Joey Rodriguez

I figured I'd give the guy some props by using his first name. It's kind of a tacit sign of respect when I use guy's first name (I'll yell at Nolan all the time the whole game like I'm there). I know I've written a ton about VCU already, but it's a compelling storyline!

I've been telling the people around me for a week the Rodriguez is for real, and if you look back, I've thought since the USC game that VCU's drive and dish game was impressive (though I didn't mention Joey by name). But so far, he has been a great story this tourney, and if they top KU, I'm looking at potential player of the tourney, depending on what Kemba does. As far as great players left in the tourney, I don't trust Barnes, Sullinger is out, and I really believe the best individual players left are Joey and Kemba, with Butler's Mack as a distant third. These are guys that I'm terrified of if I'm the opposition.

I know that I just harped on Coach Cal, and I still think the basketball gods will strike him down. They've waited for a while, but I believe he'll go down. But I love the last play for Brandon Knight. Didn't call a timeout: if you need a timeout to set up a game-winning situation, you haven't done your job. I am a big fan of cutting the number of timeouts to three per half. Think about it. If all timeouts are called each half (including the automatic TV timeouts), you would stop the clock less than every two minutes, which ruins the flow of the game. I know a lot of timeouts are "saved" for later, but why have a flow to the game only to throw it out the window in the clutch?

Anyway, I loved the no timeout, trust your guys philosophy, even if it comes from Cal. The guy is still a smart guy.