With this much basketball you knew I couldn't stay quiet for long. No delay, let's talk hoop.
Cuse to the Final Four
I've written a few stories in the last week about SU over at Orange Fizz but one thing I didn't write on is how to a certain extent the Orange making it to Atlanta isn't a surprise. Both Jay Williams and Stephen Bardo told me in the middle of Syracuse's slide that SU was still a Final Four caliber team and I was right there with them. It sounds crazy, but the talent has always been there.
What is surprising is that the Orange put it together. I still don't think this team has particularly great leadership, but sometimes you don't need it. Instead of a leader rallying them, Syracuse's super talented players had their egos hurt and embarrassment is a powerful motivating factor. It happened at the perfect time culminating with Georgetown beating the $#&% out of them to close the regular season. They re-grouped and went into the Big East Tournament where momentum picks up quickly thanks to playing a game every day. James Southerland got hot. Brandon Triche found himself. Michael Carter-Williams stopped losing the basketball. Baye Moussa-Keita started being impactful. These four things haven't stopped and here we are with the Orange in the Final Four.
You could make a really good argument that if not for a freak injury to Arinze Onuaku and a bizarre suspension to Fab Melo, this would be Syracuse's third Final Four in four years. I think there are two pretty distinctive reasons why and you can read more at Orange Fizz.
Kansas is home
Logistics say I'll have a few Kansas fans click on this link so I might as well dissect why Kansas is not preparing to play SU on Saturday. Before the season, Bill Self said Elijah Johnson's attitude and approach would determine the outcome of his team's season. Weeks later Johnson was suspended for the start of the team's first pre-season game for being late to a class.
Elijah Johnson is a very good basketball player and I enjoyed covering him. I always found him thoughtful and there's no questioning his commitment to his team. However if he's your senior leader who's also playing out of position as your point guard, you're living on the edge of being a Final Four team. That's what Kansas was this season.
Coming down the stretch Kansas ran "the play" multiple times to no success. For those not familiar, "the play" is the one Mario Chalmers hit a three on to send the 2008 national championship game to overtime where Kansas eventually won. Michigan shut down the handoff and denied Ben McLemore on the flare screen. This left Bill Self needing another option and he decided to run a high pick and roll with Johnson and Jeff Withey.
Elijah took a bad angle off the screen. He was way too wide and that's why he wound up under the basket, throwing a cross court pass to Nadir Tharpe who needed a miracle 3 to go down to win it. It's almost as if Johnson forgot the score because he looked to have a layup for the tie. There's no doubt he had a floater, albeit at an awkward angle thanks to the bad angle off the screen, and he also could have forced the issue and created contact. With Jeff Withey rolling hard to the rim in good rebounding position, either would have been a good option. Why didn't he? There's no telling what was going through his head after some key mistakes down the stretch.
As a senior leader point guard Elijah dribbled into a trap and turned it over. He then inexcusably didn't get the ball across halfcourt on a 10 second violation. Then with 12.6 seconds to go he missed the front end of a one-in-one allowing Trey Burke's long distance three to go down. After that many mistakes, anyone's going to have a messed up head. It all lead to another bad play, the end of Kansas's season and the end of Elijah's career.
What's next?
Kansas loses a lot but will be loaded next year. Ben McLemore should declare for the NBA now. Ideally he'd stay and become more consistent with his shot and more importantly develop an off the dribble game. The reality is he needs to get his money now. His mom needs a house where the heat works ASAP and his entire family shouldn't go through another winter with him capable of making millions now. His stock is as high as it could get thanks to his uber potential and a weak draft even though another year of college would make him a better player. Any Kansas fan who thinks he should stay is selfish.
On top of McLemore, Kansas loses Johnson, Withey, Kevin Young and Travis Releford aka their entire starting lineup. They also might lose Rio Adams to a transfer. However back comes Nadir Tharpe who was exceptional in the second half of the year. He'll be joined in the backcourt by freshmen Wayne Seldon and Bill Self's got 3 other 4 star recruits coming in. The Jayhawks are also still alive for #1 player in the country Andrew Wiggins who's flat out nasty. Also back is Perry Ellis who developed into an offensive machine in the back half of the year. I think he could be an All-American next year.
Love for the ladies
Louisville's upset of #1 seed Baylor was monumental. It was bigger than the only time a #16 has beat a #1 when Harvard beat Stanford in 1998. That Stanford team had a number of key players injured late and thus shouldn't have been a 1-seed while the Harvard team was underseeded and shouldn't have been a 16. This Baylor team had everyone back from a national title team last year including arguably the most dominant player in the history of women's college basketball in Britney Griner. They were 75-1 favorites in this game. What that leaves us with is a weird setup for the Final Four.
On one side of the bracket is what's left after Baylor and the other 1-seed Stanford went down. This was also a huge upset but not nearly as big of an upset as Baylor. Cal punched their ticket tonight and the other regional final puts Tennessee against Louisville. The other side of the bracket has UConn, in it's 6th straight Final Four, against the winner of Notre Dame and Duke also known as Notre Dame.
I've written about the three classic battles ND and UConn have had this year and it's a shame that the 4th meeting won't be for a title. I want to be made about them being on the same side of the bracket but Baylor earned the #1 overall seed in the regular season and thus avoiding teams number 2 and 3 until the national final. Those two teams are the Irish and Huskies and this is what we're left with. With Baylor out of the picture, whoever survives that game will be the definitive favorite Tuesday night to win the title. Perhaps their biggest fight will be against fatigue as they'll be exhausted after battle royale #4. Either way I'll be glued to a TV Sunday night ready to see these two duke it out again...assuming Duke doesn't mess it up.
Life Update
Big announcement coming later this week. Don't wanna say more yet. But I will soon. I'm not exactly the patient type. Stay tuned.
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