Game Day Analysis
My clever plan to overdose on televised hoop coverage has been cruelly thwarted by the weather-- the continuing ice storm in the Capital District knocked our power out last night, and it hasn't been turned back on yet. Seeking heat, light, and Internet connections, Kate and I have come over to campus, where the electricity still flows. Of course, it's Saturday, so I'm not about to do actual work, so instead, I'll post some comments on tonight's Final Four teams.
Marquette is the clear sentimental favorite in the field, as they return to the Final Four for the first time since the late, great Al McGuire coached them to a national title in 1977. McGuire was a wonderfully colorful figure in the college basketball world-- I only knew him as an announcer (where he came off as sort of a cross between Peter Falk and Phil Rizzuto), most memorably when he did a herky-jerky little dance with some Syracuse players in 1996, but he was justly famous as a coach before that.
Marquette made it to the Final Four with a surprising thrashing of everybody's office-pool favorite, Kentucky. Kentucky's Keith Bogans was hampered by an ankle sprain (I feel his pain right at the moment, having rolled my own ankle Wednesday. Damn it.), but still the Golden Eagles (nee Warriors) put the hurt on them big time, behind a stellar performance from Dwyane "Note Spelling" Wade, who finished up with a triple-double: 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists.
Wade is a bona fide star, and guard Travis "Can I See Some ID?" Diener is one of those slightly improbable-looking skinny little guys who always seems to have complete control of the ball, even when it looks like he's just itching to turn it over. Their coach, Tom Crean, has done a great job with this team, and has them playing some really good basketball at the moment. He's sure to be at the top of the list for every big-school coaching vacancy in the next year or two, but after this year, he could probably stay at Marquette for as long as he wants.
Marquette's semi-final opponent, Kansas, would be the sentimental favorite if not for Marquette. Coach Roy "Deputy Dawg" Williams is one of the nicest guys in big-time sports, and has racked up an astonishing number of wins without managing to win a title. This is his fourth trip to the Final Four (they lost to my Terps in the semifinals last year, and made two trips in the early 1990's), and you'd be hard pressed to find any basketball fan who wouldn't like to see Roy win a title eventually.
Muddying the waters for Kansas is the North Carolina situation. Williams was an assistant for legendary Tar Heel coach Dean Smith, and after El Deano's retirement several years ago, it's been assumed by UNC fans that the interim coaches were mere placeholders, keeping the chair warm for Roy Williams. He almost took the job three years ago, but backed out at the last minute, and with current interim coach Matt Doherty having worn out his welcome, everybody now thinks this is the time for Roy to take the job.
Personally, I think he'd be absolutely insane to take the UNC job: Carolina fans have wildly unrealistic expectations for coaches, rivaled only by UCLA fans, and the pressure to win immediately would be intense. Moreover, at UNC, he'd be filling in for a legend-- at Kansas, he's The Man. He's had fantastic success at Kansas, after coming in under slightly troubled circumstances, and nobody there is comparing him unfavorably to any past coaches. His situation at Kansas is about as good as you can get in his profession, and it's not like Kansas is some penny-ante bush league program. They have a basketball tradition stretching all the way back to Dr. James Naismith, who invented the game in 1891.
Of course, Williams would really prefer to focus on the games, and leave the coaching speculation for after the season. There's not much chance of that, which is a pity, as he's got a very good team. The Jayhawks are, in many ways, reminiscent of Maryland's championship team from last year: They're returning to the Final Four the year after a semifinal loss, and they're led by a senior inside-outside tandem, with Nick Collison in the post and Kirk Hinrich outside the three-point line. These are sort of quintessential Roy Williams players, his fantastic success being based on his magic portal to the Planet of Goony-Looking White Guys With Game. Collison looks gawky, but is almost unstoppable on the blocks, and Hirich, who looks a great deal like a young George Harrison, is one of those players who never stops moving. Ever. They play an up-tempo brand of basketball, and get out on the break faster than any team in the nation
Kansas came into the tournament as a #2 seed, and really probably should've had the #1 that was given to their league rivals, Texas. I'm not quite paranoid enough to claim that it was all about the Benjamins, as Michael Wilbon did, but the decision to make Texas a #1 and let them play home games (effectively) in San Antonio was a little baffling.
Texas is a damn fine team, though, which has to be galling for North Carolina fans who have loathed coach Rick Barnes since his days sparring with the Sainted Dean in the ACC. As you might expect for a Barnes team, Texas has plenty of guys who can goon it up in the paint (most notably Schenectady native James Thomas), but they've also got T. J. Ford, who may be the best guard in college basketball at the moment. Ford does some downright incredible things with the ball, and is the guy who lifts this Texas team above the ordinary. I really would've liked to see Ford and Steve Blake go head-to-head, but Maryland lost to Michigan State in spite of a furious rally, so it was not to be.
The Longhorns undeniably got a boost from getting to play in front of a home crowd, and they face a Syracuse team who had a similar advantage in last weekend's games. They've had a week to prepare for the infamous 2-3 zone, so we'll see if they fare any better than their league-mates from Oklahoma.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is one of the great stories in basketball, and the only guy with a chance to rival Roy Williams for sentimental favorite among the Final Four coaches (he'd get the nod if not for his whiny demeanor). Boeheim came to Syracuse as a player in the early 60's, and has never left town. After playing with the great Dave Bing, he stayed on as an assistant coach, and eventually became head coach 27 years ago. This is his third trip to the Final Four, having lost two title games, one to Keith Smart's last-second jumper in 1987 (dammit), and again to Kentucky in 1996, despite a superhuman effort by forward John Wallace.
Over the years, Boeheim's gone from being something of a laughingstock (after many early-round exits from the NCAA's) to something just short of a dean of the coaching community. Longevity has a way of doing that, and Boeheim has been coaching and winning for a long time now. He's an institution at Syracuse, and in the Big East-- they named the court in the Carrier Dome after him, putting him in the same company as people like Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski.
Even more amazingly, the 2-3 zone that the Orangemen play has acquired a certain cachet. This is baffling to anyone who knows the game, as the 2-3 is the lazy zone that desperate coaches with no talent whatsoever turn to. It really doesn't require much talent to run, and you can teach it to junior-high kids. And yet, when Syracuse plays it, it becomes weirdly baffling. They're holding opponents to something like 36% shooting in the tournament, and Oklahoma was positively flummoxed by it.
It's open to debate whether the rise of the 2-3 is a sign of coaching genius on Boeheim's part, or a distressing lack of sound basketball fundamentals on the part of most of the rest of the country, or just a testament to the fact that he's got some very good players playing that zone at the moment. Carmelo Anthony is in the running with Wade and Ford for "Best Player in the Tournament," and Hakim Warrick has improved incredibly since last year, and Jeremy McNeil gives them a shot-blocking presence at the back of the zone, which makes a big difference. Freshman guard Gerry McNamara is a remarkably tough kid, and very active on defense, while at the other end of the floor, he's a great shooter and a steady hand at the point.
(Warrick and McNamara are sort of quintessential Boeheim players, in the same way that Collison and Hinrich are classic Roy Williams players. Syracuse has had some really good talent in the last twenty-odd years, but more than that, Boeheim has a knack for finding great players in unexpected places. For every heralded recruit-- Billy Owens, Derrick Coleman, and now Anthony-- there's a guy who comes out of nowhere to fill a gap for them-- Sherman Douglas, Lawrence Moten, and now McNamara and Warrick. Boeheim never really gets enough credit for this, but that's a different rant...)
This should be an interesting weekend. Every team has at least one spectacular player who could shine on such a big stage. For two of the coaches, a win would end years of frustration and crown their careers, while the other two are on their way up. No matter who wins, there's a great story to sell (Texas hasn't won since the 40's), and there are plenty of intriguing match-ups possible along the way.
All we need now is the power to come back on, so I can watch the games...
Posted at 11:31 AM | link | follow-ups |