Duke will be heavy favorite in title game
They're private schools with small enrollments that wear blue and love basketball. Their place in basketball's hierarchy is where Duke and Butler, matched in Monday's national-championship game, part ways.
The Blue Devils are college basketball blue bloods. Elitists, if you will. In their 15th Final Four appearance, they're bidding for their fourth national championship.
All of this is a new experience for Butler. Before this season, the Bulldogs' farthest thrust in the NCAA Tournament was to the regional semifinals three times.
But you'd never know it by the way Butler is playing. The Bulldogs outlasted Michigan State 52-50 in one semifinal after tearing through Syracuse and Kansas State in the regional.
No matter that the Bulldogs are in the Horizon, a midmajor conference that ranked 14th in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and usually receives only one bid to the NCAA Tournament.
They expected to be here, playing for the championship a mere 6 miles from their campus.
"This is what we strived for from the beginning," sophomore forward Gordon Hayward said. "As long as we can guard, we feel like we can be in any game."
That will be the critical question for Monday. Can fifth-seeded Butler guard a top-seeded Duke team that shot nearly 53 percent from the floor?
At least one basketball Hall of Famer says no.
"It would be a monumental victory," said Bill Walton, who led UCLA to a pair of national championships in the early 1970s. "Butler is going to have to control the tempo and the backboards, and they're not a big team.
"It's also going to take Duke collapsing."
Another Hall of Famer, former Georgetown coach John Thompson, said don't count out the Bulldogs.
"They beat good teams to get there, don't forget that," Thompson said. "Butler defends range. I think it will be a very competitive game."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski agrees.
"I think they're one of the best teams in the country," he said. "I think Cinderella would be if somebody had eight, nine losses and pulled off some upsets, stuff like that. That's not what's happened."
The Bulldogs already have defeated a No. 1 seed, Syracuse in the regional semifinals.
A Butler victory might rank with some of the great upsets in title-game history, like North Carolina State over Houston in 1983 or Villanova over Georgetown in 1985.
Duke and Butler have met just once before - the Blue Devils won 80-60 in Durham, N.C., on Jan. 30, 2003, when Bulldogs head coach Brad Stevens was an assistant coach.
One clear edge for Butler will be the setting. Everybody not wearing Duke gear will be cheering for the Bulldogs.
But Duke has good karma here. The Blue Devils won their first national championship in Indianapolis, beating Kansas in 1991.
kansascity.com
Viewers got too little of NCAA epic
Talk about March Madness. On Thursday night, CBS made Channel 4 viewers suffer watching 20 minutes of garbage time in Cornell's loss to Kentucky.
Those viewers saw most of the deciding second overtime in Kansas State's 101-96 victory over Xavier, but before that they saw only exciting glimpses of a game that featured big shot after big shot in what was a mini-tournament classic.
It should have been the other way around. Channel 4 viewers should have been sent the double OT game a lot more quickly and gotten glimpses of the Big Red in the second half.
A wire service story in Friday's paper even referred to the Kansas State-Xavier game as an "epic."
The reason Western New York viewers saw only glimpses of the overtime game was because CBS made this area one of natural interest for Cornell in the Sweet 16 even though it wasn't one last week. Western New York is closer to Cornell, there are a lot of Big Red alumni here and the game was being played nearby in Syracuse. But Western New York also is interested in good games. Kentucky's superior talent was obvious after a few minutes and only a total collapse at the foul line could have made the game closer than its 62-45 final score.
Besides, fans here also are aware of Xavier, which plays in St. Bonaventure's conference.
The extensive coverage of Cornell's loss did remind me how good ageless play-by-play man Dick Enberg still is alongside analyst Jay Bilas. Enberg has maintained his enthusiasm level, notes things that analysts are expected to see and makes colorful remarks.
When the cameras focused on a section in the Carrier Dome featuring Cornell fans in red alongside Kentucky fans in blue, he called it "the Mason-Dixon line of college basketball."
Syracuse fans were feeling blue after the Orange fell apart down the stretch in a 63-59 loss to Butler that was enthusiastically called by play-by-play man Gus Johnson alongside analyst Len Elmore.
Johnson, who called the games a week earlier in HSBC Arena, is a love-him-or-hate him analyst. It depends on how one feels about Johnson's enthusiasm when he describes Syracuse sharpshooter Andy Rautins as "an assassin" after hitting a three-point shot.
He made one head-scratching comment when he said there was "a lot of time left" when Syracuse was down four with fewer than 10 seconds on the clock. Johnson probably meant there was enough time for a miracle.
If Dick Vitale were next to Johnson, basketball fans would be driven mad. But the low-key Elmore is a perfect match and Thursday he had a strong game noting Syracuse's problems.
"Syracuse has a size and skill advantage but they lose it with quick shots," Elmore astutely noted.
He and Johnson were especially tough on Syracuse's Rick Jackson, who had a very tough time hanging on to the ball all night.
Johnson has a reputation at CBS for getting the best and most exciting games, a reputation that will be enhanced because he also called Kansas State's double overtime victory.
Thankfully, CBS switched Channel 4 viewers to Kansas State-Xavier with State holding a three-point lead and trying to prevent Xavier from taking a tying three-point shot. Instead, a player committed a foul that resulted in the Musketeers' Terrell Holloway hitting three free throws to tie the game and send it into the first overtime.
Elmore alertly noted that Kansas State committed a non-shooting foul that wasn't called before the three-shot foul was called.
Bilas also was critical of the officiating in the Cornell game, vehemently saying Jeff Foote should have been called for an intentional foul when he took down a Kentucky player. It was a closer call than Bilas thought. It looked like Foote might have been trying to keep the Kentucky player vertical to avoid injury.
But there's no question that Channel 4 viewers should have been crying foul over CBS' decision to stick here with the Big Red.
- Butler's upset of Syracuse had a preliminary rating of 7.9 on Channel 4. Kentucky's win over Cornell, which ended after midnight, had a 5.1 rating.
- NBC Sports carries a two-hour highlights program at 3 p.m. April 10 from the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver. The nightly coverage at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Universal Sports continues through Tuesday.
(c)2010 The Buffalo News
Schedule strength doesn't faze Calipari
Besides inexperience, the factor most in question about Kentucky going into the NCAA Tournament involved strength of schedule. Because North Carolina, Connecticut and Louisville had down years, UK went into the tournament with its most modest regular-season strength of schedule rating in at least 15 years.
Something to fret about?
UK Coach John Calipari didn't think so. Heading into the tournament, he dismissed the notion that Kentucky will suffer from sticker shock when it faces a more talented opponent than it's used to seeing.
"I don't think it'll hurt us in any way," Calipari said of UK's rating as the 31st toughest schedule, according to collegerpi.com. "When you look at our schedule, you say, 'Wow. They played a good schedule. They took on all comers.' "
The numbers suggest you say, UK played a good schedule. But not the toughest.
Of the four No. 1 seeds, UK played a weaker schedule than Kansas, Duke or Syracuse, according to the Sagarin or collegerpi.com ratings.
Of the 65 teams in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky's schedule rates almost squarely in the middle in terms of difficulty. Thirty-one teams played a tougher schedule. Thirty-three played a weaker schedule.
Significant?
"I doubt it," said Jay Bilas, a college basketball analyst for ESPN and ABC. "If they played North Carolina and Connecticut at their strongest, maybe they'd be 28-5. So what? They'd still be unbelievably good."
Bilas considered Kentucky the second-best team going into the NCAA Tournament.
NCAA Tournament history and this year's first round suggest there's no need for UK fans to worry.
Of the last 15 national champions, seven had played a worse-rated regular-season schedule than Kentucky's in 2009-10, according to collegerpi.com. Those seven were Kansas in 2008 (No. 63), Florida in 2007 (No. 46), Florida in 2006 (No. 75), Syracuse in 2003 (No. 38), Maryland in 2002 (No. 106), Michigan State in 2000 (No. 37) and UCLA in 1995 (No. 67).
In first-round games this season, teams with a tougher-rated regular-season schedule won 20 games and lost 12. Among Southeastern Conference teams, Kentucky and Tennessee won against opponents with weaker-rated schedules. Vanderbilt and Florida lost.
Vanderbilt's loss to Murray State marked the biggest difference in a game won by the team having played weaker competition. Murray State's schedule rated No. 287, according to Sagarin, and Vandy's No. 45.
Calipari suggested that the way opponents regularly play their best against UK makes a critical difference.
"Us, Kansas and a few other teams, you're going to get everybody's best shot," he said, "and it prepares you."
Fab Five or Kiddie Cats?
With a national championship, Kentucky might become the greatest young team in college basketball history. Or, perhaps, even a title would not allow UK to supplant Michigan's Fab Five as the team to think of when pondering precocious freshmen.
Chris Webber or DeMarcus Cousins? Jalen Rose or John Wall? Juwan Howard or Daniel Orton? Jimmy King or Eric Bledsoe?
Rose, a guard on the Fab Five, passed when asked which team was best.
"It's kind of a Catch-22," Rose said. "If you're me, there's no right answer. If I say the Fab Five, people feel I'm old, bitter and hating on Kentucky. If I say Kentucky, people blow me up on Twitter. 'What are you talking about?'
"I'm a fan of Coach Cal and their team. I'm rooting for them to do well."
The Fab Five advanced to the Final Four as freshmen and returned as sophomores. That's quite a standard.
But basketball aside, Rose rated the Fab Five ahead of UK's freshman-oriented team in terms of social significance.
"We became a cultural phenomenon," Rose said. "Bald heads. Black shoes. Black socks. Baggy shorts."
By comparison, the John Wall dance is pretty tepid stuff.
"Jimmy King and I were talking about this (last week)," Rose said. "In 1992, we were not loved and adored."
The Fab Five were different and, thus, threatening to some.
Rose enjoys how society changed since the Fab Five. He noted the popularity of Kentucky's team as represented by the omnipresence of the John Wall dance.
"You can see anybody across the nation doing it," he said. "You see it on (ESPN's) SportsCenter. That's a breath of fresh air and makes me smile."
Copyright (c) Lexington Herald-Leader
Who is the greatest College Basketball coach of all time?Men's College baskeball has had its fair share of legends directing games from the sidelines.
Which coach was the greatest in the history of NCAA basketball? Any head coach for a Men's NCAA team can be included for rating, although I think I have put together a list of all the greats.
Coaches should be rated on their winning percentage, number of national championships, total number of wins and any other relevant statistics. Intangibles like the coaches' impact on the way the game was/is played or what other great coaches he has worked with/influenced should also be considered.
So now I turn the floor over to you... the experts.
Who is the greatest men's college basketball head coach of all time?
Copyright 2010 Sportelligence, Inc
Final Four 5A boys basketball and more
The Desert Valley Region has proven to be the most difficult in Class 5A.
Phoenix St. Mary's (5A-I) and Phoenix Horizon (5A-II) both reached the semifinals of their respective tournaments. Both have great shots of going home with state championship trophies Wednesday.
Tuesday's 5A-II semifinal between Horizon and Anthem Boulder Creek is intriguing. Boulder Creek, the No.1 seed that escaped a two-point quarterfinal win against Scottsdale Desert Mountain (another Desert Valley team), is coached by Randy Walker.
Walker led Horizon before taking a college assistant job three years ago.
Walker just got done beating his former top assistant, Todd Fazio, of Desert Mountain. Now Walker has a chance to beat his former program.
Tempe Marcos de Niza rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final 40 seconds to beat Phoenix Central -- without Marcos' defensive stopper, Ramon Abreu. Incredible.
More incredible was Scottsdale Chaparral's rally from 14 points down at Tucson Ironwood Ridge and win in overtime. Chaparral also hails from Desert Valley Region.
Chaparral's Aaron Windler, Horizon's Paul Long and St. Mary's David Lopez all are Big Schools Coach of the Year candidates.
What Lopez has done at St. Mary's this season can't be dismissed. He took a team that returned only one player -- 6-foot-6 senior forward George Matthews -- and rallied the Knights late in the season when it wasn't even among the top 16 teams in the power ratings.
St. Mary's just got done beating Fiesta Region teams Chandler Hamilton and Mesa.
Now comes Phoenix North, the preseason No.1 that struggled to beat Brophy Prep and Tempe Corona del Sol in the first two rounds.
Mesa Mountain View's Gary Ernst is another Big Schools Coach of the Year candidate. Mountain View wasn't ranked in the top 5 in preseason. It plays in Tuesday's 5A-I semifinals against Laveen Cesar Chavez, a team it beat in a close, high-scoring affair late in the season.
I never saw this coming: The emergence of Tempe McClintock 6-5 junior guard/forward Cameron Forte.
Forte had his two best games in victories over Phoenix Sunnyslope.
Saturday's first-half in which he had 28 points was one for the ages. It elevated him to elite status in the state. And if high major colleges don't take a serious look at this versatile kid, they're mistaking. He has got to be on everybody's radar after Saturday's 39-point performance.
Hats off to Tucson Santa Rita coach Jim Ferguson and senior point guard Terrell Stoglin for winning a state title that came so teasingly close the past three seasons. They lost heart breakers in the final each of the past three years. They finally got over and beat Gila Region rival Amphitheater by two in a high-scoring game before (ugh) less than a thousand spectators in Prescott Valley.
Great to see a good man go out on top in his final game as coach. Winslow's Don Petranovich, who began the girls program in 1976, watched his Winslow girls beat Fort Defiance Window Rock in the 3A girls final with grit and determination, the byproduct of eight state championship teams in his career. Winslow reached the title game 16 times. It got to the final seven of his final eight seasons. He mellowed with age, but the game never passed him by.
Don't expect former Gilbert Highland dynamo Nick Johnson to return to the Valley for his senior season. Findlay Prep coach Mike Peck has vowed to keep the powerhouse together, preferably in the Las Vegas area, despiting having to find a new high school for the players. The players take classes at Henderson International, but the school is dropping grades 9 through 12 at the end of May. Michelle Johnson, Nick's mom, said that her son won't return to Arizona to finish out his prep career. She said that if Findlay isn't able to find a new school, Nick will go back East to a prep school. Johnson, who is being recruited by Arizona State and Arizona, is the team's third-leading scorer at 14.4 points a game. He is second in assists with 3.8 a game. Findlay (29-2) doesn't play again until April 1, when it will try to defend its title in the ESPN RISE national high school invitational.
Copyright (c) 2009, azcentral.com
High School Coaches Weigh In On The UConn WomenHow would the undefeated UConn women's team fare against a top-ranked high school boys basketball team? A sampling of some high school coaches:
Windsor Locks coach Mike Mascaro: "A boys high school team with athleticism and size would win," he said. "The boys/men's game is a faster game."
Xavier coach Mike Kohs: " I think in many years the elite teams like Windsor, Hillhouse, Bridgeport Central and Crosby could beat UConn. The speed and athleticism of some of the top boys teams would cause problems for them. ... This year the women are obviously a premier team and maybe the best UConn team of all, with some of the top players in the country in Maya Moore and Tina Charles. I do think that a top boys team would be UConn's toughest opponent this season."
Canton coach Eric Deegan: "I think a quality boys basketball team would be very competitive with the UConn women. Many teams in the state could not compete with UConn, but I believe teams like Bloomfield, Windsor and Cromwell could potentially beat them. It would be an interesting event, for sure."
Windsor coach Ken Smith, whose team was No. 1 in The Courant final state ratings last season, not only says UConn would win, but also would do well against some men's college teams: "They are so fundamentally sound I think they could beat some college teams. They understand what a team is supposed to do. Geno [Auriemma] does a great job of getting them to understand the big picture, and high school kids don't understand that yet."
East Hartford coach Anthony Menard: Menard said that 10 years ago the boys "would kill" UConn. But today he has a different view: "The evolution of the women's game makes it much more competitive. If a boys team had really tall, productive players who could really get off the floor that could give them an advantage. ... But I'd still probably give the edge to the women."
Bloomfield coach Gary Barcher: Though Bloomfield is No. 2 in The Courant area ratings, Barcher said that's no guarantee of a win against UConn. "UConn is that good," Barcher said. "I think they could play with us. The age, difference, the experience, and they're athletic."
Rockville coach Peter McCann: McCann, a walk-on on the UConn men's basketball team in 1996-97, said the UConn women would beat most, if not all, of the boys high school teams in the state: "They shoot it real well, pass real well, and play harder than any team you'll see on TV. Auriemma not only gets the best players in the country, but also gets them to play the hardest; or he recruits the hardest-playing best players. They practice against college guys every day. I don't think the physical play would bother them."
Maloney coach Howie Hewitt: Hewitt said all that needs to be said about such a matchup is to realize that the Huskies practice against male UConn students.
"They're not a team, but most of the guys played high school ball," he said. "The women more than hold their own in practice against the guys."
Capital Prep coach Levy Gillespie: "I think the talent, skill and cohesiveness of UConn gives them the edge over a quality boys high school team in that UConn is a solid collection of national talent, while many boys high school teams are based on talent from a relatively small geographic area. ... Some high school teams might have a slight athletic advantage, but that is negated by fundamental skill and basketball IQ."
Copyright (c) 2010, The Hartford Courant
Sooners must beat Texas
February isn't college basketball's biggest month. Obviously, that belongs to tournament-filled March. But it's February that sets up all the madness.
Critical wins and losses in the final four weeks or so of the regular season set up the participants. It's when cases for NCAA Tournament berths are made.
However, Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel admits his team's case isn't worth much.
"I don't know if we even have a r?sum? ... to be honest with you," he said. "We just have some games that we've won and some games that we've lost."
The Sooners do have a r?sum?, but it's flimsy at best.
With a 12-9 record overall and 3-4 in the Big 12 Conference, little they've done stands out. They're No. 90 in the latest Ratings Percentage Index and just 3-6 against teams ranked in the RPI's top 100. Generally, it takes an RPI ranking in the top 50 to even get in the at-large discussion.
Anything less than a meteoric rise over the final month of the regular season will distance OU from an at-large berth for the NCAA Tournament.
Luckily for it, opportunity knocks at 3 p.m. today at Lloyd Noble Center when No. 10 Texas (19-3, 5-2 Big 12) visits.
"If you're not ready for this, you're not ready for anything," OU guard Cade Davis said. "Hopefully, we'll use that as an influence to get us going."
Today's day-long tribute to Sooner basketball legend Wayman Tisdale should provide an emotional lift.
But it will take more than emotion to lift OU out of its most recent funk.
They've lost three of their last four games. The only victory was an 89-84 squeaker over Iowa State Jan. 27. The last was a lackluster 63-46 loss at Nebraska last Saturday.
Leading scorer Willie Warren is still hobbled with an ankle injury. After missing two straight games, he played last Saturday. He was a shell of himself, scoring just four points. His status for the Texas game is still questionable.
Healthy or not, the Sooners can't wait any longer for quality wins to arrive. Today's game is the first of four against ranked teams over the next three weeks.
Capel said he hasn't focused on what lies ahead. Today's game is the only one that matters.
Associated Press content (c) 2009
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