Looking Forward

By: Eli Kaberon

If there was any question to why, last weekend provided an answer to the question about the nickname March Madness. Madness took place all across the NCAA Tournament bracket in a variety of ways, including:

-Two 12 seeds advanced to the Sweet 16, the same number of two seeds that are still alive.

-All four three seeds are still around but only one four seed.

-North Carolina became the first team since Loyola Marymount in 1990 to exceed the century mark in points in each of its first two games.

-UCLA held Mississippi Valley State to 29 points in the opening round, the lowest point total for a team in the NCAA Tournament since 1946.

-For the first time ever, there were two matchups of 12 seeds versus 13 seeds in the second round.

That madness leaves college hoops fans with only 16 more teams and 15 more games in the 2008 season. And by next Monday, those numbers will be cut down to four teams and three games. Here’s a guide of eight elite things to watch for in college basketball’s second-to-last weekend of the year.

Coach under most pressure: Bill Self, Kansas

Since he became the head coach at the University of Tulsa in 1998, Bill Self has been the NCAA Tournament ten consecutive seasons. His teams have lost, in order, in the second round, Elite Eight, Elite Eight,Sweet 16, second round, Elite Eight, first round, first round, and last season in the Elite Eight. Notice something missing? If Self and his Jayhawks don’t reach the Final Four this season, there may be no hope for the former Illinois head man. His team has as many as six future NBA players and are in a region with two double-digit seeded teams (Davidson and Villanova) remaining. Last season, KU fell to UCLA in the regional final game played in San Jose. This year, none of the Jayhawks’ opponents have a home-court advantage, meaning no more excuses for Bill Self.

Player under most pressure: Tyler Hansbrough, UNC

Psycho-T, as Hansbrough is known, is the best player in college hoops. He averaged nearly 23 points and ten rebounds this year and has been a first-team All American in all three of his college seasons. But he is close to becoming the Peyton Manning of college hoops. Back when Manning was the quarterback at the University of Tennessee, he was known as a guy who would rack up big stats and loads of wins in regular season games, but always fell short of beating rival Florida and winning a national title. Then once Manning graduated, his Volunteers defeated the Gators and finished the season as #1 in the land. Hansbrough puts up huge numbers, but his two NCAA Tournament appearances have been noteworthy only because of defeat. In 2006, the Tar Heels were upset in round two by George Mason, a school that eventually reached the Final Four. And last season, Psycho-T and co. blew a 12-point lead in the Elite Eight in a heartbreaking loss to Georgetown. If big number 50 in white and sky blue doesn’t come up big this weekend, his legacy might be one that’s not worth remembering.

Best Sweet 16 matchup (teams): Louisville-Tennessee

All eight of the Sweet 16 matchups are good ones. There’s tall vs. small (Stanford-Texas), offense vs. defense (North Carolina vs. Washington State) and storied program vs. Cinderella (UCLA vs. Western Kentucky). But no game features two all-around good squads like this battle between the Vols and Cardinals. Tennessee comes into the game after a tight overtime battle versus Butler, one UT almost lost because of their inability to hold on to the basketball. Louisville on the other hand barely broke a sweat in their first two tournament games, beating
Boise State by 18 and Oklahoma by 30. The game might come down to free throws, which would not be good for either side. The Volunteers shoot 66% from the charity stripe, 281st in the county. The Cardinals are even worse at 64%, good for 305th nationally.

Best Sweet 16 matchup (players): Stephen Curry-Michael Flowers

Pretty much everything that needs to be said about Davidson guard Curry already has. He is the
tournament’s leading scorer with 70 combined points in two games and has led his team to upset wins over higher seeded teams Gonzaga and Georgetown. But now comes his biggest test in Flowers, the Wisconsin guard who is a two-time member of the Big Ten all-defensive team. The two are nearly identical in height and weight, with both measuring near 6′2″ and 185 pounds, but it appears from the way each plays that Flowers is much stronger. That might bother Curry, though his seemingly 35-foot range on jump shots might make up for it. Whoever wins this one-on-one matchup has a great chance of being on the winning team at the end of the game.

Best potential Elite 8 matchup (teams): North Carolina vs. Tennessee

Border wars are always fun in college sports. Michigan and Ohio State square off pretty much every year for Big Ten football supremacy while Texas and Oklahoma do the same in the Big 12. Yet while their states do connect, games between North Carolina and Tennessee have been few and far between. UNC has won eight of the nine all-time matchups between the schools, with the last meeting taking place at the very start of last season, a 101-86 Tar Heels win in November of
2006. If both squads are to win their Sweet 16 games though, the series would finally have a game worth talking about. Both the Heels and the Vols love to run it up and down the floor, though they get their points in different ways. UNC scores almost 60% of their points with two-point field goals and only 19% from behind the three-point line, while UT has more than 32% of their scoring come from the trey and less than 50% from two. Each team scores around 20% of their points from the free-throw line. First one to 90 points wins.

Best potential Elite 8 matchup (players): DJ Augustin vs. Derrick Rose

Some have argued that nobody has played the point guard position better in pro basketball history than Chris Paul has this season. The New Orleans Hornets All-Star averages the ridiculous stat line of 21 points, 11 assists, four rebounds, and three steals a game, which is Oscar Robinson-esque. So if Paul is the best PG in the NBA, who is follow in his steps as the
best in college hoops? That answer may come from this matchup. Augustin, the sophomore All-American from Texas, averages more points and assists than Rose, the star freshman from Memphis. But Rose is faster, stronger and is considered to be the better future pro. Both players are phenomenal one-on-one players but also can run their team’s offenses to perfection. Hopefully for the fans sake, these two go at it on the court this weekend to decide who is better.

Player you’ve never heard of that will make a big difference: Josh Duncan, Xavier

Usually the leading scorer on a top-ten team is a pretty well known guy. There’s Kevin Love of UCLA, Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis, Hansbrough on North Carolina; all three have the distinction and all three are first team All-Americans. But then there is Josh Duncan, the unknown scoring leader of the Xavier Musketeers. One of six XU players who average double-digit points per game, Duncan leads the way with 12.1 a game, even though he has started only 14 of the teams 35 contests. This weekend, Duncan will be called on to not only score, but also help defend West Virginia forward Joe Alexander and if they both advance, UCLA’s freshman star Love.

Coach opponents least want to face: Tom Izzo, MSU

There are 341 head coaches in Division-I college basketball. Only three - Mike Krzyzewski, Billy Donovan, and Rick Pitino - have a higher NCAA Tournament winning percentage than Tom Izzo. The leader of the Michigan State Spartans has a career post-season record of 34-11, including four trips to the Final Four and a National Title in 2000. This year’s MSU team is far from Izzo’s best, but when they start to play well, like they did last weekend against Temple and Pittsburgh, they are tough to beat. Michigan State controls the glass (plus 13 rebounding edge over Pitt) and doesn’t shoot itself in the foot at the free-throw line (The team is 25 for 27 combined in the two tournament games). Plus with Izzo, who is in the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in his career, leading the way, there’s no way that the Spartans are going to be out-coached.

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    Eli Kaberon is a 2005 graduate of Evanston Township High School and currently is attending Columbia College in the loop, majoring in print journalism. A life-long fan of the Cubs, Bears and Bulls, Eli also works as a seat vendor at Wrigley Field and has sold hot dogs to everyone ranging from Bears tight end Greg Olsen to Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Eli can be reached at ekaberon@yahoo.com.

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