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Picking the postseason
Posted: Monday March 06, 2000 03:13 PM
By Albert Lin,
CNNSI.com
Coming next week: Our take on the NCAA tournament appears Monday, then the Glance goes daily on game days, reviewing the previous night's action and previewing that day's.
But first, let's take a look at who we think will win the remaining conferences tournaments.
(Aside: Why do smaller conferences, which only get one bid, even have postseason tournaments? The only thing that can happen is an upset of the No. 1 seed, which completely invalidates the entire regular season. Bigger conferences at least get plenty of added revenue.)
And the winners are (if you've followed along all year, you know it's in your best interest to eliminate anyone we pick) ...
America East: Hofstra is playing at home and with the league's best player, Craig (Speedy) Claxton.
Atlantic Coast: Just to avoid stating the obvious, we'll go with Maryland.
Atlantic 10: Despite last week's misstep at St. Joe's, Temple is far and away the class of this league.
Big East: UConn is twice as deep as any of the league's upper-echelon teams, so if the experienced Huskies get to the final, we like their chances.
Big Sky: Another topsy-turvy conference, which leads us to Weber State and league player of the year Harold Arceneaux.
Big Ten: We've said all along that Michigan State is one of the top three teams in the country, and we're sticking to it.
Big 12: Marcus Fizer and Iowa State are playing so well, it's hard to pick against them.
Big West: Utah State is probably the most unheralded team in the nation.
Colonial: We love UNC Wilmington coach Jerry Wainwright, but we think Richmond is too strong at home.
Conference USA: How could it be anyone but Cincinnati?
Metro Atlantic Athletic: Siena and Iona split their regular-season meetings, the road team winning each time. So that means Iona should get the automatic bid, right?
Mid-American: We'll take Marshall and the Herd's terrific sophomore inside-outside combination of J.R. VanHoose and Tamar Slay.
Mid-Continent: Valparaiso, because we never pick against the Crusaders.
Mid-Eastern Athletic: The top four seeds all have stacked non-conference records. But the only W of the bunch was South Carolina State beating Clemson.
Midwestern Collegiate: Butler's been too good all year, though we hate picking against U of D coach Perry Watson and star Rashad Phillips.
Missouri Valley: Creighton won at Southwest Missouri State and lost by one point at home, so, Go Blue Jays!
Mountain West: We hate betting against Rick Majerus, but the Utes gave been in a slide. All signs point to UNLV.
Northeast: In a minor upset, red-hot Robert Morris (won nine of last 10) will take Central Connecticut State.
Patriot: Whoever thought there was life after David Robinson? Navy.
Southeastern: Could go any which way, so we'll just cop out and say Tennessee.
Southland: Sam Houston State won 10 of 11 to claim the regular-season title. We see another three in a row.
Southwestern Athletic: Southern was rolling until losing four of its last six (one to Georgetown). We think the Jaguars right the ship.
Sun Belt: South Alabama is on a roll, winning seven in a row -- beating each of the remaining three teams alive in the tournament.
West Coast: O.K., we're finally ready to jump on the Gonzaga bandwagon.
Western Athletic: Fresno State is hosting, and the Bulldogs swept Tulsa during the regular season.
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| Jerome Moiso, so., F, UCLA |
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Spidery is the first adjective that comes to mind when you watch Moiso operate, long limbs reaching out from every angle. He was magnificent in the Bruins' upset of UCLA, and the reason is he planted himself in the low post. As a freshman he had a tendency to drift to the three-point line, and with his jumper and ballhandling skills he certainly did not embarrass himself. But we saw Saturday how much more effective he is on the blocks, where he can work above smaller defenders and around bigger ones. How many rebounds did he snatch right from over someone else's head? Moiso is another lefthander in the Toni Kukoc/Lamar Odom/Troy Murphy mold.
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| HIGH FIVE Miami: Upsets St. John's to claim share of first conference title since 1965. |
| HIGH FIVE Nike: We love the Bracketville campaign. Al McGuire has finally found his perfect role. |
| HIGH FIVE State of Oregon: First Oregon State, then Oregon beats Arizona to (probably) deny Wildcats No. 1 seed. |
| HIGH FIVE Mateen Cleaves: Sets Big Ten single-game assists record with 20 and career mark with 769 in massacre of Michigan. |
| HIGH FIVE UCLA: Where have these guys been all year? |
| RIDING THE PINE Quentin Richardson: If he'd had an extra split second against Cincinnati, Duke would be No. 1. |
| RIDING THE PINE Notre Dame crowd: Hey, aren't these guys supposed to be smart? |
| RIDING THE PINE Kevin Lyde: The latest victim of eligibility problems, this time surrounding tuition for a summer course. |
| RIDING THE PINE Tulane: Ten points in first half against Memphis? Maybe it's time to lose the program again. (O.K., that was a cheap shot.) |
| RIDING THE PINE NCAA: Guess the new plan is to flip-flop on every eligibility decision from here on out. |
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| Lost invitations |
| If the spate of upsets last weekend is any indication, there could be a host of unhappy programs come Selection Sunday. The number of bubble teams from major conferences seems to be at an alltime high, and one quality win in a league tournament could be the difference between the Big Dance and the NIT. |
| Seeding stories |
| If the committee does indeed take into account games played without teams' star players -- be it due to injury or suspension -- does it also factor in whether a player (read: Auburn's Chris Porter) will not play at all? The Tigers clearly are not the same team without last season's SEC Player of the Year.
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| Sudden sanity? |
| Some are calling for drastic reforms to be made immediately, others are saying that the NCAA bureaucracy will take years to effect change. It can't happen soon enough for the Glance, and when -- or, this being the NCAA, after all, if -- it does, college basketball may look completely different.
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| Stanford at Arizona, Thursday, 10:30 p.m. ET |
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A few days ago this looked like it would be a cataclysmic showdown; after the two sides lost three times last week, the matchup lost a little luster. Remember, the Wildcats handed the Cardinal its first loss of the season -- without Richard Jefferson; unfortunately, the absence of Loren Woods against the Stanford trees looms larger. How big a home-court advantage does Arizona have?
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| SEC Tournament final, Sunday, 1 p.m. |
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As deep as this conference is, there could be a lot of upsets between now and Sunday. This is the one conference final most likely to be won by an underdog.
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| Big 12 Tournament final, Sunday, 3 p.m. |
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No matter which two of the top six teams survive, this figures to be a good show. Any combination of Iowa State, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Missouri should be competitive, and if Iowa State rolls and a couple teams in other leagues falter, the Cyclones could earn a top seed.
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| Big Ten Tournament final, Sunday, 3:30 p.m. |
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Assuming that Michigan State and Ohio State make the final -- and that's one huge if -- the winner should emerge with the No. 1 seed in the South Region.
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 |
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In the tradition of last season's William Avery Watch, we return to
Tobacco Road to follow the trials and tribulations of another underachieving player whose improvement is crucial to his team's success.
This 7-footer grabbed one rebound in the final two games of last season (losses to Duke in the ACC Tournament and Weber State in the NCAA
Tournament), covering 57 minutes of playing time. |
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1999-00 stats: 13.3 pts., 7.2 rebs., 2.5 blks. in 29.5 minutes per game
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A nondescript ending to a nondescript regular season, with 22 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks as the Heels split with Georgia Tech and Duke. Maybe the postseason will fire him up, but we have a feeling we'll be revisiting Haywood in this space come fall.
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Come back next Monday for our take on the NCAA tournament, then look out for the Day at a Glance.
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