Survival of the Fittest

"Y'all just don't know bruh!"

Willie Mays once said, “In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won’t be able to do this.” The German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, put this on our heads, “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.” Ed Bradley wasn’t playing around when he said, "Be prepared, work hard, and hope for a little luck. Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have.”

Well according to ole Ed the Big Ten’s Michigan and Michigan State had all of the luck on Saturday because they were the most prepared. In order to win in this tournament you’ve got to be good enough to show up and disciplined enough not to pay attention to the hype surrounding the joint.

Michigan State was business as usual with Tom Izzo allowing his team to play loose. They beat the brakes off of Memphis like they had broken into Big Momma’ s house and stolen her red patent leather purse with her shorty pistol in it 70-48. Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Gary Harris, had a break out game scoring 16 of his career high 23 points in the first half. It was a massacre the way the Spartans just picked them apart. Memphis had the 2nd most wins in the country at 31 going into the tournament playing in dull Conference USA behind only Gonzaga from the terrible West Coast Conference.  They finally played somebody and got their doors blown off.

Let's keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! I told you boyz that Gonzaga was suspect when they put the freaking bracket together and gave them the No. 1 seed! They were only ranked No. 1 at the end of the regular season by default because all of the other top ranked teams were playing hot potato with the No. 1 ranking. So they just gave it to them because they would be able hold on to it until the season was over.  These duns were sent to the crib by the 9th seed Wichita State 76-70. Now I don’t have to listen to cats screamin’ about the dull Zags. I told you that they were Boise State football from the jump but you wouldn’t listen.

Michigan went to work on VCU bruh and I sure didn't expect that! I thought that ole Shaka Smart would upset the Wolverines because of the traditional selfish play of Trey Burke. That was simply not the case on Saturday. They must have backed that cat up into a closet and threatened him because he played team ball and they sprinted through the Rams 78-53.

They must have told ole boy that if he didn’t pass the rock and play like he had 4 other duns on the floor that he wouldn’t make it to the NBA. They told him that Vito would make sure that his knee would look like Nancy Kerrigan's if they had lost because of his selfish play. So Mitch McGary put up 21 and grabbed 14 boards, Burke threw 18 in the kitty and both Hardaway Jr. and Robinson III brought 14 to the house party for them to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1994.

By the way, both Gary Harris and Glenn Robinson III are tied to the G because their dads are from the crib and  MSU's Branden Dawson grew up in the G! Stop Playin’! We’re repin’ even when we aren’t trying to playboy! Both big G’s and Dawson's parents, I see you with your chests stuck out! Holla At Ya Boy! G.I. hold it down! Big Shout to Bowman Academy for winning yet another state championship on Saturday too! In my Puffy voice, "We ain't go-in nowhere!"

On yesterday I said that ole dull Ben Howland from UCLA owed me some bread for losing to Minnesota and tearing up my bracket early. Now granted, I didn’t have them going far but those were points I was counting on! You know the drill playa! So now it looks like he’ll be fired after 10 years with the Bruins. This is no different from the streets bruh! Just because you lost the product doesn’t mean that you’re not responsible for the bread that it represents! Fired or not, I still want my paper, pimpin’!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Get @ me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport