Hoops notes: NCAA Tournament storylines

After 15 seasons as the head basketball coach at Kansas, Roy Williams followed his heart, left the Jayhawks, and returned to his alma mater to become the leader of the North Carolina Tar Heels. From that moment in 2003, Williams has insisted he will never return to Allen Fieldhouse as an opponent.

“If I played them it would be in the NCAA Tournament, just like it was when I was at Kansas and I didn’t want to play North Carolina,” Williams says.

On Sunday, the NCAA men’s basketball committee may have arranged that inevitable meeting between North Carolina and Kansas. If the seeds planted by the committee hold all the way to the Final Four, the Tar Heels and Jayhawks have a date in San Antonio on April 5 – whether Williams likes it or not.

North Carolina, which won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship on Sunday, received the top No. 1 seed overall for the 2008 NCAA Tournament and will begin play Friday in the East Regional. Kansas defeated Texas in an extremely well played Big 12 tournament final Sunday and rose to the top line of the bracket as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest. The Jayhawks were slotted into the bracket as the fourth No. 1 seed, creating the possibility of a Final Four showdown with North Carolina in the national semifinals.

The committee didn’t do it intentionally and there’s a lot of basketball to be played between now and then. When two traditional powers are among the top teams in the nation year-in and year-out, it makes the meeting hard to avoid.

As Williams said, he didn’t want to face his mentor, Dean Smith, when he coached at Kansas. But it happened twice. Williams won in 1991, a victory that became bittersweet when Smith received two technical fouls and was ejected from the game. North Carolina beat the Jayhawks in the 1993 semifinals, paving the way to another national championship for Smith.

When Williams was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, he made sure to share the experience with players, coaches, and friends from both schools. “If somebody says ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawk’ when I’m walking through an airport, I still say, ‘Go KU.’ I have no problem doing that because I truly loved my 15 years there,” Williams said.

If you see Williams in the San Antonio airport next month, he might not be so eager to respond the same way.

Here’s a look at some other storylines created by the brackets:

Searching for No. 12: Last year’s tournament marked the first time since 2000 that a No. 12 seed didn’t upset a No. 5 seed. The No. 12 seed has become part of tournament folklore. Here are the No. 12 seeds and their opponents in the first round: Temple (South vs. Michigan State), Western Kentucky (West vs. Drake), Villanova (Midwest vs. Clemson), and George Mason (East vs. Notre Dame). Best chance for the upset? Temple is playing terrific basketball and enters the tournament on a seven-game winning streak. Don’t be surprised if Villanova beats Clemson.

Kentucky Derby: This time last year, the buzz in college basketball was all about the Kentucky coaching job. Tubby Smith lost to Kansas in the tournament and then bolted for Minnesota. While Billy Donovan was taking aim at a second consecutive national championship at Florida, Kentucky was focusing on the Gators’ coach as Smith’s replacement. There were plenty of other coaches willing to point the moving vans toward Lexington, and Marquette coach Tom Crean was one of them. Kentucky eventually hired Billy Gillispie, who did some nifty driving to get the Wildcats into the tournament. Kentucky’s first-round opponent: Marquette. Think Crean might want to send a message to Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart?

Freshman orientation: Omaha will be the site for one of the most intriguing first-round games. The pre-game chatter for USC and Kansas State will focus on freshmen O.J. Mayo and Michael Beasley, but Mayo and K-State redshirt freshman Bill Walker actually have been best friends since grade school. They were teammates at North College Hill High School in Cincinnati, a spot that was very popular for college coaches during recruiting contact periods. Many of those coaches were hoping for a package deal that never materialized.

Philadelphia Threesome: Just a couple of weeks ago, there was widespread panic in Philadelphia that the city’s proud Big Five would be shut out of the NCAA Tournament. But with Villanova getting the call as one of the last teams in, it turns out Philly will be represented by three teams. Jay Wright’s Wildcats joined Temple and Saint Joseph’s from the Atlantic 10. “It makes Philadelphia better. It makes the Big Five better,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.

Tobacco Road?: Georgetown, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, will play No. 15 UMBC in Raleigh, N.C. The Hoyas can’t play on their homecourt in Washington, D.C., but it’s still slightly humorous that these schools are only 36 miles apart and they are headed to North Carolina to play. I guess all lanes of the Baltimore/Washington beltway were occupied.

Style points: If Washington State beats Winthrop and Notre Dame defeats George Mason, it will set up an intriguing second round East Regional game in Denver. Washington State doesn’t own the patent on winning ugly but the Cougars are customers at that store. Wazzu is third in the nation in scoring defense (56.5 points per game). UCLA was the only team to score more than 80 against the Cougars. Notre Dame is all about offense, averaging 80.6 points (15th in the nation).

By The Time They Get to Phoenix: UConn is back in the tournament after missing last season. The Huskies received the No. 4 seed in the West but will open against San Diego in Tampa Friday. UConn is two wins away from a trip to Phoenix and that didn’t disappoint coach Jim Calhoun. The Hall of Fame coach led the Huskies to national titles in 1999 and 2004. The road to the Final Four went through Phoenix both times. “Pretty good memories,” Calhoun said.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Georgia. Who else? The Bulldogs wrote their own version of “Gone With The Wind” at the SEC tournament. They survived the first tornado in the history of downtown Atlanta, won a doubleheader on Saturday and became the tournament’s first team to win four games in four days. Georgia only won four games during the SEC regular season and Dennis Felton was in danger of losing his job. The Bulldogs have another tough task ahead of them after the committee gave Georgia the No. 14 seed in the West. It’s the lowest seed ever given to a team from a one of the “power” or BCS conferences.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

No one did more for his team during championship week than Kansas guard Mario Chalmers. His career-high 30 points carried the Jayhawks to an 84-74 victory over Texas in the Big 12 championship game Sunday. Chalmers had eight of KU’s 15 three-pointers. Chalmers also had a huge steal in the final minute of the game. The victory elevated Kansas to the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional.

COACH OF THE WEEK

Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh was all smiles Saturday night. And why not? Pitt went through so much adversity this season, losing starting forward Mike Cook to an ACL injury and then enduring weeks without injured point guard Levance Fields. But with Fields back in the lineup, Pitt managed a magical four-game stretch through the Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden and upset Georgetown 74-65 in the championship game. Many of the Panthers call New York their home and Pitt is 6-0 in MSG this season. Now Pitt enters the NCAA as a dangerous No. 4 seed.

TOP NCAA FIRST ROUND GAMES

Thursday, March 20
Xavier vs. Georgia in Washington, D.C.
Michigan State vs. Temple in Denver
Marquette vs. Kentucky in Anaheim
Purdue vs. Baylor in Washington, D.C.
UNLV vs. Kent State in Omaha
USC vs. Kansas State in Omaha
Brigham Young vs. Texas A&M in Anaheim
West Virginia vs. Arizona in Washington, D.C.

Friday, March 21
Gonzaga vs. Davidson in Raleigh
Miami vs. Saint Mary’s in Little Rock
Butler vs. South Alabama
Oklahoma vs. Saint  Joseph’s
Vanderbilt vs. Siena
Mississippi State vs. Oregon
Indiana vs. Arkansas
Clemson vs. Villanova

THEY SAID IT:

“It’s like the walking trees from ‘Lord of the Rings.’ They gobble up rebounds.” – UCLA freshman center Kevin Love, commenting on Stanford’s seven-foot twin brothers, Robin and Brook Lopez.

“I thought it was a tornado or a terrorist attack.” – Mississippi State guard Ben Hansbrough, giving his initial reaction to the tornado that hit the Georgia Dome during the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament.

“When you’re casting a fly, you can miss where you’re casting. You just pick it up and cast it again. You never know if a kid is going to do what you’ve told him to do and actually, I’ve had flies that have reacted a lot better to my instructions over the years than a lot of the players I’ve had, so maybe I’m better at fly fishing than coaching.” – Hall of Fame coach turned ESPN commentator Bob Knight, when asked what he finds more challenging – fly fishing or coaching basketball.
 
“Providence College has a rich tradition in men’s basketball. I have very high standards for the program and I expect that we will find the best person to move the program forward.” – Providence athletic director Bob Driscoll, in a statement announcing the firing of coach Tim Welsh after 10 years.

“I really thought we would be going to a fourth overtime.” – Boise State’s Reggie Larry, after he tallied 31 points and 16 rebounds in a 107-102 triple OT victory over New Mexico in the WAC championship game. The victory ended Boise State’s 14-year NCAA Tournament drought.

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