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Wrapping it up
All in all, I’m pretty happy with this tournament. Plenty of upsets, dramatic games, a Cinderella story in George Mason, and a worthy champ in the Florida Gators helped make this one of the best tournaments in the past 20 years. Last weekend was the strongest one of the tournament, and earlier in the week I explained why the Gators had to win it all, so after Donovan’s boys sealed the deal I felt pretty good about things. Of course, I never could’ve predicted this, but they are a great champion for college basketball.
Before we go too much farther, there are 10 key things to take away from the tournament.
Florida has scary good talent- This is a Florida team that has the talent of a UCONN, but plays team ball on the level of a George Mason. In short, this is a championship team. In the end, it was somewhat amusing to see a team with a stereotypical starting line-up win it all. They have the scoring point guard who is an excellent playmaker, the spot-up deadly shooter as the 2-guard, a prototypical small forward in the decent shooting, uber-athletic Corey Brewer, a hard-nosed power forward who is a capable shot blocker, rebounder, and post player, and then Joakim Noah, a dominant 6-11 shot blocker who also is a very strong post scorer. Florida has two players in Noah and Horford who would be top-15 picks this year, and two players in their starting lineup, Brewer and Green, who should be 1st rounders by the time they leave school.
I’ve enjoyed watching Florida from the start of the preseason tournaments, and this has been a very special team. Don’t sell them short; they are the best team in college basketball.
“One Shining Moment” is one of the coolest things in sports. If you haven’t seen it, try going to the CBS website or downloading it somewhere, because it’s well worth it. Maybe it is just me, but that is the highlight of the tournament. Simply fantastic. Side note here- is there anything better than the unbridled joy a team experiences after winning a championship? How can you not feel good about sports watching a celebration like that?
Experience doesn’t matter- UCLA, Florida, and LSU are all very young teams. The old adage that you win with good senior leadership in March is dead, as youth can carry you to the title game. This isn’t a rare “Carmelo Anthony as a frosh” phenomenon, as there are no Anthonys on any of these Final Four teams.
Unless you are a mid-major- George Mason was a senior laden team and that was a big reason they made such a great run. Mid-majors need players who stay four years and gel together to make a serious run. They don’t have the talent, but good chemistry and experience is critical for mid-majors to close that gap.
There are NBA-caliber players in college basketball, playing NBA-style basketball- I’ve ragged on UCONN a lot during the tournament, and they aren’t the only perpetrators of this, but they are the most notable. Too many players on that roster show an inconsistent effort at both ends of the court. It seemed like most Huskies barely cared during the tournament, and that’s why I couldn’t be happier a team like Florida won it all and two great defensive teams made it to the Final Four.
Billy Packer hates America- He apparently picked against every mid-major, hates anyone who doesn’t play in a major conference, and loathes George Mason because they were nicknamed the Patriots. That is just a summary of thoughts thrown around by people in the last few weeks. Billy Packer hates the little guy, but he took too much flak this tournament. His schtick is tired and old (although he plays the role “senile college basketball analyst” well), but did anyone have George Mason in the final four? He’s always hated mid-majors, and his stance or its ludicrousness doesn’t change because a mid-major won.
Size Matters, but coaching matters more- The old theory was that guard play was the key to March, but now we’ve seen that the forward play is crucial to tournament success. Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas fueled the upsets of Duke and Texas, Noah and Horford paved the way for Florida, and Thomas and Lewis played huge roles for George Mason. That being said, coaching is the key to winning in March. When you play so many teams with so little time to prepare, games can be decided by the scouting and game planning done by the coaching staffs. Effective game plans can neutralize even the best of players (see Redick, JJ) and teams (see UCONN).
The MVC lived up to the hype- I know that George Mason was the talk of the tourney, and rightfully so, but don’t forget that the MVC had a decent showing in the tournament. You can’t fault a team for failing to pull off an upset, but no one was embarrassed or blown away and Wichita State upset Tennessee to make it to the sweet 16.
Refs suck- This seems to be a growing trend in sports, but this was one of the worst officiated tournaments I’ve ever witnessed. Surprisingly, the refs did an adequate job in the Final Four, but they did not cut it during the rest of the tourney. Too many game changing errors, blown calls, and no calls for them to get a pass. Terrible showing for the zebras.
It’s not OK to cry before the game is over- You can’t cry before the game is over, even if you are a half-second away from winning the national championship. It’s simply unacceptable and Adam Morrison’s sob job with nearly three seconds left in the UCLA game was disgraceful. He’s a great competitor, an emotional player, but save the tears until the game is over.
Sports Gospel Invitational Final Results
By now, everyone should be familiar with the 2006 Sports Gospel Invitational. I held a pool with a select number of individuals- five experts, five casual fans, and five people that know absolutely nothing about college hoops. I was trying to figure out what type of knowledge was necessary to fare well in an office pool and figured out that, well, you’ve got to know your hoops to seal the deal. That being said, our morons (when it comes to college hoops knowledge) actually fared quite well in this crazy tournament, including one person who predicted a George Mason elite 8 run and another who finished in the top 5.
Seeing as how the morons better than I thought they would, I decided to do the last SGI interview with one of these people, my brother Joe’s girlfriend Amanda.
SG: You finished 8 out of 15 (Joe was no 14), are you proud of your finish?
A:Yes, a girl who had never seen a college basketball game in her life did better than half the boys! (And you didn't need to tell me how poorly Joe did, I was well aware.)
SG: What methods did you use to pick your bracket (what other people said, just guessing, liked the way the name sounded, etc) ?
A: It was a mix of what I had heard other people say and gut instincts (girls have a lot of those). And then of course there is putting Ohio State just because I live in Ohio- you know, gotta represent.
(ed note- Amanda defeated an expert and four casual fans, one of which was her my brother, who finished second-to-last)
SG: You predicted a final score in the championship game of 43-30, what on Earth were you thinking?
A: Ouch. Well like I said before I had never seen a COLLEGE basketball game, only high school, so I took the score from one of my high school games. Guess it's not the same. Lesson learned.
SG: If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?
A: Not tell Joe anything! I call it "the top 4" instead of "the final 4" and within 5 minutes you knew about it. And no matter how well my bracket did, we all know you will dwell on all the stupid things I said.
SG: How much of the tourney did you watch, and do you wish you had watched more or less of the tourney action?
A: I watched almost all of it actually, which surprised a lot of people. I guess you were right, you have a way of making people do what you want them to do.
SG: Where does participating in the SGI rank among your favorite experiences in life?
A: I didn't care about basketball, still don't, but I was excited to be a part of a famous Mark Chalifoux article. I'd give it 4 out of 10.
(ed. Note- 4 out of 10?! Sounds like someone is a little bitter about her mediocre performance)
The official champion of the SGI was a casual fan, Joe’s twin brother Dan. He was boosted by picking 27/32 first round games correctly and has not yet decided how to spend the Grand Prize-50 free Smoothie King smoothies (I think he will be forced to spend them on smoothies as I don’t think any other place accepts them as currency). He ended up putting Florida in the final, because he thought Noah’s hair looked stupid and wanted him to win because of it. That cost me the title, as I finished in 2nd.
My co-host on the radio show, Dan Griffin, finished 3rd. My mom, who only watches college hoops when she’s forced into it, finished 4th, SFM Sales Manager Danielle Verbin finished 5th, and the rest of the field was sprinkled with nobodies, radio people, a few writers, and another moron or two. End of story- to win it all, you need to know something about college hoops. However, knowing a little bit is no insurance that you won’t be embarrassed by someone like Amanda.
New All-American List
Earlier in the tournament I revealed my All-American vote, but if I had to do it again, I’d fill out my ballot this way.
1st Team 2nd Team
JJ Redick Rodney Carney
Adam Morrison Dee Brown
Brandon Roy Jordan Farmar
Randy Foye Craig Smith
Joakim Noah Glen Davis
Noah has played like a lottery pick, Davis definitely is third best big man in the country behind Noah and Smith (ahead of Shelden Williams and Tyler Hansbrough), Farmar gets the nod over Lofton of UT, and Roy and Carney are both head and shoulders better than Rudy Gay of Connecticut.
2007 Final Four
With this year’s tourney out of the way, it’s time to look into the future. What better way to close this year’s tournament than with a look at the Final Four teams of next year.
Florida- Unless two players go pro, they should be right back here next year. While Noah would be a lottery pick and Horford would go first round, I wouldn’t be shocked to see both players come back to school. If they do, look-out, they will be a fun team to watch next year (do I say this enough? I think a good judge of whether a team is fun to watch is how well they play in NCAA Hoops 2k6. I started playing with Florida in November and dominated all competition, they are fun to play with and fun to watch). They only lose shooting guard Humphrey and backup center Moss, and the Gators have capable replacements for both.
Ohio State- Another testament to youth, next year we will see the results of the NBA age-limit as Greg Oden and the Thad 5 take the Buckeyes to the Final Four. Make no mistake, Oden will be that good and should be an All-American as a freshman. There are few great big men in the college game, so Oden won’t have too much competition.
North Carolina- Tyler Hansbrough and crew should be the team to beat in the ACC and they have another great recruiting class coming in. Roy Williams has shown he can coach, and barring any injury they will be representing the ACC in the fold next season.
Kansas- I was going to take UCLA, but Farmar is gone in my opinion. I like Villanova with Curtis Sumpter, but KU has too much talent to be denied next year. They will have ridiculous talent, but it will be interesting to see whether or not Bill Self can avoid an early flame-out. Greater Kansas teams in the past have gone down early, but I think this squad pulls it off.
The Sports Gospel is sponsored by www.betonsports.com. www.betonsports.com gives you the greatest sports action to bet on-Wager on football, cricket, Boxing, Rugby, Horse Racing and more. Mark Chalifoux is a columnist for SportsFan Magazine. You can reach him at Rockne48@und.com.
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