Sunday, April 01, 2007
Final Four
This year’s Final Four is a triumph for the stay in school crowd. Florida, the favorite, returns all five starters from last year’s national champions. UCLA returns four of their five starters from last year’s runner-up. Georgetown relies heavily on senior and Big East player of the year Jeff Green. Ohio State, though led by future lottery pick freshmen, Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr., has senior contributors including the guy, Ron Lewis, who made the shot of the tournament that kept Ohio State playing, against Xavier.
In terms of furture pro-players this maybe the best final four quartet in 20 plus years, since 1982 when Georgetown vs. University of North Carolina, was the championship game in a Final Four that featured, Jordan, Ewing, Olajuwon, Worthy, Sam Perkins, not too mention the underrated Sleepy Floyd. Check out the list of future pros that entered the league in that small window of time “in a two-year span from 1984 to 1985, the following rookies entered the NBA: Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf, Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley, Joe Dumars, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, A.C. Green, Wayman Tisdale, Jerome Kersey and Terry Porter.” Special thanks to ESPN’s Bill Simmons for that list. Now look at the future pro’s in this year’s Final Four. The once in a generation center, Greg Oden. Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green, Florida has studs all over. (Brewer, Horford, Noah you know about, but even bench guy Chris Richard could be a first round draft pick.) Jump shooter extrordinaire Lee Humphrey of Florida has Steve Kerr written all over him.
The Clarion picked a Georgetown-UCLA final at the beginning of the tourney, we can’t and won’t waiver now. We have Georgetown and the Princeton offense taking the title.
Follow this link to an excellent article from a Princeton basketball grad about why racial stereotypes play no factor in Georgetown’s offense.
Rating the coaches, in the Final Four, an excellent quartet. All right, well, at least three good ones. John Thopmson III, coaches the best offense, and gets his players to play with great intensity on the defensive end. Ben Howland at UCLA coaches great defense and gets the most out of the talent he has. What can one say about Billy Donovan? The Clarion is no Rick Pitno fan, ever since he screwed up the Knicks during some of Patrick Ewing’s prime. His teams have always had shot selection akin to a drunkin’ salesman’s beer goggling in Vegas at 3am. But Billy Donovan has been a hardworking overachiever his whole career. Wasn’t supposed to play much at Providence way back in the day. Instead he led the way to Pitno’s first Final Four appearance.
The Clarion would have given astronomical odds that anyone could coach Florida to two straight Final Fours. That’s the university in scenic Gainesville, Florida??! You know there is a reason they call their home football stadium the swamp. We’d have bet on Univeristy of Miami basketball as easier to turn around. Not only has Donovan done it twice---capping the first run with a national title, but then got everybody to come back. This isn’t Indiana 1976, but that is still remarkable, outstanding work.
On the debate about whether Durant or Oden should be the number one overall pick, assuming they both come out, the Clarion heard an excellent point from Mike Francesa WFAN radio in New York, on this issue. Francesa who is firmly in Oden’s corner points out, the guys Durant is most easily and often compared to, 6’9” lanky guys with sick range, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki a combined total of zero rings, zero NBA titles. The bigs guys on the other hand, Shaq, and Tim Duncan have won 7 of the 8 post Michael Jordan rings.
In terms of furture pro-players this maybe the best final four quartet in 20 plus years, since 1982 when Georgetown vs. University of North Carolina, was the championship game in a Final Four that featured, Jordan, Ewing, Olajuwon, Worthy, Sam Perkins, not too mention the underrated Sleepy Floyd. Check out the list of future pros that entered the league in that small window of time “in a two-year span from 1984 to 1985, the following rookies entered the NBA: Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf, Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley, Joe Dumars, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, A.C. Green, Wayman Tisdale, Jerome Kersey and Terry Porter.” Special thanks to ESPN’s Bill Simmons for that list. Now look at the future pro’s in this year’s Final Four. The once in a generation center, Greg Oden. Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green, Florida has studs all over. (Brewer, Horford, Noah you know about, but even bench guy Chris Richard could be a first round draft pick.) Jump shooter extrordinaire Lee Humphrey of Florida has Steve Kerr written all over him.
The Clarion picked a Georgetown-UCLA final at the beginning of the tourney, we can’t and won’t waiver now. We have Georgetown and the Princeton offense taking the title.
Follow this link to an excellent article from a Princeton basketball grad about why racial stereotypes play no factor in Georgetown’s offense.
Rating the coaches, in the Final Four, an excellent quartet. All right, well, at least three good ones. John Thopmson III, coaches the best offense, and gets his players to play with great intensity on the defensive end. Ben Howland at UCLA coaches great defense and gets the most out of the talent he has. What can one say about Billy Donovan? The Clarion is no Rick Pitno fan, ever since he screwed up the Knicks during some of Patrick Ewing’s prime. His teams have always had shot selection akin to a drunkin’ salesman’s beer goggling in Vegas at 3am. But Billy Donovan has been a hardworking overachiever his whole career. Wasn’t supposed to play much at Providence way back in the day. Instead he led the way to Pitno’s first Final Four appearance.
The Clarion would have given astronomical odds that anyone could coach Florida to two straight Final Fours. That’s the university in scenic Gainesville, Florida??! You know there is a reason they call their home football stadium the swamp. We’d have bet on Univeristy of Miami basketball as easier to turn around. Not only has Donovan done it twice---capping the first run with a national title, but then got everybody to come back. This isn’t Indiana 1976, but that is still remarkable, outstanding work.
On the debate about whether Durant or Oden should be the number one overall pick, assuming they both come out, the Clarion heard an excellent point from Mike Francesa WFAN radio in New York, on this issue. Francesa who is firmly in Oden’s corner points out, the guys Durant is most easily and often compared to, 6’9” lanky guys with sick range, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki a combined total of zero rings, zero NBA titles. The bigs guys on the other hand, Shaq, and Tim Duncan have won 7 of the 8 post Michael Jordan rings.
Labels: college basketball, sports
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