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Houston.....We
Don't Have a Problem! I'm looking forward to making the trip down to Houston later this week to host the Sirius/XM Final Four shows and to check out the wacky finish to this year's NCAA Tournament. Have you seen anything like this event? UConn, Kentucky, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth. My brackets were busted a week ago, but this Final Four collection is fascinating. For the folks that are turned off by this group of teams, hopefully you can find something to occupy your time on Saturday and next Monday night for the title game. This foursome is interesting, because you have a little bit of everything wrapped into one. Yeah, I know these teams lost a bunch of games in the regular season.....who cares? Why is that relevant? Right now, all four of them are red-hot and playing well. UConn's run of 9-straight wins in the span of 19 days, which included 5-straight wins in the Big East Tourney, is impressive. Kemba Walker has been untouchable and a joy to watch. The Huskies are back with a vengeance, after missing out on the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Kentucky is as blue-blood basketball elite as you can get. John Calipari brings his third different team to the Final Four and joins Rick Pitino in that company. By the way, the Wildcats ran through the SEC Tournament and the East Regional and the freshmen are playing like vets. Butler and the fabulous Brad Stevens are back for an encore. How do you not love the way this team competes and executes under pressure? I think Stevens is one of the 10 best coaches in the game today....not bad for a 34-year old guy. And then there's VCU....a team that only the NCAA Basketball Committee (and the city of Richmond) could love. Shaka Smart is the hottest up-and-coming coach, and the Rams have made a mockery of the Big Dance by eliminating five teams from the following leagues: Pac 10, Big East, Big 10, ACC and Big XII. You can fill-in your favorite Jay Bilas joke here.... I've had the chance to interview Shaka Smart twice during our Sirius/XM "College Basketball Today" show, and the guy has caught lightning in a bottle. His team has executed against 5 BCS league teams and for the most part, kicked their rear ends...all but one, by double digits. His team has feasted off of the cable nay-sayers, and I'm sure the same guys will be kissing their tails this week all the way from Richmond to Houston. As Charles Barkley claimed on CBS, "For all the people that said they don't belong...they need to shut the hell up". It's a fun and exciting combination of teams.....they are not great teams....but we knew that, going into the tournament. But this tourney has been so bizarre, so unpredictable, that it only makes sense that either Butler or VCU will play a power team from a power league for the national title. Like I stated earlier, my brackets were in shambles early into this tourney.....I'm not so sure I can fill out a perfect bracket from this point on, and we've only got four teams left. Anything can...and probably will happen. I can't wait to get down to Houston later this week.....and be sure to check out the shows on Sirius 122 / XM 143. It will seem a bit strange to witness the Final Four without an ACC team participating. Who am I kidding?....I meant to say without Duke or UNC playing in the Final Four. The conference has won 5 of the last 10 NCAA Tourneys, and only 5 times since 1988 has an ACC team not appeared in the Final Four. However, the league has become so dependent on their two great programs (Duke and UNC), that it is becoming "feast or famine", depending on the play of the Blue Devils and Tar Heels. With a no-show in Houston, the ACC has been absent from the Final Four in 4 of the last 9 events. The good news is that they normally win it if they can make it. The Heels fell short against a Kentucky team in the East finals...but there is no doubt that Roy Williams has his program primed to return to elite status. Duke was ambushed by Arizona, but nobody should ever question Coach K's status or his program's place in the big picture. Duke is Duke....and will be, as long as K wants to roam the sidelines. The ACC faces an interesting time, with both the Georgia Tech and NC State jobs open. It is imperative that the league improve its coaching ranks. There is a direct correlation between great coaches and programs. The pressure is on both respective AD's to land the right man for the job. Switching gears....what in the world is Jim Tressel doing at Ohio State? It's one thing to hold back information from your boss about some nonsense involving your star players. It's another thing to tell the media what your intentions and concerns might be surrounding that information. But now word has it that Tressel wasn't upfront with the information that he spewed at the press conference. That could spell big, big trouble for the leader of the Buckeye football program. There was a story in the Columbus Dispatch that stated since 2006, the NCAA has sanctioned 27 schools for butchering the rule that requires coaches and other individuals to be honest and forthcoming about potential rule violations. Of the dozen coaches involved in those cases, one kept his job and the others resigned or were fired. If the NCAA starts to poke their nose in the Buckeyes' football business, it will be interesting to see if the tail wags the dog at Ohio State. My guess....absolutely. Baltimore Orioles skipper Buck Showalter is talking trash. He ripped into Derek Jeter of the Yankees and Theo Epstein of the rival Boston Red Sox in the latest edition of Men's Journal. As an outsider, I love it. There's nothing better than a coach of a struggling franchise taking shots at the game's best teams. However, when the season starts this week, being a Baltimore Oriole might be the worst thing that can happen to you in the rugged American League East. I hope Showalter, who did an awesome job in the short term last year, enjoyed the limelight. I'd love to see Baltimore get back to their winning ways...but until you want to spend like Boston or New York, it will be tough making any kind of impact. By the way, I should have my "Packman 9" ready to go in the next ten days. The last two years, I've been perfect....and I've missed only two teams in four years of selecting the 9 teams that have zero chance of making the playoffs after just one week of play. Keep in mind that if you would like to try it for yourself, you must pick at least one team in each division. |
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