14 Apr 8 - The Salutatorian (POSTSEASON)

Volume XVIII, No. 23 - 14 Apr 8: POSTSEASON

The Salutatorian

[S1]Florida's only two losses all season had come when pScottie Wilbekin was missing(at Wisconsin) or missed a key segment(at Connecticut). This time he was physically present, but [E7]Connecticut's gRyan Boatright's individual defense on him made it seem like he wasn't there. The Gators started out great in the NCAA semifinal, up 16-4 nine minutes into the game -- their "snake charmer" style (lulling opponents to sleep with deliberate offense and tight defense) seemed to be working perfectly -- but 3 quick threes by the Huskies sparked an 11-0 run and UConn played loose from there on out. Fla had no answer for xDeAndreDaniels(20p10r5to)' matchup problem and it was "cut off the head and the body will die" when pWilbekin(4p1a) wasn't able to be a factor as [E7]Connecticut stunned everyone with the 63-53 upset.

    
[W2]Wisconsin's efficient offensive execution (and sharp-shooting) kept it close all game long with [M8]@Kentucky; then, after going 17-for-17 on free throws to that point, gTraevon Jackson was fouled while attempting a three-pointer with just :16 left in a tie game (71-71) -- but he only made 2 of 3 free throws, which set up gAaron Harrison's second-straight game-winning three-pointer in the past two games as the Wildcats electrified the crowd [79,444 fans -- the largest ever for a college basketball game] with the @74-73 win.

    
In the National Championship final, [E7]Connecticut opened up a 17-8 lead eight minutes into the game as bShabazz Napier(22p6r) and gRyanBoatright were able to get themselves open for jumpers. Meanwhile, the local Texas products (fJulius Randle[Dallas -- 10p6r4a; had to sit in the first half with cramps] and twins pAndrew Harrison[Houston; 8p5a5r] and pAaron Harrison[Houston; 7p0a;1/5 3s]) finally looked like freshmen who were overwhelmed by the occasion as only the second team ever to start five freshmen in the National Championship game (after Michigan '92, "The Fab Five"). The Huskies' margin ballooned to 30-15 with six minutes to go before 2 fouls on fDeAndre Daniels allowed [M8]@Kentucky to get back in the game. The Wildcats never led, but bJamesYoung(20p7r; whose drive and dunk rallied the troops) did his best to keep his team close. There were no late-game heroics this time, though, as the UConn drained its free throws (10-for-10 overall) while UK didn't (13-for-24 overall) as the [E7]Connecticut led wire-to-wire in its 60-@54 win. (I've said it before and I'll say it again: Guards matter.)

Take nothing away from Creighton's xDoug McDermott -- he's unquestionably the Player of the Year (fantastic skills and one of the most prolific scorers ever, and doing it for a team that was actually a national contender); but not even he won more big games (almost single-handedly) than did Connecticut's bShabazz Napier, who capped off a spectacular senior season with the Most Outstanding Player Award for the Final Four -- let's call him, "The Salutatorian".

    
Give full credit to Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie for the two-year effort of keeping this team (and himself) in the right frame of mind to endure last year (when he was only designated as "interim coach" and when there was no postseason waiting for them due to NCAA suspension) and to take full advantage of this year (when he was given the job on a permanent basis and the team was fully reinstated) with big wins in the preseason, a solid conference season and Big Win after Big Win in the postseason (including winning the NCAA tournament on his first try -- only Steve Fisher matched that when he took over Michigan at the start of the 1989 tourney).

    
UConn personally prevented an all-SEC final and pushed the NCAA record for the "left-over BIG EAST" to 9-3 (while the basketball-only "seceded" BIG EAST could only manage 2-4). The strong overall postseason effort raised the AMERICAN's overall rating to No. 3 (behind the newly elevated No. 1 BIG 10 and the demoted No. 2 BIG 12).

    
The overall lessons from this year's NCAA tournament? The Ultimate Team ([M1]Wichita State) vs The Ultimate All-Stars ([M2]@Kentucky) were as evenly matched at the highest quality as you could want. (Nurture vs Nature was essentially a tie.) The Little Guy still has a place at the table as [M14]Mercer, [E12]Harvard, [S12]Stephen F. Austin and [W12]North Dakota State were all able to pull off 32-Splash wins over B-Major and name-brand programs. Even the dwindling Mid-Major class scored a place in the Sweet 16 behind [S11]Dayton. Once again, a team went from "barely in" FIRST FOUR status all the way through to the Sweet 16 ([M11a]Tennessee). In the end, the best collection of freshman talent found itself once the postseason began, buoyed by the "home-away-from-home" environment that the travelling Big Blue Nation provides it at any "neutral" site; while one of the brightest individual stars all season long (bShabazz Napier) led his team all the way to Ultimate Redemption and the National Championship.

The ACC was shut out in the NIT semifinals as [w1]SMU and [m1]Minnesota won tight games -- the Mustangs came back to beat [e3]Clemson 65-59 while the Golden Gophers held off [s1]Florida State 67-64; the final went down to the wire as the Gophers pulled out a 65-63 win.

    
Siena won 61-@57 on the road to take a strangle hold right away in the CBI final series; but Fresno State bounced back with an 89-@75 road win of its on (thanks to 63% shooting and 35-for-43 on free throws); in the rubber game, it was the home-standing Saints who struck a blow for 1BCs everywhere with an @81-68 win (in a solid team effort) over the slumming-B-Major Bulldogs to claim the crown.

    
In the CIT semis, Murray State routed Mid-Major Pacific, @98-75, while Yale won its third-straight road game, 75-@62 at VMI; in the final, Murray clamped down, @65-57 (as 5-11 pCameron Payne[25p6a7r] led the way while the Racers held the Bulldogs to just 26% shooting).

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The continued fallout from the Great Conference Migration had its effects on the college basketball season. When The Catholic 7 seceded from the old Mega-BIG EAST to form a "basketball-only" conference while the "left-behind" schools regrouped as the new AMERICAN, it forced a change in terminology (from the no-longer-applicable "BCS" to the new, more accurate "B-Major") to describe the elite conferences. With two B-Major leagues in place of one, with Creighton's move from the MISSOURI VALLEY to the "seceded" BIG EAST demoting the MVC to Anti-Spoiler/1BC status, and with the expanded 16-team CONFERENCE USA's gobbling up teams going nowhere fast, the Mid-Major "Middle" was nearly squeezed entirely out of existence. Only a questionable NCAA bid to BYU qualified the WEST COAST as the only other MM league besides the 6-bid ATLANTIC 10. The newly formed Mega-ACC gave us a brand new high-profile rivalry in Syracuse-Duke; but although it did place two teams in the NIT semifinals, only its TiTo champ [E1]Virginia made it into the NCAA Sweet 16.

    
Despite its overall depth, the BIG 12 had little success in tournament play -- it claimed only one major preseason crown (Iowa State/DIAMOND HEAD) and key injuries robbed three of its top teams ([S2]Kansas, [E3]Iowa State and [W9]Oklahoma State) of their best performances in the NCAAs. Meanwhile, the BIG 10 got healthy at the right time (i.e., [E4]Michigan State) and delivered 3 Sweet 16 teams and the NIT champion ([m1]Minnesota). The PAC-12, strong all year, also posted 3 Sweet 16 teams. Much maligned during the regular season, the SEC went 11-3 in the NCAAs, sending two teams to the Final Four and a third to the Sweet 16. The "basketball-only" BIG EAST bowed out in the Round of 32 while the "left-behind" AMERICAN claimed the National Championship, a second team to the Sweet 16 and a third team to the NIT finals as well.

    
The endangered Mid-Major species had its one highlight in [S11]Dayton representing the 6-bid ATLANTIC 10 in the Sweet 16; but slumming MMs couldn't come through in the CIT.

    
The 1BCs were alive and well in the NCAA with four 32-Splash upsets (not counting [W1]Wichita State); posted some road upsets in the NIT including three teams in the final eight ([s3]Louisiana Tech, [m3]Southern Mississippi and [e5]Belmont); and claimed both the CBI (past slumming B-Majors) and CIT (past slumming MMs) crowns.

National Player of the Year, xDoug McDermott(Creighton) passed the 3000 career points mark for a team that was a national contender inside its B-Major conference and in the NCAA tournament overall. Runner-Up bShabazz Napier(Connecticut) led his team with dramatic one-man-team performances all year and ultimately all the way to the NCAA title. tNik Stauskas(Michigan) led his team to the BIG 10 title (despite losing its best player, cMitch McGary, for the season early on). bSean Kilpatrick(Cincinnati) finished No. 2 all-time (to legend xOscar Robertson) on his school's scoring list but couldn't get any help in the postseason.

    
This year's SuperFrosh dazzled at times, but ultimately weren't the can't-miss Golden Child talents we've seen in the past. tJabari Parker(Duke) and tAndrew Wiggins(Kansas) shrank to the occasion when their teams needed them in the NCAAs. fJulius Randle(Kentucky) and his all-freshman starting five disappointed during the regular season with their team's results but discovered new-found poise in the postseason; but even they ultimately showed their youth in the brightest spotlight of the National Championship game.

I hope this year's weekly columns were worth reading. After making the decision not to send them out by e-mail, they were probably even less timely than they had been in the recent past. Continuing health issues were a factor in all of that (but, hopefully, the worst of that is over.) I still enjoy writing the columns, but getting them out was more of a chore this season than it ever has been before.

[Congratulations to the winner of this year's Hoops Contest: Joe Holloway of Vestal, NY -- his second-straight title and the first person to win three times overall -- over 112 contestants.]

Next year, it's The Road To Indianapolis!)

-- Ron