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Get inside March Madness with SI.com's Luke Winn in the Tourney Blog, a daily journal of college basketball commentary, on-site reporting and reader-driven discussions.3/19/2008 06:52:00 PM Bring On The Kids
Luke Winn/SI
"That's not why we've had the success that we've had in college, by marketing individuals. The NBA has done that, and I think they've been successful. But they're two totally different marketing schemes, and if we fall into the one the NBA uses, we fall a distance second in our product, a distant second. Because if you're marketing someone for one year and then they go, it's just the next new person." -- Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, in December 2007
OMAHA, Neb. -- USC-Kansas State. Coach K would not approve of this game, or at least not approve of how it's being presented to the college basketball public. Any time this 6-versus-11 showdown is mentioned as the best first-round pairing in the 2008 NCAA tournament bracket, it's not because the Trojans and Wildcats happen to be top-20 teams in adjusted defensive efficiency. That matters, but it's not what drives CBS' TV ratings.
USC-Kansas State is important because of the two kids who warmly embraced on Wednesday afternoon outside the Wildcats' locker room in the Qwest Center. O.J. Mayo stood at the end of a hallway and bellowed, "Mike!" --interrupting an impromptu Michael Beasley news conference that had developed against one wall. Beasley, in turn, yelled, "Juice!" and then broke away from a phalanx of TV cameras to exchange hugs with his fellow freshman phenom. They spoke briefly, but it was about a trivial subject -- their various hotel assignments -- and then parted ways. Thursday they will face off for the right to advance to the second round of their first NCAA tournament. By next week Mayo and Beasley -- as well as possibly K-State's Bill Walker and USC's Davon Jefferson -- could both officially be gone from college basketball, out of school and beginning preparation for the NBA draft. As expected, one-and-done.
Luke Winn/SI
Their coaches take the anti-Krzyzewski stance on the issue. Wouldn't you, if Beasley had just averaged 26.5 points and 12.4 rebounds -- and put up 26 double-doubles -- for your team? Or if Mayo had averaged 20.8 points and 4.6 boards for your team -- and increased your home attendance by more than 4,000 per game? K-State's Frank Martin is certainly willing to accept the tradeoff. "Look at what they've both done for their respective schools. Look at the attention that Michael Beasley and Bill Walker and the rest of our freshmen have brought to our program over the past year. We've set school records for being on national television this year. We're sitting here in the NCAA tournament. I mean, there's a reason why that's all taking place: it's because of the level of players that we have."
USC's Tim Floyd is similarly fine with the situation: "I think that has been the excitement about this year. If we're going to look back on this year, we're going to say it was the year of the freshmen. And understand that we're seeing guys that up until a year ago, with Oden and Durant, that we would not have seen from 1995 on, that would have been in the league without a doubt." (He did, however, offer one caveat: "It will be a detriment if and when O.J. leaves if he's not academically eligible and cost us a scholarship. That would be something that would make me review whether or not to give another guy like this an opportunity.")
You get the feeling that Floyd wouldn't turn down the second coming of Mayo, though, considering he already has another probable one-and-done blue-chipper -- L.A. guard Demar Derozan -- signed for next year's recruiting class. Coaches will beg for the commitment of the next Beasley, and the media will once again be whipped into a frenzy when he meets the next Mayo in an NCAA tournament game. Surely these players would benefit from another season in college, and so would the college game if it were able to market them -- rather than its coaches -- over the long-term. But even in their state as one-year rentals, it cannot be denied that Beasley and Mayo are highly intriguing characters. Each is the rare player who can step on the court as a true freshman and already be more talented than 99 percent of his peers, and with whom comes a rare kind of urgency: they will get one -- and only one -- shot to play in the NCAA tournament before they jump to the NBA Draft lottery.
Thursday, of course, is neither the first nor the last time Beasley and Mayo will meet on a basketball floor, or outside a locker room. They've known each other, Beasley said, since the age of 14, and he calls Mayo a "close friend." They played twice on the AAU circuit, once in high school, and once in the McDonald's All-America game, with Beasley winning all four times. This summer, when he traveled to Los Angeles to visit family, Beasley played pickup ball with Mayo and some of the Trojans, and said, "They took me in like I was family." And when the brackets were announced on Sunday, Beasley immediately sent a text message to Mayo. "I asked him if he was ready," Beasley said. "And he asked me the same thing."
"I said, 'Definitely.' Why wouldn't I be? This could be our last game. I'm going to fight as much as I can to keep him off."
Next year around this time, they could be having that conversation from different, distant locales, perhaps Miami and New York, in the lead-up to a meaningless NBA contest. And while that sad reality, from one standpoint, could be fodder for the argument against hyping them, it also reminds us of something: This is also our only chance to see Beasley and Mayo on college basketball's biggest stage. Try as we might to be purists, and resist giving it our full attention, it will be impossible not to watch.
Luke Winn/SILabels: Kansas State, Omaha, USC
posted by Luke Winn | View comments (0) |
Reporting From ...
San Antonio: The Final FourContact The BlogUse the comments, or send e-mail here.Third Annual Blog Pool
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(Right-click the song names and choose "Save As ..." to download for your iPod)
1: Yeasayer
2080
2: The Black Lips
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3: Band of Horses
The Funeral
4: Beach House
Gila
5: Del T.F. Homosapien
Bubble Pop
6: Midlake
Roscoe
7: The Cave Singers
Seeds of Night
8: Grizzly Bear
On a Neck, On a Spit
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Hold Up
10: Destroyer
Foam Hands
11: Iron and Wine
Innocent Bones
12: Panda Bear
Comfy in Nautica
13: King Khan & the Shrines
Welfare Bread
14: Spoon
The Underdog
15: Stephen Malkmus &
The Jicks
Cold Son
16: Caribou
Melody Day
17: She & Him
Why Do You
Let Me Stay Here?
18: Panda Bear
Comfy in Nautica
(xxxchange Remix)
19: Amanaz
Khala My Friend
20: Writing On The Wall
Buffalo
21: Holy F---
Nude (Remixed)
22: Quiet Village
Free Rider
23: Stephen Malkmus &
The Jicks
Baltimore
24: Tapes 'n' Tapes
Hang Them All
25: Tree Wave
May Banners
26: Sufjan Stevens
Chicago
27: Cat Power
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