It will be a surprise if Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is not named national coach of the year for so ably replacing three double-figure scorers from last season, but Boeheim knew he had an ace player up his sleeve.
And Iowa State still must be smarting.
Wes Johnson, a 6-foot-7 forward, played two seasons for the Cyclones before leaving Ames after his 2007-08 sophomore season. Johnson considered Pittsburgh, Ohio State and West Virginia before settling on Syracuse.
Presto! After sitting out last season to fulfill NCAA transfer rules, Johnson averaged 16.0 points and 8.4 rebounds and led the Orange to the regular-season conference title and the top seed in the West Regional. Johnson was the easy choice for Big East player of the year.
“He’s as good as any player in the country,” Boeheim said.
Johnson grew up in Corsicana, Texas, where his mother packed potato chips in a factory and his dad conducted trains. He was not heavily recruited because the pain of a late growth spurt (5-10 to 6-6) kept him sidelined for much of the summer and then became almost forgotten when he switched high schools — including one in North Carolina — and was discovered by Iowa State coach Greg McDermott playing pickup ball at a junior college in Michigan.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way,” Johnson told The New York Times of his itinerant journey. “I honestly would.”
Favorite: Syracuse
The Orange wasn’t even listed in preseason top 25 polls, but the team ended up winning the regular-season Big East race by two games. Syracuse isn’t overly big, and Orange fans — and coaches — had to be holding their breath when 6-foot-9 starting center Arinze Onuaku was carried off the court in the Big East Tournament loss to Georgetown. But Onuaku merely suffered a quadriceps strain and could return to practice as early as today.
Sleeper: Gonzaga
Coach Mark Few always schedules a difficult nonleague slate, taking the team wherever it must to find a good game. Because of that, and of being in the spotlight for years, Gonzaga is never intimidated by its opponent or the surroundings, even with a potential second-round matchup with Syracuse in Buffalo, N.Y.
Upset alert: UTEP over Butler
What a contrast. UTEP relies heavily on transfers (including Derrick Caracter from Louisville and Jeremy Williams from Colorado), while Butler recruiters rarely leave Indiana because there is no need. UTEP, the Conference USA regular-season champion, is more athletic, but the Miners will have to be at the top of their game to beat a disciplined Butler squad riding a season-best 20-game win streak.
Bracket breakdown
The West could be called the “bubble regional.” Minnesota, Florida, BYU and Florida State might have sweated Sunday. It remains to be seen whether those teams play like they were just happy to be here. With the Pac-10 being down, powerhouses such as Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Kansas State were shipped here, which was not unexpected. It was a surprise that the highest-ranked team in this part of the country, No. 3 seed New Mexico, was sent to the East.
