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Getting centered
Posted: Wednesday February 09, 2000 12:14 PM
Sports Illustrated staff writer Grant Wahl will answer your questions every Tuesday during the college basketball season. Click here to send him a question. ABOARD AMERICAN FLIGHT 177 TO SAN FRANCISCO -- You never know whom you'll spot in a perfectly random place, as I learned last Saturday in Marianna, Fla. (a tiny panhandle town so far removed from "normal" Florida that it's located in the Central Time Zone). Don't ask why I was there (long story), but soon after I arrived at Chipola JC for its game against Tallahassee CC, in walked Auburn's Chris Porter, his baggy cords sagging, his mini-entourage trailing, his five-inch-high 'fro in full bloom. It was my lucky night: Chipola was retiring the number of Porter, its most famous recent alum (next most famous: Buck Showalter and -- coincidence or not? -- Auburn coach Cliff Ellis ), which gave me a chance to sidle up to the big guy and ask a couple of questions. Unfortunately, Porter may be the worst interview in college basketball since TCU's Lee Nailon (don't get me started), and after a series of one-word replies I slunk off, forgetting to ask the obvious: Hey, Chris, how does it feel to play on the most overrated team in the nation? But I digress. This week I got a bundle of questions about centers, which made me realize that great pivotmen are an endangered species. With that in mind, I thought I'd provide yet another handy list: THE 5 BEST CENTERS IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL 1. Kenyon Martin, Cincinnati. Random fact: In Martin's living room, he keeps a wood cutout of the name KENYON, with the Tasmanian Devil carved inside the 'O'. A Taz on the court, Martin is easily the nation's most intimidating player on offense and defense. 2. Chris Mihm, Texas. The most athletic collegiate 7-footer in years. 3. Loren Woods Arizona. His 14 blocks against Oregon last week was the best defensive performance of the season, but his offense has also been key for the depleted Wildcats. 4. Etan Thomas, Syracuse. Big-time shot swatter (4.1 blocks per game) has also provided points (14.6) and rebounds (9.4) for surprising Orangemen. 5. Jake Voskuhl, Connecticut. Anyone notice that three of the best centers in the country -- Martin, Mihm and Voskuhl -- all played high school ball in Texas? Big Jake is finally showing some offensive pop, scoring double-figures (11.5 points per game) in conference. THE 5 MOST DISAPPOINTING 1. Eric Chenowith, Kansas. What happened to this guy? First he lost his starting spot, then he hit rock bottom with six points, four boards in 33-point loss to Oklahoma State on Monday. 2. Dan Gadzuric, UCLA. Soft. Injury-prone. Malingerer. What more can we say about a player who once talked about skipping college for the NBA? 3. Brendan Haywood, North Carolina. Fine, he's leading the country in field-goal percentage, but the guy takes only 6.9 shots a game (and fewer overall than four of his teammates)! The main reason why the Tar Heels are the country's biggest underachievers. 4. Mamadou N'diaye, Auburn. Pete Newell said N'diaye was going to be a sleeper after he worked at Newell's big-man camp last summer. With only 2.0 blocks a game, N'Diaye has me going z-z-z-z-z-z. 5. Kostas Avgerinos, College of Southern Idaho. This 7'1" Greek is one of the last men off the bench ... on a juco team. Before I get to this week's questions, let me just thank everybody for the (scarily) fanatical response to last week's 'Bag, in which I asked you to send in your own porn-star names. Many are too graphic to print here, but I'll include as many as I can with the questioners' names -- plus a special bonus list at the end! After having watched Chris Mihm on numerous occasions, I'm wondering if you
would say he's better suited to be a seven-foot small forward facing the basket.
He can handle it, he can shoot the trey and he can run the floor, but what he
can't seem to do is post up very well (unless the guy guarding him is
substantially shorter). I think he'd have a hard time as an NBA center unless he
played outside a
lot.
First, Puck, how are you able to see so many games in London? You bring up a good point: I have always been more impressed with Mihm's mid- to long-range shooting and his agility on the perimeter than with his post moves, and his height could make him a real pain for NBA defenders away from the lane. Whoever lands Mihm in the league, either next year or the year after, is going to have an intriguing decision on their hands. UT coach Rick Barnes probably overstated the case earlier this season when he bloviated that Mihm could be the best ever to play the game, but Mihm's unique versatility gives pundits the chance to ponder that statement and not dismiss it completely out of hand. What's up with UConn? A month ago the Huskies were starting to look like contenders.
Then they get destroyed by Syracuse and Michigan St. I know it was on the road,
but they looked absolutely awful in both games. You included them in your Magic
Eight. Now they look like a possible first-round upset. Do you think UConn
can pull it together, or is this one of those lots-of-biology, no-chemistry
cases?
I'm not jumping off the Huskies bandwagon yet. They have four solid, tournament-tested players in Khalid El-Amin, Kevin Freeman, Albert Mouring and Voskuhl, but the fact remains that nobody has provided the same consistent scoring punch that Rip Hamilton did last season. I'm tired of hearing how UConn has suffered so much because of Ricky Moore's departure. Hello? Losing Hamilton was huge. There's still plenty of time, though, for UConn to regroup and finish strong in the Big East race. I'd bet on Mouring to become the scoring threat the Huskies need. What is your impression of Terence Morris of Maryland? He's a preseason
All-America with extraordinary skills, but does he seem a little soft to you?
He doesn't seem to have enough of a killer instinct to take over a game when he
needs
to.
How many times have I watched the Terrapins play this season and wondered, Why don't they pass it to Morris more often? And why doesn't he demand the ball? I've come to the conclusion that Morris has an even more acute version of the complex Danny Manning had at Kansas in the late '80s: He's a super-talented player who just doesn't have a playing personality dominant enough to match his skills. (After all, Morris has taken only the third-most shots on his team this season.) He's hardly a lost cause, however. Pro scouts still love Morris, and it's not like he can't acquire a more dominant persona -- Manning did during his senior season (thanks to Larry Brown) and led his team to the national title. What are we supposed to make of Notre Dame this year? The Irish have big wins
coupled with some weak losses. Is this a team that will make the tournament? Or
is it going to make a run in the
NIT?
It's going to take a couple more quality wins, to say nothing of a winning Big East record, to get the 14-9 Irish (5-4 Big East) into the NCAA tournament. To be honest, I don't think it's going to happen, for the simple reason that Notre Dame has been too wildly inconsistent to pull it off (witness losses to Miami of Ohio, Rutgers and Pitt). That said, Troy Murphy is an awfully good player to rely on in a tournament, which is why (alert the folks in Vegas!) Notre Dame will win the NIT. The bigger question is, Will anybody care? Temple's early season losses to Indiana and Wake Forest came after Pepe
Sanchez went down, and at Wisconsin the Owls were playing minus Mark Karcher as
well. Even a tough loss at the buzzer at St. Bonaventure took place shortly
after Sanchez's return. Of late they have been putting people away with
authority. Could this be the year they put John Chaney into the Final
Four?
The resurgent Owls are a fashionable pick to make a tournament run, and for good reason: They're finally healthy and they're running roughshod over a (horribly weak) Atlantic-10. I'll be more convinced about their chances when I see them play at Cincinnati later this month. While I don't think Temple will win that game, I have a sneaking suspicion the Owls' zone D (and improving offensive output) will make it awfully close. They're peaking at just the right time, and (like UConn) their tournament experience shouldn't be underestimated. How can anyone in this country with half a brain look at Cincinnati and think
they should be ranked No. 1? Look at the Bearcats' conference. If they were in
the Big East, ACC or Big Ten they would be lucky to be .500 right now. When they
actually play someone, then we can talk about them being No.
1!
Well, Buddy, I have at least three-quarters of a brain, and I'm convinced the Bearcats would be No. 1 if they played in any conference. True, you have a decent point when you say that their schedule hasn't been that difficult; Cincy's best wins have come against Iowa State, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma and Louisville. But I've seen a lot of games this season, and nobody has the overpowering combination of a strong inside game (Martin), a quick, sharpshooting perimeter game (with Kenny Satterfield, DerMarr Johnson and Steve Logan ) and an all-purpose, ballhawking tough guy ( Pete Mickeal ). There are just too many threats. Consider what happened at Oklahoma (an underrated team, by the way), where the Bearcats built a double-digit first-half lead even though Mickeal didn't score and Martin was out with foul trouble. Last week I said Cincy would run the table until (at least) the Final Four, and I still believe that. FINALLY, the overwhelming response to last week's create-your-own-porn-star-name contest drew the greatest response in the 'Bag's brief history. I'm not sure I want to know what that says about you guys or, for that matter, me -- but we had many worthy submissions (from both males and females), many of which played on a variation of the ord "wood" (imagine that). Here are a few of the best: Sparkler Pendleton ( Tim Thompson, Storrs, Conn. ); Alfie Wakefield ( Kevin Briscoe, Fairfax, Va. ); Twinkie Tallwood ( Ran Bilski, Houston ); Willoe Woodfern ( Mark Grannen, Cincinnati ); Smokey Wake Robin ( Shawn, West Jordan, Utah ); Schluffy Ledgewood ( Michael Singer, Waltham, Mass. ); Gator Mohican ( Jason Dake, Redwood City, Calif. ); Daxx Toledo ( Mike Davis, Manitou Beach, Mich. ); Spencer Huckleberry ( Jason, New York City ); and Max Cannon ( Paul Householder, Frazeysburg, Ohio ) And yet there can only be one winner, so congratulations go out to Tim Stevens of Tucson, Ariz., who submitted ... Stone Johnson. Way to go, Tim!! See you all next week.
Click here to send your college basketball question to Grant Wahl.
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