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By
Adam Stanco
BasketballWriter@cs.com
March
16th, 2005
NCAA
Tournament Notes…
If
Pitt plays
Washington in the second round, the game would feature two basketball
stars, Nate Robinson (Washington) and Chevon Troutman (Pitt), who could
have NFL futures. Robinson was an outstanding cornerback as a freshman
and Troutman is getting serious interest as a possible tight end
project.
In his interviews on
ESPN’s “Bracketology” special, Dick Vitale told Al Skinner he selected
him as the National Coach of the Year and Bobby Knight that he selected
him as his Big XII Coach of the Year. I bet Kit Hoover would have been
tougher on them. Apparently the “Steve Lavin – Dick Vitale Butt-Kissing
of Coaches” competition is really heating up. Let’s just hope these two
decide against sharing hair care tips.
Duke will go as far as Shelden Williams can carry them. Aside from Lee Melchionni playing out
of position at power forward, Williams has gotten little help in the
post defensively. Also, at what point can we start asking where J.J.
Redick ranks among the greatest shooters ever to play the college game?
Yes, ever. And while you’re trying to think of who else should even be
in the Top 5, just think of what Redick would have done in the old
Loyola Marymount offense.
Old Dominion would be
an interesting pick as a possible upset team, but
Michigan State has
many of the secrets I described in my “NCAA Tournament Manifesto”
article. Facts are facts, the Spartans have all of the makings of a very
good tournament team.
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How could anyone not
consider Chicago to be the toughest region? Illinois is the top overall
seed in the entire tournament and the two through four lines feature
underrated teams. Each of them – Oklahoma State, Arizona, Boston College
– might have been a number one seed had they won their conference
tournament.
Julius Hodge, of N.C.
State, is a gutsy kid. I just can’t see him ending his career without a
fight. That’s bad news for Charlotte and, possibly, a young UConn team.
Villanova could meet
Florida in the second round. Interestingly, Florida’s Matt Walsh played
high school ball at Germantown Academy (PA), the same school that
produced former Wildcat Alvin Williams and Villanova recruited Walsh
very heavily.
Seeing Ben Howland
match wits with Bobby Knight as UCLA plays Texas Tech should
be one of the
finest coaching contests in the tournament. Both UCLA and Texas Tech are
going to be very good for quite some time.
No one knows the names
Curtis Stinson or Vincent Grier. They will soon. Of course, they’ll
probably only get to know the player who wins the Iowa State – Minnesota
game.
It would appear that
Penn is the kind of team that could beat Boston College. B.C. goes
through scoring slumps and Penn’s Tim Begley is the kind of shooter who
could cause major problems for the Eagles. Still, there is no way an Ivy
League post player, probably the Quakers’ Mark Zoller, is going to
handle Craig Smith or freshman Sean Williams on the low blocks.
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