07 Mar19 - The Naismith Meteor Shower
The Naismith Meteor Shower
It's an annual event. A parade of stars shine brightly (and perhaps briefly). There are almost too many at once to fully appreciate the entire spectacle. That first weekend of the NCAA tournament is the best moment of the entire season. The conference tournaments are overstuffed. There are too many of them to focus on everthing that's happening, and the spotlight is still split among regional attention. Some few stars never make it past Championship Week. (We never got to see much of Eastern Washington's bRodney Stuckey, Rice's bMorris Almond, Loyola(Illinois)' bBlake Schilb, Western Kentucky's bCourtney Lee, Sam Houston State's fRyan Bright.) Some only got to show off their wares in the secondary spotlight of the NIT (Florida State's fAl Thornton, Oklahoma State's duo fMarrio Boggan,pJamesOn Curry, Utah State's tJaycee Carroll, Marist's pJared Jordan, Hofstra's great backcourt of bLoren Stokes,gAntoine Agudio, the three-point shooting of Bradley's gJeremy Crouch, the shot-blocking of Massachusetts' fStephane Lasme; Missouri State's gBlake Ahearn didn't get to join Gonzaga's gDerek Raivio and Butler's gA.J. Graves to display their three-way race for the free-throw shooting title in full view; we didn't even get to see Air Force's team display its version of the "Princeton" spread offense on a national stage.)
There's too much to fit in, for sure. But the first couple of rounds of the NCAA tournament do offer a singular national spotlight on those games and the stars within. We did get to see Davidson's gStephen Curry (son of NBA star Dell Curry) prove he was every bit the equal of ACC talent as he tore through Maryland for 30p in a game effort as his Wildcats tired late and lost to the Terrapins 70-82. We did get to see the awesome, gritty point guard matchup between VCU's Eric Maynor(22p;GWFG) and Duke's bGreg Paulus(25p6r) as the Rams pulled off the first-round upset of the Blue Devils, 79-77. (And VCU took Pittsburgh to overtime before losing in the second round, 79-84(OT).) We got to see Winthrop -- the sleeper that everybody knew about -- get it done, anyway: shocking Notre Dame with a 54-34 lead, giving it all back and trailing 63-64 with two minutes left, and then regrouping with a 11-0 closing run to win 74-64 (the first NCAA win ever for Winthrop or any Big South school). We got to see Southern Illinois and Butler validate every heap of praise showered on them as the darling mid-majors all season as both teams made it through to the Sweet 16. The Salukis (despite playing without injured fMatt Shaw for the bulk of two games) beat Holy Cross 61-51 and solidly defeated Virginia Tech 63-48. (Kansas, however, will be another story; but in another life earlier this season, these same Jayhawks did manage to lose to both Oral Roberts and DePaul, mind you.) Butler proved its NIT SEASON TIP-OFF championship to be no fluke as it defeated fellow mid-major Old Dominion 57-46 and then held on to knock off COLLEGE HOOPS/CVC champion Maryland 62-59.
Of the ultimate Sweet 16, ten were BCS teams that lived up to their seeding, the eleventh BCS team, #5 Tennessee, "upset" follow BCSer #4 Virginia 77-74. Two more spots went to the mid-majors we all had our eye on all season, SIU living up to its #4 seed and #5 Butler pulling the upset of #4 Maryland. The final three members of the group weren't pure Cinderellas, but they were as much of a surprise as we got this year. USC finished third in the powerhouse Pac-10, made the Pac-10 final (beating second-place Washington State along the way), but because of the way Oregon destroyed them in the conference final, it caused us to take our attention away from them. But the Trojans put together as fine a performance the first two rounds of the NCAAs as any of the elite "legit title-contender" top seeds. USC destroyed Arkansas 77-60 in Round 1 (disproving that the Razorbacks had earned a bid by "winning their way in" by making the SEC final) and pulled off the (second) biggest shocker of the tournament: a 87-68 drubbing of extreme buzzworthy Texas and Player of the Year tKevin Durant. tDurant had a "quiet" 30p (and 27p in the first round against New Mexico State), but he's not only out of the tournament, but most likely gone from the college scene altogether. [In order to claim you've made your mark on college basketball, a star player usually has to have taken his team to the Final Four once in his career. tDurant won't have that. He'll be the only freshman to be named national Player of the Year; but he won't match Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony, who led his team to the national championship (and Ohio State's cGreg Oden still has a great shot to do so himself this year).] Unheralded UNLV got no respect for winning the mostly unknown Mountain West conference tournament title on its own home floor, but how do you like them now that they've outhustled Georgia Tech 67-63 and then shocked #2-seed Wisconsin 74-68, led by gMichael Umeh(22p) and coach's son pKevin Kruger(16p7a) as Player of the Year runner-up fAlando Tucker only had 17p7r. [So arguably the two best players in the nation are already out of the tournament.] The third surprise survivor, Vanderbilt, impressively crushed George Washington (proving that the Colonials' automatic bid was the only way they should have been in the tournament) and toughed out a thrilling 78-74(2OT) win over #3 Washington State.
None of the questionable-bid teams fared very well: Conference tourney winners George Washington and Wright State were blown out; same for conference tourney finalist Arkansas. At-large Stanford was destroyed by Louisville 58-@78; Texas Tech fell to Boston College; Old Dominion lost to Butler; Gerogia Tech lost ugly to UNLV; and Illinois blew a lead against Virginia Tech. Purdue did manage to oust fellow Questionablee Arizona, 72-63.
With the major exception of Wisconsin, all of the elite top seeds made it through the first weekend. Kansas, Memphis and North Carolina had the least trouble. (UNC's fTyler Hansbrough is just fine now, after scoring 33p in the Tar Heels' 81-67 win over Michigan State.) Georgetown (over Boston College), UCLA (over Indiana), Florida (over Purdue) and Pittsburgh (over VCU) all had scares but ultimately delivered outstanding execution in crunch time with their seasons on the line. Xavier had archrival Ohio State down 55-44 with seven minutes left, but couldn't hold on as the Buckeyes' senior bRon Lewis(27p8r) sank a three-pointer to send the game into OT and freshman pMike Conley took over from there. [The shove by cGreg Oden at the end of regulation was intentional, but not flagrant enough to warrant any suspension in my book.] Texas A&M survived against Louisville, 72-69, as the Cardinals' gEdgar Sosa(31p) did everything but win the game in front of the partisan Lexington, KY crowd. Oregon survived a first-round scare against lightly regarded Miami(Ohio) 58-56, but responded with an excellent win over solid Winthrop 75-61 in the second round.
Vanderbilt helped the SEC place three of five teams in the Sweet 16 (Florida, Tennessee, Vandy) and go 7-2 overall to go along with three of four teams still alive in the NIT (Mississippi State, Georgia, Mississippi) and a 4-1 record there so far -- by far the most impressive performance. [There really was depth in that league that relegated the likes of LSU to eleventh place.] USC helped the Pac-10 keep three of five teams still alive as well (UCLA, Oregon, USC West) and 5-3 overall. Despite Texas' ouster, the Big 12 was still OK with two of four teams left (Kansas, Texas A&M) and a 5-2 record, plus one of two (Kansas State) and 1-1 in the NIT. The Big East (two of six: Georgetown, Pittsburgh, 5-4 overall; plus three of four in the NIT: West Virginia, Syracuse, DePaul, 4-1) hung onto respectability. But the ACC and Big 10 were big disappointments. The ACC only has North Carolina left out of seven bids, a 6-6 record (but three for three in the NIT: Clemson, Florida State, N.C. State, 5-0 overall). The Big 10's deliberate style of play caught up to it at tournament time yet again as only Ohio State remains from six bids, 6-5 overall plus oh-for-one in the NIT.
The NIT has one-and-a-half more rounds this week before the teams make it to New York for the semis and finals next Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, Mississippi State hosts Florida State in the North final and West Virginia hosts N.C. State. Clemson and Syracuse have one more game Monday before those two should meet on Wednesday in the South final. Kansas State and Georgia should handle Monday's opponents before facing off in the West final on Wednesday.
In the Big Dance, Florida has the easiest road on paper to the Final Four with only Oregon likely to have enough game to compete with them. (Butler's style is made to frustrate BCS big men, but these Gators can guard out on the perimeter when they need to. BU does have an NCAA history with UF some years back.) Kansas-Southern Illinois will be as physical as you could want, but the Jayhawk's height/speed will prove to be too much for the Salukis. KU's regional final date with UCLA/Pittsburgh will be no picnic, though. North Carolina's depth should prevail against USC's talent, but Georgetown looms as a major obstacle for the Tar Heels to make it to Atlanta. Ohio State and Tennessee went to the wire in Columbus; no reason to expect any less the second time around on a neutral court. But Memphis looks every bit the equal of Texas A&M and OSU in the South. On the form they've shown the first two rounds, I'd go with Kansas, North Carolina, Florida and Memphis. In '92, Duke got through The Greatest Game Ever Played in its Regional Final win over Kentucky before going on to repeat as national champion. Florida may well have its own version in the national semifinals with a rematch against Kansas.
-- Ron
Key games this week:
NCAA
Thursday, Saturday:
- NCAA SOUTH REGIONAL Semis,Final @ San Antonio TX
- [S1]Ohio St v [S5]Tennessee
- [S2]Memphis @ [S3]Texas A&M
- NCAA WEST REGIONAL Semis,Final @ San Jose CA
- [W1]Kansas v [W4]So Illinois
- @ [W2]UCLA v [W3]Pittsburgh
- NCAA MIDWEST REGIONAL Semis,Final @ St. Louis MO
- [M1]Florida v [M5]Butler
- [M3]Oregon v [M7]UNLV
- NCAA EAST REGIONAL Semis,Final @ East Rutherford NJ
- [E1]N Carolina v [E5]USC
- [E2]Georgetown v [D6]Vanderbilt
- NCAA FINAL FOUR,NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP @ Atlanta GA
- (MIDWEST) v (WEST)
- (EAST) v (SOUTH)
NIT
Monday:
- 16s on-campus
- @ [s1]Clemson v [s4]Mississippi
- @ [s2]Syracuse v [s6]
San Diego St - @ [w1]Air Force v [w4]Georgia
- @ [w2]Kansas St v [w3]DePaul
- Qtrs on-campus
- @ [e1]W Virginia v [e6]NC State
- @ [n1]Mississippi St v [n2]Florida St
- Qtrs on-campus
- @[s1]Clemson/[s4]Mississippi v @[s2]Syracuse/[s6]
SanDiegoSt - @[w1]AirForce/[w4]Georgia v @[w2]KansasSt/[w3]DePaul
- Semis, Finals @ New York, NY
- (east) v (north)
- (south) v (west)
posted by Ron @ Monday, March 19, 2007
