It's about this time every year when public overreaction becomes the rule rather than the exception when it comes to the bubble. Experts and viewers alike are certain teams are in or out -- "They're not an NCAA team!", they state authoritatively -- without actually going through a process of selecting 37 at-large teams and comparing the resume of that specific team with other realistic options.
The college football season is underway and nobody cares in New England.
Are you thinking of getting a graduate degree, but want something with a narrower focus than an MBA or a JD?
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Ater Majok's incredible journey from Sudan to the courts of college basketball included the scars of war and hatred, harsh memories of an Egyptian refugee camp, relocation to Australia with the help of the United Nations, and a lengthy NCAA review of his academic records.
Guard: Diana Taurasi, UConn. She won the 2002 NCAA title surrounded by great talent, the 2003 title accompanied by a team of role players and the 2004 title because, as Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma put it, "We have Diana and you don't." She is our women's college basketball Player of the Decade.
NEW YORK -- The most undeniable evidence of the athleticism gap between UConn and Duke came seven minutes and 11 seconds into Friday's NIT Season Tip-Off final at Madison Square Garden. Huskies point guard Kemba Walker -- the quickest player on either roster, by far -- stripped the ball from the Blue Devils' plodding center, Brian Zoubek, in the post, turned and whipped it upcourt to Stanley Robinson. The UConn forward known as "Sticks" proceeded to finish a one-on-none fast break with no mere dunk, but rather a windmilled, exclamatory statement that put his team up 16-14.
This article appears in the November 23, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.
SI.com caught up with Seth Davis, who's serving as a CBS studio analyst during the tournament, to get his impressions of Saturday's Final Four games.
Before the Elite Eight meeting with Missouri, UConn coach Jim Calhoun noted that the Huskies liked to get out and run, but doing that all game against the Tigers wouldn't be in the Huskies' best interest. Doing some more of that against Michigan State, though, may very well be in UConn's interest, as a sludgy, grinding, halfcourt game likely is what the Spartans would like to see.
Michigan State (30-6) vs. UConn (31-4) Saturday, 6:07 p.m. Ford Field (78,000)
SI.com caught up with Seth Davis, who's serving as a CBS studio analyst during the tournament, to get his impressions of Saturday's regional finals.
SI.com: So what happened to Duke?
He is a senior without a ring, the most desperate of NCAA tournament players, driven one last time to punctuate his career with a net draped around his neck and confetti in the air. Four and a half years have passed since A.J. Price's life was interrupted. One day he was greatness in waiting; the next he was fighting for survival. As a freshman at Connecticut in the fall of 2004, he became gravely ill from a congenital abnormality in the blood vessels of his brain. He spent his 18th birthday in the intensive care unit of a Hartford hospital, disconnected from basketball in the most terrifying manner.
MORE RESETS: South | Midwest | East
The game was a model of normalcy. Sixteen seeds do not beat No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, and the reasons for this were on full display in Connecticut's 103-47 destruction of Chattanooga late Thursday afternoon at the Wachovia Center. What transpired in the hours before -- and minutes afterward -- was not close to normal, except in the sense that Connecticut has been in this very odd place far more often than most basketball teams.
Happy Brackets, everyone! I'm sure we're all glad the speculation about bubbles and seeds is over, and we can get down to talking hoops. My own bracket picks are here. I've gone through each of the four regions and have offered up a few Hoop Thoughts below to explain why I filled it out the way I did. Feel free to follow my advice on your own brackets, but remember my No. 1 rule: No blaming!
When the March to the Arch has finally played out a few weeks down the road, it probably won't matter all that much how the brackets in the women's 2009 NCAA championship were shaped. When you have a team as dominant as Connecticut sitting at the top of heap (as an ESPN graphic pointed out, the undefeated Huskies have beaten ranked teams by more than 31 points a game), it may seem like the next few weeks are just an exercise in determining who gets the honor of being crushed by UConn in the championship final.
The first wave of conference tournaments is behind us. Here's what we know so far:
NEW YORK -- Prior to the late-night shift at Madison Square Garden Thursday, UConn senior guard A.J. Price was making sure all his co-workers were accounted for in the hallway outside the team's locker room.
Best not to make too much of any regular season game, even one as anticipated as Saturday's Connecticut-Pittsburgh rematch at the Peterson Events Center in Steeltown. Games like this one will be a distant memory in 12 days when first round NCAA Tournament matchups tip off. Still, some trends were pretty hard to ignore. Five things we learned:
1. Does Memphis deserve a No. 1 seed? This could be the debate that dominates Selection Sunday. Three of the No. 1s -- UConn, Pitt and North Carolina -- are close to being locked in. But the fourth spot is still up for grabs, and a majority of bracketologists consider Oklahoma to be the best candidate, partly under the assumption that the NCAA selection committee will cut the Sooners slack for the two losses they suffered while Blake Griffin was out with a concussion (and blazered up). If OU doesn't win the Big 12 tournament, though, it opens the door for Memphis, Michigan State, Louisville or even Duke to hop up to a No. 1. The Tigers have the weakest nonconference résumé of that crew -- Tennessee and Gonzaga are their only decent wins -- and the Spartans, Cardinals or Blue Devils would, in my mind, have a more rightful claim to a top seed if they were to win out from now 'til the brackets are built. Memphis' case would be built mostly on momentum; it hasn't lost since Dec. 20, and
It had been a rough week for Syracuse junior forward Paul Harris, one of many tough ones in the meat grinder known as the Big East Conference. He had played a mediocre game in a 102-85 loss to Villanova on Feb. 7 and a far-less-than-mediocre game in a 63-49 loss to the nation's No. 1 team, Connecticut, on Feb. 11, both on hostile courts.
With Selection Sunday less than a month away, SI.com's Andy Glockner projects the field.
Seth Davis and Luke Winn serve up their picks for SI.com's Midseason All-America teams
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- On Monday afternoon, UConn was anointed as the new No. 1 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, and this, while nice, meant nothing. Four other teams had held the same title over the previous five weeks -- North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and lastly Duke -- and it was more the Huskies' turn to be No. 1 rather than something they had earned. As they sat in their Louisville hotel on a crisp February day, whittling away the hours before they would face the hottest team in the Big East, UConn's players were aware they had yet to offer hard evidence of being superior to the rest of the top-ranked pack.
SI.com college basketball writers analyze the first part of the season. 1. Which team has surprised you the most?
On Saturday, CBS broadcast a quartet of matchups that was as good as any the network has aired during my six years working there: Duke-Xavier, Texas-Michigan State, Purdue-Davidson and UConn-Gonzaga. All of those games had two things in common. First, and most delightfully, they each featured two ranked teams.
With three minutes remaining in Sunday's Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden, UConn's Tina Charles took one giant drop step, swirled around a Penn State defender, banked in a layup and was fouled. As the whistle blew, she made another huge drop step, this time into the lane, and surrounded by her teammates, let out a growl. Top-ranked UConn had finally escaped the scrappy Penn State team that just wouldn't go away.
Connecticut moved back to being an unanimous choice as the No. 1 team, and showed there may be even more distance between itself and the rest of women's college basketball.
You can tell a lot about a society from its iconic arcs. The ancient Romans built an empire on the curved supports of their bridges, aqueducts and architecture. The reign of Napoléon in Europe is commemorated by the majestic Arc de Triomphe in Paris. And modern-day America has given the world two symbols that are recognized in every corner of the planet: the golden arches of McDonald's and basketball's three-point arc. (Talk about a civilized society!)
STORRS, Conn. -- UConn senior point guard A.J. Price laughs at the suggestion that there should be a Comeback Player of the Year award created in his honor.
On June 1, Elena Delle Donne, the nation's top girls' basketball player, was awarded her diploma from Ursuline Academy (Wilmington, Del.) during the school's Baccalaureate, a day before the rest of her graduating class was to receive theirs.
They've played the final game. Now, it's time to look forward to next year.
Plenty of people have been talking about the relationship between UConn coach Geno Auriemma and Tennessee Pat Summitt, though Auriemma himself says it's not worth talking about. "If all people want to talk about is Pat this and Pat that and Pat said this and Pat said that and Geno this and Geno that, that's a shame," Auriemma said. "And I'm not going to be a part of it. As far as I'm concerned, when I get on the plane and I go to Tampa [the site of the Final Four], I could care less about Pat Summitt, Tennessee, LSU or anybody. I'm worried about Stanford and I'm worried about Connecticut and that's it."
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The night grew deep in this southern city but Geno Auriemma did not want to stop talking. It was obvious that this trip to the Final Four meant more to him than other years. "We don't have all the answers to every question like we have had in some years," he said. "We struggle at times, just like other teams struggle. This particular team didn't get to the Final Four on talent and experience and having three or four All-Americas. This team got there on a lot of the intangibles that make you appreciate coaching. How far they have come as a group makes this probably the most rewarding one of all."
GREENSBORO -- Get her now. That's the advice for Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer because Maya Moore will be a freshman only once. Everything in this tournament is new for Moore, though you would not know it based on her comportment (calm) and performance (otherworldly). Stringer's team kept Moore in check for most of its 72-69 win Feb. 5, the only loss UConn has suffered in 36 games. Moore, a 6-foot forward, had two fouls before she scored her first point and was on the bench for much of the first half. She finished with 15 second-half points, including consecutive three-pointers in the final minutes.
In his 31 years as coach at Villanova, Harry Perretta has become adept at distinguishing the great Connecticut teams from the merely good. His analysis of the 2007-08 edition of the Huskies, the overall top seed in the tournament? "Extremely talented," he says. "The only difference I see between this team and the one that went undefeated with Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi in 2002 [and is considered one of the greatest teams of all time] is inexperience."
It's hard to believe, but we're already nearing the final stretch of the season. With a few weeks left, here's who and what to watch for, from the best rivalry games to the tightest conference race.
STORRS, Conn. -- He spent the final 17.3 seconds of the game with a wad of cotton jammed up his right nostril, looking like a cruiserweight pugilist who had taken, and subsequently shaken off, a shot to the schnoz. A.J. Price was in that bloodied state courtesy of an inadvertently placed, late foul by Notre Dame heavyweight Luke Harangody -- "it was a big forearm," Price said -- with the score 82-78 in UConn's favor.
The Rutgers women picked a good time to play like the team that made it to the NCAA finals last season.
SI.com's Cory McCartney analyzes the matchups.
STORRS, Conn. -- College football seems intent on giving us a season straight out of Bizarro World, some sort of perverse parody from another dimension that includes programs with little tradition or -- even worse -- reputations as "basketball schools." The perfect example of this strange scenario rests in the middle of this week's Bowl Championship Series standings.
Editor's note: We asked SI.com writers to share their memories from the best game they've ever seen. Here are their stories:
SI.com: Preaching patienceupdated: Tue Jan 16 2007 11:08:00
Even by the standards of today's message-board, short-attention-span, instant-gratification, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, 24/7 media culture, the cacophony of criticism directed at sophomores Greg Paulus and A.J. Price is a tad extreme. Yes, the intense scrutiny comes with the territory when you play point guard at Duke and UConn, respectively. Even so, a tiny bit of perspective is in order.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|