Mid Major Hoops

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.