This is the best tourney in College Hoops except for March Madness of course, but there have been some great games played in this tourney thus far. Iowa has beaten both Louisville and Texas; both ranked in the top 15, and Tennessee beat Stanford by 10+. It looks like it will be an Iowa-North Carolina matchup. Can Iowa pull their 3rd straight upset...We'll have to wait and see!
That was an awesome ending in the Texas-Iowa game! Pierre Pierce drained the long range three pointer and then Iowa made a couple of free throws and pulled off the upset. Great game if anyonbe saw it.
North Carolina just beat Tennessee 94-81, and will move on to play Iowa in the final game tomorrow... I'm going with NC in this one. Just too powerful for this Iowa defense...
I'm hoping Iowa can knock off UNC. That'd be an amazing run that'd be hard for anyone to match. Back-to-back-to-back defeats of top 15 opponents, that'd be great. Though, I'm worried because of the injury to Pierre. If he's not able to go tomorrow night, Iowa could be in some BIG trouble.
I am looking forward to this game, I think it will be a surprise good game, going down to the final minutes, (meaning not a 10+ point blowout). Pierri Pierce who I haven't heard of before the Maui Invitational is having an outstanding run. But UNC's starting lineup of Mccants, Felton, Marv, and May will be too hard for the Iowa defense to contain, all players have the tools to go out and score 25-30 each night. Prediction: UNC - 91 Iowa - 85 GO HEELS!
UNC will win. Pierce needs to improve drastically on his decision making. The decisions he makes are horrible. Bad passes, pulling up for jumpers on a fastbreak, intentionally fouling when yuo have your center right behind you ready to block the shot, bad shot selection, etc. If he can improve, Iowa would be much better. And Iowa needs to improve at the FT line. They've been shooting horrible from the line. I'm still pissed they beat my Cardinals.
Will Pierce even play? He went down with that ankle, at the last second. Stupid injury, and they will pay for that injury. I look for David Noel to have a big game, no one on this Iowa team has the athleticness to match up with him. He will definitely make the highlight reels. UNC won't have too many problems tonight, they will slide by with a victory. UNC- 94 Iowa- 84 UNC Leaders: Points- Rashad McCants 27 Rebounds- David Noel 11 Assists- Raymond Felton 12 Player of the Game: I look forward to seeing David Noel(my favorite TarHeel) shine in this game. I expect him to put up 19-11-5, and he will be the key for the Heels.
Why did everyone underrate Iowa? When I did my preseason top 25 a while back I had them around #19 or #20. As for the North Carolina game, North Carolina is lucky. They have not played one tough team thus far in the invitational. They could have had to play Stanford and Louisville/Texas. Instead, they've had to play nothing but cupcakes: BYU, Tennessee, and Iowa. Make no mistake, Iowa when fully healthy is a top 25 program, but it looks like they'll be without Pierce, they're best player. It just makes me sick that Pierce likely won't be around to drill North Carolina. Still, I don't expect North Carolina to run away with this one. I expect them to win by about four points. However, if Pierce can somehow play, I expect Iowa to win by six or seven points. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Pierri Pierce who I haven't heard of before the Maui Invitational is having an outstanding run.</div> Are you kidding me? You hadn't heard about Pierre Pierce? I've been raving about him all year in this forum. Don't you remember that one thread "Rank Your Top Guards" or something like that? I had Pierce 5th over Felton. How about the thread I had where I listed the four most underrated players in the NCAA? Well, here's what I said about Pierce - "4.Pierre Pierce - Iowa - Pierre Pierce attended Iowa for his Freshman season. He earned All Big Ten Freshman honors and he had a very bright future. This all changed later that summer when Pierce was charged with third-degree sexual assault, and then pleaded guilty to the lesser assault charge. Pierce spent time in jail and was forced to sit out his Sophomore season at Iowa. Pierre is a 6-4 Point Guard who is shockingly similar to Allen Iverson. He is very quick, fast, and athletically gifted. Before I learned about his assault charges I was ranting and raving about how Pierre Pierce would be the 2003 College Player of the Year. If Pierce gets cleared to play this year, which might be unlikely, he should be an All-American." Pierce is the catalyst to the Iowa offense and their best all-around player. If they don't have him today, it'll be extremely hard to win.
I wouldn't have had him in my top 5, like J-Roc said, he makes to many iffy ecisions. He got lucky last night with his three that he hit against Texas to give them a one point lead. About 5 minutes a game it looks like he has no idea what, or when to do stuff. He needs to improve his playmaking skills.
Pierre will be a huge loss for this Iowa team, but they still have Jeff Horner who has been playing great. Greg Brunner is going to have to step it up down low, and shut down the Heels big men if the Hawkeyes want to pull another upset. They'll give the Heels a good game, but I just don't think they can win without star player Pierre Pierce.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post"> Are you kidding me? You hadn't heard about Pierre Pierce? I've been raving about him all year in this forum. Don't you remember that one thread "Rank Your Top Guards" or something like that? I had Pierce 5th over Felton. How about the thread I had where I listed the four most underrated players in the NCAA? Well, here's what I said about Pierce - "4.Pierre Pierce - Iowa - Pierre Pierce attended Iowa for his Freshman season. He earned All Big Ten Freshman honors and he had a very bright future. This all changed later that summer when Pierce was charged with third-degree sexual assault, and then pleaded guilty to the lesser assault charge. Pierce spent time in jail and was forced to sit out his Sophomore season at Iowa. Pierre is a 6-4 Point Guard who is shockingly similar to Allen Iverson. He is very quick, fast, and athletically gifted. Before I learned about his assault charges I was ranting and raving about how Pierre Pierce would be the 2003 College Player of the Year. If Pierce gets cleared to play this year, which might be unlikely, he should be an All-American." Pierce is the catalyst to the Iowa offense and their best all-around player. If they don't have him today, it'll be extremely hard to win.</div> I was being sarcastic (spelling?), sure I have heard of him but you usually never hear anything about him, from TV Broadcasters or in the newspaper, maybe because he is in Iowa (nothing against Iowa but they are unranked). I was reading a preview magazine while waiting in a store and it mentioned Pierce's name only once. Maybe sitting out his Sophmore season effected his reputation. I just learned about his sexual assault charge though, never thought about it but these guys are on the top of the world and then next thing you know they are sitting in jail somewhere.
We win our game, Louisville that is. Dean played AMAZING dropping 30. It was a slow start but we opened it up and won by 15 against Stanford.
Iowa really let me down in the North Carolina game. They just couldn't get Pierce and Horner involved. Did anyone else notice how it seemed that everytime that Pierce or Horner took a shot it was right on the money, but they only got half the shots they'd normally get because of UNC's defense? The UNC defense was amazing. With their perimeter game shut down and no serious options down low, Iowa was bound to fall hard. Anyway, I still expect them to be a top 25 team after beating Louisville and Texas. BTW - How about that reverse layup by Pierce? That looked like something you'd see Jordan or Kobe do. He was amazing playing on a bad ankle. He came right out and hit back to back threes, but then he was just shut down by the Tarheel defense.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Iowa really let me down in the North Carolina game. They just couldn't get Pierce and Horner involved. Did anyone else notice how it seemed that everytime that Pierce or Horner took a shot it was right on the money, but they only got half the shots they'd normally get because of UNC's defense? The UNC defense was amazing. With their perimeter game shut down and no serious options down low, Iowa was bound to fall hard. Anyway, I still expect them to be a top 25 team after beating Louisville and Texas. BTW - How about that reverse layup by Pierce? That looked like something you'd see Jordan or Kobe do. He was amazing playing on a bad ankle. He came right out and hit back to back threes, but then he was just shut down by the Tarheel defense.</div> Yeah, I agree. Iowa really let me down too; Definitely could've played better than they did, but oh, well, they had a great run... Yeah, that reverse layup was sweet! Kinda did remind of Jordon a bit...
Yea, Hawks disappointed me as well. I was really hoping for an Iowa win, seeing as how they had momentum coming off back to back wins against top 15 teams. But, it wasn't meant to happen. They eventually would have the nice run they had come to an end. Too bad they couldn't have knocked off UNC though. That'd been amazing. Three straight wins over the top 15. Nonetheless, I'd be hard pressed not to see Iowa in the Top 25 after knocking off Louisville and Texas. It'd be robbery if they're not up their in my opinion.
I don't think their back to back wins against top 15 teams were just luck. I think they're a top 15 team as well but just didn't know how to handle North Carolina's perimeter defense. Usually about 90% of their offense comes from Pierce or Horner, but neither one could get an open shot or a look at a good pass. BTW - The broadcasters kept talking about McCant's bad image when Roy benched him for taunting Pierce. However, I've never heard of him having a bad image before. What's all this about?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't think their back to back wins against top 15 teams were just luck. I think they're a top 15 team as well but just didn't know how to handle North Carolina's perimeter defense. Usually about 90% of their offense comes from Pierce or Horner, but neither one could get an open shot or a look at a good pass. BTW - The broadcasters kept talking about McCant's bad image when Roy benched him for taunting Pierce. However, I've never heard of him having a bad image before. What's all this about?</div> Yea, I never said it was luck, I just said it had to come to an end. And I agree, if Iowa is healthy, they could easily be top 15. With players like Jeff Horner, Pierre Pierce, Greg Brunner, etc., they have the capability of being great this year. But, it seems far too often that we say this and than they falter. Hopefully that's not the case this year and they play great ball all year.
That fastbreak behind the back lay-up by Felton was sick I must say, UNC are very exciting to watch. What are they averaging the last 3 games? around 95 points per game?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllNet:</div><div class="quote_post">That fastbreak behind the back lay-up by Felton was sick I must say, UNC are very exciting to watch. What are they averaging the last 3 games? around 95 points per game?</div> I don't know that, but I do now that Michigan State is averaging 104 points per game.
