Just cut the grass and give me my damn money!

I have to admit that I was a bit dissapointed in last night's championship game. This is not to say that it wasn't a good game, capable of holding my attention for a two hour span because it certainly was. I just never got the feeling that UNC was in trouble. Every time that Illinois pulled close, Carolina was able to hit a big shot and stem the tide of momentum that Illinois was steadily building. It was the very embodiement of the old adage about using so much energy to come back that you don't have enough energy left to finish off the comeback. Though this may not have been the case if UNC hadn't sccored off of the horribly out of control, bullshit shot that McCants threw up.

To me it took something away from the game to have it decided (not entirely, but somewhat) on such a bad play. I guess the idealist in me would rather see a game of that level of quality and intensity decided by somebody stepping up and making a defining play, not by somebody getting lucky. Illinois did it's job and forced UNC into an awful shot but still ended up giving up the lead due to Marvin Williams being in the right place at the right time. It was a very good thing for Williams that he only had to tip that ball in because he was clearly unable to do anything else productive on the court. All in all, it was a very entertaining game and Illinois showed a ton of heart to come back against UNC but, as we all saw, May was just too much for anybody that Illinois could throw at him. I have a few more random thoughts about the game that are as follows:

-It had a similar feel to the Syracuse-Kansas game of a couple years ago. One team jumps out to a lead and almost blows it down the stretch but, even as the lead was shrinking, you never really thought that UNC was in danger of losing.

-It's been said already but Illinois took way too many threes. I know that is one of the strengths of their game but so is dribble penetration and Illinois was not nearly aggressive enough off the dribble. The few times that Illinois did look to penetrate, they often were only looking for kick outs and not to challenge the defense which, with May killing you inside, would've been a good idea.

-My girlfriend, of all people, remarked that James Augustine must've been "too eager" last night and that is why he was committing dumb fouls and was unable to stay on the floor. I must admit that I was pretty impressed with that observation.

-Dee Brown completely disappeared last night. I can't even remember him doing anything on the offensive end for the last ten minutes or so. Honestly, by the end of the game, Luther Head looked like the only person who wasn't afraid to take a big shot. As a result of this, Head appeared really worn down by the end of the game. So much so, that I would've drawn up a play for Williams or Brown at some point and forced them to make a play, if only to give Head a bit of a break.

-My girlfriend also commented that "there isn't a good looking guy on either damn team". As you can probably imagine, I was much less impressed with this observation than her earlier one.

-If Illinois had pulled out the win, Jack Ingram would have gone down as a mythical type folk hero in the annals of Illinois basketball. It was impressive to see an unheralded reserve accept the challenge like he did and not shrink from it like so many regulars (on both teams) did.

- I was contemplating suicide at one point in the second half, if only because it would've spared me from having to hear Billy Packer yell about how great the screens that Illinois was setting were. I mean, Jesus, we get it...Illinois is setting great screens! Do we really need to hear about it every single time that they come down the floor? I don't think I've hear anybody say the word screen that often in my life, much less in the span of two hours. It's as if he was getting paid every time he could work the word screen into the broadcast. If that IS the case, then I'm all for what went down last night because that means that Billy is now able to retire and we can watch the Final Four in peace. Actually, knowing our luck, CBS will probably go ahead and hire Steve Lavin.

-One last thing: I didn't win the pool that is run by my sister, which is to bad since the prize was $240 ($10 per entry), but I did take top honors in the grounds crew pool here at the stadium which will payout at $85 ($5 per entry) and that's a nice bonus. More than the money I'm just really looking forward to talking smack to the members of our grounds crew from now until September.