According to NCAA Tournament Selection Committee chair Craig Littlepage, these might have been the hardest 16 set of lines to put together – ever.
He then extolled the biggest virtue of this year’s tournament field – variety.
“There is great basketball played throughout the country, and sometimes that’s not going to be reflected necessarily in hard numbers,” Littlepage said. “We just had many, many more teams with great seasons, but with very differing paths to get them to the point we were evaluating them.”
Now, there are the questions.
Here are the tournament’s top queries and some answers:
Q. Are Big East teams the most prepared of any in the country?
Yes, but not because of the obvious answer. The competition is as good as any in the country, to be sure, but there is one better reason.
Syracuse plays a 2-3 zone. West Virginia plays a 1-3-1 zone. Louisville pushes the ball up the court and presses. Georgetown runs a Princeton-style offense. Villanova challenges perimeter defenses with four quick guards, while Connecticut is beefy and athletic, testing opponents all over the court.
In short, there is nothing these teams haven’t seen, and in the NCAA Tournament, where being able to play different styles is key, that gives Big East teams a distinct advantage. They know how to adjust on the fly and be effective, putting them in better position to be successful.
Q. Can you win a national title with four guards?
History says probably not, but Villanova will try. The Wildcats start four guards – Allan Ray, Randy Foye, Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowry – and have been a top-five team most of the season, so they are obviously an effective team.
Still, NCAA title winners don’t start four guards. The closest team to Villanova in style that won it all were the 1997 Arizona Wildcats, who started Mike Bibby, Miles Simon and Michael Dickerson on the perimeter and brought Jason Terry as the top sub off the bench. But even that team started two post players.
Villanova lacks the frontcourt play needed to go all the way. Can it get to the Final Four? Yes. But what if ‘Nova suffers an off night shooting. Can it grind out a win? We’ll see…
Q. Can you win with a freshman point guard?
There were times during the season when Duke’s Greg Paulus struggled to the point that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski removed him from the game. At other times he kept his freshman on the floor to learn from his mistakes.
Experience at point guard usually wins championships, but a freshman leading a team to the Final Four and a national title isn’t unprecedented. As a freshman point guard, Drew Neitzel ran the show for Michigan State in its run to the Final Four last year. And Bibby helped lead Arizona to the 1997 title.
Q. Did your conference prepare you?
Gonzaga coach Mark Few argues that the West Coast Conference offers good preparation for the NCAA Tournament. Lately you have to wonder. Gonzaga has not advanced past the second round in the past four tournaments.
The Bulldogs did not dominate during the WCC Tournament on their home court, but perhaps the experience in pulling out close games will help down the line. Also in this discussion is Memphis, which stormed through a depleted Conference USA. Memphis plans to schedule a tough nonconference opponent late next season to help its NCAA preparation.
Q. Will you be able to keep up the pace?
Much of Tennessee’s success has come from a push-the-pace style that proved difficult for many teams in the SEC. Will that style work in the NCAAs?
Part of being successful is being able to win with any style, but if you impose your style on the opponent on a nightly basis, it makes it that much easier. The Volunteers struggled the moment opponents were able to slow the pace.
Sharing this question is Alabama-Birmingham, which plays a style patterned after former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson’s “40 Minutes of Hell.” UAB has proved to be a difficult matchup because of the helter-skelter pace.
Q. Is this an audition for another job?
Mid-major coaches stand the most to gain every spring. Just ask Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl, Massachusetts’ Travis Ford, Georgia’s Dennis Felton and Arkansas’ Stan Heath, all of whom parlayed success as a mid-major coach in the NCAAs into jobs at major programs.
On this year’s short list of hot candidates? Northern Iowa’s Greg McDermott, South Alabama’s John Pelphrey and UAB’s Mike Anderson, among others. But big-school coaches are in the crosshairs as well, those such as Iowa’s Steve Alford, rumored to be headed to Indiana, West Virginia’s John Beilein and Indiana’s Mike Davis, who has resigned.
Q. Can you validate yourself?
It was a good regular season for mid-major schools, particularly those in the Missouri Valley Conference, which placed four teams in the tournament.
This is perhaps the most inclusive tournament on record, and that is a good thing. But for the respect to continue, those teams now must win. At least one should make it through to the Sweet 16 or the selection committee members might not be so generous in the future.
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
