Well, I'm back from the Big East Tournament in New York, and this is the first chance I've had to review the happenings there as well as the developments in the rest of the college basketball world. No, I'm no Dickie V., but I have followed and played roundball for 40 years, so I feel compelled to write on a sport I love.
My UConn Huskies this year were not the team they've been since, oh, 1990 or so. The last sixteen years have been kind to Connecticut, with two national championships ('99 and '04), six Big East tournament titles, and a collection of NBA players with UConn pedigrees (Emeka Okafor, Caron Butler, Richard Hamilton, Donyell Marshall, Jake Voskuhl, Rudy Gay, Charlie Villanueva, Josh Boone, Marcus Williams, Kevin Ollie, Ray Allen among others). This year was different, a team that had to be as frustrating for Jim Calhoun to coach as it was to watch. You could see the talent at times, players like AJ Price and Stanley Robinson gliding past defenders effortlessly and scoring smoothly. At times you could also see things no coach wants to see: panic, indecision, inconsistent effort and cohesion, and low "basketball IQ."
There were excuses, to be sure, and good ones. The teams leaders were a relatively lightly recruited sophomore guard from Stamford, CT and an undersized sophomore power forward from Brookline, MA who lacked range. The rest of the team was talented, according to the recruiting gurus, but for a coach accustomed to a lineage of success untested, unproven and inexperienced. I heard all about the potential of players like 6'9' forwards Stanley Robinson and Curtis Kelly, from Alabama and Queens, NY respectively, and 7'3" center Hasheem Thabeet of Tanzania, and shooting guard Jerome Dyson from Maryland. Friends, potential does not win games.
By the end of the season Dyson had stepped up to be a solid scoring threat at the 2; none of the others produced with anything approaching consistency. More frustratingly, the team played as if the concept of "team offense" were as foreign to them as linear algebra. They were best when they ran, but even there the shots were often rushed or forced. Pick and rolls were poorly executed. Screen away? High low? Pull up jumpers? Inside-out setups for shooters? They seemed to have a blank stare anytime a set offense was required. There were a lot of individual drives with little awareness from the driver of the other players on the floor. Inevitable a contested, off-balance shot, or a forced pass inside, or a lost ball or turnover would result. Guys, good teams will make you play set half-court offense, you'd better figure out how to do it.
Defense was better, and generally what kept them in games. Still, even in this area of strength, there were dangerous shooters getting lost on the wings for open threes, and little help weakside when an opposing player drove. The shot blockers would come to the ball, invariably leaving an open forward to receive the pass or rebound the missed shot.
So, Coach Calhoun, what do you need?
- You need a point guard who can shoot an open three, makes smart decisions, and penetrates and creates for the other players. Have the guards watch tape of Steve Nash if they want to see what it looks like. A lot of tape. Is Price that guy? Is Doug Wiggins?
- You need your players to gain an understanding of floor spacing.
- Your undersized power forward needs to learn to use his body to get off his shot against bigger players inside. It would help if he had range to the three point line, to open up the middle.
- You need more consistently dangerous shooting, and, in particular, three point shooting. Defenses could pack it in, and were forced to tag only a couple of guys on the perimeter.
- Your 7'3" center needs to learn how not to play like he's 6'8".
- And your team needs to play every minute of every game, whether tied, up 10 or down 14, as if they're down two points with 45 seconds to play. Offensively you can't afford a turnover, and you have to score; defensively you have to stop the other team and get the ball back.
Now, the tournament. Georgetown played like Georgetown has never played, and I include the Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning years in that statement. They were disciplined, fluid, smart, tough, methodical and relentless. There was none of the twin intimidations of physical play and full-court pressure; by the same token they were not intimidated by pressure or physical play. They ran their offense and continually created open shots both inside and outside. Defensively they were always in position, always pressuring the shot, and rotating rapidly to cut off every offensive thrust, particularly in the championship game against Pittsburgh. Notre Dame gave them a game, but that was a testament to the Irish offensive players more than a problem with the Georgetown defense. Jeff Green, the Big East Player of the Year was splendid throughout.
As for the NCAA tournament, well, you'll have to check in over the next several days for the Joust The Facts "bracketology."
