Hoops notes: Looking back, then forward

We have reached the greatest time in the college basketball season. The next two weeks – Championship Week and the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament – will provide exciting, thrilling and dramatic moments, in addition to setting the stage for the regionals and the Final Four. It happens every year.

But before we move on to Selection Sunday and start filling out our bracket sheets, it’s time to recognize the work done to this point. The regular season is an incredible journey that should never be forgotten. Conference championships are treasured accomplishments and it takes a lot of work to prepare for the postseason.

With all of that in mind, here are our top awards for the 2007-08 season:

National Player of the Year: Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina. In my mind, Hansbrough wrapped up this award by averaging 29 points in the six games that point guard Ty Lawson missed with injury. We all expected the Tar Heels to fall apart and they didn’t. Hansbrough held them together – and he did it with a painful ingrown toenail that required hospital attention. How many times have we heard coach Roy Williams say that “nobody has more desire” than Hansbrough. Well, it’s true. The guy never takes a play off. And when North Carolina needs the ball, he goes and gets it every time. Hansbrough symbolizes everything good about college basketball. I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back for his fourth year.

National Coach of the Year: Keno Davis, Drake. The Bulldogs were the feel good story of the season. Picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley, they won the regular season and tournament championships. They wrapped up the tournament title with a 30-point win. Who does that? Davis led the way while in his first season as his father’s replacement. Purdue’s Matt Painter, Rick Barnes of Texas, Louisville’s Rick Pitino, and UConn’s Jim Calhoun all deserve high praise for their work.

Freshman of the Year: Michael Beasley, Kansas State. There were so many great freshmen, but this kid is incredible. Kansas coach Bill Self said the thing that makes it so difficult to guard Beasley is the way he creates contact. And that’s why he gets to the free throw line so often. But he may be headed to the NBA without an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Best Conference: Big East. Just ahead of the Pac-10. The reason? Georgetown and Louisville are both Final Four caliber teams. Only UCLA can say that in the Pac-10.

Best Regular Season Game: Baylor 116, Texas A&M 110 in five overtimes. An instant classic and it wasn’t even on live TV.

Comeback Player of the Year: David Padgett, Louisville. How many times have we counted this guy out because of injuries? In November, it appeared he wouldn’t be able to finish his senior season. But he came roaring back and turned Louisville’s season around. He may not run the floor the way he did as a freshman at Kansas, but Padgett has a lot of heart.

Projected No. 1 seeds: North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, UCLA.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Temple gets the opportunity to celebrate Christmas all season long. But junior guard Dionte Christmas is really making March special. Christmas averaged 22 points, 5.3 rebounds and two steals while leading the Owls to three victories and the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament. Christmas scored a career-high 37 points on 12-for-23 shooting as Temple defeated Duquesne 92-86. He also had 19 points in a win over LaSalle. And the ribbon on Temple’s present has been a school-record, single-season 96 three-point baskets.

FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK

If Syracuse is going to extract itself from the bubble and reach the NCAA Tournament, coach Jim Boeheim is going to need a degree of maturity from his young players. Freshman forward Donte Greene demonstrated that in the final week of the regular season. Greene averaged 20 points and 8.5 rebounds in victories over Seton Hall and Marquette. Greene is the top freshman scorer in the Big East this season, averaging 17.5 points. He also averages 7.4 rebounds.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES OF THE WEEK

Monday, March 10
Colonial, Metro Atlantic, West Coast, Southern

Tuesday, March 11
Summit, Horizon, Sun Belt

Wednesday, March 12
Northeast, Big Sky

Friday, March 14
Patriot

Saturday, March 15
America East, Atlantic 10, Mid American, SWAC, Mid-Eastern, Big East, WAC, Big West, Conference USA, Pac-10, Mountain West

Sunday, March 16
ACC, Southland, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten

THEY SAID IT:

“Coach [Bill Self] told us last week he didn’t think the Lakers could come in and beat us on Senior Night. I agreed with him right away. I don’t think Kobe [Bryant] could have guarded me today.” – Kansas senior guard Russell Robinson, who was 5-for-5 from the field and scored 15 points in his Allen Fieldhouse finale, a 109-51 rout of Texas Tech. It was the most lopsided decision in Big 12 history.

“I feel like someone put a meat necklace around my neck and just threw me into a lions’ den.” – Texas Tech coach Pat Knight, after that loss to Kansas.

“I usually have a lot of respect for other teams, but they showed a lack of respect last game. They beat up on us and made a mockery of it. ... We’ll be ready to go. We want to blow them out.” – UConn guard A.J. Price, on the Huskies’ rematch with Providence last week.

“I don’t regret saying it all – that’s how I felt about it. They beat us, though, so it makes me look kind of foolish right now, but I meant what I said.” – Price after Providence beat UConn again, this time 85-76 in Providence.

“Everything is now designed to get us to San Antonio, Texas, for the Final Four. The thing that we can do to help make it happen is to win the SEC tournament.” – Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl.

“We’ve been drilling [defense] since the first day. The statistics show that we’ve gotten better defensively. It’s something that you have to be good at if you want to reach those big-time dreams that we have.” – North Carolina coach Roy Williams, after the Tar Heels blocked 15 shots and held Duke to a season worst 32.9 percent shooting from the field. 

NOTES:

Last week at this time, Ivy League champion Cornell was the only team in the 65-team field for the NCAA Tournament. Four more automatic qualifiers have added their names to the roster: Belmont (Atlantic Sun), Winthrop (Big South), Drake (Missouri Valley) and Austin Peay (Ohio Valley).

Belmont became the first team in Atlantic Sun history to win three consecutive conference tournament titles.

Winthrop has become an even more familiar name to tournament followers. The Eagles beat UNC Asheville for their fourth consecutive Big South title and eighth NCAA berth in 10 years.

Austin Peay will be making its sixth appearance in the NCAA tournament, but the first since 2003. The Governors defeated Tennessee State 82-64. Go Peay. That’s not cheering in the press box. It’s just fun to say – in a very childish way.

Perhaps the first major sign that March Madness is upon us arrived Sunday. It came when William & Mary upset Virginia Commonwealth 56-54 in the semifinals of the Colonial tournament. VCU (24-7 overall) won the regular season title by three games over George Mason, the other finalist tonight, and North Carolina-Wilmington. William & Mary is in its first CAA title game, while George Mason is making its third appearance in the past five years. And now the long wait begins for VCU, which can only hope for an at-large bid from the NCAA selection committee.

Sign No. 2: The rising of the Phoenix. Elon (14-18) moved into tonight’s Southern Conference title game by beating Chattanooga Saturday and the College of Charleston Sunday. Tonight’s obstacle is No. 25 Davidson, with a 35-game win streak against conference opponents.

The championship pairing in the America East is all set and the storyline is terrific. Hartford, the school that never capitalized on the fantastic career of Vin Baker, has reached the title game for the first time. The Hawks, who had lost nine previous semifinal games, beat Boston University 59-52 Sunday and will play at No. 1 seed Maryland-Baltimore County on Saturday. UMBC reached the final for the first time in its fifth season in the conference. The two teams split their regular season meetings with each team winning by one at home.

Texas holds the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament by virtue of its victory over Kansas during the regular season. But the conference handed out two regular season championship trophies last weekend after the Jayhawks and Longhorns won their final games. Texas got to celebrate with the fans in Austin. KU won at Texas A&M and celebrated its fourth consecutive Big 12 title with lots of emotion inside the visitor’s locker room. “We told our guys we’d celebrate in the locker room,” Kansas coach Bill Self told the Lawrence Journal-World. “We said, ‘Let’s be classy and happy but celebrate in style.”

Congratulations to Rider’s Jason Thompson and Virginia’s Sean Singletary. Both reached the 2,000-point plateau in career scoring Sunday. Same goes to North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, who got there against Duke Saturday night.

Barry Hinson didn’t deliver an NCAA tournament bid in nine seasons at Missouri State. So, the school fired him Sunday, two days after a 63-58 loss to Illinois State in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley tournament. Hinson was 169-117 and took Missouri State to the NIT four times. The NCAA selection committee bypassed Missouri State in 2006 and 2007 despite 22 victories both seasons and Top 40 RPI ratings both seasons. Perhaps just one selection would have saved Hinson’s job. That’s a pretty sad statement.

Stat of the week: Florida probably has to win the SEC tournament to get into the NCAA tournament. Ohio State picked up a big win Sunday against Michigan State but needs a win or two in the Big Ten tournament. The last time both the defending national champion and the previous runner-up failed to earn bids was 1980 – when Michigan State and Indiana State couldn’t get back after Magic Johnson and Larry Bird left school.

Del.icio.us | Digg it | Athlon Sports RSS Feeds