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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Dogs eager about NIT; fans are not
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Athens — This is the NIT. It’s cute. It has its own little history. But it’s a postseason tournament in the sense that a potato chip is a vegetable.
This is the NIT. It starts with 32 teams. Then four get to go to New York. Then four battle to be No. 1. You just have to get past the fact that No. 1 is really No. 66.
This is the NIT. It goes way past that whole no respect thing. There was Georgia, opening play in the Step Tournament on Wednesday night. The game was on campus. The problem? Everybody else normally on campus was on spring break. Should’ve moved the game to Panama City.
“We were just happy anybody was in the stands,” Levi Stukes said.
This is the NIT. It’s important for a team to act like it wants to be here, because when it’s clear it would rather be on the Panhandle, it’s painfully obvious to the, well, dozens of fans who possibly accidentally stumbled through the turnstiles.
Credit the Bulldogs for the “want” factor Wednesday. They led Fresno State by as many as 20 points and won relatively easily, 88-78. Credit the senior, Stukes, for playing this game as if it could be his last. He scored 30 points.
Fresno State also did what it could to make this entertaining. Its first seven field goals were 3-pointers. It fired 40 3-point attempts (making 18). So if that exhibition and the empty seats gave an ABA feel to the game, it’s no wonder. All we needed was a red, white and blue ball.
But this is the NIT, and the NIT wants teams like Georgia. Not far removed from the post-Harrick, punchline era, the Dogs certainly deserved more than participation trophies and juice boxes for what they accomplished this season. To their credit, they treated this game as a reward, not a plague.
“Guys just want to play because it’s basketball,” guard Sundiata Gaines said. “Anybody would rather play any game than be at home and watch other teams play. Since we can’t win the NCAA championship, the next best thing is the NIT, other than the conference tournament. You’re still on national television, and you still have a chance to prove yourself.”
This is the NIT. The “want” is not a given. Some schools can’t get past their own glorious NCAA history or the feeling that they were snubbed by the selection committee. So they arrive at this tournament (maybe) thinking, “We’re too good for this.” And they play like they’re actually not good enough.
Georgia could have fallen victim to that. In addition to the school being on spring break — even the football team stopped practicing! Aaaagh! — most area public schools also are out. Coach Dennis Felton prepared his team for an “intimate” crowd. (For what it’s worth, officials announced the attendance at 2,031. Somebody was seeing double.)
“There’s not a lot of people left in the community right now,” Felton said. “So I told them to expect a small crowd and that we needed to create our own energy. [As for] the crowd, I wasn’t surprised or disappointed. They were having a blast. They just enjoyed one more chance to see us play.”
Now they get to play again. The last time the Dogs won a postseason game was five years ago today — an opening- round NCAA tourney win over Murray State. Then came a second-round loss to Southern Illinois. Then came the circus. Tony Cole. The “Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball.” The NCAA. Probation. Goodbye, Jim Jr. Goodbye, Jim Sr. Hello, 8-20.
Felton has brought them back. There’s no telling how far the Dogs get this tournament. They are running on fumes minus Mike Mercer and Albert Jackson.
But they’re still going, and they want what’s next. Even in the NIT, that counts for something.
Permalink | Comments (34) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
Left-handed catcher almost overlooked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Kissimmee, Fla. — This was repaying a visit to the Houston Astros in their new spit-and-shine $20 million playpen. The evening before, the Astros had turned beastial at Lake Buena Vista, and before you could say Manuel Alcides Molina Acosta, the rookie from Panama had been roughed up beyond recognition. The Astros feasted on Braves pitching for nine runs in the ninth inning. That did serious damage to the Braves’ ERA, but there was good news. It was Chuck James’ time to start Wednesday.
He had been a more or less emergency starter since June of last season, with Horacio Ramirez and John Thomson on the rocks, and Tim Hudson searching for what he left behind in Oakland. James’ debut on June 25 was a headliner. He shut down Tampa Bay on two hits in eight innings, and over the rest of the season only one National League pitcher won more games. James won 11, John Smoltz won a dozen.
James sort of popped up under the very nose of the Braves, out of Mableton, not necessarily noted as a hotbed of baseball talent. When Al Goetz, the Braves scout with an eye for the same — he also signed Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann — came across James, he said to a coach in the neighborhood, “How did we miss this guy?”
Said the coach, “You people don’t scout left-handed catchers, do you?”
Turns out that when he wasn’t pitching, James was catching in high school. Anything for the team.
He lasted until the 20th round in the 2002 draft, but as crazy kids will do, he almost blew the career. Kids jumped off a storage house into a swimming pool for fun in Mableton, and one day when it was Chuck’s turn, the roof caved under his feet, and, as he said, “I hit concrete instead of water.”
Both wrists were broken.
On another boyish adventure, he was bitten by a copperhead, a nasty-tempered poisonous reptile. He was nowhere close to a hospital, and after an hour, he said, “I decided I wasn’t going to die, so I didn’t do anything.”
His style has been likened to Tom Glavine’s, for neither of them arouses a speed gun. “His delivery is an easy one and the ball jumps out at the hitter the last few feet,” manager Bobby Cox said. “It’s what we call sneaky.”
He’s a delight to watch, relaxed, unhurried, with a habit of throwing the pitch where he aims it. He couldn’t have happened along at a more convenient time with all the pitching casualties that have developed. The big blow struck the other day when Mike Hampton pulled an oblique muscle, which, I suppose, we all have, but not one that gets a lot of headlines among all the tendons and groins and hamstrings housing inside us. And he did it in the batting cage, not pitching. He hasn’t been able to throw a payroll pitch in nearly two years.
So now James moves up a notch to third place in the starting order behind Smoltz and Hudson, and he’s still the same even-keel kid from Mableton. The Astros got to him for a couple of runs in the third inning, and in the fourth it was a .059 hitter who did him damage. Chris Burke is a name that haunts the Braves in their dreams, the kid who hit the 18th-inning home run that took them out of the playoffs two years ago. Down here, he hasn’t been able to steal a hit, his average becoming embarrassing, and he appeared ready to catch the next coach to Round Rock, their farm club.
But there was life yet. Burke bounced a line drive off James’ glove, thrown up in defense, for a single, then opened the fourth inning with a line drive home run, and the Osceola Stadium crowd was in his corner again. Not that James came to Kissimmee on a mercy mission, but he could find solace in that Burke emerged from the misery of a .059 spring, and Chuck will live to win again.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Four-casting the NCAA tourney
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Four burning questions
Is Nevada actually a major now? The mid-major Top 25 overseen by CollegeInsider.com doesn’t even consider the Wolf Pack.
Is Tubby Smith leaving Kentucky? AD Mitch Barnhart issued a “clarification” this week to his previous statement of non-support.
Is Jim Boeheim back to being surly again? He surely has cause given the unbelievable snub Syracuse just absorbed.
How many Texas A&Ms are in this thing, anyway? Two. The one from College Station has a chance. The one from Corpus Christi doesn’t.
March Madness in Atlanta:
Check out the AJC’s Final Four pageFour upsets almost everybody is picking
Old Dominion over Butler: Colonial mojo undoes even the team from “Hoosiers.”
Winthrop over Notre Dame: Irish didn’t seem too pleased to be shipped to Spokane.
Virginia Commonwealth over Duke: Rams’ Eric Maynor will be best player on the floor.
Albany over Virginia: Great Danes led UConn by 12 with 11-1/2 to play in Round 1 last year.
Four less-hyped (but still possible) upsets
Miami (Ohio) over Oregon: Ducks weren’t so mighty in February, if you recall.
Holy Cross over Southern Illinois: Salukis don’t score much, rendering every game close.
Oral Roberts over Washington State: Kansas lost two home games; one was to ORU.
Wright State over Pitt: Raiders beat Butler twice, making them a scary No. 14.
Four best freshmen (non-guards)
Kevin Durant, Texas: The best freshman ever. Better than Ewing. Better than Carmelo.
Greg Oden, Ohio State: Having use of both hands makes a bit of a difference, huh?
Brandan Wright, North Carolina: He’s a more dynamic Sam Perkins, and that’s a mouthful.
Thaddeus Young, Georgia Tech: Looking more like a one-year-and-done player with every game.
Four best freshmen (guards)
D.J. Augustin, Texas: What Gerry McNamara was to Carmelo, Augustin is to Durant.
Mike Conley Jr., Ohio State: The point guard is the Buckeyes’ real MVP, not Oden.
Stephen Curry, Davidson: Dell Curry’s son was No. 2 (to Durant) among frosh scorers.
Javaris Crittenton, Georgia Tech: Drives harder than any guard since … Jarrett Jack, maybe?
Four most tiresome ‘storylines’
Coach against pupil: This was worn out when it was Dean against Roy. Somehow Izzo against Crean doesn’t have the same sizzle.
Coach against former employer: Illinois’ Bruce Weber could go against Southern Illinois in Round 2. All Carbondale is abuzz.
Coach against alma mater: What’s Ben Howland going to say to his Bruins: “Since I went to Weber State, I’m rooting against you today”?
Coach against team based in former hometown: So Lon Kruger drove past Georgia Tech on his way to work. He didn’t work here long.
Four least-neutral neutral sites
Wisconsin in Chicago: Neighboring Badgers played the Big Ten tournament on the same floor.
Louisville in Lexington: Think Rick Pitino might remember anything about Rupp Arena?
North Carolina in Winston-Salem: Heels have more fans in the Triad than Wake Forest does.
UCLA in California: Bruins start in Sacramento before moving to San Jose. Hooray for Hollywood.
Four coaches apt to have another job next season
Billy Gillispie, Texas A&M: Was believed to be atop Arkansas’ wish list and will be atop a dozen others
Chris Lowery, Southern Illinois: Carbondale, the new cradle of coaches. First Bruce Weber, then Matt Painter, now Lowery.
Jay Wright, Villanova: Is rumored to be headed for the Philadelphia 76ers, which might not be a good thing for him.
Gregg Marshall, Winthrop: If memory serves, he had a new job last year but pulled a Cremins and jilted the College of Charleston.
Four “dangerous” teams that aren’t
Arizona: Has scads of talent, yes. Has no clue how to apply it.
Arkansas: Most controversial invitee since Georgia made it at 16-14 in 2001.
Vanderbilt: Enters off consecutive losses to Arkansas, which took some doing.
Stanford: Cardinal are a year away and will open play three time zones from home.
The four regionals in descending order of difficulty
East: Georgetown seeded No. 2? Texas No. 4? A brutal path for North Carolina.
West: Both Kansas and UCLA are capable of winning the whole shebang.
South: Region’s makeup depends on whether Memphis plays up to its No. 2 seed.
Midwest: Is anybody picking against Florida here? Hello? Is this microphone on?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Wilkins blazed trail for today’s migrant talent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Are you wondering why it is easier for the first time in 10, 20, 30 years to do your income taxes than to fill out your brackets for March Madness?
Consider this:
Kevin Durant is from Baltimore, but he plays for Texas. Chris Lofton is from Mason County, Ky., but he plays for Tennessee. Greg Oden and Mike Conley are from Indianapolis, but they play for Ohio State. D.J. White is from Tuscaloosa, but he plays for Indiana. Tyler Hansbrough is from Poplar Bluff, Mo., but he plays for North Carolina. Terrence Williams is from Seattle, but he plays for Louisville.
Then there is Winthrop, the epitome of what is happening these days as the most unlikely of No. 11 seeds. The Eagles’ nest is somewhere in the nothingness of Rock Hill, S.C. Still, their key guys are from New Zealand (Craig Bradshaw), as in kiwis, and Kingston, N.C., (Michael Jenkins) as in why didn’t such a talented guard stay around Tobacco Road?
You can blame the basketball gifted going from here to everywhere on a rapidly expanding mobile society. Well, that, along with cable television willing to show anything that dribbles to make it easier for the folks to see you back home. You also have the epidemic of AAU programs that expose players to different regions while giving coaches a chance to recruit multiple youngsters in one place.
As a result, you haveyoungsters willing to leave time zones and comfort zones. Which means the NCAA tournament never has been more stuffed with quality teams. Which means your brackets will be a mess by Monday.
Which means Dominique Wilkins was a fluke for his time.
Wilkins had the audacity during the Neanderthal Days of college basketball in the late 1970s to take his considerable skills to another state after high school. More shocking, he left the hoops-laden hills of North Carolina for Georgia, where basketball is just something to ignore between the end of football season and the start of spring practices.
“The majority of the guys in those days went to school in the state that they grew up in, and you call tell by those old Kentucky teams,” Wilkins said. “You’re talking about guys like Mel Turpin, [Dirk] Minniefield, all of those guys. Some of those Kentucky players were from other parts of the country, but a lot of them were from the Kentucky area.”
More than half of them. Now the Kentucky team in this year’s NCAA tournament has nobody — that’s right, nobody — on its current roster from a state that likes to suggest it invented hoops.
Elsewhere, Florida is the defending champion, and there have been more than a few decent athletes from that state (Deion Sanders, Chris Everett, Gary Sheffield, Michael Irvin, Tracy McGrady, Chris DiMarco, Warren Sapp). Even so, among the starters for the Gators, Corey Brewer is from Portland, Tenn., Joakim Noah is from New York, Al Horford is from Grand Ledge, Mich., and Lee Humphrey is from Maryville. Tenn. Only Taurean Green is from Florida (Fort Lauderdale).
That’s opposed to those Neanderthal Days, when the majority of Wilkins’ contemporaries rarely left for distant basketball lands. Charles Barkley went from Leeds, Ala., to Auburn. Larry Bird went from French Lick, Ind. to Indiana University before settling at Indiana State. Ralph Sampson went from Harrisonburg, Va. to the University of Virginia.
Plus, you had Magic Johnson deciding that there was no place like home by remaining around Lansing to play at Michigan State. Not only that, you had Michael Jordan scooting across North Carolina from Wilmington to Chapel Hill.
“Everybody thought I was going to stay in state like James Worthy, and that we were going to North Carolina together, because we were in the same year (1979), which would have been one hell of a college team,” said Wilkins, chuckling at his understatement. “In hindsight, looking back on that, and it’s like, wow. It could have been me, Michael Jordan, Worthy, Jimmy Black, Sam Perkins. But at the last minute, I decided to go to Georgia.”
So Wilkins was a pioneer, with the slam-dunk and otherwise.
Permalink | | Categories: Final Four, Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Trust me: Gators can’t lose
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
With the start of the NCAA Tournament just a day away, let’s return to what I wrote in this space on February 28.
Why? It still applies.
My words then …
“The team to beat heading into March Madness hasn’t changed. Ignore the other stuff. Those three losses during its last four games. Shaky or no defense. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Even so, you still have to take Florida to win the national championship in men’s basketball over everybody else. Here are the five reasons why: Joakim Noah, Taurean Green, Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Lee Humphrey. They were the starters when the Gators won it all last season, and they remain the starters today.”
Now that the NCAA Tournament brackets are out, Florida looks even more set to dribble deep into March as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. The Gators won’t have a tough go of it until a possible meeting with No. 2 seed Wisconsin in the regional finals.
Take Florida in that one.
Then the Gators would begin the Final Four in Atlanta against possibly UCLA, the No. 2 seed from the West Regional.
Go with Florida again.
In fact, until proved otherwise, go with Florida in the championship game against North Carolina, Ohio State, Central Connecticut State or whoever comes out of the other side of the bracket.
Go with Florida, period.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
