Big names come up big for the Final Four, which isn't such a bad thing
March 30, 2007
ATLANTA (AP) Gonzaga was always a good story about the little college that could, until George Mason came along and made it even better. There's nothing like a spirited underdog in the NCAA tournament to remind us of simpler times when players enrolled for four years and anything seemed possible.
The best players don't stick around long anymore, and there's nothing simple about a tournament that has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry. Everything is sponsored and everything has a price, from the coaches on down to the paper cups at courtside.
Purists may cringe, but those are the same people who picked Belmont in their office pool. The rest understand that there's a reason both Ohio State and Florida not only played for the BCS football championship, but are also in the Final Four.
In the case of Ohio State there are 102 million reasons, the same as the dollars the school is spending on its athletic program this year. For that kind of money, the Buckeyes could buy Weber State and still have enough left over for a good down payment on Winthrop.
College basketball is big business, and in business the rich usually get richer. And that doesn't just apply to Billy Donovan, who figures to get a whole lot richer before he sees the inside of a gym again.
Money, of course, doesn't mean everything. If it did, George Mason wouldn't have gotten past the first round last year, much less made a run into the Final Four.
The argument could be made that what is really important is playing in a tough conference, such as the one Georgetown took so many lumps in that it fell out of the Top 25 before rebounding for a big stretch run.
But it shouldn't really be much surprise that there are few surprises remaining in this Final Four. That was pretty much determined by last weekend, when Oregon was the highest seed in the round of eight at No. 3, and No. 7 UNLV was what passed for a long shot in the regional semifinals.
A tournament marked by unpredictability has been all too predictable, with two No. 1 seeds and two No. 2 seeds making it to college basketball's promised land. It's the first time since 1993 the seeds have been this high, and there's a No. 1 against a No. 2 in each semifinal game.
Let UCLA coach Ben Howland talk about parity in college basketball being such that any team can beat any other team on a given day. That may be true on a Thursday night in January in Corvallis, Ore., but not in March when the alumni are really paying attention and the big teams are loaded with talent that can overcome a lot of mistakes.
Last year may have been the year of the mid-major, an unfortunate term that has come into popularity in recent times for Division I teams that don't belong to one of the seven power conferences. But look closely, and there were really only eight to 12 teams in this year's tournament that had much of a chance to get to Atlanta.
Actually, make that nine to 13 because had Southern Illinois held a lead against Kansas, the Salukis would have been right in the middle of a defensive bruiser against UCLA. But the brackets were seeded so well by the often maligned NCAA selection committee that it's hard to imagine a Boston College, or even an Xavier, making it this far.
Which may not be all that bad. This could be the highest rated Final Four in recent years, if only for the fact that the average fan who tends to pick favorites in his pool probably has two or three teams still in action and will tune in just to cheer them on.
And it's tough to find much wrong with a Final Four that includes basketball names like UCLA and Georgetown and athletic powers like Florida and Ohio State.
The best thing about having a George Mason here is that it's anyone's national championship to win. The tournament may have been predictable, but even the oddsmakers are having trouble figuring this one out.
Georgetown is favored by the slimmest of margins, 1 point, over Ohio State in the first game, while Florida is a 3-point pick to repeat its win in last year's national championship game against UCLA. All odds in this column are for entertainment purposes only, of course, because the NCAA frowns on promoting such a thing.
At the risk of alienating NCAA president Myles Brand, here's a tip: Parlay the underdogs and take Ohio State and UCLA to meet in the final.
Then bet it all on UCLA to add a 12th title to its trophy case.
Just remember, this comes from someone who picked Kansas to win it all.
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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Sources: San Diego will hire Gonzaga's Grier as co
The University of San Diego wants to challenge Gonzaga for West Coast Conference supremacy, so it went and grabbed the Bulldogs' associate head coach.
The Toreros reached an agreement with Bill Grier on their head coaching position and are expected to announce the hiring Monday, multiple sources told ESPN.com on Saturday night.
Grier will replace Brad Holland, who was ousted after the Toreros' 18-14 season (6-8 in the WCC). Holland coached USD for 13 years, beating the Zags in 2003 for the WCC tournament title and an NCAA berth.
Grier's decision to leave Gonzaga for a conference rival comes at an interesting time. Grier has a clause in his contract that makes him the successor to Bulldogs head coach Mark Few if Few leavs the school. Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth put that clause into Grier's deal in an attempt to keep him at the school. Few is a likely candidate for the vacancy at Kentucky, although there is no guarantee that he'll leave if he is offered the job.
Meanwhile, multiple sources said Few will replace Grier with former Utah coach Ray Giacoletti, a good friend of both Few's and Grier's who spent plenty of time with the two when he was head coach at nearby Eastern Washington.
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Sprint Tournament Center Quotes from March 16
Sprint Nextel
(WebWire) 3/17/2006 2:24:22 PM
Host Bonnie Bernstein and Former Coaches Jim Harrick and Perry Clark Give Sprint Customers News and Analysis from All the First Round College Hoops Action
For more information about Sprint s college basketball content offerings, visit the Sprint Tournament Center Press Kit: www2.sprint.com/mr/cda pkDetail.do?id=1180
CHICAGO 03/17/2006, The following quotes were pulled from the Sprint Tournament Center s coverage of the first round games of the men s college basketball tournament in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Oakland and Atlanta.
Bonnie Bernstein
Washington, D.C. Region
BONNIE BERNSTEIN "Air Force is one of those teams kind of controversial when they got to the tournament simply because they real didnt schedule anybody nonconference."
Minneapolis Region
BONNIE BERNSTEIN "For the 18th time in 19 seasons, a 12 seed has knocked off a 5. This time around Montana doing damage on Nevada in Salt Lake in the Minneapolis region."
Oakland Region
BONNIE BERNSTEIN: "There s really nothing Adam Morrison cant do. 20 of his 35 points came in the second half as Gonzaga extends its nation best win streak to 19 games."
Atlanta Region
BONNIE BERNSTEIN "IONA was able to overcome 7 double digit deficits throughout the course of the year."
BONNIE BERNSTEIN "One of the things the Colonials are great at doing is forcing turnovers. That certainly helped in that run to rally back."
Jim Harrick
Whose going to be the first one seed to be knocked off?
JIM HARRICK: "Im going to go with Villanova because of the injury to Allen and because they have the least margin of error in the bracket they are in."
Washington, D.C. Region
JIM HARRICK on Tennessee s Major Wingate: "If you look at this guy, you d think, wow, he is big, he is strong. He only averages 10. But today, 15 points, 7 rebounds. A breakout game for Major Wingate."
Minneapolis Region
JIM HARRICK on Florida s victory over South Alabama: "I could hear Billy Donovan at half-time give it to the Gators, give it the big fellow Joakim Noah. A big game; 16 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 blocked shots. Al Horford, the other big guy, a double-double. 14 points, 10 rebounds. They just beat up on the inexperienced South Alabama team and sent them home."
Atlanta Region JIM HARRICK on UCLA: "They did it in a conference tournament. They turned around in the first game NCAA tournament and they did it again. UCLA locked Belmont up; not to even give them 50 points. Rebounding was at 44 to 23 and they just completely shut Belmont down. And their defense did it all."
JIM HARRICK on UCLA coach Ben Howland: "I listen to Ben Howland talk and he always talks about great defense, great rebounding, controlling the tempo, sharing the ball, and a tough minded team. Check them off. They did them all this game."
JIM HARRICK on Gonzaga: "When the Zags get down, they bring Morrison out to the point and let him pass and cut off screens."
JIM HARRICK: "This game was about runs. Wilmington made theirs, but here comes GW. Trapping, pressing, double teaming and 3-point shots. And a 19-0 run to get him back in the game."
JIM HARRICK on Sheldon Williams of Duke playing against Southern "He looks like a man playing among boys."
JIM HARRICK on Rob Spivery, coach of Southern: "They havent had a winning season in five years, but Rob Spivery, has coached a long time. He is a veteran and brought them to the championship of the SWAC conference. He is a good coach. This is a well coached team. Rob has done a good job with this group."
JIM HARRICK on Duke s win "They just had a little bit too much for them. Sheldon Williams had a monster game with 29 points of 18 rebounds. J.J. goes for 28. He shoots 10 for 18 from the field. He makes five, 3 point shots. And those two guys just kind of dominated the offensive end of the floor. And they’re just a little bit better than Southern."
Perry Clark
With Wichita State winning today does that give the Missouri Valley Conference and credit
PERRY CLARK: "Everyone respects the Missouri Valley Conference, especially with the big win by Wichita State today. They have got a tough day tomorrow with 3 teams scheduled to play but I think they’ll do just fine."
Washington, D.C. Region
PERRY CLARK on Wichita State s victory over Seton Hall: "They really did a great job. But they have been doing that all year. They had balanced scoring today. They shot a very high percentage from the field. They were able to get the ball into Davis. He was able to distribute the basketball. They’ve got great bench scoring. Excellent offensive performance by Wichita State."
PERRY CLARK: "Illinois does a great job at sharing the basketball. They get a lot of people involved. They have four guys in double figures. And, again, it was a typical Illinois victory."
Minneapolis Region
PERRY CLARK on University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee s victory over Oklahoma: "Milwaukee Wisconsin’s style of play created havoc for Oklahoma. Kelvin Sampson’s team had 19 turnovers. He is kicking chairs right now. He’s really upset because Kelvin Samson’s team does not turn the ball over. The turnovers really hurt Oklahoma today."
PERRY CLARK on Montana s victory over Nevada: "They really effectively ran their half court offense with Andrew Strait leading the way for Montana. They were able to really control the game."
Oakland Region
PERRY CLARK on Dominique James of Marquette: "I think he s the best freshman point guard in the country. Marquette would not be where they are right now without him."
PERRY CLARK on Dominique James of Marquette: "Dominique James is one of the best in the country. He came out, had a tremendous second half. Scored 20 points for the game and put Marquette in a position to win this game."
PERRY CLARK on Alabama s victory over Marquette: "Alabama, which struggled earlier in the season not shooting the ball, shot the ball extremely well and won this basketball game."
Atlanta Region
PERRY CLARK on LSU s Glen Davis: "He read the defense, knew when to put the ball on the floor, when to go to his turnaround jump shot and wound up with 17 second half points. He really paced LSU in the second half."
PERRY CLARK on Syracuse: "Syracuse had a tremendous run this the Big East tournament, and they certainly looked like they were out of gas today. And Jerry McNamara, the groin has been bothering him off and on for about the last ten games. And he wasn’t able to even get a field goal today, and it really took Syracuse out of what they wanted to do because he was playing so well setting the big guys up. None of that today, and Syracuse went down."
Editor s Note - Sprint will distribute a daily quote sheet from the news desk of the Sprint Tournament Center with host Bonnie Bernstein. To view each sheet, visit http://www2.sprint.com/mr/cdapkDetail.do?id=1180. Attribute quotes to Sprint Tournament Center. About Sprint Tournament Center
The Sprint Tournament Center is the cornerstone of Sprint’s exclusive college hoops content. Renowned sports reporter and host, Bonnie Bernstein along with coaches Perry Clark and Jim Harrick - will provide in-depth tournament analysis only to Sprint customers. The Sprint Tournament Center originates from Chicago for the first two weeks of the tournament; during week three, the Sprint Tournament Center moves to Indianapolis. These studio-based video segments provide game predictions, in-game updates, post-game analyses and breakdowns of key games and players each day of tournament play. In addition, Sprint will offer news and analysis from other major college basketball events.
About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business and government customers. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks offering industry leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and an award-winning and global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/mr.
March Madness takes hold across the nation
March 17. 2007 1:00PM
Chad Killebrew
chad.killebrew@the-dispatch.com
Thursday and Friday marked two of my favorite days of the year as a sports fan, the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. As I write this Friday afternoon, our television in the newsroom is showing the Georgia Tech-UNLV game on CBS instead of being tuned to CNN.
I love the term March Madness. While I've heard it and used it for years, I was unaware of the origination of the phrase. According to Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, an official with the Illinois High School Association first used it way back in 1939, when an essay he wrote included the term. High school tournaments in the Midwest often referred to March Madness. CBS sportscaster Brent Musburger, who worked in Chicago before joining the network, first connected the phrase to the NCAA tournament in the early 1980s.
I discovered another term for network airing of the men's and women's basketball tournaments Friday morning: wrap-around coverage. Rather than focus on a single game, ESPN will switch among several games while televising the NCAA women's basketball tournament today. This is great if you're a general sports fan who just wants to view the most competitive game, but I don't think I'd like it if my favorite team were playing and I wanted to watch the game in its entirety.
Trying to keep our Sports on TV listing updated after the first-round games is challenging. Friday morning, for example, we knew the matchups for today's games. However, we couldn't determine before our press time which games would be televised. We know North Carolina will be on, but the first two games were to be determined.
Another difficulty arises in reporting about all of the games. On the front page of the print edition Friday were game stories on North Carolina, which played a late game Thursday, and Duke, which played the early game Thursday night. A shorter article about the Davidson-Maryland game appeared on page 2B.
Since we had only two pages for sports Friday, no mention of the other games appeared. Our emphasis is always on local sports that you can't find other places, so unfortunately we didn't have room for stories, results or box scores from the other 13 first-round games played Thursday. However, we did have a lengthy Area Sports section that let readers know how our local teams and athletes performed.
I have two young athletes in my house, and my sons and I have enjoyed filling out brackets and watching the games together. They stayed up until the Duke game ended after 9:30 p.m. Thursday, which is late for them. A co-worker mentioned one of her son's friends who was going to Winston-Salem to see North Carolina play in the final game of Thursday. I didn't even stay up that late.
Predicting the winners of the 63 games is both fun and aggravating. Many of us fill out brackets and test our skills against co-workers, friends and family. We suddenly become big fans of schools we've never pulled for previously because a win by the underdog or loss by a favorite will help our brackets. My sons enjoy rooting excitedly for the teams I've predicted will lose and keep tabs on how their brackets are doing compared with mine.
The down side of predicting winners is sometimes your head and heart come into conflict. I normally like to pull for underdogs in a tournament, but I typically predict the favorites to win. I've finally gotten to the point where I root for who I want (Davidson, for example) even if I've picked its opponent (Maryland, in this case) to advance.
Time will tell whether the 2007 tournament will produce a Cinderella team like George Mason, which advanced to the Final Four last year, or some more exciting finishes like the Duke-Virginia Commonwealth game Thursday night. I'll be watching.
Chad Killebrew is executive editor of The Dispatch. He can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 215, or at chad.killebrew@the-dispatch.com.
All Material @ 2007 The Dispatch
Gonzaga 74, San Diego 64
Feb. 27, 2007
SAN DIEGO (AP) -Micah Downs scored a career-high 20 points to lead Gonzaga to a 74-64 win over San Diego Monday, clinching the Bulldogs' seventh straight West Coast Conference regular-season title.
Jeremy Pargo had 15 points and David Pendergraft added 11 for Gonzaga (21-10, 11-3 West Coast), which finished the regular season one game ahead of Santa Clara, which lost 89-82 in overtime to Pepperdine.
Downs scored 13 of his points during an 18-5 run in the second half that put the Zags ahead 60-50 with 9:22 left in the game.
Ross DeRogatis scored 22 points, including six 3-pointers, for San Diego (16-13, 6-8).
Gyno Pomare scored 12 points and Ray Murdock added 11 for the Toreros.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2006-2007, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
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