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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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.

NCAA Tournament Action

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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.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=117bd8c793&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;FinalFour09&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

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.

NCAA Tournament Action

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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."

NCAA Tournament Action

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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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UConn Lacks the Nuns to Win in Detroit

Chas Rich — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:15:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, West Region

As UConn has rolled to the Final Four, UConn partisans have happily pointed out the similarities to runs by the Huskies in 1999 and 2004. UConn was shipped out West, just like the prior two times. Coach Jim Calhoun had to miss the opening round game because of illness, just like he missed part of the game in 2004.

The one thing they had in both runs that they lack this time: nuns.

Mother Shaun Vergauwan and Sister Mary Richards of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, attended both Final Fours where UConn won the national championship. They were invited by coach Calhoun to make the trip. This time they had to decline.

Seems the Church failed to take into account UConn basketball. The nuns will be receiving a visit from Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran from the Vatican this weekend. Cardinal Tauran is a rather important Vatican official, and presently president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Why the Vatican would send its officials to the United States while the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament is taking place, just speaks to how out of touch the Vatican must be with American culture. No excuse for that.

UConn Lacks the Nuns to Win in Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Calhoun's Time

Ray Holloman — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, Tourney Coaches, West Region

For all Jim Calhoun is, Hasheem Thabeet, Connecticut's seemingly two-story tall center, needs just one marvelously apt word to size up what the coach means to this Final Four team.

"We call him teacher," Thabeet said. "He's taught us a lot. When you watch us in practice, it's always hard and we used to hate it, but now we know why the practice was hard. He's prepared us so well for his postseason play and all we can right now is thank him."

Generally speaking, one word covers Calhoun's impact about as well as a tube top would cover your average offensive lineman. Calhoun is a New England institution, somewhere between Bickford's and Bird. He built a basketball dynasty out of snowy ruins and joined the exclusive fraternity of coaches with two national titles. On the sideline, his expressions run as foul and unpredictable as the region's weather. And when he speaks in that Boston-drenched accent, you half expect the man to belch out those old tokens for the T.

But Thabeet is right.

Teacher should be on the man's business card, or Calhoun should be on the front of the team's jerseys, one way or the other. Because these Huskies are a team built tough and taught tough in the image of a coach whose father died when he was 15, who worked as a grave digger to support his family before climbing his way up the coaching ladder.

This is his team. Maybe in a way none before it ever has.

And this should be his last.

For Calhoun, all the lessons are taught to this club. It will never get better than this.

Even the coach must know it, beneath the dour expressions and the business-first, last and only, demeanor. After his win over Purdue in the Sweet 16, the eighth of his career in that round, Calhoun admitted he got goose bumps. Needless to say, cast-iron guys like Calhoun typically get loose bolts or missing rivets, not goosebumps.

"When I said it to them, we are playing Saturday in the regional finals, I get goose bumps and I did," Calhoun said after the win. "There is only one or two better feelings."

Calhoun, of course, has earned the right to stay so long as he can find his way to the bench. Entering his third Final Four, he remains as gifted on the sideline as he is on the recruiting trail. But his 67th birthday will come little more than a month from championship Monday and building title teams isn't something that can be completed like a fantasy sports roster. This team he now leads into the Final Four took three years to build and is an all out ground-up job. Connecticut missed the postseason altogether in 2007 and hadn't won a single postseason game, conference or otherwise, until its opening round win over Chattanooga.

All along, the coaching veteran of 37 years understood just how precarious a path the road to the Final Four can be and how likely it was that he may have cut his final net.

"Did it cross my mind?" Calhoun asked after his Elite Eight win. "Did I leave the season with my head down a little bit? Yeah. A tad bit. Just like had we made the right judgments on some of the young kids we had."

Add another three years onto Calhoun to season another Final Four quality team and the coach will be brushing 70 before he has a chance to return to this level, no young age for any coach this side of Joe Paterno, particularly one who has suffered through as much medical misfortune as Calhoun. Even then, there are no guarantees. In 2006, Calhoun led a team that produced five draft picks that June, only to watch a group plagued by distraction fall to Cinderella George Mason.

"They probably had a lot of other agenda going on with so many pros on that team," said senior A.J. Price.

There are no great records for Calhoun to break that he doesn't already own. He may join the group of coaches with three national titles, a club that includes Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight, but he likely won't catch Adolph Rupp (four) and certainly not John Wooden (10). And should he win three national titles in three Final Four appearances, Calhoun would encase his reputation as the premiere big game coach of his era in lucite. Krzyzewski, by comparison, has 10 Final Fours for three national titles; North Carolina's Roy Williams has completed six Final Fours with a single title.

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The all-time wins record, 902 by Knight, could be attainable, but by the time Calhoun reaches the mark, it will likely have been eclipsed by Krzyzewski, who is 28 wins ahead and nearly five years his junior, assuming Knight himself doesn't come out of retirement and move the bar higher. Nor will he catch Krzyzewski, Wooden or North Carolina's Dean Smith in Final Four appearances.

And Calhoun has the opportunity, for the moment at least, to go out to applause, something few coaches of his success and longevity have the fortune to do. Among coaches with 780 or more wins, only Smith retired still at the pinnacle of the program he built, saying farewell months after eclipsing Rupp's win record on the way to his 11th Final Four. Arizona's Lute Olson left the Wildcats in an unfortunate mess, far removed from his 1997 national championship while Kentucky's Baron of the Bluegrass was sidelined by the state's mandatory retirement age six years removed from his last Final Four. Meanwhile, coaches like Knight, Lou Henson, Lefty Driesell and Eddie Sutton all ended coaching in relative basketball backwaters. Imagining Calhoun on San Francisco's bench, as Sutton was to win his 800th game, is like thinking about Superman wearing green.

Meanwhile, the distant thunder can already be heard from the recruiting scandal unearthed by Yahoo! last week. Should trouble spread beyond former assistant Tom Moore, the school could be forced to part ways with the coach anyway. And if NCAA sanctions don't strike the Huskies, then Calhoun can leave the cupboard stocked with another talented recruiting class, much like Smith did for longtime assistant Bill Guthridge.

And will a Connecticut institution like Calhoun ever really leave the school anymore than Smith left North Carolina?

But above all, there is this team, a 17-player testament to Calhoun's coaching and the bred-in-Boston toughness of its coach. Does anyone even remember Pitt's DeJuan Blair flipping Thabeet over his back? Could that soft label Connecticut began with seem further away when Stanley Robinson, who spent the first semester suspended and working in a scrap metal yard, bounces another post player off with his double-wide frame like they were a tennis ball in basketball jersey?

This team is unquestionably tough, fitting of the best remaining team from a mixed martial basketball league that plays hoops like they've got shoulderpads under their jerseys. And like his previous championship teams, when the coach is at his toughest, so are the Huskies. Calhoun has missed NCAA tournament games three times in his career, in 1999, 2004 and this year. That's two national titles and this intimidator of team now.

"We are just mentally tough," Jeff Adrien said. "It starts with our coach. ... We have been through a lot of ups and downs in our lives and everything. We just know how to block it off."

And that could well be the first paragraph of Calhoun's biography or the first paragraph of his farewell address.

It's hard to imagine that sideline without Calhoun, like it is to imagine Duke without Krzyzewski or the Yankees deciding pinstripes are passe. It's hard to think what the Huskies will be like without the coach and those famous perplexed looks, hands up in the air and face suggesting that he just asked his players to add two and two only to get back a chant of five. Calhoun is his program. Yet should he leave now, he'll leave a program crafted perfectly in his image.

But everyone ages, Hall of Famers and teams alike. As this Husky team goes, so should its coach.

Tough and triumphant. Just the way Calhoun taught.

Calhoun's Time originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:00:00 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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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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No Cinderella, but Missouri Was the Star

Ray Holloman — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:00:00 EST

Filed under: Big 12, West Region

The year 2009 will be remembered as one without a Cinderella. The year college basketball's biggest brothers took a baseball bat to her glass slipper and turned it into a bucket of shards.

And, by any trick of math, they would be right. There was no plucky mid-major from a town your map has never heard of and no Cinderella with a seed as big as your shoe size.

But there was a darling. And it was Missouri, the star of this tournament.

Sure, the Tigers will spend the Final Four on couches instead of benches, but there is no shame in losing to UConn, led by Hasheem Thabeet a 7-foot-3 redwood of a center that gets picked ahead of Goliath in pickup games. There's nothing embarrassing about playing second fiddle to freshman Kemba Walker's virtuoso performance or losing to Jim Calhoun's portfolio of talent.

There is no shame, and with the frantic way the Tigers played defense, the way they clawed to the very end, the way they kept coming and coming like they were trying to take a beachhead somewhere behind the Connecticut bench, there was a certain sort of honor.

"They went out the same way they came in to this season," said third-year coach Mike Anderson. "They came in fighting, scratching and clawing, and if you are going to go out, that's the way you want to go out -- fighting, scratching and clawing, giving yourself a chance."

And maybe that's what made Missouri so appealing. They played like a Cinderella. From Marcus Denmon's made-for-YouTube 70-foot heave at halftime against Memphis to J.T. Tiller sweating pure effort as the most tenacious player on a team full of bulldogs, Missouri just felt like a Cinderella, no matter how familiar those fashion-deaf mustard yellow uniforms may be.

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They were led by juniors and seniors, a rarity since college basketball turned into a weight station on the way to the NBA, and they played for their coach as much as their program. In his third year, Anderson started the season under as much pressure as his defenses would dole out later in the year. He had to suspend senior Leo Lyons again, then welcome him back, and manage a roster that as deep as an NFL starting unit.

"We came from nothing," senior Matt Lawrence said. "I'm pretty sure no one expected us to get here except for the guys in our locker room. I have never been a part of a team that was more cohesive than this one. When you got guys doing whatever it takes to win, you are going to get this far."

And they proved they can get this far cleanly, matching the school's best ever tournament performance without the scandals of Quin Snyder's era tarnishing the plaque before it's ever cast.

Of course, the tournament will end with another team's shining moment, but this will always be Missouri's breakout year. Connecticut, North Carolina, Louisville and Michigan State will continue to win titles so long as brackets are printed. Villanova's run will never top its 1985 title and Oklahoma has more Final Fours this decade than the Tigers do in school history.

So this will be the year of Missouri, the year the frenetic Tigers squashed the cocky Calipari and made Connecticut run a whole marathon of sprints to get the Final Four.

No, they didn't get to that "magical place" Anderson talked about in his post-game press conference. But they got somewhere. Which is more than you could usually say for Missouri.

Even Anderson could sense his team's arrival in the days leading up to the Sweet 16 victory over Memphis.

"We're in the hunt for something," coach Anderson said prophetically. "But I don't know what."

Now the what seems clear. Missouri found its identity.

And we found the Tigers.

The darlings of the 2009 tournament.

No Cinderella, but Missouri Was the Star originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UConn Leaves Nets, Small Goals, Behind

Lisa Olson — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:15:00 EST

Filed under: Big 12, Big East, West Region

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- They steered clear of the net. A ladder rested underneath the basket, waiting for someone to climb it. The twine dangled, waiting for someone to snip it. Instead, the University of Connecticut players and coaches purposely walked on by, as if the traditional removal of the net and wearing it around the neck might jinx the journey.

"It was a team decision because we've got bigger goals," UConn guard A.J. Price was saying after the Huskies beat Missouri, 82-75, in Saturday's Elite Eight West Regional Final and advanced to the Final Four. "We can cut down a net in Detroit."

No doubt, scaling a ladder and lifting scissors would have required some effort, and every drop of energy had been squeezed out of the Huskies across 40 frantic, manic minutes by Mizzou. The Tigers are a team born to run, press, drive, pester and frustrate, and that's just in warmups. If a few more of their shots had dropped, if Connecticut hadn't been so hot at the line and if freshman guard Kemba Walker hadn't decided this was a fine stage to remind the country what ballers from the Bronx can do, Mizzou's delightful romp through the NCAA tourney might not yet be over.

"I thought I could get them to that magical place, and we just came up probably a couple of buckets (short), a stop here, a stop there," said Missouri coach Mike Anderson. "Maybe we just ran out of time, a couple minutes."

The Huskies were simply a little too much of everything -- too long, too composed, too Big East tough, too overwhelming on the boards, too stingy with the second shots. And too determined to carry their coach to perhaps his last Final Four and prove how tightly they've bonded despite (and maybe because of) a recruiting scandal that has nothing to do with the current cast of players.

The post-game celebration was subdued, and not just because Mizzou had stripped the Huskies of strength to do much of anything. One by one they went out of their way to find coach Jim Calhoun on the University of Phoenix floor, to hug him and thank him. Sweat mixed with tears, and it was difficult to tell where sobs ended and laughter began.

"I can't lie to you, after the game I actually -- I kind of did cry," admitted Walker, the smallest guy on the court who'd had the biggest of games, going 7-of-9 from the floor and 9-of-10 from the free throw line for a game-high 23 points. "I know tears came out of my eyes because I never thought I would get this far."

By the time Calhoun made it to the interview room, he had wiped away any trace of emotion except for a smile. A couple of his players swear he was close to breaking down in the locker room after praising his team for its grit, for refusing to allow Mizzou to run them off the floor. A spot in the Final Four next weekend assures Calhoun will face more public grueling over allegations of recruiting violations, but it's a tradeoff he accepts. Both of UConn's national title runs gained steam through regionals in Phoenix in 1999 and 2004. Calhoun joked about buying a house in the Valley of the Sun, made cracks about how playing in the desert sure beat playing at the Meadowlands. He was jovial and charming and clearly relieved to be talking rebounds and stops instead of NCAA rules and regulations.

"I'm as happy as I possibly can be about the basketball situation. I mean, I feel like busting out just because I think they are really special," Calhoun said. "Here we are going to the Final Four and, once again, I'm just elated."

The manner in which his team handled Mizzou's press and forced the game into half-court ball warmed Calhoun's heart. But it was Walker, the freshman, who stole the show, after Mizzou's double teams slowed 7-3 UConn center Hasheem Thabeet and forced the Huskies to kick the ball outside.

Thabeet, limited by a couple fouls and four hands in his face throughout the first half, went down with a thud early in the second following a loose ball scramble. He landed hard on his right hand, an injury he later called "very painful," but said he doubted it would prevent him from playing in Detroit.

Trailing from the start, Missouri charged back ferociously, and went up 50-49 on Keith Ramsey's layup off a feed from J.T. Tiller, capping a 9-0 run. "We could sense they were on their heels," said Tiller. "We are used to that, you know what I mean?"

But the Huskies had promised they'd never admit to being tired, wouldn't be caught tugging on their shorts for breathers like Memphis had two nights earlier against Missouri. "It really was 40 minutes of hell but we weren't going to show any weakness," said UConn guard Craig Austrie. They didn't have any, not with Walker, 6-1 in lifts, grabbing rebounds, scrambling for loose balls, acing his foul shots. He was everywhere, dribbling around Tigers and driving in for a layup to put UConn ahead, 63-59. Seconds later there was Walker on the other end, snagging a defensive rebound and feeding it to Thabeet, a play that propelled Calhoun out of his seat like a rocket. But it was Walker's off-balance bank shot with the shot clock nearing :00 that broke Mizzou, turning another Tiger comeback into a six-point deficit with less than two minutes in the season.

"Time was running down. The ball was in my hands and Jeff (Adrien) was there about to set a screen," Walker said, sounding like a play-by-play announcer at Madison Square Garden. "I told him to get out of the way. I kind of just took over. The guy actually played me kind of well. I was turning and turning and I had to get it up.

"I just threw it up, God help me, and it went in."

Price had 18 points and was named most outstanding player of the West Regional, but what he'll remember is Walker, growing up in front of 18,000 fans. "He played like a man among boys. There were times he dominated the game," Price said. "He was breaking the press and dribbling through two or three guys and still had enough in him to do down and finish the play."

The flow was supposed to go through Thabeet, the monster junior center headed for the NBA. But Missouri did a fine job taming the Beast, as Thabeet is known, limiting the Big East co-player of the year to 13 rebounds and only five points. "We had eight blocks and I don't even have one," Thabeet said as he leaned against his locker and held a bloody napkin to his injured hand. He let loose a deep chuckle and dropped one of his cutting one-liners. "They said they want to run on us. I guess we're running now all the way to Detroit."

His story will be told and told again this week, and oh my, what a story it is. Thabeet journeyed into the stands once the final buzzer sounded Saturday, heading straight for the Tanzanian flag, which was flying just below a sign that read, "Jim Calhoun is underpaid." Thabeet fell into the arms of his mother Rukia, here from Dar Es Salaam. She shares her son's dry wit, joking that he might still grow some if he'd eat more of her food.

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Later, I ask him what he used to dream when he was 12, before he played basketball, before he knew of life outside Tanzania. "I used to say, one day I'll be an architect like my dad, but then my dad passed away and I was the oldest son, so I thought, OK, I'm going to have to provide," Thabeet said. Before he reached 16, he worked as a bouncer, a model and a backup singer/rapper, and in between he sprouted to six feet, six inches. An internet search led him to UConn and a coach he calls The Teacher.

"I used to think he picked on me," Thabeet said of Calhoun. "Sometimes I would say, `Why me?' He knew I was capable of doing great things."

The flow found Thabeet on the last shot of the West Regional Final, with Missouri hanging onto its dream, for more time. Zaire Taylor went straight at Thabeet, who faked a block. It was an odd look, considering, but it caused Taylor to miss the layup. Thabeet pulled down the rebound, his Huskies destined for Detroit. Thabeet never let go of the ball through the ceremony, through his trip into the stands, through the team's deliberate avoidance of nets waiting to be cut down.

Hours later, the ball rested behind Thabeet in his locker. The blood on his finger had dried into a dark red stain. Calhoun wandered over, for another hug.

"I'll keep that until I get old," Thabeet said, gesturing toward the ball, a memento worth carrying home.

UConn Leaves Nets, Small Goals, Behind originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Missouri Proves UConn is Favorite

Dan Graziano — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Big 12, Big East, West Region

This is a thank-you note.

On behalf of basketball fans everywhere, thank you, Missouri, for a brilliant run and a tough, impressive effort against Connecticut in the regional final. You gave us a great game to watch, and you really made the Huskies earn their way into the Final Four. And everybody should have to earn their way into the Final Four.

The way this thing started, it looked like a rout. UConn raced to that huge early lead, and you figured, "Oh well. Mismatch."

But then a funny thing happened. Missouri didn't go away.

No. 1 Connecticut 82, No. 3 Missouri 75: Recap | Box Score
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They didn't roll over. They came back with a ferocity that caught the favored Huskies off guard and made them tighten up their own game. Connecticut played a better all-around game as a result of the "aha" moment they had in the middle of the first half when they realized the Tigers were bent on making every aspect of their on-court lives miserable until the last whistle blew.

In the end, Connecticut was just too much. They have too many good players, too many places they can turn when Plan A doesn't work. Hasheem Thabeet is rattled, maybe a bit off his game? Stanley Robinson blocks the shots. Jerome Dyson is on the bench in a suit? Kemba Walker plays the game of his life.

Walker is a symbol of what's so incredible about this UConn team. He's a quick little freshman with a whole pile of game. Early in the year, he was the first guard off the bench -- the shot-of-energy guy they'd bring in to spell Dyson or A.J. Price for a few minutes. Then, when Dyson got hurt, Walker moved into a starting role -- a role with which he struggled at the beginning. But today, there was nobody more comfortable or composed on that court than Walker was, and he was the difference in the game. Composure is paramount when you play a team like Missouri -- a team whose game is rooted in the concept of annoying every single play you run and making sure no pass, no shot, no dribble is easy.

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There's no shame in this loss for Missouri. Saying UConn was the better team is no slight against the Tigers. There's a reasonable chance that the second-best team in the country, whoever that is, doesn't have enough in terms of talent and depth of personnel to match up with Connecticut, Dyson or no Dyson. One of the preview breakdowns I read on this game listed UConn with a heavy matchup in "coaching," but having watched this game it's hard to agree. UConn's coach is a great coach -- an unconscionably arrogant bully and possibly a cheater, but a great, successful coach. But this Missouri team...you don't play the way they play unless your coach knows what he's doing. Big-time hat-tip to Mike Anderson, a man we expect to see here again.

Connecticut just made sure the Big East would grab at least half of the spots in this year's Final Four. As of right now, there's no reason not to consider them the favorite to be the Final One.

Missouri Proves UConn is Favorite originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motoring to Detroit

FanHouse Newswire — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:22:00 EST

Filed under: West Region, East Region

The first ticket to Detroit has been issue, but it didn't come easy. UConn withstands Missouri's intense defensive pressure to survive 82-75 and move on to the Final Four in Detroit.

Freshman Kemba Walker scores 23 points, hands out five assists and makes a series of big plays down the stretch to send Jim Calhoun to his third naitonal semifinals.

Final : UConn 82, Mizzou 75 | Preview: Villanova vs. Pitt
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Motoring to Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:22:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clock Ticking on Missouri's Inspired Stay

Lisa Olson — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Big 12, Big East, West Region

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Marcus Denmon already had his one shining moment, that freeze-frame picture to keep for a lifetime, long after the highlights of this NCAA tournament fade.

The Missouri freshman snagged an inbounds pass Thursday night, sidestepped to avoid a hand waving in his face, and let history fly. From three-quarters out, with the halftime buzzer about to blare, Denmon's fling dropped flawlessly through the twine to put his team up by 13, and from that second on Mizzou knew it had been touched by something special, something only a handful of teams get to experience as March rushes to a close.

But how long will the magic last? Until Hasheem Thabeet rises from deep in the paint and crushes a Missouri shot attempt like an SUV smashing into a bug? Until the University of Connecticut smartly refuses to go where Memphis went and refrains from getting lured into Missouri's crazed, wicked-paced tempo?

Practical intuition says Mizzou's blessed run expires at the hands of UConn in Saturday's West Regional Elite Eight game, the winner earning a trip to the Final Four in Detroit. Lightning rarely strikes twice, and though Denmon's incredible basket launched a striking chain of events against Memphis -- Mizzou's eye-widening 102 points against one of the nation's stingiest defenses, John Calipari's inability to coach his team out of such a deep hole -- UConn is a whole other nightmare.

The top-seeded Huskies haven't many flaws. They are battle-tested survivors of the Big East, a conference that chews and spits out plenty of good teams, and seem to have grown stronger despite a recruiting scandal that continues to produce new, more worrisome allegations every day. It's highly unlikely the Huskies will be spotted leaning over and clutching the hems of their shorts, begging for whistle breaks to slow Missouri's press and fast-breaks and re-branded version of "40 Minutes in Hell."

Memphis never caught its breath against Mizzou, losing 102-91, in Thursday's semifinal, and on Friday the Missouri players, looking as if they'd race to the top of South Mountain if it would make coach Mike Anderson happy, talked in tag-team staccato about the challenge that lay before them, and how they planned to attack it.

It, of course, is the Beast, the 7-3 Thabeet who blocks and scores and snags rebounds and generally makes opponents regret entering his airspace. The Tigers mentioned they've ridden big men before, monsters like Blake Griffin and Cole Aldrich in the Big 12. Ideally, Missouri's maniacal press could keep the ball from flowing to Thabeet on one end of the court, while guards Zaire Taylor and J.T. Tiller dare to drive through the lane at the other end. But "ideally" hardly ever works as planned.

"Personally, I love challenges," Taylor said with a laugh. "Seven foot, I think that makes the lane a little more enticing. But I don't know. He is 7-3. Blocks shots. He is one of the Players of the Year from the Big East for a reason. It will be fun. I think it makes it that much more fun personally."

Tiller smiled bright and admitted, "It is just the layups that might be a little tougher. It means Zaire is going to attack like we normally do but it might be a lot of driving and kicking to get our other teammates open for us tomorrow."

Calipari, Memphis coach, spent so much time pushing the idea that his team had been robbed of a top seed, he seemed to have been caught off guard at Missouri's depth and speed. "We kind of got punched in the mouth right from the beginning of the game," Calipari said.

Jim Calhoun, UConn coach, has had a few diversions of his own over the past week, but promises the Huskies are acutely aware of the pace the Tigers set from the first tip-off. Missouri, said Calhoun, "advertise it as the 40 fastest minutes in basketball, and I'm a believer. Usually I don't like slogans, but that one is true and we really are facing an opponent that we are going to have to walk a very delicate balance with. Memphis wanted to run with them purely for 40 minutes and that is not Connecticut's desire to run 40 minutes with Missouri."

The Huskies' largest hurdle might be in ignoring the urge to prove they can run with the best. An athlete's ego can't always be corralled. But Craig Austrie and A.J. Price, heart and soul of UConn, promise to heed Calhoun's advice and stifle the urge to compete with Missouri in full-court sprints.

"We love playing fast, but we saw what happened to Memphis. They really fell into the trap of playing too fast. With A.J. and myself, we have the ability to kind of control the game and see what's going on out there, play with poise. So we feel like we are going to have to do that tomorrow," Austrie said.

"You definitely don't want to get caught up with that type of game with this team. We like to play fast, but we don't want to play as fast as I think they want to play. That's kind of a different situation for us because we usually want to play faster than most teams. But this team wants to go up and down all game long," Price said. "For us to do that I don't think would be smart."

It was exhausting just listening to the two teams talk about going full-throttle for 40 minutes. And of course, the conversation had to take a detour down the dark side of college sports, as Calhoun was asked to explain what he meant when he told two reporters after the Huskies' semifinal win over Purdue Thursday night that "someone could've made a mistake" during the recruitment of former Huskies guard Nate Miles. The burgeoning scandal has clearly hit Calhoun hard, and could lead this proud, honorable man to retire once the Huskies' romp through the tournament finally ends. Calhoun, his words dripping with sadness, told a story about traveling with Dean Smith a few years ago. "I asked him very simply, 'Coach, why did you get out?' He said, 'I got out at 67 years of age.' I will turn 67 in May, by the way," Calhoun said. Smith told Calhoun he never stopped loving being a coach; it was the stuff on the periphery of the game that led to his retirement.

Calhoun's torment comes in the form of allegations, first reported by Yahoo! Sports, of recruiting wrongdoings. The claims are broad -- add to the list reports of former UConn student manager turned sports agent Josh Nochimson paying several thousand dollars for Miles to have surgery -- but Calhoun, for the moment, has narrowed his role to perhaps not diligently reading the NCAA rule book.

"My quote was, 'in a 508-page manual, a mistake could have been made.' Do I know if any has been made? No, I'm not making judgment one way or the other. I said there could have been a mistake made," Calhoun said. "I have done this for 37 years. I truly believe that everything I have tried to do I have done with a good, clean conscious and if we made a mistake, we'll find out about it. If we didn't, we will also find out about that."

Anderson, coach down the hall, had to navigate a sticky situation of his own last season after a group of Missouri players were arrested following a fight in a local nightclub. Anderson suspended the "Athena Five," got criticized by some for being too soft on discipline and ripped by others for coming down too hard. The Tigers fell out of Big 12 contention but Anderson never stopped repeating to his players the line he first uttered three years ago, when he traded a fine program he built at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a chance to do the same at Mizzou.

"When he first got there," recalled senior forward Leo Lyons, "we had a meeting in the locker room and the first thing he said was, 'we are playing for a national championship.' Everybody probably didn't believe it at that point, but all the hard work we put in, we slowly but surely became winners."

Missouri got its shining moment, and proved "40 fastest minutes in basketball" is more than just a slogan. Floating over or through the Beast from the Big East could be where the magic trail ends.

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Clock Ticking on Missouri's Inspired Stay originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sweet 16 Live Blogging

Chas Rich — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, WCC, Tourney Rumors, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

Last night's action had one tight game, a blowout that tightened near the end, a walloping, and a game that never became a blowout though the outcome was never in doubt.

Tonight, Louisville takes on that, uh, Cinderella team from the desert in Arizona. Syracuse and Oklahoma should be a lot of fun in the early games. Later tonight Kansas and Michigan State looks like it should be gem. Also North Carolina gets Gonzaga, the original West Coast Cinderella that has not been that for some time.

Stop on by around 6:30 PM ET to talk about the action from yesterday and the games tonight. Plus, there is always the coaching carousel and what happens next at Kentucky.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=1f236a6df2&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Round 3 Reaction and Action&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Sweet 16 Live Blogging originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Second Thought, Memphis Was Definition of Overrated

Dan Graziano — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:14:00 EST

Filed under: Big 12, C-USA, West Region

Having slept on it, I've come up with no reason to change this viewpoint. But when you use the O-word, you get reaction, and some of it just isn't reasonable. Saying Memphis was overrated isn't the same thing as saying they weren't good. They were. Memphis was a good team that played a terrible game at a time of year when one terrible game ends your season.

But they were overrated. They were a 2-seed. The 3-seeds were Villanova, Kansas, Syracuse and Missouri. Having watched the tournament so far, can you really believe Memphis was better than any of those teams? I might even have seeded 4-seed Xavier ahead of them, having watched the Musketeers nearly take out Pitt last night. So the point is, while the Tigers were one of the top 15 teams in the country heading into the tournament, they weren't one of the top eight. Hence, overrated. According to the actual meaning of the word.

As long as it can continue to replace it star freshman every year (does anybody really think Tyreke Evans is going to stay?), Memphis should keep finding itself in this position. Rolling into the tournament on a winning streak no one really knows how to evaluate. It wasn't just that Conference USA was weak this year. Memphis did what it could, scheduling Big East teams in December and teams like Tennessee and Gonzaga in the middle of their cotton-candy conference schedule. They did what they thought they had to do to toughen up and project legitimacy as an elite team.

But they weren't challenged, and therein lay the problem. Missouri answered the opening bell last night by punching Memphis in the mouth and knocking them down. And the Tigers, to whom such a thing had not happened since December, if all year, didn't know how to handle it.

Conversely, look at what Pitt did last night. They got beaten up in the first half by Xavier, went into the locker room and were able to say, "OK. They beat us up. We're behind. But we've been here before. We know what we need to do to come back." When Memphis got to the halftime locker room, the Tigers were in a position with which they were wholly unfamiliar. They didn't have anything in their playbook or memory banks that was going to help them come back from 13 down against the champions of the Big 12 tournament. (Even if those champions were going to play a rotten second half, miss all their free throws and do everything but engrave an invitation for Memphis to get back into the game.)

Nobody ever wins this tournament without overcoming something -- without playing at least one game that tests toughness. Memphis failed that test last night, and it's because nothing they did this year prepared them to handle it. All Memphis' schedule did was inflate its record artificially and push it into a two-seed when the Tigers really should have been a three or four.

That is the very definition of overrated.

On Second Thought, Memphis Was Definition of Overrated originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:14:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Win Shields UConn, if Only for Now

Lisa Olson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:30:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, Big Ten, West Region

GLENDALE, AZ -- The questions, gentle and revolving around basketball, were over, and most of the media had scrambled out of the room when Jim Calhoun, still sitting at the podium, cleared his throat.

"I have one thing to say," said the Connecticut coach, grabbing the microphone, and this time his voice sounded authoritative, confident, as if he had finally come to grips with the scandal banging at his front door. Calhoun proceeded to announce that at 7:00 Thursday morning, roughly 12 hours before the Huskies put the finishing touches on a 72-60 win over Purdue in the NCAA West Regional, he had spoken by phone with UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway -- a conversation Calhoun characterized as "very fruitful."

"He said, 'Go get Purdue.' And I said, 'Fine.' And as I said, we are continuing to do the things on the outside we need to do. My job today was to come and coach our basketball team, and the kids took care of that."

Calhoun understands it will never be that simple, now that the NCAA has joined the investigation of alleged recruiting violations by UConn's men's basketball program. One day earlier, Calhoun sniffed at a Yahoo! Sports article detailing the relationship between former UConn recruit Nate Miles and Josh Nochimson, an agent who gave Miles lodging, meals and transportation. A former UConn manager, Nochimson was a "representative" of the school's athletic interests and thus prohibited from having any role in the recruitment of players. The exhaustively researched story, thick with details and documents obtained through Freedom of Information laws, also reported that a UConn assistant coach knew about the relationship between the player and agent. Calhoun's initial reaction was an embarrassing fumble as he labeled the investigation a "blog" and mumbled something about not being able to "get a hold of" Web sites on the internet.

For decades, Calhoun has managed to avoid being sullied by the slime of college sports, with not one NCAA violation throughout his 37-year career. Pretending he doesn't comprehend new media and cyberspace is hardly a smart strategy, considering the ramifications at stake. It's his reputation, his legacy as a Hall of Fame coach, and feigning ignorance won't make the probe and queries go away.

It's an entirely different dimension inside the Huskies' locker room, with the televisions and phones and computers switched off. Calhoun didn't try to tell his current players, none of whom have been dragged into the muck, to ignore chatter surrounding the investigation, because that would be like asking them to stop eating junk food. "But we knew how to tune it out," Craig Austrie said as he sat on a bench and scarfed down a post-game meal Thursday, in no hurry to wash away the sweat of a Sweet 16 victory. "We can't worry about what other people might have done or what people are saying about them."

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But the Huskies understand: no matter how hard they charge through the tournament, no matter if they beat Missouri -- shocking 102-91 victors over Memphis in Thursday's nightcap -- and spin the romp into a third NCAA title in the span of a decade, it's impossible to avoid the elephant on the court. The more they are asked about the distraction, the more it becomes distracting. A.J. Price can't shoot over it, Hasheem Thabeet can't swat it into oblivion.

"All we can do is play our game," Austrie said, and that is exactly what the top-seeded Huskies did in chasing off Purdue. Despite their toughness and defensive rep, the Boilermakers couldn't avoid the freakish long stretch of Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 Tanzanian who had 15 points, 15 rebounds, four block shots and his share of non-calls
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"He made the lane a place you don't want to go," said Calhoun, adding if it weren't for Thabeet and his second-half performance, especially, "the game might have been different if we had just a, quote, regular center."

UConn rushed to an 8-0 start in the cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium, as Purdue's shots kept clanking around the rim. "We had open looks, they just didn't go down," forward Robbie Hummel would say after being limited to just one layup in the second half.

With his team up 30-25 at the half, Calhoun barely raised his voice during the break because his squad, top heavy with seniors, began banging their hands on the walls and shouting at one another before the coaches even entered the room. Remember what we've been through, somebody said, and the subtext was clear: there was Price, seriously ill from a congenital condition that led to bleeding in his brain his freshman season, then suspended from the team for a year for his role in the theft of laptops from dorm rooms; and the loss of guard Jerome Dyson; and the health issues of Calhoun, a cancer survivor hospitalized because of exhaustion during the team's first-round game.

The players challenged Thabeet to use his body more, to claim the paint. For Austrie to tempt the big shots, for Price to not worry a out being swallowed by Purdue's double teams.

"We all said a little bit of everything," said Austrie. Whatever the motivation, it worked. Purdue, winners of the Big Ten tournament, pushed to within four points, but Thabeet was everywhere, blocking shots, dominating both boards, dunking, menacing.

The Boilermakers ended up shooting just 37 percent from the floor and were outrebounded, 39-28. A 3-pointer by Austrie made it 55-44 with seven minutes left, effectively sealing the lock on a return trip to the Elite Eight. When Austrie finally came out of the game, a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and 6-for-6 from the free throw line, Calhoun whispered something in his senior guard's ear.

"You were sensational," said the coach, and as Austrie related the story to me later in the locker room, his eyes flashed with pride. "A great word," said Austrie. Outside on the dais, Calhoun compared Austrie to Jonathan Papelbon, the Red Sox closer. Coming from a crusty old Bostonian, there's probably no greater compliment. He said he was thrilled to see Austrie grinning, finally, because "Craig doesn't give you a lot of smiles."

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Calhoun bubbled over with praise for his players, for Purdue's grittiness. It was a fitting rebound for the man who on Wednesday seemed discombobulated and rattled over the Yahoo! report, who could only stress the fact that Miles -- expelled in October when he was charged with violating a restraining order in a case involving a female student who claimed he assaulted her -- played in zero games for UConn. But Calhoun didn't try to explain away Yahoo's detailing of 1,565 phone calls and text messages between Nochimson and UConn coaches, including 16 contacts from Calhoun himself. Calhoun might not know how to navigate the internet, but he knows coaches are forbidden from communicating with agents who give improper benefits to recruits. Eventually, Calhoun is going to have to come up with a plausible explanation for those phone records if he wants to keep his program from being sanctioned, if he hopes to keep his name from being uttered in the same sentence as Kelvin Sampson.

"As I told you all along, this has been a special group," Calhoun said, again steering the conversation toward his current team, a team that has put together a tremendous 30-win run this season, a team that, as far as we know, hasn't been touched by the recruiting scandal.

No matter how many times Calhoun gets to drop the word "sensational" on his players across the next week, it will get lost in the crossfire of allegations and muck.

Win Shields UConn, if Only for Now originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Was Memphis Overrated?

Dan Graziano — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:16:00 EST

Filed under: Big 12, C-USA, West Region

This is too easy, right? You watch all year as Memphis rolls through Conference USA without a challenge. You listen to the debates about whether it'd finish any better than sixth in the Big East. You ponder its tournament seeding, weighing the impressive lack of losses against the unimpressive quality of the competition against which the record was built. And then Memphis gets smacked in the mouth and knocked out in the Sweet 16 by a team from the Big 12 and you get to say, "See?? See?? We TOLD you they couldn't play with the teams from the real conferences! Oh-ver-RAY-ted!"

This was supposed to have been put to bed a year ago, when Memphis hit all its free throws and steamrolled its way to within one miracle Mario Chalmers 3-pointer of the national championship. But looking back now, in the wake of this follow-up season, it becomes easier than ever to dismiss the 2008 run as a Derrick Rose phenomenon (anybody else wish we'd got to see Rose and Tyreke Evans play together?) and file these 2009 Tigers in the same bin as those that preceded Mr. Rose.

The history books will tell you that Memphis' four losses this season were to Xavier, Georgetown, Syracuse and Missouri. That's three Sweet 16 teams and another team from the Big East. No shame in any of those losses (our mighty Hoyas still looked good back in mid-December when that happened, and it was an overtime loss), but the 27 wins the Tigers piled up in between the Syracuse loss and the Missouri loss can't mean much now that they have to watch the tournament's final three rounds on TV.

On this night, Missouri was just the better team. In a zany game that saw both teams shoot over 49 percent from the field and under 67 percent from the free-throw line, Missouri got more defensive stops (in transition and in the half-court) and made more plays on offensive (including a dazzling 70-footer at the halftime buzzer to go up by 13 at the half). Memphis' second-half comeback attempt was valiant and drawn-out, but by the end it had as much to do with Missouri's inability to put the game away from the line as it did with Memphis' ability to play with them. Both teams were gassed about midway through the second half, and the difference was that Missouri had the massive lead.

In an earlier post, I outlined some reasons why I don't like the UConn-Missouri matchup for Missouri, and I stick by that analysis. Missouri was brilliant in the first half of this game, but it was sloppy in the second half, and UConn is going to play much tougher defense than Memphis did. As long as the UConn guards can handle the press (they should be able to), the Huskies will get Missouri into enough half-court sets to accentuate their advantages in size and strength. Missouri will contest shots and passes, but UConn likes to do those things too, and its players are better. Much as I loved watching Missouri tonight, its next game is going to be a lot tougher, and probably part of this ongoing coronation of the Big East.

Was Memphis Overrated? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:16:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Great Expectations for All 16

Ray Holloman — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:04:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, C-USA, Pac-10, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

What happens when the Sweet 16 is comprised entirely of storied powers? You get 16 teams all feeling the pressure to succeed. Ray Holloman takes an in-depth look at the expectations being heaped upon every team left in the Big Dance.

There is no room here for the little guy.

Were the Sweet 16 a country club, Tiger Woods might have to pull some strings to get a tee-time. Meanwhile Goliath might find himself picking splinters out of his warm-up-clad rear on any one of these rosters.

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Thanks for trying, Siena. Enjoyed the one-night stand, Cleveland State. We promise we will write, Western Kentucky. But gentlemen in suits that cost more than your head coach's salary will now escort you to the other side of the velvet rope.

The floor is now closed for the little fella.

Heck, sub-six foot point guard Sherron Collins may have to show ID just to get into the practice facility. Ty Lawson better hope his toes are in shape because he'll need to stand on all 10 of them just to get in. Spud Webb, please leave your tickets at the gate for a taller patron.

And, given this is the season of the steroid scandal, someone should check to see if March Madness spent its summer in the Dominican Republic.

For the first time in tournament history, every top three seed has advanced to the Sweet 16. In the Midwest bracket alone, every team or coach has won a national title since 1996. Thirteen of the 16 remaining schools have been to the Final Four and nine of them have combined for 14 of the 24 national championships awarded since the advent of the 64-team field.

So the little guys can sit quietly and watch their brackets turn to scrap paper like everyone else. After all, In a tournament with more chalk than an elementary school, you've only survived this far if you're so risk averse you store money under your mattress, look both ways, then up and down before crossing the road, and think picking out your clothes for the next day is simply spitting in the eye of fate.

But the only thing heftier than these oversized reputations is the burden of expectations each of these teams carry into the Sweet 16.

This is college basketball's highest-stake poker room. And the antes couldn't be any higher.

"This is do or die," said Lawson, the North Carolina point guard who has turned a nation of sportswriters into armchair podiatrists. "If you lose, you go home and it's the end of the season."

And if any of these teams lose, and be certain eight of them will before you get down to your weekend chores, there will be no joyous welcome home parades.

At most programs, a Sweet 16 berth is something to hang a banner for and talk about over beers years after the fact. For the 16 teams left, it's all but as worthless as a participation ribbon. Or a Grammy.

Your Cinderella in this event? Arizona, the 1997 national champion and the longest-staying current house guest in the NCAA tournament. It was a quarter of a century and four Final Four appearances ago the last time this team missed March Madness. Note to the Cinderella promotions board, Donald Trump may lose a few billion dollars, but he'll never be a small businessman.

And for a team that's already beaten a quarter of the top 16 teams in the Pomeroy Ratings, just being here rings as hollow as a beauty queen prattling on about world peace.

"We don't consider ourselves a Cinderella," forward Chase Budinger said. "We feel we can play with anyone and the label of Cinderella does not come to mind.

"This is a good opportunity to show people we're better than what they've been saying all year. We're rising to the occasion."

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Do not adjust your computer monitors: That is definitely a Memphis Tigers cheerleader wearing the face of head coach John Calipari. Click through the gallery to see more cheerleaders showing their March Madness spirit.

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BOISE, ID - MARCH 22: A cheerleader for the Missouri Tigers performs during the game against the Marquette Golden Eagles in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Taco Bell Arena on March 22, 2009 in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

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MINNEAPOLIS - MARCH 22: A cheerleader for the Michigan State Spartans performs against the USC Trojans during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on March 22, 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

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Texas A&M's Sydney Carter (4), Skylar Collins (25), La Toya Micheaux (12) and Kelsey Assarian (40) dance with cheerleaders after a 80-45 win over Evansville in a first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament game in South Bend, Ind., Sunday, March 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

MIAMI - MARCH 22: The cheerleaders of the Arizona State Sun Devils fly through the air during their game against the Syracuse Orange during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the American Airlines Arena on March 22, 2009 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

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A University of Connecticut cheerleader does a flip during a timeout while playing against Texas A&M during the second half of their second round NCAA tournament basketball game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 21, 2009. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer (UNITED STATES)

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: The Gonzaga Bulldogs cheerleaders perform during a break in the action while taking on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 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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GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 21: The North Carolina Tar Heels cheerleaders perform during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament against the Louisiana State University Tigers at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 21, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

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GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 21: A cheerleader for the Louisiana State University Tigers cheers against the North Carolina Tar Heels 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)

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Top seeds have always had bigger targets on their backs than DeJuan Blair's rump, but even moreso this year after Pitt, Louisville and North Carolina each withstood stiff challenges in the opening weekend. Connecticut, meanwhile, marched through its first two opponents like they were Patton marching through a Risk game, but now the Huskies have a recruiting scandal simmering in the background.

"I'm really much more worried that I think [Purdue's E'Twaun] Moore is a terrific player," Calhoun said yesterday. "So I worry much more about that than I do about the other things ... We don't want to ever look back upon this and say we didn't give it our best.

Meanwhile, Memphis, the team Connecticut bumped from the top seed line, still has a chip on its shoulder that would rival the rain forests. The Tigers have the longest winning streak in the nation, topped only by the number of jabs thrown at the quality of opposition in Conference USA.

"Each round we go, more and more people pick us to lose," Calipari says. "Sometimes I don't know if it is their opinion or their hope, but they more and more pick us to lose."

Across from the Tigers, Missouri coach Mike Anderson is one round from equaling the school's best ever showing in the NCAA tournament. But that doesn't simplify Mizzou's mission as one might think.

"Right now we are in the hunt for something," coach Mike Anderson said. "I don't know what it is. We are in the hunt."

Purdue and Villanova, who meet Connecticut and Duke respectively, are two resurgent powers in search of a more modern signature moment that has happened since, say, the advent of the Macarena.

"I just made this mistake a couple weeks ago," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "I was referencing the national championship team [in 1985] and just in general said, 'How old were you when we won it? And they all looked at me, and said, 'We weren't even born.'

"The final eight team [in 2006], believe it or not, in recruiting ... they don't really know."

At Michigan State and Kansas, two of the six schools still alive with national championships this decade, expectations of a Final Four are practically handed out with dorm assignments. The Spartans, who have a reputation for winning but with the general aesthetics of an offensive line turned ballet artists, and the Jayhawks, who answer with Collins' tailback speed and size, met earlier this year in a decisive victory for Tom Izzo's team.

"I was telling [my wife] that it was a little bit different making the Sweet 16 here than with Tulsa," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "At Tulsa there were parades and everything else going on and now it feels like that's what we are supposed to do."

Mid-majors in name only, Gonzaga and Xavier face the postseason like a high school student who only gets graded on the SAT, even if they're trying to build major programs independent of their mid-major conferences.

"When you add the fact that we're alive in the Sweet 16 this year, we've now been in the Sweet 16 three times in the last six years," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "And that, I think, speaks for itself.

"It's so much more about your program than the name on the front of your jersey and what you stand for than whether you're in this conference or that conference."

The Bulldogs haven't returned to the Elite Eight since their Cinderella run in 1999 turned the small Spokane school into an NCAA tournament regular. But the Zags have grown from charming Cinderella to bracket buster in the wrong way. Mark Few's teams are known as much for their second-round exit as a second-seed in 2004 and their near-miss in 2006 with Adam Morrison as their '99 Cinderella turn.

But even college basketball's highest regarded programs are feeling the pinch.

Oklahoma has never won a national title despite four trips to the Final Four. Short of yanking every phone out of the wall, there's no better way to say goodbye to the Kelvin Sampson era than for third-year head coach Jeff Capel and player of the year favorite Blake Griffin to ride into the Final Four.

Facing the Sooners, Syracuse has capped a season of chaos with a memorable March run, including seven overtimes worth of Big East tournament play that didn't win the Orange a title, but should've won their conditioning coach a Nobel Prize. But star Eric Devendorf's suspension and constant on-court trash talking couldn't be more of a black eye on one of college basketball's most storied program if he had it tattooed somewhere. Which he may.

But the pressure may be most intense on Tobacco Road. For ACC rivals North Carolina and Duke, the 2009 NCAA tournament is almost a referendum on the programs.

At North Carolina, the Heels have produced back-to-back-to-back top-seeded teams and have two ACC players of the year on their roster, senior center Tyler Hansbrough, who, at least seems like he's been on every All-America team since the stitches came off the ball, and Lawson, this year's player of the year.

But the duo, as well as shooting guard Wayne Ellington and swingman Danny Green have yet to claim North Carolina's fifth NCAA tournament championship.

Yet North Carolina withstood a stiff challenge from LSU in the second round of the tournament before Lawson and each of his 10 toes walked all over the Tigers, making it hard to believe this is the same team that exited the last two tournaments in stunning fashion. Coach Roy Williams used a golf analogy to say he'd probably have preferred to leave the drama for the university's theater department -- "I've never thought it was great for me to triple bogey a hole," he quipped -- but if the Heels had a moment of panic it was over faster than Lawson could go end-to-end.

"I loved our toughness," Williams said. "I think this team has been able to handle a lot of adversity this year."

NCAA Tournament Action

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Meanwhile Duke returned to the Sweet 16 for the 10th time in 12 seasons. But it was the first trip since 2006, after a pair of humbling opening-weekend upsets, leading more than one analyst to write about Duke's return in tones that seemed like the results of the Blue Devils' last Sweet 16 trip were only recently discovered somewhere on a cave wall.

"That's also a sign of respect," coach Mike Krzyzewski said after Duke's win over Texas, "because they hate talking about what you have done."

But the Blue Devils' five-year absence from college basketball's final weekend has been a relative epoch in Krzyzewski terms. Senior guard DeMarcus Nelson became just the second scholarship player to play four years for Krzyzewski since his 1983 recruiting class not to play in a Final Four last season (the other was current assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski). Now Greg Paulus and redshirt senior David McClure could become the next. Should junior star Gerald Henderson leave for the NBA, what was once a statistical anomaly could be a trend.

Yet Duke has worn the weight of expectations as easily as their blue-and-white duds thus far. The Blue Devils survived a one-point scare against Boston College in the ACC tournament quarterfinals and another near-loss against Texas, a game that culminated with a Jon Scheyer moonshot of a save in the waning seconds to stave off the Longhorns.

"When we won today I was exhilarated and not relieved," Krzyzewski said after the second-round win. "That is the message I want to send to my players so they never feel that pressure. I told our Olympic team and I told our team, we need to play because of anticipation, not expectation. Anticipation gets you forward, expectation inhibits. I thought our team has done that, especially in the last few weeks."

But like everyone else, when Duke tips off against Villanova tonight, just two hours short of midnight, the stakes will be much bigger than just a game.

The competition will be historically large in the Sweet 16. And so too will the bets riding on it.

Great Expectations for All 16 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:04:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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