Much is the same this year in college football. From a team and individual player perspective, a club that was overlooked in the pre-season and was not even ranked until the 5th week of the year in #1 Mississippi St. is suddenly in a position to make a run to the National Championship, following in the footsteps of Auburn in 2010, Notre Dame in 2012, and Auburn in 2013. The SEC is once again the most dominant conference in the land, regardless of any perceived SEC bias from the nation, as any team in the SEC West outside of Arkansas could practically give the Jets a fight at this point (with the quarterback play of Geno Smith, Roger Goodell and his entire NFL staff of people "that never saw any Ray Rice video" could give the Jets a game). The Big 12 has continued to play about as much defense as the Tampa Bay Bucs with Baylor and TCU being able to score at will against anybody in conference play (top-10 games in the Big 12 that end up 61-58 with 1,267 total yards and 38 fourth quarter points don't even surprise people anymore). A surprise candidate has come out of mere obscurity to take hold of the Heisman Trophy race in Mississippi St. quarterback/pseudo-Tim Tebow playmaker Dak Prescott, mimicking the path of Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel. One of college football's most noticeable and dynamic players has been suspended because of violating NCAA rules in signing autographs for payments in Georgia tailback Todd Gurley (as much as it is ridiculous that players cannot make any money off their own likeness, Gurley was just as foolish to risk the Bulldogs season and ruin his Heisman chances knowing perfectly well the rules currently in place). We will likely have our 5th straight quarterback Heisman winner and our 13th in the last 15 years - including Reggie Bush's vacated Heisman from 2005 - with Gurley falling out the Heisman lead and Prescott and Marcus Mariota asserting themselves at the top of the list. #18 Oklahoma has maintained its place as college football's annual title favorite that will certainly let you down before season's end. And finally, Jameis "humble pie" Winston has remained the most polarizing figure in college football, and possibly all of sports, with some of his farcical off-field antics, but his ability to muster through it all for the Seminoles and keep on winning when it matters most.
In terms of coaching, Lane Kiffin has retained his spot as college football's most hated coach, and he isn't even a head coach anymore. Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, and Bret Bielema also have to be on the most hated short-list (A quick tangent on Arkansas that shows just how difficult it is to play in the SEC. The Razorbacks finish up the season against Mississippi St., LSU, Ole Miss, and Missouri, and assuming they lose all four games, as they should, Arkansas would be 0-19 in conference game dating back to 2012 with an incredible 13 of those losses coming against teams in the AP top 15. I'd rather play in the NBA Eastern Conference). Will Muschamp is still losing games to teams that rack up less than 120 yards (in the last 10 years, Muschamp's Gators have twice lost games without giving up 120 yards, which no other FBS team has done once over that span). Will Muschamp is still struggling to realize that Jeff Driskel is incapable of playing the quarterback position. Brady Hoke continues to suggest that Will Muschamp just needs more time and patience to turn his program around (there will likely be major head coach openings at Michigan and Florida this off-season, so let the coaching carousel begin). Last but not least, Bill Synder has had so much sustained success at Kansas St. that I'm convinced he is a one-half wizard-Dumbledore figure and one-half head football coach.
For as much as college football is the same once again this year, the landscape of the sport could not be any different because of one reason, which is that a college football playoff has finally, and I do mean finally, arrived. It has taken a few decades, but college football now has a system in place that is no longer controlled by computers and the ever so mysterious BCS poll calculations, and is now reliant upon actual human beings, who are typically more trustworthy than machines (apart from Roger Goodell of course). Now, I am not somebody that comes down on the BCS as if it was the worst thing since Aliens versus Predator 2. More often then not, after all the commotion and controversy over the system settled down amongst fans, the two most deserving teams would end up squaring off in the National Championship Game. Although USC in 2004, Auburn in 2005, Michigan in 2007, Texas in 2009, and TCU in 2011 may have had legitimate claims to being in the title game, the system was certainly not so egregious that it needed congress to step in as some claimed over the years (although congress probably doesn't have much else to do with their time anyway). However, the BCS was a really reactive system - kinda like the NFL's policies on domestic abuse. For example, it put into place the "Kansas St. Rule" making sure that any team in the top 4 of the rankings would receive a BCS bid only after the 1998 K-State team wasn't invited to a BCS bowl despite finishing 11-1 with their only defeat being a double overtime loss in their final game of the regular season to Texas A&M. The BCS also excluded undefeated teams from playing in the title game on many occasions (see Utah in 2004), and also arbitrarily eliminated teams beside upon the recency of their loss in relation to the end of the season. For example, to this day I will never understand how Florida St. was given the opportunity to play an undefeated Oklahoma in the National Championship in 2000 just because their loss to Miami came earlier in the season than Virginia Tech's same one loss to Miami.
It is much nicer knowing that things will be decided on the field, or so we hope, in years to come with the four team playoff (debate won't end, though, with teams fighting over that final playoff spot). Many people thought that the college football playoff would diminish the regular season, as the BCS made every week a do-or-die scenario since one loss could effectively eliminate most teams from championship game contention (10 of the 16 BCS National Champions went undefeated). However, the college football regular season has been even better under the new playoff format with each week still greatly magnified for its importance to the title picture. In fact, it keeps more teams in the playoff hunt for longer into the season so that more games have championship implications each week. Take a very solid Michigan St. team from last year for example. The Spartans lost in the 4th week of the season to a sub-par Notre Dame team without Everett Golson and were pretty much out of the National Championship picture from earlier on in the season playing in the relatively weak Big Ten. If you take Michigan St. this year, though, despite their early loss on the road to Oregon in Eugene, they still have a chance to make the playoff because of an additional two teams being awarded a title game opportunity, which gives more importance to the entirety of their season and more interest to their games on a weekly basis. The regular season is still so important in college football, but it keeps teams around for just a little bit longer to add another layer of drama to the sport. Anybody who watched the Florida St.-Notre Dame game can tell you that the regular season in college football is still the most intense and important regular season in all of sports, and that is undeniable, especially when you watch the regular season in the NBA on some random night in February.
Each week the newly installed college football playoff committee, which is composed of 6 current or former athletic directors and 6 former school administrators, head coaches, reporters, NCAA executives, or Secretary of States (not including Archie Manning, who is taking a leave from the committee to deal with health issues), will release a top 25 rankings to give the public an insight into their thinking and let teams know where they stand in the playoff picture. The committee will have to come together and form some sort of consensus on the four most deserving college football teams to go into the playoff by season's end, a group's whose power can only be matched by the Bilderberg Group (too far I'm sure). Luckily, for the constant detractors and critics out there (and there are a lot of them), it looks as if the committee is going to have an exceedingly difficult decision this year because the one word to describe college football through nine weeks of the season is muddled (other words that could have been applied would have been crab legs and Mississippi). Clearly, an undefeated #1 Mississippi St. and the defending National Champion/survival masters #2 Florida St. are at the top of the rankings, but there are then 16 teams from the power 5 conferences that have just one loss and are aiming for the 3rd and 4th playoff spots as of now (there were only 8 teams that were undefeated or had one loss through 9 weeks in 2009 from the power 5 conferences and just 11 such clubs in 2011).
Despite their propensity to get into some very close and testy contests and rely on some late game magic and help from the opposition (or from a Notre Dame perspective, the refs), as they did against Oklahoma St. to an extent and certainly against #21 Clemson (would have lost if Clemson didn't Clemson), #10 Notre Dame (it was offensive pass interference on the Irish, so stop arguing about it), and #25 Louisville (just go down after a big interception), Florida St. looks as if it they have the best chance of making the playoffs. The Seminoles are currently at 8-0 with their only regular season games remaining against unranked Virginia, Miami (FL), Boston College, and Florida (Will Muschamp will get a friendly goodbye from the Noles) before an ACC title game against #24 Duke or somebody else from the abyss that is the ACC Coastal Division. The Seminoles do have to find a more consistent running game from Karlos Williams and Dalvin Cook and sure some things up in the secondary, but Jameis Winston has been able to cover up for a lot of the club's deficiencies so far and should be able to lead the Noles to the inaugural playoff. #1 Mississippi St. has a much tougher road to go in the treacherous SEC West with big games left against #6 Alabama in Tuscollosa and #4 Ole Miss in Oxford in the biggest Egg Bowl since FDR was still President in 1940. The Bulldogs running game is so difficult to stop because of the power of Dak Prescott running from the quarterback position, and their defensive line, highlighted by Preston Smith, is the best front four in the country. The Bulldogs could likely afford one loss as long as they go on to play in the SEC Championship game and win it in Atlanta, which is certainty not a guarantee in the west. The Seminoles, on the other hand, will probably have to go the rest of the season undefeated if they want to be in the final four because their win against Notre Dame is their only high quality opponent all season long.
In the SEC, #3 Auburn, #4 Ole Miss, #6 Alabama, and #11 Georgia each have only one loss on the season. The entire Bama fan base was sent into such a crazed panic after being ranked behind #3 Auburn, #4 Ole Miss, and #5 Oregon in the first college football playoff rankings that they thought about succeeding from the system (way too far civil war joke). Alabama has looked really good the last two weeks with their demolition of Texas A&M 59-0 and their slapping of Tennessee in Knockville 34-20, which should teach them that they should just throw the ball anywhere near Amari Cooper and he will catch it. Nonetheless, they lost to #3 Ole Miss in their head-to-head game on October 4th, so I don't understand the argument that Bama should be ranked ahead of the Rebels. In fact, Alabama's best win this season is against #20 West Virginia while Auburn has a win over #9 Kansas St. on the road in Manhattan and #5 Oregon beat Big Ten favorite #8 Michigan St., so #6 Alabama is in the rankings right where they should be based on their resume. However, like every other team in the deadly SEC, the Tide have a chance to get into the playoff picture because of the games they have remaining on their schedule against other top teams in the country, which could produce some SEC cannibalism. Alabama still has to play at #19 LSU in Death Valley, and then host #1 Mississippi St. and #3 Auburn, #3 Auburn has #4 Ole Miss, #11 Georgia, and #6 Alabama on the road, #4 Ole Miss has #3 Auburn and #1 Mississippi St. both at home, and #11 Georgia still has to play #3 Auburn, a game Todd Gurley will be eligible to play in. After all those games are played, we will then have one of Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi St., or Ole Miss likely playing Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. In other words, it is very possible that the SEC teams could beat up on each other so much that they all end up with one or two losses. However, considering the grave difficulty of the SEC West, whichever team wins the conference championship should be in the playoffs barring some unforeseen circumstance. Just looking at the schedules, Auburn has the toughest slate with three really difficult road trips remaining. The Tigers, which rely so much on their read option running game with Nick Marshall and Cameron Artis-Payne, could face some difficulties going up against Alabama, who allow the least rushing yards per game in the nation, Georgia, who are 10th in the category, and Ole Miss, who are 25th in the statistic. The game that I would circle in the SEC would be #1 Mississippi St. at #6 Alabama on November 15th, which will have huge playoff implications.
The Big Ten is the simplest conference to figure out at this point. On November 8th, #8 Michigan St. plays #16 Ohio St. in a massive Big Ten game in East Lansing with the winner having the inside track on playing #15 Nebraska in the conference championship game in Indianapolis. If I were Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, I would be rooting for the Spartans to win that game against the Buckeyes because it gives the conference the best chance at a team in the final four. Ohio State's only loss to the Hokies is a really poor one at this point because Virginia Tech is just not a very good team. Meanwhile, Michigan State's only loss is to a playoff quality Oregon team on the road, which the team could easily recuperate from and make the playoffs with just a little bit of help in front of them, much less than the Buckeyes need to overcome their terrible loss early in the season. The Spartans are really balanced with Connor Cook at quarterback and Jeremy Langford in the backfield, and certainly have a good enough defense to play with any team in the country. While the Buckeyes have started to improve on offense with J.T. Barrett becoming more comfortable behind center and Urban Meyer putting more emphasis on the running game (if that is even possible), the Spartans are a much better team on both sides of the ball and should win that game next weekend. However, no matter what happens, the Big Ten will likely need some help around them to get a team into the playoffs.
The Pac-12 has been impossible to predict so far, which should continue right on through the end of the season. #5 Oregon, #12 Arizona, #14 Arizona St., and #17 Utah each have one loss with games to play against each other while UCLA, Stanford, and USC are all pretty good teams that could easily spoil the party for one of the clubs ahead of them. If Oregon can finally overcome the physicality of Stanford, which they have not been able to do since 2011 and has ruined their BCS title game chances each of the last two seasons, they will have the best chance of taking over one of the final four playoff spots from the SEC cannibalism that is going to occur. The Ducks offensive line has been very shaky this season in front of Heisman candidate and future Jets quarterback Marcus Mariota. Oregon has allowed 2.6 sacks per game, which ranks 91st in the nation, and could be much worse if Mariota didn't have the pocket awareness or the mobility of a top flight college quarterback. Stanford is 13th in the country in sacks per game at 3.3 per contest, so Oregon will have to do a better job of protecting Mariota and giving him more time in the pocket than they have been able to over the past several weeks. Since Mariota will be throwing into some real tight windows against a solid Cardinals defense, he will need more time to survey the field. If Oregon can get past Stanford and a tough road test at #17 Utah, they should be looking at a Pac-12 Championship game for a shot at a playoff birth. Meanwhile, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona St. all still have to play one another in Pac-12 South games, and Arizona still has an additional game against Washington, Utah still has to play Oregon, and Arizona St. still has to play Notre Dame aside from their divisional games. Freshman quarterback Anu Solomon has been racking up huge numbers against Pac-12 defenses, and unlike Connor Halliday, has actually been winning games in the process. Arizona is going to spread teams out and constantly attack them horizontally along the edge and also vertically down the field, which should give them a very good chance at winning the South and possibly meeting Oregon again in a Pac-12 Championship Game with major playoff implications.
Finally, in the Big 12, #7 TCU, #9 Kansas St., and #13 Baylor each have one loss on the season, and could make a run towards a final four spot with some SEC and Pac-12 losses ahead of them. TCU has to play #20 West Virginia in Morgantown before playing host to Kansas St. in a game that will likely decide the Big 12 race. Kansas St. also has difficult tests against Oklahoma St. and then really tough road games at West Virginia, and then Baylor to finish off the season in Waco. The Bears still have to go to Norman to play #18 Oklahoma on November 8th as well. Trevone Boykin has been terrific for the Horned Frogs this season in leading the nation's highest scoring offense at more than 50 points per game. Boykin can make a lot of plays with his feet, but his accuracy has greatly improved from last season, which has allowed TCU to put up some record breaking offensive numbers, including a 82 point mashing of Texas Tech last weekend. If TCU want to win the Big 12, however, and have a chance at a playoff spot, they will have to sure up their secondary, particularly when they play West Virginia's Kevin White and Kansas State's dynamic wide out Tyler Lockett, two of the best receivers in the country.
With only five weeks left in the season before Championship Weekend, or as the Big 12 calls it "just another weekend," a lot still has to be decided before the selection committee officially announces the four teams that will be going off to the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl on January 1st with the winners playing in Jerry's World on January 12th for the National Championship. From a two-loss team becoming the first club to win a title since LSU in 2007 to the SEC being left out of the playoff completely to Oregon actually beating Stanford for once and making the playoffs to Roger Goodell suddenly becoming a competent commissioner (I can have a dream can't I) we could see anything happen from now until January 12th. In the words of Kevin Garnett, "anything is possible" when it comes to college football.
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Showing posts with label Kansas St. Wildcats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kansas St. Wildcats. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2014
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Looking Back - The Things That I Regret Saying About Kentucky Before The 2014 NCAA Tournament
Note: This is a post that I began to write after the brackets for the 2014 NCAA Tournament came out in March and Kentucky was placed as a 8 seed in the extraordinarily difficult Midwest Regional with Wichita St., Louisville, Duke, and Michigan. Thankfully, I did not post it and forgot about the article (kinda like how everybody in the world has forgotten about Jimmer and his shooting ability, which I am still holding onto), but it is pretty funny to look back at and see how ridiculously wrong I was about Kentucky (never become skeptical of Big Blue Nation, Kevin Love's capacity to miss out on the playoffs, Chris Bosh's three point shooting capabilities, the power of Game of Thrones to shock you, or Jack Bauer's ability to escape certain death every episode). I was making fun of the Wildcats for having such a bad season after such high expectations (they had the worst regular season for a team ranked pre-season number 1 since either the UConn team in 1999-2000 with Khalid El-Amin that finished 25-10 and lost in the second round to Tennessee or the 1979-1980 Indiana team with Isiah Thomas, Butch Carter, and Mike Woodson that is the only club other then this Kentucky squad to fall out of the top 25 after being the pre-season number 1) and then they of course made a run to their second NCAA Championship Game in the last three years and their third Final Four under John Calipari since 2009-2010. Kentucky also became just the fifth 8 seed to reach the Final Four along with North Carolina and Wisconsin in 2000 (lost in the National Semifinals to Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleaves, and Michigan St. and Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Florida respectively), Butler in 2011 (lost to Kemba Walker and UConn in a very poorly played title game), and Villanova in 1985 (beat Georgetown and Patrick Ewing in the famous championship upset by Rollie Massimino). The Wildcats are also now only behind North Carolina and UCLA in terms of Final Fours by school (Tar Heels have 18, Bruins have 17, UK has 16) and are tied with the Bruins for the most National Championship game appearances in college basketball history (both teams have 12). To summarize, I couldn't have been more wrong (this is a statement that Billy King, Ernie Grunfeld, and Reggie McKenzie must have felt like saying over and over).
It seems like yesterday that the college basketball season was just about to begin and some people actually thought that Kentucky could become the first team since the 1975-1976 Indiana Hoosiers team of Scott May, Kent Benson, and Tom Abernethy to go undefeated. Across the Bluegrass state, fans everywhere outside of Louisville and the KFC Yum Center were buying 40-0 t-shirts in honor of the Wildcats (people also thought that the Falcons could finally break through and win their first Super Bowl in franchise history after three straight seasons with more than 10 wins and yet they finished 4-12 in 2013, their fewest wins since 1996, so don't ever listen to pre-season predictions). Obviously, the Wildcats had a really strong recruiting class coming into the season with the likes of Julius Randle (a mix of Zach Randolph and Chris Webber), James Young, Darkari Johnson, the Harrison twins, and Marcus Lee. In the history of college basketball, there have been a lot of really great recruiting classes that have changed the course of the game for the next couple of seasons. In 1965, UCLA brought in Lew Alcindor, Lucius Allen, Ken Heitz, and Lynn Shackelford (a class so good that they beat the varsity team that went 18-8 by 15 in a scrimmage at Pauley Pavilion when freshmen were not allowed to play in their first year in college) and in 1979, Isiah Thomas, Jim Thomas, and Randy Whittman all came to Indiana to play for Bob Knight. Cincinnati's recruiting class when they brought in Oscar Robertson in 1956 or LSU's class when they got Pete Maravich in 1967 are right up there with the best of all-time because those two guards were just that good on their own. Other great classes in the modern era include Michigan's Fab Five of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson from 1991, the 1999 Duke class of Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams, and Mike Dunleavy, Jr., the 2002 North Carolina class of Sean May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and David Noel, Florida's group of Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Taurean Green, and Joakim Noah from 2004, Ohio State's class of 2006 of Greg Oden, Mike Conley, David Lighty, and Daequan Cook, and finally Calipari's own class of Anthony Davis, Michael-Kidd Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Kyle Wiltjer from 2011. No matter how good Kentucky's 2013 recruiting class was made out to be by the high school recruiting experts or the pressure that would be taken off their backs by the return of the super athletic Alex Poythress and the shot-blocking Willie Cauley-Stein, to put them in that conversation without even stepping foot on the floor in Lexington was more absurd than The Plague by Albert Camus. In fact, Kentucky's pursuit of perfection lasted as long as Billy Donovan's coaching career with the Magic, or more aptly, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries's marriage.
(You can't even feel bad for Kris Humphries. Why didn't he look at Reggie Bush? From 2007 to 2010 when the USC Heisman Trophy winner - excuse me, the 5-year Heisman Trophy winner before he gave it back - was with Kim Kardashian, Bush never even reached 600 rushing yards in a season with the Saints despite being just the second running back along with Ronnie Brown to go in the first two picks of the NFL draft since 1996. Without the Kardashian syndrome in the last three years, Bush has finished each season with more than 975 rushing yards, one of only six running backs to do so along with Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, and Chris Johnson. I'm calling this the Kardashian effect, which is the adverse repercussions that an athlete can face from dating a high profile celebrity, a list that includes Tony Romo, Amar'e Stoudemire, Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, and Diego Forlan. Bush's improvement likely has more to do with the fact that he left the Saints and their group of running backs that is as big as the Spanish Armada and has gotten more than 215 carries every year since then with the Dolphins and Lions, but I refuse to believe that Kim doesn't factor into this equation. However, you can feel bad for Kris Humphries for getting completely Mozgoved by Blake Griffin earlier this season in January, which is a list that now pretty much includes Humphries, Mozgov, Gasol, Perkins, Ibaka, and is expending as fast as the NFL playoffs. The best part about watching Blake's dunk over Humphries over and over is looking at DeAndre Jordan's reaction to the dunk because he looks like he just saw Lincoln get shot by John Wilkes Booth).
Anyway, not only did Kentucky lose in their third game of the season to Michigan St. in the Champions Classic, and end their very short flirt with perfection that so many fans predicted, but they then lost 9 more times after that game in Chicago in the regular season. Their defeats included two losses to Arkansas (the first time Calipari has lost to one team twice in a season at Kentucky before the Wildcats fell three times to Florida later on in the season), once to a team in South Carolina that may have finished six games under .500 because their coach is so scary that they are probably afraid to do anything on the floor, and finally to a LSU team that the Wildcats had not lost to since they had Billy Gillispie as their head coach in 2008-2009 (any Kentucky stat that comes with the line since Billy Gillispie is just destined to not end well unless you consider their most losses in one season since 1989-1990 a step in the right direction). To make matters worse, the Wildcats were 1-6 against ranked opponents with losses to Michigan St., Baylor, North Carolina, and Florida three teams, had only one victory over a team inside the RPI top 40, which came against Louisville at Rupp Arena in December, and were a dismal 5-6 in true road games with their first loss in Columbia, South Carolina since the 2009-2010 season. Even after the Wildcats knocked off Pitino's Cardinals for the 5th time in their last 6 meetings, which is sometimes viewed as more important than the season itself (just ask Bill Curry about the importance of rivalries to a head coach, as the former Alabama coach had to leave Tuscaloosa to coach at Kentucky because despite having a 26-10 record with the Crimson Tide in three seasons and leading them to their first SEC title since Bear Bryant was the coach of the team in 1981, Curry was 0-3 against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, the worst streak against the Tigers since they lost 5 games in a row all the way back from 1954 to 1958), there was a vibe of dissatisfaction and almost sulking coming out of the Kentucky team.
You can look at so many different reasons why this Kentucky squad became just the 15th Wildcats team in the last 83 years dating back to when Adolph Rupp took over the program in 1930 to lose at least 10 regular season games in a season (just for fun, in comparison, Northwestern has had 73 regular seasons with at least 10 losses since 1930 including every year since 1958-1959. I'm not sure what is worse for the Collins family: Doug losing the Gold Medal to the USSR in that very controversial 1972 Olympic Game in Munich or Chris having to coach Northwestern). Obviously, this season was the year of the freshmen with everybody falling in love with the standout first year players from across the nation including Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Wayne Selden from Kansas, Jabari Parker of Duke, Aaron Gordon and Rondae-Hollis Jefferson from Arizona, Tyler Ennis at Syracuse, and Noah Vonleh from Indiana, which may have factored into people overrating just how good Kentucky's freshmen really were from the start of the season (other freshmen classes that can compete with this year include the 1979 class of Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, and Quintin Dailey, the 1981 class of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ed Pinckney, and Sam Vincent and the 2007 class of Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, and Michael Beasley).
Aside from Julius Randle, whose college basketball leading 24 double-doubles as a freshmen has only been surpassed by a first year player once since 1980 when Michael Beasley had a NCAA record 28 double-doubles for Kansas St. and Bob Huggins in 2007-2008, Kentucky's freshmen class was nowhere near what most people expected from it. For as much hype as the Harrisons got for being the best twin combination since the Sedins, the Barbers, or the Bryans, Andrew and Aaron played much more like the Morris or Collins twins than the Arsdale brothers with Kentucky this season. Andrew does more of the ball handling for the Wildcats at point while Aaron plays more so on the wing, but the Wildcats back-court pairing was often exploited by top guards like Keith Appling and Gary Harris from Michigan St. (scored a combined 42 points against the Wildcats), Marcus Paige from North Carolina (scored 23 points versus the Harrisons), and Scottie Wilbekin and Michael Frazier II from Florida (held the Harrisons to 18 combined points in their game in Gainesville). Andrew had the lowest assist-to-turnover ration among any player in a major college basketball conference and averaged nearly 3 turnovers per contest, and Aaron was not very assertive and refused to attack the rim in becoming purely an outside shooter, as in the 11 games where he scored 10 points or less, he shot a terrible 8-44 (18.1%) from three. Although the Harrisons both possess tremendous size for perimeters players and their 6-6 frame allows them to be disruptive defensively when they set their minds to it, they were often times not explosive enough to get by players and make plays offensively. Meanwhile, James Young is a good three point shooter for the Wildcats, but only Marshall Henderson from Ole Miss, Sean Kilpatrick from Cincinnati, Michael Frazier from Florida, Brady Heslip from Baylor, Ben Brust from Wisconsin, and Trevor Cooney from Syracuse took more threes than Young this season from teams in major conferences, which is somewhat concerning because Young morphed into solely a jump shooter, much like Aaron. Although Young does have a quick release to get his smooth looking jump shot off before defenders can close down on him, he can't really create his own shot, which hurts the Wildcats because Andrew often struggles to put his teammates into good positions to make plays. Marcus Lee dunks everything he can get his hands on off the backboard, but he has not seen a lot of action this season and Darkari Johnson is a big 7-footer that does have a basis for a good post game, but he is still developing and is only 18 years old.
It also seemed as if the Kentucky players thought that they would just roll through teams during the season and that when that didn't happen, they lost confidence because the Wildcats did not have the same fight that Calipari's 2011-2012 team so often showed and that was more reminiscent of the disaster that happened in Lexington last season with the unreliable Archie Goodwin leading the way. The thing that made the Anthony Davis team just so good, aside from the fact that they had Davis and everybody else didn't (there were some real good teams that year if you remember with Scoop Jardine, MCW, Dion Waiters, C.J. Fair, and Kris Joseph on Cuse, Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Reggie Bullock, Harrison Barnes, James McAdoo, and Tyler Zeller down in North Carolina, Aaron Craft, Deshaun Thomas, Jared Sullinger on Ohio St., and the Kansas team of Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor, and Jeff Withey), was that everybody in that UK group worked so hard defensively for one another. Whether it was defensive rotations, MKG switching onto a big man and having to guard him in the post, or Darius Miller taking on the opposing teams best player every night, that Kentucky team did whatever it had to do. However, this year's Wildcats squad has some real defensive deficiencies, as James Young is not particularly quick on the perimeter or strong enough to guard players inside at the four position and for as good as Julius Randle is offensively and in his mid-range game, he does not have real good ball awareness and he is not the best interior defender. The Wildcats rely to much on Willie-Cauley Stein and their length to block and change shots around the lane, which can work on occasion because Kentucky is just flat out more athletic than every team they play (the Wildcats are 10th in the nation in blocks per game with almost 6 each contest), but constantly letting guys into the paint is not a recipe for success no matter what. LSU is the only team in the SEC that allows more points from 2-pointers than Kentucky and despite their unmatched athleticism and size, Kentucky is 300th in the nation in forcing their opponents to turn over the ball, ahead of only Tennessee and Missouri in the SEC.
It has been an incredible college basketball season, one of the best in recent memory (I feel like I say this every year, but I actually mean it this time. Nonetheless, I guarantee you I will say the same thing next season when Coach K has his best Duke team since the days of Jay Williams and Carlos Boozer with his recruiting class of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, and Grayson Allen, Kansas brings in Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre to go with Wayne Selden and Perry Ellis, Kentucky reloads with whatever freshmen come back along with recruits Trey Lyles, Karl Towns, Devin Booker, and Tyler Ulis, SMU brings in a player that is better than anybody Larry Brown coached with the Bobcats from 2008-2010 with 6-5 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, and Arizona and Wisconsin return loaded cores). We were able to see the individual greatness of players across the nation, including Doug McDermott, who now ranks behind only Pete Maravich of LSU, Freeman Williams from Portland St., La Salle's Lionel Simmons, and Alphonso Ford of Mississippi Valley State in career points in division I history, and also the outstanding play of freshmen like Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Tyler Ennis. We were also fortunate enough to watch a team like Virginia win the ACC regular season and post-season titles and have their best year since the days of Ralph Sampson and Wichita St. become the first team since the 1990-1991 UNLV squad of Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, and Elmore Spencer to enter the NCAA tournament with an undefeated record. It was a great year for college basketball fans across the nation, except for in Lexington, where pre-season expectations of a 40-0 season have changed to people not being surprised if the Wildcats lose to Kansas St. in their first game of the tourney, and Calipari falling for the first time in the big dance since his Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, and Doron Lamb squad lost in the Final Four to Kemba Walker and UConn back in 2011.
Note: After spending around 2,500 words bashing Kentucky for their disappointment of a season in going 24-10, they of course proved me wrong and taught me to never count out a team that has a starting line-up where every player is at least 6-6 and a McDonald's All-American. I should have known better then to think that Kansas St. could actually beat UK because the Wildcats have only won more than one game in the tournament once since 1989 when they made the Elite Eight with Jacob Pullen in 2010 (even the Mets, Jets, White Sox, and Michigan St. think that Kansas St. is a pretty obvious little brother to Kansas). I'm still not sure how Kentucky beat Wichita St. in their second game of the tourney in the 1-8 match-up, a game that was undoubtedly one of the best played NCAA tournament contests over the past few decades (Kentucky's win marked the fourth year out of the last five that a one seed has lost before the Sweet 16 with the others being when Northern Iowa knocked off Kansas in 2010, when Butler beat Pittsburgh in 2011, and when Gonzaga fell to Wichita St. in 2013). UK somehow knocked off the undefeated Shockers despite the fact that Wichita St. shot 55.1 percent from the floor, the 4th highest for any opponent against Calipari since he came to Lexington in 2009-2010, made 10 of 21 three pointers, averaged a ridiculously high 1.215 points per possession, the 2nd highest rate against Kentucky's defense all season long, and had Cleanthony Early score a season high 31 points on 12 of 17 shooting. Kentucky then turned to Aaron Harrison, who somehow morphed into Bryce Drew/Christian Laettner/Kenton Paulino/Drew Nicholas overnight and not once, not twice, but three times saved Kentucky with late three point clutch jump shots, all of which came from nearly the identical spot on the left side of the floor. Against Louisville in the Midwest Regional semifinals, down by one point with under a minute left, Russ Smith left Harrison open in the corner and he took a pass from Randle and knocked down the three to give UK the victory. In the elite eight against Michigan, with the game tied at 72, Aaron took a hand-off from his brother and hit a three over Caris LeVert with 2 seconds left to send the Wildcats to the Final Four. Finally, in the National Semifinals versus Wisconsin and with Kentucky down by two with 5 seconds left, Aaron hit literally the exact same three pointer to give the Wildcats the lead and the eventual win (if you want to see deja vu, don't watch the movie with Denzel Washington, but watch the final minute of Kentucky's games against Louisville, Michigan, and Wisconsin). The Wildcats run did come to an end when they were not able to get enough offense in the title game against a deserved National Champion in Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels and UConn, but they proved to never count a team out until they have been knocked out. With that knowledge in mind, I think the Pacers growing dysfunction will be the reason why they will lose in the winner-take-all game 7 against the undermatched Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference first round, but there is a pretty good chance that I will be writing a piece in June with the title, "Looking Back - The Things I Regret Saying About The Indiana Pacers Before The Eastern Conference Semifinals Even Began."
It seems like yesterday that the college basketball season was just about to begin and some people actually thought that Kentucky could become the first team since the 1975-1976 Indiana Hoosiers team of Scott May, Kent Benson, and Tom Abernethy to go undefeated. Across the Bluegrass state, fans everywhere outside of Louisville and the KFC Yum Center were buying 40-0 t-shirts in honor of the Wildcats (people also thought that the Falcons could finally break through and win their first Super Bowl in franchise history after three straight seasons with more than 10 wins and yet they finished 4-12 in 2013, their fewest wins since 1996, so don't ever listen to pre-season predictions). Obviously, the Wildcats had a really strong recruiting class coming into the season with the likes of Julius Randle (a mix of Zach Randolph and Chris Webber), James Young, Darkari Johnson, the Harrison twins, and Marcus Lee. In the history of college basketball, there have been a lot of really great recruiting classes that have changed the course of the game for the next couple of seasons. In 1965, UCLA brought in Lew Alcindor, Lucius Allen, Ken Heitz, and Lynn Shackelford (a class so good that they beat the varsity team that went 18-8 by 15 in a scrimmage at Pauley Pavilion when freshmen were not allowed to play in their first year in college) and in 1979, Isiah Thomas, Jim Thomas, and Randy Whittman all came to Indiana to play for Bob Knight. Cincinnati's recruiting class when they brought in Oscar Robertson in 1956 or LSU's class when they got Pete Maravich in 1967 are right up there with the best of all-time because those two guards were just that good on their own. Other great classes in the modern era include Michigan's Fab Five of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson from 1991, the 1999 Duke class of Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams, and Mike Dunleavy, Jr., the 2002 North Carolina class of Sean May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and David Noel, Florida's group of Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Taurean Green, and Joakim Noah from 2004, Ohio State's class of 2006 of Greg Oden, Mike Conley, David Lighty, and Daequan Cook, and finally Calipari's own class of Anthony Davis, Michael-Kidd Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Kyle Wiltjer from 2011. No matter how good Kentucky's 2013 recruiting class was made out to be by the high school recruiting experts or the pressure that would be taken off their backs by the return of the super athletic Alex Poythress and the shot-blocking Willie Cauley-Stein, to put them in that conversation without even stepping foot on the floor in Lexington was more absurd than The Plague by Albert Camus. In fact, Kentucky's pursuit of perfection lasted as long as Billy Donovan's coaching career with the Magic, or more aptly, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries's marriage.
(You can't even feel bad for Kris Humphries. Why didn't he look at Reggie Bush? From 2007 to 2010 when the USC Heisman Trophy winner - excuse me, the 5-year Heisman Trophy winner before he gave it back - was with Kim Kardashian, Bush never even reached 600 rushing yards in a season with the Saints despite being just the second running back along with Ronnie Brown to go in the first two picks of the NFL draft since 1996. Without the Kardashian syndrome in the last three years, Bush has finished each season with more than 975 rushing yards, one of only six running backs to do so along with Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, and Chris Johnson. I'm calling this the Kardashian effect, which is the adverse repercussions that an athlete can face from dating a high profile celebrity, a list that includes Tony Romo, Amar'e Stoudemire, Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, and Diego Forlan. Bush's improvement likely has more to do with the fact that he left the Saints and their group of running backs that is as big as the Spanish Armada and has gotten more than 215 carries every year since then with the Dolphins and Lions, but I refuse to believe that Kim doesn't factor into this equation. However, you can feel bad for Kris Humphries for getting completely Mozgoved by Blake Griffin earlier this season in January, which is a list that now pretty much includes Humphries, Mozgov, Gasol, Perkins, Ibaka, and is expending as fast as the NFL playoffs. The best part about watching Blake's dunk over Humphries over and over is looking at DeAndre Jordan's reaction to the dunk because he looks like he just saw Lincoln get shot by John Wilkes Booth).
Anyway, not only did Kentucky lose in their third game of the season to Michigan St. in the Champions Classic, and end their very short flirt with perfection that so many fans predicted, but they then lost 9 more times after that game in Chicago in the regular season. Their defeats included two losses to Arkansas (the first time Calipari has lost to one team twice in a season at Kentucky before the Wildcats fell three times to Florida later on in the season), once to a team in South Carolina that may have finished six games under .500 because their coach is so scary that they are probably afraid to do anything on the floor, and finally to a LSU team that the Wildcats had not lost to since they had Billy Gillispie as their head coach in 2008-2009 (any Kentucky stat that comes with the line since Billy Gillispie is just destined to not end well unless you consider their most losses in one season since 1989-1990 a step in the right direction). To make matters worse, the Wildcats were 1-6 against ranked opponents with losses to Michigan St., Baylor, North Carolina, and Florida three teams, had only one victory over a team inside the RPI top 40, which came against Louisville at Rupp Arena in December, and were a dismal 5-6 in true road games with their first loss in Columbia, South Carolina since the 2009-2010 season. Even after the Wildcats knocked off Pitino's Cardinals for the 5th time in their last 6 meetings, which is sometimes viewed as more important than the season itself (just ask Bill Curry about the importance of rivalries to a head coach, as the former Alabama coach had to leave Tuscaloosa to coach at Kentucky because despite having a 26-10 record with the Crimson Tide in three seasons and leading them to their first SEC title since Bear Bryant was the coach of the team in 1981, Curry was 0-3 against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, the worst streak against the Tigers since they lost 5 games in a row all the way back from 1954 to 1958), there was a vibe of dissatisfaction and almost sulking coming out of the Kentucky team.
You can look at so many different reasons why this Kentucky squad became just the 15th Wildcats team in the last 83 years dating back to when Adolph Rupp took over the program in 1930 to lose at least 10 regular season games in a season (just for fun, in comparison, Northwestern has had 73 regular seasons with at least 10 losses since 1930 including every year since 1958-1959. I'm not sure what is worse for the Collins family: Doug losing the Gold Medal to the USSR in that very controversial 1972 Olympic Game in Munich or Chris having to coach Northwestern). Obviously, this season was the year of the freshmen with everybody falling in love with the standout first year players from across the nation including Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Wayne Selden from Kansas, Jabari Parker of Duke, Aaron Gordon and Rondae-Hollis Jefferson from Arizona, Tyler Ennis at Syracuse, and Noah Vonleh from Indiana, which may have factored into people overrating just how good Kentucky's freshmen really were from the start of the season (other freshmen classes that can compete with this year include the 1979 class of Isiah Thomas, James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, and Quintin Dailey, the 1981 class of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ed Pinckney, and Sam Vincent and the 2007 class of Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, and Michael Beasley).
Aside from Julius Randle, whose college basketball leading 24 double-doubles as a freshmen has only been surpassed by a first year player once since 1980 when Michael Beasley had a NCAA record 28 double-doubles for Kansas St. and Bob Huggins in 2007-2008, Kentucky's freshmen class was nowhere near what most people expected from it. For as much hype as the Harrisons got for being the best twin combination since the Sedins, the Barbers, or the Bryans, Andrew and Aaron played much more like the Morris or Collins twins than the Arsdale brothers with Kentucky this season. Andrew does more of the ball handling for the Wildcats at point while Aaron plays more so on the wing, but the Wildcats back-court pairing was often exploited by top guards like Keith Appling and Gary Harris from Michigan St. (scored a combined 42 points against the Wildcats), Marcus Paige from North Carolina (scored 23 points versus the Harrisons), and Scottie Wilbekin and Michael Frazier II from Florida (held the Harrisons to 18 combined points in their game in Gainesville). Andrew had the lowest assist-to-turnover ration among any player in a major college basketball conference and averaged nearly 3 turnovers per contest, and Aaron was not very assertive and refused to attack the rim in becoming purely an outside shooter, as in the 11 games where he scored 10 points or less, he shot a terrible 8-44 (18.1%) from three. Although the Harrisons both possess tremendous size for perimeters players and their 6-6 frame allows them to be disruptive defensively when they set their minds to it, they were often times not explosive enough to get by players and make plays offensively. Meanwhile, James Young is a good three point shooter for the Wildcats, but only Marshall Henderson from Ole Miss, Sean Kilpatrick from Cincinnati, Michael Frazier from Florida, Brady Heslip from Baylor, Ben Brust from Wisconsin, and Trevor Cooney from Syracuse took more threes than Young this season from teams in major conferences, which is somewhat concerning because Young morphed into solely a jump shooter, much like Aaron. Although Young does have a quick release to get his smooth looking jump shot off before defenders can close down on him, he can't really create his own shot, which hurts the Wildcats because Andrew often struggles to put his teammates into good positions to make plays. Marcus Lee dunks everything he can get his hands on off the backboard, but he has not seen a lot of action this season and Darkari Johnson is a big 7-footer that does have a basis for a good post game, but he is still developing and is only 18 years old.
It also seemed as if the Kentucky players thought that they would just roll through teams during the season and that when that didn't happen, they lost confidence because the Wildcats did not have the same fight that Calipari's 2011-2012 team so often showed and that was more reminiscent of the disaster that happened in Lexington last season with the unreliable Archie Goodwin leading the way. The thing that made the Anthony Davis team just so good, aside from the fact that they had Davis and everybody else didn't (there were some real good teams that year if you remember with Scoop Jardine, MCW, Dion Waiters, C.J. Fair, and Kris Joseph on Cuse, Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Reggie Bullock, Harrison Barnes, James McAdoo, and Tyler Zeller down in North Carolina, Aaron Craft, Deshaun Thomas, Jared Sullinger on Ohio St., and the Kansas team of Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor, and Jeff Withey), was that everybody in that UK group worked so hard defensively for one another. Whether it was defensive rotations, MKG switching onto a big man and having to guard him in the post, or Darius Miller taking on the opposing teams best player every night, that Kentucky team did whatever it had to do. However, this year's Wildcats squad has some real defensive deficiencies, as James Young is not particularly quick on the perimeter or strong enough to guard players inside at the four position and for as good as Julius Randle is offensively and in his mid-range game, he does not have real good ball awareness and he is not the best interior defender. The Wildcats rely to much on Willie-Cauley Stein and their length to block and change shots around the lane, which can work on occasion because Kentucky is just flat out more athletic than every team they play (the Wildcats are 10th in the nation in blocks per game with almost 6 each contest), but constantly letting guys into the paint is not a recipe for success no matter what. LSU is the only team in the SEC that allows more points from 2-pointers than Kentucky and despite their unmatched athleticism and size, Kentucky is 300th in the nation in forcing their opponents to turn over the ball, ahead of only Tennessee and Missouri in the SEC.
It has been an incredible college basketball season, one of the best in recent memory (I feel like I say this every year, but I actually mean it this time. Nonetheless, I guarantee you I will say the same thing next season when Coach K has his best Duke team since the days of Jay Williams and Carlos Boozer with his recruiting class of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, and Grayson Allen, Kansas brings in Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre to go with Wayne Selden and Perry Ellis, Kentucky reloads with whatever freshmen come back along with recruits Trey Lyles, Karl Towns, Devin Booker, and Tyler Ulis, SMU brings in a player that is better than anybody Larry Brown coached with the Bobcats from 2008-2010 with 6-5 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, and Arizona and Wisconsin return loaded cores). We were able to see the individual greatness of players across the nation, including Doug McDermott, who now ranks behind only Pete Maravich of LSU, Freeman Williams from Portland St., La Salle's Lionel Simmons, and Alphonso Ford of Mississippi Valley State in career points in division I history, and also the outstanding play of freshmen like Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Tyler Ennis. We were also fortunate enough to watch a team like Virginia win the ACC regular season and post-season titles and have their best year since the days of Ralph Sampson and Wichita St. become the first team since the 1990-1991 UNLV squad of Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, and Elmore Spencer to enter the NCAA tournament with an undefeated record. It was a great year for college basketball fans across the nation, except for in Lexington, where pre-season expectations of a 40-0 season have changed to people not being surprised if the Wildcats lose to Kansas St. in their first game of the tourney, and Calipari falling for the first time in the big dance since his Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, and Doron Lamb squad lost in the Final Four to Kemba Walker and UConn back in 2011.
Note: After spending around 2,500 words bashing Kentucky for their disappointment of a season in going 24-10, they of course proved me wrong and taught me to never count out a team that has a starting line-up where every player is at least 6-6 and a McDonald's All-American. I should have known better then to think that Kansas St. could actually beat UK because the Wildcats have only won more than one game in the tournament once since 1989 when they made the Elite Eight with Jacob Pullen in 2010 (even the Mets, Jets, White Sox, and Michigan St. think that Kansas St. is a pretty obvious little brother to Kansas). I'm still not sure how Kentucky beat Wichita St. in their second game of the tourney in the 1-8 match-up, a game that was undoubtedly one of the best played NCAA tournament contests over the past few decades (Kentucky's win marked the fourth year out of the last five that a one seed has lost before the Sweet 16 with the others being when Northern Iowa knocked off Kansas in 2010, when Butler beat Pittsburgh in 2011, and when Gonzaga fell to Wichita St. in 2013). UK somehow knocked off the undefeated Shockers despite the fact that Wichita St. shot 55.1 percent from the floor, the 4th highest for any opponent against Calipari since he came to Lexington in 2009-2010, made 10 of 21 three pointers, averaged a ridiculously high 1.215 points per possession, the 2nd highest rate against Kentucky's defense all season long, and had Cleanthony Early score a season high 31 points on 12 of 17 shooting. Kentucky then turned to Aaron Harrison, who somehow morphed into Bryce Drew/Christian Laettner/Kenton Paulino/Drew Nicholas overnight and not once, not twice, but three times saved Kentucky with late three point clutch jump shots, all of which came from nearly the identical spot on the left side of the floor. Against Louisville in the Midwest Regional semifinals, down by one point with under a minute left, Russ Smith left Harrison open in the corner and he took a pass from Randle and knocked down the three to give UK the victory. In the elite eight against Michigan, with the game tied at 72, Aaron took a hand-off from his brother and hit a three over Caris LeVert with 2 seconds left to send the Wildcats to the Final Four. Finally, in the National Semifinals versus Wisconsin and with Kentucky down by two with 5 seconds left, Aaron hit literally the exact same three pointer to give the Wildcats the lead and the eventual win (if you want to see deja vu, don't watch the movie with Denzel Washington, but watch the final minute of Kentucky's games against Louisville, Michigan, and Wisconsin). The Wildcats run did come to an end when they were not able to get enough offense in the title game against a deserved National Champion in Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels and UConn, but they proved to never count a team out until they have been knocked out. With that knowledge in mind, I think the Pacers growing dysfunction will be the reason why they will lose in the winner-take-all game 7 against the undermatched Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference first round, but there is a pretty good chance that I will be writing a piece in June with the title, "Looking Back - The Things I Regret Saying About The Indiana Pacers Before The Eastern Conference Semifinals Even Began."
Monday, March 18, 2013
Marshall Henderson Is Good For The NCAA Tournament
Sports are notorious for creating immortal legends, exalted superstars, and sublime leaders. Names like Montana, Jordan, Mays, Robinson, Orr, and Nicklaus have become glorified for their immeasurable impact in the world of sports. While these renowned and celebrated figures have become the model for legendary status, much like a movie or a book, sports are also synonymous with villains. Every fan has an envisage in their head of an athlete that just gets under their skin with their antics, attitude, and behavior. Whether it is Bill Laimbeer, Christian Laettner, Michael Vick, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, or Art Modell in Cleveland, sports certainly have their fair share of vilified characters. In fact, look no further than Marshall Henderson at Ole Miss to find college basketball's new antihero.
College basketball has provided an unprecedented amount of excitement this season due to the myriad of upsets amongst the top teams. TCU had a 2-16 record in the Big 12, but the Horn Frogs miraculous beat the Big 12 regular season and tournament champion Kansas Jayhawks. South Florida began their Big East campaign with a conference record of 1-14, but their sole win came over Big East regular season champion Georgetown. Penn St. lost their first 14 Big Ten conference games until they knocked off Michigan and put a dent in the Wolverines chances at a regular season Big Ten title. However, while the shocking results have certainly been thrilling, fans have become petulant with the lack of quality players and teams in the college game. Due to the one and done rule, teams are constantly having to recycle their squads because so many underclassmen are leaving for the NBA after just one season. In last year's draft, 5 of the top 10 picks were freshman, leaving a huge talent void at several schools. With so many young players still maturing and developing (see Perry Ellis at Kansas), the parity in college basketball is readily apparent, as many of the top teams lack real star power. Without high end superstars like in years past, college basketball is lucky to have an vivacious and sprightly player like Marshall Henderson in the big dance.
The adjectives often used to delineate Henderson may not seem to have the most positive connotations. The junior guard is often described as arrogant, audacious, insolent, and impetuous, and his on-the-court behavior is subject to much attention, as experts often vituperate the fact that he plays with such much emotion and flare. However, Henderson's in-your-face attitude and fiery playing style makes him one of the most exciting players to watch in the country. His unpredictability turns every Ole Miss game into a unique and riveting experience.
Mississippi's slim victory over Auburn at the end of January began the country's fascination with Henderson. With Ole Miss in the top 25 for the first time in nearly 3 years, their battle with the Tigers was a heated affair, which undoubtedly meant that Henderson would be at the center of the tight contest. With 6.4 seconds left and the game tied at 61, Henderson, an 88 percent free throw shooter, drained both of his foul shots and the Rebels went on to survive 63-61. Following the game, the always spontaneous Henderson ran over to the Auburn fans and began to taunt the student section. Holding his Rebels jersey out and mocking the fans, Henderson began to show his passionate, yet impulsive nature. The polarizing guard had a simple response when asked about the incident, "That was me. That was my heart just going out. Just going over there. We are Ole Miss, take that. You just came here for two-and-a-half hours just to yell and scream for no reason because you just lost the game." And thus, college basketball found a player that was so appealing, and yet so provocative at the same time.
The excitement that comes along with Henderson continued throughout SEC play. The flamboyant and theatrical guard had a game against Kentucky in which he had a heated confrontation with his head coach, and threw ice at his own student section all in the first half. There was the SEC tournament final against Florida where Henderson did the gator chomp all the way up the floor after nailing a fade away three pointer to cap off a 33-15 Ole Miss run to begin the second half. While Henderson's antics are certainly extravagant, it would not be prudent to doubt his passion for the game or his intensity.
Often times in sports, the in-your-face and over ebullient player on a team is not the star, but rather a role player that provides a spark and added intensity. However, the fact that Henderson is Mississippi's best player and is one of the most prolific shooters in the country makes his entire act that much more fascinating. The Utah transfer led the SEC in scoring at more than 20 points per game and was also second in the nation in three point makes at nearly 4 per game. With his quick release and ability to find openings on the floor off screens, Henderson shot nearly 40 percent from behind the arc in Mississippi's 5-game win streak at the end of the season. While at times Henderson's shot selection is not always the best, as evidenced by his poor game against Mississippi St., where he made just 3 of 18 threes, the sharp shooter has the ability to catch fire at any time.
Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy also deserves a lot of credit for allowing Henderson the freedom he needs on the court. Kennedy, who led the Rebels to their first SEC tournament title since 1981 and the program's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002, has allowed Henderson to play with his unique passion and fervor, which makes the guard flourish and gives the team their identity. Kennedy said, "I think he's [Henderson] been readily open with the fact that if he didn't play with that edge, he wouldn't be a guy that could lead the SEC in scoring... His passion comes from a good place, it really does."
#12 Ole Miss opens up the NCAA tournament in Kansas City against the #5 Wisconsin Badgers in the west region with the winner taking on #4 Kansas St. or #13 Boise St/#13 La Salle. The stifling Wisconsin defense, which ranked 9th in the country in points allowed at just under 56 per game, will be geared to slow down Henderson and will be focused around chasing him off the three point line. However, the entertaining and compelling Henderson will certainly provide some magical tournament moments, and his radiant and resplendent personality are a must watch for college basketball fans.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Despite Their Losses, Clemson and Kansas St. Still Have A Lot To Play For
The rode to the BCS National Championship is always a rocky and difficult path. Teams have to survive their opponents best shot week after week and they have to be able to win close games. Just look at Auburn's season last year. The Tigers won 6 games by a touchdown or less including 5 games by just 3 points or less. Even a team like Kentucky, who were 2-6 in the SEC, played their best game of the season against the Tigers and just came up 3 points short. In a usual year, there are only one to three undefeated teams in college football. For most teams in the country, their strength and character is tested after they lose a game and fall out of the National Championship picture. Often times, it is much harder for a team to be motivated and get up for a game after a difficult loss than a team that is fighting for a title. While teams like Clemson and Kansas St. may have fallen out of the National Championship picture, they still have a lot to play for.
History shows that teams who have National Championship aspirations and drop a game are often susceptible to further losses down the road because they lose motivation. In 2010 Virginia Tech may have had its best team since 1999 when the Hokies were led by Michael Vick and were undefeated until they lost in the BCS National Championship to Florida St 46-29. The Hokies were in the preseason top 10 at number 6 but had a crushing loss in a highly contested week 1 game against the Boise St. Broncos 33-30 after Kellen Moore threw a game winning touchdown pass with a little over a minute remaining. The Hokies were so distraught over their loss and their National Championship dreams vanishing that they became the second team to ever be ranked in the AP Poll and lose to a FCS opponent when they fell to James Madison the following week 21-16 at home. No disrespect to James Madison, but there isn't a college football fan out there that believes that the Hokies would have lost that game if they had beaten the Broncos the previous week. However, the Hokies had an emotional let down and it put them in a horrible 0-2 hole to begin the season. That same year, Oklahoma rallied off 6 straight wins to begin their season with a perfect 6-0 record and the Sooners were the number 1 ranked team when the BCS standings were initially released. After giving up more than 485 yards of total offense in a 36-27 loss to the Missouri Tigers, the Sooners dropped to number 9 in the BCS standings and out of National Championship contention. The Sooners were unable to rebound from their difficult loss to Missouri and just two weeks later, the Sooners played a horrible game in a 33-19 loss to Texas A&M
Before Clemson's loss to Georgia Tech, the Tigers perfect 8-0 start was their best start since 2000 when they also began 8-0 and their number 5 BCS ranking was the best in school history. Those impressive numbers will now only add to the challenge for the Tigers when they try to recover from their 31-17 loss to Georgia Tech. Although a National Championship is now out of the picture for the Tigers, they still have a lot to play for. Since the ACC split into two divisions in 2005, Clemson has won the Atlantic division just once. In fact, Clemson has not won an ACC Championship since 1991 when the team was coached by Ken Hatfield. If the Tigers want to get to Charlotte, so that they can have a shot at winning their first ACC title in 20 years and making their first BCS Bowl game, they will have to recover very quickly from their loss because they have a huge game in two weeks against Wake Forest. If the Tigers fail to recover and fall to Wake, the Demon Deacons will have to beat a weak 2-6 Maryland team at home to win the Atlantic Division and just like that Clemson would be on the outside looking in. The Tigers also need two wins out of their last three games to win 10 games for the first time since 1990.
Kansas St. is in a very similar position to the Clemson Tigers. The Wildcats began their season with a perfect 7-0 record for the first time since 1999 and were number 8 in the BCS rankings. The Wildcats may have an even tougher time recovering from their first loss of the season than the Tigers for two reasons. First off, unlike the Tigers, the Wildcats had a lot of doubters after their 7-0 start and many fans believe that the Wildcats showed their true stuff after they were destroyed by Oklahoma 58-17 at home. The Kansas St. players are going to hear all week about how their 41-point loss shows who they really are and it may be tough for the Wildcats to have to handle all of the pressure of trying to prove those doubters wrong. Secondly, the Wildcats may have the hardest remaining schedule in the country. They have to travel to play #3 Oklahoma St. in Stillwater, then play #16 Texas A&M the following week, and then travel to Austin to play #24 Texas to finish up a brutal three game stretch. However, Kansas St. should be looking forward to the challenge. They are already bowl eligible and will play in a bowl game for just the 3rd time since 2003. The Wildcats need just one win out of their final four games to end up with at least 8 wins for the first time since 2003 when they went 11-4 and lost in the Fiesta Bowl.
One thing that the Tigers have that the Wildcats don't have is an explosive offense to help them get through their next few games. Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd ranks 7th in the country in passing yards and 3rd in touchdowns with 25 and his main target, freshman Sammy Watkins, is 7th in the country in receiving yards and 2nd in touchdowns with 10 in 9 games. Boyd and Watkins power a Clemson passing game that is averaging over 300 yards a game and that put up more than 50 points in 2 of their last 3 games. Unfortunately for Wildcat fans, Kansas St. lacks that offense firepower, which may prove to be costly when they face high powered offenses that score a lot of points like Oklahoma St. and Texas A&M. Out of 120 teams in the FBS, Kansas St. ranks 113th in passing yards per game, as Collin Klein threw for just 58 yards against Oklahoma last week.
History shows that teams who have National Championship aspirations and drop a game are often susceptible to further losses down the road because they lose motivation. In 2010 Virginia Tech may have had its best team since 1999 when the Hokies were led by Michael Vick and were undefeated until they lost in the BCS National Championship to Florida St 46-29. The Hokies were in the preseason top 10 at number 6 but had a crushing loss in a highly contested week 1 game against the Boise St. Broncos 33-30 after Kellen Moore threw a game winning touchdown pass with a little over a minute remaining. The Hokies were so distraught over their loss and their National Championship dreams vanishing that they became the second team to ever be ranked in the AP Poll and lose to a FCS opponent when they fell to James Madison the following week 21-16 at home. No disrespect to James Madison, but there isn't a college football fan out there that believes that the Hokies would have lost that game if they had beaten the Broncos the previous week. However, the Hokies had an emotional let down and it put them in a horrible 0-2 hole to begin the season. That same year, Oklahoma rallied off 6 straight wins to begin their season with a perfect 6-0 record and the Sooners were the number 1 ranked team when the BCS standings were initially released. After giving up more than 485 yards of total offense in a 36-27 loss to the Missouri Tigers, the Sooners dropped to number 9 in the BCS standings and out of National Championship contention. The Sooners were unable to rebound from their difficult loss to Missouri and just two weeks later, the Sooners played a horrible game in a 33-19 loss to Texas A&M
Before Clemson's loss to Georgia Tech, the Tigers perfect 8-0 start was their best start since 2000 when they also began 8-0 and their number 5 BCS ranking was the best in school history. Those impressive numbers will now only add to the challenge for the Tigers when they try to recover from their 31-17 loss to Georgia Tech. Although a National Championship is now out of the picture for the Tigers, they still have a lot to play for. Since the ACC split into two divisions in 2005, Clemson has won the Atlantic division just once. In fact, Clemson has not won an ACC Championship since 1991 when the team was coached by Ken Hatfield. If the Tigers want to get to Charlotte, so that they can have a shot at winning their first ACC title in 20 years and making their first BCS Bowl game, they will have to recover very quickly from their loss because they have a huge game in two weeks against Wake Forest. If the Tigers fail to recover and fall to Wake, the Demon Deacons will have to beat a weak 2-6 Maryland team at home to win the Atlantic Division and just like that Clemson would be on the outside looking in. The Tigers also need two wins out of their last three games to win 10 games for the first time since 1990.
Kansas St. is in a very similar position to the Clemson Tigers. The Wildcats began their season with a perfect 7-0 record for the first time since 1999 and were number 8 in the BCS rankings. The Wildcats may have an even tougher time recovering from their first loss of the season than the Tigers for two reasons. First off, unlike the Tigers, the Wildcats had a lot of doubters after their 7-0 start and many fans believe that the Wildcats showed their true stuff after they were destroyed by Oklahoma 58-17 at home. The Kansas St. players are going to hear all week about how their 41-point loss shows who they really are and it may be tough for the Wildcats to have to handle all of the pressure of trying to prove those doubters wrong. Secondly, the Wildcats may have the hardest remaining schedule in the country. They have to travel to play #3 Oklahoma St. in Stillwater, then play #16 Texas A&M the following week, and then travel to Austin to play #24 Texas to finish up a brutal three game stretch. However, Kansas St. should be looking forward to the challenge. They are already bowl eligible and will play in a bowl game for just the 3rd time since 2003. The Wildcats need just one win out of their final four games to end up with at least 8 wins for the first time since 2003 when they went 11-4 and lost in the Fiesta Bowl.
One thing that the Tigers have that the Wildcats don't have is an explosive offense to help them get through their next few games. Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd ranks 7th in the country in passing yards and 3rd in touchdowns with 25 and his main target, freshman Sammy Watkins, is 7th in the country in receiving yards and 2nd in touchdowns with 10 in 9 games. Boyd and Watkins power a Clemson passing game that is averaging over 300 yards a game and that put up more than 50 points in 2 of their last 3 games. Unfortunately for Wildcat fans, Kansas St. lacks that offense firepower, which may prove to be costly when they face high powered offenses that score a lot of points like Oklahoma St. and Texas A&M. Out of 120 teams in the FBS, Kansas St. ranks 113th in passing yards per game, as Collin Klein threw for just 58 yards against Oklahoma last week.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Don't Sleep On The College Football Games This Weekend
After LSU knocked off the Oregon Ducks 40 to 27 in week 1 at Cowboys Stadium, every college football fan circled November 5th on their calendar in anticipation of the what some are now calling "the college football game of the decade" between LSU and Alabama. While it may be a stretch to go to that extreme, the matchup between the two SEC heavyweights features to be the best regular season game in years. The last time the top 2 teams in the country played in a game that was not a bowl game or a conference title game was back in 2006 when #1 Ohio St. beat #2 Michigan in both teams final regular season game of the season. Not only, are LSU and Alabama 1 and 2 in the BCS poll, but they have also been destroying all of their opponents. LSU has beaten 5 ranked teams by a combined score of 192-75 and they have scored at least 40 points in 4 of those 5 games. Alabama has scored at least 37 points in 6 of their 8 games and they have allowed an average of just 6.9 points per game. Although it is going to be tough to have to wait another week for this much-anticipated matchup, the college football schedule still has a lot of room for excitement this weekend.
If you are a college football fan who loves offense, then the Oklahoma St.-Baylor matchup is a perfect game for you to tune into. The Cowboys are averaging just a little under 50 points per game (yes 50 points per game), which ranks 2nd in the FBS and that includes a 45.75 point per game average in four Big 12 games. The Cowboys are led by a scary passing attack that ranks 2nd in the FBS in passing yards per game at 387. Oklahoma St. quarterback Brendon Weeden slings the ball all over the field and against any team as he showed when he threw for 438 yards against Texas A&M on the road earlier this year. The Cowboys passing game should fare very well against a Baylor defense that is allowing an average of 39 points per game in their three Big 12 games. In fact, Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 415 yards and 6 touchdowns against the Bears horrible defense. However, the Bears make up for their lack of a defense with an extremely potent offense. Heisman Trophy candidate Robert Griffin III leads the FBS in passer rating at 205.7 and completion percentage at 78.0. In fact, after Baylor's first four games, Griffin had just two more incompletions at 20 than touchdown passes at 18. Griffin will be looking to go to his main receiving target Kendall Wright, who had 201 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 36-35 Baylor loss to Kansas St. on October 1st. Aside from the fact that the game will feature a lot of offense and scoring, the matchup also carries an extreme amount of significance in terms of the National Championship. Oklahoma St. current number 3 ranking is the schools highest ranking since 1984.
Another game that has national championship significance is between undefeated and #5 Clemson and Georgia Tech. With South Carolina struggling at the quarterback position and without their star running back Marcus Lattimore for the rest of the season, the Yellow Jackets could pose the biggest threat all season to knock the Tigers off of the ranks of the unbeaten. Georgia Tech's potent running game, which is averaging 321.1 yards per game, will have to eat up clock and time of possession, so that it can keep the dynamic Clemson offense off of the field. If the Georgia Tech ground game sputters, like it did last week against Miami, the Clemson offense should have a field day. Tajh Boyd ranks 7th in yards passing and 2nd in touchdown passes with 24 and his main target, Sammy Watkins, ranks 2nd in touchdowns and 8th in receiving yards in the FBS and the kid is just a freshman. Boyd will be riding high after he had his best ever college football game ever last week, as he threw for 367 yards and 5 touchdowns in Clemson's 59-38 win against North Carolina in Death Valley.
Kansas St. is 7-0 for the first time since 1999 when they went 11-1 and finished 6th in the AP poll. The Wildcats will have a chance to show their doubters that they can play with the best of the Big 12, as they face #9 Oklahoma at home in Manhattan this weekend. Although the Wildcats are 4-0 in conference play, they have not played any team that is in the top 5 of the conference standings. To add to the difficulty of playing a very good Oklahoma team, the Sooners will be a very angry bunch after their dreams of reaching a National Championship may have been broken after their crushing 41-38 loss to Texas Tech at home last weekend. Kansas St. quarterback Collin Klein will have to play very well to keep the Wildcats in the game because the Wildcats defense isn't good enough to hold down an offense that is as talented as Oklahoma. Klein has been very effective in the Kansas St. running game. In his last three games, Klein is averaging 82 yards per game and he has 10 touchdowns in that span. Klein has 14 rushing touchdowns this season, which ranks 4th in the FBS.
While the "Suck for Luck" slogan is gaining widespread support in Miami and even in Indianapolis, Andrew Luck is currently focused on guiding his Stanford Cardinals to a National Championship. Dating back to last year, the Cardinals have won 10 straight games by at least 25 points, which has not been done for 75 years. The Cardinals rank 2nd in points per game at 48.6 and 4th in points against per game at 12.6. Luck is surgically picking apart opposing defenses each week and ranks in the top 10 in nearly every passing category. However, the Cardinals will have a very difficult test this weekend against the USC Trojans. Since USC is in the second year of their two year postseason ban (which includes the Pac 12 championship game), their matchup with #6 Stanford this weekend is like their bowl game because it is their most significant game all year. Matt Barkley has looked very good this season and he has found a great target in Robert Woods, who has 902 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns.
If you are a college football fan who loves offense, then the Oklahoma St.-Baylor matchup is a perfect game for you to tune into. The Cowboys are averaging just a little under 50 points per game (yes 50 points per game), which ranks 2nd in the FBS and that includes a 45.75 point per game average in four Big 12 games. The Cowboys are led by a scary passing attack that ranks 2nd in the FBS in passing yards per game at 387. Oklahoma St. quarterback Brendon Weeden slings the ball all over the field and against any team as he showed when he threw for 438 yards against Texas A&M on the road earlier this year. The Cowboys passing game should fare very well against a Baylor defense that is allowing an average of 39 points per game in their three Big 12 games. In fact, Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 415 yards and 6 touchdowns against the Bears horrible defense. However, the Bears make up for their lack of a defense with an extremely potent offense. Heisman Trophy candidate Robert Griffin III leads the FBS in passer rating at 205.7 and completion percentage at 78.0. In fact, after Baylor's first four games, Griffin had just two more incompletions at 20 than touchdown passes at 18. Griffin will be looking to go to his main receiving target Kendall Wright, who had 201 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 36-35 Baylor loss to Kansas St. on October 1st. Aside from the fact that the game will feature a lot of offense and scoring, the matchup also carries an extreme amount of significance in terms of the National Championship. Oklahoma St. current number 3 ranking is the schools highest ranking since 1984.
Another game that has national championship significance is between undefeated and #5 Clemson and Georgia Tech. With South Carolina struggling at the quarterback position and without their star running back Marcus Lattimore for the rest of the season, the Yellow Jackets could pose the biggest threat all season to knock the Tigers off of the ranks of the unbeaten. Georgia Tech's potent running game, which is averaging 321.1 yards per game, will have to eat up clock and time of possession, so that it can keep the dynamic Clemson offense off of the field. If the Georgia Tech ground game sputters, like it did last week against Miami, the Clemson offense should have a field day. Tajh Boyd ranks 7th in yards passing and 2nd in touchdown passes with 24 and his main target, Sammy Watkins, ranks 2nd in touchdowns and 8th in receiving yards in the FBS and the kid is just a freshman. Boyd will be riding high after he had his best ever college football game ever last week, as he threw for 367 yards and 5 touchdowns in Clemson's 59-38 win against North Carolina in Death Valley.
Kansas St. is 7-0 for the first time since 1999 when they went 11-1 and finished 6th in the AP poll. The Wildcats will have a chance to show their doubters that they can play with the best of the Big 12, as they face #9 Oklahoma at home in Manhattan this weekend. Although the Wildcats are 4-0 in conference play, they have not played any team that is in the top 5 of the conference standings. To add to the difficulty of playing a very good Oklahoma team, the Sooners will be a very angry bunch after their dreams of reaching a National Championship may have been broken after their crushing 41-38 loss to Texas Tech at home last weekend. Kansas St. quarterback Collin Klein will have to play very well to keep the Wildcats in the game because the Wildcats defense isn't good enough to hold down an offense that is as talented as Oklahoma. Klein has been very effective in the Kansas St. running game. In his last three games, Klein is averaging 82 yards per game and he has 10 touchdowns in that span. Klein has 14 rushing touchdowns this season, which ranks 4th in the FBS.
While the "Suck for Luck" slogan is gaining widespread support in Miami and even in Indianapolis, Andrew Luck is currently focused on guiding his Stanford Cardinals to a National Championship. Dating back to last year, the Cardinals have won 10 straight games by at least 25 points, which has not been done for 75 years. The Cardinals rank 2nd in points per game at 48.6 and 4th in points against per game at 12.6. Luck is surgically picking apart opposing defenses each week and ranks in the top 10 in nearly every passing category. However, the Cardinals will have a very difficult test this weekend against the USC Trojans. Since USC is in the second year of their two year postseason ban (which includes the Pac 12 championship game), their matchup with #6 Stanford this weekend is like their bowl game because it is their most significant game all year. Matt Barkley has looked very good this season and he has found a great target in Robert Woods, who has 902 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Predictions for Conference Tournaments
Going into Thursday, 13 teams have clinched automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. There are still 19 automatic bids that have not yet been handed out to fill the 31 automatic bids into the field of 68. Here are my predictions on some of the major conference tournaments during Champ Week. (Teams that are underlined are competing for a top four seed, teams that are in italics are in the tournament but not competing for a top four seed, and bold teams are on the bubble).
Atlantic 10:
First Round:
9. Dayton over 8. Umass
5. George Washington over 12. St. Joseph's
7. St. Bonaventure over 10. La Salle
6. Rhode Island over 11. Saint Louis
Quarterfinals:
1. Xavier over 9. Dayton
5. George Washington over 4. Duquesne
2. Temple over 7. St. Bonaventure
3. Richmond over 6. Rhode Island
Semifinals:
1. Xavier over 5. George Washington
3. Richmond over 2. Temple
Finals:
1. Xavier over 3. Richmond
ACC:
First Round:
9. Miami over 8. Virginia
5. Boston College over 12. Wake Forest
7. Maryland over 10. NCST
6. Virginia Tech over 11. Georgia Tech
Quarterfinals:
1. North Carolina over 9. Miami
5. Boston College over 4. Clemson
2. Duke over 7. Maryland
6. Virginia Tech over 3. Florida St.
Semifinals:
1. North Carolina over 5. Boston College
2. Duke over 6. Virginia Tech
Finals:
1. North Carolina over 2. Duke
Big 12:
First Round:
8. Nebraska over 9. Oklahoma St.
5. Colorado over 12. Iowa St.
7. Baylor over 10. Oklahoma
6. Missouri over 11. Texas Tech
Quarterfinals:
1. Kansas over 8. Nebraska
4. Kansas St. over 5. Colorado
2. Texas over 7. Baylor
6. Missouri over 3. Texas A and M
Semifinals:
4. Kansas St. over 1. Kansas
2. Texas over 6. Missouri
Finals:
4. Kansas St. over 2. Texas
Big East:
First Round:
9. Uconn over 16. DePaul
12. Seton Hall over 13. Rutgers
10. Villanova over 15. South Florida
11. Marquette over 14. Providence
Second round:
9. Uconn over 8. Georgetown
5. St. John's over 12. Seton Hall
10. Villanova over 7. Cincinnati
11. Marquette over 6. West Virginia
Quarterfinals:
9. Uconn over 1. Pittsburgh
5. St. John's over 4. Syracuse
2. Notre Dame over 10. Villanova
11. Marquette over 3. Louisville
Semifinals:
9. Uconn over 5. St. John's
2. Notre Dame over 11. Marquette
Finals:
2. Notre Dame over 9. Uconn
Big 10:
First Round:
9. Minnesota over 8. Northwestern
7. Michigan St. over 10. Iowa
6. Penn St. over 11. Indiana
Quarterfinals:
1. Ohio St. over 9. Minnesota
5. Illinois over 4. Michigan
2. Purdue over 7. Michigan St.
3. Wisconsin over 6. Penn St.
Semifinals:
1. Ohio St. over 5. Illinois
2. Purdue over 3. Wisconsin
Finals:
1. Ohio St. over 2. Purdue
Mountain West:
First Round:
9. TCU over 8. Wyoming
Quarterfinals:
1. BYU over 9. TCU
5. New Mexico over 4. Colorado St.
2. San Diego St. over 7. Utah
3. UNLV over 6. Air Force
Semifinals:
1. BYU over 5. New Mexico
2. San Diego St. over 3. UNLV
Finals:
1. BYU over 2. San Diego St.
Pac 10:
First Round:
9. Oregon St. over 8. Stanford
7. Oregon over 10. Arizona St.
Quarterfinals:
1. Arizona over 9. Oregon St.
4. USC over California
3. Washington over 6. Washington St.
2. UCLA over 7. Oregon
Semifinals:
1. Arizona over 4. USC
2. UCLA over 3. Washington
Finals:
1. Arizona over 2. UCLA
SEC:
First Round:
E4. Georgia over W5. Auburn
W3. Mississippi over E6. South Carolina
E5. Tennessee over W4. Arkansas
E3. Vanderbilt over W6. LSU
Quarterfinals:
E4. Georgia over W1. Alabama
E2. Kentucky over W3. Mississippi
E1. Florida over E5. Tennessee
E3. Vanderbilt over W2. Mississippi St.
Semifinals:
E2. Kentucky over E4. Georgia
E3. Vanderbilt over E1. Florida
Finals:
E2. Kentucky over E3. Vanderbilt
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