Champ Week Thoughts: Wednesday Night

As I engage in some masochism by subjecting myself to a nightcap of Pac-10 tourney action, thought I'd weigh in with some scattered thoughts on where things stand as of Wednesday night of this 2010 Championship week.

My survey of the college basketball landscape this year was almost as woefully hampered as Shankar's, though I managed to watch some games early in the season, and a few later on. Blame graduation writing requirements and the bar exam of two weeks ago for this sad state of affairs. Suffice it to say that I have awaited March 2010 for a plethora of reasons. The exception to my hoops negligence was of course close following of my beloved Memphis Tigers, who will play Houston for their tourney lives in just over 12 hours. Consequently, I won't be engaging in anything like last spring's reasonably successful S-Curve adventures.

Shankar covered the nuts and bolts Championship Week quite well in his State of the Bubble Nation. So I'll just add some stray observations based on what I've watched so far this week.

Tuesday: The Good, the Bad, and the Weird.

• UConn gave up on their season as obviously as I've ever seen any team do. I've seen a lot of UConn, both on TV and in person (by virtue of location, not affinity...), over the last few years, and, like everyone else, I know they should have been able to do a lot more with what they had. But Tuesday was some of the worst apathy I've witnessed at this point in the season. I've always respected Jerome Dyson as a scrapper and tremendously skilled player, but he most obviously of all just didn't care about playing any more basketball this season. Sad to see him end his career like that. UConn's interior defense, bizarrely, was atrocious, and St. John's laid down many nasty dunks, and missed some nastier ones. UConn, in a similar spot to Saint Mary's the previous night, responded in exactly the opposite way to the Gaels, making obvious every reason why they shouldn't be allowed into any further postseason play.
• Seton Hall's 109-106 win over Providence was as weird a viewing experience as you'll have. Providence's defense would shame most elementary school teams, and Seton Hall ran it way up on them, but didn't do anything great. The entire game had the feel of a scrimmage. Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, and Bill Raftery spent most of the game coming up with new ways to lament the Friars' remarkable indifference to stopping the ball, cracking wise, and discussing other games. Consequently, they and the viewers were completely indifferent to the action in front of them, as they should have been. It was a joke. But somehow, it turned into a game through Seton Hall's checking out of it and Providence's continued scoring. So they had to sort of wake up again and start calling it like it was an actual game. Weird to watch and listen to, in all aspects.
• Lance Stephenson came back to the Garden in memorable fashion, hitting the winning free throw to push Cincinnati over Rutgers and reprising his late game heroics from an earlier home win over UConn by forcing the action and drawing fouls with his killer crossover.

Wednesday Big East Thoughts

• Started out watching Georgetown take care of business against South Florida. Georgetown in many ways has been as much of an enigma this year as Louisville and Cincinnati, but their ceiling is so much higher than either of those teams. When Chris Wright, Greg Monroe, and Austin Freeman are cutting and passing, it's a beautiful thing to see. I just have no faith in them to make it out of the first weekend of the tournament, despite the increased mental toughness they have shown at times this season.
• St. John's bounced UConn and pushed Marquette to the limit because of two simple things: under-control point guard play and solid defense. In stark contrast to lower-tier Big East teams like Seton Hall and Providence, the Johnnies made Lou Carnesecca, and, more relevant, Norm Roberts proud by consistently making the right decisions in transition and failing to be drawn into dumb fouls or bad defensive position. PG Malik Boothe was the main catalyst behind this level of play. If he and his fellow juniors can continue this maturation this summer, next year's senior-dominated Red Storm could actually be a force again in the Big East. Or not.
• I know the field is weak this year, but I just don't like Seton Hall or Notre Dame as tourney teams. They just don't seem worthy after all they've done wrong. But that's the kind of year it's been.
• Lance Stephenson continued the Born Ready show in the Garden by, once again, forcing the action, scoring once and later drawing a foul with a killer crossover, and hitting late free throws that gave Cincy a 4-point cushion with 0:29 left. Louisville had inexcusably (but completely unsurprisingly) blown a big lead by engaging in the kind of relaxed play that let Providence come back against Seton Hall the day before; Cincy to their credit, played largely under control to take advantage during their comeback. Stephenson missed 2 fts a little later that could have iced it, but still...pattern emerging. I suspect a breakout year from Stephenson next year, the one that was supposed to make him a lottery pick this year.

Wednesday Big 12 Thoughts

• Oklahoma....what a mess. Seriously, how could they be that bad? Which brings me to...
• Texas....what a mess. They really had me going early in the season, and I don't think it was because I'm gullible. They showed Final Four level play early on, but Rick Barnes has almost disastrously mismanaged his incredible recruiting class. I know that the Big 12 has been even better than forecast this year, and the competition was tougher in conference, but when you see a Final Four level team play at that level, you just know. Even without Balbay and Ward, they easily have the talent to make it to Indy, only there's zero chance they can put it together. Unfortunate, because when they were putting it together early in the season, they were truly something to see. I expected Texas to have a good bit of trouble with Iowa State because of Gilstrap and Brackins, and still just kind of pull it out, more because the Cyclones haven't been able to put it together this season, period. And that's what happened.
• Jeff Capel and Rick Barnes should enter some sort of "What the hell did I do with that team?" support group before next season. I would say that Jim Calhoun should join them, but he would just curse everyone else out the whole time.
• Mizzou's loss to Nebraska was odd to watch. Mizzou hasn't been as impressive as expected after last year's tourney run (and painful demolition of Memphis). They have the kind of mature, hardworking players that coaches and fans can appreciate in Zaire Taylor, J.T. Tiller, Kim English, and Laurence Bowers and their defense is as pesky as it gets. Their backup guard play from Denmon and Dixon is probably their weak point along with their depth. I have to think the Nebraska loss was a fluke of Nebraska's obvious size advantage (33-21 rebounding edge) and a big (and beautifully played) game from Ryan Anderson. Maybe Doc Sadler has something working in Lincoln. In any case, like Shankar, I'm inclined to give Mizzou and Mike Anderson the benefit of the doubt. I have a feeling the tourney will take them to the level they're supposed to play at.

Stray Season Thoughts

• It's obvious this season was a down one throughout college basketball. Most of the talent either didn't pan out or hasn't matured (looking at you Tar Heels), and the top teams, though they have showed flashes of brilliance, are all obviously beatable. Kansas is the closest thing to a Final Four lock, but mostly because we haven't seen any other team as consistent. All the power conferences were disappointing, and perhaps the most entertaining was the under-watched Mountain West (more on them shortly).
• The Big East was thought of as the best league, but outside of Syracuse, there isn't a team that I couldn't see losing in the first weekend. West Virginia is probably the best equipped for a run to Indy, but who knows which Mountaineers team will show up on a given night? Da'Sean Butler has saved their high seeding with his heroics this season, but they could easily be much lower on the totem pole, though their NBA talent says it shouldn't even be close.
• The Big 12 was better than advertised, and probably is even with the Big East in terms of this year's quality. While there isn't the "any given night" feel to the Big 12's lower level teams that you have in the Big East, I think the top teams showed more maturity and consistency, the kind of play that gets you through the tourney.
• Outside the woeful, and not-to-be-discussed-by-reasonable-fans Pac-10 (like last year's SEC), the ACC contained the most disappointment. Wake Forest (Aminu), Clemson (Booker), and Georgia Tech (Favors, Lawal) all have first-round (if not lottery) talent, and displayed flashes of brilliance more than offset by maddening inconsistency. It's just annoying not to see them do more with it. Carolina needs no discussion. Although Duke will probably get the final one seed, I can easily see an Elite Eight without an ACC rep. Maryland obviously came on big late, are probably the most fun to watch (mainly because of Vasquez), and can maybe make a deep tourney run. Or not.
• Don't sleep on any of the Mountain West teams--New Mexico, BYU, UNLV, and San Diego State. I saw a few games this year, and they were the most satisfying to watch. These teams did a lot with their talent, and that was satisfying to see in this frustrating year. I really, really liked what I saw out of New Mexico. In a year where the power conferences were largely disappointing and failed to show consistent discipline (outside of KU), the trio of Darington Hobson, Dairese Gary, and Roman Martinez can play with anyone, and look good doing it. I'm eagerly anticipating the MWC tourney, and I'll be rooting for the Mountain West to kick ass in the Big Dance out of principle.
• I'm obligated to note that the Pac-10 game that served as my background to writing this post actually turned out to be pretty exciting. Oregon was down 12 to Wazzu with 10 minutes left, but started to chip away from that point on behind Tajuan Porter. With the Ducks down 72-70 with 7 seconds left after the Cougars' Reggie Moore missed the second of 2 free throws, Porter raced the length of the floor and put up a high floater over 3 Wazzu defenders....which bounced off the rim with 1 second left...at which point Duck teammate E.J. Singler swooped in and tipped in the miss with 0.4 seconds left. The Ducks went on to win in OT 82-80, with Porter sinking the go-ahead FTs with 0:35 left. Whatever, the Pac-10 sucks. It's doubly depressing because the rest of the nation will be denied Pac-10 cheerleaders for the rest of the year. And that's no way to live.

So that's what I know about college basketball 2009-2010 as of Wednesday night. Don't let my general disappointment in the quality of play this season mislead you into thinking March won't be March. No matter what the regular season was like, the combination of desperation and skill always makes for the best sports spectacle of the year, every year, and without really dominant teams, the ride will be even more thrilling. Thursday, and the rest of the month, will be crazy.