Quickish Day 5 recap: A fond farewell to Jimmer Fredette
Quickish is a new quick-hit, real-time service that tips you off to the best analysis of the biggest stories in sports. From Quickish's editors, here is a selection of the best proclamations and exclamations coming off Thursday night's Sweet 16 games:
There was no lack of storylines Thursday night, mostly stemming from the star wattage: Derrick Williams detroyed Duke. Kemba Walker carried UConn. But the biggest spotlight was on "The Jimmer" -- BYU uber-star Jimmer Fredette. As it turns out, he was hassled and hounded by Florida into an erratic shooting night... and a tournament exit.
Sometimes, you can sum up an entire game -- an entire career -- in a single, pithy sentiment. Just after Thursday night's final horn, that was achieved:
*You live by the Jimmer, you die by the Jimmer.
(Yahoo! Sports' Chris Chase)
But not before Jimmer caused Twitter to meltdown after he hit that jaw-dropping 30-foot three that seemingly gave BYU all the momentum back:
"I can't believe what I just saw."... "OH JIMMER OH JIMMER OH JIMMER"... "I let a four-letter word go as soon as Jimmer pulled up"... "WOW. We'll see that shot for a while."... "Jimmer 1-1 from Provo"... "Jimmer! From the third row! Yes!"... "Jimmer, jeez"... "I feel like Jimmer has gone from amazing to overhyped to underappreciated. That was a bomb"... "Shades of Pete Maravich!"... "Screw defense. THAT'S why Jimmer has a future"... "I agree... What a shot!" {YSP:MORE}
(via, in order: RushTheCourt, The Daily's Dan Wolken, SBNation's Andy Hutchins, NYT's Pete Thamel and KSK's Mike Tunison, SolidVerbal's Dan Rubenstein, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski, PTI, Tom Penders, DailyThunder's Royce Young and Tim Tebow.)
But, ultimately, Jimmer missed a lot more than he made, and the backlash began:
*Funny how terrible Jimmer looks when he's not quite playing Jimmer. Suddenly he's just a dude taking 35-footers and hollering at refs.
The Awl's David Roth
In the end, it's OK to feel conflicted:
*Jimmer a great college player, but he couldn't guard a bank with a machine gun. Guys going by him at will. He had a GREAT year, though.
(ESPN's Jay Bilas)
*The Jimmer has left the dance, and the entire nation will miss him. I'm going to miss him, too. Just not his defense.
(FoxSports.com's Jeff Goodman)
And then there was the Duke.
No single college basketball game brings together an otherwise fractured universe of sports fans like Duke losing in the NCAA tournament (particularly when the Blue Devils are favored to win, let alone the defending champs).
Duke getting bounced is the nation's "Rivalry Game," where everyone -- except Duke fans -- is rooting for them to lose. It's not unfair to say that next to your own team winning a championship, watching Duke routed to end its season is many fans' -- perhaps most fans' -- favorite college basketball game of the year. It's not mean-spirited; on the contrary, it is unifying.
It creates a phenomenon that can only properly be dubbed "Scha-Duke-freude." And it was on full display both during and after Arizona throttled Duke into submission:
This sums it up
*It was like basketball porn for most of America. A train wreck at the worst time possible for the team that everyone loves to hate. Nothing unites sports fans quite like Duke basketball getting the crap kicked out of it; it wasn't just that they lost, though. They lost like that.
(SBNation's Andrew Sharp
The Duke metaphor
*The way Duke coaches react in unison to everything and get in players' faces is very Cobra Kai-esque.
(ESPN's Arash Markazi)
From "X-Factor" to "L-Factor"
*Remember when it was announced that Kyrie was back and everybody said we had to adjust our brackets? This is not what those people meant.
(CBS's Gary Parrish)
Arizona Was Fearless
*It was, frankly, remarkable. The Wildcats attacked and attacked and attacked. They never relented. Williams was unstoppable inside and out, and his mid-air acrobatics were beautiful to behold.
(ESPN's Eamonn Brennan)
Parody, but sort of reality
*The Duke Blue Devils were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night, bringing the 2011 tournament to an early — but wildly successful — end.
SportsPickle's DJ Gallo)
More random reactions from throughout the night:
More Derrick(!) Williams(!), Part 1:
No Derrick Williams no Derrick Williams OH NO DERRICK WILLIAMS. That. Was. Insane.
(ESPN's Eamonn Brennan)
More Derrick(!) Williams(!), Part 2:
Derrick Williams looks like Blake Griffin dunking over a bunch of toddlers on a Little Tykes hoop. Complete interior domination by Arizona.
(Yahoo! Sports' Brad Evans)
Derrick(!) Williams(!), Part K:
"He's as good as anybody we've played, or I should say better than anybody we've played. Even when he's not scoring, he spreads you out. There is a physicality to his game. Clean, beautiful -- he's a beautiful player."
(Duke's Mike Krzyzewski)
Oh, and Kemba Walker Was Pretty Good, Too:
iPhone desperately wants to turn 'kemba' into 'kebab' so just roll with it if I say stuff like 'kebab is unreal'.
(ESPN's Gabe Goodwin)
And don't forget about Butler, only rolling towards a second straight Final Four
Maybe Butler's Final Four win over Michigan State last year was more than just another national semifinal win.
(CBSSports.com's Jeff Borzello)
The Last Word
*Butler* is one very winnable game from back-to-back Final Fours. How do you not root for that?
(SI's Joe Sheehan)
For more -- both from Thursday and Friday's games and throughout the NCAA tournament, check out Quickish for quick-hit, real-time updates of the best tournament commentary from all the best sources.
