Did Oversized Balls Lead To Alabama’s Tourney Loss In Louisville?
Tom Brady where are you?
I know this sounds like an excuse after a shocking loss to a lower seed (again).
However, you must admit, we sure picked a strange time to go ice cold from beyond the 3-point line.
We took 27 shots from 3-point range against San Diego State on Friday.
We missed 24 of them.
C'mon man. That seems a bit ridiculous to this reporter.
That was the lowest 3-point percentage in February or March.
In fact, the only other game all season with a similar result was on January 21 vs. Missouri, in an 85-64 win.
According to a CBS News report, an NCAA conspiracy theory is blaming over-inflated basketball for all the #1 seeds being upset and knocked out of the tournament.
Jeff Goodman has been tweeting about it for a few days.
CBS says that some NCAA coaches, like Alabama and Nate Oats, say the oversized balls explain the brutal shooting performance against San Diego St.
Now, Oats also made it clear that the San Diego St. defense was a bigger reason to blame for the loss than the basketball size.
A recent report from the Associated Press had this response from Coach Nate Oats:
“We’ve kind of had the discussion as a staff,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said Thursday. “You can pump up any ball to be too hard. It would be great if the referees actually made sure it was within the guidelines of how hard it’s supposed to be because, obviously, if you pump it up to where it’s a rock, you’re not going to shoot as well.”
It just seems like something that could happen in modern athletics, in my opinion.
The thinking is, get rid of all the "blue bloods" like Alabama, Kansas, Houston and Purdue.
Make a cinderella story for tv ratings with San Diego St., Florida Atlantic and Princeton, to name a few.
It is hard for me to completely accept that Brandon Miller and the rest of the team suddenly became such awful shooters in the Sweet Sixteen.
Then again, it's hard for me to accept that our Crimson Tide, the #1 overall seed, is out of the March Madness tournament.
And, with it, our best chance at an appearance in the Final Four.