09 Mar16 - Great Pretenders

Volume XIII, No. 19 - 09 Mar 16

Great Pretenders

We got the ACC tournament this year in Atlanta. (Usually, it's the SEC tourney.) Contract food vendors were allowed to serve Coke, but they had to pour it out of the bottle into a cup (so the cameras wouldn't catch anyone with a Coke product at a Pepsi-sponsored event). With the SEC tourney, it's all about the Kentucky fans; the Wildcat Nation takes over the Georgia Dome -- you feel like a visitor in your own city. With the ACC, the UNC fans are a close substitute -- it's a large state school with a storied tradition -- but you also have a sizable Duke contingent as well. With UNC and Duke, you never get one without the other. The SEC is one world that's not yours and you're living inside someone else's paradigm. Weird, but not an unfamiliar feeling for a minority in this nation. The ACC is two factions on top of you and you're not a part of either one -- that's more of a Third World feeling where there's a fight going on that doesn't involve you directly that you're witnessing from the outside. One feeling is, "Are you one of us or not?" The other is, "Which side are you on?" (It reminds me of the 7th Grade when Roy LeCraw told me I had to declare right then and there between Georgia and Georgia Tech which one I was for. I didn't particularly care; but, moreso, it made no sense to me why he thought it was so important.)

The residual mid-major conference tourneys offered no surprises for the most part. That's good news. Gonzaga trounced St. Mary's 83-58 in the WCC final -- pPatrick Mills was back playing for the Gaels, but his wrist was still sore and it affected his play (especially, his shooting). Preset host schools came through on their home courts in the METRO ATLANTIC/MAAC (where Siena beat Niagara comfortably @77-70), COLONIAL (where VCU routed George Mason @71-50) and the SOCON (where host Chattanooga beat giant-killer College of Charleston @80-69.) Utah State (unlike Davidson) didn't leave the choice up to the Selection Committee as to whether they sufficiently dominated inside their weak conference -- they completed the TiTo double in the WAC. Revamped Western Kentucky repeated as SUN BELT TiTo champ (64-56 over upstart South Alabama) despite a new coach and a Replacement Squad of bit players from last year.
     In 1BC land, TiTo was the rule as regular season titlists Stephen F Austin (SOUTHLAND), Cal State-Northridge (BIG WEST), Morgan State (MEAC) and Alabama State (SWAC) won their tourneys at neutral sites while American (PATRIOT), Robert Morris (NEC) and first-time dancer Binghamton (forever SUNY-B to some of us) won at home after earning the right to host their conference tourneys. Weber State fell at home in the BIG SKY tourney, paving the way for last year's champ Portland State (featuring 5-6 pJeremiah Dominguez) to return to the NCAAs once again.
     North Dakota State, in its first full year of Division-I eligibility, followed Title with Tourney in the SUMMIT to earn a trip to the NCAAs first time out. The seniors (including 5-11 pBen Woodside) sat out a year so they could make it through the five-year provisional transition to D-I just to have this chance (and they barely made it 66-64 in the final over Oakland on pWoodside's game-winning jumper).

Memphis won its fourth straight TiTo double in CONFERENCE USA (the last three undefeated). The Tigers pushed their in-conference win streak to 61 games. That's only 3 games shy of the all-time conference record (currently held by Kentucky in the SEC). (They haven't been headed inside the league ever since the Great Conference Shuffle of '06 resulted in the departure of Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati and DePaul from C-USA to the Big East.)

Cleveland State upset host Butler 57-@54 to win the HORIZON crown and crash the NCAA party with an automatic bid. In the ATLANTIC 10, Temple (featuring tDionte Christmas) knocked off top-seeded Xavier 55-53 in the semis and then beat upstart Duquesne 69-64 to claim its second straight A-10 tourney crown. In the SEC, Mississippi State (featuring shot-blocker cJarvis Varnado) upset LSU 67-57 in the semis and beat Tennessee 64-61 in the final to write its own ticket to the Dance. Likewise in the PAC-10, USC rolled past California @79-75, UCLA @65-@55 and Arizona State @66-63 to snatch a bid away from some hungry bubble team.

Not only did the Party Crashers (USC, Mississippi State, Temple and Cleveland State) cut down on the available at-large bids, but they and other Pretenders disrupted the draws of the major conference tournaments. With unbalanced scheduling in regular season conference play, it's not always apparent which team is really the best just by looking at the final standings. Louisville won the Big East title and tournament in arguably the league's greatest year ever (and garnered the overall #1-seed for the NCAA tournament because of it), but they did so without ever facing either Pittsburgh or Connecticut on the road in the regular season or on neutral ground in the conference tournament. Pitt lost to West Virginia 60-74 in its first game, while Connecticut lost to Syracuse 117-@127 in SIX OVERTIMES in what was undeniably THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED. (High-quality from start to finish; the underdog receiving home-state support from the Madison Square Garden crowd -- what better place for such drama? -- Syracuse had the game-winning three-pointer at the end of regulation by gEric Devendorf disallowed by a tenth of a second; the Orange never had the lead during any of the first five overtimes but still persevered to pull out the most dramatic win ever. Too bad classless UConn coach Jim Calhoun chose to nitpick his team's miscues in the postgame press conference rather than just step back and praise their effort without critique.) So no meeting between Pitt-UConn-Lville at all.
     In fact, none of the elite teams in the BCS conferences faced each other at all in their league tourneys. pTy Lawson's toe injury forced him to sit out the ACC tourney and UNC struggled mightily without him. (With no one to push the pace or penetrate the lane, the Tar Heels were forced to try to win games with halfcourt defense and one-on-one play on offense -- not their strong suit.) UNC barely beat Virginia Tech 79-76 and then fell to Florida State 70-73. (Tough luck because fTyler Hansbrough needs fewer than 10 points now to break J.J. Redick's all-time ACC scoring mark. It would have been sweet for him to do so in the ACC final against Duke. Instead, it will come in front of a partisan Greensboro Pod crowd on Thursday.) Wake Forest went belly-up in their first game, losing to Maryland 64-75. So UNC-Duke-Wake didn't get to decide mano-a-mano which two got the coveted Pod slots; they went to UNC and Duke by default (while Wake got bounced to Miami).
     Baylor's bid for a upset win fell one game short in the BIG 12 final, losing to Missouri 60-73 (but not before they had knocked off Kansas 71-64 and Oklahoma State edged Oklahoma @71-@70). So no Oklahoma-Kansas-Missouri showdown, either. (But somehow Oklahoma, despite neither winning Title nor Tourney, landed the coveted Kansas City Pod slot while KU was shipped to Memphis [with Memphis in KC] and Mizzou got bounced to Boise.)
     Ohio State's 82-70 upset of Michigan State ruined a hoped-for matchup between MSU and eventual champ Purdue. MissSt's heroics prevented an LSU-Tennessee clash in the SEC. USC prevented a rubber match between Washington and UCLA. The highest profile BCS games we got all weekend were three semifinals: [1]Louisville d. [4]Villanova (69-55), [2b]Purdue d. [2a]Illinois (@66-56) and [3b]Arizona State d. [1]Washington (75-65). That's it. The Pretenders ruined things for everybody.
     Are so many upsets a sign of strength from the bottom up for these leagues or just weakness at the top? Pretenders (solid teams who were in the bubble picture and stepped up) is one thing, but Gate Crashers (teams who would otherwise be nowhere near an at-large bid) is another. That angle leaves the BIG EAST, ACC and BIG 10 looking healthy, and the BIG 12, PAC-10 and particularly the SEC looking a bit suspect.

No glaring omissions with the available at-large bids. Penn State (which did nothing wrong losing to Purdue in Indianapolis) was left out, while Texas A&M (which lost 83-88 to Texas Tech in the BIG 10 first round) managed to get in. Dayton lost to Duquesne 66-77, California lost to USC, and Arizona lost to Arizona State yet all got in while San Diego State beat host UNLV and top-seed BYU (falling 50-52 to Utah in the MWC final) got no love. Blowout tourney losses obviously did in Creighton and St. Mary's (plus the fact that pMills still isn't 100%).

Grossly overseeded: Utah, Boston College. Grossly underseeded: Purdue, Arizona State, Butler. Once again UNC and Duke get a cushy NC Pod to allow them to coast into the Sweet 16 in front of partisan crowds. (Do you figure LSU/Butler and Texas/Minnesota will be easier to beat in Greensboro than, say, Miami?) It's not their placement in those Pods that's the problem -- the Committee put Georgetown there ahead of Duke last year when the results warranted it; the problem is perennially choosing Greensboro/Charlotte/Raleigh as a host site so that a Top 16 year guarantees a sweet Pod spot year-in and year-out. No other area -- not Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia -- gets chosen every single year like the heart of North Carolina. Villanova gets to play in Philly this year, though -- that's huge. It can only mean that the Memphis site was deemed to be the Tigers' home court that Memphis didn't get to play there. Neither Purdue nor Butler got to stay in Indianapolis. Xavier didn't get to play in Dayton (but Ohio State did). Minnesota didn't get Minneapolis.
     Of all the first-round tickets to have, the place to be is Dayton: Play-In game, plus the top two overall seeds ([M1]Louisville and [E1]Pittsburgh) playing side-by-side in the two Pod slots.

This is at least the third time I can remember North Carolina's entering the NCAA tournament with title hopes yet with a key injury to its point guard. In 1976, the Tar Heels were #2 (behind Indiana) when pPhil Ford injured his elbow in a pickup game just before the tournament started. In 1984, pKenny Smith was the freshman pg for the #1 Tar Heels (featuring bMichael Jordan and cSam Perkins) when his (?wrist?) injury led to an early exit. Now ACC Player of the Year pTy Lawson has an injured toe that kept him out of the ACC tournament when they clearly need to be at full strength to have a shot at this year's title.

The BIG EAST received three #1 seeds, but can it really place three teams in the Final Four? (You bet it can.) They'll have to do so and have two members compete in the final for the national championship in order to truly claim this was the greatest season any conference ever had. (After all, they've already accomplished that feat back in 1985.)
     The NIT certainly has star power among the NCAA castoff squads: bCurtis Jerrells(Baylor), pStephen Curry(Davidson), tNick Calathes(Florida), bOsiris Eldridge(Illinois State), bJodie Meeks(Kentucky), gJack McClinton(Miami[Florida]), cLuke Harangody(Notre Dame), pPatrick Mills(St. Mary's), pDevan Downey(South Carolina), tLuther Hudson(Tennessee-Martin), bA.D. Vassallo(Virginia Tech).
     The CBI field is made up of teams who barely had a single moment of noticeable results during the season. (Last year's winner, Tulsa, used it as a stepping stone ... to the NIT this year.)

-- Ron

P.S. If you're interested, the 26th Annual Hoops Contest is now open for entry (through Thursday, 19 March 12Net).

Key games this week:

NCAA

Tuesday:

OpenRd/128s PRELIMINARY PLAY-IN @ Dayton OH

• [M17]Alabama St v [M17]Morehead St
  

Thursday, Saturday:

1stRd/64s POD @ Greensboro NC

• [S1]@N Carolina [S16]Radford
• [S8]LSU v [S9]Butler
• [E2]@Duke v [E15]SUNY-B
• [E7]Texas v [E10]Minnesota

1stRd/64s POD @ Philadelphia PA

• [W1]Connecticut [W16]Chattanooga
• [W8]BYU v [W9]Texas A&M
• [E3]@Villanova v [E14]American
• [E6]UCLA v [E11]VCU

1stRd/64s POD @ Kansas City MO

• [W2]Memphis v [W15]Cal St-Northridge
• [W7]California v [W10]Maryland
• [S2]Oklahoma v [S15]Morgan St
• [S7]Clemson v [S10]Michigan

1stRd/64s POD @ Portland OR

• [W4]Washington v [W13]Mississippi St
• [W5]Purdue v [W12]No Iowa
• [S4]Gonzaga v [S13]Akron
• [S5]Illinois v [S12]We Kentucky

Friday, Sunday:

1stRd/64s POD @ Dayton OH

• [M1]Louisville v [M17]AlabamaSt/[M17]MoreheadSt(KY)
• [M8]@Ohio St v [M9]Siena
• [E1]Pittsburgh v [E16]E Tennessee St
• [E8]Oklahoma St v [E9]Tennessee

1stRd/64s POD @ Miami FL

• [S3]Syracuse v [S14]Stephen F Austin
• [S6]Arizona St v [S11]Temple
• [M4]Wake Forest v [M13]Cleveland St
• [M5]Utah v [12]Arizona

1stRd/64s POD @ Minneapolis MN

• [M2]Michigan St v [M15]Robert Morris
• [M7]Boston Col v [M10]USC
• [M3]Kansas v [M14]ND State
• [M6]W Virginia v [M11]Dayton

1stRd/64s POD @ Boise ID

• [W3]Missouri v [W14]Cornell
• [W6]Marquette v [W11]Utah St
• [E4]Xavier v [E13]Portland St
• [E5]Florida St v [E12]Wisconsin

NIT

Tuesday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ (s1)San Diego St v (s8)Weber St
• @ (c2)Notre Dame v (c7)UAB
• @ (f2)Penn St v (f7)Geo Mason
• @ (s2)St Mary's v (s7)Washington St
• @ (c3)New Mexico v (c6)Nebraska
• @ (f3)Niagara v (f6)Rhode Island
• @ (s3)S Carolina v (s6)Davidson
• @ (c4)Kentucky v (c5)UNLV

Wednesday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ (c1)Creighton v (c8)Bowling Green
• @ (f1)Florida v (f8)Jacksonville
• @ (a1)Auburn v (a8)TN-Martin
• @ (a2)Virginia Tech v (a7)Duquesne
• @ (a3)Baylor v (a6)Georgetown
• (f4)Miami-FL @ (f5)Providence
• @ (s4)Kansas St v (s5)Illinois St
• @ (a4)Tulsa v (a5)Northwestern

Thursday-Saturday, Monday week:

16s on-campus

• @(c1)Creighton/(c8)BowlingGreen v (c4)Kentucky/(c5)UNLV
• @(c2)NotreDame/(c7)UAB v (c3)NewMexico/(c6)Nebraska
• @(f1)Florida/(f8)Jacksonville v (f4)MiamiFL/(f5)Providence
• @(f2)PennSt/(f7)GeoMason v (f3)Niagara/(f6)RhodeIsland
• @(a1)Auburn/(a8)TNMartin v (a4)Tulsa/(a5)Northwestern
• @(a2)VirginiaTech/(a7)Duquesne v (a3)Baylor/(a6)Georgetown
• @ (s1)SanDiegoSt/(s8)WeberSt v (s4)KansasSt/(s5)IllinoisSt
• @ (s2)StMarys/(s7)WashingtonSt v (s3)SCarolina/(s6)Davidson

Tuesday-Wednesday week:

Qtrs on-campus

Tue 31 Mar, Thu 2 Apr

Semis,Finals @ New York NY /MSG/

• (c/Creighton) v (f/Florida)
• (s/SanDiegoSt) v (a/Auburn)

CBI

Tuesday:

1stRd/16s on-campus

• @ (1s)Nevada v (4s)UTEP
• @ (2s)Wyoming v (3s)Northeastern

Wednesday:

1stRd/16s on-campus

• @ (1w)Oregon St v (4w)Houston
• @ (1m)Stanford v (4m)Boise St
• @ (1e)Richmond v (4e)St John's
• @ (2w)WI-Green Bay v (3w)Vermont
• @ (2m)Wichita St v (3m)Buffalo
• @ (2e)Troy v (3e)Col of Charleston

Monday week:

Qtrs on-campus (by region)

• @ (1w)OregonSt/(4w)Houston v (2w)WIGreenBay/(3w)Vermont
• @ (1s)Nevada/(4s)UTEP v (2s)Wyoming/(3s)Northeastern
• @ (1m)Stanford/(4m)BoiseSt v (2m)WichitaSt/(3m)Buffalo
• @ (1e)Richmond/(4e)St John's v (2e)Troy/(3e)ColofCharleston

Wednesday week:

Semis on-campus (re-seeded)

Mon 30 Mar, Wed 1 Apr, (if necessary: Fri 3 Apr):

Finals on-campus (Best of 3)