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NCAA Basketball Bracket Technology– Arkansas Razorbacks – Kansas Jayhawks NCAA Tournament to Determine the Sweet 16 Teams in Las Vegas
I don’t think it took last night’s game between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Kansas Jayhawks to blow up people’s NCAA Basketball Bracket selection, at least their first Bracket. Last Sunday, 12Mar2023, I was listening to the ESPN SEC Network selection show when Patric Young was discussing the standout team with Alyssa Lang, and Patric picked Arkansas as a team to watch in three of his categories.
Alyssa was surprised that Patric picked Arkansas, even down to the player to watch as a stand out, even though Patrick didn’t pick the actual Arkansas player that stood out for that particular game. The actual stand out player was Davonte Davis with 25 points and 8 rebounds. Patric’s pick is still amazing prognosticating, especially on Sunday night when the NCAA committee had just selected their 64 teams Bracket.
ESPN SEC, needs to put Patric Young on as their normal sports broadcaster, since he has that degree of skill and analysis of sports and life.
An Arkansas Fan from 1964 that was at the Game of the Century
I’m an Arkansas Razorback fan from ’63 at a ripe age of 6 and was at the ’69 Game of the Century between the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks National Championship Football Game that even got President Nixon to attend the game.
Kansas Jayhawks’ Basketball Teams are what I would consider the elite Gold Standard of excellence in players and how they play their brand of game on the court for 40-minutes for decades. If Arkansas under Nolan Richardson was 40- minutes of HELL, than Kansas would be considered 40- minutes of Precision. I was just hoping that Arkansas could just stay within 10 points of the Kansas Jayhawks to be considered a good night for Arkansas.
The only issue with Arkansas that is hindering them is their consistency on both sides of the timeline. When they are on their game with consistency, they can compete with any College team out there. But if they aren’t on their game and aren’t hitting on all cylinders, they can’t compete at the level they are capable of competing.
One of their first distractions is in their ball handling of just getting down into the arch. This is usually where their game turns south and they start losing their edge. If their ball handling is accurate and Arkansas can secure the ball, their entire game is hitting on all those cylinders that they can compete with any college team, even with what we consider the Blue Bloods.
First Part of the Game
This is where I think Arkansas was able to make one of their biggest adjustments in their ball game this season, and that was their ball handling down into the arch. During the first 8 minutes, Arkansas was losing the handle on their ball handling techniques that they were able to correct during the first half of the game that helped out their confidence in the other areas of their game.
Like Ray Lewis stated about Greatness- “Greatness is a lot of small things done well, stacked up on each other.” That is what Arkansas did in their on-the-fly adjustments that allowed them to win 72 to 71, against a very good Kansas Jayhawks Team.
This is Where Sports offers great Examples for Our Lives
When life seems so complex, daunting, and especially confusing from close up; this is when we need to refocus on those small things that we know to do, but simply DON’T DO. We need to be reminded that it is actually a lot of those small things we can do repetitively and correctly that bring our life into focus and simplify our life, where we can achieve our aspirations.
We are the most discouraged when we are working the hardest and not taking advantage of techniques we have employed before in our life. There is a great verse in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 10:10 that reminds us why sports psychology is so important to our entire life:
If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.
When we practice, we aren’t just developing our athletic skills, which a lot of players are focused on in practice sessions. That’s not what the coach is trying to achieve during their practice sessions, but instead keeping those skills sharp, where the athlete isn’t having to consciously work harder to a point of exhaustion during performance.
RPO is Repetition of Preparation, Practice, Persistence, Patience, Performance for Opportunity. During Practice, you’re not working on your conscious performance, but your subconscious reflexes where your performance is natural, rather than a conscious reaction. Remember TOP GUN where Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, told Rooster, played by Miles Teller, “That if you think up there, you’re dead.”
Don’t ever underestimate Patience during Practice sessions or Performance, because Patience creates Opportunity and develops an athlete’s cadence, their tempo, and confidence that is everything. In the military, pilots and aviators are trained in Situation Awareness that consists of:
Perception– Use one’s senses to perform a routine within a familiar environment, or conditions, as in training.
Comprehension– Having a complete understanding and application of fundamental principles and instincts without inconsistencies, disruptions, or gaps in the process, based on one’s instincts to develop confidence.
Projection– The ability to mentally visualize an outcome of a procedure prior to execution. This allows an individual to focus on a process and avoids cognitive overload.
