Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith once again showed their ignorance of college basketball this week, complementing a player not playing, saying another player would be the key to Arizona beating Wisconsin before he was outscored 27-6, and backing the Arizona pick that dropped President Obama to 20% against the Breitbart Sports bracket.
The president has not gotten a single game right against Breitbart Sports in eight days to drop to 2-8 (see table below). Clark Kellogg, the one analyst on the telecast who actually covers college basketball, was the only one to agree with Breitbart Sports and pick Wisconsin. Saturday night Smith added insult to injury by saying no defense had worked against Jahlil Okafor. The day before Utah’s defense held Okafor to 6 points and 4 turnovers.
Barkley and Smith are great NBA analysts, but the college telecasts are truly embarrassing. On Sunday Barkley complemented the play of Cliff Alexander of Kansas before they blew a second-half lead and were blown out by Wichita State. Barkley had apparently not looked up a Kansas box score or news story in a month for news of his injury and then eligibility issues that had kept Alexander out of action for a solid month—but apparently mistook some other player in the game for Alexander.
On Saturday Smith and Barkley both backed the president’s prediction of an Arizona win over Wisconsin, with Smith saying that “his man” Stanley Johnson would deliver the win for Arizona. This contradicted not only Breitbart Sports projection of a Wisconsin win, but the head-t0-head comparison in the preview stating that Sam Dekker had the edge over Johnson based on www.valueaddbasketball.com.
Breitbart Sports also noted that it was Arizona’s TJ McConnell who was their top player (ranked 17th in ValueAdd), not Johnson. McConnell kept it close with 14 points and 5 assists despite Dekker destroying Johnson in their match-up, as shown by the stats between the two:
| Match-up | Pts | Reb | TO | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Dekker, WI | 27 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Stanley Johnson, AZ | 6 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Wisconsin’s 85-78 win was the 8th time in 10 games that Breitbart Sports was correct in games in which the projections disagreed with the Barack-et.
| Breitbart Sports Wins over Obama (80%) | |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin 85, Arizona 78 | Elite 8 |
| Gonzaga 74, UCLA 62 | Sweet 16 |
| Utah 75, Georgetown 64 | Round 32 |
| Wichita State 78, Kansas 65 | Round 32 |
| Gonzaga 87, Iowa 68 | Round 32 |
| Northern Iowa 71, Wyoming 54 | Round 64 |
| West Virginia 68, Buffalo 62 | Round 64 |
| Xavier 76, Ole Miss 57 | Round 64 |
The president has only two wins in the first two days of the bracket against Breitbart Sports. His last chance is Sunday with his pick of Duke over Gonzaga.
| Obama wins over Breitbart Sports (20%) | |
|---|---|
| Cincinnati 66, Purdue 65 (OT) | Round 64 |
| Dayton 66, Providence 53 | Round 64 |
Breitbart Sports now ranks in the top few percent of the millions of brackets entered, with 43 of 57 lines correct for 790 points in the ESPN scoring system. The President has 37 correct and 600 points. Breitbart Sports gained another win and 80 more points with the Wisconsin win on the table shown here.