Road to the Final Four: Bruce is feeling Sweet in St. Louis

Consider the difference, VCU shoots 41 percent for the season, the Shockers have shot 41 percent or worse in a game just  6 times. In games when they’ve shot better than 41 percent—Wichita State is 26-0.  Opponents are shooting better than 42 percent against VCU, the trick is that the Rams limit possessions by turning the other guy over—now you see the importance of handling the ball in this game.

The Shockers haven’t played a game in 12 days, that didn’t seem to bother them last year—with the same break—in the NIT.  Besides, VCU hasn’t played in 10 days.  They both played Alabama, UAB  and Northern Iowa with similar results, although VCU needed their second best shooting game of the season to beat UNI in a close Bracketbuster game at home.  What I think I hear myself saying—is that I like the Shockers in this matchup, despite what President Obama says.

Watch for a lot of grey and bright yellow shoes on the Shockers tonight.  Who knows, maybe even a different looking uniform, remember we’re in the home town of Nike. 

Wednesday’s press conferences were pretty dull, generally.  Best line of the day went to Long Beach coach Dan Monson who called his team a bunch of ‘southern Cal softy boys’ because they didn’t want to go outside in the rain.  Monson, a childhood friend of mine, told me that he was glad not to have drawn Wichita State.  I like his 49ers over New Mexico, we’ll see.

There’s more than a fair amount of speculation that San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh will be at the Indiana-New Mexico State game tomorrow.   Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean is the brother –in-law to Jim and John Harbaugh(coach of the Baltimore Ravens).

Enjoy the games—the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Tournament may be the best two days of the year in sports.