NCAA Basketball Tournament

Winners and Losers

Ray Holloman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:45:00 EST

Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

It is as the sports Almighty intended it. For every winner, there is a loser (take that and your nil-nil ties, soccer!). For every Tiger Woods, there is a Detroit Lion. For every Isiah Thomas as a player, there is an Isiah Thomas as a general manager, league owner, boss and suspected poor Parcheezi player. And for every North Carolina with its win for the program's ring, there is a Wake Forest, which now hasn't made the Final Four since Carolina coach Roy Williams entered puberty. Check out FanHouse's breakdown of the winners and losers of the NCAA tournament, other than those five-time national champion Heels.

The Winners | The Losers

Ty Lawson -- The last time a digit got this kind of press, it was detached in a cup of chili at Wendy's. That Lawson managed to beat back the press clippings of Tyler Hansbrough, a fella whose fawning press coverage President Obama and Tim Tebow probably have a Facebook page set up to decry, is impressive. That he managed to out-do his own toe was a show in one-upmanship. Lawson deserved every glowing word, handing out 34 assists against just seven turnovers, numbers that would make John Stockton be glad he hung up the short shorts. And besides, we're told one of those seven was the toe's fault.

Tyler Hansbrough -- Hansbrough now has every trophy handed out this side of the VIBE Awards. Knock him for his goofier-than-an '80s sitcom antics, but the senior laid down a royal flush for his career at North Carolina.

Missouri -- Coach Mike Anderson knows everything there is to know about heat, from the blast-furnace defense his team runs to the warm seat he found himself on to start the year. Needless to say, after Missouri's upset of Memphis and fantastic showing in the Elite Eight, Anderson doesn't have to worry about packing his bags against his choosing anytime soon. Anderson may have a problem replicating this success, as his 10-man deep, 40-minute long car crusher of a defense was a matter of calculus more than simple arithmetic, but in a tournament with no Cinderella, Missouri was the darling.

Cleveland State -- For one night, at least, Cinderella wore a Viking helmet. There was so much positive to say about the Vikings' win over fourth-seed Wake Forest that if you started listing everything that went right that night at tip-off, the Deacons' season would've been finished long before you were. Gary Waters earned a helping of redemption after unceremoniously resigning from Rutgers in 2006, capping a three-year turnaround in Cleveland. And the school itself returned to March Madness in the same Cinderella manner it's known for, following its 1986 upset of Indiana with a fitting encore and neatly bridging its legacy over an embarrassing scandalized past.

Durrell Summers' Dunk -- Your highlight of the tournament. Not only did the Michigan State guard slam over Stanley Robinson, he carried the Connecticut forward's palm into the rim, kind of in the way a bug meets the grill of a Mack truck. " I kind of like my chances with a guy back-pedalling and me going straight up," Summers said the next day. "He got a little piece of the ball. I just kind of instinctively tried to overpower it a little bit." Yeah, instinctive. Only if he was a lion and Robinson was a raw side of beef.

NCAA Tournament Action

GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 21: Wayne Ellington #22 of the North Carolina Tar Heels drives against Garrett Temple #14 of the Louisiana State University Tigers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 21, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Wayne Ellington;Garrett Temple

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: A Washington Huskies cheerleader performs during a break in the action against the Purdue Boilermakers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Manny Harris #3 of the Michigan Wolverines jumps to the basket for a lay up against Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Manny Harris

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Zack Novan #0 and Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for the loose ball with Blake Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Gibson;Zack Novak;Blake Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Willie Warren #13 of the Oklahoma Sooners makes contact as he goes to the basket with Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first hafl during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Willie Warren

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners goes up for the short jump shot against DeShawn Sims #34 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Taylor Griffin;DeShawn Sims

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: JaJuan Johnson #25 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a shot over Jon Brockman #40 of the Washington Huskies in the second half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** JaJuan Johnson;Jon Brockman

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners and Zack Novak #0 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for position to the loose ball in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Novak;Taylor Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Head Coach Jeff Capel of the Michigan Wolverines yells from the sideline during their game against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jeff Capel

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: Lewis Jackson #23 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup as Quincy Pondexter #20 of the Washington Huskies looks on during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Lewis Jackson;Quincy Pondexter

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Arizona -- The Wildcats were winners simply by making the field, their 25th consecutive NCAA tournament, and they now trail North Carolina by just two for the record all-time run. Making a Sweet 16 run, before losing in biblical proportion to Louisville, may have just re-affirmed that the talent was there all along, but in a season of turmoil, the Wildcats still outlasted all of the Pac-10.

Trent Johnson -- The LSU coach's success may be slightly inflated - he inherited a senior-laden team and a healthy Tasmin Mitchell, who missed all but three games of John Brady's final season on the bench - but he's already proved himself to be an infinitely more skilled bench boss than his predecessor. Credit him too, for giving North Carolina its toughest contest. The Tigers were tied with the Heels with eight minutes to play before Lawson switched to a gear no one in college can defend. But putting a scare into the behemoth of this year's tournament is a little like making Clark Kent think twice before hitting the phone booth.

Villanova -- It had been 24 years since the Wildcats last set foot in the Final Four and toppled brawny, undershirt-wearing Georgetown in an upset for the ages. Now Jay Wright has his own shining moment and a program that may be on the way to a continuous apex even Rollie Massimino didn't reach. More impressive was the blue-chip pelts Villanova collected on the way, routing UCLA by 20, Duke by 23 and withstanding Pitt in the best NCAA tournament game in years.

Scottie Reynolds - So long as there are montages, the Dash for Detroit will always have a place among them. If Summers had the highlight of this tournament, Reynolds had the play, a near halfcourt drive through more defenders than it seemed legal for Pitt to play and that ended with the juniro draining the game-winning shot ato send Villanova to the Final Four for the first time since 1985. There was a half second remaining when the ball went through the hoop, the first half second of the sports eternity that shot will be remembered.

Big East - Everything said about this conference turned out to be as real and brutal as a DeJuan Blair elbow. A record five teams made the Sweet 16 and half of the Elite Eight hailed from the league. A Big East team didn't cut down the nets (in fact, only Villanova cut down any nets as Connecticut bypassed the tradition after winning the West), but there should be no doubt which conference was the nation's best, particularly in its top tier.

Honorable Mention: Chief Kickingstallionsims. The Alabama State center had an awful play-in game, scoring zero points as his counterpart, Morehead State's Kenneth Faried, scored 14 points to go with 21 rebounds, but he'll always have a spot in the NCAA tournament all-name bracket alongside Fennis Dembo, Harold Arceneaux and others. And this time, he won't be in the play-in game.

Also, North Dakota State's Ben Woodside, who scored 37 points in the Bison's loss to Kansas.

Click Here to Continue to the Losers

Winners and Losers originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michigan State's High-Speed Crash

Ray Holloman — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:07:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, Midwest Region

In a sea of green, Michigan State flat out drowned.

At least, that's what it looked like as a crowd one and one-and-half times the population of Chapel Hill watched the Spartans flounder and wheeze from a pace that would've left Usain Bolt doubled over to catch his breath.

There would be no great moral victory, no thumb-your-nose at the economy win that already been scripted by some Disney scribe. And that much is fine. A Spartans victory wouldn't changed Detroit's real problems any more than a cup of coffee would make the ocean boil.

And maybe it did give Detroit something to smile about. After all, for the first time in months, somebody in that city had a worse night than the Big Three.

That was Tom Izzo and a gameplan that made such little sense you'd be forgiven for assuming it was written on Matt Millen letterhead.

About the only thing that went right for the coach Monday night was the one thing he must've secretly hoped didn't, his glum pre-game assessment of his team's chances.

."If we had everybody perfect, the way they played that night," Izzo said earlier of his team's 35-point loss to North Carolina in December, "instead of winning by 35, they could have beat us by 20."

As it turned out following the Heels' 89-72 drubbing for the national title, they probably would've won by 17. And that may have only been because you got the feeling even the Tar Heels were wondering what was on the other channels.

"It was a blur," Travis Walton said. "It was a blur in the first five minutes when they jumped out on us so fast. ... The second part is North Carolina is an excellent team."

Even in this awful economy, the Heels racked up points faster than the national debt could grow. 22-7. 34-11. 59-36. Before it ever even got comfortable, the crowd was already doing the sort of complex math usually reserved for your taxes just to figure out the deficit..

And yet all the time, Michigan State trying to prove it could run with the Tar Heels.

Passes zinged to nobody in particular (uncannily familiar in Ford Field). What turnovers the Spartans could generate turned into foolish 1-on-3s. Got a 3-on-1? Lob it out of bounds. Twenty-one turnovers and what seemed like more contested shots in the first 10 seconds of a possession than folks on hand watching and the Spartans were just another notch on Carolina's championship belt.

"A lot of them," Travis Walton said aptly. "Were kind of foolish turnovers."

Foolish seemed like an all-too fitting word.

Championship Routs

By the time they were midway through the first half, the Tar Heels were playing only against history. Their 17-point blowout of Michigan State is tied for the ninth largest margin of victory in championship game history. Click through the gallery to read about the other nine one-sided romps.

Paul Sancya, AP

1992: Duke 71, Michigan 51 The Fab Five's first trip to the Final Four was a bit of a Cinderella story, but it ended in a rout as the Blue Devils become the first team to win back-to-back titles since John Wooden's UCLA dynasty

Jim Mone, AP

1990: UNLV 103, Duke 73 But the Blue Devils knew intimately what it was like to wind up on the wrong side of a laugher. Two years earlier, a UNLV team led by Anderson Hunt, Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon routed Duke by 30, far and away the biggest romp in finals history.

Eric Risberg, AP

1976: Indiana 86, Michigan 68: The last undefeated national champion in college basketball history did it with an exclamation point at the end. Even more impressive, the Hoosiers actually trailed by six at the half. This would be the second title game rout for Indiana, which drubbed Kansas 60-42 in 1940.

1973: UCLA 87, Memphis 66 How could it not have been a runaway victory when UCLA star Bill Walton was this good? The center score a still championship game record 44 points as the Bruins won the last of seven straight titles and the ninth of John Wooden's career, humbling relative upstart Memphis State.

1969: UCLA 92, Purdue 72 Not only could no one stop the UCLA dynasty with Lew Alcindor in the center, no one could even come close. The Bruins won three title games with Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, by an average of 19 points. Alcindor score 37 in his farewell in 1969.

1968: UCL8 78, North Carolina 55 This time, the Tar Heels finished on the wrong side of a historic drubbing. Dominated by Alcindor, who scored 34 points in his junior season, Dean Smith's second Final Four team trailed by 10 points at the half and gave up 46 in the second stanza.

1960: Ohio State 75, Cal 55: The Jerry Lucas-led Buckeyes jumped out to an 18-point halftime lead in this halftime drubbing. The best seat in the house belonged to a future coach. Reserve Bob Knight missed his only field goal attempt for the Buckeyes and picked up a single foul.

1952: Kansas 80, St. John's 63: Led by Clyde Lovellette, one of the great big men in NCAA history, the Kansas Jayhawks won their first national time in dominant fashion. The 6-foot-10 tower Lovellette scored a then-record 141 points in the tournament. But despite the rout, Jayhawk reserve Dean Smith didn't register a single field goal attempt.

Yeah, Michigan State ran with the Heels, as the Spartans wanted, but only in the way a bug drives with a car's windshield. The Heels glided on ice. The Spartans forgot their skates.

Why Michigan State thought it could run with a team with the nation's eighth fastest tempo is anyone's guess, other than a belief that it was Big Ten defenses alone that had turned a world class sprinting game into the 131st tempo in the nation. Even if you believed the Spartans were a greased fast break waiting to happen, it should've been painfully obvious they couldn't keep up with the Heels. Barry Sanders was fast. But even he wouldn't challenge Michael Johnson.

To a man, the Heels were better and faster than the Spartans and it was as plain as the nose on Sparty's face before they ever tipped off.

By halftime, Ty Lawson had matched the NCAA championship game record for steals with seven. The Heels, who had the nation's most efficient offense this season, had smashed the record for points in a half, which does seem like the logical conclusion of multiplying the the nation's best point per possession average by enough possessions to make a team of Stephon Marburys happy.

"We looked a little bit either shell-shocked or a little bit worn down," Izzo said. "You can't do that against a good team."

And yet they did it against a great team. Again. And again. And again.

Maybe it was the adrenaline of the moment or maybe it was the whole storyline of being Captain Detroit, but the Spartans played right into North Carolina's hands for no particularly good reason. At least other than fostering a beating so severe the telecast should've had one of those TV-14 ratings.

Of course, it probably wouldn't have mattered. Not against this team. Not on this night. Not with the talent disparity.

Michigan State had to hope to play perfectly while perfection was just another play in North Carolina's playbook.

But losing the way the Spartans did, trailing North Carolina down the court, trying to play a fast tempo when the only way the odds played in their hands was to shrink the sample size, they looked more like a stereotype of a Big Ten team and less the Big East killer.

They looked bumbling by comparison. Strong but slow, like a pickup truck trying to win at Daytona.

They just seemed lost and uncomfortable.

"I did feel a little deer in the headlights look," Izzo said.

Which was funny. It certainly looked more like a fish out of water, gasping to breathe.

Michigan State's High-Speed Crash originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:07:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spartans Lose Handle on Everything

Chas Rich — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:42:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

There's no real secret as to what did in Michigan State in the NCAA championship game. Yes, there was the superior talent on North Carolina. The Tar Heels shot really effectively in the first half. North Carolina could actually make free throws. The issue for Michigan State, though, was their inability to hold onto the ball.

The Spartans turned the ball over 21 times in the game. The poor ball-handling made it easier for North Carolina to go on runs big runs and stopped Michigan State attempts to come back cold.

North Carolina's Ty Lawson, was a big reason for the Michigan State turnovers with eight steals, but Michigan State had plenty of self-inflicted damage. They found themselves unable to control the pace for the first time in the Tournament and threw the ball away numerous times trying to outrun North Carolina in transition.

In their two previous games against UConn and Louisville the Spartans turned the ball over a total of 23 times. They nearly equaled that facing North Carolina. In the first half, the turnovers absolutely killed any chance of Michigan State's chances to stay close with North Carolina. The turnovers continued in the second half, preventing Michigan State from ever closing the gap with the Tar Heels. Even as the Spartans tried to come back, they could not consistently hold onto the ball.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Spartans Lose Handle on Everything originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:42:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tar Heels Dominate in Detroit

Dan Graziano — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:50:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

This certainly wasn't the same Michigan State team we watched the past two weekends. But it was the same North Carolina team we all thought, back in November, was the best team in the country by a mile.

If ever a national championship game felt like a coronation, it was 2009.

There were reasons, over the past three months, to doubt these Tar Heels. There was Ty Lawson's bum toe. There was that weird and inexplicable loss to Boston College. There were memories of the way they went out, too soon, in the tournament the past two years. The 2007 collapse against Georgetown. The 2008 pasting by Kansas.

But really, this was something we should have seen coming.

This North Carolina team has been building to this all along. It's the same basic core of guys that gave up the game against the Hoyas two years ago in the regional final, and got run out of the building by the eventual champs in last year's Final Four. But what's different now is that all those ways North Carolina used to lose to seemingly inferior teams...they no longer show up.

Gone are the days when the Tar Heels didn't seem to care on defense, when there was no team they wouldn't let hang around. When they'd get out 20-8 on, say, Georgia Tech and then all of a sudden be down 31-30. These Tar Heels played defense as if they were crime scene tape, and they didn't lapse. A Spartans team that tried, foolishly, to run up and down the floor with the more athletic Heels couldn't find a decent shot in the whole first half.

Gone are the days when the Heels would be out-toughed on the boards. If there was a team that should have been able to do that tonight, it was this Michigan State team, which rebounded all tournament as if it were starving and the ball was made of ground beef. But UNC closed off that potential option, first by not missing any shots and later by boxing out and using its superior size and strength to win the board battles when they still mattered.

Gone are the days when the Heels would go six minutes without scoring. Now, when that starts to happen, Lawson makes a play. Or Wayne Ellington or Danny Green makes a shot. Or Ed Davis, who looks like the foundation of a title defense no matter who leaves for the draft, shows off some game and makes you wonder if there are any weak spots.

Gone are the days when Roy Williams seemed overwhelmed by the talent he had at his fingertips -- almost as if he were afraid to coach these incredible athletes for fear of messing something up. Williams now watches with the calm eye of a man who knows it's going to turn out right, because the holes of the past couple of years have been closed. He's always known, since he got to UNC, that his teams would be unbeatable if they played their best for 40 minutes. What he didn't know in 2007 or 2008 or even back in January of 2009 was whether they would.

NCAA Tournament Action

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The past three weeks, they did it every game. They never let up. They played like a team that knew it was better than any it was going to face -- a team that had already answered every question to itself and now was going through the formality of answering those questions in public.

They played like national champions. And it's hard to remember the last time anybody claimed that title quite so convincingly.

There used to be doubts about North Carolina. But not anymore.

Tar Heels Dominate in Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Championship Chat

Chas Rich — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:43:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

This is it. The last game of the 2008-09 basketball season. Whether you're rooting for Michigan State or North Carolina join is for a live chat at 9 PM ET and stick with us through the night. We'll be talking about the game, how the teams got here, the Arizona and Memphis quests to find someone to take their job, and anything else that comes to mind.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=cdaf773ac0" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;NCAA Title Game 09&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

NCAA Championship Chat originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:43:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Repeat Performance on Tap?

Ray Holloman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:18:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

In life, you may never get a second chance to make a first impression.

But if you bomb it as badly as Michigan State did in its 98-63 loss to North Carolina in December that was godawful embarrassing even by the standards of a stadium that hosts the Lions, you'll get months, if not a lifetime, to explain exactly what went wrong.

And if you're the Spartans, you get a second chance to make it right.

At least after you explain. And explain. And explain.

"We're a lot different," said Raymar Morgan, noting that Goran Suton didn't play and Delvon Roe wasn't healthy. "We just had a lot of ups and downs."

"We were a little beat up," offered coach Tom Izzo, in his most optimistic post mortem of the game. "That's the truth. We came off that three games in four days. Even Roy [Williams] said to me after the game, we're hanging in there with five, six minutes to go."

"It was hard watching these guys play and not being there that time," Suton said. "But we have got a chance. I think it's going to be a totally different game."

But Suton might be as much of a minority as those who only buy American cars. North Carolina is the favorite tonight, should be the favorite tonight and has probably already choreographed a little "One Shining Moment" dance.

Somewhere between truth and good coaching, Izzo has blown enough smoke over the Tar Heels to set off fire alarms all across the Midwest.

When asked how he could beat North Carolina, he joked about getting Magic Johnson's final two years of eligibility restored.

When asked how the result would've been different if everyone was healthy, he said blankly that they might've lost by 20 had they played as they did with a full roster, instead of losing by 35.

And when asked about the Tar Heels and their former national player of the year, their reigning ACC player of the year and their other pair of scorers capable of posting a back-snapping stat line, Izzo was blunt..

"I keep saying one-on-one, we're not as good as North Carolina," he said. "I don't feel bad about saying that. I don't feel like I'm demeaning my team. I'm realistic. I'm semi-intelligent. I've watched enough film.

"If we play good and they play good, we're losing."

And Izzo is probably right. Monday night's championship game could be different than the ACC-Big Ten Challenge debacle, but probably only in margin and date. It's just as likely Michigan State ends up in a world of hurt even the Big 3's accountants would wince at.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Yes, Suton is back. But will it matter in any way other than an extra name in the stat sheet? North Carolina has 28 feet of interior presence to rotate on Suton. The Heels locked down Gonzaga's Josh Heytvelt in the Sweet 16, and when Oklahoma's Blake Griffin turned the Heels interior defense into a pile of light blue kindling wood, North Carolina still won. By 12.

Is Suton going to do better than Griffin? Is he going to do a better job of drawing North Carolina's big men out of the paint than Duke's Kyle Singler did when the Tar Heels twice bounced the Blue Devils?

Can he defend Ty Lawson, the point guard whose sneakers seem to run on the same stuff they put in fighter planes?

And then there's home court advantage, the fight for Detroit.

"It's a storm in the city," said Kalin Lucas, making his point meteorologically. "So we're trying to bring sunlight in."

But is home-court advantage going to matter to a team that's gone into Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, kicked its feet up, enjoyed a hot dog and beat the Blue Devils four straight times for dessert? Will 72,000-ish fans add anything more than the 9,314 at Cameron except longer lines in the rest room? The 25,000 or so that showed up for the first event definitely didn't help.

"You know if we're playing against the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan, they out number us," Williams said. "We don't have as good a chance at that one. ...So for us, we're playing Michigan State. I do realize they have a cause. Well, we also have a cause. We want to win a national championship, period."

Will Roe's health matter? The freshman played the first game not long after coming off a nine-month layover following a knee injury suffered in December, 2007. Roe, heavily recruited by these same Heels, is a superb offensive rebounder, but Villanova gouged North Carolina on the offensive boards in the Final Four and still lost by 14. Rebounding alone won't change the outcome.

And there's the idea that Michigan State has improved much more than North Carolina since their meeting, which may be true. But the Heels had the kind of head start that would let Barkley beat Bolt in a 100-meter dash.

And these Heels have improved. Don't think so? Check out the way their defensive efficiency has improved this season, like a steady climb inverse your stock portfolio. They're 16th in the nation now, plenty respectable for a national champion. And that perimeter defense which was cut to ribbons by Tyrese Rice, Jeff Teague, Toney Douglas and Greivis Vasquez at points this season is now sea-worthy tight. Look at those horrific shooting percentages by Villanova and Oklahoma's guards. Look at that fat zero in Matt Bouldin's assist column in the win over Gonzaga.

Of course, in a one-and-done environment, anything is possible and like everyone outside of the Tar Heel state, we'll be hoping the Spartans' moment shines another night.

But Michigan State has to play just about perfectly. And perfect is North Carolina's game plan.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. But you always get plenty of chances to re-affirm it.

Repeat Performance on Tap? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:18:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michigan State Carrying Big Ten Torch

Matt Snyder — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, Midwest Region

Here on FanHouse, I've discussed the maligned Big Ten ad nauseum. For some reason, people just love to hate the power conference of the midwest. Droves of fans and media alike cried foul when the conference received seven total bids to the NCAA tournament -- conveniently ignoring the fact that three of the teams were given double-digit seeds.

After two rounds, I believe the conference was vindicated to an extent. Michigan and Wisconsin advanced, and Purdue went to the Sweet 16. Still, a deep run was probably needed by someone to quiet the critics. Enter Michigan State, participants in Monday night's national championship game.

I don't know how we got here, where fans of conferences are constantly comparing each and always proclaiming theirs superior. Fans of the Big East will likely point to the overall record of the conference in this year's tournament, without factoring in the seeds they received. In fact, considering only Villanova outplayed their seed and there are no teams in the finals, I'd argue they fell drastically short of expectations as a group. Putting two teams in the Final Four from the same conference isn't exactly rare. Parlaying three No. 1 seeds and two 3-seeds into zero participants in the championship doesn't impress me in the least.

You could do something similar to discount the job every conference has done in this tournament. For the Big Ten, though, the only negative you could mention is that Illinois was toppled by Western Kentucky. Nothing else made the league look bad. The Spartans of East Lansing, however, are making the Big Ten look strong.

One of the knocks people like to say about the Big Ten is they lack athleticism. Watch Michigan State play. They damn near ran UConn -- of the vaunted Big East -- off the court. Durrell Summers' rim-shaking jam in Stanley Robinson's face was one of the defining moments of the tournament.

Another knock is they can't score. Advocates of the league, such as myself, will say they play superior defense. People like Digger Phelps like to discount that by saying, "oh, don't give me defense. They just can't score." Yet, there they were Saturday night, scoring 82 points on Connecticut team who only allowed an average of 64.2 per game and leads the nation in blocks per game by a staggering margin of 2.5.

NCAA Tournament Action

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And to touch upon that "don't give me defense" thing, why not look at the Louisville game for evidence that defense does matter. The Cardinals were one of the top offensive teams in the nation this year, averaging 77 points a game. The Spartans stifled them to the tune of 52 points. The Michigan State defense knocked a third of the Cardinals' offense off the court.

Critics could say the league was a one-team conference, and that Michigan State's run doesn't say much about the Big Ten as a whole. Well, they lost at home to Northwestern and Penn State. They lost to Purdue by 18. Ohio State took them down in the Big Ten Tourney very convincingly. Many other teams played the Spartans close. Purdue, Michigan and Wisconsin outplayed their seeds, while Penn State won the NIT.

Teams play for themselves, not their conferences. I get that. To ignore the impact Michigan State should have in regard to the national recognition given to the Big Ten with this tournament run, though, would be short-sighted. It's a strong league, and the Spartans are illustrating just how battle-tested they are as a result of their competition. Will the payoff be a national championship? That's to be settled Monday night.

Michigan State Carrying Big Ten Torch originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No Time for Good, Evil in Detroit

Ray Holloman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, Midwest Region

This is only a game.

At least, in the sense that anything with the population of Youngstown, Ohio sitting courtside can be just a game. In the sense that something with a television deal that could bail out the auto industry, the banks and the WNBA in one fell swoop can be just a game.

It's no great moral play in three acts with hugs at the end. North Carolina won't hit the warmup lines in capes and monocle, laugh maniacally and lash poor Lupe Izzo to a railroad track. And that block S in Michigan State's logo stands for nothing more than State, not Supermen.

No matter who wins Monday night, GM will still have as much red strewn across its balance sheet as Ford Field had green it its stands. There is no hardwood superhero on the way.

Superheros are for screenplays. Basketball games have players.

This isn't a battle of good and evil, it's a battle of great meets great.

It's the grab-you-by-the-shirt-collar toughness of Michigan State and the dish-and-dash ballet of a North Carolina team that's marched through the NCAA tournament like Napolean through a Risk game. It's two squads built from the ground up with players that stuck around for a few years instead of treating the college game like a side of broccoli forced on them on the way to dessert. In an era of one-and-dones, these folks might as well be playing shuffleboard during timeouts.

It's basketball in the many ways Dr. Naismith would've wanted it played.

It's a great game. Even without the plucky hero dressing.

No matter how many times you click your specially designed Final Four Jordans together and hope it to be true, it won't save Detroit.

The city's problems are nothing new or nothing that one night will solve. Long tenured Heel Tyler Hansbrough seemingly played AAU ball with Henry Ford, and even he'd have trouble remembering where it all started to turn. But here's a hint, when the city's population began to dwindle, the Lions were still NFL champions.

Michigan State will not help sell cars or stride heroically after lost 401ks. Heck, the biggest contribution to the economy may be the money Ty Lawson drops at the craps table.

And if sports is the answer, why haven't the Pistons or the Red Wings, teams based in Detroit, convinced people to buy Hummers by the six pack? The Red Wings won hockey's top trinket last year and are the best team in the puck-loving world yet again. The Tigers were in the World Series three years ago, and Michigan football ... well, there is at least one valid reason to want to run head first into the Joe Louis fist sculpture.

But for all the problems Detroit has, finding a sports team to cheer for isn't one of them.

Considering tickets for Final Four start at the cost of a monthly car payment and come with bincoculars and a Sherpa at that price, it's hard to imagine too many of those who could afford their way into Ford Field are feeling all that much of a pinch.

But if sports is the answer forget the bailout bill and force LeBron to sign here. Problem solved.

So let's leave the truth, justice and defender of the Chevrolet way somewhere in the fiction section.

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These Spartans aren't some George Mason Cinderella whose whole playbook is pluck. They're good. They're four-star players with a five-star attitude who rebound like you personally insulted each of their mothers when the ball went up. They're not Stephen Curry cuddly. They're every bit the Goliath North Carolina is without the marketing budget.

And forget the economics because you need storylines. There are heroes and good guys and folks you'd want to buy a beer taking the court in green and blue. They won't solve the economic crisis, or save a city built around a struggling industry, but that might remind you that it's not just silver screen characters that can do special things.

And it'll remind you that there are good guys everywhere, even if they don't wear your teams colors.

So instead of a storyline borrowed from a Disney writer's MacBook, talk about Goran Suton, the Bosnian born center who lived in fear of missing shots on the basketball court when he grew up. Not because he had a domineering father, but because there were landmines. In his backyard. Three of them live.

Or Idong Ibok, who is a student athlete in every sense of both words, who studied so hard in his native Nigeria that when he arrived in the United States in 2003, he thought American schools were just too darn easy.

Try Durrell Summers, raised by a single mother who still works overnight shifts at the post office and passes up sleep to see her baby play in the Final Four.

Talk about North Carolina's Hansbrough, who's just one card away from laying down a royal flush on his collegiate career. He's won every trophy handed out this side of the Vibe Awards and has a chance to join the inner-most level of legacy at one of college basketball's most storied programs.

And if not him, then teammate Danny Green, whose mother walked out on his family, leaving he and his father to raise his two younger brothers. Green made it all the way to the basketball promised land of North Carolina, but his father couldn't follow. Danny Sr. spent the better part of two years behind bars fighting a drug charge. He missed the Final Four last year, but after a plea agreement, is in Detroit.

Or Ty Lawson, whose slick moves make you think he's wearing ice skates underneath his sneakers, but who nearly left North Carolina in relative obscurity last year, a loser in the Final Four and a likely late first-round draft selection. His farewell to Franklin Street was almost an embarrassing underage drinking and driving ticket.

There are stories in each, real ones that can actually have a happy ending, not just a happy moment until we move on to something else.

No matter who wins Monday night, Tuesday morning will still be tough for Detroit, for Michigan, and for the nation. Monday's winner won't take the city's soul, it'll just get a championship. Don't buy good and evil.

Because no matter who cuts down the nets, be it Michigan State or North Carolina, the good guys will have won.

Make that, the great guys.

No Time for Good, Evil in Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For UConn, Death by Guard Play

Chas Rich — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:09:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region

Specifically, the Huskies' own guards killed them against Michigan State. In one of those nights where the stats do not lie, A.J. Price, Kemba Walker and Craig Austrie were every bit as miserable as their numbers suggested. They took 29 of the Huskies 59 shot attempts, but only scored 26 of UConn's 73 points.

Sadly that includes points from free throws.

Credit Michigan State's defense.

The Spartans were aggressive and would not give A.J. Price and the guards clear lanes to the basket. The Spartans knew that UConn does not take many 3-pointers, so they packed it in to force long jumpers or well-contested shots. The Spartans did everything they could to keep it from getting inside to Hasheem Thabeet or Jeff Adrien. Wisely gambling on being able to contain UConn's guards.

That said, a lot has to fall on the UConn guards. They shot miserably the entire game. Whether it was from the field, or at the free throw line. Fans will look at the box score and just wonder what if.

Price shot a dismal 5-of-20, and only had one assist. The more shots he missed, the more frustrated he became.

Kemba Walker only took five shots in the game, making only one. His problem was an inability to make free throws. Walker was a 75 percent shooter from the stripe for the season. Tonight, he could only shoot 3-of-9. Whether it was the pressure of the big game on the freshman, or playing for the first time on the floating center court in a football stadium. He had no one to blame but himself for that.

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For UConn, Death by Guard Play originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Four Live Blog

Chas Rich — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:10:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

This is what we have been waiting all week for, through non-stories like Ty Lawson legally playing craps, through analysis beaten into the ground, through the cycling of the coaching carousel. Well, Michigan State and UConn tip off at 6:07 PM EST. We will start the live blog at 6 PM ET. Join us after the jump.

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Final Four Live Blog originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Detroit, Question Is Who to Cry For?

Kevin B. Blackistone — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Fans, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

DETROIT -- In an earlier journalistic life, Friday would've been a really big day for me. The reason: the government, each first Friday of the month, issued its most-important piece of economic news -- the unemployment report -- and I covered economics. The report it issued this Friday was an instant Page 1 story, which is what they called the first thing you saw on this thing I worked at forever called a newspaper. Friday's report revealed the recession we're in pushed the unemployment rate to its highest mark in a quarter century, 8.5 percent.

Ground zero of the misery, the report indicated, was Michigan -- 12 percent unemployment -- where I arrived Thursday for the Final Four. I'm staying in a hotel next door to GM headquarters, a poster company for our worst economic collapse since maybe the Great Depression.

It is enough to make me want to violate one of the rules of my current journalistic life as a sportswriter and root from press row Saturday night for the Final Four participant from Michigan, Michigan State. What a nice balm, no matter how temporary, a national title for one of Michigan's state schools would be for economically suffering Michiganders. Unless you're from any part of North Carolina except Durham, or from the Philadelphia area, or Connecticut, I began to think, you'd be hard pressed not to root for the home-state team in this weekend's Final Four.

But not only would doing so be against the rule of no cheering in the press box, it also would be insensitive. North Carolina is represented here, too, and it is like Michigan, one of seven states with a double-digit unemployment rate, just over 10 percent. How about cheering for the Tar Heels to provide some salve for its hurting home-state fans?

Upon closer review, there is so much misery around that it is impossible to pick one team to cheer for -- or cry for -- more in this Final Four. Villanova hails from the Philadelphia area where unemployment is just under 10 percent. Connecticut just suffered its largest job loss since the recession officially was called four months ago.

What played out Friday in Detroit at Ford Field when the home-state team came out for practice, and what played out afterward in Troy, Mich., where Michigan State held a pep rally, probably would've been replicated in North Carolina, Philly and Connecticut , too, if this Final Four was in those locales. Everybody could stand a little feel-good in these times.

Someone said the Michigan State crowd that turned out for the Spartans' practice at Ford Field numbered at least 30,000, the largest crowd one reporter familiar with Michigan State said he'd ever seen. Undoubtedly, some of them were there because, sadly, they hadn't anything else to do in the middle of a workday at the end of a work week.

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Spartans sophomore guard Durrell Summers from Detroit was asked whether anybody close to him had been hurt by the recession.

"Oh, yeah," Summers said simply. "My mom, my dad, my uncles. I could go on. I know a lot of people who've been touched by it.

"They got laid off and had to get smaller jobs for the time being, looking for other jobs and still trying to support families and things like that," Summers explained. "My dad used to work at General Motors. He's working at a post office. My mom used to work at Receiving Hospital as a lab assistant, and she's also at the post office."

"They're trying to see when the next thing is coming in," he continued. "Even through the bad times, they're constantly excited and cheering me on, telling me not to worry about it and keep doing what I'm doing. I've been kind of helping them through it as well, but this is big for them. They were just speechless and in tears, [with my team] making it this far.''

After their 50-minute practice and interview session, Summers and his teammates headed from Ford Field to Somerset Collection, a mall in Troy, where of upwards of 7,000 Michigan State fans in green crowded every inch of an atrium on three levels for a pep rally to spur on their Spartans. The Detroit News reported that Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon called Somerset Collection "Spartan Land" for the day and praised the Spartans as examples in rebounding that the state of Michigan could emulate as it tries to get back on track economically.

Of course, there is nothing a college basketball team can do to stem the hemorrhaging of jobs and money in this hardest-hit state or anywhere else in the country. But if sports can ever be a diversion, this is the time and this is the place.

All you had to do was hear coach Tom Izzo address the pep rally crowd in his typical late-season raspy voice, which this time cracked with undeniable emotion.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would be able to put on a show like this for all of you," Izzo told the crowd. "You made this the proudest day of my life, no matter what happens tomorrow."

Moments later a television reporter pulled Izzo aside and asked him about the afternoon.

"This is a dream come true for me," the Michigan-tough coach said before he wiped away his tears.

This can be a momentary awakening from a nightmare for so many here and elsewhere, too.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

In Detroit, Question Is Who to Cry For? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casinos and Nosebleed Seats

Jay Mariotti — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:15:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Gambling, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

DETROIT -- If Jim Nantz utters even one mushy word about the innocence of the Final Four, please muzzle him. As it is, the games will be contested inside a bubble of greed, a football dome that wraps 72,000 mostly bad seats around a basketball court positioned at midfield. As it is, the NCAA has joined marketing hands with the International Management Group, a firm that represents college coaches and pro athletes and only invites conflicts of interests. As it is, the idea of "student-athletes " playing in an amateur environment is farcical.

But all assertions of purity officially vanished the other night. That's when North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson, maybe the most important player left in the tournament, wandered into one of downtown Detroit's three casinos and won $250 playing craps for an hour. I realize Lawson did nothing illegal because he's 21. I realize he's technically not violating any NCAA rules. Yet I wonder with considerable alarm why he was in a casino when the poisonous bane of college sports always has been gambling, specifically point-shaving. The NCAA fears such scandals like nothing else, to the point of regularly issuing stern warnings to athletes, asking past point-shaving violators to speak to teams and coining a slogan -- "Don't Bet On It " -- that sums up its sweeping anti-gambling stance.

Apparently, no one told North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has been in the sport forever and really should know better. He gave his team a 1:30 a.m. curfew -- not the smartest plan, either, in a troubled city that isn't exactly Charlottesville, Va. -- and didn't warn his players about the casinos. Seems Williams doesn't have much of a handle on his team; Lawson, for one, says he gambles in casinos often and added that his UNC teammates previously joined him for a gambling adventure in Reno, Nev., where the Tar Heels didn't fare as well as they did in winning the South Regional last weekend.

"We got in last night, and Coach gave us a curfew of 1:30," Lawson revealed Thursday. "I went over to Greektown and won about $250. So I already had my time there. It's probably the last time I go there before the games start."

Probably, he said.

"The only time I lost was in Reno; that's when everybody on the team lost," Lawson continued. "It's the only place I lost. The other five or six times I did gamble, I won at least $500."

Well, congratulations on that, Ty.

As for Williams, he hopped on his elitist horse Friday, choosing to mock anyone who didn't see Lawson's wagering as harmless fun. Never mind, of course, that the Carolina program is supposed to represent all things classy. When pushed into a corner, Williams simply reinvents the mission statement.

"Didn't talk about it before we came," he said of the casinos. "We had two of our guys go to the casino, Ty Lawson and Marc Campbell. I talked to them. They're both old enough; it is legal. I find it humorous that somebody would want to ask. It's strange, if we don't want those kids doing it, don't put the Final Four in a city where the casino is 500 yards from our front door. And they've got a great buffet in there. I mean, come on.

"The other thing is, you know when we got here? Wednesday. I mean, I'm not gonna tell my guys they got to stay in the room and watch Bill Cosby reruns for four days, c'mon. Those two kids, we talked to them. One of my video coordinators went over there with them, not that he needed to. I would not have any problem with it. I just told the kids, If you think you're going to do something questionable, talk to me about it first. I have zero problems with Ty doing it. I went and gambled myself."

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Here is where Williams' explanation devolved into attempted folksy humor. "The reason I did was not the same reason that Ty did," he said. "When I came here this year to play Michigan State, we stayed at MGM (in Detroit). And I went down and shot craps, we lost, and we won the game. I go to Reno to play Nevada-Reno, and I stayed in a casino, and I went downstairs and shot craps and we lost, and my team won. So you got to be a halfway idiot if you think I'm not going to go gamble and lose money before this game. I have gambled and I have lost. I'm doing every daggum thing I can do to win the game, including give Detroit my money. "

Yuks aside, can we at least try to preserve whatever smidgen of youth and morality remains in collegiate sports? It's as if 2009 was chosen as the year to remind America that the Final Four is a hideously big business. As usual, Tom Izzo gets it, saying Friday that he warned his team about casinos. "I think I was a step ahead," the Michigan State coach said. "I think when you look at them on some NCAA committees, you look at the problems everybody is worried about with sports in general. Let's face it: This is an image tournament to a certain extent. There will never be this many media that kind of come together for one event in any other athletic event they'll participate in. So that's what I try to talk to my guys about."

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, in hot water over a recruiting scandal, didn't hesitate to comment on how he's handling his team this week. "Our curfew has been tight, number one. Number two, we told them (the casinos were) off-limits," said Calhoun, who said the NCAA has issued a gag order and isn't allowing him to comment on his own in-house issue. "I'm sure if (Lawson) had it to do over again, just like some other things in life, you do them over."

Williams is right about one thing: Hypocrisy is everywhere in Detroit, starting with the NCAA itself. When asked about the local casinos before the Lawson news broke, NCAA president Myles Brand expressed concern about the gambling issue. "Well, I warn against that slippery slope. It's a fair question," he said. "We do not permit anyone connected with intercollegiate athletics to gamble on sports, pro or college sports. What a student does, plays bingo in his church, for example, while we discourage that, we prefer not to try and regulate that particular kind of activity. But it's highly discouraged."

So tell me, Dr. Brand. Why did the NCAA place a Final Four in a city with casino gambling? Hmmm? "Detroit is a wonderful venue. It's really, truly outstanding," he babbled on. "And the city has turned out for it. We're very pleased with the reception we've received. Everyone has not only been kind, but they've been very helpful and professional. We're very pleased to be in Detroit. We think this is a privilege for us to be here, particularly at this time that Detroit is going through some difficult financial times itself. We're happy to help and we're happy to leave something behind, as well."

How convenient of Brand to shift his course when he was sitting inside Ford Field, the first in a new wave of Final Four cash-cow, maximum-attendance stadiums that will bring unprecedented profits to the NCAA. In recent years, to avoid the appearance of too much greed, Final Fours were played in domes with large curtains drawn to divide the stadium in half -- such as last year in San Antonio, where 43,000 fans watched. But from this point on, through 2016, the court will be placed at midfield in monster buildings, which robs an eye-pleasing, athletic sport of its unique intimacy. And while no one is forcing fans at gunpoint to buy tickets, the enticement of being at the Final Four led to the usual sellout -- and an inevitable groundswell of anger when 50,000 reach their seats Saturday and realize they need binoculars.

Maybe some will be so thrilled to be at the Final Four that they don't care. My guess is, in a horrible economy, more will wonder why they spent $100 a ticket to get a nosebleed and watch the games on a big-screen TV. The timing is terrible for a 72,000-seat Final Four. For basketball itself, the timing never would be good for an arena on steroids. The participants, of course, are respectful of the configuration, simply happy to be here. No one is happier about Ford Field than Izzo, who knows the majority of seats will be filled with Spartans fans driving short distances.

"You could argue there are not as many great seats," Izzo said, "but I think a lot more better seats, good seats."

Leave it to a coach who isn't here to be more honest. "I don't think it's a good basketball venue, " Kansas coach Bill Self told the Associated Press, not recalling Ford Field fondly even though it was part of his road to a national championship last year. "It's no comparison to San Antonio in terms of the crowd being involved. Ford Field is nice; it's just not a good basketball venue "

The NCAA's response? If you don't like it, deal with it. "If you're coaching, playing or watching a game here for the first time, the vastness might seem awkward because it's not something anybody is used to, " said Bill Ryan, boss of the local organizing committee. "As time goes on and this becomes the norm, I think people will like it."

And to think the NCAA Tournament started 70 years ago in a little dive on Sheridan Road in Evanston, Ill. Patten Gymnasium, it's called, and 5,500 people watched Oregon beat Ohio State for the national championship. It illustrates how out of control the NCAA has become. In addition to allowing IMG in its domain, the powers-that-be are allowing casino advertising, too. Brand has a problem with casinos ... and not casino advertising? Money, money, money turns intelligent men into flip-floppers. "The dunk contest last night, three-point shot contest. Who is it sponsored by?" Williams asked. "A casino. What a great country we live in. "

But just because the NCAA has sold out doesn't mean North Carolina can loosen its morality code. Simply, a 21-year-old point guard playing for a national title should not be gambling in a casino in a Final Four city.

A good bet: Jim Nantz won't be talking about this on the telecast.

Casinos and Nosebleed Seats originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michigan State Fans Being Forced to Buy Lodging With Final Four Tickets

Matt Snyder — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:50:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, Tourney Fans, Midwest Region

When the Michigan State Spartans clinched a Final Four berth -- the fifth in the already-storied career of Tom Izzo -- it was a source of joy in the state most drearily affected by the state of our nation's economy. What was once a sunny day in the midst of a gloomy month now has a large black cloud, because the Michigan State fans are being price-gouged by the NCAA and/or the University -- depending on your point of view.

The basic gist of the situation is that the NCAA provides each of the four Final Four schools with 500 hotel rooms in the Detroit area, but it requires the schools to pay for them. Michigan State, in turn, is automatically charging people for a room when they buy a set of tickets.

Now, it wouldn't seem so unreasonable for North Carolina, Villanova, or Connecticut fans, because they need to stay somewhere if they want to go to the Motor City. Michigan State, however, is only an hour and a half away. Plus, many MSU fans live in Detroit. Simply put, most MSU fans were probably just going to drive the game and back home.

Instead, they'll be saddled with $175 hotel rooms for four days -- which could possibly be farther away from the game than their actual residence. If you don't want the hotel room, you'll be paying a $50 surcharge per ticket. I guess it would have been too much work for the NCAA to judge each school on an individual basis or let the schools decide on their own. It's not like the Final Four is going to be hurting for patrons.

To be clear about this, Michigan State could just eat the money and allow fans to buy tickets from them without the hotel rooms. They could also offer the hotel room package to those who might want to stick around or alumni who live farther away. In this sense, you could argue the university shoulders some of the blame. In doing so, however, you'd be ignoring that this public institution has been saddled with $300,000 worth of hotel rooms by the NCAA -- in a state with a 12 percent unemployment rate, which is the highest in the nation.

It should be noted that fans can buy tickets through other avenues, though through your own school is easily the cheapest way to do so -- and that's with the tickets ranging from $250-$350.

This situation is one that could cause the Spartans to lose what was perceived to be a home-court advantage in the Final Four. If you want to watch them play, you've either got to be doing pretty well financially or really love Sparty.

Michigan State Fans Being Forced to Buy Lodging With Final Four Tickets originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Survive and Advance

Matt Snyder — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:45:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, Midwest Region

From an individual standpoint, this season has been an absolute nightmare for Raymar Morgan. The Michigan State junior came into the season with a chance to get into lottery pick position, as long as his game kept progressing.

Instead, he regressed.

Every regular statistic across the board is down for Morgan this year. He averaged 14 points a game as a sophomore. Since January 17 this season, he's only gotten 5.5 a night. If you would have told Tom Izzo coming into the season he'd be heading to the Final Four with this low of an offensive output from Morgan, he would have thought you were nuts.

With Morgan's personal hell in full effect, though, the rest of the Spartans have blossomed. Kalin Lucas has made himself into one of college basketball's premier guards. Goran Suton has developed a 3-point shot to complement his post repertoire. A host of others like Durrell Summers, Chris Allen and Travis Walton have improved as well. Freshmen Delvon Roe and Korie Lucious have shown the ability to log meaningful minutes when needed.

But what about Raymar Morgan?

Everything started off just fine. Through the Spartans first 16 games, Morgan was averaging 15.2 points per game. He scored more than 20 in six of those games, and he pulled down at least 10 rebounds five times. At that point in time, he was on the short list for favorites to win the Big Ten Player of the Year. After his abrupt fall off, he didn't even make third team All-Big Ten. If someone merely looks at his game-log for statistical analysis, they could point to the Illinois game (1/17) as the start of something bad with Morgan. What happened to him? Where did his skills go?

What those people would miss is that myriad things out of Morgan's control sprung into action this season. If you want to learn about illnesses, you could simply take a gander at Morgan's medical charts for 2009. He's had the flu, pneumonia, mono, and some upper respiratory issues. That's quite an impressive list to compile over the course of a college career, let alone a few in-season months.

After battling to get himself back into game shape for the balance of the Big Ten slate, Morgan declared himself "back" heading into the NCAA tournament. He put up 16 points and 5 rebounds in the first round against Robert Morris, but has since been relatively ineffective -- his minutes have also been limited, as he only played 10 in the Spartans trouncing of top overall seeded Louisville.

As if he hadn't dealt with enough maladies over the course of this season, Morgan suffered a broken nose at the hands of a teammate in their victory over Kansas.

When the Spartans tip off against Connecticut Saturday evening, Morgan will have had nearly a full week of rest and more than a week off the broken nose incident. It's possible the versatile 6-foot-8 slasher will have gotten used to wearing a protective mask over his nose -- if he even still needs to wear it. It's possible he'll have finally worked up his conditioning to play 30-plus minutes. It's possible he can regain his form as and electric scorer and quick-afoot defender.

The bottom line, if you add the real Raymar Morgan to the rest of the Spartans -- the way they've been playing with this illness-ridden version of Morgan -- you have the recipe for another National Championship banner in East Lansing. It would be like having a star transfer to a school immediately before playing in the Final Four.

Now that, my friends, is what I call an X-Factor.

Survive and Advance originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Final Debate

Matt Snyder — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:05:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Tourney Coaches, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

All eyes are on Detroit as we're less than one week away from crowning the national champion and moving on to 2010. So with only four teams still standing in the Big Dance, NCAA Basketball FanHouse got together for a FanHouse Roundtable to discuss what we can expect. Find out why the only thing we love more than the Heels are the head coaches.

Matt Snyder: I don't think anyone can handle North Carolina right now. They didn't even need a decent game from Tyler Hansbrough to stomp a very tough Oklahoma team. Ty Lawson appears to be healthy, and he'll get some additional rest this week. They are easily the team to beat, and it would appear Roy Williams is going to do something for the second time that he couldn't do once at Kansas.

I do think Michigan State will take down UConn in the semifinals -- obvious Big Ten bias plays a role. They can adapt their game to win at any tempo, as they showed against Kansas and Louisville. Plus, they have a dude named Idong Ibok. That alone gives them an advantage at something.

If the Spartans and Tar Heels do advance, we'll get to see a rematch of the 35-point massacre from the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- in the same venue. This time, though, Goran Suton will suit up for Michigan State. He can't make a 35-point difference, but perhaps the Spartans have improved enough over the course of the season to close the gap a bit and give us an exciting championship.

Dan Graziano: I have a Big East bias, and a memory of a really good-looking North Carolina team that showed up at last year's Final Four and got obliterated by Kansas. So I'm thinking Carolina's next game is no pushover. Villanova may not win, but I think they'll do more than anybody else has so far to make UNC earn it, and the result may be a worn-out bunch of Tar Heels two nights later.

Biases aside, though, my pick before this tournament started was Michigan State, and I see no reason to go off of it now. I agree with Matt's assessment that they can adjust their game to win in any style. The reason is rebounding. They're better at it than anybody in the country, and it's one of the few consistents in this game. Hasheem Thabeet's banged up, and on top of that MSU is the kind of team that will probably frustrate and annoy him -- and he doesn't play well when annoyed; he kind of gets moody and disappears a little, like in the last game, when Stanley Robinson had to take over inside on defense.

I give Michigan State the rebounding and coaching edge over everybody left in this tournament, and that's why I think they'll beat UNC in the title game. Suton is playing like a guy who won't accept losing, and I think MSU has the toughness edge over UNC too.

Plus, as Snyder mentioned, they have Ibok, who's bound to make an impact before it's all said and done.

Chris Burke: I've been reluctant to give Tom Izzo heaps of praise in the past because MSU went through a longer-than-it-should-have-been conference title drought, but it's pretty clear that he's right up there in terms of the best tournament coaches in the country. Still, to assume that the Spartans have a coaching advantage now is kind of a disservice to Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams and even Jay Wright. I don't know that Rick Pitino got outcoached, so much as his team got out-toughed, and those are two different things.

Michigan State's probably not going to go in and bully Connecticut, and it certainly won't push around North Carolina or Villanova. At least the Tar Heels and Wildcats are as mentally tough as MSU, though it is fair to debate if UConn can match State in that regard. Certainly, playing in Detroit will play to State's advantage.

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Thabeet can go into one of his shells, sure, but he could also completely force Suton and Michigan State's guards to the perimeter. Suton's been red hot, but UConn will take its chances with him shooting from the the outside all day. In the other semi, I just think Carolina's going to have way too much for Villanova. I thought Pitt would be a difficult matchup for Carolina because of how Pitt can get after it on defense sometimes, but I'm just not sure that 'Nova can slow UNC down enough to win that game. They might match the Heels basket-for-basket for a long time, but not over 40 minutes.

I personally think UConn and Carolina are going to the finals, with Carolina taking that one by 7-10 points. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see Michigan State in there, though I can't imagine the Spartans being good enough to beat UNC -- Villanova, maybe, but not North Carolina. So the Tar Heels are the pick here.

Ray Holloman: I still like North Carolina, but I think Villanova will give them one heck of a test in the Final Four. The big question about the Tar Heels all year has been how well can they hold together their perimeter defense without Marcus Ginyard available, and thus far in the tournament they've done pretty well. They did a great job against Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin (albeit Pargo had three fouls midway through the first half) with Gonzaga and they sealed up Oklahoma, after a few consecutive lapses against Willie Warren after the Heels initial burst in the first half anyway. Oklahoma helped by missing a lot of open shots in the second half, but North Carolina did a good job in the first 20 minutes. Almost every look was contested in the first half.

But Villanova doesn't just have one guy that can penetrate and hurt you, they've got four on the court at any given time. And they've got Dante Cunningham, who can work inside or outside and will be a tough matchup problem. If you've got both Deon Thompson and Hansbrough in the game, one of those guys will be getting driven by. Villanova is also a much better rebounding team than they're given credit for. The Wildcats are a better team on the offensive glass than the Heels are on the defensive glass, so don't expect to see Jay Wright's team be one-and-done every possession. They're also a great free throw shooting team and really get to the line. (In fact, Villanova gets there more than North Carolina as a percentage of field goals attempted). They shoot 76.5 percent from the charity stripe and against both Duke and Pitt those free throws were a killer.

But the Heels just have so much going for them. Ed Davis may be the best big man NBA prospect left in the tournament and he's third in the rotation behind Hansbrough and Thompson (and gives up minutes to Tyler Zeller, too). And yeah, they got staggered last year, and I suppose it's valid to question why Roy Williams does what he does at times, but I don't think its necessarily fair to hold the sins of last year's team against this one. They really talk about that collapse against Georgetown two years ago and Kansas last year as learning experiences. Williams talked about it going into the Sweet 16, Ty Lawson and Danny Green talked about Kansas after beating Oklahoma. But that transition offense is just so unstoppable. How many times Sunday did Oklahoma score what felt like a pivotal bucket in the first half only to have Ty Lawson dart down court before the scorer's name was announced and draw a foul or find Danny Green for a dunk? I think Villanova will break out that 1-2-2 press to disrupt the timing of the Heels offense, but I just don't know that the Wildcats will be able to do it.

Michigan State and UConn, I like the Huskies, but I'm buying stock in Johnson & Johnson before that game starts. One team is going to have to bleed to win that game. And I like North Carolina to run from Connecticut in the final, but those are going to be two dog-tired teams by the time Monday night wraps up.

Adam Papagiorgio: I had Michigan State winning the tournament in all of my pools. Mainly because of Izzo and what he brings to the table. I agree that maybe Izzo didn't necessarily out-coach Pitino, but Michigan State is certainly playing some of its best hoop.

That being said, I don't know what more can be said about North Carolina. I didn't realize that the Heels were that good. Make no mistake, Gonzaga is a really good team. And that butt-whooping was more about how good Carolina is, and not an idictment on the Bulldogs. I was actually relieved that the Heels punked the Sooners so soundly because that helped to take away some of the sting of the Gonzaga game.

So right now, I have to figure that North Carolina wins this thing going away.

Jacob Wheatley-Schaller: I'm normally more of a stats-based guy, but man, whenever I watch this UNC team play with Lawson in there, and I'm rooting against them (almost always), it's just such a helpless feeling. It's really come full circle from the preseason, where they were clearly the best team, to the second half of the season where that title changed from week to week, to now where it's pretty obvious that you'd have to expect them to win a game on a neutral floor against any team in the country. That offense ... well, it's as good as you would've expected when everyone announced they were coming back, and that's really saying something.

They could lose, of course. Really, if Oklahoma had shot even competently from three (they finished 2-for-19, and I believe they were 0-for-14 at one point), that could've been a game on Sunday. I think I figured if they were shooting 33 percent from deep at halftime, the game probably would've been tied, or at least within one possession. I think if 'Nova is going to have a chance, they'll need Stokes to get hot, and Scottie Reynolds to be hitting his shots. And they'd better hope that Lawson and the rest of the perimeter guys go cold, because when they're shooting like they were on Friday night it's game over. Gonzaga is pretty good. They obliterated Gonzaga.

I like UConn in the other game, although not nearly as much. That's a great defense, obviously because of Thabeet, but they never turn you over. And there's always the chance you get Thabeet out of the game with fouls, which really changes the whole dynamic; it actually didn't in the Mizzou game, since the Tigers never bothered to go to the rim even with him out of the game (they much preferred shooting 15-footers, always a good strategy), but in general it makes a big difference. Anyway, I think UConn probably takes it, Walker really adds a whole new dimension to their offense.

Shane Bacon: I just can't see North Carolina losing this Final Four. They are hitting their stride at the most opportune time, playing some incredible basketball against a really tough run through their bracket. Gonzaga was sneaky tough, Oklahoma might have been able to take down any of the other three teams heading to Detroit and UNC wiped the floor with them.

It's all about who is playing the best basketball at the end of March and right now the Heels are (get ready for it) head over heels better than the rest of the field.

Chas Rich: I'm very torn on the MSU-UConn game, beyond any obvious Big East bias. There is no question that Tom Izzo is a fantastic coach who finally has this team healthy and contributions going deep into the bench.

But I like the starting talent on UConn better and the Huskies don't play a pace too differently from what MSU plays, so that won't be an issue of frustration. Plus, Jim Calhoun is not exactly a slouch in preparing his team for big games.

On the other side, it will be closer than expected (I think UNC is favored by eight right now), but Villanova will just not be able to beat UNC. Again, as important as depth can be, in games at this point, it's about the starting five and only a couple players off the bench. That is so clearly in favor of UNC.

The Final Debate originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Four Not What You Think

Ray Holloman — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:24:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

Take everything you think you know about this Final Four and toss it in the waste bin with the scrap paper that was once your brackets. The brackets that had Pittsburgh meeting Louisville for the national title. The brackets that were oh so certain Michigan State of the overrated Big Ten would, exactly like IKEA furniture, collapse after one week. The brackets that said Wake Forest was underrated and Arizona's bid was a career achievement award.

Forget it all, because like your brackets, this Final Four will be all about what you didn't know.

Start with the Spartans, the mixed martial basketball-tough team that sent overall top seed Louisville home for spring break. Tom Izzo teams have a reputation for toughness but with the aesthetics of an offensive line taking up ballet. Believe that until you see Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas two-step through three defenders and kiss one off the glass. Go ahead and believe that until big man Goran Suton steps back and drills a 3-pointer right in some poor defender's eyeballs. The Bosnian big man is averaging 8.1 rebounds per game, but he's also a 42 percent 3-point shooter. If that sounds impressive, it should. That's better than 3-point king J.J. Redick managed in three of his seasons at Duke.

Feel free to think the Spartans are all smash and no sizzle until they dribble right through your defense. Michigan State only coughed the ball up once against Louisville's tighter-than-Bob Knight's sweater full court press. Believe that defensive stopper Travis Walton, who made Terrence Williams disappear Sunday, can only play defense, and then watch him slip by your teams for eight points and two assists, like he scored against the Cardinals or the five assists he dropped against Kansas.

You're not wrong to think the Spartans take a page out of the Red Wings' playbook every now and again, shooting the ball on goal and hoping the scrum in front of the net can bang it in. The Spartans are fifth in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage, but they're also the 23rd most efficient offense. And while you've been cracking Big Ten jokes, Michigan State has been tightening the gears on offense. The Spartans were a superior offensive team against Louisville and its blast-furnace defense, scoring 113.5 points per 100 possessions, compared to what offensive-standard North Carolina was against Oklahoma (111.5).

So go ahead, make your football jokes, but only if you're comparing Michigan State to Oklahoma.

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Fill out your Final Four assuming Connecticut can survive only with Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 Sequoia that has to check height restrictions to walk through highway tunnels, and then watch Stanley Robinson's double-wide frame bounce you out of the paint. Call the Huskies soft, then watch them bail out Johnson & Johnson's stock with all the Band-Aids they press into use. Don't gameplan for Kemba Walker, then watch him shed that freshman label and your defenders all at once.

Think the Huskies' hearts aren't in it and they're biding their time till the NBA calls, but then remember that when Missouri took a second-half lead, Connecticut dug so deep that it probably had to file for a permit. Pretend they won't win without help a monstrous free-throw differential (the Huskies are eighth in the nation in free throw-to-field goal ratio and first in that same metric defensively) and then realize they squashed Texas A&M while on the wrong side of the charity battle. And that free-throw differential comes from discipline the Marines would be proud of, even if it's something their coach's mouth might not always have.

Pick against Uconn because of the looming cloud of an NCAA investigation, but only if you don't talk to the Huskies, who are as concerned about that as the color of Jim Calhoun's necktie.

Then there's Villanova, a team you probably think will be happy just to be there. But is Scottie Reynolds really going to stop when he just got started with a mad dash for Detroit against Pitt? Think they're a soft perimeter team but then watch them wrestle Duke and UCLA to the ground and grab 42.6 percent of their offensive rebounds against Pitt's big-bodied glass crew. Place a bet on who has more double-doubles in the NCAA Tournament, Dante Cunningham or Tyler Hansbrough. If you picked Hansbrough, you'd be just as wrong as those who thought Duke was destined to March through the Wildcats to Detroit.

Pick North Carolina over Villanova because you don't think anyone can stop Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, but consider that Wildcats all but taped Gerald Henderson's hands behind his back as the athletic wing hit just 1-of-14 shots. Villanova ended Darren Collison's All-American career, humbling the UCLA point guard into five turnovers against only one assist.

Assume coach Jay Wright will have no way to defend against North Carolina's 21 feet of brute down low, but can Hansbrough, Deon Thompson and Ed Davis do something that DeJuan Blair, a man contained only by his bicep bands, couldn't? Think of them as Big East lite, but remember they played against a team whose starting guard, Jermaine Dixon, popped his groin and checked back in. Don't worry about them out-toughing Ty's toe.

And there are the Heels. You may have penciled them in for a Shining Moment already, but admit that you think of them as a team who couldn't find a little D even if they've spelled Detroit. Yet those Heels are 18th in the nation in defensive efficiency, ahead of supposedly defense-first teams like Duke, Wake Forest and UCLA. Their perimeter, which was buzzed by Tyrese Rice and Jeff Teague in regular-season losses, has tightened up just in time to stroll into the home of tuneups. They kept Jeremy Pargo in check and held Gonzaga's best perimeter passer, Matt Bouldin, to zero assists. Against Oklahoma, only two players managed to break double digits and the Sooners didn't hit a single shot from 3-point range until well after the game was in the books.

Pick against them because someone on that team has to slump, but realize they've got more weapons than an NFL entourage. Neither Hansbrough nor Ellington cracked double digits Sunday and the Heels still had such an easy afternoon Sunday they might've caught a nap in the locker room.

So go ahead, pick all these teams based on what you think you know, then remember in the season of chaos, this will be the Final Four of the unknown.

Final Four Not What You Think originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Great, Underrated Tom Izzo

Matt Snyder — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:20:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, Tourney Coaches, Midwest Region

Tom Izzo has coached the Michigan State Spartans for the past 15 seasons. It took him two years to get the program where he wanted it. In those last 13 seasons, they have gone to the NCAA Tournament all 13 times, the Sweet 16 eight times, the Elite Eight six times and the Final Four five times. He's never coached a player for four years without taking him to a Final Four. That's as impressive a resume as anyone in college basketball has.

Yet, if you asked non-Big Ten fans to rank the four coaches in this year's Final Four, he'd likely come in third place -- behind Jim Calhoun and Roy Williams -- for most of them.

The reason he's underrated could be his style of play. The Spartans are a reflection of their coach. They are gritty, feisty, physical, and get everything they can out of their relatively limited talent pool. Yeah, they have talent. Did they really have more than Louisville, though? It didn't matter Sunday. Izzo's team found a way. More often than not, they find ways to go farther than most expect.

This year, the Big Ten was nationally trashed heading into the NCAA Tournament. Izzo has taken it upon himself to defend the conference and is carrying the torch into the Final Four -- in his own backyard. In 2005, he carried a 5-seed all the way to the Final Four. In 2003, he took a 7-seed to the Elite Eight. If his Spartans find a way to win the National Championship this year, there's no reason to not consider Izzo in the conversation as the best coach in the nation.

The way he has constructed this current roster is an illustration of his genius. Clearly void of lottery picks, the Spartans run a rotation of 10 different players. They've survived much of this season without the full services of Raymar Morgan -- who was expected to be their best player, but has battled a series of maladies. They can adapt their game plan to play any style. Up-tempo run and gun? They can do that. Kalin Lucas is as fast as anyone, as he showed while routinely breaking Louisville's press by himself Sunday. If they have to slow it down and play half-court, well, they can easily do that as well. Goran Suton sets up the entire offense with his presence in the post. Much like their coach, the one thing the Spartans always do is outwork their opposition. They'll rarely play a game where they get outrebounded, and they can defend anyone. Case in point, holding the high-octane Louisville Cardinals to only 52 points -- their second-lowest output of the season.

The only person who currently stands up to Izzo when it comes to sheer numbers is Williams. The two coaches have the exact same rate of Final Four appearances (once every three years on average) and NCAA frequency (every single year after establishing themselves). Other than that, I'd argue Izzo easily over anyone in college basketball.

You want Calhoun? In 23 seasons, he's won it all twice. So there's that. The rest, though, is not even close to the standards of Tom Izzo. Since UConn was first established as a power under Calhoun -- 1990's Elite Eight run -- the Huskies have missed the NCAA Tournament four times. This year marks only the third trip to the Final Four for Calhoun as well.

You want Mike Krzyzewski? He was definitely the best coach back in 2004, after getting to his 10th Final Four that season, having won the title three times. Since then, though, they have gone five straight years without advancing past the Sweet 16. Plus, he's clearly playing second fiddle on Tobacco Road to Williams at this point. Don't live in the past and simply anoint him as the best coach in the land based upon his success through 2004.

You want Rick Pitino? I count five Final Fours and one national championship. The same amount as Izzo, but he's done it in 23 seasons. Plus, Pitino was thoroughly outcoached by Izzo Sunday in Indianapolis.

You want Billy Donovan? Ask him how the NIT has been the past two years.

The next time you find yourself arguing with friends about the best college basketball coach, go ahead and ignore the guru from East Lansing. Nearly everybody else would flock to proclaiming it's either Roy or Coach K.

As for me? I'll stick with the underrated Tom Izzo.

The Great, Underrated Tom Izzo originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ty Lawson's Stock Tips Up

Tom Ziller — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:00:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Midwest Region, South Region

During the NCAA Tournament, we NBA heads watch (almost) every game, judging the pro prospects of particular players. Inspired by our daily Doing Lines feature, Drooling Lines offers a daily summary of what the box scores tell us.

This song has been sung frequently, but in case you missed prior renditions ...

Ty Lawson -- ... no one has helped his NBA stock more this season than Ty Lawson. The tournament has been the same exact tune, with Sunday's killer Elite Eight performance the latest verse.

Lawson led the Tar Heels in every sense of the word. No, really. This isn't just mushy mumbo about leadership -- he nearly led Carolina in every major category. The diminutive point guard had a team-high 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting, a team-high five assists, a team-high three steals, tied for a team-high one block, and lagged behind team-leading rebounder Tyler Hansbrough by one rebound (with five). UNC won by 12, and you can basically credit Lawson completely. His teammates played well, but without him, they would not have played nearly as well.

Blake Griffin -- Speaking of playing well ...

Griffin completely torched Hansbrough: 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 16 rebounds (six of which came on the offensive glass). Griffin didn't get his usual passing game going, but when you're shooting 70-plus percent for the tournament, you don't need to rely on cutters or shooters. As always, Griffin can and will handle his business. He's the No. 1 draft pick with a bullet, provided news that Ricky Rubio is a direct descendant of Christ or John Lennon doesn't come out between now and June.

Willie Warren -- A less-flattering sendoff for W.W., who scored 18 but shot only 2-of-9 from deep. If Warren's going to be a two-guard in the league, his translated shooting percentages need to improve. It seems more likely he'll become a point guard; in fairness to Warren, he rarely got the opportunity at OU to play lead guard, considering the presence of senior (and Griffin consigliere) Austin Johnson. (Johnson was dreadful across Lawson, by the way.) Jeff Capel has been in the rumor mill, and you wonder if that forces W.W. to keep an open mind about bolting. And remember, Eric Gordon's stock wasn't exactly at its peak this time last year, you know ...

Earl Clark -- Good Earl Clark has been there for most of the Dance. Unfortunately, we saw something closer to Bad Earl Clark most of Sunday. Clark did heat up late in the second half, finishing with 19 points on 17 field goal attempts. But Louisville already trailed substantially by that point, and a few tough shots (the only kind with Earl, sometimes) didn't fall. 19/5/2/1 for Clark.

Terrence Williams -- Clark was mediocre, Williams was straight-up BAD. Five whole points for Williams when Louisville needed him to create desperately. His first basket came on an ill alley-oop to open the second half. Having watched enough Louisville this season (thanks ESPN-Big East partnership!*), I figured this would be the point in which Williams exploded, leading his team to overcome the stingy Spartan resistance. It wasn't so. Michigan State kept resisting. Williams couldn't slide in for putbacks or spring free for deep threes. On defense, the usually stout Williams was handcuffed by Rick Pitino's reliance on a 2-3 zone that failed miserably in the second half. Bad sendoff for Williams, and (if I know NBA scouts) a performance that could cost him five or so slots, fair or not.

* No seriously, thank you. Well worth a dozen Notre Dame games this year to see so much Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse, Villanova and (even) Georgetown.

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Ty Lawson's Stock Tips Up originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 Shining Moments, Day 8

FanHouse Newswire — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:50:00 EST

Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region, Shining Moments

From broken hearts to clipped nets, join FanHouse for the best images from Day 8 of the NCAA tournament.

10 Shining Moments - Day 8

This tournament was no time for Cinderella, but another year for the kings of college basketball to be crowned in nets. Here, North Carolina's Danny Green tries twine on for size.

Click through for other great photos from Sunday's action.

Joe Murphy, Getty Images

The agony of defeat always shows through even if you try and hide your face. Louisville's Earl Clark buries his head in his jersey as the Cardinals' season ends at the hands of Michigan State.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The battle of the big men turned out to be a small matter. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin scored 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds while North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough managed just eight points and six rebounds in limited time.

Lance Murphey, Reuters

North Carolina's Deon Thompson skies for a rebound but the ball bounces away as Oklahoma's Griffin brothers look on.

Jeff Roberson, AP

Oklahoma didn't get many easy looks at the basket, but when it did, the Sooners made them count. Here Willie Warren tomahawks the ball and his arm through the hoop in a rare second-half breakaway.

Chris Keane, Reuters

Louisville's Terrence Williams was the most dynamic player in the nation over the final two months of the season, but that was until he met Michigan State's defensive clamp Travis Walton. Williams hit just 1-of-7 field goals and scored five points.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

Edgar Sosa strikes a mid-air pose right out of "The Matrix," but no amount of special effects could keep Michigan State's Goran Suton, left, from a cardinal day. The Spartan senior scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Jeff Haynes, Reuters

Each time Griffin caught the ball, two North Carolina defenders caught up with him. Despite the double teams, Griffin still managed a fitting farewell in what was likely his last collegiate game.

Matt Slocum, AP

Louisville's defense swarmed the Spartans, but it couldn't keep Suton and the tough-as-nails Spartans from scoring.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The Cardinals endless guard rotation couldn't stop Michigan State or Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas, who blows by Jerry Smith here.

Darron Cummings, AP

10 Shining Moments, Day 8 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Silence Is Izzo's Victory

Jay Mariotti — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:19:00 EST

Filed under: Big Ten, FanHouse Exclusive, Midwest Region

INDIANAPOLIS -- On his tippy toes, he might be 5-foot-10, very easy to lose in the enormity of a football stadium where faces look like matrix dots and crowd noise drifts to the ozone. But no one strikes a larger pose in the Midwest today than Tom Izzo, public defender of the Big Ten's battered self-esteem. If trends and hipness start on both coasts in America, college basketball in the heartland also has been taking on an irrelevant, plodding look, to the point I stopped watching.

And I live in Chicago.

Then came the irked intruder, Izzo, who admittedly is tiring of Digger Phelps, Dick Vitale and the bullhorn campaign that has been anointing the Big East as the greatest conference ever and downgrading the Big Ten into something between a mid-major and YMCA league. Hearing that Michigan State would be served as Sunday brunch for Louisville and the $2,000-suit mystique of Rick Pitino, Izzo spent the eve of the Midwest Regional final launching an impassioned defense of his conference. First, he said the Big Ten hasn't had favorable matchups in this NCAA tournament, which could have been perceived as sour grapes.

"I think sometimes, we anoint a league,'' said Izzo, referring to the Big East. "Sometimes, matchups at this tournament in general for everybody, every year, can determine who wins and loses. Certain teams don't play as well against certain teams. For some reason, you think of Louisville, you think of racehorse basketball. I think we've averaged, like, two points less than them this season. So I'm giving my normal hurrah for the Big Ten because I think too many people, especially some on TV, have abused it.

"I think our conference, top to bottom, is also one of the best in the country. I really do. And I think sometimes, people evaluate that on how many points you score or what goes on or what perception you have. And I don't agree with that.''

When someone challenged him, Izzo fired back. "`When you look at some of these other leagues, if somebody has a couple teams out (of the NCAAs), how do I say this without starting controversy, my favorite subject?'' he said. "You know, we've been in four Final Fours in 10 years. Three of them, we've had two Big Ten teams in it. I didn't hear anybody saying how great the Big Ten was. Case closed.''

His grand speech could have backfired and perpetuated the Big Ten's misery. Instead, it will be remembered for motivating his team to heights not thought possible this March. Rather than perish like the other league clunkers, Michigan State delivered the most fundamentally sound performance of the tournament, using Izzo's time-proven formula of defense, rebounding, offensive balance and toughness to disorient Louisville and eliminate a Big East powerhouse perceived by many -- myself included -- as the national championship favorite.

This could be remembered as a watershed game in the industry. It could lead Pitino to Arizona after Louisville's second straight defeat in the Elite Eight. And it could lead Izzo to Kentucky, which is ready to make him the highest-paid coach in the college game. But first, Izzo is headed to Detroit, to another football stadium where Michigan State wll be the home team in a 72,000-seat configuration and trying to inject joy into a blighted, unemployment-wracked ghost town.

Take that, Big East.

Clearly in his Izzone after the 64-52 romp, he could have gloated, sure. But it's not his style. His statement was left on the court inside Lucas Oil Stadium, where his high-efficiency, high-energy team held the potent Cardinals to their second-lowest point total this season. Remember what we said about Terrence Williams being the best all-around player in the tournament? Scratch that. The Louisville stud was held to five points on 1-of-7 shooting against furious, feisty man-to-man defense while a roulette wheel of MSU weapons -- none bigger than center Goran Suton, who introduced the Final Four to his native Bosnia with 19 points and 10 rebounds -- took turns demoralizing the overall No. 1 seed. Leading this team to the Final Four might be Izzo's finest piece of work, not that he'll say so.

"You don't think I'm going to sit here and rip 'em, do you?'' he said of the Big Ten critics. "I got more class than that. You know, I understand the whole thing. Louisville's a very, very good team. Last year everybody said -- Bobby Knight picked Pittsburgh, and I was saying to myself, me, too. I loved the way Pittsburgh was playing. They played great. Just happened on that day, we were able to beat 'em. I must admit, though, we've been fighting all year for some credibility. I don't know if this does it or not, but it was definitely a big start.''

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Oh, this does it, all right, at least bringing renewed credibility for Izzo and his program. When Vitale, Phelps and the boys are critical of the Big Ten, they should leave Michigan State out of the equation and realize Izzo has reached the Final Four five times in the last 11 years, more than any program in that span, and now is 5-1 in regional finals. In pulling it off, he reconfirmed his place among the best coaches in the college game and gave the Final Four an unlikely angle: Michigan State playing 90 miles from campus, in Detroit's Ford Field. It's the first time in 15 years, since Duke bussed over to Charlotte, that a team will play a national semifinal in its home state. But Duke staying in North Carolina hardly carries the symbolism of the Spartans playing in a dying city that needs hope and life.

All season, Izzo has emphasized the Ford Field angle. He talked about it with his players before the game. Now, their dream has arrived, with a winnable matchup against Connecticut ahead on Saturday evening. "It's as big a win as our school has had because we're going to Detroit, and that's been a dream and a goal since they announced where the Final Four was in 2009," Izzo said.

He and his players are ready to embrace the bigger meaning of the host site. "It's been a tough time. But our state has been hit maybe as hard as anybody's,'' Izzo said of Michigan's auto-based economy. "I'm just hoping we're a silver lining in what's been a bit of a cloudy year for us. I'm hoping that we're the sunshine, I'm hoping we're something to embrace, be involved with, and I hope they all support us because, you know, I haven't even had time to think about UConn. But they got a guy that is fairly big (7-3 Hasheem Thabeet) and does a pretty good job, and a coach (Jim Calhoun) that's fairly ornery and does a pretty good job. So it should be one helluva game.''

Concurring with Izzo was a familiar face in the sea of green.

"Detroit needs something, Michigan needs something to feel good about," said Magic Johnson, wearing his Michigan State garb in the 30th-year anniversary since his epic NCAA title game against Larry Bird. "Right now, the whole state is feeling good about this Michigan State team."

There is this matter of Kentucky, though. Arguably the most popular guy in the state -- outside University of Michigan precincts, that is -- Izzo will have to decide whether he wants to be a lifer in East Lansing or try another challenge. He has rejected NBA overtures, most recently from the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls, but Kentucky will come at him hard. And given the chance to deny interest, he didn't. "I don't think there's a guy on this planet that would ever say he's not going anywhere, not doing anything," Izzo said Saturday. "But at the same time, I've got so many goals and so many things I'd like to accomplish here yet. When Final Fours come up, Sweet 16s and Elite Eights, Michigan State's name is always in there. (A national title) is my ultimate goal right now. I've still got a lot of work to do to accomplish that. We've put a heck of a dent in it. But when you look at Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, we're not at that level yet, and that's the level I'd like to get to."

As a friend of Tubby Smith, a coach couldn't flee Kentucky quickly enough, Izzo knows about the unrealistic expectations and insane pressures in Lexington. "It's a tough job because it's demanding and expectations are high,'' he said. "But I don't know if there's any job that can put more pressure on a person than he puts on himself if he's really good and he's really competitive and in that mold. I feel pressure at Michigan State, you know, to maintain or even grow from what we've done. At the same level, I did not like what happened to Tubby Smith personally. I just know that I'm happy he's at Minnesota, happy he's in the Big Ten, and sad that now we got to play against each other two, three times a year. It's harder to keep our friendship.''

He was kidding. For all his success, Izzo remains an affable, down-to-earth family guy who buys his own groceries and takes out the garbage. That doesn't mean he isn't a tough S.O.B. Take the War Drill. Upset after a loss in 2000, Izzo asked the Michigan State football coach at the time, Nick Saban, if he could borrow several sets of helmets and shoulder pads. Then he had his players put on the equipment and pound on each other. "We're going to learn how to hit somebody and get a rebound," he told them. To this day, Izzo uses the drill when he thinks his players are fragile. Sometimes, they use pads; sometimes, they don't.

"The war drill has no out of bounds,'' said guard Travis Walton, the team's defensive specialist. "They shoot the ball. It's five-on-five. Everybody just runs at each other, trying to get a little basketball. So we just go at each other, no fouls called. You're grabbing, you're pulling, you're scratching. Sometimes people get to bleeding and different things like that. When they get real tough, we put the football pads on."

Said Izzo: "It seems brutal and cruel, but there is a mission to the madness."

That mission was as apparent Sunday as a poke in the eye or an elbow to the chops. The Midwest may be soft and passe, but don't mess with Michigan State. The short man with the large heart will silence the biggest mouths out there.

Silence Is Izzo's Victory originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:19:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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