Posted by Jordi

Guest post by Jordi Scrubbings of The Serious Tip

Well, that was disappointing, although not completely surprising.

I’d like to say that the moment I heard the Seminoles were a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament I prepared myself. I think I read something earlier this tournament that said the 12-seed upset is among the most common in tournament history. This year, of course, was no different.

Besides the Wisconsin-Florida State match-up, three out of four 5 vs 12 games this year ended in an upset. Arizona beat Utah and Western Kentucky defeated Illinois; only Purdue survived their match-up against number 12 Northern Iowa.

But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t disappointed last night.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t wishing for one more Toney Douglas miracle.

The bottom line is Wisconsin played well. There is no doubting that. It was far from the prettiest game and Wisconsin upset the Florida State gameplan and rhythm all night. Although Douglas had 26, it was almost as if Wisconsin had locked the rest of the team in their hotel rooms. Outside of Chris Singleton’s 12, there was little contribution offensively from Douglas’s supporting cast.

Let’s run through the numbers of the M.I.A.:

Solomon Alabi: 20 minutes, 6 points. He was the recipient of a great assist by Derwin Kitchen in the first minute and then became invisible.

Jordan DeMercy: zero field goal attempts in 22 minutes. 1 point off a free-throw. Now I know a lot has been made in pro basketball circles about players like the Houston Rockets’ Shane Battier, who don’t put up numbers but their intangibles and their ability to be at the right place at the right time and stifle the other team lead to wins. But honestly, I don’t think Jordan DeMercy is the college version of Shane Battier. Zero field goal attempts, two assists, and one steal in 22 minutes is a little ridiculous.

Uche Echefu: Zero points in 18 minutes. Honestly, Echefu has been a role player for the Noles since Day 1. But still, in what was his last game in a Seminole uniform, I have to wonder if he thinks he did enough.

Deividas Dulkys: Zero points in 19 minutes. Zero for four in shot attempts. Now I am not saying Dulkys should have kept shooting until he hit something. He was not a main scoring option. Getting to the line once or twice might have been nice though.

Add all these up (6 points in 78 minutes, by the way), and it is obvious there was a lack of offensive performance on the part of a number of Seminoles. I am not saying they dogged it, nor am I saying they failed to live up to expectation. Wisconsin just took them out of their plan and the Noles had no other options than to hitch the reigns to Toney Douglas and see how far they go. Sadly, that was same strategy they had when Al Thorton was a Nole (which does lead me to think it may be coaching, but that is a post for another day).

Despite the underperformances, despite the fact that the refs may have knocked the Noles off their rhythm early in the game, despite the fact that the Wisconsin circus shot at the end seemed mysteriously guided by a divine hand (a.k.a. “luck”), there is nothing to be down about.  With the exception of Uche Echefu, most of last night’s invisible Seminoles were freshmen.

They will be better and we will be back.

Before I go, I would like to thank NoleCC and Bill From Tampa for the opportunity to talk basketball on ScalpEm this season. You guys made a great season even more fun. Thanks.