Jack’s Blog

When it’s comes down to filling out brackets, it’s been said that it doesn’t matter whom you ask - winning the office pool is basically a matter of luck anyway.  There’s much to be said for that kind of logic - to a point.  And that point is, the farther the tournament moves along, the more experience and knowledge of the college game become a factor.

When 32 pairs of games are in the original mix, especially when every year, at least one #12 seed beats a #5, as well as all the other “upsets from out of nowhere” happen, flipping a coin is probably as good - in the first round.  As the tournament progresses, I can see someone with knowledge of only mascots or team colors, who had picked Siena, a #9, over Ohio State a #8, using the same logic, but really fighting the odds, by picking Siena over #1 Louisville.  They might look like a genius in the first round and a fool in the second.  Same with #11 Dayton over #6 West Virginia (a team that, pardon the “impossible” term, overachieved all season, under the guidance of unrelenting taskmaster, but fabulous coach, Bob Huggins) - looking like a wizard, as opposed to picking the Flyers in the next round vs. #3 Kansas, a team with another great coach, Bill Self, but a team with better players.

When this year’s tournament got to the Sweet Sixteen, the “chalk” was on the money in 14 out of the 16 games.  Those people who had picked #3 Syracuse over #2 Oklahoma and/or #12 Arizona over #1 Louisville probably got burned by other upsets they predicted (a strategy that might have worked in tournaments past, but not this year). 

You get the idea.  So, … when it gets down to UConn (Tark had Memphis in the bracket he filled out prior to the tourney) vs. Michigan State (a team he did have) and Villanova (he picked either Duke or Pitt, I can’t recall) vs. North Carolina (a team he, as pretty much everyone else also had), it was time to put him on the spot (during his radio show) and ask him which way he was going - and why.

His pick in the first game was Michigan State, and not because of the site (Detroit - although he didn’t discount that, by any means), but because he felt that when the Spartans had the ball, Tom Izzo liked to run a play every time down the floor (unless they were breaking).  Even though this brand of coaching flew in the face of the Tarkanian style, Jerry said he felt MSU executed (how many coaches use that word?) their man-to-man offense better than anyone in the country and he thought, although UConn played solid, half court man-to-man defense, that Michigan State ran their offense better than UConn defended.  Naturally, being so close to Detroit would energize Izzo’s guys, especially at the defensive end. 

Tark is also a great admirer of Hasheem Thabeet, but felt whether UConn played man or zone, that Goran Suton could face up from 15′ and beyond and cause Jim Calhoun’s guys problems.  This is what I’m referring to when I talk about hoops savvy.  Guys who’ve coached, especially those who’ve been there, i.e. the Final Four, have experienced something the rest of us haven’t.  And when you take into account the guys who have been there multiple times, e.g. not only Tark, but Bob Knight, you can’t tell me that the familiarity doesn’t give them an advantage in understanding the feelings players and coaches have.  Doesn’t common sense tell us that the next time Jay Wright leads a team to the Final Four (and, rest assured, that will happen), he will have a whole different perspective on how to prepare and what it’s generally all about?

Tark was one of those who annointed UNC as number one right from the start of the season and, if not the first, was among the first to claim they’d go undefeated.  He’d say, over and over, “How can a team that won 36 games last year and got to the Final Four, have everybody back, and have the number one recruiting class in the nation, not be picked to win it all?  Plus Roy Williams is a great, great coach.  They shouldn’t lose!”  

I’d keep reminding him how difficult it was to go undefeated.  His 1991 team was coming off the National Championship and went undefeated, reaching the Final Four, only to be beaten by Duke (79-77), a team they had destroyed by thirty in the Championship Game the year before.  He said he understood, but just had never seen a team with such a collection of talent, coached by a Hall-of-Famer, play as well as they had played (into December).

When I asked him to pick a winner between Michigan State and Carolina, he thought for a while, but said he couldn’t see how the Spartans could overcome that much talent.  He really wanted to go with his heart (he’s very close to both coaches - in fact, we had all of the Final Four coaches on the show this past year, and MSU winning it would have been such a great story), but in the end, he picked the Heels.  Why?  It really didn’t matter, there was nothing riding on his pick, the show was on a radio station in Fresno - it wasn’t like a national audience was going to think Tark missed it.  It’s just that, coaches are so competitive, they want to win - even if it means nothing.

For the record (and mainly because I thought UConn might win), I asked him, “What if UConn beats Michigan State, who wins it all then?”  His answer was, “North Carolina.”  I didn’t think there needed to be much discussion about that selection, but then I asked, just to cover all bases, what if Villanova upsets UNC, who wins ‘Nova or UConn - and I think he said Villanova.  The reason my recollection is hazy is because he stunned me on the next, and last, combination.

How about a Michigan State-Villanova final?  Who do you have?  He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head.  I could almost see him thinking of his four trips to the Final Four and how he could feel his stomach churning and the gears grinding, before he looked up and said, “Villanova.” 

Never did I expect that answer!  As much as he had hoped for a storybook ending, he gave what his experiences had told him.  Call me a sap (I’ve been called much worse), but I really believe that had any of those combinations happened, Tark would have nailed each of them.

Why do I believe this?  My late friend and mentor, John Savage, used to say that some people were a mile wide and an inch deep and that others were an inch wide and a mile deep - and he had never met Jerry Tarkanian - the poster boy for the “inch wide, mile deep” club.  He knows basketball - everything about it, and not too much about anything else.  Nor does he want to.  But there’s an old Yiddish saying that also describes people - and in this case, it’s the reason I think so much of Jerry’s insight into basketball:

“All of us are crazy good in one way or another.” 

 Â

Everybody’s saying Jay Wright is too good to be true.  Nobody can be that good-looking, that stylish, articulate and successful (not to mention someone who doesn’t look like the country’s current economic woes are bothering him too much, thank you). 

Well, sorry, but I’m here to tell you … he is.  And it’s not an act, he’s legit.  And now he’s one of the Final Four coaches.

I’ve mentioned in many previous blogs of the “mastermind group” that George Raveling (by the way, a proud alum of Villanova, class of ‘60) began in order to improve as a coach - and how, Larry Shyatt and Scott Duncan (at the time, both assistants at New Mexico, currently assisting Billy Donovan at Florida and Ben Howland at UCLA, respectively) called me and suggested we start one for assistants.  Coincidentally, the last one of these self-improvement clinics (which is how we referred to ours) that I attended was in 2001 and was hosted by none other than Mr. Metro-sexual himself, Jay Wright, the year he became the head coach of the Wildcats.  It would probably be adding fuel to the fire to let everyone out there know that Jay is as good a host as he is a person, coach and innovator.

Jay had experienced a tremendous amount of success at Hofstra and knew he needed some new, fresh ideas if he was to compete with the teams in the Big East.  He contacted Coach Shy and said he’d heard of what we were doing and asked if he could become a part of it - that he’d be happy to host that year’s session on the campus of his new (dream) job.  His offer was graciously accepted and we met in the team room at ‘Nova.  When it was Jay’s turn to speak, he laid it all out there.  

First, a bit of an explanation.  One of the rules we had for our clinic was “no secrets,” everything done by anyone’s program (whether head or assistant, since by that time, many of the guys, yours truly not being one of that select group, had risen to the exalted position of head coach) was fair game.  All questions were to be answered truthfully, with nothing held back.  We all realized most everything in basketball has already been done (although guys will tweak an old idea to “modernize it”) and that, if we weren’t going to be completely open, we were wasting each other’s time.  I can distinctly remember traveling to our third clinic, held at the University of Arizona in August of 1985, thinking I was as organized as any assistant could have been when it came to recruiting.  My summer evaluation “system” and method of getting to form relationships with prospects and their coaches was set up so I wasted as little time as possible and watched and evaluated as many prospects as possible.  I would follow up with those coaches and their players whom we were interested in, as well as the coaches of the players who did not interest us - in case, down the road, they had somebody who did and then they’d remember who contacted them even after their kid was deemed not quite good enough to play at that level.  It was more work, but, at that time, I thought “Who’s better than me?” 

It was at that time one of the assistants from Arizona got up to speak on recruiting.  His name was Kevin O’Neill and as he spoke, I felt myself sinking lower and lower in my seat.  He was telling us which players they were going to be signing in three months, which ones they’d be signing the following year and, any time any one of us asked him about a certain recruit, he’d tell us where that kid was going. It was like hanging out with Louella Parsons. At least, I had my answer to “Who’s better than me?” 

The reason for this digression is that same feeling returned in 2001 on Villanova’s campus when Jay Wright started to speak.  This guy took a different approach to the game than the rest of us.  As mentioned previously, he had a ton of success at Hofstra, but a great deal of it came from his star guard, Speedy Claxon.  The team he inherited at ‘Nova was average at best - from Big East standards.  This was one of the reason he wanted to speak so desperately with us.  It wasn’t that we had all - or even, any - answers for him.  It was he wanted to speak to anybody who could help him survive in a conference where the timid don’t get very far.

When we asked him where his inside scoring was going to come from, that was the one question he was very much at ease answering.  “We don’t have an inside scoring threat and I don’t expect to recruit a great one at this date, nor do I think we can develop one in such a short period of time,” was his reply.

“So how do you plan on winning?  Heck, how do you plan on surviving?”

“With our guards.”  He then showed us what he had done at Hofstra and how much of it he thought he could get away with in the new league.  Every time we’d bring up the subject of big men, he just repeated himself, saying the big guys, or, really, guy, because he planned on playing four guards a good deal of the time, were on the floor to set screens and rebound.  They were allowed to shoot if they got an offensive rebound, but he really wasn’t that comfortable with them shooting after every offensive rebound.

Check out a typical Jay Wright team and, normally, his leading scorers and his leaders, are usually guards.  Of course, he’d love to have a Thabeet or a Blair and, if hard work accounts for anything, he’ll get his share.  In the meantime, enjoy watching his guard-heavy team.

One other thing I think will wrap up today’s post as good as any is that Jay Wright is the last person to fit the bill as far as Napolean is concerned.  The little guy is known for the following comment:

“A leader of whom it is said, ‘He’s a nice man’ is lost.” Â

The coaching carousel just began, so hop aboard for one of the wildest rides in coaching history.  Although I’m sure it’s happened before (probably within the last year or so), I just can’t recall a time that two jobs like Kentucky and Arizona were open simultaneously.

The buzzards have been circling over Tucson ever since Lute officially announced his retirement, but when UK went public with what most had been thinking was possible, they check mated ‘Zona.  The reason many were surprised at UK’s decision is that 1) very few coaches I know doubt Billy Gillespie’s credentials as a coach - from a recruiting, teaching and motivating point of view and 2) he’d only been there two years.

On the flip side, he never truly understood the magnitude of the job at Kentucky, all the way through his going away press conference.  Throughout his remarks, one had the feeling that this is what he would have said if he’d been fired anywhere.  And that was the rub with the UK supporters.  They don’t - and never will - consider the University of Kentucky “anywhere.”  Since it hasn’t been taken, I somewhat surprised they haven’t changed their name to the University of Nirvana.

One remark he made was “Tough times don’t last but tough people do.”  With all that went on in Lexington this season, the residents didn’t consider it “tough times.”  It was more like Armageddon.  Seasons like this just don’t happen here (sure, once before when the savior, Rick Pitino, descended on campus and did nothing short of parting the bluegrass).  Of course, to the people who took him in and gave him the premier job in all the land, that traitor is still descending and will continue to do so as long as he remains employed on the other side of the state.

Gillespie simply did things that were beneath the dignity of Kentucky basketball - and I’m not just talking about losing to Gardner Webb (granted, that wasn’t something that endeared him to too many, especially those who wear blue everywhere, including the shower).  Offering a scholarship to an eighth grader!  That’s something a school with no class at all - like Indiana - would do.  Why, there’s not an eighth grader in the nation who wouldn’t accept a scholarship to the best ____________(fill in the blank) school in the nation.  UK people might acknowledge their theology and religion program isn’t as good as, say, a church affiliated school’s, and even would reluctantly admit that they didn’t even have one, but, if they did, it would be the best in the nation world!  Piss them off enough, and a few will go into a back room, write some checks, and voila, theology and religion - country style.

Billy never got that.  He knew he was being compensated better than he was at UTEP and Texas A&M (combined), but, just like those schools, sometimes you just have to have a little patience and things will turn around.  What!!!  Patience?  That’s something doctors have, not UK basketball coaches (and certainly not UK’s fans).

I remember scouting a game in Lexington one year (in the mid-’80s while I was an assistant at Tennessee) when their opponent was Mississippi State, who had Jeff Malone, one of the all-time high scoring wing men ever in the SEC, and, at that time, MSU was a very formidable foe.  The Wildcats won by 25 points or so and I can still hear those fans, exiting Rupp Arena, saying, “Now, that’s more like it.”  They weren’t even pleased, they were held at bay and Joe B. Hall had just extended his reprieve - until Saturday.  And he won a National Championship for these people!    

It takes a guy with awfully thick skin, a major league ego (but with the organizational skills, basketball knowledge and recruiting expertise to back it up), who has a total grasp on what the University of Kentucky basketball program means to their faithful. 

Great news, Wildcat fans!  It’s time to rejoice.  In John Calipari, you got exactly what you want, what you’ve become accustomed to and, better yet, a guy who I happen to think is a better choice for UK than all the other names mentioned.

Now the focus turns to the U of A.  Who is perfect for their job?  Not as richly steeped in tradition as the other ‘Cats, this brand of feline feels they’re the updated model of Kentucky, i.e. they are to basketball now, what Kentucky used to be. 

Names?  To start, how about Rick Pitino?  He’s about the age people move to Arizona and there might not be enough room in one state for those two.  Jamie Dixon?  West Coast guy, who could bring a toughness to the Pac-10 that his former boss, Ben Howland, did to the team formerly known as the University of California for Low Achievers.  It didn’t take Ben long to get to the Final Four.  U of A has been (in fact, won it all in 1997) to several Final Fours and Pitt can’t lay claim to that figure.

How about Mark Few - or Jay Wright.  Those two guys are probably where they ought to be.  Remember Jimmy V’s quote from two days ago?  “Don’t mess with happy.”  It seems like these guys are very happy but, then again, so did Calipari at Memphis.  But, as successful as Cal’s been, you have that sneaking suspicion that he adheres to Somerset Maugham’s quote:

It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”Â

While tradition is something to be proud of, it’s also something that often clouds reality.  When Tubby Smith finally felt uncomfortable enough at the University of Kentucky - after averaging 27 wins a year and making the NCAA Tournament field every year he was head coach - he left for, of all places, that basketball hotbed, the University of Minnesota, meaning Tubby thought it would be more fun and rewarding (although not from a financial standpoint) coaching at a school, and in a community, known more for hockey and fishing than for hoops.

Kentucky, because they currently own the record for more college basketball wins than any other school in the country, thinks that fact means they’re #1!  A great deal of those victories came a long, long time ago, when, even the most ardent supporter was probably being potty trained.  Since the good ol’ days, hundreds of basketball programs in the country have been trying to match Kentucky’s prowess in the sport.  Don’t look now, UK fans, but North Carolina is about to swoop in and overtake your beloved Wildcats.  No one wants to be the coach at Kentucky when North Carolina passes them for most wins ever.   Can anyone even fathom the amount of pressure on UK’s coach if UNC is one behind and both teams play on the same night?

A couple major factors in becoming a power are: 1) one player (of course, he must be the right one), can raise the level of play - and the win totals - all by himself and 2) it’s not a sport where there is a tremendous amount of money involved - in terms of facilities and equipment.  So, since the Baron, Adolph Rupp, roamed the sidelines, many up and comers and even, some “Johnny-come-lately’s” are creating quite the stir.  Subsequent to the “man in the brown suit” retiring from coaching, teams such as Gonzaga, UNLV and even UConn, have hit the national stage and become powerhouses, the latter two having won National Championships.

Yet, tradition is something we cling to, like the mini-basketball given to every male baby born in the Bluegrass State - a practice no longer legal (and if you don’t believe me, check out the 508 page NCAA manual Jim Calhoun referred to yesterday’s game).  UK basketball got so good it had to move out of their campus facility Memorial Coliseum and  that was so long ago that, the new home, cavernous Rupp Arena is now outdated.

So when it comes to coaching at a place like this, everything is bigger.  Salaries, expectations, media scrutiny, fan involvement in the program (there are a few chapters in the 508 page NCAA Manual strictly devoted to fan invovlement).  When a coach gets the Kentucky job, he’d better be incredibly ready to be overwhelmed with requests for everything and anything, all of which take up valuable time.

Each coach since Rupp - from Joe B. Hall on, seems to have had a presence, all of them incredibly confident and passionate.  When I was an assistant at Tennessee from 1980-87, Joe B. was finishing his tenure as Lexington’s number one most admired/despised man (and some fans were members of both clubs).  I don’t think Joe B. had thought about retiring as coach.  It’s just that he wasn’t the old man, so any loss that wasn’t acceptable (which was every loss) was blamed on him.

At this time, Kentucky had done whatever was necessary to set themselves apart from the rest of the basketball world by constantly one up’ing their competition with ideas the rest of the nation didn’t think of, or do, or couldn’t afford, e.g. Wildcat Lodge (which the NCAA deemed was illegal and subsequently, cancelled all athletics dorms).  Many in the coaching profession used to kid that Kentucky had the best team money could buy.  There were so many stories, undoubtedly most are apocryphal, but even if 95% are fabrications or exaggerations, the other 5% put UK in another world.

I think Kentucky got the reputation that if there was a problem, the answer was throw money at it.  This philosophy carried over to coaches too.  If one wasn’t producing, get rid of him - independent of how much the school (or community members) had to come up with to relieve him of a job they deemed over his head. 

Essentially, Joe B. Hall was forced out (even though he had won a National Championship) and, wouldn’t you know, the year it happened, the Final Four was in Lexington.  Rumors were rampant as to who was coming in to replace Joe B.  Since the annual Coaches’ Convention is held in conjunction with the Final Four, every coach in the country would be there.  It seemed as though cameras were everywhere, especially in the lobby of the coaches’ hotel headquarters.  Sportscasters were interviewing every coach who walked by.  The late Abe Lemons, who coached at Oklahoma City, Texas and Pan American was the all-time funniest coach, as well as most irreverent, who ever prowled the sidelines.  When a reporter asked Abe if he would be interested in the Kentucky job, Abe deadpanned, “Yeah, and they wouldn’t even have to pay me.”  He paused for effect before saying, “All I want is the same deal Rick Robey got.”  Robey was UK’s 6′10″ center and, naturally, paying a player would be the ultimate in breaking the NCAA rules.

The line got a great laugh - from everyone but the UK faithful.  The man who eventually got the job was Arkansas coach Eddie Sutton, who, early in the process, made the statement, “I’d crawl from Fayetteville to Lexington for this job.”  It turned out Sutton, a highly successful coach (one of a only six coaches to take four different college teams to the tourney), would wind up crawling, but it was out of Lexington, as he left in shame, under a cloud of an NCAA investigation.

At this time, long-time head coach C.M. Newton, a UK alum who’d played for Rupp, was UK’s director of athletics.  He knew exactly which coach he wanted to hire.  His choice was Rick Pitino, who had just finished a stint in the NBA, coaching the New York Knicks.  He inherited a program on NCAA probation and immediately captured the hearts of Kentuckians by producing a winner - squeezing every drop of hustle and skill out of them. Eventually, another NCAA Championship banner would be hanged in the rafters.

After Pitino left to coach the Boston Celtics, Newton already had decided who the next coach would be and he felt the guy was a “can’t miss” coach.  Once again, he proved to be a prophet when he selected Orlando “Tubby” Smith, who is responsible for the last NCAA Campionship banner, hanging in Memorial Gymnasium. 

The stress and demands of the job, along with the criticism he started to receive, mainly because he hadn’t won another National Cahmpionship weren’t giving Tubby the ROI (return on investment) he deserved and he must have come to the conclusion it was time to leave.

No problem.  UK had the perfect replacement in one of Pitino’s former Wildcat assistants, none other than back-to-back National Championship coach, Billy Donovan.  Make that one problem.  Donovan turned down his former employer.

Did panic set in?  Or did the university just try to get a workaholic, a coach who was currently successful and someone with a deep passion for the game.  Billy Gillespie turned around the program at UTEP and then left and had accomplished similar results at football-minded Texas A&M.  A quick, whirlwind courtship and UK had their man.

Conflicts would break out due to basketball consuming Gillespie’s life and, suffice to say, the chemistry at UK just doesn’t wasn’t working.  Toss in a trip to the NIT and a recipe for disaster was imminent.  So Gillespie’s gone.  Donovan has already come out with a statement, claiming he’s not interested and the list is Missouri’s Mike Anderson (who’s on a roll and, independent of what anybody says, Missouri has a better shot at getting to the Final Four than about 340 other D-I schools, including Kentucky), John Calipari, Jay Wright, Rick Barnes and Tom Izzo, each of whom are deified in the respective state they’re in and may keep the rumors floating around because of the economic situation in the country.  After the way Tubby Smith left and now, the way Billy Gillespie’s dismissal is being handled, many coaches (particularly the ones who’ve been mentioned), may use the opportunity to interview as leverage.  With all the success those guys have had, UK may or may not get any of the top notch coaches.

One they can have, and a coach with a good, albeit short, track record is UK alum Travis Ford, currently the coach at Oklahoma State.  However, some may see Ford as a Matt Dougherty, an alum of UNC, but whose experience level was limited - and UK fans remember how that situation turned out at Carolina.  Unfortunately, Kentucky doesn’t have a Roy Williams, an alum who had always said the best job in the country and most people in the know felt Roy would eventually wind up at UNC.

The job is not as attractive as it once was.  Today’s kids aren’t as enthused about Kentucky as they were in my day,or even as they were, say, 20 years ago.  The problem with Billy Gillespie was not his coaching and he’s a master recruitier so it looks like there’s not going to be a dearth of talent.  Allegedly, Gillespie’s personality is what expedited his dismissal.  He violated the second half of Jack Welch’s rule:

“If you’re good at what you do and get along with people, you’re 90% of the way there.”

There’s supposedly an old coaching adage that says, “You can’t win in the NCAA Tournament without a great defense.”  I’ve heard this so often I thought it had to be true.  Until a few years ago when I stopped and thought about it.

Sure, it’s true that you can’t win in big games without a great defense.  But you can’t win in big games without a great offense, either.  A couple examples were the Duke-Villanova and Memphis-Missouri games.  Villanova did stifle the Dookies but the Blue Devils had just as difficult time keeping the ‘Cats guards in front of them (a Duke staple for years), because they like to pressure the next pass, which means it’s more difficult to get help over in time to stop drives.  The other area where ‘Nova completely dominated Duke was on the offensive glass.  If someone didn’t know who was coaching that defense, they’d swear blocking out was never taught, much less emphasized.  The truth of the matter was that Jay Wright’s boys was quicker to the glass and anticipated misses better than Coach K’s guys.

As far as Memphis and Mizzou, it’s true that Missouri generates a good deal of their offense from their pressing, trapping D, but they also were taking Coach Cal’s players off the dribble and, unlike the Villanova- Duke contest, it wasn’t because their players were quicker than Memphis’ (as could be said for the ‘Cats vs. the Devils).  Missouri also had more points off the offensive boards than Memphis, something that doesn’t happen too often.

Anytime a team wins as much as a Duke or a Memphis does, people (haters) enjoy when they lose. Which only shows who the real loser is - the critic - because anybody with even a tiny bit of basketball knowledge understand what amazing coaches Mike Krzyzewski and John Calipari are - and how remarkable a job each did this season.

Neither had one of his better teams.  Anyone judging potential success of a team realizes the need for a point guard and Duke has been searching for one since the season started.  Yet, somehow Mike prodded his club to an ACC Tournament Championship without a true point - or at least one he felt comfortable to hand over his team to (as he did with Bobby Hurley and Jason Williams, for a couple of examples).  Mike’s really into the little things, like “body language” and how the guys on the floor interact with each other.  Both were lacking last night, which only goes to show what a sensational coach he is.  Some will feel it’s Coach K’s fault they didn’t go farther and on this, I totally agree.  It’s his fault he set the bar so high these people have come to believe it’s Duke’s bithright to be in the Final Four year after year.  Hey, who wants to go to Detroit during the first week in April anyway?  What are you going to do in your spare time, tour the GM plant?

For Coach Cal, let’s dissect his failure as a coach.  For the fourth year in a row, his team won over 30 games.  This ain’t baseball Memphians.  You only get to play about 35 of ‘em, so try to act graciously in defeat, which you don’t have to face very often.  You still have Graceland and the birthplace of FedEx - two businesses which will always thrive, no matter the economy.  Plus, if we put, side-by-side, the contributions made by you on one side and Cal on the other, toward what’s made the University of Memphis a basketball power, even you would have to admit he has had more of an influence over the team’s incredible success - even if you would have fouled in the waning seconds last year, showing, if only the school’s administration to hire him to coach the season and you to coach the last three seconds of one game), there would be a banner hanging in Fed Ex Arena. 

From a basketball standpoint, it’s been discussed hundreds of times.  In order to go deep in the NCAA’s, a team needs a big post presence, a great wing man and a point guard who can control the tempo of the game and make everyone on the floor better.  The Tigers lost, off of their National Championshop team (minus those unforgettable three seconds): Joey Dorsey ( a guy who looked like he forgot to take the shirt off the hanger before he put it on), Chris Douglas-Roberts (Tayshaun Prince’s clone) and a guy who was the number one pick in the last NBA draft and who will be the NBA Rookie-of-the-Year (if I have to tell you his name, you’re probably reading this blog by mistake - or you lost a bet).  Yet, people in Memphis are disappointed!  Maybe it’s because the Tigers had been annointed the best defensive team in the nation and Missouri just hung a hun and a deuce on them.  Just keep in mind Tiger fans, if Final Four appearances aren’t Duke’s birthright, they sure as hell ain’t yours, y’all.

Seeds held to form in the other two games, although Pitt had to come back yet again to win a game in this tourney.  The Panthers haven’t played a really solid 40 minutes yet in the NCAA Tourney which some folks claim will be their downfall as the competition gets tougher.  Others have the feeling that a team as good as Pitt playing three subpar games only means that they’re due.  I’ll leave the answer to that up to the reader.

The UConn Huskies got just what they needed with this NCAA probe.  What!  Isn’t it a distraction?  Not to these guys.  Their coach, Jim Calhoun, is, by his own admission, a tough Irishman and, since a team takes on the personality of its coach - now there’s an adage that’s absolutely true - nothing better unifies a group of tough guys more than an attack on its family.  Besides, like one of their guys said in the post-game press conference, “When we get out on the floor, we can totally focus on playing basketball” - which is what they do best.

Last night they slugged it out with a tough, but much less talented Purdue club, who finally caved in.  Now it’s back to answering those annoying questions, asked by people over and over again (”Is this NCAA probe a distraction?”)  Please say no, so when you lose, I’ll be able to print the column I already have written.  Or say yes and lose, so I can claim even the players were distracted (same column).  Bottom line: Just lose, baby!

In some cases, the line that’s used with individuals also applies to great teams (and, make no mistake about it, to get this far, you have to be a great team):

“Most teams can’t handle prosperity.  Then again, most teams don’t have to.”        Â

First round games for teams seeded near the top of the NCAA field occasionally don’t bring out their best effort.  Maybe it’s because deep down, they know they can turn it on whenever they need to and will still be able to come out on top; maybe it’s because they’ve overlooked their opponent in favor of taking a peak at their next opponent victim or maybe, or this is one no macho, egotist player ever admits, that the butterflies refused to fly in formation and caused them to do things they themselves didn’t recognize.

Whatever the case was, those squads can bet their coaches will be on their collective butts about what they (the coaches) consider sub-standard performance, the number 1 killer in a one-and-done tournament.  Film (for us old codgers) or video (for the N-Geners) will undoubtedly be played and mistakes (certainly those relating to lack of focus and/or effort) will be shown (over and over and over and …) in an effort to awaken the first round underachievers, noting that a repeat performance in the second round will, in all likelihood, conclude the season.

This was the case for a couple of last Thursday’s opening round winners - namely Memphis and Villanova.  Coaches John Calipari and Jay Wright made the right (politically correct) statements in the post game press conference, but don’t think they were as forgiving of the individual perpetrators behind closed doors as they were in public.  Now is no time to worry about hurting a player’s feelings when an identical performance hurts the entire team’s feelings - and as badly as they could possibly be hurt.

The reason why these two coaches and their respective teams are considered among the legitimate contenders for berths in the Final Four - and possibly, the National Championship, is because they do just that.  They will criticize their teams - in a constructive, truthful (albeit blunt) manner - and the players will respond to that criticism, realizing it’s not personal.  To someone not used to being criticized, however, hearing something the likes of which these two Easterners will say (not that it really matters, but men from that part of the country seem to get tagged with that label more than coaches from elsewhere in the U.S.) might evoke a different emotion.  

The result, usually, is what the country saw in the second round.  Each team (Memphis and Villanova) came out smoking - definitely from an effort standpoint and that translated into rather easy victories over Maryland and UCLA respectively, both of whom were vastly superior to Thursday’s opponents - Cal State Northridge and American, respectively.  The Tigers and Wildcats both came out breathing fire and never gave either the Terps nor the Bruins a chance.

Look for a similar scenario today from Louisville and Pitt.  Neither team wants to make the same mistake they did on Friday by not doing what’s in their power, i.e. dictating the pace of the game, thus enabling a lesser foe to “hang around” and make the game tougher than it ought to be.  Unlike many people in society today, the players from these two teams understand, respect and accept leadership, so they don’t become part of the group Norman Vincent Peale was alluding to when he said:

“Most people would rather be killed with praise than saved by criticism.”Â