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Taking on the Dukies
Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl will answer your questions every Wednesday during the college basketball season. Click here to send him a question. SEATTLE -- So I pick Duke to go to the Final Four, and what do I get? Angry, angry e-mails from the Blue Devils faithful. For having the nerve to rank Duke No. 3. For saying I'm not sold yet on Carlos Boozer. For predicting Coach K will someday regret signing Mike Dunleavy Jr. over Casey Jacobsen. Kathryn Fabian of Memphis wants to know "whether or not you are 'sold' on Boozer after the Preseason NIT, or on Dunleavy after his high-scoring game against Illinois?" And Kevin of Vancouver, B.C., instructs me to "take a look at Seth Davis' columns because you could learn something. Seth knows what he's talking about (re: Dunleavy vs. Jacobsen) and you will be eating crow sooner than you think." Fine, let's talk turkey -- or crow, or whichever bird you prefer. First, I like Duke: its skillful, exciting style of play; its smarts; and its willingness to schedule top teams. The Blue Devils are coming off a remarkable week, with a thorough dismantling of Temple and a gutty win over Illinois. Boozer is erasing any doubts I had after his summer of splurge, and Dunleavy's hoops IQ is astronomical. But I still think Duke is the third-best team in the nation. The main reason: At full strength, Arizona and Stanford have more depth, especially in the frontcourt, where Boozer is Duke's only capable big man. ( Shane Battier has been playing more as a 'tweener so far this season.) Some questions to ponder: 1) Really, how different is Duke from USC, another team with a sweet starting five but no bench? (I'll grant you Jason Williams over Brandon Granville, but there's not much drop-off anywhere else.) 2) Battier is an exceptional person and player, but player of the year? Right now he isn't the best player on his own team. (That would be Williams.) 3) Seth Davis knows what he's talking about? I still like Jacobsen over Dunleavy, but if Duke somehow beats Stanford on Dec. 21, I'll post a picture of me eating at KFC in the following week's 'Bag while holding a SETH DAVIS ROCKS sign. Yet as George Bush the Elder might say about the Dukies (as channeled through 'Bag fave Maureen Dowd ), Nah Ga Da. To the 'Bag we go ... Which coaches had better hope for a quick turnaround this season in order to remain head coaches for next season?
Well, Josh, speaking as the ex-coach of an 0-8 City of Princeton (N.J.) Youth League team, I know how tough a gig coaching can be. (We actually had a 10-year-old kid who got teed up for throwing a chair onto the court during a game. Wonder where he got that idea?) In any case, several coaches are already on -- or should be on -- the proverbial hot seat. In no particular order, then: What, no "Where are they now?" in last week's Mailbag? I was hoping you might find Baskerville Holmes of Memphis or Zam Frederick of South Carolina (man, could he fill it up). I thought it might be a regular bit for the rest of the year. Speaking of free hats, you may want to cover that dome of yours, especially when you are covering games in sunnier climates this year.
O.K., Brian, you win. The Travis Bice/Moses Scurry manhunt was so successful that "Where are they now?" will henceforth become a weekly department in the 'Bag. Here's where all you readers come in. Send me your candidates for WATN -- preferably some of the loopier characters from times past -- and I'll pick one each week. First reader to give me the guy's correct whereabouts wins a free CNN/Sports Illustrated hat (estimated street value: $600). I even promise that I'll try and talk to the WATN target myself for the following week. As for Baskerville Holmes, the old Memphis State bank-shot wizard, I can already help you there. He's dead. Shot himself after killing his girlfriend in March 1997. (I may have dug up Bice, but this guy's off limits.) We'll consider Zam Frederick for future WATN editions, but for this week I'll submit another Memphis State "icon." Drum roll, please ... Where in the world is Dana Kirk? You know Kirk, the former Tigers coach who served time in the federal pen after being found guilty of tax fraud and obstruction of justice in the mid-1980s. Send me either the correct answer (and go for the hat) or the most creative answer (e.g., wearing concrete ankle bracelets at the bottom of the Mississippi River) and I'll run the best of those, too. Your parting suggestion to wear more hats myself brings back a painful memory of the 1999 NCAA tournament Midwest Regional Final between Michigan State and Kentucky, when the Kentucky mascot came over to my press-row seat during a timeout (not once but twice) and pretended to polish my head. The crowd laughed, the mascot milked the moment, and I smiled ... before informing "Tigger" (or whatever its name is) that he'd get punched in the gut the next time he came over. Never saw him again. Alabama has been dominant for its first four games this year. While none of the Tide's opponents have been very good, it did rout Louisville by 29 points and has entered the Top 25 for the first time in two years. Also, it appears that freshman phenom Gerald Wallace is every bit as good as advertised. What are the chances that 'Bama could be the Cinderella story of the year and maybe advance to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight?
True, I'd rather see the Tide take on Troy Murphy than Troy State (a 92-64 victim), and coach Mark Gottfried has put together what may be the most egregious cupcake schedule in the country. But there's no denying that the margin of victory over Louisville was impressive, as were Rod Grizzard (25 points) and Wallace (22). 'Bama might actually face a decent opponent in Puerto Rico later this month (Cincinnati is a possibility), but we won't know anything for sure about this team until the SEC season starts. Right now I'd call the Tide a co-favorite in the SEC West, even with Arkansas and a shade ahead of Ole Miss, but still trailing SEC East powers Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky. An NCAA tournament run is a possibility, but for now I see too much of Auburn (circa 1998-99) in this team to take the leap just yet. Guess that makes me a hesitant wuss. Deal. I am from The Netherlands and I wonder what you think of Dan Gadzuric (also a Dutchman!!!) of UCLA. Does he have NBA potential, as was predicted when he was still in high school?
Remy, as a self-proclaimed spaz on the basketball court, I sympathize with Gadzuric (also a spaz!!!) and his attempts to live up to all the pro hype he had entering college. As Steve Lavin told me recently, though, Gadzuric "played with guys who looked like you and me" in high school at Governor Dummer Academy outside Boston, so the pro expectations were pretty excessive considering Big Dan's limited experience. With his size, though, Gadzuric shouldn't have too much trouble finding a spot on an NBA roster. Think about it: If a stiff like Greg Ostertag can play in the NBA, Gadzuric (who has some nifty moves close to the basket) sure could, too. What's your take on Indiana? Do you think the team can reach 20 wins to earn Mike Davis the coaching job full time?
Davis is in a tough spot. Sometimes the 4-3 Hoosiers look awful (e.g., their 70-58 loss to Texas). Sometimes they look like an NCAA tournament sleeper (e.g., Tuesday's upset of Notre Dame). Give him two years, and this team could challenge for the Big Ten title with guys like Jared Jeffries, Kirk Haston and Tom Coverdale. But if Davis needs 20 wins this year to stick around -- which may or may not wind up being the case -- it won't be easy. Even with four guaranteed wins this month in the Hoosiers' annual Red-and-White Walkover Invitationals (I think that's what they're called), Indiana could do all right and finish with 16 wins. The Notre Dame victory sure helps, but Davis could make a great case for himself by 1) beating Charlotte (Dec. 16) and Missouri (Dec. 18) in consecutive home games this month, and 2) finishing in the upper half of the Big Ten. I agree with you that Minnesota coach Dan Monson should not have threatened to withdraw The Minnesota Daily's press credentials because of a negative column written by the paper's sports editor. However, in doing so Monson was only protecting his players, players who have had to deal with more than their fair share of crap in the last year. Why is it OK for sportswriters to criticize coaches, yet when the tables are turned, some in the media get defensive? You'd think Monson had committed some horrible crime by the way he was ripped in the media.
Two things, Scott. First, you're absolutely correct in noting that we journalists are (on the whole) petty, catty, thin-skinned and supremely hygiene-impaired. All I can say is, not everyone can be a smooth-talking runway model like my colleague Seth Davis. There's a difference, though, between Dan Monson saying "Grant Wahl is full of crap" (a perfectly fair response) and yanking my credential because he disagrees with something I wrote (which would be heavy-handed and, dare I say, a bit Stalin esque.) My larger point was that student newspapers, just like any other media outlets, shouldn't be expected to root for the home team. Hard as it may be to believe, fairness is important here at the 'Bag, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Monson has his 6-1 Gophers playing better than anyone had expected. (Witness their impressive 107-99 win over TCU on Nov. 25.) That's all for now, folks. Write in, write often. See you next week.
Click here to send your college basketball question to Grant Wahl.
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