- Conference Championship Journal:
-The sentimental choice of conference tournament season
has emerged, and it is St. Peter’s of the Metro Atlantic. There may not be
many dry eyes in Albany’s Pepsi Arena Monday night if the Peacocks
complete an unthinkable run and win the MAAC Tournament
We noted just over a week ago our admiration for the
career of fabulous St. Peter’s star Keydren Clark, and the generously
listed as 5-10 guard will be playing against Iona in the MAAC title game
Monday night. The Peacocks got to that game by knocking off top seed
Manhattan on Sunday night for their third MAAC tourney win in three days
and one of the bigger upsets thus far in the conference tourneys. In
winning those three games, St. Peter’s has developed into as good a story
as you can find in this postseason.
One day earlier, Clark reached the 3,000-point mark in
his fantastic career at St. Peter’s. As if this wasn’t enough-he was just
the seventh player in Division I history to reach 3,000-the best part
about the senior guard’s milestone is that it came in a winning effort. In
grand fashion, Clark hit the game-winning shot in the Peacocks’ 63-62 win
over Siena on Saturday, banking in a leaping leaner with 10 seconds left.
In passing Oscar Robertson for career points, he also moved to seventh on
the all-time Division I scoring list in this game.
Sunday night, the graduate student known as Kee Kee (he
completed his undergraduate degree in three years) passed Hersey Hawkins
for sixth on the all-time list. A day after hitting the 3K mark, Clark
looked noticeably more relaxed and blew up for 18 points in the first
half. In the second half, though, something surprising happened: his
teammates stole the show. Although Keydren scored just 11 in the second
half, fellow starters Raul Orta, Quentin Martin, Kevin Spann and Todd
Sowell played big roles in beating the Jaspers, 84-74. All five scored in
double figures for SPC, hardly the sign of a team that frequently in the
past has looked like Keydren and the Kiddie Corps.
Future years will tell the real truth on this, but it’s
possible we’re seeing a team start to grow up before our eyes, and that
it’s happening with Clark still around is great to see, considering what
he has meant to the program and with what the program has gone through of
late. At halftime and after the game, Clark was wearing a T-Shirt with the
words “Brothers Forever, 23 G-Jeff” in honor of best friend George
Jefferson, who died this past summer. Whatever story one wants to write
about Clark and team playing for Jefferson’s memory, there’s no doubt it
makes an already terrific story even better and just adds to the drama
that is building Monday.
Clark has been one of the most prolific scorers in NCAA
history and will go down with names like Lionel Simmons, Steve Burtt, Sr.
and Luis Flores as one of the greats in MAAC history. One thing Clark,
Coach Bob Leckie and the Peacocks haven’t done these past four years is
make the NCAA Tournament, but that goal is now in sight. What an
incredible career, and we’re pleased to see him and the Peacocks not
finishing their season without a fight. The nation deserves a chance to
see Clark make the NCAA Tournament once in his career, and though we will
not object if Iona and its outstanding senior foursome of Ricky Soliver,
Marvin McCullough, Steve Burtt and Kiril Wachsmann defeat St. Peter’s and
win the MAAC automatic bid, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t pulling
for the Peacocks.
-What a wild, wild last few days of basketball for
anyone and everyone who has been living on the bubble, fence, or any other
unstable object lately. Just a week after many were wondering if we’d have
enough good teams to fill out the field, suddenly a number of
fence-sitters have gotten hot and made flashy cases for themselves of
late. (Which begs the question: why couldn’t these teams do this earlier?)
If there’s a serious message to be taken from that
above sarcastic comment, it is this: when the dust settles and everything
has been counted up after this frantic weekend, one win (or even two or
three wins) STILL does not make an entire season. The selection committee
has seldom in the past rewarded teams with just a handful of quality wins
over more qualified candidates, and it shouldn’t start this year, no
matter how impressive those wins are. What that should mean is that teams
like Florida State, Texas A&M, Colorado and California should still be
sweating out bids, at-large prospects from the Missouri Valley and
Colonial still deserve very strong consideration, and teams like
Cincinnati, Michigan, Seton Hall, Arizona and Alabama ought not be mortal
locks at this point, either. Every team in that first group should need to
make their conference final to even be discussed in the same breath as the
MVC and CAA schools looking for bids, while teams in that last group may
be in anyways but should need conference semifinal berths to feel safe.
Sounds hard to believe after a Creighton lost on Friday and it seemed
every other bubble team won, but that’s what the numbers say. If that
sounds unfair, well, those teams still have time to make better cases.
Whether what ‘should’ happen and what ‘will’ happen are reconciled is
beyond us at this point, but based on the committee’s track record in
previous years, we trust they will do the right thing.
-Perhaps as big a story as all of the bubble teams
winning of late is all of the supposedly “in” teams struggling. From Duke
to West Virginia, Michigan State and Texas all the way through Northern
Iowa, many wins over highly ranked teams right now are probably going to
be considered more impressive in the numbers than they really are relative
to that losing team’s play. Anyone who saw Texas against Texas A&M knows
exactly what that means; the Longhorns didn’t exactly put up a stellar
showing in College Station, nor did they a week earlier at Oklahoma State
or against Kansas State. It makes one wonder: of the ‘bubble’ teams, who’s
really playing good right now, and who’s just beating teams that are
playing average right now but were playing better earlier in the year? How
exactly do you rate a quality win at this point? For instance, Indiana’s
beating Michigan State a month ago would’ve been far more impressive than
beating the Spartans now. That’s important because, even though IU has now
won four in a row, it’s hard to know how much to make of those wins when
two were over Big 10 non-factors Penn State and Purdue and the others were
against a sliding MSU and an overrated Michigan. Ditto for Southern
Illinois beating Northern Iowa a few times in the past week…although the
Panthers still deserve an NCAA bid based on their overall resume, they
have slipped and maybe it’s just a reflection of how tough and how equal
the MVC is, but they don’t seem to be the same team now that beat LSU and
Iowa earlier this year. Fortunately for the Salukis, they took all doubt
out of their NCAA status by winning the Valley tournament. Other bubble
teams, like Indiana, would be advised to do the same.
-Don’t be fooled by Winthrop barely getting by at home
against a very tough Coastal Carolina team in the Big South final; this is
a team capable of winning in the NCAA Tournament. Few remember that last
year Wisconsin-Milwaukee was just a point from probably not even making
the tourney, as the Panthers needed a free throw in the final seconds to
beat 13-16 Detroit at home in the Horizon League title game. Like UWM,
this Winthrop team is more than capable of rising to the occasion against
a higher-profile foe, and may end up being a trendy pick for a first-round
upset in the tournament. It is a team that all year has playing with one
eye on the tourney, and although they had a few rough spots in the
improving Big South, the Eagles are going to be a nightmare opponent for
someone in the first round.
-Disappointed that Comcast SportsNet, ESPNU or whoever
holds the rights to the CAA tourney did not televise the quarterfinal
games this year. We can remember the CAA quarterfinals being televised for
the longest time, dating back to when Comcast SportsNet used to be known
as Home Team Sports and had an extensive TV package with the CAA, and
we’re not sure why that recently changed. Very poor on all parts, and this
needs to be corrected in future years; if it’s not, it will just make it
harder and harder for the CAA to shed its ‘mid-major’ image. And the
networks will be missing out on a great day of basketball to televise.
-Add Denver and Louisiana-Lafayette as two of the
latest to win conference tourney games at the buzzer. The Pioneers beat
Middle Tennessee State on its own homecourt on Sunday, 58-57, when star
center Yemi Nicholson scored on a rebound basket with a second left. It
was Denver’s second win at MTSU this year, ironic since the Pioneers are
just 16-14 and were only 7-8 in the Sun Belt in the regular season. Also,
Louisiana-Lafayette has finally put it together in recent weeks and
shouldn’t be discounted as a factor in this tourney. The Ragin’ Cajuns
have won 8 of 9 and get top seed Western Kentucky on Monday after taking
out Troy in overtime in the quarterfinals when Ross Mouton hit a three
with less than a second left in the extra session. With the two clear best
teams in the league left (WKU and South Alabama) along with maybe the
hottest team and the team with probably the league’s best star, the semis
and finals in the Sun Belt should be fun to watch.
-The promotional advertisements for Cal State
University at Long Beach - Long Beach State to most college sports fans -
proclaim that “The Beach Is Hot.” Kind of funny because it’s not what you
expect from a typically stuffy college P.R. announcement, but it is ever
so accurate in describing the 49ers’ play of late on the basketball court.
Long Beach finished off the regular season winning five in a row and got
Coach Larry Reynolds his first winning season with a 16-11 record.
Moreover, The Beach is absolutely sizzling offensively, averaging more
than 93 points in the five wins and an equally impressive 92 points in its
last seven on the road. Six of those seven road games were wins, and
included in there was an improbable 108-94 win at Manhattan a few weeks
ago, a score that speaks for itself. Believe it or not, the 93-73 win over
Cal-Irvine on Saturday was crazier yet. The Anteaters jumped out to a
31-10 lead, but the 49ers came back and torched UCI for 83 points in the
game’s final 30 minutes, repeatedly burning Irvine with drives to the
basket while also committing just FIVE turnovers. Maybe the best measure
yet of how bizarre this dissection was is that the game was over in just
over 1 ½ hours…it’s almost as if LBSU combined the best aspects of John
Chaney and Paul Westhead into one neat package. Playing unselfishly and
creating-and making-shots off the dribble with stunning ease, perhaps no
team in the country is getting up and down the floor better right now. If
Long Beach State and UAB played, the over-under on points scored would
have to be somewhere around 225…this is an exciting team to watch that is
hitting on every cylinder right now and is a serious threat to win the Big
West tourney if it stays in sync offensively. Good to see, too, for a
school with some basketball history that has struggled the past few years.
-On the other hand, if Long Beach played a Missouri
Valley team, the result would likely be a tornado. The elemental
differences between the 49ers and almost any MVC team are not at all
unlike the warm, muggy air and cool, dry atmosphere that come together to
make Midwestern summers adventurous. In fact, while we love the Valley and
we love the intensity and the way the teams play defense, we saw a little
too much of it in Arch Madness. Most of that just goes on a number of
players who have become increasingly timid on offense of late in the
league. At some point, too, the officials needed to balance the desire to
let them play with the need to ensure that offensive play is rewarded,
instead of letting these things turn into free for alls with more loose
ball pile-ups than an elementary school game. The product the nation saw
was not a particularly appealing one, and while it doesn’t necessarily
make it of less quality, the balance swayed a little too much to the
defensive end in recent weeks in the Valley as the whistles were mostly
for decoration of late.
All of this said, if the NCAA selection committee does
its job correctly, there’s still no reason to panic about the league’s
chances for as many as six bids. With all of the bubble teams wins the
past few days seemingly diminishing the MVC’s chances for at-large bids
with every second, again, it still needs to be remembered that, even after
teams like Texas A&M, Florida State, Colorado, Air Force and Utah State
won this weekend, Valley at-large contenders like Creighton, Bradley and
Missouri State STILL have better overall resumes than all of those teams,
especially the Bluejays and Braves. If the selection committee is doing
its jobs correctly, the MVC will get at least five bids.
-By the way, just wondering if anyone’s seen media
reports showing concern over Michigan, Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida State,
Marquette, Boston College or Seton Hall having all of their quality (top
50) wins in conference play? Anybody? Or any worries that Indiana,
Washington, Pittsburgh, Florida, Cincinnati, LSU, Tennessee and Oklahoma
have just one quality non-conference win? Apparently this is something we
should be concerned about this year, and if that were as important as some
are leading us to believe in regards to certain conferences of late, then
all of those teams listed above should be concerned about the legitimacy
of their RPI figures or maybe even their leagues as a whole…
-One other thing, about that rhetoric about 8-8 or 9-7
conference records being golden for some teams to make the tourney? The
meaning of some 9-7 and even 10-6 records is debatable because these are
not round-robin schedules teams are playing. For instance, Texas A&M may
be 10-6 in the Big 12, but of the other teams in the top half of that
league, the Aggies played Texas and Oklahoma twice but Kansas, Colorado
and Nebraska only once, and all three at home. A&M did, though, have two
games each against Baylor, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Seton Hall also
had nine of its 16 Big East games against bottom teams South Florida,
Providence, Rutgers, DePaul and Notre Dame, so to imply that their 9-7
league record on the surface is impressive is wrong. Ditto for Florida
State’s 9-7 ACC record, a mark likely inflated because the Seminoles only
played Boston College, North Carolina and N.C. State once each, losing to
all three. (It is scary how similar Florida State and Texas A&M look right
now) In these cases and many others for teams from oversized leagues
across the country, conference record should have next to nothing to do
with the argument. Overall profile, on the other hand, should have
everything to do with it.
-Haven’t thought about it much until lately, but will
say it is a good thing that the ‘new’ NIT is making room for conference
champions that don’t win their conference tourneys, meaning teams like
Lipscomb and Manhattan have no doubt that they still have something to
look forward to this year. This move has the potential to put some meaning
back into the NIT and make it at least as relevant as minor bowl games in
college football (which are more important to most teams than the average
fans think). If it eventually takes at least a little of the emphasis back
off of the idea that an NCAA Tournament bid is the only way to have a
successful season, then we’re all for it. One reason why we can’t slap the
NCAA on the back too much for making this decision about conference
champions, though, is because it’s easy to think this may just be a way to
leave these teams out of at-large bids to the NCAA tourney and then try to
paint a sunny picture that ‘it’s not so bad, still have something to play
for.’ The real reason why we haven’t thought of it being the humanitarian
move that some have portrayed it as, though, is because we just can’t
figure out why in the sam-heck this was never done before. This is a
decision that was made only about 15 years late.
-While we’re still not sure if we think Cincinnati
should be in the tourney (4-8 vs. top 50 + 5-5 in last 10 games + 5-7 road
record = aiyeeee), it is undeniable that Coach Andy Kennedy has done a
terrific job this season. Coaching a team that wanted their old coach in
front of fans that wanted their old coach at a school that probably
doesn’t want him, Kennedy has held things together beautifully and
deserves at least a little consideration for national Coach of the Year.
One more win anywhere this year and we’d give UC our full endorsement as
an NCAA team; as it is, they’re likely still in but personally wouldn’t
call it a lock. Perhaps the best compliment anyone can give the Bearcats
is that their effort every game this year has not looked any different
than the effort Bob Huggins teams always gave in the past.
-We noted that St. Peter’s knocked Manhattan out of the
MAAC tourney, but we really like watching Jaspers guard Jeff Xavier. While
C.J. Anderson (suspended late in the season) and Arturo Dubois may be
better known, Xavier is developing into a terrific all-around player in a
hurry. A good shooter who can take it to the basket and rebound, too, he
just needs experience before he becomes one of the best guards in the
East. He showed guts, too, going back into Sunday night’s game after
getting some teeth knocked out in a loose ball scrum.
-Tom Brennan, Taylor Coppenrath and T.J. Sorrentine are
gone, but Vermont’s presence in the America East lives on, huh? The
Catamounts may be just the #6 seed in the A-East tourney, but they knocked
off #3 seed Boston University and then #2 Binghamton this weekend to get a
chance to defend their championship in the league title game this
Saturday. The old guard, which is led by new players like guard Kyle
Cieplicki, trailed Binghamton 20-5 on Sunday before storming back for a
66-59 win, and now they’ll take on the new guard in the America East. Top
seed Albany will be hosting its first A-East final and is searching for
its first NCAA Division I tourney bid ever.
-Congratulations to Davidson winning the Southern
Conference championship with a blowout win over Tennessee-Chattanooga and
gaining some form of redemption for last year, when the Wildcats went 16-0
in the SoCon but lost in the league tourney. Not sure of this team’s
chances in the NCAAs, but Bob McKillop teams are always well-coached and
well-prepared, and Brendan Winter and Ian Johnson are excellent players.
With the right matchup, this team can cause some trouble.
-Fairleigh Dickinson and Monmouth advanced to the
Northeast Conference final with semifinal wins on Sunday, and it sets up
what could be the most anticipated NEC title game in a long time, maybe
since the classic between Wagner and Rider in 1993 that was famously won
on a shot at the buzzer by the Broncs’ Darrick Suber. The New Jersey
rivals split a pair of games this year and have already played twice since
Feb. 20, including a double-overtime classic at Monmouth. Both teams are
seriously flying under the radar, but the winner is going to have a chance
to catch somebody off guard in the NCAAs and give them a scare. FDU has
excellent size and experience, while Monmouth plays a very patient clone
of the Princeton offense and shoots the three a lot (and rebounds on the
offensive end little).
-Finally, how about the performance by Royce Parran of
Chicago State in the Cougars’ Mid-Continent quarterfinal? Parran scored 30
points, 24 in the final 8 ½ minutes of the game, and hit 19 of 23 free
throws in leading Chicago State to a stunning 75-66 comeback win over #3
seed Missouri-Kansas City. The Cougars finished the game on a 36-15 run
and, oddly enough, were the sixth straight #6 seed in Mid-Con tourneys to
defeat the #3 seed in the first round.
Up next:
-What used to be a huge day of conference tourney games
has lightened up with the MVC finals and America East semis moving to
Sunday this year. However, three more automatic bids are settled Monday
night, with the CAA, MAAC and WCC tourneys being completed.
-Semifinals in the Mid-Continent and Sun Belt. Yemi
Nicholson and Denver are still alive, but top seeds Western Kentucky and
South Alabama are the ones to beat in the Sun Belt. Chicago State has
crashed a party in the Mid-Continent that also includes traditional league
standbys IUPUI, Oral Roberts and Valparaiso.
