Texas in the end takes care of business, but let Oakland hang around with a shot longer than intended. Texas has always been an inconsistent team under coach Rick Barnes, who's startegy is to simply accumulate talent and hope it meshes together. Guy's a terrific recruiter, but not the best in-game coach. They'll usually take care of business, but won't usually go much further than the chalk says they should.
I like Bruce Pearl, and I like their run-and-gun style, but if you're an athletic director, and you are hoping to have a good tournament, you don't publicly say that your coach's job security is uncertain two days before your first tournament game. As soon as I saw that I couldn't fill in Michigan's name quickly enough in my bracket. You don't create chaos if you're hoping for a strong showing, that's just assinine. This leads me to believe they wanted to fire Pearl and were hoping to avoid a strong showing that might lead to public support being too high to do so.
ANd while I like Pearl and his personality, I won't shed any tears for him if/when he is fired (A 30-point loss should bring the axe quickly). He lied to NCAA investigators, that should be a fireable offense. Giving coaches like him and Jim Tressel a slap on the wrist says, break all the rules you want, just win. I'm not naive, and college athletics is big business, but I believe there's a difference between walking the line between just complying and just not complying, and lying (or pretending it away, in Tressel's case) when confronted with accusations.
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