Mid Major Hoops

Shawn James Enters NBA Draft, Hires Agent

It’s a busy time of year for me.  As an academic administrator at Hofstra Law School, I oversee over 1000 students taking their exams on computer (using secure exam software for both Apple and PCs), so checking the news wire for college basketball info gets delayed until the weekends often during this time of year.  So, much to my surprise, I caught this news story blurb on ESPN's College BB site.

Duquesne's James hires agent, will enter draft

Couldn't believe it.  Shawn James?  Going into the NBA draft and hiring an agent? (which means his college career is done).  Now, don't get me wrong, Shawn James is a talented player.  I got to see a lot of James in his sophomore season at Northeastern in 2005-06 before he transferred to Duquesne.  James was named CAA Defensive Player of the Year that season, and deserved so as he averaged 6.5 blocks per game (along with averaging 12.4 points and 7.9 rebounds a game) and probably altered a lot more shots.  He was truly a dominating presence from a shot blocking standpoint.

James then transferred to Duquesne when Ron Everhart moved from Northeastern to Duquesne, and is well known as being one of the five Dukes players shot on campus during a party in 2006.   He came back this season and his scoring numbers basically stayed the same as he averaged 12.6 points.  But as a whole his numbers dropped.  He only averaged 6.9 rebounds a game and 4 blocks a game, down from his sophomore season.  Even his shooting from the three point field dropped.  I remember watching several Northeastern games and was impressed with his ability to shoot the three.  In 2005-06, he shot 24 for 53 from beyond the three point arc for a 45 percent clip.  This past season, James only shot 15 of 45 from three, a 33 percent clip.

Was this all due to his recovering from the foot injury from the shooting?  Possibly a good part, but also some would say it is due to increased competition in the Atlantic 10.   I don't know how much credence I would necessarily give that.  In James' CAA sophomore season, he played against the likes of Old Dominion's Alex Loughton and Valdus Vasilyius, Hofstra's Adrian Uter,  UNCW's Todd Hendley, and of course George Mason's Final Four big man tandem of Jai Lewis and Will Thomas.  These players fare comparably to the players James faced in the A10 this season such as UMass’ Dante Milligan and Gary Forbes, Xavier’s Derrick Brown and Fordham’s Bryant Dunston.   So James faced very good competition and seemingly had better stats his sophomore season.

A closer look at the stats shows a couple of other things.  James had actually four 20 plus point games in his first 16 games, including his best game on December 5, a 20 point, 9 rebound  5 block performance against Pitt, the eventual Big East Tournament champion - certainly very good competition.  His last 20 point game was a 21 point effort against GW on January 26 (he also had 5 blocks in that game).  In his first 17 games, he had 12 games where he had 10 or more field goal attempts.  In his last 11 games, he only had 3 games where he only had 10 or more field goal attempts.  It wasn’t due to being fouled often.  In his last 11 games, he only had one game with more than 6 free throw attempts, 8 vs. Richmond.  As for it possibly being foul trouble, well James did not foul out of any of his last 11 games and only reached four fouls twice.  Could it have been possibly due to teams double teaming him?  Quite possibly, but there is another reason why.

James averaged four less minutes this season than his sophomore year.  In fact, in his first 16 games, James played more than 30 minutes in four games.  In his last 11 games, James did not even reach 30 minutes, playing 27 minutes twice, one of which was his highest scoring effort in those last 11 games, a 17 point effort vs. St Joe’s.  This is due in large part to the Dukes having another big man, 6-10 240 pound Kieron Achara who averaged 19 minutes and 11 points per game.  James was supposedly unhappy with his lack of minutes and understandably so.  But possibly Everhart was trying to cut down on the wear and tear of James’ recovery from the foot injury. 

So had James played more minutes, he quite possibly would have had better offensive stats.  As is, James field goal percentage, 54.8 percent was better than his sophomore season.  Chances are he might have had the same rebounding average.  The blocks were definitely down, very likely due to his foot injury.  In fact, he had 85 less blocks this season than his sophomore season, though he did have two double digit block games, 10 in the aforementioned St Joe’s game and 12 against Oakland.

As for James’ draft chances, well he is a very athletic 6-9, 6-10.  He can shoot the three and is quite the shot blocker.  But he has some weaknesses.  My friend Tony Terentieff and I watched many of his games while he was at Northeastern, and we were in agreement that he doesn’t position himself well on rebounding.  He also could use a little more bulk in his frame which results in him being pushed around by bigger centers.  His post moves also could use some work.

Though he makes a very intriguing late second round draft pick, it was a mistake for James to first declare for the draft, then hire an agent.   Though the A10 was vastly improved this year, it is still not an upper echelon conference.  Combine that with the fact that based on his numbers, he didn’t even dominate the conference, the result is that teams will be very wary to draft him.  James really needed to average close to a double double with his block total to be seriously considered draft material.  He will have to do very well at workouts and at tournaments such as the Portsmouth Invitational to have any chance to be drafted.  But he will definitely be a free agent in some NBA team’s camp.  Still, he could have came back for his senior season and with dominant numbers, could have put himself in a better situation.  But we will never know.

Bad News for the Rest of the CAA - Grant Signs Extension to Coach at VCU

Perhaps Anthony Grant has found a permanent home.  After speculation that Grant was in line for head coaching positions at South Carolina and LSU, Anthony Grant decided to stay put at VCU.  He was rewarded for that decision with a raise and a contract extension through the 2013-04 season. "Coach Grant has had a significant positive impact on the entire university, not just athletics," VCU president Eugene Trani said Thursday. "We have tremendous confidence in what he will be able to do going forward."

Having witnessed the VCU hometown reaction when Grant stepped on the court for their second round matchup against Towson in the CAA tournament, I can confirm to you that Grant has rock star status in Richmond, home of Virginia Commonwealth.  He got the loudest ovation of anyone including when Eric Maynor was announced in the starting lineup. All Grant has done in two years is lead the Rams to a 52-15 record, two CAA regular season championships, a 2006-07 CAA Conference Tournament championship, a first round upset of Duke in the 2007 NCAA tournament and a NIT berth. 

Grant's decision to stay will most likely result in Eric Maynor's decision to stay at VCU for his senior season.  Maynor, the CAA's Most Valuable Player this past season has had thoughts of declaring for the NBA draft.  Grant does lose three starters to graduation; All CAA First Team guard Jamal Shuler, forward Michael Anderson, and center Wil Fameni.  However, Grant has a good nucleus returning in Maynor, guard Joey Rodriguez and center Larry Sanders, who looks to be on the verge of being the most dominant big man in the CAA.

So it looks like several more years of an athletic VCU team pressing its opponents for 40 minutes.  That's not good news for the rest of the CAA.  But the Rams' fans can breathe a little bit easier this morning.  Their coach seems to like it there in Richmond.

Providence Decides to Play Keno, Stevens Stays at Butler

Well you could say that the Friars hit the lottery, hiring Drake's Keno Davis as their new head coach.  In his first season as head coach of the Bulldogs, Davis led Drake to a 28-5 season, where they won the Missouri Valley regular season and tournament conference championships and were ranked in the Top 25 for a good part of the season.  Drake lost to Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament 101-99 on a wild three point shot by the Hilltoppers' Ty Rogers at the buzzer.   

A couple of other mid major coaches were offered the Friars' job, including George Mason's Jim Larranaga and Davidson's Bob McKillop, but they turned down the offer.  The reason being that it will be very difficult to recruit in such a deep Big East conference, where eight teams this past season made the NCAA tournament.   However, Davis' ball control offense and hard work philosophy may make Providence a team to reckon with next year.  The team returns all five of its starters who averaged in double figures led by Jeff Xavier and they will also have back injured point guard Sharaud Curry.   So Davis walks into a pretty good situation in his first year.  It made sense for Davis to leave.  His former Bulldogs team graduates three players including Missouri Valley Conference Player of the year, Adam Emmenecker, guard Leonard Houston and forward Klayton Korver.   The Bulldogs do have Josh Young and Jonathan Cox returning, so whoever takes over at Drake, the cupboard is not exactly bare.

One Bulldogs coach leaves, another one stays. Brad Stevens signed a seven year contract extension to remain the coach of Butler.  Stevens led the Bulldogs to a 30-4 record which included a Horizon League regular season and conference tournament championship, a first round win in the NCAA tournament by drubbing South Alabama 81-61, then lost a second round heartbreaker to Tennessee in overtime 76-71.  The Butler head coaching position has been a past springboard for previous coaches.  Thad Matta left for Xavier, then Ohio State.  Last year, Todd Lickliter went to Iowa.   Stevens will have a little bit of a rebuilding year as seniors Mike Green, A.J. Graves, and Pete Campbell all graduate.  But he will have the impressive Matt Howard back for another three years.

And in a semi surprising move, we had our first mid major player declare for the NBA draft.  Gonzaga junior guard Jeremy Pargo declared for the draft, but wisely did not hire an agent (unlike the genius Eric Gordon).  Jeremy stated "I'm looking forward to Orlando and the pre-draft workouts [May 27-30] and then I will make the decision to return to Gonzaga or stay in the draft."   This will hopefully give him the knowledge (by hopefully talking to NBA scouts) whether or not he should play in the NBA.   If Pargo comes back for his senior season, Gonzaga should be the best mid major conference team in the NCAA next season (and would be my pre-season Mid Major's Bakers Dozen #1 ranked team).

Even a Blind College Basketball Writing Squirrel Finds Nuts

In the past couple of days, I have been extremely fortunate to have written the following before the Final Four National Championship game last night;

On Saturday;

"As for Final Four Predictions, well first, I think any of the four teams can win it all.  That’s a no brainer statement considering all four teams were #1 seeds in their respective regions, an NCAA Tournament first.  Each team is incredibly talented and just about all of them, with the possible exception of Memphis was a preseason Final Four candidate.

What do I think it comes down to?   Defense and to a much lesser extent, free throw shooting.  Defense wins championships...."

Then yesterday;

"As for tonight, I predicted Kansas to win the Final Four and I will stick with that.  But I could easily see Memphis winning.  Comes down again to how Kansas' guards deal with the height differential with the Memphis guards.  And can Dorsey repeat his performance again the quad threat the Jayhawks pose inside?  We'll see.  Hopefully its an exciting game."

Like I said, even blind squirrels find nuts.  Luckily for me, these were "the motherload that I can hibernate all winter thanks to these" nuts.   

It was really a great game and there was a lot of defensive and offensive strategy here by both coaches.  First, Memphis took  away the outside shooting of Kansas with their height differential (the Jayhawks shot 3 of 12 from beyond three, but two of them were huge down the stretch), plus their guard pressure forced many Kansas' turnovers which kept the Tigers in the game early.  To counter that, Kansas decided to attack Dorsey with their quartet of big men.   Kansas had a huge point differential early on in the paint and a high field goal percentage (52.7 percent for the game), but as stated above, Memphis stayed in the game by forcing a lot of Kansas turnovers and taking away Kansas outside shooting.   

The first half went back and forth. Memphis went out to a 9-3 lead.  Then Kansas went on a 9-2 run to tie it at 11 and again tied at 13.  Then the Jayhawks went on a 9-2 run to go up 22-15.  Memphis would come back with their own 11-2 run and go up 26-24.  Then Kansas came back with a 9-2 run to go up five at the half, 33-28.  During this time, Dorsey, Robert Dozier, and Shawn Taggart each had two fouls.

In the first half and part of the second half, Kansas took Derrick Rose out of the game.  They came out on him on screens, often double teamed him and Rose had to pass the ball off often.  In the first 27 minutes of the game, Derrick Rose had three points on four field goal attempts. Thankfully for the Tigers Chris Douglas Roberts had 15 points during this time.   Then Memphis coach John Calipari made a change at around the 13 minute mark and started having Rose be isolated on his man.   The future NBA lottery pick then took over scoring 14 of the next 16 points (this included a circus shot that was originally called a three but later changed to a two point shot).  It was during this time that Kansas coach Bill Self made a nearly fatal coaching mistake.  With his team up one, 47-46 with a little over eight minutes left, Kansas switched to a box in one defense.   Memphis figured it out, and during this time, the Tigers went on a 8-0 run, to go up 54-47 with 5:10 left.  The Tigers would extend that lead to 60-51  with 2:12 left.  I was at my friend Tieff's house watching the game and to us It looked like the Tigers had won.

Then Bill Self made the decision that will end up making sure he will never have to buy another drink or meal in Lawrence ever again (unless he decides to take the $6 million bonus Oklahoma State is offering him).  He went to the "HackaShaq" defense.  After a Darrell Arthur jumper and a timeout, Kansas stole the inbounds pass and Sheron Collins hit a three pointer to put Kansas back within four, 60-56. Kansas fouled Roberts.  He made those two free throws, but Mario Chalmers hit two for the Jayhawks to make the score 62-58 with 1:15 left.  Again they fouled Roberts.  This time he missed the front end of a one in one free throw, and again Arthur hit a jumper to put Kansas within two, 62-60.  After Roberts missed a shot, Kansas had a chance to tie but Collins turned the ball over.  Again, they fouled Roberts.  This time he missed two free throws but Kansas didn't box out and Dozier got the rebound and Rose was fouled by Rush with 10 seconds left.  Rose hit the first to put Memphis up three, but missed the second.  One last chance for Kansas to tie.

Then came the critical coaching failure by Calipari.  He didn't foul Collins who was dribbling up court.   Collins found Chalmers who had enough of an open look to hit a three with two seconds left.  It was Miracle Mario on the 20th anniversary of Danny and the Miracles - Kansas won the NCAA championship in 1988 with Danny Manning leading the way.  Somewhere Danny Manning was smiling.  Wait, that somewhere was on the Kansas bench, because Manning is an assistant coach for Kansas.  Hmmm, irony.

By the way, I can't believe Billy Packer wasn't talking about the non decision to foul there.  In the beginning of the overtime period, they kept showing the footwork on the circus shot by Rose that was called a originally a three but correctly changed to a two.   Its not like Rose knew where he was when he hoisted that at one left on the shot clock.   Typical Packer.  I kept telling my friend Mal on Saturday wouldn't you rather watch Lundquist and Raferty or Elmore and Gus Johnson.  I mean seriously.

Anyway, the shot forced overtime and with Dorsey having fouled out with 2 minutes left, everyone in the crowd or watching the game on TV had that feeling.  Memphis was done.  Mentally done.  And Kansas took advantage of Dorsey being out.  First it was a layup by Rush.   Then Arthur.  Then Darrell Jackson.  The Jayhawks were up six with 2:38 left and never looked back.  Roberts kept it close with 5 points in the overtime period but Rose was held scoreless. In fact Rose only had that one free throw over the last four minutes of regulation and the five minutes of overtime.  That was a tribute to the defense of Kansas led by Collins.

Kansas dominated inside.  They held Dorsey, who had played such a great game on UCLA's Kevin Love in the semifinal, to six points and two rebounds. TWO rebounds after having 15 against Love and company.  Arthur finally showed the country how good he is with 20 points and 10 rebounds.  Chalmers, who was named player of the game (and to Kansas fans player of the century) had 18 points.  Kansas dominated the boards with 39 to 28 advantage.  Memphis only shot 40 percent for the game and was led by Roberts with 22 points and Rose with 18. 

So Kansas had that dream Final Four.   They pounded their arch-nemesis Roy Williams and Carolina in the semis.   Then on the 20 year anniversary of Danny and the Miracles, they stage a nine point comeback with two minutes left capped by a three pointer by Chalmers, who put his name up in Jayhawks' lore with Lovelette, Chamberlain and Manning.    It doesn't get sweeter than that.

By the way, I love Kansas.  The administration canceled classes today, Tuesday, thanks to winning the national championship.  Their website states "Celebrate safely".  Yeah, if I am Kansas undergrad, I celebrate safely by sleeping late... :-)

Right now I am celebrating that for once, this blind squirrel got it right.

PS - By the way did you notice that Eric Gordon announced yesterday that he was going into the NBA draft.  ESPN reports that "While he has not yet signed with an agent, his father, Eric Gordon Sr., said he intended to sign with one, which would officially end his college eligibility."  Yeah do it on the day of the Final Four Championship so you get completely overshadowed and hire an agent so you have no chance to come back to college.  Talk about a blind squirrel...

One More For the Road

The Road to the Final Four That Is.    Two impressive performances on Saturday night by Memphis and Kansas.  It reiterates what I said on Saturday morning.

Defense Wins Championships. If the Tigers or the Jayhawks didn't convince you, I don't know what will.

In the first game, Joey Dorsey gave a terrific defensive performance with 15 rebounds and held Kevin Love to only 12 points on 4 of 11 shooting from the field (previously  he had been 24 of 37 in his last 3 games) and only 9 rebounds.  Derrick Rose held Darren Collison to 2 points on 1 of 9 shooting with 5 turnovers.  Josh Shipp hit two of his first three pointers, then only had one three pointer the rest of the game shooting 3 of 9 from the field. UCLA as a whole shot 37.5 percent from the field and only shot 4 of 13 from beyond three.  Now it wasn't just a defensive performance by the Tigers.  Rose showed why he might one of the top three picks in the draft after slicing through the Bruins defense for 25 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists.  Simply put, Collison could not guard him as Rose consistently drove through the basket (and if Rose could finish better, he easily would have had over 30).  Chris Douglas Roberts (its hilarious listening to Jim Nance try to be cool and call him CDR) gave another dominant performance with 28 points.  Roberts gave the fans at the Alamo Dome and around the country one of the signature moments of the Final Four as he took a baseline pass and dunked over Love, sending Love crashing to the floor.  Then the final piece of the play was the camera showing Dorsey pointing to a fallen Love as if to say "Ahhh, look at the big Bruin star on the floor. You just got a facial!".  Priceless.

Right before the second game, I said to my friend Mal, as we were watching the games at his house, I don't think you can have a better performance than Memphis gave in that first game.  Well, for the first 15 minutes of the second game, I was wrong.   For in those first 15 minutes, Kansas gave an absolute clinic on defense, offense and transition basketball.  If it wasn't the Jayhawks looking inside to Darrell Arthur or Darnell Jackson, it was Russell Robinson finding Brandon Rush or Mario Chalmers for three pointers or drives to the basket.  Defensively Arthur, Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Cole Aldrich, who had an outstanding game off the bench, made Tyler Hansborough and company work inside.  They played terrific help defense and forced many Tar Heel turnovers at the beginning of the game.  Finally the Jayhawks made the Tar Heels to shoot from the outside, which is not their strong suit.   That resulted in a 40-12 lead with five minutes left in the first half. 

Now here is where the Jayhawks could have put the game away but with five players each having two fouls, coach Bill Self had to keep his lineup on the court and the Jayhawks were clearly tired, thus they became sloppy with the ball.  In fact after Aldrich had hit a jumper with 6:49 left, the Jayhawks did not score for nearly the next five minutes until Chalmers hit a layup with 1:57 left.  During this time the Tar Heels started to right themselves and made a 10-0 run.  They would cut the lead to 44-27 at half, thanks in large part to the best sixth man in college basketball, junior Danny Green (who had 15 points for the game).  The Tar Heels would continue their run in the second half and starting from 17:33 with the Heels down 19, 52-33, North Carolina would go on a 17-2 run over the next five minutes as Hansborough, Green and Wayne Ellington led the way back to a four point deficit at 54-50.  The teams would trade baskets and with the Heels down five 58-53, the Tar Heels had a chance to cut it two, but Danny Green's three pointer went in and out.  Right after that, Kansas would again get the intensity they had in the first half and put the game away with a 22-8 run.

The Jayhawks showed the Tar Heels weakness on defense by shooting 53 percent from the field (Rush led the way with 25).  Defensively, Kansas held NC to 35.8 percent from the field, outrebounded them 42-33, contained Hansborough to 17 points on only 13 field goal attempts, blocked nine shots, and forced NC to shoot 5 of 24 from beyond three. 

As for tonight, I predicted Kansas to win the Final Four and I will stick with that.  But I could easily see Memphis winning.  Comes down again to how Kansas' guards deal with the height differential with the Memphis guards.  And can Dorsey repeat his performance again the quad threat the Jayhawks pose inside?  We'll see.  Hopefully its an exciting game.

NIT and CBI Results, Final Four Predictions, and Eric Gordon

Its been a couple of days since I last posted, so I made up for it with a big post here.  Its getting down to the end of the college basketball season.  Really looking forward to this Final Four tonight.  I know, I am a mid major guy and it would have been awesome to see Davidson take on North Carolina in a rematch of the first game of the season, the first game I saw on TV this year, an exciting four point win for the Tar Heels, who had to comeback to win.  Alas, not to be.  But if I couldn't get the Wildcats, at least we have all #1 seeds in the final.  So this might be the best Final Four yet.

But first thing’s first. Ohio State used hot shooting from the field in the second half to comeback from a halftime deficit to defeat UMass 92-85.  Kosta Koufos led four Buckeye scorers in double figures with 23 points.  Ohio State shot 63 percent from the field in the second half, 56 percent overall and 52 percent from beyond the three point line (10 of 19).  This offset the Minutemen’s 49-37 rebounding average including 30 on the offensive end.  This accounted for 30 more shots by UMass than Ohio State.  However, UMass only shot 36 percent from the field including 12 of 33 from beyond three.  Evan Turner had 20 points, Jamar Butler added 19.  Ricky Harris led all scorers with 27 for the Minutemen, Etienne Brower added 17 in the losing cause.

In the inaugural College Basketball Invitational Championship, Tulsa won the best of three series from Bradley, winning the third game 70-64 in front of a sellout crowd of 8500 in Tulsa.  The home teams won each of the games in the final series.  Ben Ozoh led the Golden Hurricane with 17 points.  The Golden Hurricane came back from an early 16-2 deficit to win the CBI championship.  The second half featured eleven lead changes as Tulsa went up to stay at 60-59 with 2:20 left.   Bradley was led by Trevor Wilson with 17 points.

As for Final Four Predictions, well first, I think any of the four teams can win it all.  That’s a no brainer statement considering all four teams were #1 seeds in their respective regions, an NCAA Tournament first.  Each team is incredibly talented and just about all of them, with the possible exception of Memphis was a preseason Final Four candidate.

What do I think it comes down to?   Defense and to a much lesser extent, free throw shooting.  Defense wins championships.  Say what you want about Florida’s great offensive prowess in their last two national championships.  But it was the Gators defense that won against Ohio State last year.  Greg Oden had a big game, but the Buckeyes with Oden were outrebounded by 10 rebounds and more importantly shot 4 of 23 from beyond the three point arc in that game. Against UCLA the year before, the Bruins only shot 36 percent from the field including 3 of 17 from beyond the three.  The Gators shut down the outside perimeter on the Bruins and Buckeyes. And I think also in games that involve such good close teams, fundamentals such as free throw shooting play a big part.  Thus a team like Memphis needs to shoot like it did against Texas and not the way they did against Mississippi State, the toughest opponent they actually had in the tournament so far.

In the first game, Memphis faces UCLA.   What’s Love got to do with this game?  A lot.  I think the first key will be how Joey Dorsey mans up on the big fella.  UCLA has been able to overcome a lot of their ineffective guard play from Josh Shipp and Russell Westbrook by their inside play of Love, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Darren Collison’s solid guard play.   Kevin Love however has been the big man.  Whether its grabbing an offensive rebound (had five vs. Xavier), posting up his man for two points (Love has shot 24 for 37 in his last three games) or free throws (16 of 21 in his last three games), or nailing a three pointer (2 of 4 vs. Xavier), he has been the man.  Dorsey must bring his A game and contain Love.

Memphis relies heavily on their guards, Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas Roberts, Antonio Anderson and Doneal Mack, all of which their size causes significant matchup problems for their opposing teams.  Texas faced Memphis in the final with the smaller guard trio of DJ Augustin, AJ Abrams and Justin Mason, the tallest being Mason at 6 foot 2, one inch shorter than Rose.  This resulted in that aforementioned trio shooting a combined 13 for 42 (30 percent) against the Tigers.  The key will be how Shipp, Westbrook and Collison, a little taller trio does against the Tigers.  Shipp especially has a horrid tournament and the Bruins need a big game from Shipp against the Tigers to win.

Prediction - I think Memphis’ guards again will prove to be a difficult matchup for the Tigers.  Derrick Rose is going to be a beast for Collison to contend with.   I think Westbrook and Shipp can handle their own on the defensive end against Douglas Roberts and the Anderson-Mack tandem, but again I think Shipp will have another horrid shooting game especially someone as tall guarding him.   Then it comes down to Dorsey and Dozier vs. Mbah a Moute and Love.  I think Dorsey could be the difference maker, that’s if Dorsey comes to play (which I think he will).  Love may decide to take him outside and hit some threes.  But I think Dorsey does just enough to contain Love and the Tigers’ guard play makes up for the rest.  Though I think the Tigers’ bad free throw shooting keeps it close, I like Memphis to win 74-70.

In the second game, North Carolina faces Kansas.   Now this game has a lot of subplots.  First, former KU coach, Roy Williams faces his alma mater for the first time in of all places, the biggest stage for such an event.  Already Williams has to hear a lot of the talk about how he betrayed KU (a hot KU T shirt is the Benedict Williams T shirt) and how he never got them a championship.    Second Bill Self, now getting the Final Four monkey off his back now gets to show his coaching prowess on the big stage.  It will be interesting to see how he coaches in this situation he has so badly wanted to be in. 

What do I think it comes down to.  Well, first its going to be the Kansas big men, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun trying to contain Tyler Hansborough and the rest of Carolina on the defensive boards.  If you look at North Carolina’s wins, they outrebounded their opponent each time.  In the last win over Louisville, Hansborough had seven offensive rebounds, which certainly was a factor in him scoring 28 points.  The key to containing Hansborough and to that extent Carolina, is keeping him off the glass.  I think the Jayhawks also have the size and the numbers to contain Hansborough unlike any of the previous Tar Heel opponents. 

Kansas also has the depth to shuttle guards to stay with the Tar Heel guards.  I don’t think the loss of Roderick Stewart hurts all that much.  The key for Kansas is stopping the penetration of Lawson and Ellington.  North Carolina doesn’t shoot the three particularly well.  In the last two games in the tournament vs. Wash State and Louisville, the Tar Heels shot 5 of 15 and 3 of 11 respectively from three.  That further brings home the point that they like to work it inside. 

For North Carolina, basically they have to play better defense.  Their lone really good defensive game of the tournament was their win over Washington State where they held the Cougars to 31 percent from the field.  However, Louisville shot 52 percent from the field, Arkansas 47 percent and even Mount St Mary’s shot 43 percent.   None of those teams have the firepower that Kansas has.  Not even close.

My prediction.  By Roy Williams comments and demeanor, the pre-game hype of this matchup and the seemingly bad feelings there is among the KU faithful has gotten to Williams, by all accounts a decent but sensitive man. Whether he can shut that out during the game is a question. However, undeniably, Williams’ team does not play defense as good as Kansas does.  Kansas led the Big 12 in steals, blocks, and field goal percentage defense.  Also I think Carolina’s style of pace plays well  into the hands of the Jayhawks, who, though not as prolific as Carolina on offense, is still quite good.   I think Kansas will do a much better job keeping Hansborough off the glass and affecting his shots with their length than other teams have so far.   I think its close, but in the end the better defense prevails.  Kansas 81 North Carolina 76.

Finally, I have to talk about Eric Gordon, the freshman guard for Indiana, who is declaring for the NBA Draft. As many of you may know, I have been highly critical of Gordon’s play during their first round loss to Arkansas in the Raleigh Regional that I attended.  The effort he gave in that game was so lacking, at times I didn’t even seem to notice him on the court.  If I were Tom Crean, I would do one thing.  Let him go.   From all reports, his disdain for playing was clearly evident since Kelvin Sampson was forced to resign from the head coaching position.  He along with several others gave up on assistant coach Dan Dakich.   Now Gordon shot 43 percent from the field for the season, and he very well is a fine scorer at the college level, but look at how he shot the ball from the field in games against good teams with good guards.

Xavier - 4 of 12
UConn - 5 of 16
Wisconsin - 6 of 14
Ohio State - 4 of 10
Wisconsin - 7 of 17
Mich State - 9 of 15
Purdue - 4 of 12
Ohio State - 4 of 16
Michigan State - 7 of 14

Total - 50 of 126 - 39.6 percent

Take away the two Michigan State games and he was 34 of 97 - 35 percent.

Now look at his last 3 games against Penn State, in the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament

Penn State - 8 of 24
Minnesota - 4 of 13
Arkansas - 3 of 15

Total - 15 of 52 - 28 percent

Now whether it was a question of attitude or good defense or off shooting nights in the Penn State and Minnesota games, I can’t tell you.  Like I said though in the Arkansas game, I can clearly tell you the effort was not there.  No heart.  He often settled for shooting 3 point jumpers (he was 0 of 6 from beyond three that night).  Now I am not the only one who had to of seen this down the stretch.  NBA scouts were definitely watching these games.  If you’re a NBA GM, and you see these stats there are two things you ask yourself;

1) “Would he give this kind of effort if he didn’t like playing for my coach?”
2) Is he really a good shooter?  Can he get off a good shot against a good defensive guard/against better competition?

Right now the answers are “Quite possibly yes” and “Not really”.   That doesn’t sound like a Top Ten pick to me.  My advice to Eric Gordon.  If you plan to go out for the draft, don’t sign with an agent and give Marty Blake, Director of NBA Scouting a call.   He’ll tell you if you are good enough or not. 

But here’s a better idea for you Eric.  You should do some reading up on the internet and see what Crean has done with his guard oriented system over the years at Marquette, which by the way, included a certain NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP.  Yes, I am talking about Dwayne Wade.  Perhaps Gordon has forgot that Wade played for Crean at Marquette.  Perhaps Gordon can give Crean a call and find out why Wade called Crean and left him a message at 1:30 in the morning after just leading the Miami Heat to the NBA championship in 2006.  Probably because Wade knows how great a coach and person Tom Crean is.  Maybe Eric Gordon will stay and find out.  He should.

I Went to a Garden Party...

Nothing like a Ricky Nelson lead in to my latest post.  But before I get to the main part of this posting, ESPN is reporting that George Mason coach Jim Larranaga has signed a three year extension with the Patriots and has turned down an offer to be the head coach at his alma mater, Providence.  Its a really solid move by Larranaga.  He has probably a lifetime job with the Patriots (as a result of making the Final Four in 2006), while Providence, though a solid school, is not really an elite Big East program.  It would be much more difficult for him to be able to recruit and have a successful program at Providence considering the depth of the talent of the schools in the Big East.  Tom Pecora made a similar decision signing an extension at Hofstra rather than take the Seton Hall position two years ago.

Well obviously, as the title states, I was at Madison Square Garden last night for the NIT semifinals where the UMass fans definitely partied as the Minutemen came back from a nine point halftime deficit and defeated Florida 78-66 in the first game.  In the second game, thanks to an absolutely pitiful first half performance by Ole Miss, Ohio State defeated the Rebels 71-59.

The first game had a very nice rousing atmosphere as a lot of the UMass fans came down for the game. Florida marched out to a 36-27 halftime lead on the strength of their inside play of Marreese Speights and Dan Werner who combined had 27 points and 28 rebounds for the game.  The Gators had a 28-18 rebounding advantage at halftime (it was 50-41 Gators for the game).  What also helped the Gators in the first half is that UMass seemingly clanked every three pointer in the first half (at one time they were 2 of 17 from beyond the three point arc before making three of their last seven three point shots).

After a very nice halftime performance by the Florida Gator dance team (the team only consisted of six girls, but six of the most beautiful girls you will ever see - glad I had center court seats in the 124 section), Florida maintained its lead for the first two minutes, leading 40-32 with 18:12 left before the Minutemen went on a 27-11 run over the next nearly 11 minutes.  With point guard Gary Forbes knifing inside and Dante Milligan working hard on every play inside, the Minutemen rolled by the Gators to take the lead 52-49 on Etienne Brower with 9:52 left before extending it to 59-51 on another Brower three with 7:31 left.  That three pointer resulted in a 30 second Gator timeout and the large UMass contingent was rockin.  Florida would come as close as six, 66-60 with 1:47 left but would get no closer.  What also didn't help the Gators was an absolutely dreadful 8 of 21 from the free throw line.

UMass nearly had five players in double digits as Forbes had 19 points, Milligan had 17 points and 12 rebounds, Ricky Harris and Chris Lowe had 16 each and Brower had all eight of his points in the second half.  Tom Kemp, UMass is very talented.  A little wild and out of control at times, but very talented.  Forbes is as quick as a hiccup and Milligan is a very solid hard working forward.

I am not going to say much about the second game because we only stayed until halftime, but that's all we needed to see.  Ohio State and Ole Miss were tied at 8 before the much taller Buckeyes went out on a 19-2 run to put them up 27-10 with 10:23 left in the first half.  The Rebels were undisciplined with the ball, careless with their shot selection and even worse not hustling.  There was one play in particular where there was a rebound late in the first half where Mississippi forward Malcolm White just stood watching the ball thinking it was going out of bounds.  White though didn't box out, and the Ohio State forward hustled by him hit it off White and the Buckeyes got the ball.  If I was Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy, I would have yanked White right off the court there and sat it him the rest of the game.  I have only seen two worse first half efforts this season than this; Hofstra at home vs. Stony Brook and Kent State in the first round of the NCAA tournament (honorable mention goes to Hofstra again vs. Towson in the first round of the CAA tournament).

So the Rebels were down 44-20 at half.  And guess what happens after we left (as did most of the rest of the crowd - in fact a lot of Ohio State fans left too!). Ole Miss of course had the obligatory second half run to cut the lead to eleven, 56-45 with 11:23 left in the game.  But of course, as noted here many times, the team coming from behind expends so much energy digging themselves out of a hole, there is nothing left.  The Buckeyes would extend the lead back to fifteen, 61-46 with 10:15 left.  Ohio State still had a fifteen point lead, 73-58 with 5:18 left before Ole Miss, who did shoot 10 of 20 from beyond the three point arc, made one last run, cutting the lead to seven, 75-68 with 1:44 left but couldn't get any closer.  Evan Turner, Jamal Butler, Kosta Koufos and David Lighty combined for 66 of the 81 Buckeye points.  Chris Warren led the Rebels with 19 points, and Dwayne Curtis, who was the only Rebel who really played hard for the entire time on the court had 12 points and 15 rebounds. The Rebels also shot a Floridaesque 9 of 20 from the free throw line - yes, shoot 50 percent from three and 45 percent from the line go figure - ah the lost art of free throw shooting.  And by the way, that was the first non-conference loss of the year by the Rebels. All their previous ten losses were in the SEC. 

So UMass faces Ohio State in the championship game tomorrow night.  It will seem like a UMass home game to the Buckeyes.  It will be interesting to see if UMass can deal better with Ohio State's size than Ole Miss did.

And Then There Was Chalk

Davidson played valiantly, but in the end it was the Kansas defense that was too much for the Wildcats as Jason Richards long three pointer hit off the side of the backboard at the buzzer and the Jayhawks moved onto the Final Four with a 59-57 win.  This now means for the first time ever in NCAA Tournament history, all four #1 regional seeds are in the Final Four.

It was a back and forth surprisingly defensive tussle with several lead changes and no team having a bigger lead than six points. The first half saw Davidson establish Stephen Curry with 15 points on 5 of 12 shooting from the field on several assists from Jason Richards, who had 9 for the game.  Davidson shot out to a 9-6 lead, and the Wildcats would be either mostly ahead or tied for the better part of eight minutes until Darnell Jackson put the Wildcats up 25-23.  Mario Chalmers helped give the Jayhawks a 30-28 halftime lead by scoring 11 of his 13 points in the first half. 

In the second half, Curry came right out and scored the first five points to put Davidson up 33-30.  Kansas would then go on 13-4 run as Brandon Rush caught on fire, scoring six of the thirteen points to give Kansas its biggest lead 43-37 with 12 minutes left.  But as Davidson always does, they came back, this time from an unlikely hero.  Seldom used reserve Bryant Barr came off the bench and nailed three three pointers and Stephen Curry added a jumper as Davidson went on a 14-4 run and went up 51-47 8:48 left. 

But as the Jayhawks stared at another possible NCAA Tournament failure, their four guard defensive rotation was finally starting to wear Curry down.  After hitting his first two shots of the second half, Curry would shoot two for his last eleven including the aforementioned jumper that put the Wildcats up four.  Curry would mention after the game that he was definitely fatigued from the Jayhawk guard rotation.  Over the nearly next eight minutes, Curry would go scoreless and the Wildcats would only score two points on a Barr jumper. Meanwhile, Rush and the inside play of Kaun and Darrell Arthur took over.  The Jayhawks went on a 12-2 run to go up six, 59-53 before Thomas Sander hit the first of two free throws (more on that in a little bit).  Then after Sander missed the second free throw, Davidson got the rebound and Curry finally hit his first shot in eight minutes, a big three pointer to cut it to two.

The Jayhawks got the ball and after both teams called timeout, the Jayhawks, pulled a Hofstra and ran the clock down and got off a terrible missed shot.  Davidson got the ball and called timeout with 16 seconds left.

Then the play that will have lots of people talking for a while was setup.  Davidson coach Bob McKillop had Curry dribble the ball up the court instead of his point guard Richards.  Curry tried desperately to break free from a double team, but with no shot available, passed it back to Richards who took a long range desperate three that bounded off the backboard. 

I am not going to fault McKillop necessarily because the usual train of thought is that you want to have the ball in the hands of your best player during the last play.  However, It was a curious play in that Davidson is so proficient in having Richards run the offense and Curry work off a screen.  I would have thought that if Curry was double teamed, that would leave someone else open for Richards to pass the ball to. To me that should have been the play.

Another problem in the game for the Wildcats was their unusually bad free throw shooting.  The Wildcats who led the Southern Conference in free throw shooting at 72 percent shot a miserable 5 of 12 from the line. In fact, take away Curry's 3 for 3 shooting from the line, the Wildcats were 2 of 9.  That was another big difference in the game (mind you Kansas wasn't much better going 8 of 14 from the line). 

Finally, the size difference between Kansas and Davidson was a big factor at the end. On the boards, Kansas held a 38-30 rebounding edge, blocked five shots and altered many others.  Still, the Wildcats kept in there by forcing 14 Jayhawk turnovers.

Kansas now faces North Carolina in one semfinal after Tyler Hansborough's dominating 28 point 13 rebound performance held off a game Louisville team 83-73.  Meanwhile UCLA, after Kevin Love and company dominated Xavier 76-57, will face Memphis, who did their own version of domination, crushing Texas on basically a home Longhorns Court in Houston, 85-67.  In their wins, UCLA and North Carolina each shot 53 percent in the field, while Memphis shot 50 percent from the field and shot 30 of 33 from the line (somewhere Fred Sanford after watching that, is holding his heart saying "I'm coming Elizabeth")

So you have a 37 win team (Memphis), a 36 win team (North Carolina) and two 35 win teams (UCLA and Kansas) playing in the Final Four.  Can't remember anything like that.  Mind you, it would have been nice to have a midmajor such as Davidson crash the party, but hey, they gave us a great game. 

Alas, now its all about the chalk...

TCU is Truly Now a Christian Team and the A10 "Shines"

Couldn't resist the headline after Texas Christian hired Jim Christian as their new head coach.  Christian led Kent State to the NCAA Tournament this season. Christian was 138-58 at Kent State the past six seasons. The Golden Flashes won at least 20 games each of those seasons, including a 28-7 mark this season.  They lost to UNLV in the first round of the tournament this year.  It was the fifth time that Christian took Kent State to the postseason in six years (3 NIT, 2 NCAA tournaments).  This was the second time this week a mid major coach changed jobs.  Matt Brady took over at James Madison after coaching Marist for the past four seasons.

Rumor has it that South Carolina will go after Davidson coach Bob McKillop after the Wildcats' NCAA tournament run has completed.  One of the other possible candidates for the South Carolina position, current Oklahoma coach and former VCU head coach Jeff Capel just signed a contract extension with the Sooners, raising his annual salary to over $1 million a year.  The contract extension was in part to keep Capel from potentially moving back near his home with the Gamecocks.   

It will be interesting to see what offers the 19 year head coach of the Wildcats will get.

I will be at MSG on Tuesday where UMass squares off against Florida and Ohio State will take on Mississippi in the semifinals of the NIT.   Tom Kemp in a text message to me this morning correctly pointed out that "Xavier and UMass are making the A10 shine".  Xavier obviously has had an excellent run in the NCAA tourney and UMass has been very solid, including their stunning 19 point comeback win over Syracuse.  They have made sure that Jim Boeheim will be seeing the Minutemen in his nightmares after UMass beat them twice in the Carrier Dome this season.

You could even say Dayton with Chris Wright also had a good postseason run in the NIT including their second round impressive road win at Illinois State.  Those three teams were really the best A10 teams this season.  Had Wright not got hurt and UMass had won one game against St Joe's, those two teams most likely would have been in the NCAA tournament instead of the not ready for NCAA prime time Hawks or Temple Owls. 

Xavier, who I picked to reach the Elite Eight, has an excellent chance to beat UCLA with their guard play.  I think Lavender, CJ Anderson, and B.J Raymond can give Collison, Westbrook and Shipp all they can handle.  How Xavier will deal with Kevin Love and the UCLA frontcourt is another matter. Josh Duncan and Derrick Brown must have big games for the Musketeers. 

Still at the end of the season, the A10 wasn't quite as strong as people thought they were most of the year.  But to have eight teams in the postseason; three NCAA teams and five NIT teams, is a very nice year for the A10.  But as I keep telling Tom and all of you, they still aren't a mid major conference.  They are at least one level above along with Conference USA and the Mountain West.

Do You Believe Now?!

In my previous posting, I finished my prediction of Davidson vs Wisconsin with the following;

"I think Wisconsin has not seen anyone like Curry and I think the Wildcats have an excellent shot vs. Wisconsin."

Well, the Badgers had never seen anything like Stephen Curry scoring 22 second half points and scored 33 overall as Davidson not only upset Wisconsin but thrashed them in the second half, winning 73-56.  The game was tied 36 all at half, but Davidson outscored Wisconsin 37-20 in the second half as the Wildcats throttled the Badger offense.   The first half, though even, was a pace that favored Davidson as both teams seemingly traded threes.  Wisconsin was 7 of 17 from beyond the three point arc in the first half while Davidson was 8 of 14 from beyond three.   However it seemed that Wisconsin was content to shoot from three while ignoring the size advantage they had inside.  This came back to haunt them in the second half as Wisconsin would only shoot 1 of 7 the rest of the way from three, while Curry would have his trademark big second half.

In the second half of his three tournament games, Curry has scored 30,25, and now 22 points.  As noted in a previous posting, the Wildcats constant motion offense wears down opponent defenses, which allows Curry to eventually get open looks and drives to the basket.  After nailing three three pointers, several of which were assisted by Jason Richards, Curry again was setup by Richards for a really pretty reverse scoop layup and drew the foul for the three point play. How pretty was it ?  CBS focused a camera on LeBron James who was in the front row for the game, and you could see James mouth "Wow" after the layup. 

But again Davidson is not just Curry. Richards had a magnificent game with 11 points and 13 assists and more importantly, zero turnovers.  And again, Andrew Lovedale had a big second half for the Wildcats, scoring 8 of his 12 points in the second half.  Finally, the Davidson defense clamped down on Wisconsin, holding the Badgers to 37 percent shooting from the field.  Trevon Hughes, who had 25 points vs. Kansas State, was held scoreless by the Wildcats on only three field goal attempts due to an injury.  Brian Butch only had nine field goal attempts, with only four coming in the second half.  And as predicted by me, the Badgers also didn't help themselves from the free throw line, shooting only 9 of 16 in the second half from the line and only 63.6 percent overall.  Also, Wisconsin had 11 turnovers vs only 5 for the Wildcats.

There were a few other things to note about the game.  First, CBS went away from the Wildcats/Badgers game when there were about 5 minutes left in the game to go to the Texas/Stanford game which had about 10 minutes left.  So even though I was at the Main Event sports bar in Bethpage, all the feeds went to the Longhorns/Cardinal game.  Very frustrating when you are seeing a major upset.  It was also noted during the radio and television broadcasts that Davidson offered any student a bus ride, hotel, meal money and a ticket for anyone who wanted to go to tonight's game.  There is a great article on this on ESPN.  Finally, they asked Stephen Curry after the game on if he learned how to come off screens in high school or college. Curry answered that he was a point guard in high school when he came to Davidson and he learned at Davidson how to come off screens.  Further proof of how good a coach Bob McKillop is.

So Davidson has knocked off #7 Gonzaga, #2 Georgetown and now #3 Wisconsin.  Can they knock off #1 Kansas (who right now is thrashing Villanova at the half of the second game in Detroit 41-22)?   Here's some insight into that answer.  During the Texas/Stanford broadcast, Billy Packer talked about Texas coach Rick Barnes discussing a preseason scrimmage the Longhorns had vs. Davidson.  Barnes told Packer that Davidson "took it to us" during that scrimmage.  Thus, the answer is yes.  But Kansas will be the best team the Wildcats have faced in this tournament.

In the other games this evening, Texas pulled away in the second half and beat Stanford 82-62.  They will be playing Memphis, who looks absolutely awesome, beating Michigan State 50-20 at the half.  50-20 at the half.  I think I underrated Memphis just a little bit.

As for last night, Western Kentucky had a heroic second half comeback but fell short losing to UCLA.  However the Hilltoppers comeback exposed a weakness in UCLA's backcourt as they are susceptible to pressure combined with a good shooting backcourt.  Xavier's talented set of guards will give the Bruins fits but Kevin Love is soo good, it will be hard for the Musketeers to contend inside in the West Regional final.  As for the East Regional final, its a collision course matchup between two teams on major dominating runs.  North Carolina just dominated the Cougars, beating Wazzou at their own game.  Meanwhile, Louisville did the same thing to Tennessee, beating the Volunteers at their own pressure game.  Should be a great final there.

And Then There Were Two...

As in two mid major teams left in the Sweet Sixteen.  I think, along with many others, had two mid major teams going to the Sweet Sixteen; Butler and Drake.  So, having two left now, is not a surprise.  Who those mid major teams are, Davidson and Western Kentucky, well that's the surprise. 

Davidson, though a #10 seed, is less a surprise than Western Kentucky.  After coming off a NCAA tournament bid and a close first round loss to Maryland in the tournament, then their close loss to North Carolina at the beginning of the season, the Wildcats were ranked in the top 25.  After several close losses to Duke, UCLA, and NC State among others, the Wildcats fell out of the Top 25, and mid major teams like Butler, Drake, and St Mary's caught the national media's eyes.  The Wildcats then began their perfect run through the Southern Conference.  The Wildcats returned to the Top 25 at the end of their run through the regular season of the Southern Conference, punctuated by a big win over Winthrop during a Friday night ESPN Bracket Buster game at Winthrop (an eventual fellow NCAA tourney team). This was due in large part of their early schedule and due to  Stephen Curry being among one of the top leaders in scoring in the country.  Davidson of course went on to win the SoCon tournament, then top Gonzaga and Georgetown in two of the best games during this NCAA tournament (and two games to have been proud to be in attendance).

As for Western Kentucky, their road to the Sweet Sixteen was much less known.  Though well known through mid major circles, the 29-6 Hilltoppers are probably more well known for their mascot, Big Red, who is often seen on the Capital One and ESPN Sportscenter commercials.  The Hilltoppers, though they played a tough non-conference schedule with close losses to Gonzaga, Southern Illinois and Tennessee, did not have a signature non conference win.  Their best win was over Nebraska, who did make the NIT (along with the Salukis).  The Hilltoppers had a strong conference record, going 16-2.  But again due to their two conference losses to the more ballyhooed South Alabama Jaguars, again Western Kentucky was not getting much love and needed to win the Sun Belt conference, which would be held on the Jaguars' home court.  However, the Hilltoppers caught a break when Middle Tennessee State upset the Jaguars in the semis, and the Hilltoppers did the rest with a win over the Blue Raiders in the championship game.
The Hilltoppers also possess a strong NBA prospect in guard Courtney Lee, a 6 foot 5 senior guard who averages 20.85 points per game, nearly 5 rebounds a game and shoots 40 percent from three.  He has a partner in crime in Tyrone Brazelton, who torched Drake for 35 points in the Hilltoppers exciting two point overtime win in the first round.

How will each team do in the Sweet Sixteen?  Well Davidson's opponent, Wisconsin is one of the toughest defensive teams in the country.   And all I hear is that Badger guard Michael Flowers will shut down Stephen Curry.  Well everyone thought Gonzaga would key on Curry and they stopped Curry..for 20 minutes. Then everyone thought Georgetown's ferocious defensive guards led by Jessie Sapp and Jonathan Wallace among others would certainly stop Curry..and they did..for 25 minutes.  And the Badgers best beware that the Wildcats are more than Curry.  Point guard Jason Richards did a lot of damage on drives to the basket with 20 points and Andrew Loverdale is very capable on the inside. 

The key to beating Wisconsin may very well be competing with them on the boards and keeping it close until the end.  The Badgers have not had to play a very close game in their first two rounds and if they have one weakness in close games, it is free throw shooting.   Though the Badgers shoot 70.7 percent from the line, but with the exception of their second loss during the season against Purdue where they shot 30 of 33 from the line, in their other losses, they shot 7 of 13 vs. Duke, 15 of 25 vs Marquette and 12 of 19 vs Purdue.  Even in their win over Kansas State in the second round of the tournament, they only shot 62 percent from the line.   

I think Wisconsin has not seen anyone like Curry and I think the Wildcats have an excellent shot vs. Wisconsin.

As for Western Kentucky vs. UCLA, the task is much more difficult.  The strengths of the Hilltoppers, Lee and Brazelton, will be definitely challenged by Darren Collison, Russell Westbrook and Josh Shipp.  Shipp, a great defensive guard, will be assigned to cover Lee.  As for upfront, UCLA has a clear advantage with Kevin Love, the Double Double Mountain of Love, with his 17 points and 10 rebounds a game (Roy Hibbert, you should take notes on how hard this kid plays).   The Hilltoppers are small up front with their best rebounding forward, Jeremy Evans, who averages 5 rebounds a game, being a svelte 190 pounds at 6 foot 8.   Love and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute are just too big and too physical up front for the Hilltoppers.  UCLA will win this game.

One last thing, though there is a great article in the Onion spoofing the NIT, I have been very impressed with the crowds the NIT is getting at Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse among other places.  They have been loud, especially the Buckeye home crowd last night vs Dayton and the final four at MSG looks really good.  It will be interesting to see if Mississippi can continue their undefeated non-conference run (their 10 losses all came in SEC play). 

Finally, the MAAC women's postseason ended Monday night when Marist lost to LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament, while Iona lost at St John's in the second round of the NIT.  This was the second year in a row that both teams were in their respective postseason tournaments and the second year in a row that each won a game in their postseason tournament - Marist beat Ohio State and Middle Tennessee State in the NCAA tournament last year and beat DePaul this year, while Iona beat LIU last year in the NIT and Quinnipiac this year.  Both coaches, Brian Giorgis and Tony Bozzella deserve a great amount of praise for the coaching work they do.  And both, Marist and Iona are bringing in a talented recruiting class for next season.

UMass spoils C.M. Newton's Plans

You heard it here first as James Madison has hired Marist head coach Matt Brady as the new coach of the Dukes.

After the first half of the Syracuse-NIT semifinal game, which had the Orange leading the Minutemen 43-24, C.M. Newton and the boys were probably lighting up cigars figuring they had the Cuse and their  legion of fans heading to MSG.   But those cigars must have set off the sprinkler system in their box suite because those cigars got doused in the second half as the Minutemen charged up the hill and looked like North Carolina.  UMass, much to Tom Kemp's chagrin, scored FIFTY SEVEN second half points as the Minutemen edged Syracuse 81-77 and moved on to the NIT Semis at the Garden.  UMass won the earlier meeting at the Carrier Dome as well, 107-100.  The Minutemen have managed to set two records on Syracuse this year.  First, UMass's 107 points in the first win marked the most points ever scored on Syracuse at the Carrier Dome since it opened in 1980.  Second, no team had ever beaten Syracuse twice in the Carrier Dome in the same season. There's a couple of nice recruiting tools for coach Travis Ford.

The second part of C.M.'s plan went according to schedule as Florida surprised Arizona State on the Sun Devils' home court 70-57.  So MSG gets the former two time defending NCAA national champ Gators as well as the Minutemen.  Tonight, C.M. and the boys are hoping for Ohio State at home to knock off Dayton, though that will be a bigger challenge now with Chris Wright back for the Flyers.   Meanwhile, C.M is probably neutral with the #1 seed Virginia Tech Hokies home to face C.M's old fellow SEC foe Mississippi. 

And its not too often you get to see in the same postseason where the same two schools men's teams and women's teams face each other.  In the quarterfinals of the CBI, Virginia at home downed Old Dominion Monday night, while in the second round of the NCAA women's tournament last night, the Lady Monarchs on their home court gained revenge and won on a three pointer in overtime to defeat the Cavaliers.  Somehow, I think the Lady Monarchs' win was more important and much sweet revenge. :-)

Thoughts From the First Two Rounds

Here are some thoughts from the first two rounds.

It was noted in today's USA Today that the Butler vs. Tennessee game yesterday marked the earliest time in NCAA Tournament history that two 30 win teams faced each other in the tournament.  I will say this again, it is an absolute crime to have seeded Butler #7 in the tournament and have them face Tennessee in the second round.  The Bulldogs deserved a #5 seed at least.  However too many missed layups and free throws did them in (I can't believe they missed so many free throws, unButlerlike..is that a word?..should be).

All the talk from the Raleigh regional is about Davidson and rightly so.  But North Carolina is really good.  As in really, scary good.  They have tied a NCAA mark for two 100+ point games in the first two rounds of the tournament.  They can go eight or nine deep easy and their only senior is their backup point guard Quentin "Q" Thomas, who everytime he made a basket an incredibly loud long "Q" came from the crowd of Carolina blue.  They absolutely dominated the Arkansas game.  It was over at 9-0.

Curry and Richards get all the press, but Andrew Loverdale is an important key for the Wildcats.  Without Loverdale, Davidson may not win that game vs. Gonzaga and Loverdale played exceptionally well down the stretch in both the win vs. the Zags and the win over Georgetown.  He gives them size and athleticism in the frontcourt and he can hit the jumper at the top of the key when teams play zone against the Wildcats.

Louisville is flying under the radar.  Two games, two blowouts.  Pitino has his gang going.  Will be a really good game vs. Texas. 

Courtney Lee and Tyrone Brazelton may be the most underrated duo in the tournament.   Ty Rogers may have beaten Drake with the buzzer winning three, but it was Brazelton's 35 points that caused the Bulldogs such grief.  Then Lee nails 25 points against San Diego.  If one won't get you, the other will.  Here's hoping they give the Bruins all they can handle.

No offense to Mississippi State, but lucky for Memphis they weren't playing a Sweet Sixteen quality team, otherwise they would have gone home.  You can't keep going 15 for 32 from the line in the tournament and expect the rest of your game to put you over the top.  And don't give me this bull about the free throws down the stretch count the most.  Missed free throws pile up whether its the beginning, middle or the end of the game.  You have to hit your free throws no matter when.  I have the feeling Michigan State is going to teach the Tigers a lesson.

One last thing to the NCAA committee.  Next time, schedule mid majors vs. majors in the first round of the tournament.  And don't tell me you can't do it.  What's wrong with having Nova take on Drake and Clemson take on Western Kentucky in the first round and Butler face Arizona and West Virginia take on South Alabama.  Its the only way to really see how good the mid majors are.

And oh, one final thing.  Eric Gordon, stay in school. You have a lot to work on, young man, most importantly giving your teammates 40 minutes of effort.  No, Mal, I'm not letting up on Gordon.

I may have some more thoughts later.  But its now time to head to St John's to watch Tony Bozzella's Lady Gaels take on the Red Storm in the second round of the Women's NIT.

One More Posting from Raleigh

Its 4:00 am on Monday morning, heading out to the airport shortly to fly back to Long Island.  its been a fun trip.  I'd say of the six games I witnessed, only two, the two games with Davidson were really good games.  Yes, North Carolina looked awesome in their two wins, but the two Davidson games, they were special (yesterday's Arkansas game was over when NC started out 9-0).  There are certain things you can say you have done in your life, outside of the special things with your family which are obvious, that you will be able to look back on when they are mentioned that you can say, "Yes, I was there".  But to be able to say that you did this with two longtime friends (and your friend's wife who is terrific) on a great trip, that's extra special.

Well, yes, I was there to see Davidson come back in both their games to beat higher seeded opponents.  But the Georgetown game was extra special.  Being a life Long Island native (I was originally going to use boy instead of native, but alas at 42, that doesn't work anymore), I have watched a lot of Big East games in my day, live or on TV.  I can't ever recollect any team coming back from a 17 point deficit to the mighty Georgetown Hoyas (I have to go and do some homework on that).  Yet, I witnessed Davidson do exactly just that. 

Its a tribute to Bob McKillop's philosophy of ball movement that basically wore down two teams, Gonzaga and Georgetown. Its because the Wildcat players continually move, continually pass, look for weaknesses that eventually the other team just basically wears out on defense.   Yes, Georgetown had 20 turnovers, but much of that credit should go to an underrated Wildcat defensive effort,  And yes, Georgetown was abysmal in free throw shooting.  But remember, Georgetown shot 63 percent for the game. But if you watched the game yesterday for the first 25 minutes (at least), Georgetown's swallowing defense contained Stephen Curry, Jason Richards and friends.  Curry only had 5 points after the first 25 minutes of the game.  But basically in those last 15 minutes, Davidson started getting Curry open, and Curry started hitting those shots.  And we got to witness one of the most amazing performances at the end of a game that you will ever see...by a sophomore no less. 

But it wasn't just Curry. Richards had 20 points on several drives to the basket.  Andrew Lovedale had another solid game with 11 points and 5 rebounds.  And Davidson took Roy Hibbert out of the game and was able to rebound with the Hoyas.  It wasn't a one man show, but one man did stand out.  Curry is an amazing talent.  Its not that he is just able to shoot, he can drive to the basket. He can find the open man (Curry had 5 assists).  And he works hard.  He is in constant motion. 

It was a pleasure to watch this game.  Well, time to go catch another flight.  I'll talk more about the other games from Sunday probably tomorrow. 

Quick Post on Yesterday's Second Round Action

Please make sure after reading this to check my previous post below on a big development in the CAA coaching ranks.

It wasn't a good day picks wise for me.  After a stellar Friday night evening session, I went only 4-4.  After watching Duke barely beat Belmont, I had a feeling that West Virginia would beat Duke.  They just pounded the Blue Devils on the boards, outrebounding Duke by a whopping 45-19.  Joe Alexander had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Joe Mazzula had 13 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists for the Mountaineers.  West Virginia now faces Xavier in the Sweet Sixteen.

Trevon Hughes scored 25 points, more than double his season average, as Wisconsin shot 52 percent from the field downing Kansas State 72-55.  Michael Beasley and Bill Walker combined for 41 points on 15 of 30 shooting from the field, but the their teammates were held by the Badgers to 6 of 23 from the field. 

Purdue did its best to hang with Xavier, but the Musketeers balance was too much for the Boilermakers as CJ Anderson and Drew Lavender each had 18 points to lead Xavier over Purdue 85-78.  Xavier shot 54 percent from the field and went 26-33 from the line.  Here is the amazing thing about Purdue. Their entire starting five, which consists of two freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior returns next year. The Boilermakers will be good for the next several years.

Washington State' smothering defense held Notre Dame to 24.6 percent shooting as the Cougars hammered the Fighting Irish 61-41.  Big East player of the year, Luke Harangody, who averages shooting 50 percent from the field, was held to 3 of 17 shooting in the game. The Fighting Irish were held to about 39 points under their season average by the stingy Cougars.

In the best game of the day, Marquette did everything it could against Stanford, including outrebounding the much taller Cardinal, but in the end, it was too much Brook Lopez.  Lopez had 30 points, including the game winning basket with 1.3 seconds leading the Cardinal over the Golden Eagles 82-81.  Stanford coach Trent Johnson was ejected in the first half of the game for stepping onto the court before time had been officially called after his first technical foul.  Johnson admitted later he was out of line.  There was a major disparity in the free throw attempts as Marquette had only 12 compared to Stanford's 28.

Kansas showed the country how well they can play defense as the Jayhawks held UNLV to 26 percent shooting from the field and pulled away from the pesky Runnin Rebels in the second half, winning 75-56.  The Jayhawks also shot 58 percent from the field, led by Mario Chalmers with 17 points. The Rebels kept the score as close as it was by shooting 27 of 34 from the foul line.

Michigan State outplayed Pitt at its own game as the Spartans downed the Panthers 65-54.  The Spartans held the Panthers to 32 percent shooting and outrebounded the Panthers 32-20.  Pitt had no answer for Spartan guards Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas who combined for 40 points.  Lucas repeatedly drove by the Panthers guards who could not keep up with the freshman's quick drives.  And if it wasn't Lucas driving by them, it was Neitzel burying one of his six threes.  Pitt stayed in the game by shooting 18 of 19 from the foul line.  Levance Fields led the Panthers with 19 points.

Finally, in the second most exciting game, despite being outplayed for most of the game by an inspired Texas A&M team, UCLA managed to comeback and beat the Aggies 53-49.  Kevin Love and Drew Collison, combined for 40 of the Bruins 50 points and made huge baskets at the end.  The Bruins were down as many as 10 points in the second half 36-26 as Texas A&M' Josh Carter scored the first five points of the second half.  However, UCLA chipped away at the lead cutting it to 44-43 with 5:25 left. The next two minutes were crucial in that the Aggies had a chance to extend the lead but missed on three of four free throw attempts and were only up 45-43 with 3:20 left.  Kevin Love then hit two turnaround jumpers to put the Bruins up 47-45. The Aggies would tie the game up at 47, then again at 49, until Collison hit his second layup in a row to put the Bruins up two, 51-49.  Then the Bruins' Josh Shipp  blocked Donald Sloan's shot attempt and Russell Westbrook picked up the loose ball and ended the game with an emphatic jam.