And Then There Were Four

Points are getting hard to come by, but the leaders managed to find them in droves. Meanwhile, Avillo made a hard charge to the middle of the pack. Competition for the third and fourth spots is fierce, with as many as nine still alive for money. Two-man race for the grand prize, with Schwartz hoping that Mario Chalmers can maintain his 21-point lead over Giaquinto, who has Derrick Rose and Sherron Collins left.

Here are your totals:

Round of Eight Scoring
1. Schwartz 73
2. Avillo 52
3. Giaquinto 44
4. Flynn 41
5. Strange 34
6. Illfelder 31
7. Chlarson 26
7. Ormiston 26
9. Beaver 24
9. Hill 24
11. Lang 22
12. Ott 17
13. Steinkemper 13
13. Moeser 13
15. Dusty 12
16. Wagner 5
17. Riley 0
17. Peckham 0

Overall Standings
1. Schwartz 379 (Chalmers)
2. Giaquinto 358 (Rose, Collins)
3. Lang 267 (Rush)
4. Dusty 264 (out)
5. Ott 262 (out)
6. Illfelder 259 (Hansbrough)
6. Strange 259 (Kaun)
8. Beaver 244 (Love)
9. Hill 238 (Lawson, Ginyard)
10. Avillo 235 (Douglas-Roberts, Mata)
11. Flynn 231 (Collison, Thompson)
12. Riley 229 (Robinson)
13. Chlarson (217) (Westbrook, Jackson)
14. Ormiston 212 (Ellington, Moute)
15. Steinkemper 198 (Green, Dozier)
16. Peckham 192 (out)
17. Moeser 191 (Arthur)
18. Wagner 160 (Shipp)

All Harrick-Neuheisel Round of 8 Team
Stephen Curry, Davidson 25 (Schwartz)
Derrick Rose, Memphis 21 (Giaquinto)
Tyler Hansbrough UNC 28 (Illfelder)
Chris Douglas-Roberts 25 Memphis (Avillo)
Kevin Love/Darren Collison 19 UCLA (Beaver, Flynn)

Sincerely,
Walt Hazzard
Tournament Pit Boss

Quick Harrick Update

Before Buffet staffwriter CMoeser provides the comprehensive update, here's a quick look.

Harrick Update

An exciting two-man race developing down the stretch -- Super Delegates may have to decide this one. Another strong showing by Schwartz, catapulted by Stephen Curry, makes the Old Town Scottsdale resident the favorite.

Is it any surprise that the two teams drafted by Moeser -- Moeser and Avillo -- stand in 16th and 17th place? Last year was clearly an aberration. My apologies to Mr. Avillo.

Wagner's Stanford strategy blew up. The Lopez sisters and Trent "The Eagle" Johnson simply weren't enough.

Finally, some news on prize money. Due to the additional interest in the Harrick this season, we're adding a 4th Prize. Here's the breakdown:

First -- $200
Second -- $100
Third -- $40
Fourth -- $20


See you after the Round of Eight.

Sincerely,
Todd Bozeman
Harrick Tournament Comptroller

Sweet 16 Scoring:
1. Schwartz 97
2. Lang 69
3. Giaquinto 68
4. Riley 59
5. Strange 53
6. Beaver 49
7. Avillo 46
8. Dusty 40
9. Chlarson 39
10. Ormiston 33
11. Wagner 31
12. Ott 30
13. Illfelder 26
13. Steinkemper 26
15. Flynn 21
16. Hill 19
17. Moeser 17
18. Peckham 15

Current Standings:
1. Giaquinto 314 (Rose, Collins, Duncan, Richards)
2. Schwartz 306 (Chalmers, James, Smith, Curry, Caracter, Burrell)
3. Dusty 252 (Clark)
4. Lang 245 (Rush, Anderson)
5. Ott 245 (Abrams)
6. Riley 229 (Robinson)
7. Illfelder 228 (Hansbrough, Raymond)
8. Strange 225 (Augustin, Lavender, Kaun)
9. Beaver 220 (Love, Atchley)
10. Hill 214 (Lawson, Ginyard, Mason)
11. Peckham 192
12. Chlarson 191 (Westbrook, Jackson)
13. Flynn 190 (Collison, Thompson, Sosa)
14. Ormiston 186 (Ellington, Moute)
15. Steinkemper 185 (Green, Dozier)
16. Avillo 183 (Douglas-Roberts, Williams, Brown, Mata-Real)
17. Moeser 178 (Arthur, Padgett)
18. Wagner 155 (Shipp)

All Sweet 16 Team
Derrick Rose, Memphis 27 (Giaquinto)
Josh Duncan, Xavier 26 (Giaquinto)
Stephen Curry, Davidson 33 (Schwartz)
Brooke Lopez, Stanford 26 (Riley)
Kevin Love, UCLA 29 (Beaver)

Harrick Standings through Sweet Sixteen

Harrick Inivational - Top 20 Scorers (Post Sweet Sixteen Edition)

Optimal 8 - Sweet Sixteen Edition

Harrick update, and Sweet Sixteen, night 1, game thoughts...

• This may be moot, because this time next year Tony Bennett will probably be watching players remove those gawd awful striped warm-up jerseys while sending them into 45-44 thrillers in Bloomington, but Washington State is a good team, well-coached, with good fundamentals ... but until they get a dynamic point guard (which is close to impossible, because dynamic point guards don't want to play Iba ball in the Paluse) to create his own shot in games like last night's drubbing, they will always defeat the mid-range to good teams, but never quite make a run when they have to face a team with as many cylinders as UNC has.
  
• UCLA may very well win this tournament, but in the Buffet's opinion they aren't as good as the other top teams (i.e. Kansas or UNC). They can't score in stretches, they get disinterested a lot, and if Not Adam Keefe doesn't have the game of his life right now, we might all be wondering if Tyrone Brazelton is the real story of this tournament and not Stephen Curry.


• It is underrated the work Pitino has done in Louisville, also underrated is his recruiting. 2 years ago, Juan Palacios played 28 minutes per game and averaged double-digits on a team that was among the final 8 in the country. Two years later, the Cardinals are back among the 8 left standing, and Palacios is a starter, but he's a starter who plays only 18 minutes a game because Pitino has recruited over the top of himself. The Buffet likes that Louisville team, maybe not to beat UNC ... but is a fan of how they play.


• Not a fan of? Tennessee. Could a team have underwhelmed its way to the Sweet 16 anymore? No real point guard. No real inside game. A horrific shooting tournament from a gutty (he was definitely hobbling) Chris Lofton. The Buffet is a more of a fan of Bruce Pearl's antics than many ... he's done for Tennessee what Rick Barnes is working on in Austin, making a football school a viable basketball program ... but he needs to start expanding on his style, or Tennessee will always be a team who is only good for picking the over in their 2/15 or 3/14 match up against a high-scoring Big West team.
  

If only I recruited a point guard. Or a big man who can bang down low. Or a couple of guys who were interested in defense...

Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. A phenomenal Big East & NCAA tournament. You were on your way to becoming a lottery pick. Then you stepped to the line with 14.2 seconds left, and a chance to put your team up one, and you clanked back iron. That my readers, is choking. Credit to Xavier and B.J. Raymond's ice water. Although, in all honesty, this thing ended as soon as Joey A, who was one of the Buffet's favorite tournament performers, fouled out in OT. One more reason to like Huggins at WVU, the Mountaineers shredded a first half 18 point deficit, and took the #3 seed to OT despite hitting a grand total of 1 three-point basket. ONE. Somewhere Jon Beilien is having a panic attack. Although, imagine if the collective shooting touch of Thuggins' shimmering gold 3-piece suit soldiers hadn't gone AWOL ... we'd be seeing Thug & Howl with a trip to the Final 4 on the line. Although, after last year's Greg Oden gorilla-press slam and Gus Johnson telling us how awesome Ron Lewis has been, good moment for the Musketeers.

Now... on to the Harrick. After game one of the Sweet 16 Round, the updated standings are...

Team by Team Updates

The Harrick Goes HTTP...

I'm Jim Harrick, and I approve of this tournament.












With the assistance of the Harrick Classic Communications Chairman, Kelvin Sampson, the Buffet brings to you: Harrick on the Internet.

Here at the Buffet:

• Standings will be updated
• All teams will be tracked, player for player, round for round
• Overall scoring leaders will be posted
• The Optimal 8 (the best 8 in every round) will be named
• The Undrafted All-Stars, the best 8 not on a Harrick Squad.

Enjoy, and feel free to leave your tourney thoughts at the buzzer...

Current Harrick Standings:


Team Results



















Top 20 Scorers, first two rounds


THE OPTIMAL 8 -- ROUND 1

THE OPTIMAL 8 -- ROUND 2

The Undrafted All-Stars


For those of you who are new to the Buffet, please grab a plate and enjoy your stay ... however, please do note that during the 12 Days of Conference Tournaments, the Buffet is more concerned with providing its food to the masses than it is with achieving grammatical perfection in doing so, very few blogs will be edited/spell checked/etc ... please excuse the Buffet for this.

Enjoy and good luck in the Harrick...

-The Staff at the Buffet.