College Basketball Announcers

Live, Coming to You Courtside

by Matt Jones

With the football season having now come to an end and the Tom Brady-worship on a bit less of a fevered pitch, it is time for the nation to do what it always does in February, take sides on the new American Idol. I must admit that I have been a bit less than impressed with the current group of contestants, and while I am sure that a favorite will emerge in the coming weeks, I am not all that hopeful on this year’s season. Last year was a complete bore, further confirming my view that the show hit its peak with Ruben and Clay and is now heading downhill as quickly as The Bachelor. We shall see, but as long as the show has Simon making fun of Paula, I will still likely be forced to tune in.

February also marks the beginning of the general sporting world’s focus on college basketball. The casual fan (which you are likely not since you found your way to a web site dedicated to nothing but college sports) tends to pay only the most minimal attention to college hoops until after the Super Bowl. The sporting world likes March Madness and the brackets that it provides, and it begins to focus in February in order to have a chance in the annual office pool.

This is also the time of year when the airwaves become overtaken by the Bill O’Reilly-esque blowhards who believe that the universe is entitled to their ubiquitous (and wrong) predictions on tournament time. As many of you know, I watch a lot of college basketball (my annual marathon journal of a Saturday of college b-ball will occur this Saturday – stay tuned!). Because of this, I tend to become very acquainted with all of the various announcers and commentators, and find myself either greatly respecting them, or wanting to put them on a boat with Paris Hilton, Sinbad, Sean Hannity and Tony “Stat Boy” Reali and send them to Siberia. Most of you likely feel the same way.

What is amazing about those who comment on college basketball is that college basketball fans tend to agree across the board with the relative worth of each announcer (with one notable exception.) This is not really true in any other sport. Baseball fans are split on Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan, football fans either love John Madden and Phil Simms or hate them, while Stephen A. Smith and Bill Walton either evoke cheers or boos from NBA fans across the country. Yet in college basketball, even those announcers that are generally considered by all to be horrible (and you know who they are), nevertheless find themselves incapable of losing a job. Getting a college basketball television gig gives one more job security than the Supreme Court or a Catholic Cardinal. You just cannot be removed. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be rated and evaluated. Thus I am about to do what has long needed to be done, mainly grade the “talking heads.”

Jay Bilas
Hands down the most knowledgeable announcer on television. Jay Bilas is exactly what networks should be looking for when they are attempting to cast for anything except the “crazy” announcer. Not only is he a former player and coach, but he is also intelligent, having graduated from Duke Law School after his playing days. He has an uncanny ability to break down college basketball situations for the average fan, and is able to focus on the parts of basketball that the average viewer may not notice. He is also the most “fair and balanced” announcer currently in the game, treating all teams with the same amount of respect and giving each equal attention. Even though he is a former Dukie, he is the first to criticize the media’s obsession over the program. He understands that in every player and coach there is good and bad, and does not pile on praise or insults without balancing his critiques. He does have an absolutely absurd hairline that begins about two inches from his eyebrows, but besides that fault, I find him the best pure announcer/broadcaster on television. Not quite as entertaining as Raftery, but if you put the two of them together, you have a heck of a team.

A

Bill Raftery
For my money, there is no announcer in college basketball who combines keen knowledge of the game with an ability to be entertaining, better than Raftery. Raftery’s years as an ex-coach show through in many of his observations (including an uncanny ability to predict what plays a coach will call) and he takes the task of game preparation very seriously. However his true gift is to integrate his knowledge with a keen sense for what is entertaining. While I do not understand some of what he says (saying that Tayshaun Prince’s fifth three in a row from 40 feet against UNC a few years ago was because “he got his puppies set off the bus”), there is no need for true engagement with Raftery, because you can just laugh when he screams loudly, “ONIONS!” I had a friend in college who would watch any game Raftery called just to hear him say that a team was starting out “man-to-man” in his quick pitter-patter. Raftery does not overpower a game like Vitale, but he nevertheless adds to the atmosphere. In addition, he may very well be the nicest announcer/reporter I have met, taking the time to help those just entering the business. For my money, Raftery is as good as it gets all-around, and he deserves much more than he has, like the ability to call the Final Four.

A

Dick Vitale
No discussion of college basketball announcers can truly begin without bringing up the granddaddy of them all, Dick Vitale. For those just outside of the college basketball world, Vitale truly is the face of the sport. Over the years, he has transformed himself from a mediocre coach into the most prominent announcer and the “go-to” reference for any college basketball quip. As I noted last year, it truly is not a big game unless Vitale is there, and his presence brings an already hyped crowd into a controlled frenzy. The man loves college basketball and his energy and exuberance are contagious, making him one of the more exciting personalities in all of sports.

Vitale is also a wonderful person. His charity work is often noted in newspaper articles and magazine profiles, but his day-to-day interaction with others is just as impressive. While at Duke, I saw the man literally take time before every game to meet with children, talk to the students and spend time with a host of handicapped fans whom Duke brought to every home game. Truth be told, if all announcers loved their job and brought the Vitale-level of enthusiasm to it, the sport would be in great hands.

However this column is about announcing, and that is where opinions of Vitale vary. As I referred to in the opening, Vitale is likely the only college basketball announcer that falls into the “love him/hate him” category. Opinions on him usually vary by age, with young people loving his off the charts volume and crazy references, leaving older fans to shake their heads and turn down the volume. He also annoys many fans (particularly those of North Carolina and Kentucky) with his Taxi Driver-like obsession with all things pertaining to Duke. Vitale could be watching Houston play Hawaii-Hilo, and would still find a way to talk about how great a shooter J.J. Redick is or how much heart Shane Battier had. However, his affection for Duke is only matched by his affection for the sport. His tendency to get off topic can be maddening, especially when your team is playing, and his knowledge level is not off the charts. But Vitale remains a loveable college basketball figure, sort of like the sport’s crazy uncle, who comes around and livens up the room while making many shake their heads in amazement. His skills have deteriorated a bit in recent years, but his excitement has not. He deserves our respect, because the sport of college basketball is better because he is a part of it.

B+

Clark Kellogg
No announcer is more consistently underrated than Clark Kellogg. He is the announcing equivalent of PGA golfer Stewart Cink, a guy who goes out, gives solid performances, occasionally even is dazzling, but never is mentioned when anyone talks about the college basketball television academy. As a matter of fact, I very nearly forgot to include him on this list at all. Besides his amazing inability to never, ever look directly into the camera (can Greg Gumbel be that interesting?), he really has very few weaknesses. Kellogg always seems to be well-prepared, is not in the market for making bombastic statements with little evidence and will credit others for the good (and bad) decisions they make. If I were running a network, I would keep Kellogg around for all the big events, because he is a solid contributor to the team. Like Theo from the Cosby Show, you do not want to base your lineup around him, but when he walks on screen, you are generally happy.

B

Larry Conley
The college basketball equivalent of Bill Curry, Conley is a solid announcer who brings little in the way of flash, but puts forth a good performance every time out. Conley has been announcing games as long as I can remember and puts in as busy a schedule as anyone in the business. He is the Ford and Chevrolet of college basketball: when you listen to one of his games, you know what you are going to get and you are generally satisfied. Conley will never be one that will be used to sell the sport to outside fans. Many who have followed the game for a long time may not even know what he looks like. But he still gets it done year and year out, and is generally dependable.

B

Steve Lavin
I have been pleasantly surprised by Steve Lavin. I must say that I have a predisposition against any man not named Pat Riley who uses tons of hair gel. I think that look is ridiculous and I am unsure how someone can look in the mirror and go out like that every day. Having said that, Lavin has shown to be a solid announcer. He is very good with the fundamental aspects of the job, using his coaching background to provide insight into games, especially on the defensive end. In addition, he is the best in the business right now at breaking down games at halftime and letting fans know what adjustments are likely to be made in the second half. He has the anti-Clark Kellogg problem in that he seems to be peering into your soul when he looks into the camera, but this is a forgivable offense. I am not sure how much longer he will be doing this as some school will surely hire him soon, but for now, a solid contributor.

B

Andy Katz
While Katz is not truly an “announcer,” he has quickly become college basketball’s version of John Clayton, the guy with the inside gossip in the sport. (By the way, how did John Clayton get that gig – the most manly sport in the world behind rugby – looking like a middle school librarian?) Katz is a hard guy to have passionate feelings about because he does a good job on television of expressing little in the way of opinions. I generally like his television persona and think he is good at what he does. I just wish that, like most television announcers, he took himself a little less seriously.

B-

Rick Majerus
I must admit that no television sports hire had me more excited than the day it was announced that Rick Majerus would be joining the ESPN staff. When Majerus was the coach at Utah, I looked forward to any television coverage of him, knowing that no matter what was said, it usually would make me laugh. I had visions of him as the college basketball version of Jayson Williams (pre-manslaughter charges) or Terry Bradshaw, playing the role of buffoon so well that people would forget that he was smart and entertaining. Well that has not exactly happened. All the charisma and joy that Majerus had in his coaching days has been sucked out of him, leaving the equivalent of an overweight Bob Davie in its place. He will give you the facts, but you just feel like so much more is possible. He spiced things up recently with his Ashley Judd “adult movies” comment during the Kentucky-Tennessee game, but all that did was make him seem like a creepy, old man. I still think Majerus has potential, but he needs to show it before he goes bolting off to coach Indiana.

C+

Fran Fraschilla
No announcer’s hire was more baffling to me when it occurred than the decision to pick up Fraschilla. I mean how many people out there saw Fran Fraschilla coach at New Mexico and thought, “there’s a guy who would be GREAT on television!” Often times he seems to me to be very uncomfortable, not quite as bad as George Seifert on the old CBS The NFL Today show, but fairly close. He was hired as the “Xs and Os” guy and it is obvious he has a great deal of knowledge in the area. However, I can think of nothing that really distinguishes him from the guys calling high school games on Fox Sports Pacific. He is yet another guy, hired because he is a coach, but offering little else. His crowning ESPN moment came when he got Bobby Knight fired up by asking about his tumultuous relationship with protégé Steve Alford, but that can only get you so far. He is truly a “take it or leave it” type of guy, and my guess is ESPN will soon be “leaving it.”

C-

Billy Packer
My feelings on Packer are no secret. I wrote a column last year calling him a “nattering nabob of negativism” and that description still rings true. He finds a way to make every college game feel a bit like a trip to the dentist, and it is very rare that a game goes by where he does not say something that seriously irks me. He tends to overreact at every conceivable juncture, whether it’s by making vicious attacks on Rashad McCants’ intensity level, pleading that Jamal Magloire needs to stop “breaking Wojo’s back” or making Teddy Dupay seem to be one half-step from Ivan the Terrible for a hard foul against Michigan State. In many ways, he is the anti-Vitale, never seeming to understand that the point of this whole endeavor is entertainment and that we should not treat it with the seriousness of a Congressional hearing. Having said that, Packer does have a high knowledge level. During a recent Kentucky-LSU game, he focused in detail on the difference in the correct ball rotation between a jump shot and a lob pass. Dick Vitale just will not give you that level of analysis. Nevertheless, his constant negativity and ability to make fans of all schools detest him equally, truly means he should not be college basketball’s #1 announcer. There is a place for Billy Packer on television, but calling the Final Four is not it.

C-

Digger Phelps
The lowest grade on my report card goes to the last announcer that I can raise up the energy to discuss, Digger Phelps. I have made blasts in Digger’s direction before, but I will concisely repeat them here. Phelps is on television for one reason only: to be entertaining. The problem is that Digger is not the least bit entertaining. Although he has had his moments, like correctly predicting that his former school would end Boston College’s season-long win streak recently, his constant Notre Dame hankering is annoying and borders on unprofessional. I do not think that announcers need to act as if they do not have favorite teams, but when someone like Digger is announcing a game and stands up during a timeout, as he did a few years back, and tells the crowd to “kick Kentucky’s a**,” that is a bit much. In addition, he suffers from the fact that he wants to be Dick Vitale so much that it pains him. Nothing is more difficult to deal with than watching Phelps during the NCAA Tournament, when he is paired up with Vitale in a studio and Digger attempts, in vain, to out-”Dicky V” Vitale. He tries to make up nicknames, gets excited in a fake voice and attempts to be lovable in a completely transparent way. Phelps seems like a decent enough guy, but no one on television is more misplaced in his role than good ole’ Digger.

F

There are other announcers that I am sure I skipped over, but these seem to be the guys who get the most airtime. As I stated initially, the problem with college basketball on television is that those who merit air time, usually do not get it. For instance, Barry Booker, a former Vanderbilt player who announces occasionally for Jefferson Pilot and Fox Sports, is one of the top young announcers in the sport, but rarely gets a splash on one of the major networks for reasons that are beyond me. Nevertheless, a college basketball fan should be moderately pleased about the state of announcing of our fair sport. There are a number of average to good announcers, and there are very few who just make one’s head explode like the entire ESPN NBA and NFL crews. Thus we should count our many blessings one by one and enjoy the “February Frenzy” without much complaint.

Until next time…

Look around the nation

Some Things Just Never Change

by Matt Jones

Well folks, it is time to finally admit to ourselves something that we have been putting off for far too long. Like a group of long-haired hippies in Ohio who still insist that there could be enough voter fraud to change the outcome of the Presidential election, we have been holding out hope against hope for the last few weeks, even when the evidence suggested otherwise. Maybe, we said to ourselves, this is the year when the basketball gods even things out and give the karma that is due, forcing pain and suffering on those who have made our lives miserable for the past 10-15 years. Yes ladies and gentleman, we thought this would be the season that Duke finally paid for its sin of years and years of perpetual annoyance. With a lineup that looked depleted (by Duke’s standards) and facing the daunting task of an ACC that some were opining could be as good as any conference in history, this would be the year that Rome burned. And now, look at them. 15-0. Number 2 in the country. Staring at a possible number 1 seed yet again, led by the most grating, nails-to-the chalkboard player in the country (an honor that is seemingly always held by a Duke player), the Blue Devils find themselves once again close to the top of the college basketball universe.

A few weeks ago I engaged in a conversation with a friend about Jay Leno. It was my contention that no comedian, actually to be even more precise, no celebrity, has ever had more inexplicable fame and fortune while possessing so little in the way of redeemable qualities (in his case, his striking inability to be funny). The same is true of Duke. With the exception of Grant Hill and Shane Battier, Duke has had NO players over the past fifteen years that I have ever wanted to do anything but slap. Yet somehow, they continue to win. Win at a pace that is completely unimaginable, racking up Final 4 after Final 4, while dominating the national landscape and picking up individual awards by the boatloads for its players (even when undeserved….see Wojo winning National Defensive Player of the Year in 1998). But this was the year that would be different. On the surface, this team seemed to have less talent. They were not very deep, even by Duke’s standards, and looked to be ripe for the picking. Yet once again, the Devils proved us wrong.

Now I know not to get too excited. The critics of the Blue Devils will correctly point out that Duke has played an absolutely miserable schedule for a team of its caliber, playing exactly one team that is now in the Top 25 (Michigan State) and showing an amazing inability to schedule any team of consequence outside of any of its two home courts (New York City being the other). Thus I am not willing to grant Duke the national title just yet. While pundits (and I use that term very loosely) like Digger Phelps may be correct that Duke is still overrated, I think the real problem here is that we all underestimated the team at the beginning of the season. Seriously, how is it possible that a team with six, yes SIX, McDonald’s All Americans on the roster could be said to be talent-deficient? The fact is that this Duke team has a great inside presence (Sheldon Williams), a solid combo guard (Daniel Ewing) and one of the best pure shooters to hit college basketball in fifteen years (J.J. Redick). We still do not know where this team will go, and the meat of its schedule is still to come (thank you ESPN), but for now, we Duke-haters must take our knocks. The Devils are knocking on the door of the Final 4 once again, no matter how much it irritates us.

Hokie from Muskogie

For my money, the biggest surprise of the college basketball season occurred last Saturday, when the usually sorry Virginia Tech Hokies went on the road and defeated Georgia Tech, 70-69. The game had an exciting ending, which included not one, but two missed free throws in the waning seconds, and three good looks at the basket by Tech players as the clock wound down. What Coach Seth Greenberg has done in Blacksburg is truly remarkable. When the ACC announced that it would be taking on three new schools, most everyone (including yours truly) thought that the decision would be wonderful for football, but a complete disaster for basketball in the conference. Now we see that Miami can hold its own amongst the conference big boys, Boston College (who will join next year) is one of the nation’s three remaining undefeated teams, and most surprisingly the Hokies are 10-6 and showing signs of being consistently competitive. While I am not ready to become an honorary Hokie (which I believe is a turkey), they do deserve our kudos.

Kansas disgrace

Now it is not surprising that Kansas went on the road, in the middle of a horrendous snowstorm, and ended up being upset by a solid Villanova team on Saturday. There is no shame in that. All good teams are upset, and usually one defeat a year comes at the hands of a team that has no business beating you. However there is absolutely NO excuse for the Jayhawks losing by 21, while once trailing by 30, and looking completely disinterested and unmotivated throughout the game. Villanova, led by Curtis “Fort” Sumpter, completely dominated every aspect of the game and made the Jayhawks look like an old, tired group of players, who had no interest in being on the court in Philadelphia. This is a terrible sign for Bill Self’s team, as championship-caliber teams just do not get blown out in this way, especially one that is so senior-laden and filled with numerous college stars. I was really ready to jump aboard the Kansas bandwagon heading into March after their win at Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. However, this effort was a disgrace, and should be kept in mind by all college basketball fans when filling out their brackets in March.

I know Lee Corso, and you sir, are no Lee Corso

This past weekend also marked the beginning of ESPN’s attempt at transferring the beauty of its college football road show, Gameday, to the world of college basketball, where many (including myself) always thought it would excel. It began its excursion in Storrs, Connecticut, where the crew was able to showcase a tremendous game between UConn and Pitt, and where the students were able to replicate a bit of the excitement of the college football version. There were some very good things about the initial outing. Jay Bilas was once again wonderful, further cementing his role as the most informative college basketball analyst on television today. Reece Davis was serviceable in the Chris Fowler position, giving good insight and directing the show in a positive manner. And the setting itself was positive, perched high atop the UConn court, showcasing the rowdy fans behind.

However the new edition does need a great deal of improvement. First, Digger Phelps is a disaster as the second road analyst. Part of the reason that the football version of Gameday is so successful, is the excitement generated by the unadulterated goofiness of Lee Corso. Corso is a decent analyst who long ago determined that his ticket to popularity was via playing the role of an over-the-top showman, willing to say and do anything for a laugh. His decision to put on the mascot heads of the teams he believed would win the big games contributed to his status as a loveable old loon, who understood that sports were ultimately about fun. Digger Phelps is nearly as goofy as Corso, but in a completely unintentional way. His personality borders on the non-existent and he has found a way to pull off something that very few could. He is both amazingly boring and completely uninformative….a tremendous combination! His inclusion on Gameday adds nothing and has made it substantially less entertaining than its football brethren. The show has potential, but the dragging down effect of Digger, combined with the poor decision of locations (only focusing on Sat. night games on ESPN, thus leaving out a trip to Duke-UNC!) could spell disaster in the long run.

Maybe he isn’t so bad after all

While we are on the subject of announcers, I feel it is my duty to give some credit where it is most certainly due. It is no secret that I usually have an intense dislike of all things involving Billy Packer. I think his tendency to be overly negative is beyond infuriating and I have, on more than one occasion, used this column as an opportunity to engage in a Packer-based rant. Having said that, I must admit that his stock has risen with me a bit in the past year. With time winding down in Saturday’s Kentucky-LSU game, it occurred to me that I had gone the entire contest without becoming enraged at the absurdity of a Packer comment. In fact, I felt informed on a couple of occasions, whether it was his highlight of the difference between the rotation of a Patrick Sparks jump shot and a Chuck Hayes pass or his observation that Brandon Bass was pouting a bit on offense. It was the second time this season that I watched a game and felt like Packer’s knowledge (which he has always had in abundance) was not overshadowed by his negativity. It may just be a blip in the Packer radar screen, but his improved performance this year is worth a salute.

Come See the “Big Baby”

Saturday was also my first opportunity to get to see the newest sensation that is sweeping the nation, yes LSU freshman Glen “Big Baby” Davis. I have to say that Davis has always intrigued me. Anyone that is 6’9″ and 310 pounds and who flirted with the NBA draft out of high school, is going to raise eyebrows for this young reporter. But watching Davis in a college game just confers that he is all that I dreamed him to be. 310 pounds is a lot, but I have to say that Davis wears it well. He is fat, but not in a floppy kind of fat, but more a kind of fat that looks like there is some muscle under there as well. He has an angelic, very young-looking face (hence “Big Baby”) and seems to have a good disposition about him. Plus he can play. While the Kentucky game was not his best performance (although he did have a great first half), the previous three games found him with back-to-back-to-back double-doubles, with 28 points in one game and 32 in another. This kid is a serious force and is giving the SEC its best talent in a “big” package since “Da Meat Hook”, Demetrius Hill. Not sure how long Davis will be in the college ranks (with the pitiful draft class coming up, this may be his only year), but you should catch him while you can. You will not be disappointed.

An historic night

It is likely that most college basketball fans, even the die-hards such as myself, found a way to miss Monday night’s game between Utah and Air Force. This was likely only the case of course, if you had something very pressing to do, such as clean your bathroom. Thus I do want to make sure that we do not skip over what ended up being quite an historic night. The Utah “What is a” Utes defeated Air Force, and in so doing shot 80% from the field, the highest shooting percentage in twenty years in Division I college basketball and the sixth highest shooting percentage all-time. The Utes are an interesting team this year, one that thanks to their twelve consecutive victories, will likely contend for an NCAA bid. They are led by the best player that no one knows, Andrew Bogut (who may be the first overall pick in the NBA Draft), and contrary to what most people think, are no longer coached by Rick Majerus. Their performance on Monday was even more amazing when one considers that this is a team whose opponent was first in the nation in scoring defense going into the game. History’s most important moments always occur beneath the spotlight, and thus not surprisingly, one of the more interesting and historic games of the season, ended up with no television coverage focusing on it. Nevertheless, it is an impressive occurrence and one that (along with Wake Forest’s 50 straight free throw record) should be remembered.

Mid-Season Projection

For whatever reason, it seems that all college basketball writers need to take this time towards the end of January to give their prognostications as to the potential seeding and bracket arrangements of the upcoming NCAA Tournament. While these predictions are often worth less than an NHL franchise, I do feel the need to keep up. Thus here are my Final 4 and Elite 8 teams, as I see them today.

Final 4
North Carolina
Illinois
Wake Forest
Syracuse

Elite 8
Duke
Kentucky
Kansas
Oklahoma State

Ultimately the final game is still North Carolina vs. Illinois, with the Heels taking home their fourth national championship. UNC is still the hands-down best team in the country, and they will need to lose many more games than they have to change that.

Until next time…

Joe Crawford Situation

What Does It All Mean?

by Matt Jones

A famous rock philosopher (who looked really old Sunday night at the Golden Globes), once said… “You can’t always get what you want… but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” With the news that freshman sensation Joe Crawford has made the decision to return to the University of Kentucky to rejoin the basketball team, one would hope that all parties involved will get what they need out of the situation. Having said that, the experience between Joe Crawford and the Kentucky Wildcats during the past week truly illustrates all that is good and bad about college basketball, the highlights and the hypocricies, the selfishness and the togetherness and the institutions versus the individuals. In short, the Joe Crawford situation at Kentucky is about college basketball with all its dimples and its warts, and thus is interesting to any college basketball fan.

For those of you who do not live on Planet Big Blue Nation, and thus have not been following every minute detail of this story, a quick summary is in order. Last Sunday, Kentucky played Kansas in a nationally televised game that was billed as one of the biggest of the college basketball season. Sports Illustrated came to town, and used the game as the backdrop of its most recent cover story claiming that “College basketball is back!” Ashley Judd was in attendance (verifying her status as my dream woman – beautiful and a college basketball fan), NBA scouts were up and down press row and college basketball’s resident villain Billy Packer was annoying all the viewers. In short, it was college basketball at its highest form minus the Final 4.

Former McDonald’s All-American Joe Crawford, came into the game obviously excited, and his family used the occasion to make a trip from their home in Michigan to see their freshman son in action. Unfortunately for them, on this national stage, Crawford saw very few minutes as Coach Tubby Smith played Joe for only 3 minutes, preferring instead to rely on his slightly less talented, but ultimately more experienced, veterans throughout the game. After the 65-59 Kansas victory, something happened, the details of which are a bit murky. All parties agree that a meeting took place between the Crawford family, Coach Tubby Smith and Athletic Director Mitch Barnhardt. Some claim that the meeting was heated, with lots of raised voices, others claim it was a calm discussion that simply ended in a mild disagreement. Whatever the result, Crawford ended up moving out of Wildcat Lodge, amidst reports that he quit the team and had the intention of transferring immediately.

Coach Tubby Smith was clearly taken by surprise by this situation, and publicly made remarks insinuating that if Crawford wanted to return to the team, he would be welcome. The Crawford family however had different ideas, and gave multiple interviews to the press (never a good idea) where they made it clear that they were unhappy with the Kentucky experience, and that they believed that Joe was not playing nearly enough as to befit his elite high school status. It must here be mentioned that Crawford was averaging 13.6 minutes a game, 6th on the relatively deep Kentucky squad, but most importantly to the Crawford family, only third amongst the highly touted Kentucky freshman class. The Crawfords made their intention known, and it quickly became clear that they wanted their son to join Tom Izzo at Michigan State, where their champagne wishes and caviar dreams could be fulfilled by Joe getting increased playing time.

What the Crawford family did not take into account however, was that Kentucky held some say in the ultimate future of their son. Because Joe (as all freshman) had signed a national Letter of Intent to play at Kentucky as a freshman, the University essentially held, for lack of a better word, his rights for the entire season. By NCAA rule, any freshman who transfers during this freshman season not only has to sit out an entire season, as is the case for all transfers, but also loses a full year of eligibility. When combined with the NCAA rule prohibiting schools from counting half-years of eligibility, the end result became that if Joe transferred, he would be eligible to play next January, but he would only have 1 1/2 years of eligibility remaining, moving him from a second semester freshman to a second-semester junior. Essentially this rule would require Crawford to be a Carmelo Anthony, a player so talented that after one year, the NBA would be knocking down his door. Since the Kentucky starting lineup was not yet knocking down his door, the prospects of this were low at best.

The University of Kentucky did however, have the power to waive this rule. But theUniversity made clear that this would not happen, arguing that it did not want to set the precedent that a stud athlete such as Crawford could use Kentucky as a “training ground” for a semester and then transfer onto greener pastures.

The Crawfords now realized that they were in a very difficult position. They could hold to their guns and transfer to another university and hope that Joe could showcase his star power immediately, or they could head back to Kentucky and beg forgiveness. They chose the latter. Tubby Smith, who has learned in his tenure at Kentucky that the last thing he needs in such a small fish bowl is controversy, was thus left with a difficult decision. He could either let a kid back who had not only quit the team, but also had a set of parents who had criticized both the university and him in the press after he left, or he could essentially tell Joe “tough” and risk the criticism of not only the Crawford family, but the Kentucky fan base who would be upset at losing such a potentially important player. Tubby chose to let Crawford back, and he is now (at least temporarily) a Kentucky Wildcat again.

Now you are likely asking yourself, Matt that is a fine story and would be nice to tell at the National Storytelling Festival in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but why is it so important to the future of college basketball? As I see it, the Joe Crawford saga exposes three things that are important about college basketball.

First, college coaches at the top programs are under an immense amount of pressure and often will have to make decisions that will always leave someone unhappy. As his post-game press conference after the Cats 76-55 win against Georgia on Saturday was ending, a smile seemed to creep onto Tubby Smith’s face. It was as if he was a school kid who thought he was about to get away with forgetting to turn in his homework. When the Kentucky Sports Information Director said, “final question”, one reporter asked, “Tubby, I hate to do this, but what is the situation with Joe Crawford?” The sly smile went away as it became clear that Tubby could not escape without addressing Kentucky’s version of “As The Cat Turns”.

Tubby had to make two decisions during this saga, both of which led to derision by members of his press and fan base. First, he (and the administration) had to make the decision to play hardball with the rules of the National Letter of Intent, thus allowing the university to set a precedent that it would not become a training ground for young players with visions of NBA glory dancing in their head. However in doing so, he essentially was limiting the options of Crawford, thus allowing for many to shake their fists at big, bad Kentucky. Many members of the national media, including the beloved Dick Vitale, said it was wrong for Kentucky not to let Crawford go and that the university did not have the kid’s best interests at heart. Then, after Crawford decided to return, Tubby had to accept the prodigal son, opening himself up to the possibility that Joe would just leave again at the end of the season and was not interested in being a Wildcat as much as preserving his eligibility.

Both of these decisions took a lot of guts, and were made by a man whose character far outweighs his coaching skill. What Tubby Smith has done at Kentucky is remarkable, and his ability to make the right decision in the face of much difficulty should be commended. However what Tubby Smith had to face this week is not much different than what Mike Davis, Roy Williams, Coach K and Bill Self see every week as well. In places where college basketball is hot, coaches can often do no right. Whatever they do will lead to criticism and second guessers. To be able to face this pressure day in and day out is truly something and makes these men earn their (hefty) salaries.

Second, college institutions have a high degree of control over their players. I believe that Joe Crawford made a mistake in his initial decision to leave the University of Kentucky. Having said that, it truly is amazing that the NCAA’s rule is currently in place. Under the rule a university can essentially keep the rights of a player as punishment for his (or her) decision to go to another university. The reason for this role is two-fold, one being to preserve the interests of the institution, but the other being more paternal, mainly to stop a player from making a rash, and ultimately negative decision. While both of these justifications are understandable, the rule as a whole does leave the NCAA open to charges of inconsistency. There is currently nothing that stops a coach from recruiting players to a university, promising them that he will be there to oversee his four years and then immediately splitting when a new, better job opens up. Such inconsistency opens up the NCAA to charges that it is ultimately not concerned with the well-being of the players, but rather is more concerned with its own bottom-line. This is not the column for me to rant about how the NCAA uses players and gives them very little in return (and please spare me the e-mails saying that “an education should be enough”), but this little-known Letter of Intent rule is just another example of the power inequities in the current structure.

Finally, and most importantly, the Joe Crawford saga is truly a reflection of the changing nature of the expectation level of basketball players in the college game. It was just a little over thirty years ago that freshman were not even allowed to play for the varsity, and were instead required to use their freshman year to concentrate on academics (there is a novel concept). However now the success of Carmelo Anthony and the prospect of instantaneous success has led many to come to college with an oversized set of expectations. We should suspect that when Crawford came to Kentucky he not only thought he would be in the starting lineup, but that if he were to be the 6th man, that would be completely unacceptable and would be worthy of a transfer. That is truly remarkable. It is made even more so by his decision to play for a coach in Tubby Smith who has shown an ability (see Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans) to take star players out of high school and mold them over the course of four years, into the type of team-first player that is coveted by NBA scouts. Some highly touted freshman do accept their lesser roles (see for instance Marvin Williams, who has a chance to be the number one overall draft pick in this year’s draft, yet has accepted coming off the bench for North Carolina), however many come into college with the expectation that they not only should, but they must, play right away. The trick for coaches like Tubby Smith is to sniff this attitude out during recruiting, a task easier said than done.

How the Joe Crawford situation will end is unknown. However what is known is that it has been entertaining to watch from the outside. In addition to the factors I have just showcased, the saga has shown how the world of sports journalism is changing a bit as well. With the increase of web-based sports sites (such as Hoopville.com), fans are beginning to go to alternative sources to receive their sports news. Both the decision by Crawford to transfer, and his decision to return to school, were both initially reported on Kentucky fan sites. Each of these reports were initially dismissed by members of the more traditional media. Some reporters (such as ESPN.com’s Andy Katz) were openly disdainful about the Internet reports, saying that there was “no truth” to these Internet “rumors”. Just as the world of Matt Drudge and internet blogs showed an impact in this year’s presidential election and during the Dan Rather scandal at CBS, so too the world of Internet reporting is beginning to rear its ugly head in sports. Watching the traditional media outlets squirm (and in this case miss a story) was interesting for this web-based columnist.

Until we meet again….

Indiana Basketball

Not Indiana Basketball As We Knew It

by Matt Jones

Stretch your mind back for a second to 1987. The Cosby Show was ruling the television roost (pre-Pam days), Ronald Reagan was in the last days of his cowboy presidency (enjoying his post Iran-Contra bounce) and the Twins were doing their best to wave the Homer Hanky across America (all hail Kent Hrbek!) At this time the center of the college basketball universe resided in Bloomington, Indiana. Keith Smart had just etched his place in the college basketball lexicon right next to Jack Givens, Ed Pinckney and Lorenzo Charles with a game-winning shot from the baseline to beat the Syracuse Orangemen and give the Hoosiers their third national championship in eleven years. While Georgetown, Louisville, North Carolina and Kansas could all stake their claim as top college basketball programs in the 1980s, the center of college basketball was clearly in the heartland, and most conversations on the topic began by discussing good ol’ IU.

At the helm of course was the General, Bobby Knight. Beloved by many, detested by the rest, he was the pre-eminent figure in college basketball, ruling the roost with a slightly too tight red sweater (or in his earlier days slightly too tight Indiana polo shirt) and projecting total authority over the program. Knight was (and is) a man of amazing contradictions, who could be at times unbelievably generous (such as his personal delivery of a Pan Am Games gold medal to Kyle Macy, who had been injured and sent home from the experience) and at times unbelievably unruly (see the famous internet audio of Knight being “sick and tired of losing to Purdue”). He ran as clean a program as any in the NCAA and yet found ways to embarrass the university time and time again. Yet whatever one thought of Knight, one thing was clear: Indiana basketball was relevant and was the only college program that those who had no interest whatsoever in the sport could still converse about intelligently. 60 Minutes came to Indiana to interview Coach Knight for a reason and it wasn’t the fine cuisine in Bloomington. To all except the strongest of fans, Indiana basketball was the college basketball story.

Today Indiana basketball is a shade of its former self. Indiana sits at 5-6, a record that would be dismal by any Hoosier standard, but becomes even more so when closely examined. The Hoosiers have played six teams of quality (North Carolina, UCONN, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Charlotte and Missouri) and five teams that swing towards the lower end of mediocrity (Indiana State, Western Illinois, Ball State, Furman and Oral Roberts). They lost all six games against the quality teams and in the process put up absolutely embarrassing performances against two of them (Kentucky and Notre Dame). These losses also included a second half collapse (Missouri), an offensive performance that was one of the worst in school history (Kentucky), and a loss on a buzzer beater half court shot at home when Indiana’s own scorekeeper started the clock too late (Charlotte). Well at least they can take solace in their five wins, right? Wrong. Three of the wins were at home and could have easily been losses, including a game against Oral Roberts that was virtually given to them in the end. (By the way, whatever happened to the Reverend Oral Roberts? You never see him any more. When the crazy televangelists are parading on television, you still see Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and even occasionally Jimmy “I have sinned against you my lord!” Swaggert. But no more Oral. Not sure why.) All in all, it has been one of the worst non-conference seasons in the school’s history and the ground swell of Hoosier nation has found the place to point its collective finger. For many, all of Indiana’s problems can be placed at the footstep of one person: Mike Davis.

Now I must admit up front that I have a pre-disposition to want to see Mike Davis succeed. Davis became the coach of Indiana under the very worst of circumstances, with the fan base divided over the firing of Bobby “That is Coach Knight to you son” Knight and the mild threat of a player revolt during the process. He was stuck in a no-win situation from the very beginning, and feeling sorry for those in such circumstances as I do (I have a fondness in my heart for field goal kickers as well), I truly was rooting for Davis to succeed. However, replacing a legend is never easy, as such notables as Joe B. Hall, Matt Doherty and the second Joe Millionaire can attest. Davis did an adequate job for his first couple of seasons, and thanks to his miracle run in the 2002 NCAA Tournament (which included an amazing upset over a great Duke team in the Sweet 16) he gained a great deal of early goodwill from the Hoosier fan base. Sure, Davis had his quirks (such as running onto the court hitting himself in the head at the end of a game against Kentucky), but it looked as if his unique style had the potential to succeed in Bloomington.

However, that was then. In the interim, all of the leftover kids of the Knight era have passed, and Davis has presided over the collapse of the Indiana program in a way that would make even Jerry Krause shudder. Recruiting was supposed to be Davis’ strong suit and he brought in many “Billy Donovan specials”, guys that had the recruiting gurus salivating, but that ultimately have had little impact on the floor. However he seemed to be unable to land the players that IU truly coveted, the Bobby Knight-esque guys who would go diving on the floor for loose balls, made free throws and occasionally even had buzz cuts. He missed out on the son of an Indiana legend when Sean May decided to head to North Carolina rather than follow in his father’s footsteps at IU, and in the process gave the critics their first ammunition in what would soon become a full fledged assault on his coaching tenure. His teams often played uninspired and at times looked selfish, a style that is sometimes (wrongly) blamed on his newest star Bracey Wright. Things came to the brink last year when Indiana missed out on post-season play completely, a heresy that the Indiana faithful will not soon forget.

Ultimately it does not take a genius to realize that Mike Davis’ days in Bloomington are numbered. I will not undertake the generic sportswriter’s response and call for his ouster, nor will I take the time to defend him. It is likely the case that Davis never truly had a chance to succeed in Bloomington, for a variety of reasons ranging from his coaching inexperience to the long shadow cast by his predecessor. However what is much more fascinating to me is the state of the program itself. Throughout college sports, we are increasingly seeing unrealistic fan bases call for the ouster of their coach as they, like the 45-year-old former high school quarterback who leaves his wife for a new 28-year-old secretary, seek to recapture their glory days.

Much has been written about the absurdity of the Notre Dame and Nebraska football situations, and the decisions by those administrations to release perfectly solid football coaches because they did not excel at the highest of highs were correctly ridiculed. However, this situation is slightly different. Whatever one wants to say about Mike Davis, it is clear that he is not presiding over the equivalent of a nine-win college football team like Nebraska at the time of Frank Solich’s firing. Thus if he is let go, the rationale is much more understandable.

Still the more interesting point is that Indiana basketball is at a crossroads. They clearly are no longer on the level of the teams such as Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas, whom they once (and still wish to) considered their peers. Much more disconcerting to them however is the fact that they have since been left in the dust by programs such as Arizona, Michigan State, Syracuse, Connecticut and even neighboring Illinois. Put simply, Indiana basketball is just not Indiana basketball anymore.

The next coaching decision and the five years that follow it are thus absolutely crucial for the future of this program. Each year another batch of recruits comes forward whose memory of Indiana is not Isiah Thomas, Quinn Buckner or Steve Alford, but rather is A.J Moye, Kirk Haston and Pat Ewing, Jr. If the program does not make a significant move forward soon, it could be relegated to secondary status, a result unthinkable in the basketball-obsessed state of Indiana. There are two paths they can follow, and the next five years will determine if IU basketball becomes like Kentucky, a school that wins no matter who is the coach, or like UCLA, a program that needs a special coach to win.

Top 12

Our 2004-05 National Champion

by Matt Jones

Wow, what a week! As with many of you, I have been obsessively following sports for my entire life, and I do not think I can remember a week where the line between the top stories in the world of sports and the top stories in the world of life intersected more frequently. We began with the ridiculous controversy surrounding the Monday Night Football opening, which made America cringe at the thought of a woman’s back showing on television. Most agreed that there is no place for such disgusting displays, as it may take our collective minds away from the much more important impotence ads (I especially hate the one with the middle-aged woman telling me that for her guy Levitra “works fast”… I am not sure I could care about anything any less). In actuality the Monday Night Football fiasco was a win-win situation for all parties involved, as it allowed ABC to get huge promotion for its two most important current holdings (Monday Night Football and Desperate Housewives), re-affirmed Terrell Owens’ status as the most known person in the National Football League, gave Michael Powell a chance to grandstand about something other than Howard Stern and made Nicollette Sheridan relevant for the first time in recent memory. Congratulations to all!

However just when the trumped-up furor was dying down, an actual serious issue arose with the Ron Artest Gone Wild melee in Detroit. Besides providing entertaining television, this fracas allowed all of America’s hibernating “serious” sports journalists (stand up Frank Deford and Mitch Albom) to pontificate on the “degrading of sports culture”, the “thuggishness of the NBA”, and the “end of innocence” in American athletics. Reading these columns is always a highlight for me, because these individuals are blessed without the gene that allows people to have actual perspective on life’s events.

With a war in Iraq, genocide in the Sudan, death of Yasser Arafat and the filming of the Simple Life 3 all occurring, I think we in the sports media should not act as if the Pistons-Pacers brawl was life-altering. I will say, however, that one moment from the festivities provided me with an immense amount of entertainment. When Artest went into the stands, he (not surprisingly) attacked the wrong guy, leading to maybe the worst turn of events for a sports fan in the stands since Bartman got in the way of a Cubs’ World Series bid. As the realization hits the dorky young man that he is about to get hit with 230 pounds of raw muscle and craziness, he gets a look on his face that must be understood only be David Gest. That raw horror is now also the cover of Sports Illustrated and insures a life-time of harassment by his friends for the poor guy. Oh well, I guess he can wipe his tears with Ron Artest’s salary from next year which will be coming his way soon.

Somewhere amongst this mess of “serious” sports stories, hides the true most important moment of last week, mainly the beginning of college basketball season. In my last column, I mentioned that I would be previewing every team in the country prior to the season. Some (mainly everyone who knows me) suggested that I would never do that… and they were right. However, I will do a shorter version of the preview and give you, the readers, my pre-season Top 12. You may ask, why 12? The reason is simple. When a season begins, one can always list 12 teams and decide with some degree of certainty, that the national champion will come from that group. The only year that I have done this and been incorrect was with the Carmelo Anthony-led Syracuse team that made an amazing tournament run in 2002. However the exception proves the rule, and thus listing the top 12 is still productive.

In making this list, I made the decision not to put too much stock into some of the early season losses (UNC anyone?) because I was once a fan of a team that lost in November due to the domination of a guy named Darrin Morningstar (extra points if you email me and remember who he played for). Thus the rankings for these teams were not adversely affected, and we bring you this list from a clean slate.

(1) Kansas – I must admit that it is with great hesitation that I pick the Jayhawks as the number one team in America. There has likely been no team over the years that has cost me more public humiliation with its flame-outs and choke-jobs than Kansas, and for that reason I am still boycotting Lawrence (however I do love Manhattan, KS). Nevertheless, with Roy Williams no longer prominently involved, I am have the sneaking suspicion that this Bill Self team may be able to make it 1988 all over again. Wayne Simien is an absolute beast, and along with Chris Paul, is one of the two true can’t-miss players in college basketball this season. I have always been a big Aaron Miles guy and even though some would argue he has not lived up to his promise, he still remains the most consistent guard in the Big 12. The key for them will be making the young guys click. J.R. Giddens and Russell Robinson can be complimentary pieces to a championship puzzle, but they also could be chemistry-killers. If they can fit in without any turbulence, it will be Rock Chalk Jayhawk in St. Louis.

(2) Wake Forest – If you have not been able to tell from past columns (ok well, past column), I am a huge fan of this Wake Forest team. Whether it’s the amazing point guard skills of Chris Paul, the outside shooting of Justin Gray or the overall craziness of the Eric Williams family, there is something for everyone with this group. In addition, it is great to see Wake Forest, which has always been something of a red-headed stepchild of Tobacco Road basketball, to finally have a legitimate chance to be the best of the Big 4. This must be especially appealing to Deac fans because the other three are also among the top 20 teams in the country. This is a special year for ACC basketball, and no place will be more entertaining than Marlboro-Camel… I mean Winston-Salem.

(3) Oklahoma State – Is there any more unbelievable story in college basketball than the fact that one of the country’s best, most underrated coaches has both an NCAA probation and a consistent Mike Brady perm on his resume? Yes, ladies and gentleman I am talking about the crown prince of fun, Eddie Sutton. In the backwater of Stillwater, Oklahoma, Sutton has been quietly building a top 10 program nationally, all the while setting the table for his son Sean to one day take over and miserably fail. This team is especially intriguing as it features the son of John Lucas, who may be the only basketball playing son who has the potential to not only be better than his famous dad, but only half as crazy. This is a key year for this program in terms of determining whether it will be a consistent power or a “every 3 or 4 years” kind of team. I am betting on the former, especially if former UNC recruit/lawsuit waiting to happen JamesOn Curry can flourish.

(4) North Carolina – And then there are these guys. Can we as a nation just admit that absolutely no one has any idea what is going on in Chapel Hill? This team CLEARLY has the best talent in the nation, by far – Sean May, Rashad McCants, Raymond Felton, Jawad Williams, Jackie Manual, Marvin Williams et.al. represent the best in college basketball by a relatively wide margin. Yet we have watched these guys consistently underachieve, and offer very few signs of life. Then came the offseason, when the Heels became the sexy national pick and all signs pointed to national success, especially with the good vibes coming out of the McCants/May/Felton trio during the summer. Next thing you know Rashad McCants is comparing Chapel Hill to “jail” (I don’t know what jail McCants thinks has ladies as fine as those on Franklin Street) and the season begins in chaos with a loss to Santa Clara (somewhere in heaven, my now deceased grandfather is “happy for those kids at Santa Claus.”) I have no idea what will happen this year, but as I stated in my last column, this is a crucial season for the program.

(5) Kentucky – There has not been this degree of anticipation for a new season in Lexington since Rick Pitino brought his band of NBA All-Stars to the court in 1995-1996. Tubby Smith has brought in a recruiting class that includes four blue-chippers and one transfer (Patrick Sparks) who very well may be the team’s leading scorer for much of the season. This is the most talent of the Tubby Smith era and leaves him with an interesting dilemma. He has proven he can take coachable guys with less talent to a high level, but can he do it with McDonald’s All-Americans with greater NBA dreams? Tubby has been burned by these types in the past (see Rashaad Carruth and Marvin Stone) but the thought here is that this group is different (Randolph Morris and Joe Crawford do not seem like the type to boycott shooting in protest of playing time). By the end of the year, this team will be scary good.

(6) Illinois – Now I have taken a great deal of heat from many Illini fans for my ridicule of Nick “the moustache” Smith, but you guys have to admit that he is ridiculous! I could talk about that moustache all day, but I do have to admit that there is more to the Fighting Illini than just facial hair. Most significantly there is the outstanding guard combo of Deron Williams and Dee Brown, a pairing that are seeking to compete with their more known brethren in Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem for best backcourt duo in the country. There are many (including me) that believe that the Big 10 is slowly becoming a disgrace and may soon relinquish its title as an elite national conference (I am not kidding). However this Illini team will do short-term wonders for the league as it is yet again, a Final 4 contender.

(7) Syracuse – I was never a big Syracuse guy until recently. I always thought that the Orangemen (I mean Orange) were simply a bunch of zone-playing, three-point shootin’, cold weather havin’, ugly dome playin’, patsy schedule makin’ bunch of Big East goobers (I use goober only in the technical sense of the word). But then I recently found out that Jim Boeheim’s wife (senior member of the “wife hotter than her husband foundation”) has parents that live in my hometown of Middlesboro, Kentucky. For that reason, they now are one of my favorites. This team will once again be led by Gerry McNamara, currently in his 8th year of college and on pace to enter the pantheon of annoying college basketball players (move over Brian Cardinal!). This team will once again play no one until their conference schedule (which with the exception of UConn and Pitt, will be weak) and then will either flameout in the tournament or make a Final 4 run. That is the Jim Boeheim way, and this season should be no different. And oh yeah, Hakim Warrick is real, real good.

(8) Duke – I always love when it becomes fashionable to say that one team is the “sleeper” of the season or that a particular team is “overrated” or “in decline”. It turns out never to be correct and the analysts are never taken to task for their continual inane predictions. The new “in thing” to say is that Duke will be down this year and that there is less talent that at any time PFBS (pre-fake back surgery). But you, alert reader, should not buy it. JJ Redick, Sean Dockery, Shavlik Randolph, Sheldon Williams and Daniel Ewing are as good as any starting lineup in the country, and do not let anyone tell you differently. They have very little depth, but then again Coach K never has a great deal of depth and thus relies very heavily on “heart” and “desire” and other annoying things. Expect another solid season in Durham and a strong tournament run.

(9) North Carolina State – This is the first outlier of my hot 16, but I am a true believer in this team, and no it is not because I happen to live in Raleigh (I was in DC last year and did not tell you to invest heavily in George Mason now did I?). Julius Hodge is the best player in the country that never gets the credit that he deserves. Here is a guy who while winning ACC player of the year last year, still is not known by most of the country and gets absolutely NO attention from our college basketball hype machine at ESPN. I mean if this guy suited up down the road for the Blue Devils, he would make Vitale scream at Battier-esque levels. But he plays for the Pack, and thus anonymity reigns. But watch this team during the season: they are loaded and with the addition of Georgetown transfer Tony Bethel, they have the potential to put up points in bunches. Herb Sendek has always been this close to having a national contender, and this is the year it happens. And yes, that means 4 of the top 9 teams in the country are located within 90 minutes of each other.

(10) Connecticut – As I stated in my seven keys to the season column of last week, watching UConn this season should be truly fascinating. As I see it, there are five traditional powers right now in college basketball – tier 1 schools that are good every year: Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas and UNC (the last two years notwithstanding). With rare exception you can count on these guys having super talent and contending nationally, no matter what the circumstances. They are the royals of college basketball. Right below this group is a set that contains such programs as Maryland, Syracuse, Michigan State and UConn. These Teams are good enough to win the national title but are just a notch below the top five, both in prestige and performance. I truly believe that UConn however is on the verge of making the leap. That was cemented by the national title last season, but also by the recent signings of prep phenoms Charlie Villanueva, Josh Boone and Rudy Gay. The elite programs get the best players, and the Huskies are now a national force on the recruiting trail. If this program can come off a national championship, lose two lottery picks and then come back and be a top 10 team, college basketball royalty should be forthcoming. This is the year they make the leap and it should be fun to watch.

(11) Georgia Tech – Now many will think that this seems a little low. I mean after all, this team made the championship game, gave UConn a run for their money and has virtually their entire team returning. They have talent coming from every direction in the form of B.J. Elder, Jarrett Jack and Ishmail Muhammad, and when clicking can create more highlight level plays than any team in the nation. In addition they have created the most famous goofy-looking long-haired redhead since CarrotTop in the form of Luke Schenscher. That should count for something. All true, however I still do not particularly like this team. First of all they are playing in the brutal ACC, which has 5 teams in my top 12 and could easily have had a 6th (Maryland). In addition, this team showed virtually nothing in the regular season last year that would lead one to label them a title contender. Yes they got hot in the tournament and produced a fine run; I just need to see more. I put them in my top 12 because I legitimately believe they can win the national title. However I also think they could be the kind of team that just squeaks into the Big Dance by a game or two. It could be that kind of season.

(12) Mississippi State – As those of you who followed my SEC columns last year know, I am a huge Lawrence Roberts fan. This young man (am I getting old or what, calling college guys “young men”?) will be an NBA powerhouse, and made the correct decision to return to Starkville (not the easiest decision) and forego riches to not only better his draft status, but to be part of the worst draft in NBA history (next season). His supporting cast is not as strong as in the past, but Winsome Frazier and Shane Power have the ability to hit big shots and provide some support for the big man. The SEC is down a bit this season, and thus the potential exists for the Bulldogs to produce another gaudy record like last season and get a high NCAA seed. If the tournament sees Roberts hitting jumpers, this team could be dangerous. And if not, well maybe I can have a cute Mississippi State cheerleader come up to me at the SEC tournament as she did last year and tell me “thanks for being so nice to our team.” This column can be tough sometimes.

So there you have it. The top 12 as I see it. Your national champion will most likely come from that group and if it doesn’t, I will give you your money back. Until next time…

Four-week Checkup

Four Week Checkup

by Matt Jones

We are now four weeks into the season. When I played tennis in high school (it was extremely cool at my school… I promise), our coach used to say in a thick Italian accent, “Guys the volleys should be crisp after the first month.” We here at Hoopville have finally begun making our volleys crisper and the same can be said for the best in college basketball.

Teams are starting to slowly find themselves and storylines are beginning to emerge. Thus I thought it would be a good time to go over what we have learned during the opening month of this exciting college basketball season and to review the highs and lows. In the spirit of the recently announced Golden Globe Award nominations (having seen all the candidates besides Million Dollar Baby, I hereby declare that Finding Neverland is the best movie of the year), I now give you the Early Season NCAA Awards. In order to get the full effect, close your eyes and imagine Jennifer Garner and Verne Lundquist (both fully clothed) reading off the award winners.

Best Team

Picking the best team in the country at this stage of the season is always absurd and does very little except give your critics the ability to write you at the end of the year and remind you how ridiculous you looked for saying that Florida would be a dominant force in December (yes that happened to me). However I am confident in my pick this time around. North Carolina is the best team in the country… hands-down. The Tar Heels are blessed with four, yes four players who will be first-round draft picks in the next two years, and are so stacked that otherwise impressive players like Jawad Williams, are completely forgotten. They have absolutely drilled every team on their schedule, and their only interesting game so far, at home against Kentucky, was really never close. Now I know, you are saying to yourself, “wait a second Paco. This is a team that was beaten badly by Santa Clara, who went onto lose to some team called Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo Irvine at Los Angeles.” However I refuse to acknowledge that this game ever took place. I mean, how many of you remember that last year’s New England Patriots lost their first game on the road to the Buffalo Bills? The answer is no one. Mark my words. This Santa Clara game will one day rank as one of the oddest college basketball results in the history of our fair sport. There is no explanation that suffices (and no Heel fans, Ray Felton being hurt does not do the trick) so we will just assume that the Pete Newell Classic was hijacked by the same people who made Tony Kornheiser think “Listen Up” was a good idea, and just move on.

Best Team (1a)

While I am extremely confident that North Carolina is the best team in the land, in the tradition of the Globes, I get to pick a second winner of this award and just claim that it falls into the “Best Comedy/Musical Film” category. For my money the only team that can compete with the Heels at this point in the season is Illinois. I spent some of my pre-season column praising the beauties of Nick Smith and his famous moustache, and I still want all of you to know that this is my favorite part of the Illini program. However it has come to my attention that in addition to wacky facial hair, this team has some amazing talent. Luther Head (actual name) has become the most unknown dominant force in college basketball since Harold “The Show” Arceneaux was roaming the sidelines in Weberville. And anyone that saw the absolute demolition of Wake Forest during the alleged ACC-Big 10 challenge (a farce if one ever existed) knows that this team can make even the most overly hyped player in recent memory (Hello Chris Paul!) look absolutely mortal. I am not ready to buy stock in Illinois at Sirius Satellite radio levels (340% rise since August), but it would not surprise me if St. Louis has a very Champaign-esque feel to it come early April.

Best Game

For the second consecutive year, Charlotte has been involved in the most thrilling early season tilt, this year losing in triple overtime 102-101 to a vastly underrated Alabama team. The Tide were led with 36 points by a man whose name reeks stardom, one Kennedy Winston. (You know what I am talking about here. Some people have names that require they become famous. There are no guys named Leonardo DiCaprio working at Panera Bread. When he acquired that name, his success in the movie business was predetermined.) Winston – who may have the most talent of any SEC player outside of Lawrence Roberts – controlled the action for most of the contest, and found a way to hit the buzzer beating shot to send the game into overtime, even though his arm must have been throbbing from his exhausting 25 shots from the field. The 49ers (an odd name for a team located in North Carolina) were unable to duplicate their Brendan Plavich-induced magic of their Syracuse upset last season, and found themselves just short when Mitchell Baldwin (he is the one from Bio-Dome) missed a last second shot to give the Tide the victory. Expect both of these teams to have great conference campaigns, and to challenge Louisville and Kentucky for their respective conference championships.

Best Player

Ok I give up. I am finally willing to do what I refused to for two solid years. I am willing to say that Travis Deiner of Marquette is an All-American caliber player. I know what you are saying: “Matt, what took you so long? Deiner has only torched opposing teams for two solid seasons!” True, but for whatever reason, I never believed in this kid before. I mean look at him. He has a haircut that suggests that awkward transition between 8th grade and Freshman year (and no you cannot mention that I still have the exact same haircut), and his arms are thinner than the Bush Administration’s environmental plan (throwing a bone to my liberal readers). But at this point there is no denying the kid. He is currently averaging over 21 points a game, while leading the Golden Eagles to an impressive 9-0 start, which has included victories over Wisconsin and… well they beat Wisconsin. He has also produced a couple of mind-numbing performances that include dropping 34 points on a surprisingly strong Air Force team. I know that there are better individual players in America (Rashad McCants, Julius Hodge, Ike Diogu, Wayne Simien et al.), however none has consistently performed like Deiner. Thus I begrudgingly give him this award…but please graduate soon as you are headed for the Jess Settles “Guy who has been in college forever” award.

Best Early Season Moment

Not only is this the best moment of the early season, it may very well be my favorite moment of recent memory. Rashaun Freeman (who is doing a serviceable job on my college basketball fantasy team) drove to the basket at the end of the UMass-UConn game (thanks to a poor decision to implement a press in the last eight seconds by the normally unflappable Jim Calhoun), making a layup and giving his Minutemen teammates a two-point lead over the favored Huskies. Freeman then did what any reasonable person emboldened by an historic shot like that would do. He ran into the crowd to celebrate with his teammates and fellow students. However there was one tiny problem. There were still 4 seconds on the clock. UConn quickly inbounded the ball and ran the length of the court where one of its players, Freeman’s defensive assignment, took a wide-open three to win the game. Luckily for Freeman he missed, but I am unsure Rashaun even knows that the play took place. He stayed in the crowd, never looking back and celebrating for the rest of the evening. Three cheers to Rashaun Freeman for showing the world that there are significantly more important things than winning a game… such as celebrating when you are close to winning.

Best Breakdown by a Major College Program

Based on their early season results, I am predicting it is only about a month before my inevitable “Quin Snyder is the worst coach with the best hair column” hits the newsstands. Snyder has presided over one of the most dramatic declines of an up-and-coming program that I can remember in recent history.

Remember where we were just a year ago. Snyder was the golden boy of college coaching, handsome and debonair, helping land top-flight recruits to Missouri and seemingly in line to take over his alma mater and inherit the Coach K throne whenever he his back injury flames up again. Then all of a sudden a scandal breaks, implicating school administrators, complete with allegations that their wives had relationships with the players and gave money to various team members. The university had it so bad that Bryant Gumbel came a’knockin (never a good sign) for his Real Sports show, and it looked as if all the University could console itself with was the fact that even if they were slightly dirty, at least they were winning. Now they aren’t even doing that. Early in the season Missouri has lost at home to Davidson, Creighton and Arkansas and on the road to the University of Houston (with neither Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler or Andre Ware involved). In addition, they just squeaked by Murray State, Montana and yes, Brown! (By the way, is there any team in America that would be a worse loss than Brown? I mean Brown… the only people I know who went to Brown have glasses as thick as the ones I wore when I was thirteen and are always interested in talking about something involving the prefix “meta”). Snyder is smart and must realize that a lot will be tolerated in college basketball. You can pay players, shuttle team members to and fro from prison and have shady recruiting practices. But if you start losing, well mister your days are numbered.

Other tidbits and thoughts

• This cannot be the start to the season that Mike Davis was dreaming of in Bloomington. Hoosier faithful knew that the beginning of the year would be difficult, as they were faced with a young team and a very difficult schedule. However they could not have expected to feel this downtrodden after six games. While looking mildly impressive in losses to North Carolina and UConn, the Hoosiers played uninspired against Kentucky and positively dreadful in their home loss to Notre Dame (the first time the Irish have beaten the Hoosiers
  in Bloomington in 37 years). The Kentucky game was particularly disturbing as the Hoosiers looked completely unable to score or run any offense at all that did not involve Bracey Wright firing up threes with a man in his face. Davis has never been in the most comfortable position in Bloomington, but if things don’t improve very soon, his days occupying the SFHBK (seat formerly held by Knight) are numbered.
• It is very hard to get an early season read on Duke. The Blue Devils have played an absolutely pathetic schedule for a team of their caliber, only hosting Michigan State at home and playing one road game, that being against Valparaiso at the United Center in Chicago. As I stated in my season preview, I think the Blue Devils are much better than many of their critics would have you believe, but I also wish that Coach K would take the gloves off and play more top teams out of conference. Scheduling St. Johns and Temple would have been impressive ten years ago (heck why not see if Georgetown is available… no wait they played them last year), but now suggests a team unwilling to lace it up with the best of the best.
• I must say that I absolutely love the new Kobe Bryant-Karl Malone scandal in Los Angeles. These two guys represent two of the most unlikable players in the NBA in recent memory and now they are feuding over one of the most idiotic disagreements in history. Everyone involved looks absolutely insane, whether it is Kobe’s 19-year old wife saying “what are you huntin’ cowboy?” to a man over twice her age, Malone finding a way to offend a whole ethnicity of people by saying “little Mexican girls” or Kobe making petty comments about the Mailman in retaliation. Ultimately however, even though I find the Mailman distasteful, the blame on this story ends up in the lap of Kobe. I mean here you have a guy who is so unlikable that he doesn’t even have a relationship with his mother. If one were to go the dirtiest, dankest, grittiest prison in America, and ask for the toughest SOB in the place (likely named Raymond), he will come out and speak to you with his shirt off, showcasing a tattoo that says “Mama” on it. No one breaks off ties with their mother, they just don’t. Bryant is slowly slipping into Linda Tripp-esque stages of public hatred and it is only a time before he has a public meltdown. Trust me on this one.
• Folks should give it up for my newest bandwagon team, Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Yes you read that right, there is a team with that name and no I had never heard of them before this year either. The Islanders, who have no conference affiliation and thus no automatic NCAA berth possibility, have begun the season 6-1, gaining victories over Florida State, TCU and Baylor in the process. The Islanders only have seven home games scheduled for the entire season (thanks to the Neville Chamberlin-esque negotiating skills of their AD), and thus it will be very difficult for them to keep up their early success. However they have two very important contests upcoming, one at Alabama and then an epic home game versus Number 4 Oklahoma State on national television. If the Islanders can somehow pull out one of these two games and find themselves in the tournament mix come March, it will truly be one of the more remarkable accomplishments in recent college basketball.
• Here is a name to keep on your radar in terms of the national high school scene. Kevin Durant, who now plays for Oak Hill Academy, is quickly rising to the top of the list of top juniors in the nation. He recently visited the state of Kentucky, where he put on a clinic in helping Oak Hill beat Louisville Manual 69-43. The next night found him at the Kentucky Bank Shootout at Bourbon County High School (which is also quickly becoming a top showcase for future college talent) where he scored 28 in helping his team crush a solid Pendleton County team 98-64. Durant has NBA potential written all over him, but insists he is going to show up in college. One never knows whether to believe such comments, but if he does, word is that Kentucky is the leader for his services.
• I am glad to see Rick Majerus returning to the sidelines to do what he does best, namely obsess over a college basketball team. When Majerus retired from the Utah sidelines, I always felt like he would be a great television announcer, but during the initial stages of his second career, this was not proven to be the case. The jovial side of Majerus which was always so appealing during his coaching days seemed to have left him and he had become serious “Analyst Majerus,” a role that he is far less suited for. Now maybe we will see him let his hair down (both of them), offer a little less objectivity and have more fun, something definitely needed in the college game. Look for USC to be a consistent Top 15 team very soon.

A big weekend is approaching in college basketball and with those pesky finals out of the way (always a drag for the athlete part of a student-athlete), conference season is just around the corner. The big game this week is Kentucky vs. Louisville, as the bluegrass state will once again showcase its holiday goodwill by renewing the second best rivalry game in the country (anyone who says number 1 is anything except UNC and Duke is lying to themselves). This is a big game for Tubby Smith, who has had the misfortune of running into a Louisville buzz saw the past two seasons, something that has caused much heartache for the Big Blue fan base. Smith has a young team that is just busting at its seams with talent, but is also prone to long scoring droughts and a tendency to lose focus. I look for this one to be very close, but because the ‘Ville has no answer for the Cats inside game (or anyone’s inside game for that matter) I see Kentucky winning 77-70. Until next time, shoot me your email at Magloire52@hotmail.com and we will see you next week.

Seven Keys to a Better Basketball Season

Seven Keys to a Better Basketball Season

by Matt Jones

Recently I came to a realization. I have decided (after much deep thought) that the beginning of October may be the best time of the entire year to be a sports fan. No matter what your favorite sport is, it is filling the air with excitement. Baseball playoffs are beginning, which means that sports fans everywhere can get a measure of fun out of watching Boston fans once again convince themselves that E does not equal MC-squared and that their beloved ‘Sawx will have a chance at a World Series.

The NFL season is in full bloom, as shown by the comforting site of a certain rotund Monday Night Football announcer beginning his annual pilgrimage to worship at the altar of Brett Favre. College football has begun its continued BCS quest towards illegitimacy, pausing only long enough for Lee Corso and the folks at ESPN to do something else to make the Tennessee fans on Rocky Top complain that the network “is always out to get us!”

NASCAR has entered its controversial “Chase for the Championship”, adding dozens of fans in the process and causing many in the Bible Belt to insinuate that this heresy is what happens when you “let liberals like John Kerry run our fair sport!”

NBA training camps are opening, with the only true suspense being what other NBA Players (Greg Ostertag perhaps?) Kobe Bryant told the Colorado police had committed felonies. And (my personal favorite), the world of English Premiership Soccer is going strong, with the mighty Arsenal still unbeaten, and Americans still wondering which team Pele is now playing for.

It is onto this crowded sports landscape that the new season of college basketball is slowly approaching. As a long-time fan, it is easy to become jaded and to think that the glory days of college basketball are behind us. Thinking back to my days as just a meager SEC columnist (last year), instead of a Hoopville Senior Writer (chicks dig the title), it is hard not to think that college basketball is heading towards it nadir, with early exits to the pros, continual coaching scandals and the refusal of Gene Keady to do anything about his hair.

However I refuse to succumb to such gloom and despair so easy. I truly believe that this has the potential to be the best college basketball season since 1998 (when the wonderful NCAA Tournament saved college basketball at a time it was most desperately needed….but that is another column). There are new look conferences on the horizon, the possibility of a loaded ACC and the potential for some true powerhouse teams….a rarity in this day and age. In the coming weeks, I am going to take on the Herculean task of attempting to preview every major conference. These previews will not be long, or even accurate, but I hope to distill for you, the reader, the essence of college basketball in 2004-2005. For now I will just leave you with seven storylines for the upcoming season.

1.Crunch Time for North Carolina

As someone who has had the good/misfortune of having a number of friends who are huge Tar Heel fans, it has been my pleasure for years to hear that the Heels were “just around the corner.” With each new prized recruit/high profile coach, I was reminded that the Heels were on their way back and that the glory days were about to be revived. No more coaches with hair like Cruella Deville, no more losses to inferior squads, no more smackdowns by the Kentucky Wildcats. Yes the Heels were coming back. Well now it is time. This team must showcase its potential and become a national power again this year. Jawad Williams (on the Dante Calabria 12 year college plan), Ray Felton, Rashad McCants, etc. have had their learning years and it is now time to do some big-time winning. Some of their losses over the past few seasons have been inexcusable and I still believe that last season ultimately must be regarded as a bit of a disappointment. Regardless, this is the year that Heels fans have been pointing to and I think it will be a real early test to evaluate the Roy Williams regime at UNC. I fully believe in them and predict that they will be a Top 5 program for most of the season. However if it doesn’t happen, one has to wonder if the glory days of ACC domination have forever left the Chapel Hill area.

2.UConn in the post Okafor era

I must say that I have an immense amount of respect for what Jim Calhoun has done for the UConn program during his stay. For him to be able to continually recruit top-tier talent to Storrs, Connecticut is truly amazing, especially considering the relative decline of the Big East (and no Big East fans, winning two national championships in a row does not excuse the sorry state of the rest of that conference). Last year I thought the Huskies were the only true powerhouse in college basketball (neither Duke, Kentucky nor St. Joseph’s qualified), and they took care of business in the Big Dance. However this is a new year and a bit of a drop could be upcoming. Charlie Villaneuva never completely reached his mammoth potential last year, but many would say it was unnecessary with two lottery picks on the team. However this will be his team this year, and it will be interesting to see what the result of that will be. Either way, Calhoun has officially entered the active coaching Hall of Fame (another future column), and Huskies fans should be ecstatic that he shows no signs of slowing down.

3.Seeds of Change at Georgetown

For my money, the most interesting “below the radar” story in college basketball is the new era of Hoya basketball led by John Thompson III. Love him or hate him, the original John Thompson was great for the sport, combining love and knowledge of the game with a broader worldview that sought to make college sports relevant in the greater cultural scheme. He pressed the NCAA and revealed much of the hypocrisy that is inherent in the institution, and for that (not to mention his 1984 National Championship), he will always be remembered. What now will be interesting is to see how much of the elder Thompson’s legacy will be embraced by the newly minted son. Thompson III comes from a great deal of success at Princeton and early indications are that he is much more reserved than his famous father, but just as talented. Whatever the case, college basketball is better when Georgetown is a force, and we have not seen that since the days of Allen Iverson. Here’s hoping that the new Thompson era reaches the level of success of the old.

4.Georgia Tech, National Power?

All college basketball fans should take a minute and truly appreciate just what a wonderful job Paul Hewitt has done at Georgia Tech. It is easy to dismiss the Jackets’ road to the National title game last year as a lucky tournament run – a la Indiana in 2001 – and to some extent the program did reach a bit beyond its potential. However one should not minimize what a change Hewitt has brought to the program and the potential it has to remain a national force. As Bobby Cremins showed many years ago, Tech is perfectly situated to become a Top 10 program. It is the only ACC school in a major city and has the potential to attract recruits that would shun more rural settings (see Kenny Anderson and Stephon Marbury). With this year’s team, Hewitt has the chance to establish Tech on the Kentucky, Duke, UConn level by building upon their impressive run and taking it to a new level. Most of last year’s group of upstarts are back, and Hewitt added two huge recruits in Zam Frederick and Ra’Sean Dickey. This team can be truly special this year, and it will be interesting to see if Hewitt can seize the opportunity to develop a monster in Atlanta.

5.The World Descends on Winston Salem

In case you have not gotten the memo, the best player in the country resides in the sleepy city that combines the best of two brands of cigarettes, Winston-Salem. Chris Paul is the real deal and it is about time that the nation takes full notice. If you have seen him in action, you know that he is a player who has a deep knowledge of the game, such that a lesser announcer would determine him to be “cerebral”, but combines that with a smooth flow that evokes memories of Jason Kidd in his prime. Most NBA scouts will tell you that this kid has Top 5 pick written all over him whenever he decides to test the draft waters. In the meantime, college fans are in for a treat as he leads the best Demon Deacon team in the past thirty years, a team with a legitimate shot at a national title. Folks should line up for the two Paul-Raymond Felton battles, and I hope to be in attendance for both.

6.Kentucky Kids

For the first time since the 1992 Michigan juggernaut, a top program will be relying on a group of freshman to provide them with the talent to make a move towards the Final Four. Tubby Smith, who has often been unjustly criticized by the overly prickly Wildcat fan base for his supposedly lackluster recruiting, has brought in his best class of his time in Lexington and will rely on them heavily in the coming season. Big man Randolph Morris flirted with the NBA Draft (and a possible first round selection) before deciding to join fellow McDonald’s All Americans Joe Crawford and Rajon Rondo in the beautiful bluegrass state. The timing could not have been better for Smith as he lost four of his primary players to graduation, a group that led the Wildcats to the number 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, two years in a row. While Tubby most certainly is excited about the potential of this group, it remains to be seen how they will react to the defense-oriented coach. Smith tends to do better when his team is led by veterans, even those that are not considered to have the most talent. He has had well-publicized run-ins with some of his other high-profile recruits in the past (see Marvin Stone and Rashad Carruth), but these youngsters do not seem of the same character as these former problem children. Either way however, there is a talent level there that has not been seen in Lexington in a while, and Cats fans are salivating at the thought.

7.Fear the Moustache

For the past few years, I have made it my mission to make jokes at the expense of the Big Ten (and Auburn). To me, the conference has been vastly overrated and is continually lumped in as a powerhouse with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC, even though it is currently a notch below. That all may be changing this year, thanks in large part to the potential at Illinois this season. There are a lot of reasons that the fighting Illini have the look of a national title contender, but first and foremost among them is the artist formerly known as Nick Smith. For those of you that haven’t seen Smith and his pencil-thin moustache, you should run out to your nearest Illinois sports retailer and purchase a team photo. Smith is the most absurd looking major Division I basketball player since the days of Gimel Martinez, and has found a way to bring back a look (the 20 year old pale white guy with a moustache) that most of us thought was forever gone. I am not arguing that Smith has a great deal of talent (he doesn’t), but I am suggesting that the key to my happiness this year is whether he and his moustache get the level of national publicity that they deserve. I will do my part and one thing that my readers can be rest assured of, is that this column will become a place dedicated to helping Nick Smith and his merry moustache become engrained in the minds of all sports fans across the country.

So those are the stories to watch at the beginning of this new season, and I will return soon with my marathon preview of all the nation’s team, culminating in the definitive Preseason Top 25. Until next time…..

STL Second Round Preview

Second Round Preview – St. Louis Region

by Matt Jones

(1) Kentucky vs. (9) UAB

Columbus should be rocking on Sunday as the Kentucky Wildcats get ready for
their second round showdown with the UAB Blazers. The Blazers are coming
off an impressive and entertaining performance in their win late Friday
night over Washington. The combo of Morris Finley and Demarrio Eddins have
shown to be true talents who could very well be using this tournament as
their chance to be discovered on a national level. Coach Mike Anderson has
found a way in recent weeks to impose his team’s “40 Minutes of Hell”
philosophy on its opponents and they have truly controlled the tempo in most
of their recent matchups. It is crucial for Anderson’s team to jump out to
a quick start against the Wildcats who have the ability to suck the life out
of opponents who are not ready to play from the opening tip.

As for Kentucky, they cannot be thrilled with the way they played in
Sunday’s contest against the Florida A&M Rattlers. For the first time all
season, Kentucky looked to be going through the motions and seemed decidedly
uninterested until the last 15 minutes of the game. Coach Tubby Smith has
to be a bit surprised at his team’s reaction to their first NCAA Tournament
game, especially considering that they are coming off an SEC Tournament
where they played some of their best basketball of the season. They cannot
afford to take UAB lightly, especially considering the fact that the
Blazers’ up-tempo style has traditionally given this Kentucky team fits (see
the last two year’s games against Louisville). Guards Cliff Hawkins and
Gerald Fitch must cut down on turnovers and find a way to match the
defensive intensity which will surely be present in the Blazers’ game plan.
I look for this game to be the proverbial “closer than the experts think”,
with Kentucky pulling out an 82-75 win down the stretch.

Southeastern Conference Semifinals Recap
		Recap by Matt Jones Kentucky 78 South Carolina 63 The Big Blue Nation was out once again in full force for this opening game of the semi-final session and they certainly had to be pleased with the show that Kentucky put on. The Cats got off to a strong start, held off various attempts by South Carolina to make a run, and ended up winning handily 78-63. The Cats were led by reserve (in name only) Gerald Fitch who poured in 24 points in the victory. Fitch was able to hit a key shot any time that South Carolina threatened to make a run, including four three pointers which each had the effect of a dagger in the heart of the Gamecocks. Kentucky once again showed why they are quietly becoming one of the best teams in the land with crisp passing that proved unstoppable for the Gamecocks’ defense. The tournament run ended for South Carolina, but they should be happy as their victories over Arkansas and LSU have likely secured them a bid in the Big Dance. The game on Saturday was also a chance for the Chick-Fil-A Legends to once again get together and get a nice round of applause from the fans and receive their much-deserved accolades. What, you don’t know what a Chick-Fil-A legend is? I find that hard to believe considering the prestige of the award, but a Chick-Fil-A legend is a player who is a former member of an SEC team who is willing to come back to the NCAA Tournament while his alma mater is playing, and receive a polite ovation from the audience. This year’s legend group included big names such as Charles Barkley and Dan Issel, medium names such as Dale Brown, Dale Ellis and Todd Day and hidden gems such as former Ole Miss guard Gerald Glass. Barkley and Issel had to miss the final ceremony honoring their existence (there must have been an emergency somewhere), but the rest of the legends gathered on Saturday for one last go-around. Now before I completely belittle this ceremony, I want to first make clear that I like the idea of honoring former SEC players at the tournament, and it has always been exciting every year to see who will show up. In addition, as I stated in Thursday’s column, this promotion allowed me to meet one of my all-time heroes, Charles Barkley. So in theory, I have nothing but love for the Chick-Fil-A Legends promotion. However in practice, it leaves a great deal to be desired. The nine remaining legends (Dale Brown was in the hospital after an unfortunate fall) were walked to center court, where they were greeted by a man in a cow costume who had a sign on that said “Eat More Chikin”. The cow then proceeded to hand each of the former players a trophy, which can most politely be described as “hideous.” The trophy looked to be made of plastic (or at least gold-painted metal) and contained in the middle of it, a huge clock. All of the players politely took their clocks from the cow, waved to the crowd that was anxiously awaiting the UK dance team’s performance and all tried their best to look interested. At the end of the ceremony, the players were whisked off the court, the guy behind me in the stands asked “who were those dudes?” and we all went on our merry way. While I went into the second half a bit saddened by the whole experience, I was consoled by the reporter from Mississippi that was sitting next to me. When I asked what the criteria was now for being defined as a legend, he chuckled and just shook his head. “Legend means that you (a) are remembered and (b) are available.” I guess that is likely true, but the SEC and for that matter all conferences, should really look into creating mini-Halls of Fame for its former players. I think it would begin a great series of debates among fans (who should make the Hall, Kyle Macy or Tony Delk?) and could lead to a nice set of honors at the tournament. I love people in cow costumes as much as the next guy, but they should not be part of anything having to do with “legends.” Florida 91 Vanderbilt 69 The second game of the semi-finals was the Anthony Roberson show as the Sophomore guard absolutely lit up the Commodores with 35 points, including 7 three pointers in the Gators victory. Roberson showed why he so many folks believe he can be one of the best guards in the country, as he played a complete game, finding the open man, taking good shots and playing strong defense throughout the game. When Roberson is hot and is not taking bad shots, he may be the best 3 point shooter in the game (take that JJ Redick!). Tonight was just such a night, as Vanderbilt could find no answer for him, or his running mate Matt Walsh, who went for 20 points of his own. Florida shot 62% for the game as Vanderbilt looked tired and unable to keep up with the runnin’, gunnin’ Gators. Vanderbilt’s star forward Matt Freije had another sub-par game as he only scored 11 points on 4-12 shooting. If Vanderbilt is going to be able to do anything in the NCAA Tournament, Freije has to become more authoritative on offense, and not just a last-second bail out when the shot clock is running down. Florida now moves on to play its arch-nemesis Kentucky in what could be a revenge game for the team that has been owned by the Wildcats the past couple of years. This was also the game where I officially realized that no matter what I had thought before, I do not really know all that much about basketball. See we in the media, and you the fans, have a belief that basketball is a simplistic game in which people run, jump and shoot and that even though we may have not played the game well (or in my case even respectably), it still is something that we can understand as much as any top coach. I must admit that I held this view for much of my lifetime, calling Steve Fischer a fool for being unable to win a championship with the Fab 5 and firmly believing that I could have coached the 1996 Kentucky team to the national title. Well all that changed during Saturday’s second game as I had a chance to sit with two commentators on college basketball and realize once and for all that I am an idiot. First up was my good friend Barry Booker, who sat with me during the first half and explained to me his new formula for determining who the best teams are in college basketball. Like me, Booker believes that the RPI is not necessarily the best tool that can be used for ranking teams and comparing them to others that they have not played. However unlike me, he has decided to actually do something about that and is beginning to work on what he calls the “Booker Index.” After he was able to get my attention away from the free cookies that I was eating on press row, Booker explained to me that a true indicator of a team’s ability is its offensive and defensive “efficiency.” This statistic determines how many points a team scores or allows on average per possession down the floor. Because these statistics so accurately track a team’s ability (rather than just its playing style), with this number (and some mathematical tweaking that is still in the works), teams can be compared more accurately. This was shown by the fact that the “Booker Index” accurately forcasted the results of 10 of the 11 games. I must say that this conversation blew my mind and made me realize how ultimately uncreative I am. In Booker’s free time he has come up with a new formula for determining success in one of our national pastimes, while I use my free time to analyze the odds for the newest addition of “Average Joe.” Stunned by his brilliance, I left Booker and moved to the other end of press row for the second game where I sat near Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery, who were watching the game in preparation for their telecast of the final game on Sunday. Throughout the game, I listened to these two broadcasting giants and realized that both of these men likely had forgotten more about basketball than I have ever known. As they analyzed the two teams’ offenses and spoke to their strengths and weaknesses, I quickly learned that the way I watched a game was so superficial as to be ultimately meaningless. When I see a player like Anthony Roberson hit a wide-open three pointer, I usually focus on him, or the man who set a pick to set him free. What Raftery kept pointing out was the play or subtle move that occurred seconds before that led ultimately to the open shot. It was a fascinating experience and I found myself watching some of the games later in the day in a slightly different way. It was an amazing day and once again confirmed why I believe college basketball is the greatest sport going. As for the finals, it is Kentucky and Florida. I look for another Cats win, but I would not be surprised if the Gators kept it close. It will all depend on where Walsh’s head is during the game and to what extent Kentucky can keep up their offensive efficiency. Until next time…..

SEC Finals Recap

Southeastern Conference Finals Recap
		Recap by Matt Jones Kentucky 89, Florida 73 Utter and complete domination. Within six seconds of the game beginning, Gerald Fitch had hit a three pointer, cracked a devious smile on his face and given notice to all the fans in the Georgia Dome that this was going to once again be the Wildcats’ day. Kentucky got out fast and furious and put on a display of offensive productivity in the first six minutes of the game that was as good as any performance by any team all season long. They spent the last few minutes of the first half playing their reserves, keeping a double digit lead and allowing their starters a chance to rest for the final sprint. The second half began and within minutes, the game was over. Gerald Fitch, Cliff Hawkins, Chuck Hayes, Eric Daniels and Kelenna Azubuike took turns scoring at will on the overmatched Florida team and when all was said and done, they left the floor with a 25 point lead and the knowledge that once again, they were the top team in the SEC. There is likely no series between two teams that can legitimately be called a “rivalry” that has been as one-sided in recent years as the Kentucky-Florida games. The Wildcats have won 9 of the last 10 and in the past two seasons, have looked like a completely dominant force against the Gators. Billy Donovan admitted last Sunday after a whipping in Lexington on Senior Day that he was finally going to learn from the recruiting strategies of his fellow coach Tubby Smith and attempt to develop Seniors as the Kentucky coach has, so that he will not have to perpetually tout the strengths of his “young” team. Over and over this season, this group of Wildcats has been told that they were not as talented as past teams, that they had no player who would one day play for pay in the NBA, that Tubby’s decision not to sign All-American recruits had caused the chickens to come home to roost. However someone forgot to tell these Wildcats that any of this meant that they were to stop winning. Led by 6 players who play with a degree of teamwork and chemistry unmatched across the nation, Kentucky is now going into the NCAA Tournament as the top overall #1 seed in the tournament. Quick, how many of you predicted that at the beginning of the year? This team is now a solid pick for the Final 4 and just might be cutting down the nets again in San Antonio in April. We have heard all a lot recently that Tubby Smith is a fabulous coach who has done a wonderful job with this team, and that is certainly true. Smith has never gotten all of the credit he deserves but folks all over the country, and more important to the program, all over the state of Kentucky are truly beginning to believe in him. However what has been forgotten is that Kentucky is winning the way that all teams will have to win in this age of high schoolers to the NBA. They have a solid core of players who believe in themselves and their coach, and they sacrifice their own personal glory for the sake of the team. It is often hard to watch a powerful program such as Kentucky and think of them as gritty underdogs, but in many ways that is exactly what this group is. When you are filling out your brackets, think long and hard before you send the Wildcats packing. It was a pleasure to watch this team this week in Atlanta, and if they play as they did here, they will not be stopped this post-season.

SEC First Round Recap

Southeastern Conference First Round Recap
		Recap by Matt Jones Here begins the journey into the soul of humanity known as the SEC Tournament. I have been coming to this tournament for the better part of 13 years and it has become one of my favorite times of the year. Originally it was a chance for me to experience a trip with my grandfather, who imparted upon me his lifelong love of SEC basketball and his belief that every player now-a-days walked whenever he made a move to the basket. Back then the tournament was about Shaquille O’Neal, Jamal Mashburn and Allan Houston, and the chance to see which suits Rick Pitino would wear and when Dale Brown would self-destruct. After my grandfather passed away, the tournament became a chance to get together with my friends from high school, college and law school, as we would take the opportunity to make a road trip and taunt the likes of Will Perdue and Barry Booker. The names then were Jamal Magloire, Matt Bonner and Mario Austin, but the pure, unadulterated joy was the same. This year represents a different endeavor for me at the tournament. For I have now found the beautiful world of the press pass. I must say that even a hard-nosed reporter such as myself can become a bit star-struck when you walk alongside the likes of Charles Barkley, Kenny Walker and C.M. Newton in the backstage area. I was unable to get an exclusive one-on-one interview with Barkley for Hoopville, but I am sure that was just a mere oversight on his part and he will likely look me up in the future. I am still however hoping that I will be able to get Rex Chapman in the “Matt Jones Hot Seat” before the end of the week. But much more importantly than these matters, the press pass has allowed me an amazing array of food that helps me understand why all reporters end up with huge bellies. Luckily for me, I have a day job that does not involve all-you-can eat buffets, but if I did, it would be a different story. (5E) Georgia 73, (4W) Auburn 59 As to the actual game I was there to cover, I must admit it was much less exciting than seeing Cameron Mills roaming the corridors. Georgia pounced on Auburn early and ended up winning in convincing fashion, 73-59. Georgia was led by a Freshman guard Levi Stukes who went for a career high 25 points and tied the SEC Tournament Record with 8 three pointers in the winning effort. Auburn had no answer for this youngster, as he torched the Tigers with a flurry of three pointers and hounded the Tigers’ guards on defense. Cliff Ellis’s team looked completely uninspired and found a way to make what is usually an unexciting event (the play-in rounds on Thursday of the tournament), even more mind-numbing. Georgia managed to look very impressive at some points during the game and showed enough toughness inside to make tomorrow’s showdown with Kentucky quite interesting. One side-note to the game was the attempt by my friends to get Georgia Freshman Joey Waldrop a good bit of playing time at the end of the game. Waldrop is the type of player that fans can truly pull for as he is (to put it kindly) shaped less like a basketball player, and more like…..well the sportswriters that I have encountered at the game. Coach Dennis Felton played him for a grand total of 40 second and then immediately pulled him out of the game and gave him a tongue-lashing. My friends vowed to never again cheer for Dennis Felton as he officially now is their nemesis. I will be here to report to you, my readers, about any updates on the Dennis Felton-DJ Sharpe and Chris Mosley rivalry as they occur. (3E) South Carolina 91, (6W) Arkansas 81 The second game of the day picked up on the excitement that filled the arena during the first one as South Carolina won an absolute snoozefest, 91-81. South Carolina was led by Senior Guard Mike Boynton, who scored a career high 32 points in the win. As in the last game, South Carolina pounced on the Razorbacks early, posted a 20 point lead by halftime, and then spent the second half cruising to a victory and getting ready for their showdown tomorrow with LSU. I spent most of the game watching the always-entertaining South Carolina Coach Dave Odom. For those of you that have not had the pleasure of watching a Dave Odom-coached game, it borders on the best in reality television. There is no doubt that Odom is one of the best and most underrated coaches in the game and the work he has done with this Gamecocks team has been nothing short of remarkable. Having said that, he is the biggest whiner this side of Wimp Sanderson and has an uncanny ability to always look have a look on his face that screams, “What? No! You can’t be serious! This is outrage! I will be contacting my congressman!” At one point in the game, South Carolina was up by 18 points and Freshman Renaldo Balkman (whose hair makes him a potential Matt Jones favorite) was called for a questionable charging call. Odom threw something down (maybe an assistant coach) and began to shout at the top of his lungs, “This is RIDICULOUS!” At that moment, an older gentleman sitting next to me whispered in my ear, “he reminds me of my wife….only he cannot cook as well.” I have no idea what that means, but to me it sums up the beauty of the SEC Tournament. This game also marked the continuation of my infatuation with former Vanderbilt guard and now SEC television commentator, Barry Booker. Over the last couple of years, my friends and I have developed a bond with Booker and we always seek him out during the tournament, often forcing him to talk to us as he desperately attempts to find someone more important, like Ricky Blanton, to talk to. However once again this year we trapped him and I was able to engage him in this conversation. Me: Hi Barry. Do you remember me? Barry: Yes I do…how in the world did you get a press pass? Me: I do some writing for Hoopville.com about the SEC. Barry: I have heard of that site…but I now have lost all respect for them. Me: Well I am going to do a column about you for the tournament. Barry: (Sarcastically) Boy I am honored! Me: Oh Barry hush…it will be the most press you have gotten in years. With that Barry walked away defeated, but vowed to fight another day. I must admit that this afternoon session was not the most exciting thing in the world. As a matter of fact, it was likely the most boring session I have ever attended at the Tournament. However it still is better than anything else I could be doing. And tonight things get interesting. Vanderbilt vs Ole Miss and Tennessee vs Alabama. Set those VCRs and TIVOs ladies and gentleman, its March Madness in Atlanta! (4E) Vanderbilt 70, (5W) Ole Miss 50 After a bit of a break, it was time to get back to action with this storied rivalry between the Commodores and the Rebels. Because of immense affinity for both Justin Reed and Matt Freije, I expected this game to be highly entertaining and to keep me on the edge of my seat. It didn’t. Vanderbilt center Dawid Przbyszweski did his best Dirk Nowitski impersonation and started a’blazin and helped Vandy take a huge lead at the beginning of the game which they never relinquished. There was almost no entertainment to be found, unless you count the sight of little-used reserve Martin Schnedlitz flying through the lane and hitting a put-back dunk entertaining. I don’t and thus game three of “Boring Thursday” once again let me down. However the real legacy of this game for me and you, my loyal readers, will be my first-ever participation in a post-game press conference. Now if you are like me, you probably have watched post-game press conferences on television and thought that they looked extremely interesting. I mean here are a group of exhausted warriors who have just been through a difficult battle, sitting next to their fearless coach who has helped lead them to the promised land (or embarrassing defeat). When they speak, there must be magic in the air as they let outsiders know the inner-workings of the basketball battle. Well having just attended one, let me dispel any such notions of grandeur. I attended the Vanderbilt post-game pow-wow and found the experience somewhat less interesting than watching C-Span during a Commerce Committee hearing. Coach Kevin Stallings and players Matt Freije and Dawid Przbyszewski were asked a series of uninteresting questions (“So Coach, did you feel that your team responded to your call to play Ole Miss with the type of tenacity that it takes to defeat them?”) and promptly stepped up to the plate by turning on the cliché machine and answering them in short, fragmented answers (“yes, it was a hard-fought game.”). They spoke for approximately 15 minutes and I noticed that all around me, reporters were quickly scribbling down every word. I tried to write something that I thought could be interesting, but all I found was Coach Stallings’s quote that Matt Freije “ought to make more free throws.” Stop the Presses! That is one to lead with in tomorrow’s morning edition! (I am speaking the language of the business at this point.) The highlight of the entire experience was watching my fellow members of the press corps taking turns hitting on the SEC media volunteer who was in charge of the microphone for reporters. Whoever that girl is, she should be given a raise as no human should have to tolerate that much attention from so many men with mustard stains on their shirt. While I am not sure I gained anything valuable from it, the press conference experience is one that will stay with me for a lifetime, and will likely never be repeated. (3W) Alabama 84, (6E) Tennessee 49 In the last game of the session, Alabama completely embarrassed the Vols, thus making it four straight years that my friend Dewayne Lawson has made the trip to the tournament without once seeing Tennessee win a game. Alabama played a fine game, but the real stories here were (1) the absolute dreadful performance of Tennessee and (2) the effects of my sleep deprivation from getting up at 5 a.m. As to the first, nothing went right for Tennessee, from the early going when team leader Dane Bradshaw got in foul trouble, to the end when Buzz Peterson looked as if he might cry from his team’s lack of effort. This Volunteer team has completely self-destructed in the last month and I am at a loss as to why. Either way, my “Buzz Peterson for President” column of a few months ago is becoming more and more embarrassing. As we move toward the midnight hour, I am literally about to have my head fall on the computer keyboard due to a lack of sleep. I always love the first day of the SEC Tournament because even though the games are usually bad (and this year they were utterly awful), there is some giddiness that accompanies the arrival of me and my boys here in Atlanta. But about this time, that giddiness becomes complete misery as exhaustion takes over and the sight of a Brandon Crump post-move makes one want to hurl him or herself through a window. Thus I will now retreat to the Howard Johnson Suites to live and write another day.

SEC Quarterfinals Recap

Southeastern Conference Quarterfinals Recap
		Recap by Matt Jones Kentucky 69 Georgia 60 Day 2 of the SEC Tournament began with more of a bang than yesterday’s dreary action as Kentucky avenged their season sweep at the hands of Georgia by taking down the Bulldogs in quarterfinal play. The Wildcats were led by Cliff Hawkins who went for 32 points, including a key three pointer during a late eight point rally that sealed the game. For much of the game, Georgia continued their physical domination of the Wildcats, but poor execution, specifically on the foul line, doomed them at the end. The Cats were helped throughout the game by their tremendous crowd support. Even though the game was in Atlanta and many expected a strong home-state showing by Georgia, Kentucky fans nevertheless outnumbered the Georgia faithful 5-1. Throughout the game, the Big Blue Nation kept the decibel levels inside the Georgia Dome at high levels, and often seemed to give the Wildcats a lift during difficult junctures. It is a statement not only about the level of rabid fan support that Kentucky has, but also the level of indifference to basketball that many of the other program’s fans in the conference have that Kentucky could outdraw to such a great degree, a school in its home state. After the game, Kentucky forward Chuck Hayes said of the fans, “They are great and expect a lot. After losing to Georgia twice, I knew they wanted this one and I didn’t want to face them if we didn’t come through.” Hayes did not have to worry about that as Kentucky showed once again why any shot at the conference tournament title still does, and may always, run through the Big Blue. In the past few weeks, Tubby Smith has his Kentucky Wildcats playing offense with the same degree of intensity and efficiency with which they have been able to exude all season on defense. Kentucky has become the sexy pick for the Final 4 by many of the national experts, as they combine all of the elements necessary for a championship run. They are led by a solid group of seniors, play suffocating defense and have a coach who has shown an ability to make the right decisions during crunch time. This game was especially big for Kentucky as they were able to overcome a team that not only had their number in previous encounters, but also plays exactly the type of tough, physical basketball that has given the Wildcats fits. Georgia on the other hand had their tournament run ended and now must simply sit and wait and hope that the tournament committee will give them an at-large berth into the big dance. No matter the result on Selection Sunday, the job that Coach Dennis Felton has done with this team cannot be understated. He has taken a program in complete disarray and quickly brought it to a level where they could give consistent fits to the top college basketball program of all time. Here’s hoping he is rewarded with a ticket to March Madness. South Carolina 85 LSU 64 In what many believed could be the game of the quarterfinals, South Carolina simply outlasted on undermanned LSU team to pull out a victory 85-64 and likely insure themselves a ticket to the Big Dance. South Carolina fell behind early by as many as fifteen points, only to overcome the deficit by halftime and then put the Tigers away in the second half. LSU showed the effects of the loss of Jamie Lloreda as their group of talented freshman (and All Time Hall of Fame All-Name Team member Xavier Whipple) simply could not overcome their lack of experience and succumbed to Dave Odom’s team late. LSU is now a very difficult team to figure for the NCAA Tournament, as they had a wonderful season for the majority of the year, but are now without their best player and have not shown the early spark that put them in the national rankings. My guess is that the Tigers will miss out when the final bids are handed out, but John Brady’s young team will be tough in the years to come. The big news of the second game of Day 2 was not however to be found on the court, but rather occurred on the sidelines when I discussed the origin of one of college basketball’s greatest phrases with its resident poet Bill Rafferty. Since I was a wee little chap, I have always found Rafferty to be among the most entertaining of all sports announcers. When he screams phrases such as “Waltah to the Altah”, you know that you are hearing the best in sports journalism. But my all-time favorite Rafferty language bouquet was his famous proclamation to “Send it in Jerome!” when Jerome Lane broke a backboard while playing for Pittsburgh. Because of my role as an investigative journalist, I felt it was my duty to find out the “story behind the story” on the phrase. I approached Rafferty in a hallway, introduced myself and reminded him that he had met many years before in the Nashville airport and had given me a hat. Much to my dismay he seemed to have forgotten that encounter (probably just a short-term memory slip), but still was very gracious in our conversation. I explained that I enjoyed his work and asked him about his most famous phrase. As with Barry Booker yesterday, I will re-create our conversation. Me: So what was going through your mind when you said, “Send it in Jerome!” Bill: Actually I wasn’t thinking anything. It was just my initial reaction to the situation. Me: Now I know you are being modest. Something that profound cannot just come from visceral expression. Bill: Don’t you have anything better to do? Actually it was not quite like that, but that is a close approximation. Rafferty could not have been nicer and explained that he never would have believed that his phrase would have such a lasting effect. I thought about that and realized that I have not uttered such a phrase yet, one that will follow me throughout my career and become my sportswriting legacy. That is a shame, so I plan on ending this afternoon session with just such a phrase. Throughout my lifetime, I hope people will remember that I uttered…. “[Dave] Odom is O-MAZING!” Yeah I think that should do it. Vanderbilt 74 Mississippi State 70 Well it took a while, but this is what an SEC Tournament game is supposed to be. In one of the more thrilling games that I have seen in person, the Vanderbilt Commodores were able to upset Mississippi State in overtime, 74-70. Vanderbilt (who is playing the best basketball of any team in the tournament) showed a toughness that some of their critics (such as this humble reporter) had suggested they lacked. Coach Kevin Stallings was so impressed with his team’s effort that he could barely contain himself, complaining only about his star Matt Frieje’s lack of rebounding effort. With the win, Vanderbilt erased any doubts about whether they will be a tournament team with this victory, while Mississippi State likely lost any chance they may have had at a #1 seed. More importantly for them, they now likely will be the #2 seed in the South and will find themselves in the same bracket as Duke. If the Bulldogs’ run this season falls short of San Antonio by one game, they make look back at this performance as being the decisive factor. This was also the first game of the tournament where the atmosphere had the feeling of importance which signals that we have finally reached March. Both teams had respectable followings and each basket was met with a resounding cheer that helped create a sense of excitement in this back-and-forth affair. The Vanderbilt fans in particular created a very positive impression and really surprised me with their enthusiasm. When they all arrived at the arena with their white lab coats and their bunson burners, they did not look like a group that would create a great deal of noise during the affair. However underneath their pop bottle glasses and Member’s Only jackets, was a wild side that showed itself throughout the game. The Vandy fans seemed to really propel their team and were like a kid on Christmas morning in the moments following the game. They still need a bit of work if they are going to be major league taunters, as seen by one of their fan’s attempts to show-up the Mississippi State contingent with the chant, “now we are the #1 seed!” While I am not sure what that means, I am sure that Vanderbilt fans appreciated what may end up being one of the crowning achievements of a special season in the school’s history. Florida 73 Alabama 71 The final game of the night also was the most exciting as the Florida Gators put a temporary end to their hideous SEC Tournament reputation with an impressive 73-71 win in overtime. The Gators actually had to hit not one, but two last-second shots to pull out the victory. At the end of regulation, Anthony Roberson hit a 25 foot jumper that left his hand just a tenth of a second after the buzzer went off. Then in overtime, after a mad scramble for a rebound, Freshman Lee Humphrey drained a jumper from the side as time expired to give the Gators a hard-fought win. Alabama put together an impressive performance throughout and likely were the better team. However the Gators showed heart, something that has often been missing from this program, and were able to win even while not putting forth a strong effort. Part of the reason for their relatively poor game was the abysmal performance of Matt Walsh. The Florida guard picked up where he left off from the last regular season game against Kentucky with another poor shooting performance that involved two air balls and multiple wayward heaves. The game also illustrated what is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in the conference, mainly the harsh (and unnecessary) taunting of the young teen idol. In the past couple of months, Matt Walsh has begun to encounter personal attacks from the student sections of rival schools the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Saul Smith. Likely due to his golden curly locks of hair and his Playboy centerfold girlfriend, Walsh is continually pelted with taunts that range from the mildly immature to the downright mean. While he has not yet heard the worst possible chants (they are reserved for Duke Sophomore JJ Redick), they may soon be coming as the attention seems to really get the best of Walsh. During tonight’s game he looked visibly shaken and seemed to be pressing, looking for some way to quiet the crowd. It has become common for Walsh to get booed mercilessly on every possession, and in a place where the crowds of other teams can join in (such as here in Atlanta) that noise can be quite deafening when at its height. It will be interesting to see how Billy Donovan can help his young guard respond. He has now been the target of severe abuse for two games and has played miserably in both affairs. How he can handle the attention in the future could have a profound impact on his team’s future success. As it is late, I am going to quickly give my predictions for tomorrow. South Carolina maxed out their potential with their mini two-game run this weekend and I look for Kentucky to win by 15. Vandy and Florida should be a dog fight, but I see the Gators hitting the big shots when necessary and winning by six. I will remind you that my predictions are now 8-0 for the tournament, so instead of watching the games tomorrow, go plant a tree or fly a kite. The results are certain and you can be much more productive with other activities.

SEC Notebook

SEC Notebook

by Matt Jones

And just like that, the season is over. Mississippi State, the team so unknown that even their coach needs a roster to name any of the players, finished with a stunning come-from-behind win on Saturday against Alabama to take the SEC regular season title. The win capped off one of the most balanced years in the conference in recent memory, as the league had two top-tier teams, Mississippi State and Kentucky, and another solid pack of eight clubs, all of whom played each other close throughout the season. This makes the SEC tournament take on a greater importance than any year in recent memory as the Wildcats and Bulldogs attempt to get a national No. 1 seed and the other teams try to make a case for an at-large NCAA tournament bid.

However you could get that kind of information from any Web site and any two-bit sportswriter’s column. What you came here for was a review of the season that is in-depth and hits on the stories behind the stories. Therefore I give you the true SEC Season in Review and Awards.

Best Team

It is likely the case that the best team in the conference every year is the one that wins the most games. Thus many of you may be saying, “Matt, why would you waste our time telling us about Mississippi State and how they are the best team when we can get the record book and see it for ourselves?” The reason is very simple…many of you still do not believe it.

All season long the Bulldogs have had the most balanced offense in the conference, led by one of the premier big men in the nation, Lawrence Roberts, and a sharp-shooting guard who has perplexed SEC coaches for years, Timmy Bowers. Yet most of America, heck, most of the SEC can tell you very little about what is going on in Starkville, Miss.

It is time for us to all pay attention. Bob Ryan, substituting on the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption, said that he gave little credence to the fact that the Bulldogs did well during the season because he believes what goes on in Starkville is shady. Although Dhante Jones and his 36 junior college credits in one summer in 1996 did make me raise an eyebrow, nothing should take away from what this team has accomplished. I do not believe they will win the SEC Tournament, but nothing can take away from the fact that they were the most consistent force in the conference this season.

Player of the Year

My controversial pick for this award is Matt Freije. Many will say that Lawrence Roberts should be the shoo-in as he has led the Bulldogs to the regular season title and will be on many All-American teams, but the simple fact is that he did not have the season that Freije did.

We should be honest here and note that without Freije, Vanderbilt would be HORRID, as we will see next year. He provides leadership, scoring and a degree of athleticism that is absolutely crucial for a jump-shooting team such as the Commodores. In addition, he has saved coach Kevin Stallings’s job, something that may have been unimaginable to anyone who sat in Rupp Arena last year and saw the Commodores lose by 62 points in the season finale. Vandy will be in the NCAA this year, and Freije deserves not only some but all of the credit. There is a reason why NBA scouts call him the best prospect in the conference, and this season he showed it to the nation, or at least central and western Tennessee.

All Conference Team

Matt Freije, Vanderbilt
Lawrence Roberts, Mississippi State
Jaime Lloreda, LSU
David Lee, Florida
Justin Reed, Mississippi

These picks should be fairly uncontroversial. Roberts and Lloreda are two of only a handful of players in the entire nation to average a double-double. David Lee has rebounded from what has to be considered a disappointing opening to his college career to have a great junior season and provide the only semblance of leadership on a disappointing Florida team. Justin Reed is known by few and cared about by fewer, but he will leave Ole Miss as one of the top scorers in school history.

I always hate to see players like Reed, who play for schools where the team goes unnoticed, not only not get their due but also get no attention whatsoever. However, like Ansu Seasy before him, I will remember Reed and write about him in future columns next year when there is nothing else to say about the Rebels.

The only other controversy that could exist over this team is the exclusion of any players from Kentucky. Although I believe that Eric Daniels, Cliff Hawkins, Gerald Fitch and Chuck Hayes all could be legitimate second team all-conference players, I cannot replace on this list. Their unselfishness causes none of them to stand out for all-conference honors, but it also allows them to be a consistent winner.

Coach of the Year

Once again many will say that Mississippi State’s Rick Stansbury deserves this honor, and although I sympathize with that view, I will have to go with Tubby Smith at Kentucky.

Stansbury has done an amazing job and were it not for St. Joseph’s Phil Martelli and Stanford’s Mike Montgomery, he may have been awarded the national coach of the year. However, much of the Bulldogs’ success comes from the fortuity of the Lawrence Roberts transfer and thus he loses just slightly to the Tubster.

It is truly amazing what this Kentucky team has accomplished with their 23-4 record. This is a team with less visible talent than any since the early days of the Rick Pitino years, but they nevertheless have confronted one of the hardest schedules in the country head-on and had a stunning season. They are in the running for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and are some, including me, people’s darkhorse pick for a shot at the national title. All with a team that has not one sure-fire NBA player or even an all-conference selection. At that point, credit has to go to the coach.

So those are the more traditional awards that you would expect. I am sure that all of these individuals will be excited to have the Hoopville trophies on their mantle for years to come. However, the season was about more than just these usual honors. Much more occurred, and we must give these stories their due as well.

Most Overrated Player in Conference History

Can we all agree that there is nothing better for a college basketball fan than the end of the Christian Drejer era at Florida? Has there ever been any player who has done less and received more accolades than this flying Dutchman?

When Drejer first arrived in Gainesville, Fla., the media hyped him as the second-coming of Dwayne Schintzus, with the possibility of producing all the star-power without the burden of a mullet. There were talks of his sure-fire lottery status and his potential to set the SEC on fire. However, I never once watched a game and thought that Drejer was anything but a marginal player. He looked lost and a step slow too many times to mention and had a knack for making the big turnover.

When he left for Europe to pursue his professional dreams – running into other legends such as God Shammgod, Trajan Langdon and Jess Settles on the way – some announcers acted as if this had ruined an otherwise promising Florida team. One announcer went so far as to say that Florida would have to “learn to win without their star.” I do not know which Florida team these guys were watching but what has been clear is that this Florida team is the same as it was before, meaning that they are unable to play with Kentucky. The league is better off without Christian “I put the pan in flash-in-the-pan” Drejer.

The Jerry Stackhouse Award

It pains me to give this award, as I like the player a great deal, but he has left me no choice. It is rare for a college coach to spend the waning weeks of his best player’s senior year questioning his heart, but coach John Brady may have been justified in wondering out loud if Jaime Lloreda’s season-ending foot injury was legitimate.

Lloreda has been a joy to watch since his freshman year with the Tigers, looking like Craig Mack and playing like a skinny Charles Barkley. Before his injury, he was second in the country in rebounds, an almost unheard of accomplishment for a player who is not a center and is also his team’s primary scorer. Nevertheless, his decision to pull himself out of the lineup at the end of the year and then skip his Senior Day to go to a doctor in Florida leaves one wondering if the NBA Draft became more important in Lloreda’s waning days than the SEC and NCAA Tournament.

The “That’s Coach Stansbury to you Son” Award

I have often lamented in recent years that the coaching profession is losing some of its more colorful characters. This is a conference that once featured Wimp Sanderson, Sonny Smith, Dale Brown and Nolan Richardson, who should still be upset that someone shot his horse, on the sidelines and now has the more, to put it politely, sedated figures of Buzz Peterson, Stan Heath and Cliff Ellis.

However, Rick Stansbury did his best to change that this season, showing animation on the sidelines that would have even made the late Dick Fick proud. When one looks at Stansbury, it is easy to only focus on his pretty eyes, but after this season we have learned that, if given the right situation, such as an inadvertent three second call, he can be quite the intimidator.

Kentucky Fan Complaint of the Year

There is no doubt that Kentucky fans are the best in the country. They support their team rabidly and live and die with each game that the Wildcats play. However, these same qualities that make them the best group in the nation also lead them to occasionally get a bit out of hand in their expectations and their complaints.

This year, this undying – and sometimes blinding – devotion could be seen best after the Wildcats’ huge road victory over then-undefeated Mississippi State. After Eric Daniels had picked up a deflected game-ending pass and made a layup at the buzzer, one Kentucky fan complained on a radio show that “if the Cats do not execute better on last second plays, they will not make it anywhere.” This after the Cats had made the last basket.

At 23-4 Kentucky fans have had little to complain about, but luckily for those of us that love them, it still does not stop a small minority of them from trying.

The It’s Alright to Gloat Award

I have to present this award to myself this season. When I first began writing this column, I quickly realized that it was a great deal of fun to make light of the absolutely absurd non-conference schedule that many SEC teams play. With all of the directions, states, techs and A& Ms, it was always fun to play the, “where in the world is that school” game. Most teams and fans were fine with this criticism because their coaches admitted that the schedule was weak but justified it because the team was young.

That is except the Auburn fans. They were convinced that the team was an NCAA contender and told me that I would realize it once the conference season started. E-mails came in promising that Auburn would prove to the nation on national television, in that prime midnight eastern time slot, that they were for real. Not only were they destroyed in that game, but they put together another subpar year and never seemed to click as a group. I will not say that their inability to perform was due to their weak non-conference schedule, but they certainly did seem unprepared when the big boys came around.

Jason Moore Award

This is in honor of my good friend from college who never likes to leave his house and can go for literally days without moving from a spot on the couch. Tennessee was forced this season to leave the friendly confines of Thompson Boling Arena (motto: Enough empty seats to house all of J-Lo’s ex-husbands!) numerous times and managed to find a way to not win one conference game on these trips.

This has to be considered a huge disappointment for Volunteer fans who, like me, thought that this team had the potential to not only make but also make noise in the NCAA Tournament. I have to say that I actually really enjoy this team and said in this very column that Buzz Peterson will bring a winner to Knoxville. However until he can take that winner and achieve success in arenas where fans do not show up dressed as empty seats, there will continue to be frustrating years ahead for the Vol faithful.

Mike Tyson vs Lennox Lewis Award

Is there any fight in America that you want to see more than the Matt Walsh vs. Josh Carrier bout? If you watched the Florida-Kentucky game on Sunday, you would realized that these two gladiators have the potential to change the way we not only look at the three-point shot but also the world of fist-a-cuffs.

Florida’s Matt Walsh, the one with the hair, and Kentucky’s Josh Carrier, the one on the bench, have both had up-and-down careers but may have had their defining moments last week. Walsh is a true scorer but played one of his worst games of his Florida career while allowing the UK student section to get inside of his head. Carrier has never exactly been a UK fan favorite, but his tossing of the ball in Walsh’s direction may have finally won over the UK faithful.

Either way I will remember Sunday’s game as having narrowly averted a true tragedy. In the same way that one’s spirit is broken when he hears that the only two contestants in a bikini contest are Rosie O’Donnell and Sally Struthers, a basketball fight with Walsh and Carrier would surely have only led to disappointment.

The “Your Degree Now Means Nothing” Award

This award goes to anyone who has ever attended the University of Georgia. The news was released last week that former assistant basketball coach Jim Harrick Jr. – all the corruption of his dad with only half of the age! – produced a final exam for a coaching class he taught at the university that included the questions how many points for a 3 pointer and draw a picture of a free throw line.

Because this class was given for actual credit by the university for its students, most of whom were, surprisingly, athletes, there should be a requirement that all Georgia alums must report to Athens, Ga., and immediately return their diplomas. Until then, we can only hope that like UCLA, Rhode Island and Georgia, another proud state university will look past its educational mission and its academic purpose and hire the Harricks to dismantle their basketball program as well.

That is all I have for now. Be sure and check back for the individual team season reviews and SEC Tournament predictions. Until next time, say a prayer for Martha Stewart and be careful who you go duck hunting with.

SEC Notebook

SEC Notebook

by Matt Jones

This past Sunday was an absolute great day to be a sports fan. Everywhere you turned, there was compelling action that left me absolutely glued to my seat.

In NASCAR, the Daytona 500 produced a compelling race, complete with big crashes and high drama, resulting in an emotional win for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the track that had previously taken his father’s life. Baseball gave us one of the biggest trades in the history of the game with Alex Rodriguez leaving Texas and joining the New York Yankees. The deal cemented the Yankees’ status as baseball’s “Evil Empire” and gave us the joy of watching pathetic Red Sox fans everywhere whine into the night.

The NBA All Star Game from Los Angeles saw former All-SEC big men, Shaquille O’Neal and Jamaal Magloire, lead both the West and the East. The PGA Tour gave us the wonderful comeback of John Daly, who has thankfully given up his alcohol and pain killer addictions for M&Ms and Twinkies, on his way to rediscovering his golf swing and winning his first tournament since 1995. And finally our beloved college basketball gave us a great upset with the loveable No. 14 North Carolina State Wolfpack bringing down college basketball’s version of the “Evil Empire,” No. 3 Duke.

At the end of that night of action, I began to evaluate exactly where the SEC stood next to all of this great action. For some reason, something has seemed missing to me in conference play this season. Although there have been a host of great games, led by the trifecta involving No. 23 South Carolina, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 4 Mississippi State, the action does not seem quite as riveting as in years past.

One could argue that there are 10 teams that still have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. However, the storylines that seemed to dominate the headlines in past years are missing. Mississippi State is the top team in the conference but does not look the part of a traditional national power. Kentucky is once again solid, but their series of great escapes has left their prominence a bit diminished. Florida’s continued struggles have had a negative effect on the conference and have provided it with one less marquee team.

However, just when I was about to permanently lament the state of the SEC, I asked myself: Would I rather be following any other conference? The Big Ten and Pac 10 are absolutely horrible this season and I could make the case that only 3 teams deserve a bid between the two conferences.

The Big East is its usual hack fest and the Big 12′s marquee team is Oklahoma State, which has all the sex appeal of a Super Bowl halftime performance starring Bob and Elizabeth Dole. The ACC is strong, but I refuse to become enamored with the conference because I do not want to make Dick Vitale jealous. Yes, the SEC may be in a down year, but it is still better than most and we can console ourselves with the realization that it is almost tournament time.

Tournament Projections

With three weeks remaining in the season, the SEC has 4 teams which are mortal locks to make the NCAA Tournament. Mississippi State will likely continue to compete with Oklahoma State for the fourth No. 1 seed and is now in the position that it controls its own destiny for that fight. If they can win out, which I believe is likely, they will get their first ever No. 1 seed in school history, regardless of how they finish in the SEC tournament. Kentucky is now on pace for a strong No. 2 seed. They can likely afford one more regular season loss to stay on pace for a No. 2, but any more than that would move them down into the No. 3 to No. 4 range. LSU and South Carolina are hovering around the No. 4 to No. 6 seed area, with their final result dependent on how they handle their big closing tests. If LSU can beat Mississippi State or South Carolina can steal a win against Kentucky, they could even possibly vault themselves up to a No. 3 seed.

Two other SEC teams are likely in the tournament, barring a late season collapse. This has been an absolutely horrific few weeks for Florida, but they still have the nation’s toughest schedule and were at one point ranked No. 1 in the country. At this point they project to a No. 7 or No. 8 seed, and I am sure that the top teams in America do not want to see the Gators in their bracket. The Vanderbilt hype has certainly cooled down recently, and they do have huge games this week (at Alabama, LSU), but their win over Kentucky put them solidly in the field. If they can keep from self-destructing in the final weeks, they will likely be a classic No. 8 to No. 9 seed.

In any other year, the notion that Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss or Georgia could make the tournament would have been absurd. However, it is likely that one of them will be the seventh SEC team in, mainly because there are so few other candidates throughout the country. Whichever of these teams can win the majority of their final games and then steal a few in the SEC Tournament will likely find themselves dancing as a No. 11 seed. Predictions amongst this group border on folly, but I see Tennessee getting hot and taking the last spot. As for Auburn and Arkansas, spring practice begins soon.

Now on to the notebooks. Special emphasis is given this week to tournament projections. For many teams, this is a huge week and they must play accordingly.

No. 4 Mississippi State Bulldogs (21-1, 10-1)

The season continues to be special in Starkville, Miss. Last Wednesday night, in front of a capacity crowd in Columbia, S.C., Mississippi State defeated South Carolina 79-75, gaining permanent control of the SEC and putting themselves in a position to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately for fans all over the South, Jefferson Pilot chose to show Alabama versus Tennessee, thus depriving the nation of the chance to see one of the best games of the conference season.

Lawrence Roberts showed once again why he is one of the nation’s best players, controlling the play on both sides of the floor and producing another in his array of amazing performances. At this point, the Bulldogs must focus on finishing the season strong. They are ranked 4th in the country in the latest Hoopville poll, their highest such ranking since 1963. The key for coach Rick Stansbury is to keep the team playing with the same level of hunger and to prevent them from believing their ever-increasing hype. Every game from this point forward is imminently winnable, but Stansbury must convince them otherwise. This week the Bulldogs play at home against Alabama.

LSU Tigers (17-4, 7-3)

Don’t look now, but the Tigers may be the hottest team in the conference at this point. On Saturday they went on the road, outscored Florida 15-4 in the final four minutes of the game and came away with an impressive come-from-behind victory against the Gators.

Coming into the game, coach John Brady’s team had won four straight games, but many in the conference thought the Tigers were taking advantage of a relatively easy part of their schedule and were not at the level of the top teams. LSU put a lot of those concerns away with their win in Gainesville, but now face two important games this week. First up is a skirmish with Auburn in Baton Rouge, La., where LSU will be heavily favored. But then comes Saturday’s crucial contest with Vanderbilt in the SEC Game of the Week. LSU needs this win for seeding purposes in the NCAA and to set up their big showdown with rival Mississippi State next week. If the Tigers win in Nashville, which I believe they won’t, no one can any longer say LSU is not for real.

Alabama Crimson Tide (12-9, 4-6)

I have been watching a great deal of the preliminary rounds of American Idol this year and have noticed a disturbing trend. There are a few performers on the show that have the potential to be true stars, but for the most part the rest of the 32 semi-finalists are all just average, with no differentiating characteristics.

Such is the case this year on the NCAA bubble. With the struggles of the Pac 10 and the Big Ten and the generally mediocre play throughout the nation, it becomes hard to project who should be in the NCAA field. Against this backdrop, Alabama must begin to find itself. After beating Tennessee this past week, the Crimson Tide now find themselves with a home game against Vanderbilt and road tests at Mississippi State and Auburn. They must come out of this stretch 2-1 to secure an NCAA berth. Coach Mark Gottfried’s team has the advantage of a strong RPI rating, but Gottfried must implore the team to put it all on the line this week, because if they come up short, the NIT will be calling.

Ole Miss Rebels (12-9, 4-6)

It is hard to believe that the words “Ole Miss” and “NCAA Tournament bid” could be used in the same sentence this season, but there is still a chance that the Rebels could find themselves backing into a bid. In order for that to happen however, they must come close to winning out, and that does not look probable.

At this point, this particular Ole Miss team looks a bit like its NBA neighbor to the South, the Orlando Magic. They have a star (Justin Reed) and a good group of role players, but just are not able to put all of the pieces together on a consistent basis. Coach Rod Barnes has to get frustrated with the performance of the non-Reed players, as they bounce from having a great game one night to completely disappearing the next. This is one of the few teams in the country that can reasonably be put on both the NCAA and the NIT bubble because the Rebels could end up below .500. Their road test at Tennessee and home game with Florida will determine which bubble they will sit upon.

Auburn Tigers (12-9, 3-7)

Regardless of how the next three weeks play out, Auburn must be considered the biggest disappointment of the SEC season. This is a team coming off an impressive NCAA Tournament run, and even though they lost some of their best players from last season, they were picked by many to contend for the SEC West title.

After the Tigers finished off the appetizer portion of their schedule, it has been nothing but a disaster for coach Cliff Ellis’s team. They often look completely lost on the court and have shown signs in recent weeks of being a team on the verge of giving up. With this team’s weak strength of schedule, it is not realistic to think that this team has any NCAA Tournament aspirations left. However one would hope they still do have a level of pride in the performances they will put on the court. This week they play at LSU and then at home against Kentucky. Keeping these games close, and even pulling one of them out, would be an impressive accomplishment for this team.

Arkansas Razorbacks (11-11, 3-8)

When a team is struggling through a rebuilding year, it attempts to make positives out of things that would not necessarily have been considered successes in previous years.

Such is the case for the Arkansas Razorbacks after their 77-70 loss to Mississippi State Saturday. Arkansas put together one of its best performances of the season, giving the Bulldogs all they could handle, but ultimately succumbing to their lack of talent at the end of the game. Jonathan Modica showcased why many see him as a star of the future, as he put in a career-high 33 points in the losing effort.

Arkansas would love to finish the season strong, end up with a winning record and secure an NIT bid so as to continue to help build the program. However, with the schedule in front of Arkansas, this may be unlikely. Nevertheless, if the Razorbacks can continue to build on performances such as the one Saturday, the “pig suey” chants may soon be returning to prominence in the SEC.

No. 9 Kentucky Wildcats (17-4, 7-3)

Kentucky is fortunate that the Georgia Bulldogs’ NCAA Tournament hopes are slim, because it’s becoming clear that the Wildcats have no answer for Georgia, or their coach Dennis Felton. After Saturday’s loss in Athens, Ga., Felton now has a 3-0 career record against Kentucky, all in games where his teams have found a way to shut down Kentucky’s offense.

It is hard to know exactly what to make of Kentucky’s performance in Athens. Like in the previous two games, the Cats were without their leading scorer Gerald Fitch, who has been out with a sprained finger. For much of the game, Kentucky looked to be fine without him, even finding an unexpected boost of offense from sophomore Kelenna Azubuike. However as the game came down the stretch, the Cats looked intimidated, with no player seeming to want to make the big play. Most of the final possessions seemed to be designed for walk-on Ravi Moss, who seemed like the only player comfortable taking a big shot.

The loss may have ended Kentucky’s shot at a No. 1 seed, but they are still in the mix for a No. 2 seed, if the team finishes strong. Fitch returns this week, and Kentucky fans hope that his return sparks what has become a somewhat dormant offense. The Cats play Arkansas and then travel to Auburn Saturday.

No. 23 South Carolina Gamecocks (20-5, 7-4)

It was a week of mixed emotions for the Gamecocks as they had their hearts broken again at the end of a game against Mississippi State, but then followed it up with a big win against Vanderbilt Saturday.

As I stated here last week, I thought it was extremely important that South Carolina at least get a split in these two games, which they did, but one could forgive South Carolina fans if they were disappointed with the results. The Gamecocks believe they had a win over Mississippi State in their grasps, only to let the game slip away at the end, similar to their defeat against Kentucky. There is no doubt that this season has been an amazing success for South Carolina, however it is easy to feel as if they are just a couple of steps from having a truly special season.

I believe this team needs at least one big win to truly vault to the top. Next Wednesday the Gamecocks play at Florida, a game I think could be important in establishing the team as a postseason contender.

Florida Gators (14-8, 5-6)

The wheels are quickly coming off the wagon for the Florida Gators. Their loss Saturday at home to LSU led them to drop out of the Top 25 for the first time in the past 98 weeks. They then followed that up by laying an egg Tuesday against Georgia and are slowly moving toward the possibility of being on the NCAA bubble.

To stop the bleeding, coach Billy Donovan must find a way to improve the Gators defense in the clutch. In the past three games, Florida has allowed baskets on 31 of the 36 possessions in the final six minutes. Donovan must also find a way to put the clamps on Anthony Roberson, who has the talent to be as good as any point guard in the country but seems to shoot his team out of games down the stretch. Florida now has lost four out of their last five and must cope with the loss of Christian Drejer to a European professional team. Donovan has three weeks to right the ship, but from my standpoint, the future does not look bright.

Georgia Bulldogs (13-10, 5-7)

There is no team in the country that has put their fans on more of a wild ride than the Georgia Bulldogs. The past two years for this program have been a lot like the golfing career of John Daly, with ups and downs that are almost unbelievable to imagine. They had the high of being a potential NCAA Tournament contender last year turn into the low of losing their coach and voluntarily missing postseason play.

Then there is this season, in which new coach Dennis Felton saw his team lose to Winthrop by 20 but also become the first team to sweep the Kentucky Wildcats in three years, when Georgia last did it. This past week has been a huge high for this program, as they have two nationally televised wins over Kentucky and Florida and now potentially are in the mix for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

At the heart of this turnaround is Rashad Wright, who went from missing his first 10 shots against Kentucky in the first half to hitting key buckets down the stretch to get that victory and then dominating the game Tuesday against the Gators. Wright has developed into the scoring guard that Georgia needed to compliment Jonas Hayes and Dhamian Wilkens, and he has given them tremendous amounts of energy that have carried over into wins.

The Bulldogs have an important home game Saturday against Tennessee, and if they win there, are in position to make NCAA Tournament noise.

Vanderbilt Commodores (15-6, 4-6)

Simply put, this is the most important week of the season for the Vanderbilt Commodores. Matt Freije and company have games at Alabama Wednesday and at home Saturday in Memorial Gym, thanks to Vandy fan Tillman Finley for that correction, against LSU.

If Vanderbilt can win these two games, the team’s NCAA Tournament ticket is punched. However if they lose both of the games, which is certainly possible, they move from a certain NCAA team to one that is distinctly on the bubble. For coach Kevin Stallings to ensure victory in at least one of the contests, and thereby ensure his seat on the bench next year, there must be some form of an inside presence beyond Matt Freije.

When that occurs, such as in the Kentucky game, Vandy wins. When it does not, the Commodores can look downright pitiful. The spotlight is on, and we will see how the Dores handle it.

Tennessee Volunteers (12-9, 4-6)

This weekend I was reading “A Misfortune,” a short story by Anton Chekhov that dealt with a woman attempting to salvage her marriage while confronting her feelings toward another man. In the story, she attempts to reinvigorate her marriage by trying to find something new and interesting in the same old monotony of her daily life with her husband.

Something similar may be going on for Tennessee fans, who must be growing weary of their teams’ continued abysmal performance on the road. This team is still in contention for an NCAA berth, yet has only won one game all season away from Thompson-Boling Arena. It often looks as if a different team has put on the bright orange uniforms away from Knoxville as the disciplined, fundamentally sound Tennessee team is replaced by a gunning group of three-point shooters who forget that there is no “I” in team.

For Tennessee to have any chance at a bid to the Big Dance, they must sweep their games this week, including a road test at Georgia. In some ways that game Saturday in Athens, Ga., is an elimination game for the tournament, and thus Buzz Peterson must pray that the right group of Vols make the trip.

That is all for now. Enjoy what promises to be an important week of SEC basketball!

Classic Games, Classic Reality TV

The Season’s First Bracket

by Matt Jones

We have now reached that time in the season where thoughts start to turn to
tournament time. You begin checking the internet every 30 minutes to see if
there is a new bracket projection or if your team is on or off someone’s
“bubble”. Yes this is the time of year when college basketball fans often
think, “Boy I wish the regular season would just end so that we could get to
the good stuff.

Alas, poor Yorick, I understand those thoughts. There is no more exciting
time of year than March and one can grow impatient waiting for it to come.
However we should not just rush past what has been a great regular season in
our fair sport. Here we are creeping towards mid-February and there are 4
teams with just one loss or less, all of whom have a legitimate shot at
keeping their streaks going straight into March. Many of you might have
forseen Duke as one of the 4, but how many of you had St. Joseph’s, Stanford
or Mississippi State?

Yes I too am getting excited, but I also understand that we have witnessed
much that should be preserved in our memory banks. With the season winding
down, I want to take the opportunity to relive the five best games of the
season up to this point. These are the games that included great
performances, amazing finishes and indelible images that will stay with us
long after “One Shining Moment” goes off the air in March. This list may
have to be tweaked after the last three weeks of the season, but this gives
us a good starting point for the debate.

At the same time as I indulge these college basketball memories, I also want
to take the time to relive all that is great in my other passion, reality
television. I firmly believe we are hitting a high point in reality
television with many shows starting up for another season, and other
surprise hits coming down the homestretch. Thus I also want to rank the 5
greatest reality shows of all time. This list represents not only my two
greatest interests, but also a good 95% of my free time. So without further
ado:

No. 5 Charlotte vs Syracuse

This may initially seem like an odd choice for one of the best games of the
season. Neither of these teams is among the elite squads in the country and
the game did not finish on a last second buzzer beater. However the game
did embody what is great about the sport. Here is Syracuse, the reigning
Apollo Creed of the NCAA, fresh off their first ever national championship,
playing in front of a home crowd ready to celebrate their ultimate ascension
to the top of the national basketball landscape. In comes Bobby Lutz, armed
with both his Charlotte 49ers squad and his absurd moustache, attempting to
challenge the Giant. Previously unknown Brendan Plavich becomes the Pistol
Pete of Conference USA by making approximately 150 three pointers and
leading his team to a stunning victory in the Carrier Dome. In the grand
scheme of this season, this game may not get another mention. However it
was an early season reminder to me of the magic that occur in college
basketball, even in a meaningless November game with no national attention.

No. 5 Reality TV Moment – The Surreal Life: Season 1

It is time for America to take notice of the Surreal Life. This is the best
reality show on television, and with the exception of a few junkies like
myself, no one watches it. This season is great with the interplay between
Tammy Faye Baker, Vanilla Ice, Eric Estrada and Ron Jeremy providing great
entertainment. However nothing will top the first season when the original
cast (MC Hammer, Vince Neil, Corey Feldman, Webster, Andrea Zuckerman, Jenna
from Survivor and some girl from Baywatch) went to hear MC Hammer preach.
During the sermon (which showed Billy Graham that he has nothing to worry
about), Vince Neil began to break down. As Hammer hit his stirring
crescendo, Neil began to sob and he walked up to the altar and became a
Christian. That moment left me speechless then and leaves me speechless
now. A rapper ministers to a rock star and all of America gets to
watch…..priceless.

No. 4 Kentucky v Mississippi State

Who knew at the time of this game that this would end up being the only
thing that would separate Mississippi State and an undefeated record? While
this could not have been anticipated, the buildup for this game was unlike
any in recent history in Starkville. Students lined up for days, the gym
was packed 2 hours before tipoff and even Dicky V was in town to rant and
rave about how great a shooter JJ Redick is. The game itself began like so
many in the SEC, with Kentucky in control, eventually opening up a 17 point
lead. However the Bulldogs fought back, and behind the play of Lawrence
Roberts eventually caught and overtook the Wildcats. With the Bulldogs
holding a 1 point lead, they pulled off a defensive stand, leading to a jump
ball call. The possession arrow pointed towards Kentucky, causing Dick
Vitale to begin screaming about how awful the alternate possession rule is
and leading to his fourth aneurysm of the evening. With two seconds left,
the Cats fumbled the inbounds pass and Eric Daniels came out of the scrum
with the ball, leaving a wide-open layup as time expired. The Kentucky
players went crazy and Tubby Smith’s group escaped with yet another close
win late.

No. 4 Reality TV – Real World: San Francisco

Now it is time boys and girls to look back and reminisce over a time when
MTV was not simply about beauty and image and occasionally attempted to
confront serious issues, and (gasp!) Even play music. During this ancient
period in 1993, MTV (who one could argue began reality television as we know
it) embarked on its third season of the Real World and attempted to confront
a previously taboo issue. By casting HIV-positive Pedro in the series, MTV
gave most of America their first chance to get to know someone with the
disease. America saw Pedro confront the disease head on and watched as he
attempted to make something positive out of his condition. Other cast
members, such as the one-of-a-kind Puck, made impressions, but this was
ultimately Pedro’s show. When he passed away soon after the show aired,
then-President Bill Clinton gave a videotaped speech at his funeral,
confirming the power that this show had on young people. This Real World
provided both entertainment and information, neither of which have been seen
on MTV in many a day.

No. 3 Duke v North Carolina

There is no one in America who believes that the ACC, and these two schools
in particular, are too overhyped by the national media more than I do.
Having said that, one can’t help but recognize that when these two teams get
together, more often than not, something special happens. Whether it is
Jeff Capel’s half-court heave or Vince Carter’s windmill dunk, these games
leave indelible images forever with the viewer. I sat through such a game
in 2001 when Brendan Haywood hit two free throws after being fouled by the
golden boy Shane Battier, and led then No. 1 North Carolina over the Blue
Devils in Cameron Indoor. It is still the best game I have ever seen in
person and I remember it fondly. Similar thoughts must have entered the
minds of those in the Dean Dome this year as Duke squeezed out an overtime
victory over the Tar Heels thanks to a late layup by Chris Duhon. This game
featured plenty of back-and-forth action, huge three point bombs by Rashad
McCants and the beginning of a secretly testy rivalry between Roy Williams
and Coach K. While Duke may be the superior team this season, UNC played
admirably and with a great deal of heart (something the team has lacked at
times this season), thus helping qualify this as one of the 5 best games of
the season.

No. 3 Reality TV: Joe Millionaire Finale

I remember the first time I heard about the premise of this show. I was
sitting with a bunch of buddies and we heard that a woman would be led to
think that a random guy was a millionaire, and late in the game she would
find out he was not and would look like an idiot. At the time we giggled
with anticipation (or at least my friends giggled, I of course engaged in a
manly laugh), and promised to be glued to the sets. When the finale came,
and the women looked silly after realizing the Evan Marriott (what ever
happened to him anyway) was actually just a normal plebeian, I was happy and
able to have fun at someone else’s expense. With the novelty of the joke
having worn off, it was no surprise that the sequel to the show bombed and
that America moved on to greener reality pastures. But we will always have
that span of weeks when the suits at Fox came up with a great idea, executed
it to perfection and had America laughing at the joke.

No. 2 Wake Forest v North Carolina

Another great game in the Dean Dome, but unfortunately for the Tar Heels,
another close loss. These two Tobacco Road rivals battled over the course
of regulation and then three overtimes, before the immovable force of Eric
Williams helped Wake Forest pull out the victory. This game put the world
on notice that Wake Forest was for real (at least temporarily) and helped
bring attention to the surprisingly deep ACC. This game seemed to
especially stick in the craw of UNC fans more than normal. Whether it was
the complaints about the extended coverage that Williams’s mom received or
the ubiquitous questioning of the referees’ calls, UNC fans seemed in a
particularly foul mood after the game. As for Wake Forest, the joy of being
undefeated was short-lived and this may have represented the high point in
their season.

No. 2 Reality TV: American Idol: Season 2

There are some things I will not debate. I refuse to listen to any argument
that Jay Leno is funny, that anyone but Tiger Woods is the best golfer in
the world, that Ann Coulter should be respected or that the Second Season of
American Idol was not absolutely brilliant. All of America became engulfed
in the “Ginger-Mary Ann” debate for a new generation. Who was the best:
Clay or Ruben? I admit to being partial to the big guy from Alabama with
the smooth voice, but like all Americans, I couldn’t help but cheer for both
of them. Watching the transformation of Clay from dorky North Carolinian to
miniature sex symbol was nothing if not hilarious. And at the time that
Luther Vandross had his stroke and Barry White passed away, Ruben emerged as
a possible replacement. Tell me that you weren’t watching when the winner
was announced, and did not think that Ruben’s “Flying Without Wings” was not
great. Television at its finest.

No. 1 Arizona at Stanford

One of the things that makes college basketball games great is that they
often occur in the perfect setting. Such was the case in the best game of
the season between the Wildcats and the Cardinal. Stanford had lost four
straight home games to Arizona and was attempting to stay undefeated by
breaking that curse in their home arena. The gymnasium was packed with
rabid student followers and many friends of the university such as Bill
Walsh, Jim Plunkett (whose wife got trampled in the post game celebration)
and Tiger Woods (whose wife is hot). The end of the game has been endlessly
replayed, but Nick Robinson’s steal and 30 foot jump shot at the buzzer will
live forever as one of the greatest endings in college basketball history.
The crowd stormed the floor (leaving me a bit worried about Robinson at the
bottom of the pile) and the scene was pure bedlam. Dick Vitale went nuts
(proving my point that games are just a bit better when he calls them….3
of 5 on this list) and Stanford moved atop my Hoopville Top 25 poll. If the
college basketball season had ended that day, I would have been happy.

No. 1 Reality TV: Survivor Season 1 Finale

When television historians sit down (and if there are such people, they have
the best job on Earth) and debate the best moments in the history of the
invention, this should be top 5. I am serious. Since the dawning of cable,
there have been very few moments that were not tragedies that have not
unified the country in front of the television set. Events such as the “Who
Shot JR” episode, final episode of “MASH” and the “Roots” miniseries very
rarely occur now thanks to all the options that the viewing public has.
However one of those moments was the Survivor Finale in Season 1. It could
not have been scripted (and may have been) any better. Evil Richard takes
the final prize, using his conniving abilities to ultimately gain the
respect of his fellow competitors. Loveable old Rudy found himself close to
winning the last challenge and the game, but ultimately fell asleep, thus
allowing his hand to fall off the pole he was required to hold onto. And of
course there was Sue, with her late speech, telling Kelly that she would not
stop to help her even if she was “on the grounds with buzzards picking at
her.” There has not been a better hour of television in recent memory that
lived up to the hype (sorry Seinfeld finale), while also bringing America
together. That is why it is the number one moment.

So those are my rankings. You may disagree, and I hope you will write me on
either the college basketball game or the reality television issue. Until
then, watch for a Stanford loss in the next two games and the slow
re-emergence of the Texas Longhorns.

SEC Notebook

SEC Notebook

by Matt Jones

I must admit that I have been a bit distracted this week. So much has been going on in our world that at times it becomes difficult to focus solely on SEC basketball, as we all should be doing.

We have the Democratic primaries, where John Kerry, “the Botox Bomber,” is close to securing the final nomination. We have the Bush Administration finally admitting what everyone knew all along, mainly that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. American Idol has narrowed the field down to 32 and thus cut all of those singers with no talent and making the show significantly less interesting. Rudy was voted off “Survivor-All Stars” in a move that not only has left me sad but questioning the morality of all humankind.

And of course we have the Janet Jackson scandal, which has left all of the self-righteous talking heads on television in mock outrage, asking “what will we tell our children?” when they see and hear significantly more shocking things every day at school. It is with this backdrop that we must examine the SEC news of the week, and I for one am ready for the distraction.

The New Center of the Basketball Universe: Starkville, Mississippi

Ok world, it is now time to officially notice. There is something special going on in Starkville, Miss. Now I know that many would never have thought that those words could ever be uttered in a serious journalistic article, but yes it is true. The Mississippi State Bulldogs have established themselves as one of the five best teams in the country. Yes, you read that correctly. Along with Duke, Connecticut, Stanford and Louisville, I place this Mississippi State team. They have taken on all comers and were it not for one fluke Eric Daniels layup, this team would be undefeated and ranked in the top three in the country.

The story of this team begins with the amazing story of Lawrence Roberts. I don’t care who you are, if you like college basketball and like the individuals that make it great, the Roberts story should be one that you applaud. After the terrible tragedy that occurred at Baylor University this summer, the NCAA made the correct choice in allowing the players on that team to transfer without having to sit out the normal one-year waiting period. Roberts’ performance has shown why that was such a good move. Roberts is 11th in the country in rebounds and one of only nine players, LSU’s Jamie Lloreda is another, in the country to average a double-double.

Roberts has come onto this team and by making up for Mario Austin, he has established an inside presence with which few teams in the country can compete. In addition, he has become a leader, rallying his teammates and becoming a vocal presence both on and off the court. When combined with Timmy Bowers, Winsome Frazier and the other talented players on the Bulldog rosters, Roberts’ presence has taken a good team and turned them into an immediate national title contender.

Mississippi State is now in the driver’s seat to win the regular season title. Playing in the SEC West, their schedule is not quite as difficult as their two main rivals to the throne, South Carolina and Kentucky. Kentucky does hold the tiebreaker over the Bulldogs due to their win in Starkville earlier this season, but at this point the Bulldogs control their own destiny. It may be a bit unrealistic to think that Mississippi State will win out for the rest of the season, but it is likely that they will be favored in every contest, and there are no games coming up where I would even pick against them. If they do win out, it is likely they will get a No. 1 seed and could be a true force come tournament time.

Whatever the result, this has been a season that Mississippi State fans will always remember, and it is time that the nation take notice of all the sweet goings on down in Starkville.

“Lucy, Please Don’t Pull the Ball Away this Time!”

This is really starting to get ridiculous. On Tuesday night No. 9 Kentucky defeated No. 21 Florida 68-65 to win its fifth straight and seventh of the last eight games against the Gators. Rarely has a legitimate rivalry between two top programs been so lopsided. It was not long ago – two seasons ago in fact – that an Orlando newspaper columnist reported that Florida had “surpassed Kentucky as the dominant program in the SEC,” putting all of the Big Blue Nation into a frenzy and causing the poor columnist’s email inbox to be flooded. One thing all columnists learn is that it is dangerous to criticize the Big Blue.

However, at the time, this theory certainly seemed plausible. The Gators were destroying the Wildcats on the recruiting trail, and it looked as if coach Billy Donovan was stockpiling the best assemblage of talent this side of Durham, N.C. Although Kentucky coach Tubby Smith’s mixture of nice, hard-working players made purists smile, it was hard to see how they could compete long term against the force in Gainesville.

That is why the play the games. The past five Kentucky victories have been portraits in team basketball and have illustrated a few differences between the programs:

1. You can defeat talent if you have players willing to sacrifice for team goals. Since the infamous “Team Turmoil” debacle that Smith endured, he has focused on recruiting quality guys that don’t make recruiting headlines but whose blue-collar work ethic wins games. Tell me if any coach in the country would not like to have a Gerald Fitch, Eric Daniels, Cliff Hawkins or Chuck Hayes on their roster.

2. Donovan has not yet adjusted to the problems associated with early entry into the NBA. Guys like Kwame Brown, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem make a splash when they commit to the program but ultimately offer little longevity, as they don’t stay for enough time to truly build a dynasty.

3. Smith simply has Donovan’s number. Watching these five games, it has become clear that down the stretch, when the game is on the line, Smith’s teams excel and Donovan’s falter. Whether it is Hawkins being in the right place defensively to make a steal or Tayshaun Prince hitting a big shot with time running down, Kentucky players know how to win.

The success that Donovan has had at Florida is remarkable. They are a top-caliber program at this point, and the credit should fall directly on Donovan’s shoulders. However, if one is to do that, we must also point out that their inability to take the next step into the Duke-Kentucky-Arizona stratosphere must also fall on Donovan’s shoulders as well. As the game Tuesday night showed, Florida is a nice team, but ultimately you must go through Lexington, Ky., to find the dominant program in the SEC.

Now on to the notebooks…

No. 9 Kentucky Wildcats (15-3, 5-2)

Kentucky fans have to be pleased with the recent stretch that the Wildcats have been on. Actually Kentucky fans are rarely, if ever pleased, but they nevertheless should be. Their past five games have involved four road contests with Tennessee, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Florida and a home game with ever-improving Ole Miss. They ran that gauntlet with a 4-1 record and have positioned themselves to once again have a shot at the SEC championship.

At the center of this run has been the continued excellent play of center Eric Daniels. Daniels has quietly become the most consistent scorer on the team and often is the focus of the offense at the end of games. With Chuck Hayes being a bit too small, Gerald Fitch a bit too inconsistent and Cliff Hawkins a bit too excitable, Eric Daniels has been Mr. Smooth for the Wildcats and has provided the stability they have needed for the recent run.

Naysayers will rightly point out that every game for Kentucky in recent weeks has been a struggle and that they are only a fluke basket by Daniels at Mississippi State, a long three by Hawkins at Tennessee and a Gator meltdown in Gainesville, Fla., from being a team in turmoil. However they have won those games, and with the season still so wide-open, coach Smith has to like his chances. The Cats welcome South Carolina and Alabama to Rupp Arena this week.

No. 25 South Carolina Gamecocks (19-3, 6-2)

There will be no bigger win this season for the Gamecocks than their 90-82 overtime victory against Alabama Wednesday. For South Carolina detractors – and you know who you are – the showdown against the Crimson Tide represented the chance to finally show that this team was not for real. They were coming off a loss to Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., and were beginning to look like a nice team that did not have the chutzpah to hang with the big boys.

Alabama held a three-point lead with less than a minute to play in regulation, but South Carolina persevered by hitting multiple big shots and playing tight defense when they had to in the end. However, the SEC never lets one rest, and South Carolina must follow up this victory with a trip to Rupp Arena Saturday. The Gamecocks will not be favored and likely will not pull out a victory. But they will remain in the conference race and have a chance at stealing the SEC East title because of their win on Wednesday.

In addition to the Wildcats, South Carolina sees Mississippi State coming to Columbia, S.C, Wednesday in the game of the week. A split of these two games would spark a celebration for coach Dave Odom and his staff.

No. 23 Vanderbilt Commodores (14-4, 3-4)

It was a roller coaster week for the Commodores as they lived out Charles Dickens’ “best of times, worst of times” mantra. The week began with a tough home loss to South Carolina, which put the Gamecocks in the driver’s seat in the SEC East and the Commodores closer to the NCAA Tournament bubble.

However, the most embarrassing thing for Vandy fans was the behavior of coach Kevin Stallings after the game. His thinly veiled remark that a South Carolina player might have to watch out in future games was an embarrassment to his team and the university, a fact he acknowledged in a future apology. I was amazed at the lack of publicity this entire affair garnered, especially when compared with the Bobby Knight “Showdown at the Upscale Lubbock Salad Bar” coverage. Knight has a level of fame that transcends college basketball, and if he had made the same comment as Stallings, he may have been fired.

Yet Stallings survived unscathed and moved forward to help his Commodores defeat Kentucky 66-60 in Nashville Jan. 31. This nationally televised victory makes a tournament appearance likely and helped them stay in the Hoopville Top 25. However the week upcoming is crucial as they play at Florida and at home against Georgia. The latter game is a must-win and if the Commodores go 0-2 during this stretch, it could get ugly in Memorial Coliseum.

No. 21 Florida Gators (13-6, 4-4)

What can you really say about Florida at this point in the season? As discussed above, the Kentucky loss highlighted all that has been driving Gators fans crazy over the past few seasons, and it looks as if there is little relief in sight. These coaches and players must decide that they are going to sacrifice a bit in the show department, with fewer behind-the-back passes, three-point heaves and cutesy defenses, and become a top-notch basketball team through hard-work and emphasis on the fundamentals. Without that switch, it will only be more of the same. The Gators try to get back on track with a season-making game against Vanderbilt Saturday.

Tennessee Volunteers (11-7, 3-5)

I must say that for my dollar, Tennessee has been the most disappointing team in the conference this season. As I stated in my very first column for Hoopville, coach Buzz Peterson has this program on the right track, and they have all the pieces necessary to leap to the second tier of the SEC. They continue to bring in top-level recruits, they have high quality facilities, and Peterson is one of the best young coaches in the country.

Nevertheless, they have been the same old Volunteers lately, losing all the games where they are not heavy favorites, and being embarrassed when they venture out of Knoxville, Tenn. This past week saw losses at Mississippi State and LSU that gave little indication that this team has NCAA Tournament potential. Tennessee was impressive in its win over Florida. However as mentioned before, the Gators are struggling this season and Tennessee SHOULD have won that game.

This team seems to coast along, with little to get excited about and much about which to wring your hands in disappointment. I am interested to see what they do this week against Georgia Tech in Knoxville. Tech is certainly beatable, but like Kentucky and Mississippi State, the Yellow Jackets always put forth a great deal of effort. Tennessee not only needs to win this game for its NCAA prospects, but it also needs to win it to show its detractors, like myself, that they are a team to pay attention to at all.

Georgia Bulldogs (11-8, 3-5)

Sometimes when I write this column, I reach a team’s description and I think to myself, “I have very little, if anything to say about this team.” Such was my predicament this week with Georgia. Ultimately that is a shame because this week brought a level of consistency from the Bulldogs that has not been reached at any point previous in the system.

Coach Dennis Felton’s team handily won a pair of games against SEC West opponents, Arkansas and Ole Miss, getting two huge home-court wins and proving that Kentucky is not the only team in the conference against whom they can compete. Georgia’s problem all season has been producing on the offensive end, as seen by the fact that their 71 points against Arkansas was their highest total since Dec. 22. It is hard to win many games in this conference, or any other not named the Big Ten, with that level of production.

The most exciting part of the week for this team may have come at the end of the LSU game when Jonas Hayes hit an 84-foot heave. Even though the shot was after the buzzer, it made me so excited I considered getting up off of my couch and dancing…but I ended up just watching “My Wife and Kids” instead. The Bulldogs go to Auburn and Vanderbilt this week.

No. 8 Mississippi State Bulldogs (18-1, 7-1)

I already expressed my undying adulation for this team earlier, but it needs to be repeated that yes, Virginia, there is a national title contender in Starkville this year. The Bulldogs are in the midst of a five-game conference winning streak, their longest such run in nearly three years, and are likely in the driver’s seat for the regular season championship.

The question now for the Bulldogs becomes: How will they handle the success? They are ranked in the top 10 for the first time in a number of years and have the chance to go into the postseason as one of the favorites for a top seed. This week sees a home game against Ole Miss and then a huge road contest at South Carolina. The game in Columbia, S.C., will, in this author’s humble opinion, be a true test for Mississippi State. If they can win that game against one of the up-and-coming teams in nation on the road, it may be time to ring the folks at Duke, Connecticut and Stanford and tell them to make room for another Bulldog Final Four run.

LSU Tigers (15-4, 5-3)

Quietly once again, coach John Brady has his LSU Tigers headed for the NCAA Tournament and playing at a high level. This past week saw a revelation of a bright star that – if he stays in school – will shine brightly in the SEC for years to come. Freshman Brandon Bass played the best basketball of his young career this week, getting a double-double in two consecutive games and helping his team to big wins over Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

We have talked a great deal in this column about Brady’s magnificent freshman class, and it has long been thought that they had the potential to take this program to another level. However more than a few folks had been disappointed at the results shown on the court early in the season. Well that was until this past week when Brandon Bass had the biggest coming out party this side of Janet Jackson with his series of fine performances. It is hard to know exactly what to make of this LSU team. With Jamie Lloreda in his last year in Baton Rouge, this would be a perfect time to make a tournament run. Although it is unclear if the Tigers have the firepower for such a move, Brady has them in second place in the SEC West and headed for an NCAA berth, a position that he likes just fine.

Alabama Crimson Tide (11-8, 3-5)

It was a tough week for the Crimson Tide as they lost three straight games against Florida, LSU and South Carolina, all of which were close until the end and at least one of which they truly needed to win to keep their slipping NCAA Tournament hopes alive. The common wisdom is that the SEC will get seven teams into the Big Dance and at this point in the season, Alabama stands at number eight. Coach Mark Gottfried has to hope that his troops begin to understand how to win and to take better shots down the stretch. Star Kennedy Winston has played well in all three contests but has made mental errors at the end of the games that have hurt his team.

Things don’t get any easier for the Tide as they travel into Rupp Arena Tuesday night for another important showdown against Kentucky.

Ole Miss Rebels (11-8, 3-5)

In evaluating the week for the Ole Miss Rebels, one could choose to focus on either of their two games. Their loss to Georgia Wednesday was one of their worst performances of the year and represented a regression from the improvement that had been shown in recent weeks. However their victory Saturday over South Carolina was their first victory in two seasons over a ranked opponent and represented their best effort of the season.

Being the positive person that I am, we will focus on the latter. All-everything Justin Reed had a career-high 32 points in the victory over the Gamecocks and continued to show NBA scouts that there will be a late first-round steal available who can contribute to any team in the league. The Rebels have shown so much improvement in the past few weeks that coach Rod Barnes’ team is still not completely eliminated from NCAA consideration. However, if they are to have any chance whatsoever, they have to win Saturday in Starkville against Mississippi State, a task that borders on the impossible. Yet if Barnes can get the Rebels to play as they did on the road in Lexington, they will be in contention and give Reed the chance to make big plays down the stretch.

Auburn Tigers (11-8, 2-6)

Nothing seems to be going right for Auburn at this point in the season, and there is very little that coach Cliff Ellis can likely do about it.

The Tigers came into the season with some expectations after their NCAA run last season. In addition, they started strong, preying on their weak schedule to establish a gaudy record that had Tigers fans once again proclaiming that they were a national power.

However, after their miserable performance in Fayetteville, Ark., Wednesday, which resulted in the team’s third straight conference loss, there seems to be little that can be done to salvage the season. To understand just how far this team has fallen, consider this: People were legitimately sending me emails at the beginning of the season asking how Kentucky was going to be able to handle losing the conference to the folks from Auburn, Ala.

This week the Tigers have Georgia at home and then a road game against Ole Miss.

Arkansas Razorbacks (11-8, 3-5)

The up and down roller coaster of a season for Arkansas continued this past week with a horrible loss on the road at Georgia and then a solid beating of Auburn in Fayetteville. More than any other team in the floundering SEC West, the struggles this season in Arkansas can be written off to a young team, a new coach and a fresh system that will simply take some time to gel. Guard Ronnie Brewer has produced a solid set of performances in recent weeks and along with Jonathan Modica, has provide much of the Razorbacks’ offense.

The main goal for this team right now is to stay above .500 and make some form of postseason play. They have road games this week against LSU and Tennessee, and if they could pull out either of these, they would be in position to make a postseason run.

SEC Notebook

SEC Notebook

by Matt Jones

It is coming to the point that I am beginning to hear the shrieking sounds of Chris Matthews and Simon Cowell in my sleep. It has now become common for me to pick out one night out of a week to watch Democratic primary returns and another to watch the American Idol auditions. Last week both of these programs brought me examples of human meltdown, with the infamous Howard Dean speech on Monday and the rather odd stylings of Huang and his Ricky Martin impersonation on Tuesday. We have now reached the points in both shows (and I realize that the Democratic Primary does not really qualify as a “show” but you folks have to work with me here) where we have begun to ignore the no-talents (adios Dennis Kucinich!) and are now moving on to the frontrunners. In some sense that is exactly what is also happening in the SEC as well.

This conference has rightly been criticized by many (including yours truly) for its woeful non-conference scheduling that produces teams that are not sufficiently battle-tested to do well in the NCAA tournament. However an often forgotten side effect of this scheduling trend is that it makes it virtually impossible to tell during the non-conference season, what teams are truly talented. But separation is slowly beginning to occur. The proverbial cream is rising to the top and the conference hierarchy is starting to take shape. With that, I will make my mid-season predictions. Look for John Kerry, Ryan and Kentucky to win the big contests, but watch out for John Edwards, Sarah and Mississippi State to keep things interesting. Now on to the news……

South Carolina on My Mind

There is no state currently hotter in the country than South Carolina. All of the Presidential candidates and the media that wants to overexpose them are about to engulf the state in a week-long orgy of democratic politics that could leave even the most heartened American cynical. But while there, you can bet that the national media might take notice of an even bigger story than the unexplained phenomenon of Al Sharpton’s hair. Yes the South Carolina Gamecocks are currently in first place in the SEC East! With wins this week over Tennessee and LSU, the Gamecocks moved to 4-1 in conference play, their second best start in school history. Carlos Powell has emerged as the dominant star that many in South Carolina have believed he could be, and found himself hitting the team’s only three point shot of the game against LSU, a jumper with 1:38 left that placed the Gamecocks on top. This game marked an important moment for this program as it was seen by the first ever sell out in the new Colonial Center and the 17,927 fans who attended represented the largest crowd to ever see a basketball game in the state of South Carolina.

The Gamecocks hope to build in the weeks ahead on these successes, but it is important to take a moment to realize what this team has accomplished. The SEC East is possibly the best sub-division in basketball with two of the top 10 programs in America (Kentucky and Florida), two teams who have been ranked in the top 10 within the last three years (Tennessee and Georgia) and the resident national media darling of surprise teams (Vanderbilt). South Carolina has often been the forgotten red-headed stepchild of the division (the Brian Dunkleman of the SEC East) and has now finally emerged as a legitimate conference title contender. South Carolina still must play Kentucky twice and Florida and Mississippi State once. However if they continue at the level of this past week, Dave Odom may join Lou Holtz and Hootie and the Blowfish as the toast of Columbia.

With only one true story this week, we will move on to the team notebooks quickly. However before we do that, one comment. Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale’s recent comment that JJ Redick may be the best shooter in NCAA history might go down as the most ridiculous statement in the history of mankind. I will remind folks that JJ is 23rd in the country in 3 point field goal percentage. That begs the question, if he is the best shooter in NCAA history, what are the 22 guys ahead of him? Now to the news…..

No. 5 Kentucky (13-2)(3-1)

One could have been forgiven for wondering after Kentucky’s 65-57 loss to Georgia at home on January 17th, if the wheels were about to fall off Tubby Smith’s caravan. For two seasons, Smith’s Wildcats have defied all of the experts by winning with a level of talent that many considered suspect. However the Cats loss to the Bulldogs was unlike any game during that stretch. The team looked sloppy, unmotivated and inexperienced, qualities that are inexplicable on such a Senior-laden team. However as usual, just when the pundits were ready to count out Tubby’s Troopers, the Cats scored a pair of impressive road wins against Tennessee and Notre Dame. Both games followed a familiar script for Kentucky as they raced out to large early leads, only to lose them and be involved in a tight battle at the end. Because of the relative normalcy of the games themselves, the most interesting moment of the week involved the Howard Dean-esque rant by former Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps. After accepting an award commemorating his 1974 victory that ended UCLA’s 88 game winning streak, Phelps showcased his objectivity by encouraging the Notre Dame faithful to “kick Kentucky’s a**”. While so such kicking was forthcoming, Kentucky’s Chuck Hayes did produce a clinic on hustle basketball with 19 points and 6 rebounds. The Cats play at home this week against Ole Miss and on the road at Vanderbilt, where Barry Goheen is sure to implore the crowd to “Drop Your Chemistry Sets and Wish a Negative Result on Kentucky!”

No. 24 South Carolina (17-2)(4-1)

After the great week produced by the Gamecocks, it is imperative that Dave Odom focus his team and prepare them for the tough week ahead. They must go on the road and face Vanderbilt, followed by another test at ever-improving Ole Miss. These games are of great importance to the future of the team this season and the program in general. With their recent entry into the Top 25, the program faces its greatest success of the Dave Odom era and has proven that it was able to succeed even without 23-year starter Chuck Edison. The Gamecocks are now tied for first in the SEC East, but must win games such as those forthcoming this week in order to stake claim as a legitimate title contender. While much has gone right recently for Odom’s team, its 0-22 (yes you read that correctly) three point performance against LSU was its worst in school, conference, country, world and galaxy history. Nevertheless, the Gamecocks are beginning to get the national attention that represents the fruits of Dave Odom’s labor. This week will be key in continuing that success. As Reba McEntire would say, “Here is your one chance Fancy (aka South Carolina), Don’t let me down.”

No. 20 Florida (12-4) (9-2)

If you had given up the Florida Gators for dead last Wednesday night, you would have been more than justified. They had just come off an embarrassing 79-68 loss at home to Mississippi State, which followed a complete manhandling by Vanderbilt 86-72. Rumors of team turmoil were circulating throughout Gainesville and many believed that the team was extremely close to completely unraveling. A national television game with Auburn was on the horizon and there were many within the Gator faithful simply hoping that they would not be embarrassed during that game. But like Nick Lachey’s career, they made an impressive comeback and produced a solid 68-52 win. Anthony Roberson’s up and down season moved towards a positive note as he had 21 points, hitting three pointers from all over the court, even while being guarded well by the Tigers. At this point there is very little that Billy Donovan can say to explain this team’s performance. An important week is upcoming with road games against Alabama and Tennessee. Two victories here would do a lot to set the team back on track and look for increased production from Adrian Moss who Donovan seems more comfortable with, starting him last week for only the second time this season.

Georgia (9-7)(1-4)

There are certain events that occur in our world that are beyond rational explanation. The Julia Roberts/Lyle Lovett marriage, the popularity of Clay Aiken and the entire Jackson family are all examples of situations that are so beyond the comprehension of mere mortals that we are often left explaining their occurrence with something akin to the chaos theory. At first glance, Georgia’s 1-4 start in SEC play would not seem to qualify. The Bulldogs are a young team, graduated their best player and NBA lottery pick Jarvis Hayes, and have a new coach in Dennis Felton. However what if I told you that their only conference victory was on the road….against No. 5 Kentucky. Such is the case for this bizarre Georgia conference season. After such a win, Georgia has nothing to be ashamed about in their 71-58 loss at No. 12 Mississippi State, but their abysmal performance in a 45-52 loss at home against Alabama is troubling. It is hard to understand where this team is or where it is going. Their inconsistency makes any prognostication about future games as silly as if it were made by Digger Phelps. This week they play on the road at LSU and then at home against Arkansas, which is close to a must-win. While no one is sure what performance Georgia will give, Coach Dennis Felton can take some solace in the fact that he received commitments this week from two of the nation’s most highly-touted recruits in next year’s class. He now hopes some of that good luck rubs off on the court.

Tennessee (10-5)(2-3)

In Ancient Rome, a politician named Cato gained great fame and popularity by declaring that the neighboring state of Carthage was Rome’s permanent enemy. Cato used to end all of his public speeches with the line, “Carthage must be destroyed!” After the week that he just went through, one could forgive Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson if he found himself ending every press conference with the line, “Kentucky should be destroyed!” Last week the Vols lost two heartbreakers to schools from the Bluegrass state, falling at the end of the game to both the Wildcats and Louisville. The lesson from these games for the Vols is that they can compete favorably against two of the best teams in the nation, but also that they must learn how to finish games with authority if they want to compete on the national stage. Kentucky guard Cliff Hawkins drained a three pointer to send the game into overtime, even as Tennessee was attempting to foul and place him on the line. Similarly the Vols seemed to forget about Louisville players Taquan Dean and Otis George at the end of the game, giving them easy baskets in crunch time. There is so much to be positive about in Knoxville concerning the men’s team (it is always great in Lady Vol land), as Major Wingate, CJ Watson and most impressively Scooter McFadgon have shown themselves to be top-notch competitors. This week finds them at Mississippi State and at home against Florida, finishing up a brutal stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents. Expect to see them pull out a surprise in one of these.

Vanderbilt (13-3)(2-3)

There are those that questioned this Vanderbilt team throughout the non-conference season, saying that they had not proven that they could win outside the confines of Memorial Gymnasium and that their strength, or lack thereof would be exposed come conference play. Vanderbilt may have given some ammunition to these critics this week, as they had an embarrassing 70-62 loss at Arkansas. The Razorbacks are one of the worst teams in the conference and represent the type of program that the Commodores must defeat if they are to reach their lofty goals. Matt Frieje continues to provide large amounts of points and leads the team in all forms of hustle plays, but no one else in the lineup is stepping up and hitting the big shots for the Commodores on the road. Kevin Stallings must be frustrated, as their 13-3 record is still impressive, but they do not have that one win away from home to impress the NCAA selection committee. This week sees them with an important home contest against fellow SEC East contender South Carolina and then a huge game with Kentucky on Saturday. They must win one of these to stay without shouting distance of the conference title.

No. 12 Mississippi State (16-1)(5-1)

The statement win of the SEC season occurred Wednesday night in Gainesville when Mississippi State dismantled the Florida Gators 78-67. Lawrence Roberts continued his dominating season and his quest to become an unexpected All-American candidate with 21 points. Roberts is now one of only two players in the conference to average a double-double and stands as the leader of this rising program. Like R.Kelly’s career, Mississippi State had dropped off of the national radar after their loss three weeks ago to Kentucky on a fluke buzzer beating layup by Eric Daniels. Pundits predicted that the Bulldogs were headed to mediocrity and deserved little to no attention. At least that was the thought process until the win last Wednesday. What Rick Stansbury has done with this team is truly unbelievable. Reeling from the early loss of Mario Austin and recruit Travis Outlaw’s decision to go from high school to the NBA, few thought this team would even win the SEC West. Now they are just one shot away from being 17-0 and the toast of the SEC. This week they play Tennessee and have an important test with Western Division rival Auburn.

LSU (12-4)(2-3)

After getting many commentators excited (including this one) with their early conference play, LSU has come back to earth with three consecutive losses, including two on the road this week to Ole Miss and South Carolina. Both of these games were well played by the Tigers and can be chalked up to the usual difficulty that occurs when one travels on the road in the SEC. One thing that these games have shown however is that LSU must play a faster paced game if they are to have a shot at pulling out a victory. The Tigers have been held under 60 points only four times this season, and have left each of these contests with a loss. Coach John Brady likely has the best collection of athletes in the conference, yet he seems to be pulling back in every contest and preferring a slower-paced game. Important games await this week against Georgia and Alabama, two teams who seem to prefer to run up and down the court. It will be interesting to see if John Brady encourages his team to participate in a track meet, or if he still holds true to the slower-paced style seen in recent games. One bright spot of the last couple of games is still Jamie Lloreda. He remains the best player in the country that no one knows.

Auburn (11-6)(2-4)

It was a mixed bag for Auburn this week as they won an important home game against Arkansas to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive and then followed that up with a decent performance at Florida before falling 68-52 after a late Gators run. Cliff Ellis has changed up the lineup in recent weeks to various results, but seems to have found a keeper in Lewis Monroe. The Tigers seem to just play better when he is on the floor and it is likely that he has found a permanent place in the Auburn starting lineup. Like LSU, Cliff Ellis’s team needs to force the action much more than they have recently in order to be successful. They are 9-1 when scoring over 70 points, yet at some points in the Florida game they looked tentative and more like a Wisconsin-style slowdown team than is necessary. Many in Auburn are still reeling from being called a campus full of “farm people” by football recruit in his running journal on the recruiting process that is currently being posted on the Miami Herald website (an absolute must-read if you are a fan of high-comedy). On the basketball front, Auburn has an important home game this week against Mississippi State, a game in which this columnist sees a possible upset.

Ole Miss (10-6)(2-3)

The Ole Miss Rebels quietly had a strong week with victories at home against LSU and Alabama. Justin Reed tied his career high with 28 points in the 71-60 win over Alabama and was named the SEC Player of the Week for his efforts. We have talked a great deal in this column about SEC stars who do not get enough national attention such as Matt Freije and Jamie Lloreda, but Reed is a player that gets very little publicity even in the SEC. He has the opportunity to be elected to the All-Conference team each of his four years and will finish his career at Ole Miss as one of the top players in school history. Rod Barnes also has to be pleased with the recent emergence of Aaron Harper, who had 22 big points in the game against LSU. Ole Miss still has a great deal to improve upon, such as their top 10 national ranking in turnovers, but the wins of this past week stand as proof that this team has the ability to hold its ground in the conference. This week they go on the road to Kentucky and have South Carolina in Oxford.

Arkansas (10-7)(2-4)

While Arkansas lost early in the week to Auburn, it was sweet redemption on Saturday when the Razorbacks pulled off an important upset of Vanderbilt 70-62. The Jones Brothers, Michael and Matt (not the handsome version that writes this column) both played huge roles, with Michael getting a career high 18 points and Matt pulling down a career high 8 rebounds. This team reminds one of a quote from the great Shakespeare play “Antony and Cleopatra.” In that play, one of Antony’s friends insinuates that real cause of Cleopatra’s appeal is not her beauty but her unpredictability. He states, “Age cannot wither her, not custom stale / her infinite variety.” In many ways therein lies the appeal of this Arkansas team. Every week you are not sure what team will show up, or who will provide the leadership and scoring. Yet they do manage to entertain nevertheless. This week sees them on the road against Georgia.

Alabama (11-5)(3-2)

Two road games this week by the Crimson Tide produced one victory and one defeat, but two miserable performances as they defeated Georgia and lost to Ole Miss. The Georgia win was a particularly horrific game to watch and in some ways is the more disappointing of the two performances. In the shot clock era that we now are a part of, there is absolutely no excuse for a college basketball game between two major college teams to end in a 45-42 score. I considered boycotting writing columns about these two teams as a protest, but I felt I owed it to you, the readers. Mark Gottfried’s team has been inconsistent all year, but he must find a way to get this team on one page in the next few games or the season has the potential to slip away. The schedule gets much tougher now beginning with home games this week against Florida and LSU.

Game of the Week

Watch for this weekend’s contest between Kentucky and Vanderbilt. It is close to a must-win game for the Commodores and the Vandy faithful will be motivated to extract revenge on the early loss. One has to think that Kentucky’s habit of playing continued close games will catch up on them, and this may be the week.

Until we meet again……

Early Bracket Projections

The Season’s First Bracket

by Matt Jones

Well we have now passed the midpoint of the season and are in the
homestretch towards glory. Yes we have now reached the time of year where
everyone’s attention begins to focus on the upcoming NCAA Tournament and
announcers begin to use terms such as “spurtability” with such frequency
that you want to poke out your eyeballs. However there still are a couple
of weeks where we college basketball fans still have our beloved sport to
ourselves. The nation’s attention is focused squarely on the Super Bowl and
Howard Dean’s latest wrestling promo, and those folks who truly know the
game of college basketball can rationally discuss the subject without having
the casual sports fan or Dick Vitale say “Well no one is going to beat
Duke.” This is the time of year where Joe Lunardi and every other two-bit
sportswriter with a slide rule and calculator tries to formulate his bracket
based on computer numbers that inevitably put a team like Purdue at number
one. Yes this is the time for college basketball geeks which is exactly why
I love it.

I decided a few days ago that I wanted to participate in the free-for-all
bracket predictions, but in a slightly different manner. I want to do more
than simply predict the bracket, I want to actually predict who would win
the tournament if it were to occur today. Now this prediction is not based
on how a team will fare in March, as there is really no way to tell what
teams will get hot and which will fizzle down the stretch. Rather this is
January Madness, filled with all the excitement and sizzle of John Kerry
topped with the depth of Jessica Simpson.

The ground rules are simple. I took the latest Hoopville Top 25 poll and
used it, plus the seven teams who were just outside of the poll and made a
32 team bracket, which essentially is equivalent to the second round of the
NCAA Tournament. This meant leaving out all of the traditional Cinderellas
such as Weber State and Rider, but this is my tournament and I can do what I
want. Over the next few days I am going to simulate the tournament, giving
mini-summaries of how the games would play out. The ground rules are
simple. We are playing these games on a neutral court, in this case Madison
Square Garden in New York, so as to add a bit of flair to the occasion. As
in the NCAA Tournament, most games will be won by the favorites, but there
will be upsets throughout to keep things from getting stale. Each column
will contain the synopsis of a few games, culminating late next week with
the Final 4. So without further ado, here is the bracket:

East
Stanford v Utah State
Texas v Florida
North Carolina v Oklahoma State
Wake Forest v Western Michigan

West
Cincinnati v Creighton
Arizona v Wisconsin
Georgia Tech v Vanderbilt
UConn v LSU

Midwest
St Josephs v Utah
Gonzaga v Mississippi State
Kansas v Oklahoma
Louisville v Maryland

South
Kentucky v South Carolina
Pittsburgh v Purdue
Syracuse v Texas Tech
Duke v Illinois

With those ground rules, we begin our tournament with the first round in the
East:

#1 Stanford v #32 Utah State

When the brackets were released just moments ago, this was the game that had
all of America searching for their remote and looking to see if American
Idol was on. The Stanford Cardinal is the number one team in all of America
(at least in the polls that are not run by the media…aka the Duke Blue
Devil fan club) and has played the best and most consistent basketball of
the season. While Josh Childress’s hair has sparked many a discussion,
little that this team does has gained much attention on the East Coast, as
much of the media is too busy proclaiming J.J. Redick the best shooter in
NCAA history (yes that means you Digger Phelps). Matching up the Cardinal
with Utah State did not help matters a great deal as most college basketball
fans turned on the game hoping to see Rick Majerus, and instead found a boy
named Stew (Merril) roaming the sidelines. Similar to Dennis Kucinich when
he found out that even Willie Nelson was not going to campaign for him
anymore, Utah State fans realized they truly had no chance when their star
player Spencer Nelson broke his hand and was ruled out for the season.
Nevertheless like the true Aggies that they are, Utah State vowed to fight.
Yet the fight has a Tyson-Spinks quality and Stanford destroys the
overmatched Aggies 88-60.

#16 Texas v #17 Florida

After the dismantling the Gators took at the hands of Mississippi State on
Wednesday, Billy Donovan’s team came into this game with their confidence
shaken. With the exception of their fabulous run in 2000, Donovan’s Gators
have never been a particularly good tournament team and have been throughly
embarrassed the past two seasons in the Big Dance. In addition most Gator
fans refused to make the trip to New York City due to the cold weather and
their desire not to leave their position on their knees praying for Steve
Spurrier’s return. Thus conventional wisdom suggested that Texas was a
strong favorite and would be too much for Florida to handle. Alas, in this
case conventional wisdom was correct. Texas’s Brad Buckman overcame his
fellow boy band members on the Gators team by drowning a flurry of three
pointers in the second half and helping the Longhorns to a 78-65 victory.
Donovan responded after the game by signing four top 10 recruits and in his
grand Menudo style, summarily kicking David Lee off the team for becoming
“too old”.

#8 Wake Forest v #25 Western Michigan

When the pairings were announced, Demon Deacons fans were a bit worried
about their opponent. After all this is the school that had produced such
stars as “Thunder” Dan Majerle and Los Angeles Clippers’s sensation Chris
Kaman…oh wait, that was Central Michigan. Well at least Western Michigan
was the former home of the tiny scoring threat Earl Boykins, who electrified
the college and pro basketball world with his stunning play in the land of
giants….no that was Eastern Michigan. Well nevertheless Western
Michigan was ranked in the Top 25 and even though they were coming off a
surprising loss to Kent (motto: “we don’t need the State), they had notched
victories over Southern California and Arizona State earlier in the season.
However this time, the sanctity of the Garden and the scoring of Justin Gray
were a bit too much to overcome. Skip Prosser’s bunch harassed the
outmanned Broncos throughout the game and prevented them from becoming the
latest MAC team to shock the world. After the game Vytas Danelius got into
a shouting match with some rowdy North Carolina fans who told him that the
Deacons were overrated and would go down in the next round. Danelius simply
took off his uniform, and showed the fans his “I Don’t give a S*** About
North Carolina” T-shirt. They quickly scurried away and turned their
attention to Eddie Sutton’s hairdo.

#9 North Carolina v #24 Oklahoma State

As seemed to be par for the course for this side of the bracket, North
Carolina was coming off an embarrassing loss to Florida State in which they
blew a 24 point lead at the end of the game. They were up against an
Oklahoma State team that is consistently underrated and had only suffered
two defeats all season, both of them on the road, against BYU and Texas
Tech. Eddie Sutton’s teams always have a way of slipping in under the radar
screen and surprising their opponents with a suffocating zone defense and a
methodical style of play that keeps them close in every game. Unfortunately
for the Tar Heels, this is the exact type of play that frustrates them.
Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton began launching ill-advised shots and Sean
May got in late foul trouble, allowing the Cowboys to pull off the 68-63
victory. Most in the crowd were shocked, including New York City legend
Kenny Smith, who came to see his alma mater and to remind people that he has
two rings to Charles Barkley’s none. After reminding everyone around him of
that fact for the fifteenth time, he was punched in the face and forced to
listen to Bette Midler music for the rest of the night. Roy Williams left
the court after the game, began to cry and said he had never had a player
like Senior Jonathan Miller in his lifetime and that this season was
“special”.

So in the East Stanford, Texas, Wake Forest and Oklahoma State move on. See
you soon for the West!

SEC Notebook

SEC Notebook

by Matt Jones

For those of you who have been asking yourselves where the new SEC
basketball column is, I come today to tell you, it is back and more
informative than ever (not that this is a great accomplishment). Due to the
holiday season and the residual effect of the football season, the notebook
took a bit of a backseat, but just like the prodigal son I have returned,
and hopefully better than ever. While I was gone a great deal has happened
in the SEC, much of which we will attempt to address in this column.

First and foremost, the non-conference season ended with a strong showing by
the conference and some recognition from the national media that the SEC
once again is for real. For years now, the SEC has been given little of the
national respect it deserves, but this year there seemed to be a
particularly dismal outlook going into the season. If you listened to the
talking heads, the SEC was only going to be one step above the MEAC this
season and only three above Conference USA (I kid because I love). Kentucky
would never be able to match their run from last year; Florida did not have
the senior leadership necessary to be a top team and the league had a level
of depth so low it was being compared to a Delta Delta Delta all night
philosophy study session. However the conference persevered, and lo and
behold, the SEC is in the mix with the ACC and Big 12 as the best leagues in
the nation. If the media was smart (and anyone who watches Fox News knows
they are not) they would shine the “overrated” spotlight on the Big 10, but
we know that will not happen, so lets move forward onto this week’s big
stories.

SEC 3, ACC 0

Yes this happened over a week ago, but it needs special mention here. On
Saturday January 3rd, there existed one of the best opportunities of the
year to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of two of America’s
best conferences. On this day, three ACC powerhouses got in their buses
made of tobacco and hauled west to take on three of the top programs in the
SEC. Yes it was a mini SEC-ACC challenge when Georgia Tech went up against
Georgia, Florida St. battled the Gators and North Carolina (come on and
raise up) took on the Kentucky Wildcats. While it must be remembered that
all of these games were on the SEC home floors, it nevertheless signaled the
possibility of some sort of comparison between the conferences not based on
the mythical RPI or Sagarin ratings, but on the hardwood itself.

So what was the result? While Dicky V and “Nattering Nabob” Billy Packer
might not have liked it, the SEC came away with three HUGE victories.
First, Georgia continued its streak of playing top teams well, and this
timed pulled away an impressive 83-80 win in double overtime over then
previously unbeaten Georgia Tech. The Ramblin Wreck – the media darlings of
the previous week – were caught off guard by the strong shooting of Jonas
Hayes and were never able to match the Bulldogs’ intensity. This was
followed by the Gators’ impressive 87-73 defeat of their cross state rivals,
the Seminoles. Leonard Hamilton is building a recruiting dynasty in
Tallahassee, but on Saturday looked like a little brother to Billy D’s group
of Burger Boys. Finally Kentucky won the battle of the two winningest teams
in Division I history 61-56, in a game that was possibly the most
unwatchable contest between national powerhouses that one can imagine.
North Carolina’s roster of immense talents seemed completely uninterested
throughout the contest and the ‘Cats won on a late off-balance shot by
Senior sensation Gerald Fitch.

Now these three victories do not necessarily suggest that the SEC is the
pre-eminent basketball conference in the nation this season. However when
couple with their 28-13 record against the top 8 RPI conferences (best in
the nation), it is prima facie evidence of a conference that should be given
significantly more credit than it now receives. In a college basketball
world where Cameron Indoor, the Dean Dome, College Park and Winston-Salem
are always mentioned as the Meccas of the sport, it may be time to change
the thought and say that if you want real top notch basketball, Rupp Arena,
Memorial Coliseum, Gainesville and Starkville are the places to go.

Vanderbilt comes down a notch

Saturday night in Rupp Arena had all the potential to be a truly historic
night. The Vanderbilt Commodores, they of a then 12-0 record, were coming
into Lexington to attempt to knock off the high flying ‘Cats for the first
time since 1974. Yes you read that correctly. Nixon was in the White House
and Laugh-In passed for legitimate entertainment the last time that Kentucky
went down in defeat to the band of intellectual cagers. In addition the
last meeting in Lexington was nearly as ugly as the thought of David Gest
naked with Vanderbilt getting beat by 62 points in a game that many thought
could end Kevin Stallings’ career in Nashville. However this was a
different Vanderbilt team. Undefeated and slowly beginning to get some of
the national respect they deserved, Vandy came in confident and ready to
prove that the SEC hierarchy could be shaken up. The stage was set.

Unfortunately the game did not live up to the hype and ended in a fairly
routine 75-63 victory by the Wildcats. Vanderbilt ultimately could not
overcome the poor early play of their All-American candidate Matt Frieje,
who the Wildcats held scoreless for the first 28 minutes the game. The
Commodores fought valiantly and closed the game up to 57-55 with just under
seven minutes remaining, but ultimately the balanced attack of Kentucky was
too much for them to overcome.

We will get to Kentucky later, but the main storyline after the game was to
what degree we can now qualify the Commodores as “for real”. Their
performance throughout most of the game Saturday was solid, but they could
not ever really get over the hump and were never able to even take a lead in
the game. While losing to Kentucky in Lexington involves no shame, one
still cannot classify Vanderbilt as a contender for the SEC throne after the
contest. The real test will come this week as they go on the road to
Tennessee and play at home to Florida. The old Vanderbilt would likely lose
both of those games. The nationally ranked version of the team needs to
step up and show the world they are ready for the main stage. Are they Clay
Aiken or Justin Guarnini? This week will let us know.

Is that a David Lee sighting?

For fans of Florida basketball, it is very difficult to ever be sure what to
make of a player on their roster. Billy Donovan is without a doubt, one of
the top recruiters in the nation and has the ability to bring in more talent
than just about anyone in the profession. However when one looks at his
roster and list of recruits, it is always puzzling. Some head to the NBA
quickly like Mike Miller and Kwame Brown, some take a longer time than
believed to develop such as Mohammad Abukar and Christian Dreijer and some
just never seem to have consistent careers such as Brett Nelson and Adrian
Moss. And then there is the case of David Lee. Coming into Gainesville
three seasons ago, Lee was rightfully touted as the “next big thing.” He
had the talent, charisma and looks of a young Wally Sczerbiak, without the
hindrance of having an unpronouncable last name. The sky was the limit.

But then things never really got off the ground. His first two seasons were
fine, but did not produce the big numbers or dazzling plays that people
expected of such a highly ranked athlete. Still yet, many thought big
things were sure to happen and some writers went as far as to vote him
preseason SEC player of the year, over those who had produced much more such
as Jamie Lloreda, Matt Freije and Gerald Fitch. Would he produce, or simply
be another Charles Nelson Reilly? (Actually Lee has nothing in common with
Charles Nelson Reilly, but today is his 73rd birthday and I think he is one
of the most interesting and odd people ever to exist. And yes, I did go to
a Halloween party as him a couple of years ago, but I am of the belief that
if you don’t like Match Game ’75, then I don’t like you).

Well last week things finally came together for Reilly. He helped the
Gators to an early 2-0 start in conference play by scoring 21 against South
Carolina and 17 versus Tennessee and being named SEC player of the Week.
Through the two games, Lee shot 68% from the field and displayed the immense
talent, combined with a team-first attitude that Florida fans have been
praying for in recent years. Donovan once again has an assemblage of
potential all stars on his team, but I believe as Lee goes this season, so
go the Gators. He has the potential to step into the Matt Bonner role and
be the solid rock in the midst of other flashy, more inconsistent teammates.
For Florida to be in the Final 4, Lee must become a bona fide superstar, a
role Gators fans have been expecting for some time.

Team Reports

Before we get into the team reports, one piece of advice. As an expert on
reality shows, I ask you to make sure and catch “The Surreal Life” and stay
away from “My Big, Fat Obnoxious Fiance”. We need quality control in this
important genre and it is only by acting collectively that we can continue
to reach the heights of “Survivor”, “American Idol” and “Average Joe”.
Moving forward….

No. 5 Kentucky (10-1) (1-0)

The drama continues in Lexington. There is no doubt that this is not one of
the most talented teams in Kentucky history, but it may ver well be the most
interesting. The ‘Cats held off a valiant challenge from Vanderbilt
Saturday to continue their winning streak and raise the number to 21
consecutive victories over SEC opponents. For the second straight week,
Kentucky got valuable minutes from little used Bernard Cote, possibly
providing the needed size and depth that could keep this Wildcat team from
the promised land.

Size and depth are only two of the problems that Kentucky fans continue to
harp on, in an attempt to understand how it is this team is so good. When
one looks at the roster, nothing sticks out. There are no McDonald’s All
Americans, no high-flying athletes, no sure-fire NBA draft picks. However
they just keep winning, even if it is hard to explain. There has likely
never been a time in the school’s illustrious history when a Kentucky team
has been this good, but with this little obvious talent. The reason for
this is two-fold. First there is the coaching genius of Tubby Smith. But a
second reason is one that many in the media forget. In a college basketball
world where many of the top talents go quickly to the NBA, a group of
hard-working individuals committed to the concept of team basketball can
succeed. This team at Kentucky embodies that theory at its highest level
and it is this mindset that makes the SEC championship still run through the
Bluegrass.

No. 11 Florida (11-2) (2-0)

There is an old adage that is held dear by those in the college basketball
aristocracy. They believe that in order to succeed in conference play, you
must win your games at home and then try to steal a few on the road. If
this is the case, then Florida did exactly what it was supposed to last
week, by narrowly defeating South Carolina 65-62 in Columbia and crushing
Tennessee 95-57 in Gainesville.

Things are starting to come together for Billy Donovan’s boys as they have
begun to regroup from their pair of embarrassing early season losses to
Maryland and Louisville and are starting to resemble the team that many
thought was a top contender nationally. The best news of all for Donovan is
that he is finally getting production from the mystery man, Christian
Drejer. Drejer came to Gainesville last year, heralded as the next Dirk
Nowitski (as are all good Europeans), but struggled to adjust to the college
game. Against South Carolina, Drejer showed his maturity with 16 points and
12 rebounds, helping the Gators squeak out their important road win. If
Drejer can join David Lee, Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson as a consistent
scoring option, the rest of the SEC may be in trouble.

No. 23 Vanderbilt (12-1) (1-1)

There was more to the Commodores week than simply losing at Kentucky on
Saturday. Vanderbilt held serve on Wednesday, beating Auburn 59-53 in
Nashville, thus beginning the conference season with an important home win.
There is absolutely no shame in losing to Kentucky in Rupp Arena, but the
week ahead serves as an important measuring stick for Vanderbilt. Kentucky
showed that Matt Freije can be stopped when a defense is keyed towards him
and other players are forced to make plays. Vanderbilt must show in the
weeks ahead that this form of defense – which they will now see game after
game – can be overcome by their supposedly dead-eye outside shooters.

Kevin Stallings has made a big deal recently about how this senior-laden
team is having success because a number of the supposed “bad eggs” in the
program have been extracted. Leaving aside the question as to what a bad
egg at Vanderbilt is – possibly someone that does not know that lead is Pb
on the periodic chart – one has to wonder what exactly Stallings is talking
about. There has never even been a hint that Vanderbilt had any problems
inside the program and with the exception of the dismissal of former player
Rick Jones, disciplinary actions are few and far between. I am intrigued by
this as discipline problems at Vanderbilt is a bit like an academic All
American at Cincinnati….you just don’t expect it. The well-mannered
version of the ‘Dores plays at Tennessee and at home against Florida this
week.

Georgia (8-5) (0-2)

The beginning of conference play was not kind to Dennis Felton as the
Bulldogs were spanked twice last week against Tennessee and South Carolina.
Georgia was never really competitive in either contest and could be accused
of not putting forth the necessary degree of effort. This team continues to
be a mystery, beating Georgia Tech one week and being blown out by Winthrop
in another. Part of the problem for Felton is that he has three solid
players (Jonas Hayes, Dhamian Wilkens and Chris Daniels) who do not
particularly compliment each other and then a bench that provides little to
no support.

Things do not get any easier for Georgia in the coming weeks as they have
road contests against Kentucky, LSU and Mississippi State in three of their
next four games. Georgia will have a bit of rest, something that is crucial
to the success of a team that Felton himself describes as “tired”. If the
season continues on the same path, expect them to pull an upset in one of
these games, and put forth an embarrassing performance in another.

South Carolina (14-2) (1-1)

Going into this week, You could have forgiven a person for being skeptical
as to the quality of then 13-1 South Carolina and their schedule of
no-names. The Gamecocks had really beaten no one of note except North
Carolina State and also had lost to a Temple team that is showing signs of
being the Penn State of college basketball (I love both Joe Paterno and John
Chaney and thus will not elaborate). However even though South Carolina
only split their games this week, they showed that it is very likely that
they will be a potential thorn in the side of many SEC teams this season.

The Gamecocks opened the week with a heartbreaking 65-62 loss to Florida in
Columbia. For many people around the nation, this game was to be a test to
evaluate Dave Odom’s squad, and even though they did not get the victory,
the test was passed. South Carolina fought tooth and nail with the Gators
until the very end. It was the kind of loss that could dismantle the
confidence of a team, but later in the week the Gamecocks showed that would
not happen. On Saturday they bounced back, going to Athens and defeating
Georgia 84-63. The Gamecocks had a fourteen point halftime and never
looked back, putting together one of the most complete performances of the
Dave Odom era. Now comes another serious set of tests as they go on the
road to play Auburn and then play insurgent Tennessee at home. If South
Carolina finished the week 3-1 in conference play – a very distinct
possibility – it may be time to put them on your NCAA radar screen.

Tennessee (9-2) (1-1)

Tennessee fans would like to forget the 95-57 shellacking they received at
the hands of Florida on Saturday. The Vols looked completely overmatched
and showed that their early season proclamations that they would be
competitive in the SEC East were a bit shortsighted. However all is not
gloomy in Knoxville as the past couple of weeks have seen the arrival of a
true star in Big Orange company.

It has been almost ten years since Allan Houston roamed the Tennessee
sidelines as one of the best shooters in SEC history. Since then many
players with immense amounts of talent have come through the Vols program,
but none have been able to take it to the next level. Scooter McFagdon may
be just the player to change that. The former Memphis transfer is currently
leading the SEC in scoring (19.0 ppg) and free throw percentage (93.0%) and
is playing himself into a potential NBA prospect. He scored 31 in the Vols’
SEC opening 89-65 win over Georgia on Wednesday and has quietly taken over
the position of team leader on this ball club. Buzz Peterson has to find a
way to get Brandon Crump going if the Vols are to be a tournament team, but
until then Scooter (which along with Rams’ defensive coordinator Lovie
Smith) has one of the best names in all of sports, a trait that will no
doubt lead to a great deal of Vol success and coverage in this notebook.

No. 20 Mississippi State (13-1)(2-1)

The Mississippi State entry in this notebook is a late one, as I stayed up
late Tuesday night to provide up to the minute information on the last
unbeaten team in the SEC. Tuesday’s game against Kentucky represented the
Bulldogs’ coming out party (as all games against the Cats seem to) and was
likely the most anticipated event in Starkville since the night Hank
Williams came to town. Mississippi State fought back from an early 18 point
deficit, only to fall by one on a last second layup by Eric Daniels. It was
a heartbreaking defeat for Rick Stansbury’s club, who now must regroup in
the weeks ahead.

It is imperative that Stansbury help his team focus on the many positives
that came out of Tuesday night’s game. It is likely the case that the
Bulldogs have not gotten this degree of national attention since they made
the Final 4 in 1996. “Big Game” Dick Vitale made his first appearance at
the Hump in many years and was truly excited and complimentary towards the
Bulldogs team. Mississippi State got tremendous production from previously
unknown, Gary Ervin and saw their team leader Timmy Bowers hit clutch shot
after clutch shot. They showed a great deal of heart in fighting back to
get into the game and were simply beaten on a fluke play that would likely
never happen in another 20 attempts. The Bulldogs have a huge game coming
up on Saturday with LSU for initial supremacy in the SEC West. How they
respond to this adversity will likely tell a great deal about this team and
its future this season.

LSU (11-1) (2-0)

With recent losses by Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, LSU now takes on the
mantle as the most mysterious team in the SEC. The Tigers got off to a
strong conference start last week by defeating Arkansas and Alabama, the
latter game a close 70-66 victory in front of the home faithful in Baton
Rouge. John Brady has to be pleased with his team’s performance of late,
especially considering that all-world Jamie Lloreda has had some difficulty
scoring in recent weeks. Lloreda has impressed all who have watched him
with his hustle and he currently is 3rd in the nation in rebounds with 11.8
per game. However the Tigers have had to rely on freshman like Brandon Bass
for a good deal of their scoring, a trend that John Brady would like to see
end quickly.

The game this week at home against Mississippi State represents a key moment
for the Tigers. If they win, they take a two game lead in the SEC West and
position themselves for a possible strong run towards the NCAA tournament.
However if they lose, it could be the same old questions about whether LSU’s
weak early season schedule has hidden the fact that they actually have a
number of holes in their lineup. I expect to see LSU win this game and
garner a bit of attention nationally. If they are to do it however, the
name Jamie Lloreda better be called multiple times.

Auburn (10-3)(1-1)

The Tigers started the conference season this week with a loss at Vanderbilt
(no shame in that) and a home win versus Ole Miss. They have two tough
encounters this week with South Carolina and on the road against Alabama.
Continuing my boycott of the team until they win a game against a team with
any credibility, I will reserve comment on the Tigers until next week, when
I believe they will finally have a quality win.

However I will use this space to make one case. ESPN is now in the process
of doing the “All ESPN” team for the years that they have been on the air,
conference by conference. I am of the belief that for the SEC, the roster
should look like this: Chris Jackson, Allan Houston, Chuck Person, Jamal
Mashburn and Kenny Walker. I would be interested to hear what any of you
think, but the only player that is beyond debate to me is Chuck Person.
Underrated and often completely overlooked, Person was a true college star.
Unless Andy Katz and Jay Bilas want to see my wrath, Chuck Person better
make the list.

Arkansas (8-5)(0-2)

It was a tough week for the Razorbacks as the perils of conference play were
made clear in two losses to LSU and Mississippi State. There is nothing for
Stan Heath and his team to hold their heads down about however, because
their losses were to two of the best teams in the conference. Yet Heath
needs a win over a top opponent to give this team some confidence and show
it that it can compete with the big boys. As the season has progressed, the
offense is no longer simply the Jonathan Modica show and others have begun
to become more involved, specifically senior Billy Pharis. Yet anytime they
have met a top opponent, the result has been a pretty resounding defeat.
This week involves games at Alabama and at home against Ole Miss. The
Razorbacks really need a win in one of these two contests, to get back on
track and get the Pig Sooey chant flying in Fayetteville.

In other important Arkansas news, my good friend Darrin will be at the game
on Saturday reporting for Sanford affiliates. It is his first true foray
into the South, so please welcome him and show him a fine atmosphere.

Alabama (8-4)(0-1)

It was a tough start to the conference season for Alabama as they blew an
early lead and lost on the road to LSU 70-66. While normally losing to LSU
on the road would not be disappointing in the least, the Tide had chance
after chance to pull the game out and simply faltered down the stretch. It
has to be difficult for Mark Gottfried to figure his team out, as they
completely dominated the class of the Big Ten (although that is not saying
much) in Wisconsin 71-56 and then were completely embarrassed on the road at
Xavier. The only real constants for Mark Gottfried have been Earnest
Shelton and Kennedy Winston, both players who have produced big numbers for
the Tide. This is a HUGE week for Alabama as they have home games against
Arkansas and Auburn, both must-win games for a team that has any intention
on making a run at the NCAA tournament. The selection committee will like
what it sees on the Alabama record with victories over Oregon and Wisconsin,
but if the Tide do not take care of business at home during the conference
season, it will be another long off-season in Tuscaloosa.

Ole Miss (8-5)(0-2)

Still waiting for someone to give me help with my weekly Ole Miss roundup.
This week saw losses to Mississippi State and Auburn with neither game being
very competitive. Things could get very ugly in the coming weeks with games
against LSU, Alabama and Kentucky on the horizon. They play at Arkansas on
Saturday in a game where the ultimate reward might be staying out of the SEC
West cellar. Either way, Ole Miss fans should celebrate the career of
Justin Reed, because next year may be even worse.

Game of the Week

LSU and Mississippi State on Saturday. This will be for first place in the
SEC West and early primacy in the “Best team outside of Kentucky and
Florida” race. Watch the Lawrence Roberts/Jamie Lloreda matchup. Whoever
wins that, wins the game.

That is all for now. Until next time America……

Mike Montgomery

Where’s the Love for Mike Montgomery?

by Matt Jones

Okay, quick, name the five best college basketball head coaches in America.

Now if you are a fan who watches the sport fairly consistently you probably came up with the list: Coach K, Roy Williams, Lute Olson, Tubby Smith and Rick Pitino. Depending on your point of view, you might have thrown in the names Bob Knight, Tom Izzo, Jim Calhoun or Gary Williams. Chances are however that you did not include a name that should be in the middle of everyone’s list: Mike Montgomery of Stanford. Montgomery has his #4 Stanford Cardinals undefeated and just this past Saturday, produced an absolute clinic in how to dismantle a top college basketball team by destroying #6 Arizona, 82-72 (the game actually was not that close). Stanford has certainly cemented their status as one of the nation’s top teams, and along with Georgia Tech, constitutes the major surprise story of this young season. But the question really is, why?

It was not so long ago that when you spoke of Pac 10 basketball, the conversation could begin and end with a couple of teams. UCLA and Arizona were the elite power brokers of the league, determining the course of a season by deciding whether their usual immense group of talented players wanted to dominate or underachieve in any particular season. The other schools existed and would have a good year now and then, but it was always clear that when ranking the programs in the conference, first and second place was locked up. As a matter of fact, if you took the time to poll the average college basketball fan (and why would you, since most of you have jobs and can rely on sites such as Hoopville to ask the tough, probing questions to our nation’s populace), you would likely find that most people would still today consider these two teams above any other. However it is time to change that calculus.

Stanford’s defeat over Arizona Saturday was their fourth consecutive win on the Wildcats’ home court. Read that last line again. Yes Stanford has gone into Arizona for the past four years, seasons where Arizona has had as much talent as any team in the country and has twice been considered possibly the best team in the nation (2001, 2003) and stolen a road victory. This year they are one of only a handful of undefeated teams left in the country and have garnered impressive wins over Kansas and Gonzaga. Even that “nattering nabob of negativism” Billy Packer has proclaimed them the most impressive team in the country. Yet, can you even name one player on their roster? Well some of you, especially if you follow recruiting (God save your soul), may have come up with Josh Childress, but he has been injured most of the season and has just recently produced any kind of impact. So what explains the success? Mike Montgomery.

In an era where a great deal of what it takes to be considered a national coaching success depends on whether you captain a traditional power or are a shameless self promoter, Mike Montgomery is neither. He burst upon the national scene in 1998 when he took a young, overlooked group of players to the final 4, giving eventual national champion Kentucky all they could handle, before ultimately being defeated in overtime. People often forget that this was the team that introduced the world to Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen and his crazy dancing skills that are now all the rage in the clubs across the land, the Collins twins who had the best combination of talent, hair and intellect since Einstein and Arthur Lee who is the best college point guard that no one ever speaks of. In a Final 4 that included Tubby Smith, Bill Guthridge and Rick Majerus, it was easy to overlook this John Denver-look alike coach leading this band of odd talents from the land of intellectual elites into the college basketball spotlight. A big reason for this was the personality of Montgomery himself. When watching him on television, his dry wit barely shines through the exterior, which reaks high school math teacher more than big-time college coach. In that respect he a little like Steve Martin who plays a Division I college football coach in “Cheaper by the Dozen” but looks significantly more like a Vegas lounge singer that Bobby Bowden (yes I saw that movie and I know it is lame, but lets move forward). Yet Montgomery defies the stereotype and continues to produce a great product on the court,.

In an era where graduation rates at some major programs (this means you Cincinnati!) are lower than the IQ of Britney Spears’ new husband, Montgomery continues to win at a place where academic standards still matter. It has become almost cliche to watch a Duke game and hear the announcers shout “whoa baby, these kids can play and they are great students….its awesome with a capital A-!”. Yet long ago (about the time of the back injury) Coach K realized that to compete in the new college game, the heightened academic standards which had been a part of the Duke basketball program in the 1980s would have to be loosened. Thus while the accolades granted to the Blue Devils in this respect may be unwarranted, Stanford does still live up to this mission. Montgomery continually recruits a top 25 team while dealing with admission standards that none of the other top programs face. To be able to do this at a time when the term “student-athlete” almost inevitably leads to a horse laugh from anyone that hears it, is a testament to Montgomery’s ability and integrity.

It may very well be the case that Stanford will never win a national championship or even be considered one of the nation’s elite programs. However it would be a shame if because of that Mike Montgomery is not given his proper due as one of the true elite coaches in the business. There is no doubt that he has made mistakes, such as his thinly veiled accusation this summer that Billy Donovan’s recruiting tactics may be against NCAA regulations, but he still performs at a high level at a school where he faces obstacles not present in many other top institutions. Montgomery has produced a top 5 team this season that anyone watching the game on Saturday knows has as good a chance as any to cut the nets down in March and thus give the program its proper due. In the mean time however, we should give the coach his due and recognize that the supposed top tier of coaching legends in the country need to scoot over and make room for another giant.