19 Apr 9 - The Redemption (II) (POSTSEASON)

Volume XXIII, No. 23 - 19 Apr 9: POSTSEASON The Redemption (II) In the first National Semifinal, [S1]Virginia controlled the pace but [M5]Auburn hung close and even led 31-28 at the break. The A-Tigers started the second half sluggishly and the Cavaliers eeked out to a 50-43 lead with eight minutes to go and still seemed to have things well in hand with a 57-47 lead with just five left. But Aub turned the game around entirely, scoring 14-straight points, to lead 61-57 with only :15 on the clock. One more about face saw Kyle Guy sink a three-pointer, get fouled shooting a three at the buzzer, and then proceed to sink all three free throws for the win, 63-62 - - WOW! (All in all, a miraculous escape by UVa and then the replay shows the refs missed a huge double-dribble call bringing the ball up the floor - - Yikes.)      In the second Semi, [W3]Texas Tech's smothering defense was on display against [E2]Michigan State as the first half ended, 23-21. In the second half, the Red Raiders stretched the lead to as much as 48-35 with under ten minutes to go. The MS-Spartans made one push to get to within 51-52 with three minutes left. But bJarrett Culver led a 9-0 close for the win, 61-51. (Matt Mooney[22p] made the best case of anyone for the otherwise vacant spot as Graduate Transfer Of The Year. This time last year, he was the in-conference foil at South Dakot for xMike Daum at South Dakota State. While he made the GT jump to B-Major Texas Tech, xDaum stayed behind to win the 1BC SUMMIT regular season title only to miss out on even making the NCAA tourney this year.)      The National Championship was a defensive struggle from the start: it was only 3-2 after the first four minutes. [W3]Texas Tech couldn't score a field goal for the first seven minutes as [S1]Virginia led 17-7 midway through the first half. Three quick threes loosened things up as the Red Raiders had tied it at 19-19 with seven to go. The Cavaliers led 32-29 at the break and a good start to the second half put them up 38-29 right away. TxT wouldn't go away, though, and things were tied again at 59-59 with just three minutes left; and it was gut-check time for both teams the rest of the way until things were tied 68-68 at the end of regulation. UVa pulled away in the overtime on 12-for-12 free-throw shooting to win, 85-77(OT). bDe'Andre Hunter(27p7r) led the Wahoos, but Kyle Guy(24p0a) was named Most Outstanding Player for his overall play in both Final Four games. tJarrett Culver(15p6a9r;5/22fg,0/6 3s) struggled to lead TxT. Virginia became only the second team to win the title without ever having to face a No.1- or No.2-seed (after UNLV did so in 1990). If you believe in karma, destiny and redemption, you certainly have that story line with Virginia. Ralph Sampson's '83 Cavalier team (that lost to {Chaminade} in the biggest regular-season upset in history) didn't even make the Final Four. (They made it The Year After him in '84.) Last year's team (which suffered the biggest postseason upset in history losing to 16th-seed Marlyand-Baltimore County as a No.1 seed) had three holdovers (Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and De'Andre Hunter) who now have claimed the ultimate prize, the NCAA National Championship. Doesn't get any better than that. The B-Majors once again took until the Elite 8 to lock out everyone else from the NCAAs (par for the course). The ACC (15-6, led by 6-0 UVa, one Elite 8, three Sweet 16s) overtook the top of the conference ratings after its strong postseason; the BIG 10 (13-8, Final 4 MichSt, one E8, one S16) wound up second overall; the BIG 12 (8-6, F4 TxT) moved up to third overall while the SEC (12-7, F4 Aub, one E8, two S16s) slipped to fourth; the BIG EAST (2-4, no one past the second round) barely hung onto its status. (The MAC [1-1] lost its BM rating, going 1-4 overall in the postseason.)      The AMERICAN (4-4, one S16), WEST COAST (3-2, one E8) and PACIFIC-12 (4-3, one S16) all were the best among Mid-Majors; the SOUTHERN (1-1, one 32-Splash), OHIO VALLEY (2-2, one 32S) both at least made a Splash; the MISSOURI VALLEY (0-1), IVY LEAGUE (0-1), ATLANTIC 10 (0-2), WAC (0-1) all made no impact.      In 1BC-land, none of the Red Swirl made an impact - - the SUN BELT (0-1), disappointing MOUNTAIN WEST (0-2), HORIZON (0-1), COLONIAL (0-1) and CONFERENCE USA (0-1) all went oh-fer. It was left to "Top Of The Flops" to breakthrough as both the BIG WEST (1-1, one 32S) and ATLANTIC SUN (1-1, one 32S) made Splashes; otherwise, the PATRIOT (0-1), SUMMIT (0-1), BIG SOUTH (0-1), AMERICA EAST (0-1), SOUTHLAND (0-1), METRO ATLANTIC (0-1), NORTHEAST (0-1), BIG SKY (0-1) all made no impression; and neither the SWAC (0-1) or MEAC (0-1) could get out of the Play-In game. - - - - - - In the NIT, BIG12[6]/[s2]Texas turned the tables on state-rival conferencemate BIG12/[w1]TCU in the semis (58-44) while 1BC darling A-SUN/[e5]Lipscomb extended its magical run, beating AMER/[m6]Wichita State (71-64 as Garrison Mathews[34p5r] starred again). In the final, the Longhorns were able to corral Mathews to win going away (81-66 led by MOP: Kerwin Roach as xDylan Osetkowski[19p5a11r] starred). (A B-Major also-ran winning the NIT has been par for the course for a while now.)      With only a 16-team draw, the CBI can seem the least prestigious of the postseason tourneys; but it does draw a few BM and MM teams and its "Best of 3" Championship Final Series gives it an extra cachet. AMER[7b]/[sA1]South Florida won the first game at home against BIGE/[mA1]DePaul (@63-61 on David Collins' game-winner); then, the Blue Demons rallied at home to win in Game Two in overtime (@100-96[OT] as gMax Strus[32p] and cPaul Reed[28p16r] both dueled 35p8a from pLaQuincy Rideau and 26p13r from cAlexis Yetna); but the SF-Bulls controlled the rubber game from the start to claim the crown on the road (77-@65 as MVP: David Collins[19p5a8r] led the way). (A Mid-Major also-ran winning CBI is par for the course as well.)      In the CIT, CUSA[6a]/[1x]Marshall edged BIGS/Hampton (@80-78 as tJon Elmore[28p5a9r] starred) in the semis while HORIZ/Green Bay edged SWAC/Texas Southern in overtime (@87-86[OT] as tSandy Cohen III[28p7a8r] starred). In the final, Marsh rallied at home to win going away against GBay (@90-70 behind MVP: pC.J. Burks[28p6a7r]). Overall, though, it was gJon Elmore who led the Thundering Herd as, this year, he became not only the all-time leading scorer in school history (and CONFERENCE USA history); what's more, together, he and his father, Gay Elmore(VMI) became the all-time leading Father/Son scoring duo in NCAA history (passing Dell Curry[Virginia Tech]/Stephen Curry[Davidson] - - WOW!) (A "slumming" Red Swirl also-ran winning CIT is stronger than usual.) Despite their Mid-Major ratings, the SOUTHERN, MISSOURI VALLEY and IVY LEAGUE only received one NCAA bid each so the BM-MM-1BC split for the NIT got squeezed in the middle 13-6-(7:6) compared to last year's 11-9-12 representation. The BIG 12's 8-1 record (behind champ Tx and semi TCU) saved the bacon for the MM's 18-12 performance. (That's now SEVEN OF EIGHT YEARS for a MM NIT Champ.) Lips' 4-1 run to the final powered the 1BC/Flop's surprising 5-6 showing.      Two "slumming" B-Majors on top of two Mid-Majors is unsually strong for the CBI. Finalist BIGE/DePaul's 4-2 run to the Final Series powered the BM's 5-3 showing; champ AMER/South Florida's 5-1 run was mostly behind the MM's 7-2 finish.      Two Red Swirl finalists in 4-0 CUSA/Marshall and 4-1 HORIZ/Green Bay powered a 10-6 showing; 3-1 BIGS/Hampton and 3-1 SWAC/Texas Southern powered the Flop to a respectable 13-11 finish. Back in 2016, the short-lived VEGAS-16 Tournament had the problem that its 16/8 participating teams had to wait two/three weeks before getting going the final week of the season in the ultimate vacation destination city of Las Vegas. The 3X3U Tournament (now in its second year) works well as a seniors-only prize money event in the Championship destination city of the Final Four. Coaches from every conference have an extra incentive to go to the NABC Convention to support their participating players. It's fun stuff: 10-minute games to 21 (1 point per regular field goal, 2 points for a "3-pointer"). Games were streamed live on Twitter until the semis/final, which were shown on ESPN2. Four-man teams from each of the 32 conferences; eight seeded groups of four teams each played round-robin pool play on Friday and Saturday -- winning teams shared $1000/win; top two teams from each pool made the Round of 16 knockout stage on Sunday. [1]BIG 12 and [5]BIG EAST were the only B-Major teams not to make the Round of 16 (but neither made it to the quarters). Eventually, it was [18]COLONIAL (the only league whose four participants were each 1st-team all-conference: MVP: gJustin Wright-Foreman[Hofstra], fJarrell Brantley[College of Charleston], cDevontae Cacok[UNC-Wilmington], pVasa Pusica[Northeastern]) who went 7-0 on the weekend (including beating [8]WEST COAST in the final, 21-13) to share $100,000 ... NICE! - - - - - - Overall, the ACC's postseason prowess (three No.1 seeds, 18-8 overall, NCAA Champ, one E8, three S16s) came almost entirely in the NCAA but was enough to push it into the top spot in the final ratings (with a whopping 101-40 record in top interconference matchups). Likewise, the BIG 10 (91-38, 16-10 postseason, one F4, one E8, one S16) didn't do much outside the NCAAs, either. The BIG 12 (79-34, 17-8, one F4, NIT Champ) moved up mostly thanks to its 8-1 NIT showing. The SEC (87-48, 13-9, one F4, one E8, two S16s) didn't do anything beyond the NCAAs. The BIG EAST (56-36, 8-11, CBI finalist) did nothing below the "Bronze Medal" level of the postseason. The AMERICAN (62-35, 12-7, one S16, NIT semi, CBI Champ) led the way in the postseason among Mid-Majors. CONFERENCE USA (34-45, 5-5, CIT Champ) made it five-straight postseasons with something to show for itself (four 32S, CBI Champ last year, CIT Champ this year) as tops in the Red Swirl. The ATLANTIC SUN (21-38, 6-3, one 32S, NITfinal) was by far the best 1BC league in the postseason (despite its Flop rating overall).      The focus was almost entirely back on the court for this season of College Basketball - - (only Will Wade's late-season suspension for offering money to a recruit was a holdover from last year's scandals). Kansas/Bill Self's record-setting streak of fourteen-straight regular season titles in the BIG 12 was finally snapped (by the combo of Texas Tech [which went on to make its first-ever Final Four] and arch-/state-rival Kansas State as well). Gonzaga's regular season dominance of the WEST COAST extended to EIGHTEEN OF NINETEEN TITLES (but the TiTo crown streak was snapped at six). The big headline was The Redemption of the University of Virginia program (and coach Tony Bennett) rebounding from last year's greatest NCAA upset of all time to win the National Championship (with much the same squad). Auburn's late-season run to the SEC tournament crown all the way to its first-ever Final Four was a fun ride.      Chris Beard validated his (regular season) Coach Of The Year nod by taking Texas Tech to its first-ever Final Four. Player Of The Year/Golden Child Of The Year fZion Williamson was a once-in-a-generation spectacle to behold, but he doesn't actually have much hardware on his resume compared to past all-time SuperFrosh. (Yes, you can argue that his mid-season injury cost Duke a shot at the regular season ACC title. He does have the ACC tourney crown; but that squeak win in the final foretold endplay performances in the NCAAs that fell short in the Regional Final.) For his heroics in the National Semifinal, bMatt Mooney(Texas Tech) garnered the (nearly vacant) Graduate Transfer Of The Year award. Late-moment heroics made gKyle Guy(Virginia) the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. - - - - - - Once again, I got terribly behind in writing the weekly columns (only making it until the end of January in real time). (The entire rest of the regular season columns were written anachronistcally [two years later in 2020, actually] in as faithful a way as possible as to how I would have perceived things at the proper concurrent time. [The postseason comments were largely contemporary as I conducted the Hoops Contest.]) Much like Tony Bennett outdid his father, Dick, in going all the way in the NCAA tournament, so did Nilo Cobau avenge his father's final-game loss last year to win this year's Hoops Contest over a field of 136 contestants! It's just a one-year sample, but so far so good for the new NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool), which scored 126,-26 (as compared to the 74.6,-78.9 thirteen-year average for picks based on the old RPI). Thanks, everybody, for reading this year's columns. Hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I still very much enjoy writing them. Next year, it's the Road To ATLANTA!!! (I NEED TICKETS!!!) -- Ron