Midseason all-stars
Posted: Thursday February 04, 1999 02:04 PM
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Basketball
Mailbag.
Who's your midseason All-America
team?
-- Ben Goldsmith, Vienna,
Va.
Right now there seems to be a consensus developing that Utah's Andre
Miller , Connecticut's Richard Hamilton , Miami of Ohio's Wally
Sczcerbiak and Duke's Elton Brand should be on the list. I like
Northwestern's Evan Eschmeyer as my fifth right now, but you could also
make a case for Arizona's Jason Terry , Maryland's Steve Francis ,
George Washington's Shawnta Rogers , Kentucky's Scott Padgett and
TCU's Lee Nailon . Hamilton, incidentally, is my national player of the
year right now over Brand, but not by much. Should be interesting down the
stretch.
Is the juco player of the year so far Chris Porter or Steve
Francis?
-- Don Mann,
Baltimore
At this point, I would have to go with Francis -- but not by much. Some of it
has to do with the fact that Francis is a lead guard, and therefore more
integral to the way his team is run. Porter is very tough to keep off the
boards, but he could still stand to learn to score a little more from the
perimeter. Kentucky beat Auburn by using a zone defense, and nobody other than
Scott Pohlman knew what to do with it. Francis is simply a dynamic talent
who I believe is bound for the NBA draft next June, no matter what he says
publicly.
This has been a particularly strong year for juco transfers. Cincinnati's
Pete Mickeal and Jermaine Tate , UNLV's Shawn Marion and St.
John's Bootsy Thornton are all making huge impacts on good
teams.
In the scrum that is the Big Ten, who do you see coming out on top? Is that
different than who you see being poised to win the Big Ten tournament or go far
in the
NCAAs?
-- Josh Baker,
Chicago
It looks like Michigan State, as expected, has established itself as the team to
beat. Everyone focuses on Mateen Cleaves , but the guy I love on this team
is Morris Peterson . He's a very versatile scorer at the small-forward
spot (he's leading the team in scoring in a sixth-man role.) The Spartans are
also getting more production up front, and they're an excellent rebounding and
defensive team. I think Wisconsin has already demonstrated it's legit, and any
team that has two great scoring guards like Ohio State does has to be considered
a threat to make waves in the NCAA Tournament. All the teams in this league seem
to be beating up on each other right now, but those are the three who I think
have the best shot at posteason
success.
I was just wondering why Rutgers hasn't been getting the respect that it
deserves? I mean, at one point they were 9-3, without even garnering a single
25th-place vote. What
gives?
-- A.J. Mieskolainen, Collings Lakes,
N.J.
Rutgers is having a pretty good year, thanks to outstanding play from Rob
Hodgson (where have you gone, Bob Knight ?), and might be looking at
an NCAA bid if it gets a few breaks this month. But that's a long way from
saying the Scarlet Knights should be in the Top 25. They haven't really beaten
anybody of quality, and they failed the two big non conference tests they had
against Temple and Auburn. At this point, I'm sure coach Kevin Bannon
isn't really concerned with the rankings so much as getting to the NCAAs, which
would be an important boost for what has been a struggling
program.
We're starting to hear about the RPI as the season unfolds. What's your
opinion on the accuracy of this rating system?
-- David King, Geneva,
N.Y.
Excellent question. First of all, I think people overstate the RPI's role in the
selection process. The tournament committee uses it more as point of reference
for categorizing teams than as an indication of where they should actually be.
In fact, at the end of the selection process, if the RPI doesn't match up well
with the committee's selections, they fiddle with the RPI, not the selections.
The main thing the RPI does is reflect the difficulty of a team's schedule. So
the reason the teams in the Big East have a lower rating than the teams in the
Big Ten is the Big Ten is rated higher as a conference, which means the teams in
the league play a tougher schedule. It's confusing as hell, I know, which is why
I try not to pay too much attention to
it.
What type of team is UConn with an injured Voskuhl and Hamilton? Top 10? Top
15?
Thanks.
-- Rich DePalma, Waterbury,
Conn.
UConn goes from maybe the best team in the country to an above-average Big East
team without those two guys. Hamilton is absolutely indispensable as a scoring
weapon, and Voskuhl has pretty much been the team's only quality big man -- and
he's not even having that great a year. Hamilton will probably play against
Stanford this Saturday though he won't be 100 percent. As for Voskuhl, well,
they better get him back because without him I don't think they can win a
national
championship.
We got lots of interesting answers to my question in the last Mailbag
regarding overrated coaches. Here are some of the better
ones:
The most overrated coach in the country has to be Roy Williams of Kansas.
He has had some great teams and lots of great players. So, why does Kansas get
bumped from the NCAAs earlier than they should every year? Is he just not
motivating his players when March rolls around? With such talent on his squads,
you'd think they would do better in the
tourney.
-- Stephen Rennie, Portland,
Ore.
Being a Syracuse native, this comes easily: Jim Boeheim . This man has
never produced a starting lineup that can shoot free throws, and none of the
talented players he coached (Louis Orr, Derrick Coleman, John Wallace) ever
played a cerebral game. It's no wonder former Syracuse players self-destruct in
the
NBA.
Don't be fooled by his record -- he produces winning seasons with a padded
schedule, playing lowly teams like LeMoyne and C.W.
Post.
-- Ron Kittelson, Marietta,
N.Y.
Pete Gillen . Not for what he HASN'T done this year at U.Va., but for what
he didn't do last year that earned him a ACC coaching job. He led the
Providence Friars to one of their worst seasons in recent history and against a
schedule filled with creampuff teams. This year with almost the exact same team
(only one recruit -- Sean Connolly), Tim Welsh has the Friars knocking on the
door of the Top 25. Worst of all Gillen can't seem to avoid using all his
timeouts in the first 5 minutes of the game, and for all of this he gets a head
coaching job in the most prestigious league in college
basketball
-- Ryan Lawlor,
Boston
Norm Stewart . Stewart seems to be highly regarded for his coaching
toughness, but as he has proven, being tough doesn't always give you a winner.
Just because a coach has been around a long time should not and does not qualify
him as a coaching legend, i.e. Dale Brown. Anyhow, Norm Stewart gets my vote:
countless years on the sideline with only light NCAA Tournament
success.
-- Jeff Pritchard, Valdosta,
Ga.
The most overrated coach is without a doubt, Bill Guthridge at UNC. He
is taking a strong program and driving it into
mediocrity.
-- Wyatt Hogan,
Houston
OK, hoopheads, time to get scratchin'. Two years ago, Arizona finished
fifth in the Pac-10 and rolled to a most unlikely NCAA championship. So this
week's question is: Who are this year's top candidates for that kind of
postseason run, and why? The ground rule: The team can be no higher than
third place in its league. Ponder, point and
click!
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