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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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The Daily Buzz Arizona's Woods should speak -- not play -- softly
By Tim Crothers, Sports Illustrated MINNEAPOLIS -- During the press feeding frenzy in the Arizona lockerroom on Friday afternoon, a flock of fun-loving Wildcats benchwarmers wore T-shirts that read "No Comment". Where were these shirts when Arizona's starting center Loren Woods really needed one? Woods is the glib guy who boasted last fall that this year's Wildcats could very well be the best college basketball team in history. He also mentioned a few weeks ago that he wished he hadn't returned to Tucson for his senior season and opted instead for the NBA. About all that, Woods now says, "I've chosen to have selective memory." For most of this season the 7-foot-1, 244-pound center has been a giant question mark, often earning his reputation for playing too soft while averaging 13 points per game, well below the expectations for somebody considered a preseason Player of the Year candidate. "Loren has been his own worst enemy by expecting perfection," Arizona coach Lute Olson says. "This game is not conducive to perfection." However, Woods has awakened somewhat in the NCAA tournament, averaging 15.8 points and 6.8 rebounds and dominating for stretches in the Midwest Regional final with 18 points and seven blocks against Illinois. Two more games like that could bring another national title to the desert. Woods is a hyper-sensitive player who is clearly weary of the constant criticism, but he also is aware that he could silence a lot of those critics with two strong performances in Minneapolis. "My whole life people have said I'm too weak to succeed in basketball," Woods says. "I could be the weakest center ever to play in the Final Four, but at least I'm playing in the Final Four."
Boozer getting it back togetherLike Woods, Duke's sophomore center Carlos Boozer will have a huge impact on Duke's chances of winning the national championship. On Friday, many of the Maryland players were referring to Boozer as the Blue Devils' "wild card." The Terps recall that Boozer scored 16 points in just 23 minutes against them on Feb. 27 in Durham before he left the game with a fractured bone in his foot. Boozer returned from that injury last week for two games in Philadelphia during which he scored a total of three points in 44 minutes and said afterward, "I didn't feel like me." Boozer has since endured another week of rehab and conditioning and is pronouncing himself close to fully healthy for this weekend. Boozer will not start against Maryland as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski sticks with the lineup that has carried him to Minneapolis, but Boozer's bulk will be critical in slowing down Maryland's Lonny Baxter, who torched Stanford for 24 points. "I can feel my basketball skills, my instincts and my feel for the game coming back," Boozer says. "I'm not all the way back, but I really believe I'm ready to make an impact against Maryland."
Overpowering underdogsMichigan State coach Tom Izzo deserves a master's degree in psychology for somehow convincing the Spartans that they aren't getting enough respect at the Final Four. Sure, every coach tries to employ some variation of the hackneyed Rodney Dangerfield approach to fire up his players, but it's a tougher sell when your team is 28-4 and the defending national champs. Charlie Bell echoed the sentiments of many players in the Spartans lockerroom on Friday when he groused that nobody is picking Michigan State to win the national title. Zach Randolph wore a T-shirt with the number 2400 inscribed on it. That figure, 2400, is Spartan code for the number of seconds in two full college basketball games, the total time between Michigan State and a potential repeat. Meanwhile, Maryland, the only program of the four in Minneapolis which hasn't won a national title in the last decade, has a legitimate claim to underdog status but wants no part of it. "We feel we deserve to be here just as much as the other teams," Baxter says. "We don't care if anybody's picking us to win. Nobody picked us to be here. So what?"
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