AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > March > 18
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Reseeding the Sweet 16 field
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
1. Florida: The Gators are under a ton of pressure to repeat, and it showed Sunday against Purdue.
2. Kansas: It’s time for Bill Self to shed the tag of being the best coach never to reach a Final Four.
3. North Carolina: The sleek Tar Heels showed more than their usual grit in subduing Michigan State.
4. Georgetown: Nothing pretty about the Boston College game, but style points don’t matter in this sport.
5. Ohio State: Even eventual champ has a near-elimination experience; the Buckeyes just had theirs.
6. UCLA: Suddenly the Bruins are having trouble scoring, but they defend so well it almost doesn’t matter.
7. Texas A&M: Having beaten Louisville in Lexington, grateful Aggies now get to play in San Antonio.
8. Memphis: The unloved Tigers have reached the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
9. Oregon: The quickest team in the tournament outran Winthrop, which was no small feat.
10. Southern Illinois: The Salukis’ next task will be to slow down Kansas. Good luck there.
11. Pittsburgh: How ugly will a game between Ben Howland’s former and current teams be? Very.
12. Tennessee: The Vols nearly beat Ohio State in Columbus; they’ll try on a neutral court this time.
13. UNLV: The smallish Rebels figure to match up very well against Oregon.
14. Southern Cal: A year ahead of schedule, Tim Floyd has his team in the Sweet 16.
15. Vanderbilt: It’s hard to imagine the Commodores hanging with beefy Georgetown.
16. Butler: It’s even harder to imagine the Bulldogs hanging with Florida for long.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley
Tourney always full of surprise and emotion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Chicago — If we ever wondered why it is we pay rapt attention to this silly little tournament, the answer could be found in Lon Kruger’s eyes. Normally the stoic’s stoic, Kruger was listening to his son describe how it felt to lead Dad’s latest team to an improbable berth in the Sweet 16, and suddenly Dad’s eyes were all misty.
And there it was yet again, the reason we keep watching games at this time of year, a reason that goes beyond which teams we like and which others we happened to pick in the office pool. We watch the NCAA tournament because we get to see strong men cry.
“It’s a basketball game,” said Lon Kruger after his son Kevin had scored 16 points and UNLV had toppled Wisconsin, a No. 2 seed, here Sunday, “and it’s quickly forgotten by most people. But those who went through it, they’ll remember it, and they’ll remember it with a smile.”
Lon Kruger coached the Atlanta Hawks in a previous life, and even as he was throwing body and soul into that thankless job he would speak wistfully of the college game, saying that for all the NBA had to offer, the pros could offer nothing to compare to the Big Dance. And now he was here again, dancing (figuratively if not literally) still, dancing with his son as his point guard and a once-proud program feeling proud again.
“This is pretty good,” Kruger said. “This is pretty special.”
This tournament always is. The first round might have generated fewer upsets this year, but what other sporting event can match the series of riveting games that turned Round 2 into consecutive days of upheaval and uplift?
Xavier fell a free throw shy of felling the No. 1 team in both polls. Plodding Purdue played the reigning champs off their famous feet for 35 minutes. Two teams from the football-mad Volunteer State took down higher seeds. Indiana managed 13 points in a half and still fought UCLA to the wire. Southern Cal, which figures to have the best freshman of next season in O.J. Mayo, ousted Texas, which had the best freshman of any season.
Butler is still around. Southern Illinois is, too. Memphis and Pittsburgh, teams everybody always expects to go away early, haven’t gone away yet. North Carolina and Georgetown are the lone representatives remaining from their prestigious leagues, while Oregon is one of three still going from the Pac-10. (The SEC, considered the ultimate football league, likewise has three teams remaining in the ultimate basketball event.)
And then, just to complete the jolts, the Krugers and the Runnin’ Rebels came to the heart of Big Ten country and outwrestled the brawny Badgers. The decisive surge came when Kevin Kruger, who’d missed all eight of his shots against Georgia Tech on Friday, made three treys in the span of four possessions to pull UNLV from three points down to five points ahead.
Said the younger Kruger, a grad student who transferred from Arizona State to play for his father: “If you go back and look at the Vegas papers, you’ll see I said I thought we had a chance to go to the tournament and make some noise. I thought we had a better team than a lot of teams out there, and now it’s coming to fruition.”
Some dreams do. Others don’t. That’s the beauty, and the cruelty, of March. In the second game here Sunday, Kansas made Kentucky, which holds seven NCAA titles, look like a team out of time. The Jayhawks won by 12 and seem as hot and as primed as any team in the field — Florida included, Carolina included.
Kansas figures to play in the Georgia Dome 12 days hence, but anyone who has ever watched an NCAA tournament knows form doesn’t always hold. (There are some NCAA tournaments where form almost never holds.) Nobody would have picked UNLV to get this far five months ago — indeed, the Rebels were tabbed sixth in the unassuming Mountain West — but here they are, still playing, still dancing, still dreaming the dream.
“It means so much,” Lon Kruger said, “to see so many people get to share in the thrill, to share in a positive experience like this.”
It means so much to all of us. It’s why we keep coming back. It’s why we can’t wait for what comes next. It’s why March, alone among the 12 months, is the one that never disappoints. Not once. Not ever.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Final Four, Mark Bradley
Winner Johnson plays rough
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
In a flash, it was over. Not at the finish line on Sunday inside the Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Jimmie Johnson officially sprinted to his second victory in Henry County. Try against the unforgiving wall on turn 2 with three laps remaining in the Kobalt Tools 500.
It was over when Johnson outgunned, outsmarted and outmaneuvered Tony Stewart during a NASCAR version of the game “chicken” at 180-something mph down the thrilling stretch.
Oh, and you’ll find this surprising: Stewart wasn’t pleased in the aftermath. “Nobody likes to hit the wall. That’s pretty much a no-brainer, I think,” he said, sounding like his hero, A.J Foyt, when it comes to grumbling over tough losses. “I wish [Johnson] had of given me a little more room,” he said. And he went on to say that Johnson had the faster car and that he never kept his opponent from having room to race on the track.
Yeah, right. And neither Stewart nor Foyt would have done as much with the checkered flag nearly in sight.
To paraphrase Herman Edwards, YOU TRY TO WIN THE RACE.
That’s why Johnson is the only driver ever to finish in the top five in the standings during his opening five seasons. That’s why he won the title last season. That’s also why Johnson just won his second consecutive race this season despite all that tension flying around the garages, the pits, the grandstands and the race cars after the re-start with 11 laps to go.
“It was pretty intense,” said Johnson, chuckling, recalling how Stewart roared ahead on the subsequent green flag. Not only was Johnson in hot pursuit, but so were the accomplished Matt Kenseth and Juan Pablo Montoya, the master of open-wheel and Formula One racing who is resembling a veteran during his rookie season with the NASCAR folks. Jeff Burton joined the fun, too. Even so, during the final six laps, the Big Five became the Final Two.
There was Stewart weaving at full speed in an attempt to keep the charging Johnson from doing what Johnson eventually had to do, and that was he had TO TRY TO WIN THE RACE. Since Stewart mostly tried to stay high, Johnson kept drifting low in search of that moment.
When that moment finally came, with Johnson’s spotter yelling over the headphones for the driver to go for it. Well, you know the rest.
“I didn’t want to be on the inside of [Stewart], because I just felt it was a harder row to hoe, but I didn’t have any options, and we were running out of laps,” Johnson said. “Tony had a good run coming off the outside, and when I heard [from the spotter] that he was there, coming, it was too late for me to adjust.”
Seconds later, Johnson “apologized” to Stewart for his actions.
That was nice. It’s just that no apology was necessary. From the smooth beginning to the hectic end, this was a race with so few mishaps (six caution flags for 27 laps, mostly due to debris on the track) that Montoya continued to marvel at “how much room” drivers give each other on the Nextel Cup circuit.
Stewart gets it, by the way. He added upon reflection, “We’re both racing hard with three laps to go, and you don’t know if his spotter told him he was clear, so he just kept coming.” There also was this from Johnson, still hyped about 45 minutes after the race: “I can’t say that I’ve driven a race car that hard before.”
He hadn’t a choice.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Terence Moore
Lehtonen finally arrives for Thrashers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Having had the fortune of coaching one of the greatest goalies in NHL history with Colorado, the Thrashers’ Bob Hartley realized that Patrick Roy possessed at least one thing Kari Lehtonen lacked at this time of the year: a résumé.
Talent has never been the issue with Lehtonen. Durability, focus, toughness — those were the questions. He had never been the difference down the stretch of a season. He had never been in a playoff game. He had never really been “The Guy.” He was a blank page.
Yes. Emphasis on “was.”
The Thrashers defeated Buffalo, the best team in the Eastern Conference, for the second time this season Sunday. That says something about the team. But, more importantly, it says something about Lehtonen.
This time of year, it’s about goaltending. Great teams make great playoff runs because of one guy. Or they implode for the same reason.
The Thrashers woke up this morning with an unusual feeling of comfort. Their leads have ballooned to six points in the Southeast Division over Tampa Bay and 10 points over the first non-playoff team (New York Islanders) in the Eastern Conference.
How did they get here? It’s not hard to figure out. The pre-deadline trades certainly strengthened and solidified this team. (Three of their goals in Sunday’s 4-3 overtime win were scored by newcomers: Keith Tkachuk, Alexei Zhitnik, Eric Belanger.)
But in hockey, it always starts in net. The trades are inconsequential if Lehtonen isn’t showing a toughness and resiliency that wasn’t always obvious in his young career. The uncertainty led Hartley and goaltending coach Steve Weeks to run him through an endurance test of 15 straight starts.
“We wanted him to get the message that he would be our guy,” Hartley said. “He’s never done it at the NHL level. You have to go through this once to know what it takes.”
Tkachuk scored the game-winner in overtime. But the Thrashers never get to that moment if Lehtonen doesn’t stop Buffalo’s Daniel Briere on a blast on the power play three minutes earlier. He made similar saves earlier in the game on Briere, Michael Ryan (twice) and Jason Pominville.
When Belanger gave the Thrashers a 2-1 lead, they were being outshot 18-8.
Lehtonen faced 38 shots Sunday. You would like that to be an aberration this time of year. It hasn’t been. Despite Hartley’s suggestion that shot totals are a little inflated, there was nothing cheap about the Sabres’ scoring chances.
From Lindy Ruff, Buffalo’s coach: “If you look at the chances we created and the ones we gave up — we didn’t give up much.”
Neither did Lehtonen.
He is 7-2 in his past nine starts. In the past seven, he has faced shot totals of 36, 40, 35, 39, 33, 36, 38. But he has allowed only 16 goals in 257 shots (.938 save percentage), and opponents have scored only three of 32 power-plays (a kill-rate of 90.6 percent). The Sabres went scoreless on five power plays.
If nothing else, they did find the key to scoring on Lehtonen: First, you knock him unconscious.
Buffalo tied it, 3-3, on a rebound off the back boards by Derek Roy. But Lehtonen was face down and woozy at the time, having been hit on the side of the head (or mask) on a point shot by Henrik Tallinder.
“I was out just long enough for them to score,” Lehtonen said.
“I was just a little dizzy. I saw the puck go in and I was so mad. It was a lucky break for them. After 15 or 20 seconds, I started to feel better. But I still feel a little weird.”
The Thrashers will take this kind of weird. Lehtonen, Hartley said, is “in a zone” now. The goalie said he has “felt a spark in my play” ever since a recent visit by his parents from Finland.
“Even when they left, I’ve been able to keep the same feeling,” he said.
If this was all about mom and dad, the Thrashers would have handcuffed Martti and Marja Lehtonen to a lamp post. Their son has grown up. He has grown into being the difference. And when the playoffs get here, we won’t have to wonder.
Permalink | Comments (50) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
