SportsCenter Experts

I have been hearing a lot of what I like to call “Sportscenter experts” saying recently that they didn’t pick Kansas to win the national championship because they knew they would lose. What I refer to as a “Sportscenter expert (SCE)” is someone who has watched maybe 5-10 games all year, and then watched Sportscenter to learn everything they know about teams. All of us at some point go to the ESPN staple for some of our info, but I watch, at least, anywhere from 6-12 college and NBA basketball games each week from November through April, and I don’t like to have to arguments with ill-informed SCE’s. Anyway, back to my point, some people, including a girl who doesn’t know how much a 3-pointer is worth, told me they didn’t pick Kansas because they seemed ready to lose. First of all, I feel bad labeling these people as SCE’s because many of the real “experts” did pick Kansas. I picked Kansas, and if they restarted the tournament tomorrow, I’d do it again. I don’t feel the need to defend myself to these morons, but I will do it anyway. Why I picked Kansas to win it all.

1) Consistency – Someone said yesterday that Kansas had been inconsistent and had too many close game this year. What?!? They were 32-2 going into the tournament! Of those 32 wins, only seven were by single digits! Seven! That’s 25 wins by double digits in the tough Big 12. Their two losses were quality losses (@ Tennessee playing against a Vol team that had nothing to lose, and by the way is still playing, and @ Oklahoma State where Big 12 player of the year James Anderson went off with a 27/8/3/2/2 game) and their single digit wins came against good opponents too (K-State by 8 in Big12 tourny final, Memphis by 2 in November, Cornell by 5, Baylor by 6, @K-state by 2, @ Colorado by 6, and @ Texas A&M by 5). Look up their impressive double digit wins if this doesn’t convince you of their consistency yet.

2) Coaching – Bill Self has solidified himself as a top coach in NCAA basketball. Self took Tulsa to the elite eight in 2000, which is preposterous to think of Tulsa in the elite eight. He also took Illinois to the elite eight, and built the team that Bruce Webber took to the national championship game. Then at Kansas he has taken them to two elite eights, one sweet sixteen and won the 2008 national championship. He also took that team of leftovers last year to the second round and won the Big 12 Coach of the Year. Self is not a notorious choker coach as some label him as. He has his teams ready and wins more often than he loses. Kansas’s dominant run through the Big 12 Tournament is evidence to this, and the Big 12 was tough this year. I head a SCE’s argument that the Big 12 sucked because Iowa Sate was supposed to be good and was not. Doesn’t this prove the Big12 was good since everybody had their way with an improved Iowa State team? The bad thing about Self – he didn’t press UNI until the final 2 minutes of the game. I have spent a paragraph hyping Self, but that was real fucking stupid. Press a slow white team and move on. Period.

3) Comparisons to 2009 champion North Carolina – Who didn’t see these comparisons. Sherron Collins as the savvy veteran point guard (Ty Lawson). Cole Aldridge as the big white guy inside who always gets his numbers (Hansbrough). Xavier Henry as the exciting wing man who can explode on any given night (Danny Green). Morningstar and the Morris Brothers as the role players who always fill their role (Ed Davis, Wayne Ellington, Deon Thompson). We all saw how it worked out for the Tar Heels.

4) Scoring options - This may go along with the comparisons part, but Kansas was so balanced all year and always seemed to have someone who could step up. This usually bodes well for tournament teams so that they don’t rely on one scorer. (Update: See Ohio State v Tennessee in Sweet Sixteen)

So Kansas let me down, but you know what? Like I said earlier, I would pick them again in a heartbeat.


On another point, where is the love for the Big Ten? The Big Ten has three teams in the sweet sixteen. Two of these teams won their last games over a #4 and a #5 seed without their best player! Ohio State has been great all year, and would have been better had Evan Turner not missed those games with the broken back. Northwestern might have made a tournament run had they not lost their best player (Kevin Cobble) the entire season to injury. Sure, Minnesota and Michigan underachieved and Illinois got arguably snubbed, but, who thought Wisconsin would be a 4 seed AND knock off Duke in the ACC/Big Ten challenge? (Which by the way, was won by the Big Ten). All three remaining teams could lose tonight and the conference will be ridiculed again. However, isn’t it time to give some love to the Big Ten for holding their own in the tournament against teams such as Georgia Tech, Siena, Texas A&M and Maryland? Especially when you consider how other big time conferences are faring. The Big12 looks good with Kansas State and Baylor rolling but the Big East is in shambles. Notre Dame, Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova and Pittsburgh all got upset by much lower seeds. The ACC has the Dukies and that’s about it. The SEC is clinging to Kentucky and Tennessee since A&M went down to Purdue. The mid-majors look good with St. Marys, UNI, Butler and Xavier all having good showings, but the Big Ten has perhaps been the most resilient conference all year and it deserves some notice.