 | Billy Donovan could end up being the distraction he's been trying to avoid all season. Travis Lindquist/Getty Images |
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Grant Wahl will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag.
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ATLANTA -- I love the sweat suit guys. Every year they show up at the Final Four in the same uniform, the masses of assistant coaches from Stetson and Humboldt State and Cal Poly wearing their schools across their chests like a nametag.
About the only time they aren't wearing their sweat suits is when they're selling their NABC-mandated tickets for the games this week. Otherwise, the sweat suits are ubiquitous, kind of like those polyester "Bike" coaches shorts that all my gym teachers used to wear in middle school.
One of these years the SI Final Four gang is going to get our own matching sweat suits made with the mag's logo just so we can join in on the fun. For now, though, here are five things on my mind heading into this week's much-anticipated Final Four matchups:
1. Can Greg Oden and Roy Hibbert stay out of foul trouble?
The titanic showdown between these two 7-footers is mouth-watering, to say the least, but we'll only get a payoff if both of them can stave off the foul trouble that has plagued them the entire tournament. I went back and looked at Curry Kirkpatrick's terrific SI story on the 1984 title game, which featured another much-anticipated big-guy battle between Georgetown's Patrick Ewing and Houston's Akeem Olajuwon, a battle that turned into (Curry's words) "a foul-plagued standstill."
Olajuwon picked up his third foul in the last minute of the first half and his fourth in the first minute of the second half, further validating the fact that Guy Lewis was one of the worst in-game coaches in the history of college basketball. (Lewis was the same guy who left Clyde Drexler in the '83 final to get his fourth foul in the first half, and Drexler even stayed on the court a minute after that. Unbelievable.) That won't happen in Saturday's game, but the one thing I can't understand is why Hibbert and Oden are so susceptible to picking up their first foul right at the start of the game, putting themselves behind the eight-ball from the beginning. Time to show a little restraint, guys.
2. Can UCLA turn the tables on Florida?
The Bruins got waxed in last year's title game by a Gators team that was thoroughly prepared on short notice for all the defensive gambits UCLA pulls on people. Well, there's a lot more prep time for this game, and I have a hard time believing Florida will be surprised by too much Ben Howland's crew does. To watch Florida's coaching staff in action on their caffeine-fueled Saturday night scouting session of the Bruins a year ago was to be amazed by the insight, the attention to detail, the sheer volume of video and the general adrenalin rush that went with it.
3. Can Billy Donovan prevent the Kentucky talk from being a distraction?
After doing such a masterful job limiting the distractions to his team all season, Donovan has to be peeved that he's now unwillingly connected to a potential major distraction himself. This is a lot like the situation Roy Williams faced at the Final Four in 2003, and Donovan has a pretty good template to follow from the way Williams's Kansas team didn't let all the talk hurt it's title-game run. (One suggestion, though, Billy D: Probably not a great idea to say you don't give a s--- about Kentucky.)
4. Can Ohio State, UCLA or Georgetown keep history from being made?
I still don't think most people grasp what a momentous achievement Florida is on the brink of achieving here if the Gators can become only the second team since John Wooden's UCLA dynasty to repeat. What's great, though, is that this is such a stacked Final Four that it would only add to Florida's degree-of-difficulty were the Gators to pull off the feat. We're in for some great theater this week, that's for sure.
5. Can the Magic Eight hold up?
If our Magic Eight is going to work for the seventh time in eight years, either Florida or UCLA is going to have to win this week. Back in early January, Georgetown didn't seem like a team headed for the Final Four, and I left out Ohio State just to be a little provocative. (Nice move, there, dummy.) Last week I asked readers what sort of creative collateral I should put up if one of the non-Magic Eight teams wins the title. All sorts of suggestions came in -- from growing my hair out Bozo-the-clown style for six months to running 50 suicides on the court of the championship team and posting the video on SI.com -- but the winner was Brian S. from Princeton, N.J., who had a simple but effective solution: I'd have to wear the hat of the winning team in my SI.com photo for a week at the beginning of next season. So there's your guarantee, folks. Enjoy.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl covers college basketball for the magazine and SI.com.
