA played #13th seed Tulsa on Friday night in San Diego, in what’s called the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. Bruin fans were not worried going in, as a 9-point favorite, because they knew they could rely on Super-Soph Point Guard/Power Forward Kyle Anderson to carry them in times of trouble. But on this night, it wasn’t Anderson who came through — It was Jordan Adams, Norman Powell, and Tony Parker.
It’s not like Anderson didn’t contribute to the eventual 76-59 victory. He did tally 8 Points, 6 Rebounds, 6 Assists, and 4 Steals. But he missed 8 of 11 shots and turned the ball over 5 times. That unexpected ordinary-ness allowed the Golden Hurricane to stay close to the Bruins, despite shooting only 37% from the field themselves. They were down by only 5 at Halftime, 35-30. The Bruins came out inspired in the Second Half and built the lead up to 14, but the valiant Tulsa team cut the lead down to 5 with about 5 minutes to go.
But another Bruin surge, led by Powell and Adams, put the game away. Powell had consecutive steals and a breakaway three-point play that was the real turning point. Powell ended with 15 Points, 4 Rebounds, and 3 Steals. Adams led the way with 21 Points, and added 8 Boards and 4 Assists. His scoring punch from inside and out kept the Bruins in the lead. Also controlling the inside was Parker, who got 6 big Rebounds, and was actually effective getting the ball in the basket, scoring an unusual (for him) 11 Points. Bryce Alford also hit a big shot that sparked the final surge.
Don’t let the final score fool you — This did not feel like a 17-point win. Tulsa was very much alive 35 minutes into the40-minute game. The Bruins will have to play more inspired to beat Stephen F. Austin, who came back furiously to upset VCU. And it would help if Zach Lavine could add more than 2 Points to the scoring column. Zach went 1-5 from the floor, with his lone bucket being a lay-up.
The biggest upset of the day was Duke getting beat by Mercer. Duke was a 3-seed, and got beat by 7 Points in basically a Home Game, to the lowly 14th seed Bears. With that major blow, no one is alive for Warren Buffett’s Billion Dollar Bracket, and no one has a perfect bracket in the ESPN contest either, out of tens of thousands of entries.
Anything can happen in March Madness — And the Bruins will need to remember that heading into their match-up with 12th-seeded SFA on Sunday. And hopefully, Anderson isn’t nursing a sore knee that was banged up against Arizona — It was probably just an off night. I fully expect him to lead the charge against the Lumberjacks, cutting them down with his normal dead-eye shooting.
Comments
One response to “There’s an A-P-P for that!”
Not only did it not feel like a 17-pt win, it also felt ominously like the first game of the Washington trip–winning a tougher-than-it-should’ve-been game despite a subpar (lay-up missing, rebound fumbling, easy 3 allowing) performance, leading to a false sense of security heading into a game with a lower-seeded team that could make its season (if not its history) with an upset….Maybe it’s time to watch that tape of the WSU game, to remind the players what can happen when you think all you have to do is show up.
And S F Austin is much better than WSU–I don’t care what league you’re in, if you win 29 games in a row, you are a serious basketball team. The Bruins better bring their A game, and be ready to hustle for all 40 minutes, or they’re liable to blow what is shaping up to be a golden opporunity to make an epic run.