Give them nothing! But take from them everything!

Elsewhere in the universe, where basketball that really counts (and is shown on television) is taking place, I misread that Michigan State-Marquette match-up badly. Really badly. I thought Marquette's Dominic James would make a significant difference in the game. I guess I wasn't entirely wrong on that. MSU only allowed James to score 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting, which certainly made a difference.

And of those six shots James made, four of them were three-pointers, and that was most definitely the story of the game. Marquette was missing their second-leading scorer, but would it really have mattered? That was one of the most suffocating half-court defenses I've ever seen. The Spartans only allowed five two-point baskets. For the entire game.

If you've seen 300, there were several scenes in which King Leonidas' soldiers formed an impenetrable wall (or phalanx) with their shields and spears during battle. That's pretty much what happened last night in Winston-Salem. It was The Hot Gates all over again.

There was barely a sliver of a lane for the Marquette players to drive through. I actually began to feel sorry for them as guards and forwards tried to dribble to the basket only to have to turn back to the three-point line in frustration. In Tom Izzo's world, friends don't let friends drive to the basket. If that's what he did to his buddy Tom Crean, imagine what Izzo must do to his enemies. Take a seat next to Lupe for the rest of the weekend, Coach.

▪▪ Meanwhile, I know the rest of yesterday's NCAA Tournament games weren't that exciting. But I still botched a couple of my upset picks. Neither Davidson or Gonzaga beat their higher-seeded opponents. Sure, I got VCU right, but didn't (almost) everybody pick that one? It was still fun to watch.

▪▪ It has to be a sure sign I'm getting old when every time the cameras showed VCU coach Anthony Grant, I kept thinking, "Wow, he looks young." However, he is actually older. While that might make me feel better, tomorrow I will get bombed with green beer in a semi-pathetic attempt to hold onto what remains of my youth. Maybe I'll watch Grant's Rams play Pitt while I'm doing that.